Reactions From Outside AEW To CM Punk’s Media Scrum

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CM Punk's comments at the post-AEW All Out media scrum (and the resulting brawl) are the news of the day, with a new report detailing reactions outside AEW. Fightful Select spoke with people throughout the industry who had thoughts on the matter, noting that "numerous" talent in WWE reached out to get details on what went down.

One top star in WWE noted that they believe that this is the CM Punk that they knew years ago, while two WWE talents said that if it is a work than it had to be an incredibly intricate one. One of those two said, "If this Punk press scrum thing is a work.. bravo." The two had spoken to Fightful before Raw and said they had individually learned it wasn't a work and were surprised it happened at all.

Both of those latter two sources were both also confused as to why Tony Khan didn't give a follow-up comment about Punk taking shots at the EVPs, nor providing any clarity regarding them considering they started AEW with him. A WWE official said that they agreed with Khan that wrestlers who don't like each other isn't a bad thing for wrestling but said that power needed to be asserted in situations like this to let everyone know behavior like this is not tolerated. That official said that this kind of thing didn't happen often recently in WWE because talent knew that they wouldn't be welcomed back if they did it while Vince McMahon was involved. One notable example of this is Alberto El Patron, who was fired following his altercation with an employee.

One more top name in WWE said that if the two sides couldn't set their issues aside and work through it to make money on the matter, then "none of them have business talking about drawing houses or losing fans or interest. They have a good show but this is still the biggest piece of business they've done and they have to capitalize." They pointed out people like Matt Hardy, Edge, MJF, and Kurt Angle who were able to do that and boosted their careers by doing so.

One talent who has previously worked with Punk said, "You can't expect a lot of people here to have a lot of positive things to say about Punk, and I think he's aware of that and has probably come to peace with it. I feel like he's trying to run things there, and it looks like he's doing it."