The topic of CM Punk came up during the chat as well.
All Elite Wrestling is gearing up for the third installment of their Grand Slam event(s) at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Members of the company are making the media rounds and also in the mix on that front is company President Tony Khan.
One of the outlets Khan sat down with was Insider. Among the questions asked of Khan had to do with the UFC-WWE merger that was completed on September 12th. He described it as ‘fascinating’ and thinks great things are happening with sports media rights.
It is fascinating (WWE-UFC merger). It will be interesting to see what happens in the world of sports, combat sports, and pro wrestling. I love pro wrestling, it’s an amazing business. I think there are a lot of really exciting things happening with sports media rights.
Going into AEW All Out, Khan appeared live in front of the audience in Chicago after firing CM Punk from the company. He spoke about his decision to address the audience and mentioned that the first person he saw when he got to the backstage area was Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat told Khan he ‘turned’ the crowd around.
Chicago is home to my family. I grew up in Champaign. I’ve been going to the United Center since it was first built when I was 11. My family was at the show, countless friends, everyone I grew up with. It meant a lot to go out and speak to the fans and be able to put on a great show.
You can’t see everybody’s face from the center of the ring. You have to choose one side of the crowd to face when you’re in the ring. And I wanted to be able to see everybody. I felt like, I’m not a wrestler and I don’t need to be in the ring, and for this moment, I thought I would just sit down and talk to everybody. That’s why I brought out a chair.
And when I was done and walked backstage, the first person I saw was Ricky Steamboat and he said, ‘That was great, you turned the crowd. You turned them around. That’s so hard to do, and you did it.’ I felt I at least owed that much to the wrestlers and the fans, to go out there and talk to everybody.
The latest concerning Punk’s departure from AEW was discussed on the 9/18 Rewind-A-Raw. To hear that conversation, head over to the POST Wrestling YouTube channel.
