Top AEW Star Slams All Out Press Conference – “Embarrassing, Disappointing Disaster”
Former AEW Women’s World Champion Dr. Britt Baker DMD has not held back on how strongly she feels about the post-All Out media scrum that led to the backstage fight between CM Punk and The Elite.
At All Out in 2022, CM Punk captured the AEW World Championship, and The Elite trio of Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks became the inaugural Trios Champions – and then all hell broke loose.
At the post-show media scrum, CM Punk laid bare his soul as his anger and frustration boiled over and he openly took shots at the likes of Hangman Adam Page, former friend Colt Cabana, and The Bucks themselves. Afterward, The Bucks are alleged to have confronted Punk in his locker room and a fight broke out with all participants, including Kenny Omega, suspended by the company.
Speaking to Brandon Walker on Rasslin, Britt Baker explained why that media scrum led to feeling “this sucks” in AEW and seemingly had some strong opinions over CM Punk using that time to settle his own scores rather than use it in a “proactive” way:
“Speaking solely on what I watched because that’s all I saw and the scrum and what I heard. As some who loves AEW more than anything in the world and has so much pride and at a time where it felt like something special. Some of the biggest names in professional wrestling were all fighting for the same team. Especially after a huge pay-per-view, that pay-per-view was amazing, one of the biggest houses we’ve ever had.
“That scrum was heartbreaking. It was embarrassing and it was disappointing because, it felt like, in this moment in time, it felt like a disaster. You never want that to happen and it happens every day. There are days I stub my toe in the dental office, ‘oh my God, this is a disaster.’ You never want that feeling. That was a time in AEW where I was like, ‘this sucks.’
“Just me speaking personally, I think the scrums are cool because it’s after a pay-per-view and you get to speak to these wrestlers and there is a lot of emotion and they get to talk to you about what’s going on in the ring, their feelings, their storylines. It humanizes these larger than life wrestlers. That time needs to be used proactively and responsibly.
“If I sit here and tell you nothing but everyone I hate, everything I’m mad at, or all the Twitter lies about me and debunk them, that’s not proactive. It would be selfish of me to use your time and the world’s time like that. I would rather put over the pay-per-view and all the awesome stuff in AEW. Is that other stuff there? Of course, are there people I don’t like? Of course. Are there things I don’t like? Of course. I’m still a soldier for AEW, I’m on the front lines, and I’m going to put it over.”
Britt Baker then discussed how she hates any division in the locker room and says she is proud of how resilient AEW has proved to be and thanks those who started the company – including The Elite – for doing so:
“The whole division, in any aspect, I hate. The divide makes teams, there is this side and that side. We’re all on the same team. When you have teams within a team, it gets messy and muddy. I think, everybody in this company is a huge benefit for AEW. I think everybody involved in that is still a huge benefit for AEW and they all truly love professional wrestling and there is a lot of passion involved there.
“Everybody in AEW can probably say that they hate what happened, they wish it hadn’t happened or happened differently, but you can’t take that back. You can’t go back in time, so let’s move forward and be smart about things. Don’t just spit out every random, stupid lie, rumor that you’ve heard. Really be smart now and try to prevent this sh*t from happening again.
“I feel bad for everybody involved and I’m happy professional wrestling has moved on from that. I felt like, for a second, all eyes were on us for the wrong reasons. They say ‘no press is bad press,’ whatever that stupid phrase is, I hate it. I’m so proud at how resilient AEW is. We are still a young company and we have growing pains. Compared to what other wrestling companies have grown through, some might say it’s super minor, who cares.
“For us, we want to smooth sailing and we want to be very resilient. I’m really happy and proud of this company I work for. I’m super thankful for (Chris) Jericho, Cody, (Jon) Moxley, Kenny, Matt, and Nick for starting this awesome thing. When we first started AEW, Kenny, Matt and Nick wore shirts that said ‘Change the World,’ I think sometimes people need to remember that. It was truly their goal, to change the world, to change professional wrestling, and make it exciting and give people something to really look forward to.
“Those guys have helped so many people in the world of professional wrestling and we won’t even hear a fraction of it, but they have really helped this sport in a way that a lot of people won’t understand and I’m very thankful for them, and I know a lot of this locker room is too.”
AEW star Mark Henry recently said that he’d bring CM Punk back to the company but it then appeared that not everyone in the company quite agreed.