Tony Khan has said he cannot legally discuss CM Punk’s WWE return.
Steve Hermon of BBC West Midlands interviewed Khan to mark the beginning of ticket sales for AEW All In 2024 at Wembley Stadium.
The full interview is due to air on Tuesday, and will cover topics such as Sting, Fulham Football Club, and Will Ospreay. However, on Monday, Hermon published a short clip of the discussion on social media, concentrating on CM Punk.
The exchange is below:
Steve Hermon: I have to ask you about CM Punk. Of course, he was at All In and his last appearance for AEW was at All In at Wembley Stadium. We’ve now seen him appear at WWE Survivor Series at WarGames. Were you surprised to see him there?
Tony Khan: I can’t talk about that, nor do I think it’s the time or the place, but I appreciate you asking and I’m very excited about AEW All In at Wembley Stadium. Not to dodge or duck your question; it’s just not something I can legally talk about.
I had the chance to chat to #AEW owner Tony Khan about #AEWAllIn 2024 at Wembley Stadium ahead of tickets going on sale this week.
I’ll post the full interview tomorrow but we covered lots of topics, including Sting, Will Ospreay, Fulham FC and I had to ask about #CMPunk… pic.twitter.com/1k2Jd5k5qh
He was doing an interview about the on sale of All In, I’m pretty sure. Why wouldn’t he bring it back.
Also, what does he have to gain from commenting on it? Even if it wasn’t a legal thing. Anything the guy said - like everything he says - will be turned around or spun. It’s not worth it for him at this point.
He’s focusing on his business. Which, when he doesn’t focus on, he get gets criticized for.
It’s entirely possible that there is an NDA signed between them. You’ll know very well when Punk comes out today – if there’s no NDA there’s no way he doesn’t empty the clip. But if he does it in a classy manner and moves on, and just focus on the WWE you know full well it’s because he’s not allowed to.
Remember, if punk ever takes the classy road it’s because he’s being forced to.
To be honest, I’m totally ok with Tony Khan not saying anything. Usually TK saying anything gets him in crap. What’s there to gain by talking about it?
“Poor Tony gets attacked no matter what he says.” As if he doesn’t go out of his way to hype up every mundane appearance as a special announcement, or ALMOST ALWAYS avoid the question he was asked to answer the one he wishes he were asked.
His hands may have been tied on this particular question, but he avoids questions when he doesn’t have to all of the time. He earns the attacks he gets for that bush league behavior because he literally runs the bush league.
NDA or no NDA. These two had an ugly breakup, and while I get how it’s more entertaining to a fan to see them “shoot” on each other, I don’t think we should criticize either of them for acting professional and not taking more cheap shots. AEW is better off without Punk, and Punk is better of without AEW, it’s like a toxic relationship, it’s healthiest for both sides just to move on.
It’s also a function of if punk completely ignores his AEW run like he did in acts like he’s been away from wrestling for 10 years it almost sends a more potent message about where he ranks AEW relative to WWE
Same thing with if Tony doesn’t attack him it sends a message that he wasn’t a big enough deal to still worry about and he has bigger things to worry about
Categorically disagree on more announcements delivering than not, and especially not in the past year or so. He breaks the announcement trick out far too often, when he wants to (try to) pop a quarter-hour or juice a buyrate, and it’s been a running joke for months now – even with John and Wai.
And Copeland’s signing was big, sure, but I don’t recall it being a TK announcement. Will’s was an announcement – a talented guy who’s been on their past handful of major shows. I won’t quibble about it not being a more unexpected name, but his signing was more of a foregone conclusion IMO. But let’s put it on the board as a big announcement that lived up to the hype for once.
You know who else is awkward when talking to the press? Bill Belichick. And when the organization he runs was on top, the non-answers and dismissiveness during press conferences was just part of his charm. Now that the Patriots suck, his non-answers about decisions made during losses are being scrutinized.
Being awkward isn’t a crime, or even that much of a problem in his public-facing persona. But we can’t use his awkwardness as a crutch when he goes out of his way to do as much media as he does. And while most of his avoidances and non-answers are Punk-related, it’s not all of them. But hey, everything’s “great” and “exciting” in AEW land despite the soft ticket sales, lack of depth at the top of the card, etc.
I would agree that some of his announcements have missed. Promoting a huge announcement for All in, especially for American television, where, virtually none of those fans are going to attend, was a bit lame.
Outside of that though he usually delivers. He’s brought in way more free agents then have gone the other way.
In my opinion the sports owner he is most like is Mark Cuban. He’s bombastic, a bit annoying and goofy and an easy target. Everyone has the “rich kid” who will lose money to have fun vibes from both.
Tony is an easy target. He’s passionate and sometimes says things he shouldn’t. He’s not polished like Nick Khan is. He’s highly memable with how he looks.
Still he’s doing a great job overall and if people stopped to think before attacking him versus true scum like Vince and Dana they would see how ridiculous they are being.
