On today’s Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez talked about what he’s heard about the incident between Jack Perry and CM Punk.
Alvarez said that he’s talked to at least a dozen people since the show. He noted that there are different versions of what exactly happened.
In regards to the issue between Perry and Punk from weeks ago and Punk supposedly saying that he didn’t want Jack Perry to get cut from real glass (during an angle with Hook) to avoid missing time from work, Alvarez confirmed that Perry had a planned vacation. Alvarez also confirmed that the glass spot involving a car on Collision was approved but CM Punk said “no” to the spot.
Alvarez said, “The issue from the Jungle Boy side was the belief that ‘I got this okayed, it was cleared with the company and then this guy didn’t let me do it.’ He felt ‘he’s not letting me do it because I’m friends with The Young Bucks.’ That was what was in his mind, apparently.” Alvarez said that he didn’t hear this from Jack Perry but people in this company heard about this weeks ago.
On the report about CM Punk’s travel issues, Alvarez said, “I have heard two versions of this story. One version is that CM Punk arrived, nobody was there, he couldn’t get a hold of anybody and so he decided that he was going to take the train. The other version I heard is that when he arrived there was nobody there but he did get a hold of people and he offered or they asked if he wanted to take the train. But that he was fine with taking the train. That’s the other story that I heard…”
Alvarez added, “The question that everybody’s asking, why did this guy not take an Uber or a cab? When we were there, there were two occasions when we were in the UK where it was impossible to get an Uber. We opened up the app and it was ‘no drivers available.’ Maybe that happened to CM Punk, I don’t know…it is possible that he could not get an Uber.”
On what he was told about Perry-Punk at All In. “Jack goes through the curtain…He goes through the glass and they’re working on his cuts. This was shortly before the show was supposed to go on the air. CM Punk walks by and he says ‘do you have a problem with me?’ Jack Perry says something to the effect of ‘well, you heard what I said out there.'”
Alvarez noted that during the Brawl Out fight last year, a lot of people didn’t see all of the fight but this time, there were a lot of witnesses there, including Tony Khan. Alvarez continued, “CM Punk, according to several people said something to the effect of, ‘you know I can beat your ass, right?’ Then there was an incident. It was very quick…Pretty much 100 percent (of the witnesses said) Punk made the comment and either shoved of pie-faced Jungle Boy, grabbed him in the guillotine front headlock and it was immediately broken up. Somoa Joe was right there, everybody was right there. Nobody got their ass kicked, there was nothing like that.”
Alvarez reiterated that this all happened very close to Tony Khan. He said, “They got close enough to Tony Khan that I believe monitors were knocked down onto Tony Khan. He was right there and he saw everything and a lot of people were right there and they saw everything.”
Alvarez said that Punk was furious and “Several people said he threatened to quit and he didn’t want to go out for the match…I believe they went to FTR and The Young Bucks and they were like, ‘can you guys open the show?’ and the response was, ‘we’re not ready to open the show.’ Then they went to the six-man with Kenny and Hangman and all those guys and they were like, ‘can you open the show?’ and they were like, ‘I guess we can’ and so they were getting ready to go out. I was told that Joe was furious. He’s at Wembley, there’s 80,000 people there and he’s about to go out and apparently, he talked Punk into doing the match.”
UPDATE: There Was Also an Incident With CM Punk and Miro Backstage at AEW All In
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