The investigation into what, exactly, happened during the AEW All Out backstage brawl is believed to have ended. Reports currently suggest The Elite were backstage for the October 26 AEW Dynamite and are due back on television “imminently”, while CM Punk is said to be leaving AEW entirely, with talks underway or having already been held with regards to buying out the remainder of his contract.
Punk was at the centre of the scandal in the days, weeks, and now months following the incident first being made public. Although differing reports offered different sides to the story, the general consensus was that the then-AEW World Champion was the aggressor in the situation.
Could CM Punk Disrupt AEW’s Success?
‘Dirty’ Dutch Mantell, known to WWE fans as Zeb Colter, recently discussed the drama during an episode of Sportskeeda Wrestling’s Smack Talk. Mantell alleged that CM Punk may opt to sue AEW on his way out, alleging that they kicked his locker room door in, ready to physically assault him:
“That’s the greatest ace that he has if does decide to sue is part of the management came into his dressing room aggressively and in his viewpoint, they came in there to attack him and they can…of course they’re going to deny it all day long but if this goes to any kind of a trial, that’s going to be a big sticking point so I don’t see him coming back.”
Continuing, Dutch claimed that AEW CEO Tony Khan could attempt to settle the differences by offering a large sum of money to Punk for him to just sit at home on a non-compete clause:
“I think Tony Khan’s going to end up paying a bunch of money, sign the NDA and let’s go and then you talk to…and if they want him to not work for 90 days, I think he wouldn’t that but I think he did…he just keeping it there just for the hell of…just to mess with him.”
It’s been noted recently that Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque has softened his stance on signing CM Punk back to WWE, having previously been against the idea.