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For the last three years, All Elite Wrestling has been chugging along. When it seemed like the company was starting to falter just slightly, Tony Khan was able to bring in the likes of Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole. He pulled off what might be considered the coup of a lifetime by resurrecting CM Punk’s wrestling career.
Unfortunately, the very same Iconoclast that Tony Khan and most of the wrestling fans seem to adore showed his true colors during the media scrum following All Out 2022. It has been a little more than a year since The First Dance, and with the AEW champion’s recent words and actions, if Tony Khan is smart, it might just be The Last Dance very soon.
CM Punk's Post All Out Actions Were Wrong
By this point, we all know about the melee that ensued after the media scrum and how it was precipitated by CM Punk and his big, arrogant mouth. CM Punk had zero business airing all of that dirty laundry in a public forum. This was a crowning achievement for both himself and the company he purports to have put on his back. Instead, he chose the opportunity to put an issue with Colt Cabana to bed and tear into all the EVPs that had worked diligently to build this company.
Whether you like the work Kenny and The Bucks have done or you don’t, bashing them with flagrant language and then the physical altercation that happened later on is unconscionable. As he’s criticizing the EVPs, who are essentially his supervisors, Tony Khan as his boss should feel completely insulted, since he put them in power as his generals when starting AEW in the first place. Would any single one of us still have a job after pulling the crap that CM Punk pulled? We’d all be fired in a heartbeat.
Can CM Punk And The Elite Still Work Together In AEW?
Wrestling, of course, is a much different place than our cubicles. There are too many variables and sponsors in place when it comes to firing Punk, although that would send a powerful message to not mess with TK. Plus, plenty of real-life heat and animosity can be used to fuel a storyline, and has in the past too - ask Matt Hardy, Edge, Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels for starters. This entire incident can be turned around, and huge business can be made off the backs of the entire ordeal as well. CM Punk’s vitriol has set up the next six months to a year of angles, should all parties come back together and realize they can make a slew of money. Colt can come forward as the first challenger. Meanwhile, Adam Page and Jon Moxley both haven’t gotten rematches.
Punk and his boys FTR can truly form The Sons Of The Hitman and gun for the Trios Titles against the Elite, leading to all sorts of matches. All the while, the divisive Punk can be the tweener that he is and duck MJF; sometimes comically leaving egg on Maxwell’s face. At times Punk would come off as a complete coward. He’d duck and dodge MJF until he couldn’t anymore, and Maxwell finally gets his shot ,and ascends to the mountaintop.
Tony Khan Needs To Take Charge And Stop Being A Friend
As reports are already coming out that Punk is fired and/or suspended, one thing is certain - Tony Khan has a lot of piloting to do. He has put in wrestlers as his top generals. Rumors have abounded for months that The Bucks are keeping FTR down. Omega himself had a rant during a company-wide meeting. But at least Kenny Omega didn’t have a breakdown during a media scrum celebrating the first ever million dollar gate in AEW history.
Tony Khan has spent the better part of three years acting just like exactly what he is - a major money mark who loves the business. Give TK a lot of credit for putting together the first real viable alternative to WWE in years. Now he has to put his and his father’s money to work. If nothing else, the scrum possibly ended all goodwill the company had. Tony Khan needs to become a real boss and stop trying to be everyone’s friend. Quit hugging all your guys and start disciplining them. Tell Jericho to stop taking shots at WWE and worry about the AEW product. Tell your tag team EVPs that they need to be able to read the tea leaves and put over the teams that need to be put over. Send Omega to a Human Resources class where he can learn how to deliver the rallying speech he intended to.
As for your world champion, firing or suspending CM Punk (and certainly stripping him of the title) would send a major message to the AEW locker room, immediately letting every member of the roster know that not a single person is above the company and that Tony Khan is not going to suffer any more fools or be made to look like one.
But Khan won’t fire Punk. While that would be the answer in other jobs, that’s not how wrestling works. So Khan needs to figure out the best way to get all his guys in order so that they can move forward and make some serious cash off the back of this melee. But firstly, the best thing Khan can do for his stature and his company, is get them all in a room, levy heavy fines and suspensions, and let the rest of his locker room that he is the boss and this behavior will not be tolerated.