A statement was issued from All Elite Wrestling’s official social media pages to announce that they’ve terminated their employment agreement with Phillip Brooks (CM Punk). The termination was confirmed today by AEW President and CEO Tony Khan.
This stems from an investigation following an incident backstage at All In involving Jack ‘Jungle Boy’ Perry and Punk. There was a reported physical altercation between the two parties that occurred prior to Punk’s Real World Title defense against Samoa Joe.
Khan provided a statement on the matter. He thanked Punk for his contributions and the decision to terminate Punk was solely his own. He added that he’s making the decision in the best interests of those who make AEW possible every week.
By gawd they did it. On the weekend they’re in the United Center.
As good as he may have been for business that first year starting in August 2021, the brawl, the politicking, the general bullshit, the infighting and finally this fight at Wembley is going to overshadow all of it, for good reason. I was a fan of his for many years, but I’ve been fed up with all of this.
Collision is going to need a new direction, new anchor, new opening, etc., but at least the Head of Talent Relations can attend the show again.
It’s wild the narrative that Punk has convinced a group of fans, that The Elite are the ones responsible for his actions. Somehow Moxley, Bryan, Jericho, MJF, FTR, and a ton of other established huge names, manage to coexist. Yet Punk just can’t seem to manage?
Perry should absolutely be fined and suspended for his part in this. However, how many chances does Punk get, and for how long are certain fans going to give him the benefit of the doubt?
Punk was/is in the wrong on this, but the SoCal crew had had it out for him since he arrived, starting with the baseless Cabana rumors. It took almost a year but they ultimately got what they wanted with him gone. And with him goes any hopes of competing with WWE.
Punk goes the way of Cody, just in a more explosive and frankly, because he couldn’t not get violent about it, classless fashion. So don’t get me wrong, Punk brought this on himself to a large extent. But his departure hurts the company, and is exactly what a contingent backstage had wanted even before Brawl Out.
You can have anything you want in AEW. Unless the Bucks don’t want you to have it and you will be gone. Two guys who can’t draw a dime chasing out Cody and Punk - two of the biggest stars and draws in the world.
While I would love to believe that bc I hate the Bucks it isn’t true. They don’t like Punk but he shouldn’t have lunged at his boss come
On
Two talents in four years.
Meanwhile Moxley and Jericho have both re-upped their deals. Bryan seems like a lifer who is having a blast. A whack of great talent under 30 are developing at a rapid pace. International stars and legends being given a platform to showcase themselves to their strengths.
I do not buy this bizarre narrative that The Bucks have an insatiable appetite for power, shutting out people who don’t get along.
Cody left on fine terms and is doing great.
Punk has a history of problems wherever he has worked. The guy came back a couple of months ago and in a short time made a point to cause trouble. Taking unwarranted shots (I’ll say the initial promo seemed fine and a fair shot back at the Elite’s goofy Chicago performance last fall) against Hangman and the Elite. Punk would target people that he associated with the Elite. He banned the head of talent relations from his shows due to paranoia.
He attacked a man half his age because of his ego and paranoia again. He assaulted his boss.
Good riddance.
AEW has locked down their main event players for years to come. They have space on TV and in the locker room for some big free agents. They can stop tiptoeing around the ego of a paranoid narcissist with a victim complex, and put the best product forward.
Sounds like you and 350,000 of your closest friends will have a great time watching the product from here on out. I wish you the best in the future endeavors, mark.
I guess the Cabana stuff materialized out of nowhere, or Punk actually got him removed. I’m sure he’ll be all over the product (again, lol, as if he was featured pre-Punk) now that big bad Pepsi Phil is gone.
Maybe this will all feel less bizarre when Collision is Rampage 2.0 for the foreseeable future.
As for the Cabana story… There are like 100 people on that roster. Why would everybody believe it was The Bucks pushing the story?
And perhaps it was Punk wanting him gone. Tons of stuff in the last two months certainly point in the direction of people needing to walk on eggshells around him.
At the end of the day Khan had no choice. He was at a crossroads with the locker room, and if he let Pubk do whatever he wanted he would have lost the respect of the rest of the talent. Sucks that things didn’t work out as an Omega/Punk match would have been HUGE. But by the sounds of it, Punk wanted out, the talent didn’t want him there, and it was only a matter of time.
Given the last time Punk got fired from a major company, and the fallout of the first time he went on record about that - I have a hard time believing he’s ever speaking publicly about this.
The Hausman’s and Mike Johnson’s of the world will continue playing PR for him.
I think we keep losing sight a little bit - the reason CM punk is terminated I don’t think it’s because he had a disagreement or even a fight with Jack Perry.
I think it has to do more with what is reported as his accosting Tony openly, and wanting to attack him and likely knocking over monitors and making other people around him feel unsafe.
As Tony alluded to if you have people that are not wrestlers, who are physically intimidated because a 200 pound wrestler is going berserk and threatening people they’re going to feel unsafe. Tony himself is not really going to tolerate somebody openly lunging to attack him. He really has no choice, if he doesn’t fire him. What kind of message does that send?. Anyone can attack their boss? Not to mention, why is Tony going topay somebody money who tried to attack him?
Like the minute he did that I don’t think anything else matters. He was going to be fired.
And if you don’t believe me, try going to your job next week, and after a fight with a fellow employee lunge at the owner of the company and threaten them with profanities and see how that works out for you.
I do agree with you, but the one thing I find odd is that if Punk did that, why would Tony have conducted an “investigation”? If you lunge at/attack your boss, isn’t that as clear cut as it gets? Why not just fire him right away opposed to suspend him, “conduct an investigation”, then fire him?
Only thing I can think about is that the investigation is BS, and they are just covering their asses legally speaking, which if true, is completely justified for the record.
Thrilled to see Punk gone… as entertaining as he can be on screen he’s just had too many issues off of it and it’s become a joke and a distraction. I’ve always enjoyed him as a performer and this run was the same but this needed to be done.
Gonna be nice to save John/Wai some time recapping his nonsense on all the future podcasts.
