Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell has criticized AEW president Tony Khan for sitting by and letting CM Punk go on his infamous verbal tirade at the All Out post-show media scrum.
Punk had just finished his match with Jon Moxley when he got to the scrum, and rather than answering questions, he blasted his former best friend Colt Cabana, former AEW World Champion Hangman Page and the EVP's of the company, The Elite.
This led to a backstage brawl involving Punk, The Elite, and Punk's good friend Ace Steel, which eventually led to multiple suspensions and everyone who was a champion being stripped of their belts.
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But could Tony Khan have done more to prevent this from happening? Speaking to Sid Pullar III on Sportskeeda Wrestling's "SmackTalk," Dutch Mantell went back and watched the media scrum, to which he had this to say:
“Tony Khan had [CM Punk] on his scrum press conference sitting right beside him—I’ve watched this every now and again, I have to watch Tony and his eyes are like this and he was shaking his head, but he actually made the whole company look kind of bad that Tony would even allow that. Did he know how Punk was before or did he just ignore that? [5:35-6:15]
There is no timeframe on when Punk or The Elite will be back on TV, but it seems that they will be away from the limelight for the immediate future.
You can watch the full clip of SmackTalk right here:
CM Punk has been spotted in public for the first time since AEW All Out 2022
Now that the dust has settled on the All Out pay-per-view, those involved with the backstage brawl have slowly started making appearances, with Kenny Omega appearing on Japanese TV, The Young Bucks promoting their new sneakers, and now CM Punk has been seen as well.
A fan managed to grab a picture with the former AEW World Champion (pictured above), who can be seen sporting a large support brace on his arm after he injured himself during his match against Jon Moxley.
Do you think Punk will ever step foot in an AEW ring again? Let us know in the comments section down below!
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