Dave Meltzer believes that the showing of the backstage footage at All In involving CM Punk & Jack Perry backfired in a big way.
Announced ahead of time, the April 10th episode of AEW Dynamite saw The Young Bucks present security camera footage from Wembley Stadium that captured the infamous altercation between Punk and Perry at the UK show. Although the segment was viewed by many as a ratings grab and retaliation to CM Punk’s comments about the promotion while appearing on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Meltzer stated that he would wait until the segment aired before casting final judgment.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said that featuring Punk on their programme put the spotlight on the star who is no longer with the promotion. As a result, the fans chanted for Punk multiple times. Meltzer also stated that airing the footage did nothing to help the company regardless of whether or not there would be a ratings bump as a result:
“I did not think it was a good idea. I never did think it was a good idea, but I thought you’ve gotta give them the benefit of the doubt and see what happens. Here’s the thing, later in the show when the fans were chanting CM Punk, it was like well this one sure backfired. You don’t want people chanting the name of someone from another promotion during your show.
Sometimes it’s gonna happen and you just can’t avoid it, but this one was one that you brought on yourself. It just reminded me of when fans did the ‘We Want Flair’ stuff in 1991 and that was not a good thing. I didn’t see how it helped at all. I mean, whether the rating is good or bad, it just didn’t come across well.”
Dave Meltzer Very Critical Of Previous AEW Segment
This is not the first time that AEW has used former talent who have since left and one on to WWE as part of their segments. Building to Sting’s final match, Darby Allin cut a heated promo on The Young Bucks, which contained a reference to former EVP Cody Rhodes. Once again believing that referencing WWE stars is counterproductive, Dave Meltzer was very critical of The Young Bucks segment.
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