Wade Keller provided a recap of what happened in the last few days following the aftermath of the backstage brawl involving The Elite, Ace Steel, and CM Punk, among others, during a recent PWTorch.com audio show.
Keller acknowledged that Tony Khan is in a difficult situation due to the fact that Punk was considered to be his centrepiece singing a year ago, and now he may be forced to cut ties with him. Keller also mentioned that things appeared to be trending in the direction of Punk not returning, which could refer to Punk not wanting to return or to Punk being let go from the company. There is a feeling among those backstage that he will not be returning.
Keller said, “I’m almost willing to say [Punk is] probably done with the company. But I’m not super confident on that, because I just think there’s so many moving parts on this story. But that’s certainly where their leaning is right now, as opposed to he’s totally forgiven and the others are gone. I think it’s more likely Punk is gone for a variety of reasons. And I don’t know if that includes insubordination in that Q & A or if it has to do with other aspects or if it has to do with Punk just wanting out now.”
What Keller said is consistent with what Fightful has reported, which states that in order for Punk to continue working for the company, he will need to “make major amends.” At this point, it does not appear as though that will take place.
It was announced this week on Dynamite that AEW World Champion CM Punk would be stripped of his title, which is something that most likely would have happened anyway due to the fact that he is reportedly injured. The Trios Titles were taken away from The Elite, and Death Triangle were crowned as the new champions.
Keller also discussed a few of the problems that have arisen throughout the course of this year as a direct result of the bloated roster. Keller stated that he heard the following from younger talent who feels unheard:
“On a recent podcast I did in about probably about a month ago, I think this came up like, there’s only so many personalities that a manager can manage…There’s only so many people, one person in management can really get to know enough to manage effectively. And I think we’ve reached a point where Tony’s roster is just so unwieldy and I hear this from some of the younger guys, that they just feel ignored. They wish they knew what they were going to do when they showed up. They wish they had more of a way to talk to Tony. But they also understand the roster is so bloated. So there’s so many wrestlers that it’s unrealistic for Tony to just listen to everybody’s idea and give everybody what they want.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
