A backstage altercation between CM Punk and two of AEW’s executive vice presidents marred what had been an awesome weekend of pro-wrestling action.
CM Punk won the AEW title from Jon Moxley in a bloody championship match that headlined AEW’s All Out PPV from the NOW Arena in Chicago on Sunday night. Moments later, he was backstage for a press conference—and before the first question could even be asked, Punk launched into a tirade about former friend Scott Colton, aka Colt Cabana, and how upset he was to have to address rumors about his relationship with Colton in 2022.
He began to berate a series of people, including unnamed AEW vice presidents (clearly The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, since he did drop the name “Nick” once and also mentioned Reseda, Calif., home of PWG, where they wrestled for years and built their names); “Hangman” Adam Page (who did an interview segment on live TV with Punk that Punk felt was unprofessional); reporters (including me, for what he felt was an unfair reaction to his retaliation against Hangman in another live promo); and MJF (his apparent next story-line opponent, although he buried him in a way that didn’t play into any story lines). As he fumed, promoter Tony Khan sat quietly next to him, appearing uncomfortably surprised.
CM Punk eventually wrapped up, noting that—despite his demeanor—he was actually a nice guy, and walked out into the hall. Moments later, a security guard in the press room went running … moments after that, word began reaching members of the press that a physical altercation involving Punk, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Kenny Omega and several others had just occurred. Because Khan was running the press conference, most everybody in the room was aware of what had happened before he was.
The exact details of what happened are not unimportant, but honestly the bigger story is the fact the AEW champion and the executive vice presidents (and supporters of each side) are at odds to the point of physical altercations. Khan is stuck in the middle, and how he deals with this will almost certainly be the biggest challenge he’s ever faced in his pro-wrestling career. Based on details, it doesn’t seem possible for both sides to coexist, and Khan almost certainly doesn’t want to have to choose one side over the other. However, it will almost inevitably come down to that, and the ramifications of this weekend will be felt for years. It’s never good to have any degree of dissension backstage, but it’s far worse in this situation because A) it’s gotten physical, B) it’s gone public, and C) television negotiations—the lifeblood of any national promotion’s existence in 2022—are likely to begin soon. There is no benefit at all to network executives hearing stories of internal strife to this degree.
It’s unfortunate this story takes precedence over the hard work of everyone else involved in making a great in-ring weekend for wrestling fans. WWE presented two shows, Clash at the Castle from Cardiff, Wales, on Saturday, and NXT World’s Collide on Sunday afternoon before the AEW PPV. Despite any claims to the contrary from anyone within WWE, it is not a coincidence WWE never ran Labor Day until AEW made Labor Day a tradition, at which point WWE booked two shows that same weekend. AEW clearly won the Wednesday night Dynamite vs. NXT battle a few years ago, and Triple H, now the head of creative in WWE following the departure of Vince McMahon, is out for revenge. But as has been proven many times over the years, promotional wars lead to exciting times for pro-wrestling fans.
Clash at the Castle was headlined by Drew McIntyre “returning home” (he’s not from Wales, but it was close enough in story line) to challenge Roman Reigns for the undisputed WWE championship before a legitimate 63,000 fans in Principality Stadium. In reality, given the build and the attendance and everything surrounding it, he should have won. But he didn’t, and the company clearly wants to keep Reigns undefeated heading into what they hope will be a Reigns match vs. The Rock at WrestleMania this year. But it was a fantastic match, and they did what they felt was their best in protecting McIntyre in the loss, and realistically it won’t hurt him, and he may even come out of the show a bigger star based on his performance. The best match on the show was a vicious war between Gunther and Sheamus, arguably one of the best WWE matches the company has presented in years. Overall the show was great.
Courtesy of WWE
AEW All Out was also a great show. The biggest surprise was the match between Swerve In Our Glory and The Acclaimed. The match was expected to be good, and The Acclaimed were expected to be popular, but this ended up being that rare legitimate magical moment that overdelivers to a remarkable degree. The fans went absolutely bonkers for The Acclaimed, the match itself was phenomenal, the fans desperately wanted a title change, and when it was over my immediate thought was that Khan should have gotten on the headset and changed the finish to The Acclaimed getting the win. Later at the press conference, it became clear they’re going to rematch at AEW Grand Slam later this month in The Acclaimed’s home state of New York, which—if they change the titles there—would make sense. But Sunday’s match was so magical that both teams likely will be under incredible pressure to try to top it.
The main event was Rocky. CM Punk broke his foot legitimately right after winning the AEW title in May. Jon Moxley won an interim title and defended the belt in great matches all summer. Punk returned and “neither wanted to wait for the PPV,” so they did the unification match on free TV. The story was Punk came back too early, tweaked his foot on a kick and Moxley beat him in three minutes to become the unified champion. The following week on TV, Moxley issued an open challenge for All Out, and Punk’s original trainer Ace Steel grabbed the contract and cut a dramatic promo rekindling Punk’s fire and setting up the rematch 10 days later. Could Punk overcome the injury and the psychological trauma of his loss less than two weeks later? Of course he did in a fantastic, bloody battle before his hometown fans.
Unfortunately, when people look back, that great story will be a footnote in what ended up being a day referred to by various AEW talents as sad, embarrassing and depressing. But WWE has had sad, embarrassing and depressing days. WCW, Impact Wrestling, CMLL and AAA and New Japan and every promotion that ever had any major success also had sad, embarrassing and depressing days. Some managed, while others let things spiral out of control and met unfortunate ends. Things can be remedied—and in this situation, like all others, the only way to remedy them is likely to make some very difficult decisions.
