Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso is reporting that CM Punk and Jack Perry have been suspended by AEW following their physical interaction near the gorilla position backstage at All In: London this past Sunday. PWInsider.com has not been able to independently confirm the report as of this writing.
If that is indeed the case, neither would be available to the promotion for this week's Dynamite, Collision and All Out PPV, which all emanate from Punk's hometown of Chicago, which puts the promotion in quite the pickle as he would undoubtedly be the biggest name on the nights he appears for local fans.
As we have previously reported, there are two distinct versions of what went down. They all begin with Jack Perry making a pointed reference towards the use of real glass during his bout against Hook, where Perry took a suplex into the windshield of a limp. The reference was purportedly made to CM Punk, who as the story goes, had advised him (or shot down) Perry doing a previous spot with glass on AEW Collision.
When Perry returns backstage, the story goes one of two ways, depending on who is telling the story:
One version, obviously sympathetic to Punk, claims that Perry returned backstage and stepped up to Punk, bumping him, which led to shoves and then Punk striking and/or choking and/or choking out Perry.
The version that those backing Perry have told is that upon returning, Punk asked Perry if he had something to say. Perry allegedly responded that he just said it on camera. Then, allegedly Punk struck Perry and grabbed him in a move - either a headlock or a front facelock before everyone on the scene pulled them apart. Those sympathetic to Perry have pointed out that he's not the type to start a fight, specifically after returning from wrestling a physical bout.
Either way, the situation was a blemish on what was AEW's biggest event to date and brought back obvious echoes of the backstage fight following the 2022 All Out PPV in Chicago, where AEW will return this week.
Perry left the stadium almost immediately after the scene. Punk then went out and wrestled and beat Samoa Joe before later exiting the Stadium of his own accord.
