AEW CEO Tony Khan Acknowledges Backstage Incident At All In, Declines Further Comment
CM Punk and Samoa Joe fought one another to kickstart tonight's AEW All In event in front of more than 80,000 fans in Wembley Stadium. But that wasn't the only story to feature Punk during tonight's event. Early on in the show, it was reported that Punk had been involved in some form of backstage altercation with Jack Perry. Details are still only beginning to emerge through individual accounts of the backstage incident, but issues appear to have stemmed from Jack Perry's dig at Punk in the Zero Hour.
It's not the first backstage altercation in AEW, nor is it the first to involve CM Punk, but going against the grain of previous incidents, Tony Khan addressed it during the post-show press conference.
"I can't comment on it at this time beyond what I'm about to say," he started, "Yes, there was an incident backstage before we went live on tonight's show. We are investigating it. Until I learn more about what happened, I can't really address it at this time so I can't comment, but I did want to be honest with you and tell you that is the case."
When Punk and The Elite were involved in a backstage altercation at last year's All Out event, Khan refused to provide comment on the matter, neither confirming nor denying whether it had actually happened. The same can be said for an alleged altercation between Andrade El Idolo and Sammy Guevara last year.
Jack Perry's match on the Zero Hour show came right before Punk's in the running order, and their altercation is believed to have happened sometime between the bouts. There have been differing allegations as to what happened and who started it. One account alleged that Punk "choked" Perry, for example, and it has been reported that Perry had been asked to leave the event.