There are still many questions surrounding the events after AEW All Out this weekend. CM Punk made large waves throughout the wrestling world for his comments during the post-event media scrum, when he went on a rant to express his unhappiness with Hangman Adam Page and AEW’s EVPs, meaning Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks.
That was followed by a reported fight, with Punk and longtime trainer and friend Ace Steel on one side and the Bucks and Omega on the other. While numerous outlets have been working on getting a full picture of that altercation, no one from AEW has talked about it on the record so far, perhaps because of the potential legal implications.
Regardless, Punk’s comments were made where the whole world could see them (and still can, since AEW posted them to YouTube), and there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that some kind of dust-up occurred later that night. That means the biggest question yet to be answered is a big one: What happens next?
PWTorch ran an update today that offered some insight, with its sources saying “people are shaken up over what happened and believe the fallout could be significant in terms of suspensions, firings, and new edicts on public comments wrestler make.”
Fightful Select, which has been on top of the entire saga from the start, cited AEW talent saying they “don’t understand how Punk couldn’t be let go after this.”
A number of fans and industry observers have noted that Eddie Kingston was recently suspended for getting into a backstage altercation with Sammy Guevara, one that didn’t seem nearly as serious as the Punk-Elite situation. It’s difficult from the outside looking in to say what the “correct” approach to discipline is, especially when there are conflicting reports about who started the fight, but not suspending or firing anyone sends a message in its own right.
Needless to say, the eyes of the wrestling world are on Tony Khan and AEW to see what fallout might shake out ahead of Dynamite Wednesday in Buffalo. We’ll update with the latest as it comes out.