Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I am Luke Owen and this is wrestling news.
Yesterday saw AEW come into London hardway and put on their record-breaking All In event. And
there was something said by Tony Khan in the post-show press conference that stood out to me.
TK is right, by all accounts. There have been claims that Wembley Stadium had over
90,000 people in the building when you take in all the comps, guests and staff. But of that 90k,
81,035 of them paid for and bought a ticket. That is the biggest paid-attendance for a wrestling
show in the history of the world, and it’s also AEW’s biggest gate with more than $10 million.
It’s an incredible achievement for any wrestling company, let alone one that’s
only been in business for five years. But it’s also great for us wrestling fans. It really does
feel that there has never been a better time to be a wrestling fan, with great wrestling all over
the world putting on the best shows possible for our entertainment. So we should pause and
take a moment to reflect upon 81,000 people buying a ticket for a wrestling show, because
it’s mind-boggling when you remember just five years ago the question was whether or not a group
of indie wrestlers could do 10k. Let’s take this moment, to reflect upon the niceness of this news.
With that said.
A fight broke out before the show kicked off so let’s focus on that now.
A little bit of background first. Two weeks ago it was reported that CM Punk had
banned certain people from attending tapings of AEW Collision, notably Matt Hardy, Isaiah Kassidy,
Christopher Daniels, and Ryan Nemeth - all of which have ties or are friends with The Elite,
who he had a Brawl Out with nearly one year ago. When that report came out, it promoted another
report that Punk had strong words with “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry about JB wanting
to do an angle that would involve real glass as a way to write him off TV.
Punk took issue with the spot - as did, reportedly, doctors, backstage staff and
Tony Schivone - and Punk told him that they don’t do that sort of thing on Saturdays - i.e.
Collision - and if he didn’t like it he “could stay on Wednesdays” - i.e Dynamite. It was added
that Punk felt that Perry threw a temper tantrum because he couldn’t do the spot, and felt that
he was trying to get himself written off TV so he didn’t have to come to work the following
week. It’s since been revealed that Perry had planned holiday the following week, which is why
he wanted to do an angle that would write him off. Fast forward to All In yesterday, and Jack Perry
lost his FTW Championship back to Hook on the buy-in preshow. During the match,
Perry did a spot with Hook on the windshield of a London Black Cab - because UK references and
all that - and looked into the camera and said: “it's real glass, cry me a river.”
Fightful Select report that Perry “wasn't happy with how the situation was relayed publicly” with
regards to his altercation with Punk over the summer - especially as the news came from those
that are close to Punk and not anyone else. Also worth remembering that a lot of Punk’s
issues with AEW came from his annoyance that wrestlers talk to dirt sheets.
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention, but all
of this did not sit well with CM Punk. Which means it’s now time to get out your
He Said She Said commemorative coins, as there are two sides to this story.
Side one comes from Punk’s side of things. Fightful Select report that Perry approached
Punk backstage after his FTW match - and before Punk’s opening match with Samoa Joe which came
after it - and “stepped in his face” and bumped past him. Punk then pushed Perry,
who tried to fight back but got put into a chokehold by Punk. This fight was then broken up.
Side two of the story comes from other people who saw what happened.
Fightful Select report that it was Punk that initiated the altercation
by approaching Perry with heated words, and actually threw the first punch before putting
him in a choke hold that was then broken up. Miro - who was brought back to the company
to be part of CM Punk’s Collision show - posted his thoughts on the situation
saying the version of events that Perry started the fight were “fake and untrue”.
It should be noted that while I have used Fightful Select when talking about this,
the story has been corroborated - from both sides - by PWInsider, Figure Four
and PWTorch - and even Tony Khan himself who said at the post-show press conference:
“There was an incident backstage before we went live on tonight’s show.”
He added that there would be an investigation into what happened.
PWInsider add that the fight took place in Gorilla Position, and PWTorch add that the
start of the show was nearly delayed as the production crew, “[scrambled] to find a way to
fill time if Punk wasn’t able to go out on time.” Mike Johnson of PWInsider then reported that Jack
Perry had been escorted from Wembley Stadium and sent back to his hotel, while Punk got to
remain backstage. Bryan Alvarez then reported that Punk was also sent back to his hotel,
and that it didn’t happen immediately like it did with Perry due to him being in the middle of a
wrestling match with Samoa Joe. Dave Meltzer added on Wrestling Observer Radio that Punk was asked to
leave, and both men were removed by security. All of this talk of heat is making me sweaty,
so we’d better check in with our heat expert Helen Tempreature to find out just
how hot this story is. HT: I need suncream,
it’s too hot, it’s a ten on the scale! And to tie back into my brilliant joke I
made at the start of this episode, PWInsider add in their story that there were some in AEW who
were worried that this story would overshadow the success of All In. Which, in some ways, it has.
So let’s just reiterate again - as I’m being handed a press release from AEW right now - that
All In was a big success both in terms of attendance and monies. What else is in the news?
Oh, there’s heat with other AEW wrestlers.
Santana made his return to AEW this past week to join the Blackpool Combat Club side of things
in their Stadium Stampede match against Best Friends, Orange Cassidy, Penta and Eddie Kingston.
Not only did he return, he also seemingly reunited with his former tag partner Ortiz.
The two had a big falling out last year according to Konan, which is what split
up their act, and led to speculation that Santana was trying to get his release from
All Elite Wrestling. It was also reported that Santana also had some issues with Eddie Kingston.
But with his return and working with both those guys, it was presumed that
all issues had been resolved. But not so, according to Fightful Select who write:
“As of now, things haven't improved with Santana's relationship with either Ortiz or Eddie Kingston.”
Fightful also add that AEW were aware that Ray Fenix wouldn’t
be able to travel for All In and do the Stadium Stampede match, and there wasn’t
any consideration to find a replacement which is why it was booked as a 5 on 5.
But that wasn’t the only change made to the card on last week’s Dynamite.
Just a few weeks ago, it was announced that Sting and Darby Allin would team up to take
on Swerve Strickland and AR Fox, who shot a brutal angle where they attacked and left Nick
Wayne looking like a scene from CSI: Seattle. However on Dynamite, Swerve kicked AR Fox out
of his group and replaced him with Christian Cage as his tag partner for All In. It was a
busy and over-booked angle that seemingly did a month’s worth of story in one 5-minute segment.
There has been a lot of speculation about why Fox was removed from the match,
from visa issues - which is what kept Fenix off the show - to a bereavement in the family.
Whatever the truth is, Fightful Select add that Fox being removed from the match was “not always
the plan” and the changes having to be made to the match “resulted in some heat on AR Fox.”
But exactly how much heat? Let’s head back to Helen.
HT: There’s some heat here, but you’d still need a jacket when you go outside,
that’s a three on the scale today. But I get that people are sick of
hearing about backstage fights and heat. Believe me, I’m kinda sick of it too.
The truth of the matter is that everywhere in the wrestling world behind the scenes there’s
various forms of heat and disagreement. WWE talent have heat with each other. NXT does. Impact does.
Not everyone is friends. So for the final word on this, let’s hear from the sweary world champ, MJF.
And, yes, for those who saw the press conference, MJF did refer to me as “the bald guy”.
We’re basically best friends now. Lastly on the AEW news, and All In
was treated to a surprise appearance from former WWE star Sasha Banks,
now known as Mercedes Mone - who learned a lot from her time in NXT as she was shown in the crowd
like she was the latest signing of the company. Mone had revealed that she was in London ahead
of the show by posting pictures of herself in the nation’s capital on Instagram like a little
tourism mark. I would never do such a thing, I only post cool things on my Instagram. But you’d
only know that if you follow me on there. Speaking with fans ahead of the event,
I had a lot of people speculate that she could be at the show following the women’s fatal-four way.
But that would require the creative department to put some thought into that match which
clearly was not on the to-do list for yesterday. And despite being shown in the crowd, it does
not mean that Mercedes Mone is All Elite. However, Fightful Select report that Mone
and AEW have had recent conversations, and that she is “open to appearing” on
a show at some point. Sean Ross Sapp adds, “one source even [showed] heavy optimism that the two
sides will be working together. Another source spoke as if it was in the works.”
But that’s all from me, go and watch Oli Davis’ review of AEW All In by clicking the
video on screen right now while I try and get some sleep because I am a sleepy boy.