Samoa Joe has provided some more clarity in regards to what happened at AEW All In.
As the inaugural show got underway inside Wembley Stadium, reports circulated that CM Punk and Jack Perry had gotten physical with each other backstage. At the media scrum after the show, Tony Khan would confirm that an incident did take place but he would not be answering questions about it.
Recently, bystander DJ Whoo Kid, who was a part of Swerve Strickland’s entrance, attempted to recall what happened at All In, describing it as “very intense.” However, according to someone who was also there, this is not accurate.
The current AEW World Champion faced Punk in the opening match of the main card and was about to make his entrance when the incident happened. Speaking with Mark Raimondi of ESPN, Joe stated that it wasn’t as crazy as people think:
“There was a little bit of an incident. We got it broken up. We went out there and wrestled, man. That’s the gist of it. Everybody wants it to be a lot more than what it is, but that’s what it was. And to speak any more on it would be pointless unless you’re trying to get a scorecard and stuff — but trust me, it wasn’t that type of a fight,”
“It wasn’t a big deal. Not to me. I’ve seen fights break out. Stuff happens. But again, that’s me. I’ve been in these situations, I’ve seen that. I’ll find it funny when people are like, ‘Oh, Joe’s cool with it.’ I mean, nah man, it was a high-stress situation. Sure. But I mean, it’s one I’ve seen happen many times. We get it squashed out. We had a show to do. We had [81,035] fans waiting out there. And that was my focus, because that’s what it was about at that moment. We’re about to go out and have the best night of our lives.”
When Raimondi described Joe as the voice of reason in the interview, Joe responded that he just did what was needed:
Hey, listen, we all understood that there was something to be done. There was a mission ahead of us and everybody just got focused. And hey, if I was a part of that, cool. But my intention was to get out there and get this show on the road.
Samoa Joe Calls Out Former World Champion
With everyone wanting to be the top champion in AEW, Joe is very aware that he has a target on his back for the foreseeable future. While HOOK, Swerve Strickland and Adam Page are just some of the wrestlers already targeting the World Champion, one former World Champion has been notably quiet and is focusing his efforts on NJPW. In response to this, Samoa Joe said that he was not surprised.
In a separate interview, Samoa Joe gave his picks for who hits hardest in wrestling.