Tony Khan comments on CM Punk firing, Jack Perry suspension during All Out scrum

AEW’s post-PPV media scrums have become an object of interest among wrestling fans for a few reasons, but a big one is CM Punk’s gripebomb at the one after All Out last year. That led to Brawl Out, which led to a whole lot of other drama and eventually Punk’s firing on the day before this year’s All Out.

For the scrum after that Sept. 3 show, there was interest in whether or not AEW owner, president & head of creative Tony Khan — or anyone else —would address Punk’s firing or the backstage incidents at Aug. 27’s All Out which precipitated it.

The short answer is, only a little. The first attempt to bring up Punk was a question about the locker room post-Punk, and lessons learned from his time on the AEW roster about behind-the-scenes culture. Adam Cole was with Khan for that, and fielded it in a general way. Cole praised the work put into All Out, and said the locker room feels good and is excited about the future. His boss didn’t respond and the presser moved on.

Much later, Khan was asked about whether or not Punk had a non-compete or any language in his exit deal that would prevent him from appearing for another wrestling company in the short-term future. Tony responded to that one, saying:

“I don’t want to discuss the terms of the separation in that sense. I think it’s best to say — first of all, I very much want to thank CM Punk, Phil, for everything he did for AEW as a wrestler. But I don’t think it was an easy decision for anybody on the discipline committee or for the outside counsel or for me to do something like that. I do think it was the right move. And as far as what’s gonna happen in the future, I can’t speak to that. But I’m not the attorneys who interpret all that language and stuff.”

Khan was also asked about punishment for one of the people Punk is said to have verbally and physically fought with behind the curtain at Wembley Stadium, Jack Perry. The answer to that?

“He’s been suspended indefinitely. We’ve suspended everybody in that investigation, and then took further action after that based on what happened and came out of the investigation. But as for Jack, we suspended Jack as a participant in an incident backstage, and Jack hasn’t been around. But that’s all I can say about it. But at the time, we did suspend him and he hasn’t been at AEW since AEW All In backstage in London.”

You can watch the entire All Out 2023 media scrum here.