The story all came out in the end as the same as the year before however…Phil “CM Punk” Brooks had to detract from the best show the company would put on all year with more backstage drama.
Last year after winning the world title at All Out in his hometown of Chicago, Brooks aired his dirty laundry with AEW live and unscripted to a post-show press corp, with AEW CEO Tony Khan sitting four feet away. Brooks was physically confronted in the locker room by the Young Bucks (Matthew and Nick Massie) and Kenny Omega (Tyson Smith) shortly after, who are the company’s Executive Vice Presidents (also known on television as “The Elite”). The encounter led to all four being suspended indefinitely. Smith and the Massies returned three months later, whereas Brooks did not return for nine months, having surgery on a torn tricep shortly after All Out.
Even after their returns, Brooks and “The Elite” have been kept on different AEW shows, so as to stay as far away from each other as possible.
On Sunday, Jack Perry, son of former actor Luke Perry, wrestled Tyler “Hook” Senerchia for the FTW Championship during the All In pre-show. Typically this is an hour-long broadcast on YouTube that features a few matches to warm the crowd up. Perry requested to use real glass in a hardcore rules match a few weeks prior on AEW television, when he was approached by Brooks against it off-camera. Perry landed a move Sunday on the hood of a car that caused Hook to severely damage the windshield, only to turn to the camera and say “Real glass…go cry me a river.”
As Perry went backstage after the match, he and Brooks immediately began to have words, where Brooks reportedly put Perry in a choke hold in effort to calm him down. Brooks was less than five minutes away from his own match to lead off the main card of the event, being introduced second.
Reportedly Brooks and Perry are being suspended by AEW for their actions. When and for how long has not yet been made public, as AEW heads into All Out weekend, their annual Labor Day pay per view event from Chicago.
While All In was one of the biggest events in the history of professional wrestling, All Out is more of an afterthought this year, with only four matches having been announced, and no true main event as yet. For AEW not to have Brooks on the card in his hometown would be a massive letdown to the Chicago faithful who stand behind him.
Also on Sunday, Saraya (Bevis) won the AEW Women’s World Championship in her home country, marking her first championship in more than nine years. Bevis had to walk away from in-ring competition from 2015 to 2022, due to a neck injury that required multiple surgeries.
Despite some talent not being present at Wednesday’s weekly live television broadcast, AEW Dynamite, to attend funeral services for WWE performer Wyndam “Bray Wyatt” Rotunda, who passed away last week suddenly at the age of 36, the Brooks/Perry situation is creating eggshells backstage that should not be there in the first place. Brooks is an old head in the promotion, while Perry has quickly rounded into one of the best heels (bad guy) in the company.
One cannot seem to find the irony that fake sugar glass was used in the ring during a street fight match that occurred midway through the event, with not a care in the world backstage.
The one person hopefully not caught in the crossfire is Perry’s girlfriend, Anna Jernigan, who wrestles for AEW under the name “Anna Jay.” Jernigan, 25, had her AEW television debut during the pandemic in 2020, in only her seventh professional wrestling match. The Georgia native continues to improve each time she is put on television.
-JC24