To review the situation so far, CM Punk was involved in another backstage altercation, this time at AEW’s All In event held at Wembley Stadium in London. The incident involved Punk, Jack Perry and reportedly even Tony Khan, who was trying to stop the situation from escalating, according to reports.
Also according to reports, other AEW wrestlers backstage at the time also tried stopping the fight, which occurred just moments before Punk was to go out and face Samoa Joe for the Real World Heavyweight Championship. Samoa Joe was reportedly one of those who tried to stop the fight as well.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer had the lowdown on what went down, as always, and according to his sources, the following occurred:
“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.”
Well, reports now suggest that this time it’s more than just hearsay and reports online, as there might be footage that exists of the scuffle. As it turns out, both men have been suspended and the investigation is still ongoing.
In other CM Punk news…
Punk was absent from this week’s Dynamite for obvious reasons. First off he rarely makes an appearance on the show, as he headlines Collision, which is on Saturdays, but last time they were in Chicago exceptions were of course made.
But there was another reason why he wasn’t there… As it turns out, he was being awarded for his contributions to the realm of pro wrestling. CM Punk was awarded the Mike Mazurki Award.
He had this to say during his lengthy speech:
“When people tell me that they don’t like me or that the internet is mad at me, I just chuckle because Roddy Piper liked me. Dusty Rhodes liked me and Harley Race liked me…
And that means more than anything else in the world because these legends put their stamp on me before anyone else did. It gave me the confidence and it gave me the ability to succeed.”
Domenic Marinelli is an author and freelance writer/journalist. His work has appeared in The Sportster, E-Wrestling News, Pro Wrestling News Hub, CFL News Hub, XFL News Hub, Ringside News, Daily DDT, USFL News Hub, Slam Wrestling, as well as other print and internet publications. He is the author of Generic V, Summer of the Great White Wolf, His Old Tapes (stories & poetry), Across a Dark River in Palermo and so many others. He lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. https://linktr.ee/AuthorDomenicMarinelli