CM Punk Said To Have “Lunged” At Tony Khan At AEW All In; Wrestling News September 1st 2023

Seth Rollins has described the current wrestling environment as a boom period and hinted at the success of AEW All In on a recent WWE podcast!

Speaking on WWE After The Bell, the World Heavyweight Champion praised the healthy environment wrestling is currently maintaining and talked about the success of the industry as a whole, going as far as to reference AEW’s record-breaking attendance at Wembley Stadium this past weekend!

“We are in the boom. You have to understand, there is another company that just put 80,000 people in a stadium for one night. A week before that, we sold 90,000 tickets to WrestleMania, broke the all-time gate on the first day.

There are seven, eight different television programs of pro wrestling on a week, not counting premium live events or pay-per-views. The talent roster, across the board, is beyond what any generation has ever put forward.”

Rollins is set to make his fifth televised defense of the World Heavyweight Championship at Payback tomorrow night against Shinsuke Nakamura. He became the inaugural holder of the belt after defeating AJ Styles at Night of Champions in May and has since gone on to defend the title against Damian Priest, Bron Breakker and Finn Balor.

h/t to Fightful

New details have emerged on the scrapped spot involving real glass that ultimately lead to the All In incident between Jack Perry and CM Punk.

Writing in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed details on the AEW Collision spot which sparked an argument between Punk and Perry prior to All In. Perry was supposed to take a bump on real glass, leading to an injury angle which would have taken him off TV for a week to allow him to go on vacation to Hawaii.

Despite AEW approving the spot, Punk confronted Perry on the night and argued that he didn’t need to use real glass as the company’s injury rate is high and the safer alternative was a better choice.

The two supposedly settled things on the night and the spot was scrapped, but Perry ended up using real glass at All In and took a shot at Punk live on-air – leading to the two’s confrontation.

“Perry was going to do an angle where he’d take a bump on real glass to do an injury angle that would lead to him missing television for a week. He had planned a week off for a vacation to Hawaii which had already been approved and was just looking for a storyline explanation and to build up a future match.

Punk and Perry had an argument that night with Punk saying they didn’t need to use real glass, and the reality is with the injury rate being so high, it’s always better to do the safer alternative. However, AEW had already approved of the spot and a car was there for the angle that was to take place on the Saturday show.

We were told of the incident when it happened although not the details, but were also told after the argument that things were settled so it wasn’t really a story past a disagreement.”

A new report has suggested an upcoming AEW pay-per-view could see the return of Bryan Danielson from injury!

During the All In media scrum last weekend, Tony Khan announced yet another brand new AEW pay-per-view will be coming later this year: AEW WrestleDream. The event will be held on the one-year anniversary of New Japan Pro-Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki’s passing on October 1st, 2023.

In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer provided more details on the event and noted that despite the show being in honor of Inoki, several top New Japan stars will not be able to attend the show including Tanahashi, Okada and IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA.

Meltzer went on to suggest that Bryan Danielson could return at the event if recovery continues going well, given that Seattle is the capital of his home state of Washington. Danielson injured his arm in the main event of Forbidden Door this past June and is currently expected to return in October.

“Honoring Inoki would seem to indicate New Japan talent on the show, and Khan when asked, did say there would be. But the date is the middle of a New Japan tour.

New Japan has a Korakuen Hall show on 10/1 and Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jeff Cobb, Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Minoru Suzuki, Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi, Sanada and David Finlay are booked on that show. Key guys not booked would be Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi.

It will probably need a photo finish, but Bryan Danielson was told he could return in October, and being in Seattle, that would be the place if everything goes well and if he can cross the finish line by those dates.”

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown will emanate from the Giant Center in Hersey, Pennsylvania for the final episode of WWE TV programming before Payback tomorrow night!

Matches and segments announced for the show include:

• John Cena returns to SmackDown
• Jimmy Uso speaks following Jey Uso‘s WWE exit
• Santos Escobar & Rey Mysterio vs Austin Theory & Grayson Waller

What are you most excited to see on tonight’s episode of SmackDown? Let us know by sharing your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter down below!

It looks like Ronda Rousey may never step inside the octagon nor the squared circle ever again, according to a recent report.

Dave Meltzer noted in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Rousey informed WWE several months ago that she wanted to have more children and gave the company notice of her final working date, leading to her feud with Shayna Baszler ending in a loss.

Meltzer went on to say that The Baddest Woman On The Planet has no plans to wrestle in the foreseeable future and that Rousey has “no interest” in competing in MMA fights ever again.

“We had been told dating back months that Rousey wanted to have more children and had given WWE a final date, and that her idea was to form the tag team with Shayna Baszler and put Baszler over strong and leave.

At that point rumors about her fighting came out, but we were told she’s wanting a larger family and there are no plans for her to either fight or do pro wrestling in the foreseeable future. The belief is that she has no interest in fighting ever again.”

A new report has suggested that John Cena will be making an extra WWE appearance at WWE Payback tomorrow night!

WrestleVotes report that Cena will serve as special guest host of the event on Saturday following his return to WWE on tonight’s episode of SmackDown. No further details on what exactly the 16-time world champion will be doing on either show have been uncovered.

Cena is set to wrestle in his second WWE match of the year at Superstar Spectacle in Hyderabad, India on September 8th. At the event, Cena will team up with World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins to take on Imperium’s Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci.

The only other announced match is Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens defending the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against Veer and Sanga of Indus Sher.

Less than a week on from AEW AEW All taking place, those in the UK can now watch the show completely free for the foreseeable future!

The main show of the event was broadcast on ITV4, a free UK television channel, last night and as a result, is now available on-demand for free exclusively in Britain. The show is now watchable in its entirety through ITV’s streaming service ITVX, although commercials will interrupt the show occasionally in exchange for the free price tag.

Whilst ITVX’s broadcast does not include the matches and segments featured on Zero Hour, fans can rewatch those for free worldwide through either FITE or AEW’s YouTube channel.

Will you be rewatching AEW All In: London anytime soon? Let us know by sharing your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter down below!

WWE has released a heartbreaking new video with various stars paying tribute to Bray Wyatt following his sudden passing last week.

The video features Bayley, Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, AJ Styles, Adam Pearce, Top Dolla, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Otis, Mike Rome and Bryon Saxton sharing their favorite memories of the late star.

At the end, WWE announcer Samantha Irwin performs a beautiful version of ‘He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands’ in tribute.

Check out the video above and let us know your favorite Bray Wyatt moment by sharing on Facebook or Twitter down below!

AR Fox has reportedly garnered heat backstage at AEW after being unable to travel to London for AEW All In this past weekend.

The now-former member of Mogul Embassy was set to compete at Wembley Stadium alongside Swerve Strickland to take on Darby Allin and Sting. In an odd move, however, Fox kicked out of Strickland’s group just weeks after joining, replaced in the bout by Christian Cage and quickly turned face on the last Dynamite before All In.

Fightful Select reports that Fox was planned to compete at the event but AEW only found out after the match’s announcement that he could not work outside the United States for as-yet-unknown reasons, hence the unusual Dynamite segment. The company is said to feel that Fox was not forthcoming regarding this fact.

Whilst he is liked within AEW, it’s now said that he has heat due to the situation. Whilst it was debated whether or not he would stay with Strickland’s group, in the end the decision was made for him to be removed on Dynamite.

Plans were reportedly put in place for Bray Wyatt to make his debut in AEW before they fell through and the star returned to WWE!

Amidst Wyatt’s obituary in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that at one point, TNT was informed by AEW that Wyatt would be making his debut for the company on a certain date. However, the plans fell through and the reason was allegedly related to money.

Meltzer went on to note that there was plenty of interest in Wyatt elsewhere following his WWE release – specifically by IMPACT Wrestling, AAA and several Japanese promotions. However, he did not take any of their offers and eventually began teasing his WWE return which took place last year.

“He never wrestled for the next year even with great demand for him from other companies. At one point TNT was told of a date for him to debut in AEW, but it fell through, believed to be money related. Impact was interested as was AAA and Japanese groups.

He did nothing and then pushed the idea of him returning using the name Windham6. He pushed the name in social media but before ever using it, he went back to the old character, signifying a return to WWE upcoming.”

More details have emerged regarding the AEW All In altercation, with one account suggesting CM Punk attempted to “lunge” at Tony Khan!

Writing in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported a neutral party’s account of the backstage incident. The unknown figure, who is not a wrestler but was there, claims that Punk was the first to get physical with Jack Perry and ended up sucker-punching Perry before putting him in a chokehold.

The account claims Tony Khan was a witness to the incident and shouted at Punk to release Perry from the hold. Punk is then said to have attempted a “lunge” at Khan but was held back by others, all whilst yelling that he quit the company. This is allegedly when the previously reported story of monitors falling onto Tony Khan took place.

“Another version, and this would be a neutral source who was not a wrestler but was there and witnessed it and his version was that right after Perry came to the back, Punk went nose-to-nose with him aggressively and asked him if he had a problem. That person said Perry said he was just looking to get heat as a heel. Punk shoved him hard, Perry got in his face and in that version Punk sucker punched him and went for a choke.

People immediately broke it up and Khan was yelling at Punk to let him go. That person said that once they were separated, Punk lunged in Khan’s direction but a number of people got in his way while Punk was yelling “I Quit.” Monitors were knocked down during all this. Joe was very upset and went to calm Punk down.”

Morning everyone, happy Friday!

Welcome back to the TJRWrestling live blog! I’ll be with you from 7am to 1pm EST covering the latest stories & breaking news from WWE, AEW, NJPW and elsewhere across the wrestling world!

Today’s top stories are:

• CM Punk Said To Have “Lunged” At Tony Khan At AEW All In
• Bray Wyatt Almost Debuted In AEW Before Second WWE Run
• AEW Star Has Heat For Not Being Able To Work All In