The CM Punk-Jack Perry footage

In WrestleCrap’s first 23 years, no Gooker Award winner ever pulled off a repeat. That said, it’s been something of a running joke to speculate about it.

Hornswoggle came close, but his wins were two years apart, and for two different programs. Both Heel Michael Cole and Heel Dixie Carter were so overbearing, we imagined each of them sticking around to win a second straight year. And Ric Flair looked like he might have a second “last match“, this time in Puerto Rico.

But when CM Punk’s AEW run won in 2023, we never imagined it winning again in 2024. How could it, when Punk didn’t even work there anymore?

Yet here we are. And this time, it wasn’t even close.

By now, we’re all familiar with CM Punk’s AEW drama and sick to death of it hearing about it (and if by any chance you’re not, just read last year’s Gooker award). I therefore feel no need to revisit or re-litigate the events of All Out 2022 or All In 2023.

But in 2024 there were still a few people—five, by my count—who did feel such a need. And three of them happened to run a wrestling company.

So when CM Punk went on Ariel Helwani’s podcast last April with choice words about AEW and the Wembley incident, Tony Khan and the Young Bucks just had to have the last word.

Their plan: Show a WWE guy beating up an AEW guy.

Yes, really. Had Tony forgotten which company he owned?

Or which Khan he was?

I.

At first, AEW went on the defensive, sending Adam Copeland out to open Dynamite and counter the recent “negative BS”. It’s good that AEW exists, he said, and it’s also fun (even if he couldn’t pronounce everyone’s names). So it was time to be positive, because AEW was moving forward.

When viewers by and large cringed at the five-minute rah-rah speech, Tony Khan’s next move was to be negative and go backwards. Within days, AEW doubled back, announcing the broadcast of the All In footage, courtesy of the Young Bucks. Of course, they wouldn’t actually use CM Punk’s name, just make him the focal point of the whole show.

In a way, by giving the Bucks the dirty work, Tony was taking a page out of WWE’s old playbook.

As you’ll recall, back in 1998, WWE created some buzz by messing with the then-more popular WCW Nitro. But to do it, they sent their juvenile outlaw heel faction. That way, if it blew up in their face, they could blame those immature ne’er-do-wells.

Oh, fans think this was a stupid stunt? Well, we meant you to feel that way! Boo these goof-offs!

But, importantly, the stunt did not blow up in their face, and today the D-X “invasion” of Nitro is remembered as one of the deciding factors of the Monday Night Wars. It absolutely was not, but it’s remembered that way.

And even more importantly, had WCW wrestlers beaten up the WWE guys, there’s not a chance in hell Vince McMahon would have shown footage of it.

But for Tony, it was the principle of the thing. Khan had said CM Punk made him fear for his life at Wembley, and now Punk was calling him either a liar or a huge wuss.

Matt and Nick Jackson likewise had very good reasons to do something so colossally stupid. CM Punk had not only publicly run them down, but gotten them suspended. Now was the chance to not only expose CM Punk and prove themselves right…

…but also, having utterly failed to capitalize on this feud while Punk actually worked for the company, finally make some money off it.

Once again, there was precedent in WWE: The last time CM Punk mouthed off on a podcast about a company he used to work for, WWE responded by uploading the 2014 Royal Rumble match. Not the whole match, mind you, just the parts showing CM Punk’s ass.

This was WWE’s way of proving Punk had not, as he’d claimed, been made to wrestle while sitting on a baseball-sized MRSA sac. It didn’t matter if WWE was right; it was still an immature (and bizarre) thing to do.

But importantly, WWE never brought it up on the air, let alone make it a focal point of their flagship show. They didn’t give Punk any more publicity, nor did they assume the podcast had such a big audience that they were forced to address the issue with their fans. Fans out of the loop might come away thinking Punk had a magnificent ass…

(if they didn’t already)

…but not that he’d “gotten to” WWE.

Whereas AEW, by hyping the footage, had already lost. Either they were giving CM Punk’s claims a much bigger audience, or they were proving how much bigger Punk was than AEW. Either they’d get no ratings boost out of it, or they’d be relying on the fame of another company’s wrestler for short-term gain.

II.

On April 10th, for better or worse, AEW made good on their promise to air—excuse me, for the Bucks to air the CM Punk footage.

If you believed CM Punk, this footage would show:

  • Punk confronting Jack Perry over his “real glass” quip,
  • Perry daring Punk to do something about it
  • Punk choking him “a little bit”
  • Samoa Joe telling him to stop
  • Punk letting go and quitting AEW
  • Tony Khan not being threatened in any way

But obviously, if that was all this video showed, AEW wouldn’t be airing it.

So what could be so damaging for Punk that AEW would actually show the footage on TV? Did Punk:

  • jump Perry from behind?
  • assault Tony Khan?
  • get beaten up himself?
  • slip on a banana peel?
  • split his pants?
  • drink a beer?

Well, imagine the fans’ disappointment when The Bucks, introducing the footage, warned that it was actually quite tame—a ringing endorsement for the ratings stunt, and certainly not a slap in the face to curious viewers tuning into Dynamite for the first time in months (or ever).

Viewers were also curious why Matt had “PEG” written on his shirt.

And The Bucks were right; it did resemble nothing more than a schoolyard scrap.

A schoolyard scrap that Jack Perry lost.

Yes, assaulting your co-worker is frowned upon in nearly every workplace in the world. Beat up the guy in the cubicle next to you or slap your shift-mate around, and you’ll be fired at the very least. But, in a terminal case of HR brain, Tony Khan and the Young Bucks thought these same rules applied to pro wrestling, where the fans’ only concerns about backstage fights are:

  1. Who won
  2. Who lost
  3. Who had it coming

As it turned out, the best way to re-introduce Jack Perry and set him up for a major push was not to show him getting punked out by another wrestler in real life. Especially not one working for another company…

…and especially especially not one who usually looks like this after a real fight:

And all of this was done to refute CM Punk’s description of the incident, which it emphatically did not. Though the lack of audio and the grainy picture quality made it hard to determine what exactly was said, the scuffle played out exactly as Punk had described.

The most sensationalistic claim—that Tony Khan feared for his life when confronted by CM Punk—was totally unsupported. At worst, Punk bumped into the boss’s monitor and yelled at him.

Tony wasn’t necessarily lying or exaggerating, it’s just that a scarier incident supposedly occurred later in the night and wasn’t part of the footage presented. Maybe there was no video it. Maybe they couldn’t air it for legal reasons.

But viewers came away thinking it was this “high school scrap” that so frightened Tony Khan, he thought he’d die right there at Wembley. Either that, or the relevant footage was so tame, he was embarrassed to show it.

(Whereas Tony Schiavone was embarrassed just to be on the same broadcast)

III.

And the Bucks’ bonkers storyline excuse for showing the footage? They’d gotten so distracted by CM Punk’s shenanigans at All In, they lost their match to FTR. Maybe, the Bucks speculated, that was FTR’s plan all along.

See, it wasn’t Tony Khan having thin skin—it was the Young Bucks trying to provoke FTR!

And to all this, FTR gave the most reasonable response of anyone thus far: They called the Bucks “petty little bitches”…

(Petty? The Young Bucks?)

…which implied that the owner of the company, who actually aired the footage, was also a petty little bitch.

By the end of the segment, CM Punk was once again AEW’s top babyface, the company itself was its top heel, and the fans were buzzing about Punk and FTR one day teaming again… in WWE.

It was partly the Bucks’ fault AEW fans would never see CM Punk in the ring again…

(unless, of course, they watched WWE)

…so who knew? Maybe they’d push FTR out of the company for being Punk’s pals. After all, they’d later take credit for “half the roster” going away.

Much of the intrigue of AEW in its early years was seeing who’d show up. Now, it seemed, it was all about who was going to leave.

And it wasn’t just wrestlers abandoning ship; this angle felt designed to drive away the last CM Punk fans still watching AEW. If so, it succeeded. Ratings dipped far below pre-Punk levels…

…and CM Punk fans, rather than hijacking AEW’s shows with chants, simply stopped attending.

But it didn’t take months for Tony to realize he’d screwed up bad; when AEW uploaded the segment to Youtube right after the show, they cut out the actual Wembley footage. Titled, “The EVPs (Young Bucks) try to provoke their AEW Dynasty opponents, FTR!”, the video showed AEW in full damage control mode mere minutes after air.

They would never mention the footage again.

IV.

Following the airing of the Wembley footage, the Young Bucks continued their reign of (t)error in AEW, abusing their power as Executive Vice Presidents. Their attempted coup saw Jack Perry (the guy getting choked in the video) welcomed back by the boss himself…

…only to hit him in the gut with a microphone and join The Elite.

Matt & Nick Jackson then eased Tony Khan straight into the mat with their needlessly complicated tombstone.

The stage was now set for a hostile takeover. Khan might have been fit enough for the NFL Draft the very next night…

…but he couldn’t physically attend Dynamite. This put the Bucks, per their contracts, in charge of the show. And because those contracts were iron-clad, Tony Khan couldn’t fire or even suspend them.

(Again)

But there was no such rule for Jack Perry.

You know, the Scapegoat? The guy named for his unjust seven-month suspension? What was stopping Tony Khan from suspending him again—or firing him—for an actual assault?

Instead, AEW was at the mercy of Okada and three of the only people to lose to CM Punk in a real fight.

Speaking of which, an ill Kenny Omega briefly stepped in to challenge the Young Bucks’ authority…

…but the Bucks sidelined him before he could make a single match (or 1/3 of a match, per his share of the booking powers).

A week later, while lying in a hospital bed, Kenny booked the other EVPs into an Anarchy in the Arena match at Double Or Nothing. While the owner himself had no authority unless physically present in the arena, Kenny could not only book a (violent) pay-per-view main event…

…but make his fellow execs wrestle in it.

To make matters more confusing, the Bucks then fired Christopher Daniels, another executive…

…only for Tony Khan to drive to the next show in its closing moments, thereby reclaiming his own executive powers.

This allowed him to rehire Daniels and grant him as much authority as the EVPs. More authority, in fact, as the Bucks stopped making matches almost entirely, seemingly forgetting they were still executives.

V.

What power they did still exercise was pathetic. Take, for instance, the Elite’s quest to control AEW’s gold. With Jack Perry’s TNT title victory, The Elite now held three of the company’s 15 championships, but not the big one…

…so, in a truly outrageous abuse of power, they stuck their old friend Adam Page in the Owen Hart tournament, with the winner earning a title shot.

Thanks to his Elite connections, the former champion was now a mere four matches away from the world title.

Despite nearly crippling their boss to take over the company, and despite repeatedly promising to “change the world”, the Bucks used their executive powers in only the most inconsequential of ways…

…like cutting Max Caster’s mic when he said “EVP” stood for “Extremely Vain Perverts” and “Extraordinarily Vapid Penises”. (Though it was nice to see them use their powers for good)

Matt and Nick could only offer challenges for matches they should have been able to book themselves, like a trios match vs. The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn.

They could suspend Britt Baker as a favor, but they couldn’t suspend Darby Allin for dousing Jack Perry in gasoline and threatening to set him on fire…

…nor could they cancel the title shot he blackmailed out of them.

With the Bucks on top, interest in the tag team division hit an all-time low. Matt and Nick apparently took this as a challenge and began feuding with Private Party…

…a team who’d upset the Bucks once—five years earlier—and done nothing of note since.

Private Party ended up winning the titles, which they kept warm (or, in this case, cold) for three months before getting destroyed by the Hurt Syndicate.

And the Bucks, who had limited dates on their contract, packed up and left.

Christopher Daniels pleaded with them, asking how they could abandon AEW while the Death Riders smashed people with h—

Whoops!

(Close enough)

—smashed people hammers and suffocated them with plastic bags.

But if neither Daniels nor Tony Khan could suspend Moxley’s group for attempted murder, what could the Bucks possibly do?

Ask Mox politely if he’d like a match?

Enter a tournament with Hangman Page to maybe win a Trios title shot?

Have the Death Riders beat them up, then air the footage?

VI.

The rest of the Elite didn’t have such a stellar 2024 themselves.

The new “Best Bout Machine” Kazuchika Okada was better known for his (admittedly hilarious) new catchphrase than for anything he did in the ring.

And as for Jack Perry? He re-packaged himself as a bad ass, a guy who wore a macabre mask…

…drove a scary black bus…

…made his own gritty, blood-splattered custom title belt…

…spoke in cryptic messianic quotes…

…and who was on video getting choked out by CM Punk.

The Young Bucks, with Gobbledy Gooker heads, show the CM Punk-Jack Perry footage from All In: London

AEW may not have won their feud with CM Punk, but they did win something just as valuable: a second straight Gooker Award. Can they make it a threepeat in 2025?

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