Some of the aftershock of CM Punk’s issues within AEW are still being felt. The newest, in the form of a complaint regarding Ryan Nemeth and his exit from AEW earlier this year.
Fightful has obtained a complaint sent to numerous executives within All Elite Wrestling back in September, in which Ryan Nemeth outlined a timeline of events that he says highlight abuse, harassment, and threats he faced while working in AEW. Note that these are the individual claims of Nemeth himself, primarily as outlined in the document sent to numerous AEW executives.
The complaint was dated on September 12, and noted that though the abuse stemmed from now-WWE Superstar Phil Brooks/CM Punk, his real issue was that AEW failed to respond to any of the incidents and was encouraged to cut a promo antagonizing Punk.
Nemeth includes a timeline, which he claims he also possesses emails, texts, phone call logs and other records. Punk is also referred to as “a former AEW talent who also had an undisclosed (i.e. not publicly known) Executive/Producer/Manager title with AEW.”
On April 16, 2023, Nemeth claims he contacted then AEW Legal rep Megha Parekh with concerns he’d be targeted by Brooks. Nemeth says that on June 21, 2023, Brooks did threaten him in an AEW locker room. Nemeth claims that Tony Schiovane, Parekh, and the Young Bucks all showed him empathy, and says he’s assured his relationship with AEW won’t be impacted, though it doesn’t specify who assured him.
Nemeth notes that he was not booked for two months after this incident, and that Jon Moxley contacted him and said it didn’t sit right with him, and supported him through the timeline.
Nemeth says on July 17, 2023, he contacted Parekh to communicate that he was upset AEW had not responded to the June 21 locker room incident, and said he believed he’d be “silently fired.” Specifically, he believed that his exclusive paid-per-appearance deal would be allowed to expire. Nemeth claims that he felt he was being punished, but was assured by Parekh that speaking up wouldn’t impact his job.
On August 12, Nemeth was booked for the first time in two months, confirming a story that Fightful Select had reported at the time. Upon arriving to Greensboro for an AEW show, Nemeth is asked to leave. AEW’s Pat Buck had originally told Nemeth that there was travel confusion before confirming that Brooks demanded he be removed from the venue. At the time, Fightful Select spoke to numerous sources in AEW who confirmed this to be the case, and mentioned that there were several talent that were kept off of the show. Nemeth says he has an audio recording some of his interactions that day.
Nemeth says he contacted Parek again, pleading for action to be taken. He was flown to the August 16 show. His wording in the document was “ordered to to verbally antagonize the “World Champion” (Brooks is AEW Collision World Champion at the time) in a promo in front of the live crowd, taped for AEW programming.
Nemeth claims that after speaking to AEW legal and HR that day, there is no appropriate response to anything in the situation. Megha Parekh had abruptly left her role in AEW Legal, and Nemeth was instead dealing with Chris Peck and Margaret Stalvey. After Brooks’ incident with Jack Perry at AEW All Out 2023, Nemeth was asked to speak to outside counsel as they were investigating the situation. Nemeth said that he communicated that he’d been speaking up regarding the pattern of behavior for months, and was concerned about being made the fall guy for Brooks’ behavior.
Those we spoke to said the conversation was more to determine the course of action moving forward with Brooks in AEW, as opposed to rectifying issues between Nemeth, Brooks and AEW. Nemeth says he’s told that his contract will not be left to expire while continuing to communicate his concerns of such.
Nemeth worked for AEW for the final time on November 18, 2023, with Brooks returning to WWE later that week. He claims that he believed Khan and AEW hold him responsible for having to fire Brooks, and leading to his AEW return. Nemeth’s contract expired in March of 2024, and he says that Sonjay Dutt had made repeated creative pitches for him that went ignored.
After the completion of the outlined timeline, Nemeth says that AEW Legal rep Chris Peck communicated a settlement interest that would equal approximately three years of his salary, dependent on signing an NDA on the matter. Nemeth’s document says he was appreciative of the offer and wanted to discuss it but his legal counsel that the offer was no longer an option. Nemeth’s document also claims that Peck told him he’d “be placed in an antagonistic position to Megha if things ever escalated to arbitration,” but Nemeth claimed to always have a positive and respectful working relationship with Parekh. Nemeth has also claimed that Peck threatened to sue him in response to sending the aforementioned timeline.
Nemeth says that he’s met with mental health professionals over the matter, and is seeking policy change and the financial consideration that was discussed. He stated that he felt the AEW roster was full of amazing people who deserved to be in a safe environment, and didn’t necessarily believe Brooks was the catalyst for the contrary, as he thinks it would likely be someone else. He claimed that specifically, these concerns fell on deaf ears to Chris Peck and AEW, and that others have communicated those issues to Peck. The document noted that AEW Legal and HR received the timeline, but not Peck himself as things had reached a stonewall with him. He also said that Megha Parekh, the Young Bucks, and Jon Moxley were helpful during the situation
We’re told that Nemeth did speak to Tony Khan and others in AEW months ago, and that Khan had entertained the idea of Nemeth returning to AEW. However, Nemeth didn’t wish to.
Fightful did reach out to AEW about the matter, but have not heard back as of yet.
