Frustration In AEW Over CM Punk Footage Airing
The Young Bucks presented the footage of CM Punk and Jack Perry’s fight at AEW All In and Tony Khan’s decision to air it has caused some ill-feeling in the company.
CM Punk was fired from AEW for his part in a backstage fight with Jack Perry at All In. That was not Punk’s first backstage issue in the company as he became embroiled in a fight with The Elite almost a year before his problem with Perry.
On Dynamite in Charleston, West Virginia, The Young Bucks presented the CCTV footage of the fight at All In to try and build up their match with Punk’s friends FTR at Dynasty for the AEW Tag Team Championship.
While it was CM Punk who reignited the issue in the days before WrestleMania 40 with an explosive interview, it was AEW who came under fire for simply presenting the incident as it happened.
AEW Need To Move Past CM Punk Issue Says Dave Meltzer
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the situation and revealed that he heard from people in AEW frustrated at Tony Khan’s decision to air the footage as there is a strong belief that the whole issue is a wound that needs to be healed:
My thought is, you need to get past this. It does nobody any good. I heard from people this week, a couple of people… when Punk did his interview, I asked around, and the basic thing was, look, it’s over and done with, bad chapter in the history of AEW, and it’s over, and he can say whatever he wants, who cares.
There were a couple of people who were like, yeah, Adam Page never got to answer back, and will never answer back because he doesn’t wanna be… whatever. But most people were just like, we’re over it, it’s not part of our lives, it’s not part of our company, forget about it.
Now here, as soon as Tony [announced the footage reveal], then I started to hear from people, and it was people who were just like, really frustrated going like, ‘Now it’s back, the whole thing is back’. There’s things that have happened and people have been made to look bad now, and they can’t answer back.
It opened up a wound that needed to be closed. They need to move past this. This doesn’t do AEW any good. If I’m Punk, I’m laughing about it honestly.
CM Punk is currently on the shelf in WWE due to an injury he suffered in his first televised match back in the company at the Royal Rumble.