REPORTS: Latest on the backstage incident involving CM Punk & Jack Perry

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Originally published at REPORTS: Latest on the backstage incident involving CM Punk & Jack Perry

One day removed from AEW’s most successful event in the company’s history, there was another backstage incident grabbing the attention.

Tony Khan confirmed during Sunday’s post-show press conference of a backstage incident without naming the individuals involved. Khan stated the company was investigating the matter and could not comment until they learned more.

Earlier, it was reported by Fightful and PWinsider.com of an incident involving CM Punk and Jack Perry between Perry’s match with Hook, and Punk’s pay-per-view opener with Samoa Joe, which were back-to-back.

During the FTW Championship Match with Hook, Perry looked into the camera and made a reference to “Real glass, go cry me a river”, a not-so-subtle reference to an online report of an issue during a Collision production where Punk and Perry had a dispute over usage of real glass for a segment. It had been stated that Punk felt Perry wanted to use real glass in angle to receive time off and later noted that Perry had scheduled time off and allegedly believed his mischaracterization was designed to make him look bad.

Here’s a video of Jack Perry saying, “Real glass. Go cry me a river!” This is what made CM Punk angry. It all started a couple months ago when Punk told Jack that no real glass was to be used at Collision. #AEWAllIn #AEW pic.twitter.com/NnSYZnHPze

— AEW Superfan (@SuperfanAew) August 28, 2023

There are varying reports regarding the start of the incident and who triggered the interaction backstage with reporting from Fightful, Haus of Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Torch.

It is believed that Punk met Perry in the Gorilla position and asked if Perry had something to say and it escalated into shoving with Punk allegedly applying a choke before the two parties were separated and Nick Hausman reporting that no punches were thrown. It was also consistent that Perry was removed from the building with Punk also leaving, but it has been disputed if the company ordered Punk to leave, or if he left of his own volition.

Wade Keller at the Torch added that Punk allegedly threatened to quit AEW in the heat of the moment and there was even concern of having to change the match order with Punk set to go on with Joe immediately, but cooler heads prevailed and Punk worked the match in the scheduled slot.

We cannot confirm if any punishment or suspensions have been levied. POST Wrestling has reached out to multiple AEW officials for comment on the matter.

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This is an instance where AEW is unfortunately not in the position to run the United Centre for All Out, without CM Punk somewhere on the show… So, even him behaving badly (again) is going to have to have a delayed punishment if there even is one.

The environment and the leadership culture in AEW needs some real work… And perhaps AEW should be more transparent on what Punks role with Collision is, like if he’s an executive producer, or something.

They clearly need to be helping their talent, Punk specifically do some CBT and be paired with a therapist.

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Would anyone really care if Perry got fired? Going into business the way he did on the company’s biggest show ever was pretty stupid.

Punk’s reaction was obviously childish but a guy on the pre-show like Perry shouldn’t feel comfortable to do what he did.

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Very good points, but my guess is he doesn’t agree to see one and just wants to be let out of his contract.

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I have no problem with Perry getting fired. I think he’s a good target to make an example of because it’s not like WWE will have much interest in him anyway given his limited mic skills and his body type and he’s literally just a guy who has a famous dad and the father we get from his dad’s death the last relevant he becomes.

It just bothers me that he went into business for himself and literally nothing to back up his reputation or contributions to the business. I guess it’s one thing if you feel you earn the right, and even then, it’s perhaps not OK but at least more understandable, but for a guy like him to do it is just sending the wrong message.

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Perry has a lot of potential, but he’s a long way from being over enough to throw his weight around like that. If he is keen to exit his contract, AEW has plenty of scaffolding to hold the company up until a new pillar emerged.

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Anyone being fired for this is ridiculous. Anyone even being suspended for this is pretty absurd.

Nobody was hurt (except ego’s)
No animals were injured
No laws were broken

You can’t even say any rules were broken because there is no evidence that there are any rules against making inflammatory “off script” remarks in AEW. There’s no script to be ignoring. Perry didn’t even mention Punk by name.

All the while Punk is allowed to bury Hangman over and over.

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The only possible “legal” aspect I could see would relate to Punk getting physical with another talent backstage, and relate to the terms of whatever he agreed to after returning to the company.

That said, this is all so absolutely stupid.

Once again, AEW hits an epic home run. Once again, the next day. Punk related discourse.

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And that’s another thing.

Punk’s whole thing about everyone else being soft comes across as so absurd when once again he’s triggered by something that’s a whole whack of nothing.

Anybody not aware of the glass story would hear Jack’s line and relate it to people assuming everything in wrestling is fake. He’s talking trash at that idea. Simple as that. Nothing deeper. It was a completely harmless line guys.

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:point_down::point_down::point_down::point_down::point_down::point_down:

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He said something directly to the camera in the middle of a match to piss off people in the back. Remember, it wasn’t only Punk that told him not to use the real glass. Perry isn’t very bright.

Someone at his level who hasn’t achieved much should not feel comfortable to say whatever in the middle of a match.

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Can’t agree there. I think most watching knew what he was referring to. For better or worse, most of AEW’s audience is perpetually online and there was no question what he was talking about.

Doesn’t excuse Punk from reacting but Punk is actually a star. Perry is very replaceable

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The line isn’t the incident. Hanging around Gorilla right before Punk is going to go on and then needling him until he reacts is the incident. Asking him 'what’re you going to do about it?" (if true) puts Punk into a lose-lose situation. Either lose all the face or get involved in an altercation. Punk’s also living under a microscope right now. Perry should’ve been removed from Gorilla the moment he stepped foot there - this is precisely the outcome he wanted.

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Disagree. Jack Perry made it part of the show when brought his beef in front of the curtain. Just like Punk last year. Don’t introduce your BS into the wrestling show if you don’t want wrestling fans to talk about it.

Also, clearly the news leaked initially from someone backstage. So maybe blame AEW there too, and not the reporters who reported news or the fans that read it.

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He only showed up to gorilla to antagonise one person before their match.

I’ll agree with you that Perry isn’t very bright though.

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Sorry, I misread the situation as Punk confronting Perry coming through the curtain after his match.

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Fans aren’t the ones to blame here.

Whether anyone likes it or not, we crave hearing about the stories behind the stories. Most likely none of us would be on reddit or post wrestling tuning into podcasts if this wasn’t true. And it’s kind of holier than thou to say otherwise.

Any drowning out of the fact that pro wrestling was incredible and historic last night falls solely on the performers and the unmitigated egos that haven’t been curbed by the systems that be.

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I haven’t watched the show yet as I am watching it tomorrow after work and what’s sad is that I haven’t seen a thing outside of one person in this thread about it being a good show. 99.9% of what I have seen (granted I’m trying to avoid spoilers) is about this incident, its deva vu of last year.

Now maybe the show sucked and I sound like an idiot, but I’m going to assume it was a good show based on AEW’s track record, but its unfortunate that they had their biggest show in company history and nobody seems to care 24 hours later. I feel bad for the performers, Tony on the other hand played with fire when he brought Punk back and last night he got burnt.

Even if Punk is not at fault for what happened, as long as he is there he’s going to be a lightning rod and every single little thing that happens will overshadow the product. Is what it is and it will continue to happen until he’s released.

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People aren’t talking about how good the show is here, because there are several other threads on the board where people are praising how excellent it was, where that’s being discussed.

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I don’t just on Post Wrestling, in general…… nothing has come up on my social media feeds at all about the event, not a single person I know has messaged me about the quality of the show, yet this story is always at the top of this board, this story has been texted to me by many people, and I couldn’t help but see this story many times even though I’m trying to avoid spoilers. I get the story annoys you, but it is what it is.