10
WOL: Bryan Alvarez with new information and a breakdown of the CM Punk/Jack Perry situation
(kbin.social)
Gonna just copy this one wholesale given the context (and credit to DKBetiza on ye-ol-dump for having posted it there):
This is a recap of what was said on Wrestling Observer Live. Credit to Trevor Dame for the recap. This post is currently being edited with new information continuously.
- Bryan (Alvarez) woke up today to find out he got COVID on the UK trip. TRAVELERS BEWARE. (He feels fine.)
- Bryan says he has talked to no fewer than a dozen people about all the stuff. Prefacing things by some of this stuff he's been given two versions of, in which case he'll try to give both versions.
- Bryan talking about how the original "Punk bars Perry from using broken glass" story came out weeks after it happened, it was already well known by folks internally by then.
- Bryan agrees with Punk that people should not in fact go through broken glass. Remembers when Goldberg hurt himself with glass. "Glass is not a good worker."
- Jungle Boy had a planned vacation. His side's story was that he was approved by AEW on Dynamite to go rent the car and shoot the glass breaking injury angle on Collision, and when he got to Collision, Punk told him no.
- Bryan says he didn't hear this from Jungle Boy, but his side is that he got the glass spot cleared by AEW and then Punk tells him no the day of the show, and his side thinks Punk did that because he's friends with the Young Bucks. (Obviously Punk's side is he's trying to protect people from using broken glass.)
- On the Punk travel story, Bryan confirms that no one was there to pick him up from the UK airport, he had to take a train and get fans to direct him to Wembley.
- Bryan has heard 2 stories. In one side Punk couldn't get ahold of anyone from AEW once he was stranded at the airport. The other side says he did get in touch with people and was given options, and he took the train.
- Bryan was told Perry walked back after the All In match, as he walked by Punk, Punk said "Do you have a problem with me?" and Perry replied that well, you heard what I said out there.
- Bryan says there was a lot of witnesses to the Punk/Perry fight at Gorilla including TONY KHAN
- Punk apparently then said "You know I could beat your ass?", then Punk shoved him and put him in the choke and it was broken up immediately.
- Bryan says the fight was close enough to Tony Khan in Gorilla that MONITORS FELL ON TONY. Lots of witnesses. Joe broke the fight up.
- Punk was immediately angry, threatened to quit, did not want to wrestle. Bryan was told things were delayed ten minutes because of this.
- FTR and the Bucks were asked if they could open the show and they said they weren't ready, so they asked the Golden Elite six man if they could and they said they guess they could.
- Joe was pissed because he wanted to wrestle at Wembley so they got things together and we got the Punk/Joe match first, as we saw.
- Bryan talking about how Miro tweeted that the story of Perry initiating physical contact with Punk was BS and now today tweeting "Nice UK cab" which Bryan says is an obvious shot at Punk.
- Bryan says there was apparently a SECOND NEAR INCIDENT when Punk came back through the current where Miro confronted Punk and asked him about what happened with Perry, and Punk asked him if he had a problem with him now and if he wanted to step outside. JESUS CHRIST.
- Bryan wants people to note that Punk did not say "I'm not suspended" he said no one had contacted him about a suspension. That's two different things. From the WBD side, Bryan was told the Punk match was off All Out. (Bryan was then later told they were suspended and there's now an investigation.)
- Bryan does a "Anything is possible" but his gut is this isn't going to get wrapped up in time for All Out and they'll be off of it. Referencing how long the Elite/Punk investigation and Elite absence was.
- Bryan also referencing how the Elite were kept in the dark on a lot of stuff during their suspension, so basically suggesting that if Punk was also being kept fairly in the dark, that wouldn't be out of the norm for AEW.
- Bryan does not know what this all means. The anti-Punk side says you can't go after someone physically because they say something you don't like. The pro-Punk side says everyone is after him.
- Bryan asked a bunch of the people he talked to if they thought Punk was coming back after this. Most said "Of course he's coming back" but a handful think he's done.
- Bryan says the Punk situation put a damper on the whole All In show for "A lot" of the talent. Bryan says a friend of Punk's got so mad he punched a wall and broke his hand. (I know the rumor is this person is Brody King but I want to note Bryan did not name him and clearly did not want to put a name to who did it, for whatever reason.)
- Bryan says "Morale is down" and people were saying, wait for it, "Something has to be done." How many times has that been said this year.
- To people who think people are overreacting to the down vibes about this situation, Bryan points out Tony pointed out at the All In presser how badly they fell after last year's All Out. (To be fair, Tony was also referencing injuries to Punk and guys like Cole/Danielson.)
- (Update: Nick Hausman says he's being told the near incident with Miro is not true.)
- Trevor Edit: "Also just to be clear, Bryan's story about a Miro/Punk confrontation came after Punk came through the curtain, not "current" as I typoed. As in, after Punk came backstage after his match with Joe. Punk/Perry before the match, Punk/Miro after."
I think this bit is wrong based on what we know and is in the summary above:
Its more accurate to say:
I think Perry referencing this shit during the PPV after what had already gone down on Collision is very unprofessional. Any other work environment that you publicly bad mouth another more senior coworker in front of the customer and you would be lucky to not be fired. I would be leaning to fire him for this myself as its not the first time hes been publicly running his mouth over this issue.
Regardless, whoever started the actual fight, if indeed it was an actual fight, should be fired, Punk or Perry. Tony was right there, he has no excuses on who did what here for the first punch
Right on, I was barely awake the first time I read the article and my reading comprehension wasn't 100%. But, also:
Meaning Punk should have been let go last year, and this entire chain of events should never have happened in the first place. This puts the blame squarely on Tony Khan and AEW management. "Fool me once" and all that.
Was gonna type it on your other comment but it fits better here:
That fucking gripebomb. The second Punk started going off and Tony had that dead inside 'I wanna be anywhere but here' look in his eyes..I don't wanna say he lost respect in my eyes, but he lost something. All he needed to do was reach over, put his hand over the mic, and tell Punk to shut the mother fuck up and go back on topic and this all woulda been so much better.
Not starting a WWE vs AEW thing, but this shit doesn't happen in WWE (least as often lol) cause they know if they fuck around, they will find out and rightly quick. Tony needed to end this shit when the brawl happened to set an example and he didn't, and that has been a real bad decision.
I'm in complete agreement, BUT, it should never have gotten to that point as it was such a public beef between the two groups way before then and clearly causing problems Tony should have squashed it way before the gripe bomb. The fact that he didn't manage this between two of his biggest camps shows he is a terrible people manager.
Anybody can manage happy and well motivated staff, it takes skill to manage people when the shit is flinging between your staff and everyone is unhappy.
Tony is just terrible at managing conflict, he really needs to get somebody else to do it for him and empower them to own that, except he never will, there will always be a back door for those he likes.
In any other work environment, if you said something that 99.9% of people had no idea was "bad mouthing another more senior coworker", nothing would happen. Keep in mind he didn't go out there and say "Punk is incompetent and incapable of managing a Target" or an "empty-headed, fucking dumb fuck". He said "It's real glass, cry me a river." That's not even BAD MOUTHING.
Also, in any other context, something like that would both obviously be a real statement (because there's no kayfabe in the real world), and could directly impact the business. As someone who watches AEW constantly, I didn't even know about this backstage glass drama.
Fragile Phil is the biggest baby on the planet and decided Jack Perry wasn't being sufficiently subservient, and got physical. He is the stereotypical bully.
Good to see that you were there and able to set the record straight on what actually went down, hopefully Tony gives you a ring straight away to help with the investigation. Its super helpful when all we had so far is the biased reports from both sides rather than what actually happened.
Your entire argument about Perry running his mouth falls apart as why the fuck would he bother saying anything straight to the camera about it if it was anything other than a public bad mouthing? He could equally have said something straight to Punk when he got back stage or just carried out leaking to the sheets after the match, but no, he does it publicly. Its completely intentionally antagonizing someone with very thin skin. If that isn't highly unprofessional and deserving of the sack then what is?
Just want to add, of course he isn't the best source and I havent checked around on it.
Cornette and Last heard that the agents kept telling Jack not to do the spot with real glass because it was pointless but he was ignoring them. So they asked Punk and Punk told him he's not doing it on Collision.
Some version also has Jack going up to Punk first and basically asking him if he wants to fight.
They also have an obvious bias though because they love Punk and hate pretty much affiliated with the Elite.
With that being said, I feel like alot of people here have a bias against Punk so anything negative is taken at face value and run with.
Not saying Punk doesn't do some questionable shit, but I'm also of the opinion that drama is pretty much inevitable because that's just how wrestling is
Yeah some people wear their hated of Punk pretty openly, you'd think there was CCTV footage of Punk repeatedly bashing Perry over the head with Khans monitors while calling him slurs rather than two obviously biased sides that we have so far.
As it was right by Khan this time he absolutely has to deal with this properly, I do not care who threw the first punch but they really should be fired unless there is some outrageously strong justification for not doing so.