I can't believe it. Releasing footage of Punk being a silly little guy and no one fucking caring backstage to a crowd that starts chanting CM Punk (he works in a different company now). What are you doing maaaan.
Regardless of what you think about CM Punk, Jack Perry, and The Young Bucks, this all could have been avoided had Tony Khan done his fucking job. Bush league shit.
I will scream this from the rooftops. Everything could have and would have been avoided had TK just done his job as 👏🏻 a 👏🏻 boss 👏🏻 from the get-go.
People are screaming “omg you need to hold Punk accountable” & while yea, I’ve seen some insane takes… most of us (with common sense) are rationally saying: it’s not ok that he put his hands on his coworker - he shouldn’t have done that.
BUT wanna know what’s also not ok? A boss - actively ignoring a known issue between his employees - not his friends - his employees.
If you and a coworker had a problem that was not being mitigated between yourselves because personalities are clashing, one side or both sides are being uncooperative - whatever the reason and you went to your boss and he just goes “ 🤷🏻♂️ what do you want me to do about it?” You would be irate and rightfully so.
Then, then when you ask for your release (which would have been the best route at this point) and he goes “no, I can’t lose you” & still does nothing to actually be a boss? What did anyone think was going to happen? This is a no win situation for everyone.
This, all of THIS, would have been avoided had TK - from the jump - put an end to those Colt Cabana rumors and facilitated the situation like a boss should have but he didn’t. Instead, he did nothing, let his employees run havoc amongst themselves, got himself into a no win position and then blamed the employee. Fuck. Outta. Here.
Should the employee have attacked a coworker? No.
Should the owner of the company and the boss who was sitting mere feet away done something like I don’t know - be a boss? Yes.
Vince McMahon losing power in the WWE is the worst thing that ever happened to AEW
Vince out.
Trips takes over.
Kevin Dunn out.
CM Punk, Cody, Brian Pillman Jr, Jade & Andrade leave AEW.
WWE changes their production, marketing, presentation & commentary to adjust to fans wants. And it's about Professional Wrestling, it's no longer a dirty word and sports entertainment is being phased out.
AEW continues to book horribly, rely on weekly "dream matches" instead of stories, have no creative, bleed money on contracts, change nothing.
This just makes sense.
People never heard what Hugo Savinovich said regarding this back in late 2019 and early 2020. He said that Tony Khan was facing the worst version of the WWE and losing at every turn. At some point WWE will bounce back and Tony is going to be in serious trouble.
And that's what happened.
AEW in its early years was reliant on WWE remaining terrible. Once WWE turned a corner creatively & regained control of the narrative, AEW were left scrambling to the point where they stupidly released the footage to make them look bad.
Tony Khan marketed AEW as the anti-WWE. the pro wrestling and sports based product. Problem is that it's centered around being a comedy act instead of a sports based product. It caters to a niche audience instead of trying to be THE alternative. Once WWE turned it's act around, they regained the fans WWE lost that AEW tried to desperately gain.
Worst thing for AEW and best thing for Professional Wrestling. Him losing power did more for the industry than AEWs creation did. It’s lowkey wild AEW didn’t catch them back in 2021, Vince was their only chance
It's time for AEW to focus on AEW. Build your characters and stories. Enough.
AEW is a clown show right now. All they had to do was put Punk in the dustbin of their history and move on, but they opted for the complex Self-Own Maneuver by playing the footage from Wembley. Now, three-quarters of the wrestling internet thinks Jack Perry is a weenie, ALL of it knows Tony Khan is a hysterical liar who can't manage his employees, and now, the blowback is so bad that AEW removed the footage from the video it posted to its own Youtube channel and is DMCAing anyone who posted the video to their own accounts there and on Twitter. After they gleefully aired it on national television.
To recap:
-They made Jack Perry look pitiful in a business predicated on looking like a badass.
-They got casual viewers to wonder about this CM Punk guy and maybe check him out on WWE programming.
-Tony Khan looks like an incompetent child having a tantrum.
-They might have violated UK law by airing the footage without obtaining the consent of everyone involved in it. Yes, it aired in the US, but it was shot in the UK.
-Even if they didn't, they are now trying to pretend they never took this dump by erasing it from existence. Except the Internet is forever.
-Everything they did makes Punk's claim that AEW isn't a real business look absolutely right.
Saw someone ask for a full recap of the Punk/AEW drama. So I spent an hour writing a decent summary, and by the time I finished they deleted the post I was trying to reblog. That's okay, I get it. But since I put in the work I'm just gonna make my own post, in case anyone else has questions.
I have tried to keep this as unbiased as possible, with a summary of the discourse at the end. If anybody needs more clarification on anything you can send me an ask.
CM Punk signed with AEW in 2021. Right away a big issue that came up was his ex-friend Colt Cabana. (Long story.) By early 2022, rumors began to swirl among the wrestlers that Punk was using his star power to get Cabana pushed out of the company. Cabana's friends in the company assumed the rumors were true and resented Punk. This came to a head in May 2022, when Adam Page referenced the rumors on live TV, in a segment with Punk. By this point Punk's relationship with Page and the Young Bucks was damaged beyond repair.
On September 4, 2022, during the post-show scrum for All Out, Punk aired his grievances with the Young Bucks (always referring to them as "the EVPs") and Adam Page. Punk clearly believed the Bucks manufactured the "Punk is trying to force Cabana out" story and leaked it to wrestling news sites to turn the locker room against Punk. Punk closed by saying that if anybody had a problem with him, he had an "open door" policy, and he'd be in his dressing room. The Bucks and fellow EVP Kenny Omega went to see him. A fight broke out. Everyone involved--even people who just tried to break it up--was suspended for a while (except Punk, who was going to be sidelined for months for a torn triceps either way).
We don't have much solid information about the September 2022 fight. Most reports I read suggest Punk and his friend Ace Steel made it physical, with Punk punching one of the Bucks (maybe both, I can't remember) and Steel throwing a chair and biting Omega. One account said the Bucks kicked the door open, unwittingly hitting Punk's dog in the face and knocking several teeth loose, which would have provoked Punk's side. It's also been suggested that since Steel's wife was in the room and in no condition to flee a potential three-on-two ambush, this could have made Steel and Punk feel they had to come out swinging. There is no footage of the fight, but there were neutral parties who witnessed it (notably including AEW's chief legal officer, Megha Parekh). Everyone involved signed NDAs and can't/won't talk about it on the record.
For the next nine months, it wasn't clear if Punk wanted to come back to AEW, or if AEW wanted to bring him back. Lots of people suggested that Punk and the three EVPs could talk it out and then make a lot of money turning it into a fake wrestling feud. But Omega and the Bucks showed no interest in talking to Punk or working with him. Ultimately Punk returned in June 2023 on a new show, Collision. The idea was that the EVPs (and anyone else who couldn't co-exist with Punk) would stay on Dynamite, and Punk would have carte blanche on Collision.
Within a couple of months, reports emerged about backstage issues involving Punk. The main one that blew up involved Jack Perry, who was always tight with the Bucks, and was typically on Dynamite, and not on Collision. Perry had vacation time scheduled and wanted to shoot an angle to explain his absence, in which HOOK would throw him into a car windshield. For some reason it didn't get done on a Dynamite taping, so arrangements were made to shoot it at a Collision taping. Everybody who thought the windshield spot with real glass was a bad idea asked Punk to talk Perry out of it. It's not clear whether Tony Khan approved the spot for Dynamite, or rescheduling it for Collision, or allowing Punk to have the last word. Ultimately the windshield spot was canceled.
On August 31, 2023, Perry wrestled Hook at All In, and they finally did the windshield spot that Punk previously nixed. Perry went out of his way to reference the earlier story, saying "You know what this is? Real glass! Go cry me a river," as if daring Punk to do something about it. After the match, Perry went behind the curtain just as Punk and Samoa Joe were getting ready for their match. By all accounts, Punk complained to Perry, Perry was like "what are you going to do about it?" and Punk decided that justified starting a fight. It was broken up very quickly, and then Punk got all hostile with Tony Khan, saying "this place is a joke and you're a clown." Punk was asked to leave, and within a week he had been terminated with cause.
The "CM Punk did nothing wrong" position, generally speaking, is that AEW is severely mismanaged, with Tony Khan allowing the Young Bucks and their friends to do a lot of dumb bullshit, leaving Punk no choice but to take matters into his own hands. Punk's enemies within AEW conspired to turn the locker room against him, and used wrestling news outlets to spread anti-Punk stories to turn the fandom against him. In any case, Punk is the biggest star AEW has ever signed (if not the biggest star AEW will ever sign), and it was bad for business to let him get so discouraged.
The "Punk screwed Punk" position, generally speaking, is that his grievances with AEW management stopped mattering whenever he resorted to physical force. His Bruiser Brody approach to throwing his weight around is backward and outdated in the 2020s (and didn't even end well for Brody in the 1980s). His assumption that the Bucks planted anti-Punk stories in the media is unfounded, and rather paranoid. He resents the EVPs for lawyering up instead of burying the hatchet, even though he feels totally justified taking the same approach with Colt Cabana. Basically, Punk thinks he can do what he likes, and anyone else who does the same against Punk's wishes is a snake, a clown, or soft.
Splitting the difference between these takes: Everybody should have talked this out by early 2022, before it got out of hand. Tony Khan should have gotten out in front of the the "Punk is trying to get rid of Cabana" rumors before they got online. Punk and Cabana should have come to terms on how they would co-exist as soon as Punk joined the company. Adam Page should not have bottled up his grievances until he was on live TV, and Punk should not have bottled up his resentment about that until a media scrum. Once it got past that point, and the first fight happened, Khan needed to take charge and settle it, immediately. He needed to choose, in September 2022, between keeping Punk aboard at all costs, or showing Punk who's boss at all costs. Instead, he tried to have it both ways for a year, until Punk made that impossible.
Once again the "Talk Shit, Get Hit" fandom is surprisingly against people who talk shit getting hit.
I'm gonna vent my Punk & Perry opinions here; feel free to mind your own business.
Some of y'all are awfully in your feelings about a grown adult twerp who thought he could antagonize someone finding out that not everyone's idea of, "doing something about it," is a snarky tweet. I've seen dozens of people claiming Punk should have taken the issue to Tony Khan, but he didn't need to take it anywhere; TK was literally standing right there. You can see Punk turn and look at him like he's waiting to see if he's going to step up and do anything. THAT was TK's chance to get some air in that situation and resolve it peacefully, and he biffed it. He let it play out, Jungle Boy acted tough and found out that some people are not playing games with his bullshit.
I am not pro-violence, just to be clear. I am trained in deescalating potential fights, because, frankly, this kind of thing happens all the time in public libraries. With very rare exceptions, these situations aren't what anybody wants. An authority figure stepping up and just acting as a distraction is enough to prevent violence, because actually putting hands on each other is something you do when you feel like you can't back down without looking weak in an environment where you can't afford to look weak.
TK didn't handle the rumors when they started, despite Punk bringing the issue to him. He didn't handle Hangman when he went off-script and lent credibility to those rumors live on air, and Punk asked him to address it. He didn't resolve the issues with Punk and the Elite after Brawl Out, and he didn't do anything when Perry was standing in front of him running his mouth. Firing Punk was probably best for everybody and the right thing to do, but Tony did everything in his power to fail as a leader in the process.
I have literally seen worse fights over who gets the newspaper first and have diffused bigger conflicts, and I didn't write the checks of anybody involved. If I can handle getting between two 6'+ homeless men about to go to war over the "good chair", TK can get his shit together and say, "hey Jack, talk to me for a second. Punk, we'll check in after your match."
THIS ^ right here. All this. All day. Should Punk have put his hands on Jack Perry? No.
BUT was Tony Khan even trying to be a boss/leader in his locker room? Also NO.
Tony failed as a boss. Period. Punk gave him several chances to fix stuff & mediate situations and TK just let it play out… this is what happens when you let that stuff play out.
You literally see Punk look at TK then when TK did nothing, he looked around like “is anyone else hearing this dude?” Cause guaranteed Jack Perry was being an asshole about a stupid. Fucking. Spot. That he was told NO by several people.
Jack Perry is a grown ass man, yes he is younger than Punk but he is a grown fucking adult acting like a entitled brat.
Talk shit. Get hit. Fuck around. Find out. OP is on the money with this one!
So I saw the footage and my opinion has not changed.
This all happened because Tony Khan did not want to BE the boss. He did not squash the beef between Punk and the Elite. He did not want to kill those rumors before it reached a boiling point. He did not stop Punk from blowing out at the scrum and just sit everyone involved in a room and talk through their issues and reach an agreement. He did not want to tell Jack to stop being a self-entitled little prick. All this is because Tony Khan is a clown who's more interested in being a friend to the wrestler instead of being a boss.
What did this accomplish? What, more heat to a FTR vs Punk rivalry?
What did this accomplish?
Air a talent from a different company
Make your current talent look bad
Make Jack Perry look like a entitled brat
Make Tony Khan look bad
Looked sad, pathetic and desperate
AEW looked bad
Acting like the man never existed WAS the win you were looking for. You gave Punk attention, all you did was proving him right.
The stupidity of spotlighting how a top talent for another company was easily able to make your talent look like a bitch is astounding. Tony Khan had days to reconsider and instead doubled down on the predictable disaster this was destined to be!
Like what did they gain from this? It makes them all look like a much idiots and losers.
I've seen the live reaction, there was no fucking reaction. Unless you can call fans chanting "CM PUNK" a reaction. And as soon as it ended, all there was making fans uncomfortable.
Tony Schiavone looked like he had Vince fucking Russo flashbacks.
They made Jack Perry, one of the four pillars of the company look like a geek in real life, nevermind CM Punk's action and they want Perry back? Why? They made him look like a entitled little prick who fucked around and found out.
All the video did was give them and internet fans a week to boast about a ratings. This proved Punk didn’t lie, was shown on a highly produced television show and has nothing to do with anything. It was 8 months ago. Like I said, they should've done this the Dynamite after All In to air this because all it fucking did was make the company look bad.
No fists were thrown... He pushed Jack Perry and choked him a little and stopped 30 seconds afterwards... Didn't escalate things or anything. CM Punk was right.
This was AEW's "that'll put puts in seats" and the Fingerpoke of Doom rolled into one. And guess what? WCW 2000 is trending on Twitter. That's how bad this footage reveal was.
I watched WWF in 1996 with the Ted Turner skits. I watched Bischoff in 1998 challenging McMahon. I watched TNA’s constant attempts to get WWE to acknowledge them. Trust me, this shit never works and its an indictment of a promotion that has ran out of ideas. Its not a good look
CM Punk wasn't lying when he said AEW is a joke and called Tony a clown. It's not a business and all they care about is temporary pop instead of long term for running a Wrestling promotion. You idiots just BURIED the whole company. What exactly did this accomplish?
It reminds me of TNA popping the ratings with Dixie Carter going through the table. It gives AEW a bump, but long-term it doesn’t do anything. It does help the bucks versus FTR feud in the short term. It makes AEW look unprofessional, doesn’t hurt CM punk that much
If your response to this brawl footage being shown on Dynamite is anything other than, "That was a stupid thing to show" then you are part of the problem. Stop enabling childish, idiotic behavior from AEW. Expect and demand better from Tony Khan!
This was Punk's reaction to the footage reveal. Good fucking job Tony, you really showed Punk!
Sidenote. Ospreay taking aim at Triple H’s comments of running from the grind was also childish. sometimes you have to read the room. It was a dumbass decision to do that tonight.
Me- I don't watch aew, don't really care about it.
Also me when the backstage footage drops that I have no idea what the context is and why its dropped or whats going on and why half of tumblr are upset and the other half are clowning on aew saying they prove punk right and I still don't know why or how they proved punk right because I aint got the slightest idea of what's going on just that hook putting his belt down made me chuckle and the idea that Samoa Joe was the peace keeper is the most mind blowing shit to man- 🍿🧐🍿
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