People still talk about the issues between CM Punk and The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks’ Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson, & “Hangman” Adam Page) that caused the AEW All Out brawl. Now, Omega has given his side of the story.
Punk got into a backstage brawl with Omega and The Young Bucks at All Out 2022 after he ripped several wrestlers, including all of the members of the Elite, at the post-event press conference.
It resulted in NDAs being signed and everyone suspended. Punk was released by AEW last August due to the Jack Perry incident at All In.
Omega took to his Twitch stream to discuss the incident. Omega noted that he has not had power in AEW in over four years because he feels he’s a terrible Executive Vice President and does not deserve the role.
Omega said he tried to de-escalate the situation at All Out and wanted to create a peaceful environment for Punk’s dog, Larry.
“Unfortunately, try as I may, things were too chaotic for me to be able to do anything on my own power… I believe it was in that instance when I realized that the way that I wanted to go about things wasn’t necessarily the way that other people wanted to, was also the way that other people necessarily didn’t want to and then it was also maybe not the way that the boss wanted to take care of it and I also thought of myself as a liability because I am, I don’t wanna say old school, I’m not old school. I just played a lot of contact sports and I’ve gotten into jiu-jitsu and boxing and mixed martial arts. I just know that sometimes, when you perform or when you fight, when everything’s on the line, when you give your heart, when you give your soul towards something and you’re in that moment of high stress or high anxiety where you’ve maybe emptied the tank and you’re just physically exhausted… But when you’re in an environment like that, sometimes emotions get the best of you and people will wanna throw hands… and I am unfortunately or fortunately a believer of it. I think if it’s decided, hey, this is the best way to solve things and you can shake hands after and move on after, I’m actually a believer of fighting. I am and that sounds terrible to say which is why, like, don’t make me an EVP in 2024. We can’t do that stuff anymore. I just feel that sometimes, that’s how you have to settle things. Sometimes, and I don’t mean you have to settle it and then it has to be shown on-screen to everyone or people have to brag online about who won, who lost. No, it’s not for that purpose. It’s for the purpose of just getting that stuff out that you need to get out, and I’ll admit, there were a number of times, even now with me, where I thought that-that might have been the most appropriate answer. It never came to that.
We were able to talk things out and we became better friends and there was a level of respect at that point on between myself and these other parties and maybe I’ll share these stories later. It’s crazy. As much as I’ll believe in cooler heads prevailing, sitting down and talking, sometimes there’s just like, hey, I can’t even think straight until I start throwing some hay, you know? Or maybe that I need to be smacked on a little bit, whatever the case might be. I think if it’s a contained scenario and if it’s not a situation where, you know, there’s pulling people’s eyeballs out, low blows, hair-pulling or scratching, you know what I mean? If it’s just like, hey, let’s just hang and bang a little bit. I can see it sometimes being conducive for a positive work environment. Again, this is exactly why I have no power nor should I. So, that’s just how I feel and I’m gonna leave it at that.”
Regarding Punk, Omega said that they have mutual respect and have reached out to each other. They never had a bad relationship, according to Omega, but if not for ‘another factor’, they would have talked the night of.
Regarding the altercation, there are legalities about going into it, but he doesn’t want to be standoffish about it while at the same time not revealing anything specific when it should be kept in-house.
You can check out POST Wrestling’s full recap of the stream, where he dives into his health and more, here.
