Picture Credit: Twitter
On September 2, Saturday, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) fired CM Punk, terminating the wrestler and employment agreements with cause, effective immediately, as confirmed by the CEO, Tony Khan. The termination for the 44-year-old happened after AEW performed its weeklong internal investigation of a backstage incident, which occurred during the All In pay-per-view (PPV), on August 27, Sunday, at the Wembley Stadium in London.
CM Punk, whose real name is Phillip Brooks, was reportedly involved in an altercation with the fellow AEW wrestler Jack Perry, right before the All In PPV went on the air. He went onto successfully defend the “Real World Championship” against Samoa Joe, which ended up being his last moments in the promotion.
There was a detailed statement posted by AEW on their official Twitter account regarding the matter involving CM Punk. In it, they mentioned how the Discipline Committee convened with the outside legal counsel, following the internal investigation, to make a unanimous decision that Tony Khan should terminate the aforementioned wrestler with cause.
The immediate thoughts of Tony Khan, the CEO of AEW, about his decision to fire CM Punk, which was shared in the same statement, read, “Phil played an important role within AEW and I thank him for his contributions. The termination of his AEW contracts with cause is ultimately my decision, and mine alone.”
Later in the same evening, the latest episode of AEW Collision opened with the pre-recorded statement of Tony Khan discussing the firing of CM Punk. He was quoted as saying, “Today I had to make one of the toughest decisions of my professional career. Today I terminated Phil Brooks, CM Punk, for cause.”
The 40-year-old went on to discuss how he felt that his life was in danger during the altercation between CM Punk and Jack Perry at the All In PPV. “I’ve been going to wrestling shows for over 30 years. I’ve been producing them on this network for nearly four years. Never, in all that time, have I ever felt, until last Sunday, that my security, my safety, my life, was in danger at a wrestling show,” remarked Tony Khan.
