I'll answer the big question after I do the setup. Once I do the setup, it'll make the answer obvious.
CM Punk did not turn heel (in the ring) Sunday night at AEW's All Out pay-per-view, while he bled like a stuck pig at the hands of now-former two-time AEW Champion Jon Moxley.
The miracle Chicago Comeback and two Go To Sleep knee-strikes later, and Punk is now also a two-time AEW Champion.
And then things got FUCKING WEIRD.
First order of business is what closed the pay-per-view, and it was something a lot of insiders all but wanted and demanded.
To set THAT up: There was an eight-man ladder match for a "Casino Chip" which represented a future AEW Championship Match. After all of the known entries came in, Stokely Hathaway and his entire entourage of about six trashed everybody. Then, a man in a devil mask came down and took the Chip from Hathaway. The man in the mask being the "Joker" (mystery entrant), he immediately won the match and a future chance.
Just after Punk celebrated with the title in the ring in Chicago, the screen faded to black and you saw a (scripted) voicemail call between AEW head Tony Khan, giving a "last offer" to a talent on the outs all summer.
After that, the man in the devil mask spoke, put on his trademark scarf, and then came out to confront Punk.
MJF -- Maxwell Jacob Friedman -- is back after that entire fol-de-rol during Double or Nothing weekend, and he has a title shot he can call.
The first absolutely fucking weird thing that happened was the MJF was actually CHEERED in Punk's hometown of Chicago, with Punk in the center of the ring with the company's main championship.
But that paled in comparison (and was overshadowed by) Punk's actions at the post-show media scrum backstage -- and elsewhere!!
Punk starts at about the 12 minute mark (after the intro), and, in 23 minutes, promptly destroys all remaining discussion of the card itself with comments like these...
“I haven’t had anything to do with Scott Colton for almost a decade. Probably wanted nothing to do with him even longer than that. It’s fucking unfortunate that I have to come up here and speak on this when I’m on my time and this is a fucking business. Why I’m a grown ass adult man and I decide not to be friends with somebody is nobody else’s fucking business. But my friends, if I fall backwards, will catch me. Scott Colton, I felt, never would have."
Scott Colton, for those who do not know, is former NWA World Champion Colt Cabana. The two had been friends for a long time, until an absolute falling-out between the two regarding actions surrounding CM Punk's lawsuit against the WWE vis-a-vis the mistreatment by their medical staff, etc., which led to Punk's snap departure from professional wrestling for seven years.
“My problem was I wanted to bring a guy with me to the top that did not want to see me at the top, okay? You can call it jealousy, you can call it envy, whatever the fuck it is. My relationship with Scott Colton ended long before I paid all of his bills. I have every receipt. I have every invoice. I have every email. I have email where he says ‘I agree to go our separate ways, I will get my own lawyer and you do not have to pay anymore.’ That’s an email that I have and the only reason the public did not see is because when I finally had to countersue him, through discovery we discovered he shared a bank account with his mother. That’s a fact. As soon as we discovered that fact and we subpoenaed old Marsha, he sent the email ‘oh, can we please drop all this?’"
Needless to say, CM Punk does not play with people who stab him in the back. But it's where this dovetails to that really turns the heat up.
“Now, it’s 2022. I haven’t been friends with this guy since at least 2014, late-2013. The fact that I have to sit up here because we have irresponsible people who call themselves EVPs and couldn’t fucking manage a Target and they spread lies and bullshit and put into the media that I got somebody fired when I have fuck all to do with him, want nothing to do with him, do not care where he works, where he doesn’t work, where he eats, where he sleeps… the fact that I have to get up here and do this in 2022 is fucking embarrassing. And if y’all are at fault fuck you. If you’re not, I apologize."
The EVPs he's referring to are the current Executive Vice-Presidents of the company: Matt and Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega -- the three of whom won the first AEW Trios (Six-Man) Championship earlier in the same card.
They are basically one notch below Khan (though Khan has asserted more authority in Years Two and Three) in the pecking order.
After Double or Nothing in May, Dave Meltzer reported that Colt Cabana, who hadn't wrestled for either Khan promotion since April, was fired from AEW by Punk. Which would make sense, if you understand that, at some point, you gotta trust the men you're working with.
But what might be an even bigger issue, before we get to the EVP's in the first place and what happened after the comments, is the words he had for AEW's third Champion, "Hangman" Adam Page, who lost to The Elite (the EVPs) in the Trios tournament final...
“What did I ever do in this world to deserve an empty headed fucking dumb fuck like Hangman Adam Page to go out on national television and fucking go into business for himself? For what? ... What did I ever do? Didn’t do a goddamn thing."
It is evident that a real issue between Punk and Page will probably prevent the two from ever working together again. Punk basically took a promo on the August 18th AEW Dynamite and blew up Hangman Adam Page. Punk buried Page when he challenged him to fight for the championship at a card Punk knew Page would not be at.
“It’s not (Tony Khan’s) position to make it very fucking clear. There’s people who call themselves EVPs that should have fucking known better. This shit was none of their business. I understand sticking up for your fucking friends, I fucking get it, I stuck up for that guy more than anybody. Okay? I paid his bills until I didn’t and it was my decision not to."
The problem is that Punk had already gone into business for himself once and the entire roster was cautioned against doing it again in an all-talent meeting -- which Punk apparently did not get the memo for unless... We'll get to that.
“I’m trying to run a fucking business. And when somebody who hasn’t done a damn thing in this business jeopardizes the first million dollar house that this company has ever drawn off of my back and goes on national television and does that, it’s a disgrace to this industry, it’s a disgrace to this company. We’re far beyond apologies. I gave him a fucking chance, it did not get handled, and you saw what I had to do, which is very regrettable, lowering myself to his fucking level. But that’s where we’re at right now. And I will still walk up and down this hallway and say ‘if you have a fucking problem with me, take it up with me. Let’s fucking go.’”
And someone did. The EVPs.
As AEW Tag Team Champions Shane Strickland and Keith Lee took the scrum next, at some point in their 15 minutes with the media, a security guard was seen running from the site of the media scrum.
The Young Bucks -- the Jacksons -- were listening the whole time and decided to take Punk up on the offer. According to reports, a 2 on 2 fight, also involving Punk's trainer and backstage AEW aide Ace Steele. A chair was thrown at least twice by Steele, and even Kenny Omega (when he interceded) was bit in the altercation.
And so, now the question: Work or shoot?
There are only really three options here:
- Tony Khan has lost the locker room and AEW IS about to die -- maybe not in three months, but I wouldn't give it another year at this rate, especially with Warner/Discovery and their budget cuts.
- This is an abject flaming work (but then you just killed MJF's return and the fact he has first on the AEW Champion, should he so elect!).
- Punk and Steele are fired by the beginning of Dynamite on Wednesday.
No other choice, no other option. I'm going with #2, but hoo brother.
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