Never one to shy away from the breaking news stories of the week, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T has chimed in on this week’s big story – which is that CM Punk and The Elite were involved in a backstage fight following AEW All Out 2022.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the situation overshadowing the PPV: “Before we even get there, I can say this. This should be happy times for Tony Khan. It really should be. All Out you remember the first one they did? Didn’t it have a certain kind of feel to it? Everyone was buzzing? Even in Vegas, when they did Double or Nothing. Remember how over the top, everyone was just so enthusiastic about AEW? And now AEW — what is it, All Out 3? This should be one of the happiest times for AEW.
“And the thing is, nobody is even — I don’t think I’ve heard anybody really talk about the PPV at all. I haven’t heard anybody talk about any of the matches that went down at the PPV. It’s like the PPV never even happened. And for me, that’s when things really need to be regeared, re-thought about. And [they] need to ask the question, ‘What the hell are we doing and why are we here? What are we doing this for?’”
On AEW having a leadership problem in the situation: “Everybody’s gotta be on the same page. And the one word I talk about moreso than anything in this situation is leadership, you know what I’m saying? You’ve gotta have leadership in this situation in order to be able to take control of the reins and say, ‘Hell no! We going this way right here.’ When you don’t have someone in that position making those decisions, that’s when like, the wagon train, the wheels just fall off.”
On whether Punk was unprofessional in his comments: “I’m not gonna go as far as to say that. Because you gotta understand, I’m all about ‘me’ and the perception of the people that’s watching. And if you put me in a situation in a press scrum like that to where I’m shooting and I’m in character, I might shoot on everybody in the company and say something — you might have to take the microphone from me, seriously.
“So I can’t blame CM Punk for taking that situation and running with it. But him being put in that situation, you’ve gotta throw blame where it should be at. Because I’m in character right now, and I’m World Champ. And I ain’t got time to be thinking about these crybabies. I ain’t got time to think about these guys running around thinking about their weight.’ [laughs] I’m just saying.”
On Punk not being “in character” during the scrum: “The thing is, you don’t know when you’re in character and when you’re not, you know what I mean? It’s a fine line sometimes when you’re in a situation like that… maybe [he’s] not [going to work with Cabana]. But in his mind, he might be thinking, ‘Man, I’m getting more people to watch the show. Everyone’s talking about this.’ You never know what’s going on in one’s mind.”
On the situation if Punk was legit shooting: “I know for a minute it might sound like I’m defending CM Punk. I’m not defending CM Punk, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. Now if it was all true, if it was a shoot and that’s the way he really felt, my thing is this. I’m not here to let the fans know what we’ve got going on personally. The fans don’t gotta know if I have a beef with any of these guys in the back. That’s ain’t something that is professional like you said. It definitely was not professional.
“If I’ve got a beef with Hangman Adam Page saying what he said, I’m gonna deal with it one-on-one in the locker room. If we’ve gotta fight about it, we’ll fight about it. Whatever we gotta do to get it off our chests, we’ll do. If I’ve gotta problem with the Young Bucks, I’m gonna tell those guys to their face. It’s not something for the world to really know. Unless you just want them to know it, unless you just want the fans to know, ‘Hey man, I really don’t like these guys.’ Okay, why did they have to know that? I don’t know. Maybe to create more of an image to where it gets more heat — I don’t know, maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s the thought process anyway. But for business purposes and business purposes only… going into a situation like this and creating a situation like this, if it’s real would be a problem.”
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