REPORT: Suspensions expected after All Out, CM Punk & Ace Steel to be suspended or leave AEW

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Originally published at REPORT: Suspensions expected after All Out, CM Punk & Ace Steel to be suspended or let go

Sunday’s backstage incident following AEW’s All Out event is expected to result in multiple suspensions and possible departures.

Justin Barrasso of SI.com is reporting that Sunday’s incident following CM Punk’s media availability after All Out is going to lead to a third-party investigation and is expected to include suspensions for Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, head of talent relations Christopher Daniels, producer Pat Buck, Michael Nakazawa, and Brandon Cutler.

The report also states that CM Punk and producer Ace Steel with either be included among the suspensions or no longer be with the company before the end of the day.

The news of a potential exit by CM Punk from the company was circulating on Tuesday but has not been confirmed yet. Barrasso reports that:

Punk met with Khan on Tuesday, so the two had an opportunity to discuss how that exit could be handled.

After Punk’s comments at Sunday’s press conference, a confrontation occurred with reports from Fightful Select, Wrestling Observer, and Steven Muehlhausen of DAZN piecing together that Punk made contact punching Matt Jackson, Ace Steel through a chair that hit Nick Jackson in the eye, and Steel bit Kenny Omega. It was also noted that Steel’s wife was present and had a broken foot. The instigators of the situation have been disputed and this is a key point as each side is going to have justifications for their actions.

Hangman Page is not involved as SI.com noted that he had left the building by the time everything went down.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley are now scheduled to appear on tonight’s episode of Dynamite in Buffalo where only two matches have been announced as of this writing. Originally, Jericho did an angle at All Out informing Daniel Garcia that the Jericho Appreciation Society would not be there for his match against Wheeler Yuta and he would have to do it alone. Neither Jericho nor Moxley were originally set to appear in Buffalo.

MJF is also scheduled to appear on the show and speak for the first time since his June 1st promo at The Forum in Inglewood, California after returning at Sunday’s pay-per-view.

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Thanks for update @johnpollock

Sad situation never like to see people lose their jobs. Hopefully cooler heads prevail and suspensions are all that is needed

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I like Punk, and this past year of seeing him work was fun. I like that he wanted to take a stand after all the bad reporting over the last few months, I respect that. I don’t respect how he did and how he’s chosen to conduct himself — I don’t think you come back from punching a colleague after taking a bit sweaty shit on them in media scrum to the entire world.

If any of the EVPs were the ones that talked to the press, blaming Punk for Cabana being moved from AEW to ROH, then fine, he has ever right to be mad.

I would like to see them all work it out, at the very least as people who can be professionals and learn and grow from these mistakes.

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What reporting was out there about him that directly accused him of having Colt removed from AEW?

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There were indirect accusations, I don’t think anyone committed to saying outright that he did. But, “unmade sources” said that Punk may have had something to do with it… Blah Blah Blah.

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It was the logical conclusions everyone jumped too

AEW hires Cabana
Cabana is on TV as part of DO
AEW hires Punk
Punk hates Cabana
AEW takes Cabana off TV and moves him to RH off TV

You don’t need the YBs to draw a possible connection here. Whether it’s true or not it’s a thought many people had. There is zero reason to jump at the Elite as leaking this. People were wondering this the second Cabana was downgraded.

If it’s not true then put out something (or Tony) saying it’s not Punks fault and move on. Don’t blame fake leaks on people you don’t like when you know the sentiment is out there already

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The whole Colt thing never made any sense to me, and I was always so confused by it becuase I never saw any credible source say anything about it (I only follow POST and WO/F4W though…)

Colt has done literally nothing his entire run with AEW, and it makes all the sense in the world to have him in ROH as he was a pretty big name with them for years. Stu Grayson was a bigger name and part of Dark Order than Colt and they let him go…

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You don’t want to see someone lose his job but punching a colleague is the best way to do that.

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Except the narrative doesn’t really hold up in the first place. For Cabana to be “taken off TV”, he’d need to be on it in the first place. Like the rest of the Dark Order (until recently) and many others on the roster, they’ve received little TV time for long periods, but it’s nice, convenient and juicy to have Punk to blame for this as it concerns Cabana. Even when Cabana was on TV, he was a background character. He’s done little to nothing in AEW in the first place, suggesting Punk has somehow influenced this since his arrival is nonsense. I’m surprised Punk didn’t mention this himself, he could have buried Cabana even more.

I’ve not taken the “Punk got him moved to ROH” rumours remotely seriously from the start for this reason alone. It’s just such low hanging fruit for people to make up a narrative like this about Cabana/Punk and with the timelines and actual reality of Cabana’s usage, it seems there are other more sensible but less dramatic reasons for it.

It’s similar to when Cody and Brandi left; the most cliched, obvious, predictable, basic as hell gossip started circulating about them even if it didn’t make sense. Filing in the gaps with a convenient narrative and just running with it as though it’s actually true, as if assumptions are the same thing as evidence. It’s infuriating.

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Absolutely insane to me that Punk is also so upset about this answer from Page. Punk’s driven himself insane with paranoia:

(If it doesn’t take you there already, the time mark is 6:35pm)

Now that all said, prior to his injury, Punk seemed incredibly happy to be in AEW. Almost annoyingly so at times. Perhaps with the injury, he got into his own head and started believing some of chatter that was floating out there at the time. And maybe, hearing some guy at Dynamite chanting “Colt Cabana” at him was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Again, everything about that scrum from Punk seemed incredibly pre-meditated in what he said. He went scorched Earth in front of his boss, and directly naming the EVPs. He knew exactly what he was doing.

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I consider myself a hardcore AEW fan and I’m struggling to think of one thing Cabana has done on TV.

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Did the leaks never happen and that is why they are fake. Or did people leak fake stories and that is what you are calling fake?

Leaks happened. The story about him almost walking out. The story about people upset backstage with Cabana being downgraded. Somebody should do a timeline of all the notable parts of this story. The entire thing has played out like an Epic saga. I’m not sure what it means to call the “leaks” fake though, it’s no an untrue part of this entire saga. The info in them may have been “fake” or planted narrative but that’s a different story.

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Fake as in the leak about him getting Cabana fired wasn’t really a leak from the Elite

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Khan’s got money, would love for him to hire a big time cyber investigation to find out where the original “punk got colt fired” story came from. My guess is jonswrestlingnews.tripod.com - @jonnyswrestlingshack on Twitter.

I also haven’t heard a single good reason on WHY they’d ever leak a fake story like that. Getting Punk pissed off or fired only hurts the company they’re EVPs for…

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Plot twist, if it wasn’t the Elite, who was it?

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It was Vince all along :supervillain:

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Just to note: Tony Khan hasn’t tweeted since Sept 4 and did not appear on Busted Open today like he regularly does.

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I’m wondering if this is the end of the “press conferences”. I find them entertaining but they usually make everyone involved (wrestlers and “media”) look really bad. Time to move on from them, as much as Khan wants AEW to be sports it isn’t.

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