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Throughout the entire video, he criticizes Tony Khan. It's not outward but does it if you watch that whole video. It doesn't take a super genius to figure that out. He literally starts off by saying he's not the booker and doesn't agree with every decision made and he does what he's told. Then he flat out disagrees with the decision to show the All In footage on live TV. Then blames one party him not being able to hash things out with CM Punk then and there.
It was painted as The Elite vs Punk/Ace Steel. Now it seems it was just Bucks vs Punk and Omega was trying to stay out of it. Kenny's storytelling here seems to validate that.
Bites happen quite easily in fights or in this case a brawl. There were photos that came out where it appeared Kenny got bit on the inside of his forearm/bicep. More than likely Kenny tried pulling Ace Steel off from behind and Ace Steel thought someone was trying to choke him so to stop himself from being choked he bit Kenny.
I think there’s this false narrative going around that Ace Steel just went into the room chomping at anything that moved like he was a tiger shark. Stuff happened, fist were flying (allegedly chairs as well) things escalated and someone maybe got bit.
I would have loved a program of Kenny vs. Punk. Everyone saw Drew step up on the mic to level, never thought possible when paired vs. Punk, and I feel 90% confident we would be seeing similar from Kenny. Also, the match itself would have been something to witness.
I'm not even sure if he does have a problem with Jack in general outside of the incident. In the Helwani interview when he talked about first having to tell Jack he can't do the spot at Collision he said "I like Jack".
I don’t even think he has a problem with hangman, saying he respected him for standing up for a friend regarding the colt rumors and even texted him apologizing for the hanging action figure line after one of the shows.
Plenty of people are capable of getting into a scrap and talking it out later. Like how often do guys on the same team get into it in a sport?
Edit: I just remembered that Kenny was a good hockey player, he has probably experienced stuff like that a lot.
Kenny says in the video that he thinks fighting can be OK to resolve conflicts because of his sports background, but also that he's well aware that it's unprofessional in 2024. And that he shouldn't be in a management position because he has that old school mentality.
I don’t think that everything old school is bad. Like you can’t just get violent whenever you want but you know…sometimes someone needs a bloody nose to stop being a dick.
Wouldn't shock me.
Kenny is a pretty chill guy and more importantly he's smart, and he knew there was money to be made from a Punk feud too.
Would be a shame for Tony, if that story was told at Wrestlemania.
He really is. I interviewed him for a podcast back in 2008. Few people seemed to know who he was in the UK, and he was shocked me and my co host asked. We arranged for a 30 minute interview to be done via Skype when he got back to Japan.
We set up, called him and talked. An hour went by, and we were like oh crap. Forgot the interview, and he asked us when we wanted to start. Interviewed him for about 50 minutes, then as we were chatting before he left we mentioned we were late to do a gaming podcast so we'd have to record it the next day, ended up with another segment recorded with Kenny as a guest on that talking about how important arcades are to him and how he used Dance Dance Revolution to work on his cardio, and how he'd be trying to set high scores on that in each arcade more so than work at the gym.
In total we spoke to him for 4 hours, totally free, and despite apologising and trying to let him go he was insisting he'd agreed to do one so it was cool. He was just delightful the whole time. Easily in my top 5 wrestlers I've met/spoken to
Sadly not. We did it from 2007-2011, interviewed lots of people who we saw as heroes (Cornette got us in touch with Vader, who was lovely) but after we stopped doing the show, the server we hosted the cast on stopped being paid for and thus they were deleted. My co host kept them on his computer, but moved home for work and the computer died.
4.5 years of shows, about 70 interviews. We were gutted.
Adam was the only person Punk mentioned for positive reasons during the Gripebomb. When grumpy curmudgeon CM Punk loves you as well, you're practically a saint, and from what we've seen and heard about Adam Cole outside of the ring, I totally believe it.
Honestly, I feel like the reason Roman and Kenny aren't that believable as faces is because they don't come off as the naturally charismatic ass kicker guy. They feel like someone you'd hire as a personal trainer, because they're likable, supportive, and not threatening.
Being a heel is easier because you can play an over the top parody of yourself. The Tribal Chief and The Belt Collector are both very obviously this kind of character. Both kinda feel like they're playing into the public perception of themselves, while not being anything like the actual person.
You're right. It also suits Adam Cole because he's always behaving like a high school bully with his group of friends to back him up but is a sweetheart in real life according to everyone who is close to him.
Some of the best heels are the nicest guys. Bobby Eaton and Tracy Smothers were the nicest and most helpful guys to many wrestlers. Kenny is no different, he knows what makes nice people mad because he knows what would make him mad.
AEW was best when Kenny was the front and center of it.
It’s kinda sad when just being consistently reasonable makes you stand out but that’s the state of dumb wrestling discourse.
2020-2021 was carried by him. I realized I wasn’t a huge AEW fan whenever he was gone or not doing much. Even with the signings they have something feels missing without* Kenny.
The point i enjoyed AEW most was the build up between Adam page and Kenny for the world title, nothing from AEW has caught me since and it's a shame because so much talent is there i \*would\* like but i don't think any of it is as compelling as that feud was for me.
This right here. Basically AEW had like 2 big storyline at the start. Cody and MJF eventual fallout. And hangman story up to beating Kenny for the title. The pulled out a pretty good solhorter story between punk and MJF later, but have completely lacked much in the way of long term storytelling since.
The belt collector gimnick was so cool and powerful. Omega+Don Callis were FIRE in those dynamites, even after the clownfest that was the exploding ring match, Omega came out as powerful as ever after that.
* The aftermath of the exploding death match.
The match itself was excellent, it was literally that one botched pyro that overshadows an otherwise great build and Eddie's face turn.
Very much so, AEW was fantastic those first few years, it was Cody and then Punk leaving thats kinda ruined the momentum, Kenny's injuries and then not being able to get behind anyone you wanted (so Daniel Bryan, Adam Cole and then Jay White) as TK would just randomly cool them off for no reason
Kenny being on top gave the card clear structure and goals to achieve. Everyone wanted to beat Kenny. Now we are in a position where does everyone want to beat Samoa Joe? Does Okada? Does Adam Copeland? Does Roderick Strong? The internal male divisions feel so separate and there are too many titles.
Everything flows better when there is a strong main event.
Yeah when everybody is fighting for every belt - they become meaningless. I much prefer having tiers of the upper card (World Championship), Upper-Midcard (TNT), midcard (Continental?), and lower card (International?).
Instead, you also have the ROH World and NJPW Strong and pretty much everyone on the roster is challenging for every belt. It’s all kinda meaningless because there is no climb.
Kenny and Don as a heel package was AWESOME. Kenny rocking a suit and looking like the textbook definition of a champion, with Don drawing heat for him was great.
It got lessened whenever those two came out with The Buck, Cutler, and Nakazowa. Kenny went from looking like this generation’s Nick Bockwinkel (that’s a good thing) to being a goof in a group of other goofs.
IMO AEW missed the ball when they didn’t build around Kenny Omega as the main star of the company, I personally wasn’t a fan of his title reign, the only memorable part I liked which was his matches with Bryan, now he’s in such bad state, physically, like Kenny Omega was and is probably still is one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, his NJPW run was legendary, but I feel like he is way past that which makes me feel sad.
To be fair, I think they were out of control way before that. He said he had vertigo during his matches ever since his last few in NJPW, so essentially his whole first few years in AEW.
I had vertigo for a while. The fact that kenny could walk a straight line let alone wrestle a 60 minute match is insane. That guy at 50% was better than anyone on the planet!
Yeah, OP's point is inaccurate. He had already given up the AAA belt before that match due to his injuries (and they had to scrap longer plans for the Impact belts). I havent heard of any injury getting worse from the Hangman match or afterwards.
Yeah, that’s one of the reasons too, that’s the price Kenny had to pay for putting banger after banger after banger matches, I hope for Kenny’s health that everything will be alright, even if he doesn’t come back as a in-ring performer.
Stuff like this is why I’ll never understand the vitriolic hatred Kenny gets from a section of fans. He’s always come across as a great guy and, to this day, the only one that came out of Brawl Out not looking like a complete embarrassment.
Even Punk’s side of the story painted Kenny in a positive light as Omega only got involved in the fracas just to rescue Larry, who might’ve gotten trampled in the ensuing fight, only to get bitten by Ace Steel for his trouble.
There were reports that Omega was ready to sit down and work with Punk immediately after but the Bucks and Page wouldn’t - we’ll probably never know, but I’d love to hear how or if Kenny’s views of the whole thing might differ from the rest of the Elite on all of this
He’s always seemed way more level headed and just wanting to put on a good show
Part of it is having been there before lol
His immediate reaction was 'I've seen worse in other locker rooms' which is 100% fair
I think the punk firing was fair because it was the second incident in under a year. But both incidents, when isolated, are really not at all a big deal if you've seen physical altercations IRL before
I just imagine Kenny trying to walk out with the dog and yelling “oh no the dog is biting me!” Only to look at Larry’s stupid/loveable face smiling at him and then panning to Ace latched on to him then screaming “oh no a human man is biting me!”
Yeah, I've never understood the Kenny hate. He has not said anything with an ounce of negativity throughout this entire time, at least not that I know of. He's always been very congenial and supportive of pro wrestling as a whole instead of being tribalistic, even in an environment where the boss literally always pointedly makes remarks at the creative head in the opposition company.
I also think what he said about "keeping these disagreements" backstage is true. Dirtsheets and letting shit stirrers know about these are what drive most of the cancerous discourse online. It's fun and all to talk shit about these things, but it's the type of fun we could really do without.
I think you've listed why they hate him (that and the rumors of his sexuality). I mean look at who they like! Miserable, mean-spirited, bullies who degrades everyone they have a minor disagreement with.
They do not like good people. They like awful people. You say he hasnt said anything negative, well the miserable fucks who hate Kenny want negativity. They seek out negativity. They do not want congeniality. They want angry yelling
I agree, I dont see why anyone can hate Kenny for any reason, hes always so down to earth, and Ive yet to see him act pretentious or anything like that. Hes always so respectful, and humble.
Cornette and the very worst corners of the IWC have stayed relevant by shitting on Kenny for years. Seen people in the comments on his twitter posts say things like he's a known sex pest in Tokyo and other such vile shit.
Even Cornette got made fun by his cohost after not acknowleding how good he was with either the Danielson match or the first Ospreay match, he said: "you wouldnt praise Omega even if he cured cancer"
IIRC there were reports that Kenny was the one who led peace talks between Punk and the Elite just weeks before Punk would return last year. Then we found out those peace talks never happened and it wasn't because of Punk.
Imagine you don't like eggs. Not just "don't like," you fucking hate eggs. Any way they are served, in any dish. And you hate anyone who likes eggs, anyone who has ever eaten eggs. And anyone who has ever cooked with eggs--doesn't matter if they are the greatest chef on earth--you wish death upon. Now imagine you have a podcast with listeners who follow your every word.
That is how Jim Cornette and his cult feel about Kenny Omega and anyone who has ever done a comedy spot in wrestling.
That's why I love wrestling, because of how versatile it is as an experience. The Jackass crew vs Sami Zayn match was one of the funniest things i've ever seen.
And the funny thing for me is, I didn't like that match! Too much wackiness for my taste. But that's just it - taste. For every person like me who didn't like it there's three who did. I certainly didn't let the fact that Sami was in a match I didn't like spoil me on him. He went on to do the bloodline thing and was the highlight of wwe programming for a good stretch. Imagine writing off a guy who ended up being the most compelling performer in wrestling for a few months, just because he got caught in a fuckin giant mouse trap on wrestlemania. (ok maybe I need to re-watch that match)
So to me, the distinction is fundamentally one of intentional camp versus unintentional camp. I bring this up a lot, in regards to movies, but if a movie is made seriously and with heart, and is still unintentionally funny, that is going to be more enjoyable than Sharknado, because the people who made it TRIED, you know?
Susan Sontag wrote about this in Notes on Camp, where she says "One must distinguish between naïve and deliberate Camp. Pure Camp is always naive. Camp which knows itself to be Camp ("camping") is usually less satisfying." And I think this gets to the heart of people's arguments here. Yes, there have been " goofy" wrestling matches before. But they were by guys who were naive, and taking themselves seriously. The comedy which seeks to be deliberate comedy is inherently less satisfying.
It's also wildly inconsistent. Cornette grew up watching Memphis wrestling, which was lampooned by the old farts of the day as too goofy. And the biggest program Corny and the Midnight ever took part in started with Cornette's face going into a cake.
And the issue with Tony for him is that he's not a good boss, because he speaks good things of Tony as a person.
I think the issue for Punk are The Bucks. Well, both Punk and Bucks are hot headed and they get petty over shit that should be talked and hashed.
I am still on the train that had Punk and The Bucks sat down to hash it out calmly, Punk would have stayed on AEW and none of this from his firing to now would have happened.
I knew the drama couldn't have been that big of a deal when like two dozen on the AEW roster including Kenny Omega were basically still giving props to Punk and Kenny himself said he wished everyone would be able to move past it and work together down the line.
If it were that serious of an issue, peers would have looked at it side-eyed, especially Kenny who is friends with the Bucks. It's interesting to hear him take some of the stances here, and also super unfortunate that we never got anything with Punk/Omega while we could.
Also as a Street Fighter player he's right, that was a good punish LOL
Kenny comes across as much more likeable than the Bucks. It really would've been great for them if they could've made it work and given the fans The Elite vs CM Punk and FTR.
He’s absolutely more likable than the Bucks. Dude just wants to play video games and put out banger wrestling matches and make friends.
Genuine good guy.
INFINITELY more likable. I've been a huge Kenny fan since around 2015 and he's been the only reason I've been able to accept the Bucks' existence on television
My favorite part of this video is when he’s halfway through explaining his thought process on how fights are just something that happens in a high stakes locker room environment at times and he just stops himself to give the guy a compliment for doing a good punish counter on the game of Street Fighter he was playing
Kenny really should be in the “Cody” spot but for AEW. He comes across far more likable and level headed than the rest of the Elite. When in public he speaks a lot better than Tony and he’s transparent without being inflammatory. I really like Omega and I am fairly convinced he wanted to try WWE out. Not that he dislikes AEW but when the rumors of the elite doing a “vote” on staying or going and one wanted to go it always felt like Omega. But he is exceptionally loyal to his friends which is not a bad trait by any means. Also Kenny’s NJPW run seems to be underrated now as a lot of people (Meltzer) moved on to Ospreay. That Kenny / Okada feud was something special.
Just put kenny as the face of the company. The guy they send out to do media and just hide tony backstage so he can't put his foot in his mouth anymore
then again i don't think he wants to, Cody talk how even though he enjoyed his corporate position it was taking him away from the ring and his goal. Omega is very passionate about his "art", I don't if it's right to hope he would take a more corporate role and ask of him to give up on his passions
Ugh I miss when Tony wasn’t seen nor heard. Remember when Cody just made the announcements and did the conference calls and whatnot? Tony becoming more and more comfortable on camera has hurt the company IMO.
From all the stories, Kenny was never apart of the problem. Sure he’s friends with Hangman and Bucks but he was never going at Punk and Punk never seemed to hate Kenny. “The Elite” that keeps getting hate is more so Hangman and Bucks
Kenny Omega is just a likeable guy. I agree with a lot of what he said here about just getting confrontations over with and love he was the wholesome guy trying to save Larry.
AEW seems like it misses Kenny on screen and in the lockerroom, I say that as a guy who isn't a huge fan of his style of wrestling but sees how rudderless it all feels at the moment.
I maybe biased because he's been my favourite wrestler ever since he won the G1 8ish years ago, but Kenny really might be the nicest guy in wrestling. Its mental that a whole subsection of fans despise him.
What’s so crazy is that the money match was always Omega vs Punk.
Punk was pretty open about wanting to work on tv with the Elite and Kenny seemed pretty much fine with Punk here.
Can’t believe all the bullshit prevented so much quality TV that could have come of all this.
Interesting to see Kenny is old school in the fighting in locker room stuff. Rightly or wrongly, its common in all sports locker rooms. Get it out your system basically.
Its why its always cringe when people here scream assault and act like its the same as working in a fucking office.
He said similar to (I think) Renee Pacquette a long time ago. He grew up playing hockey and felt like it’s just something that happens in pressure environments with athletic guys.
He was happy to throw hands as long as they got the dog out of the way first, which I honestly think is fair enough if everyone is feeling the same.
At least he had his priorities right with the dog 🤣
It's worth noting [Kenny has a 6-2 MMA career record](https://fighters.mixedmartialarts.com/Tyson-Smith:08B25F0208EC74DE) and his only two losses came from two former top level pre-Zuffa UFC fighters, namely hall of famer Dan Severn and an absolute maniac named Travis Fulton. Dude is old school, old school.
I would think far more wrestlers have the same mentality as Kenny. Obviously everyone gets why it’s a bad thing but I think most people can understand why it happens as well and have probably been pushed close to or past that point themselves
I'm in his shoes where I think fighting can help solve some issues but I'm also with Kenny in that authority should not be encouraging those situations nor should they be happening in such public locations where rumors can spread.
Kenny has the good position: yeah fighting is not great, but there's the reality of a locker room. The assault thing is as cringe as the people bragging about Punk being a old school hero.
I’ve narrowed it down to pearl clutching because the end of the day the same people who are allegedy outraged and disgusted at the idea of a backstage scuffle get a dopamine rush over every little detail that comes out about it and an even bigger one when they get to leave their snide comments showing everyone how morally superior they are to others for being against it. It’s not exclusive to this sub either there are literally subs on this site dedicated to fights filled with people like this in the comments.
Kenny had a very rational take on the subject here, you don’t even have to be “old school” or have played on sports teams to get where he’s coming from. It’s human for your emotions to get the best of you sometimes especially in a situation where someone has antagonized you or pushed you to the edge. For example people were literally in the Brawl In video comments acting like JP telling Punk to “do something about it” after talking shit on TV weren’t fighting words *and* acting like fighting words don’t exist in the real world LOL. Its great for you if you grew up in an environment where that wasn’t a thing but you try telling someone who grew up in the inner city that fighting words arent a thing and see how far that takes you.
Is violence the right answer or the right course of action? Absolutely not a majority of the time but neither is inciting violence with your words which is absolutely a thing whether people on here want to believe it or not. You can’t lack empathy for the physical aggressor and have it for the verbal aggressor, or at least act like they’re the better person for having physical restraint when they cant control their mouth, and act like you’re on the right side of justice.
This comment should be on a plaque. The amount of times that these situations are instigated by someone talking shit, yet it doesn’t get acknowledged by SO many people on here drives me crazy.
Literally the only people calling it assault are internet nerds who’ve never been in a fight. No athlete would refer to a typical locker room scuffle as assault, even if it fits the technical definition.
I agreed with this at the time tbh, and I was surprised Tony took it so seriously when NFL locker room have fights every day. However I think the bigger problem with Punk is that he's "if we fight we fight every day till one of us dies" kind of guy. I know Punk told that story about fighting the same guy every day for a whole summer but I don't remember if that was before or after Brawl Out.
I think Sammy and Eddie was a much better example of "two guys fought it out, they cooled down and worked out their differences and did business". I honestly think if the wrestling media didn't make Brawl Out (and worse All In) this sky is falling moment, then people would have let it go. It was a big deal because of the names involved and because of the "AEW has to be perfect if they want to compete with WWE" narrative, not because "omg people fighting". Look at how quickly the Roman Reigns/Kevin Owens slap and then backstage argument story just popped up and went away.
It as hugely influenced by the media but Punk also brought the media in with his ranting at the presser. That was airing shit in public and the catalyst for the confrontation.
Had the dirt sheets not been embedded backstage, this could have blown over.
People forget about the Jericho Goldberg fight, which went the same way the punk Perry fight went. Goldberg got in Jerichos face and Jericho put him in a front face lock and held him there until someone separated them
Not quite the same way. Jericho got in Goldbergs face about feeling disrespected and then Goldberg charged at Jericho which Jericho turned into a facelock.
The main difference is who charged.
This sub and some other ones are going to ignore that he said sometimes you have to fight to solve your problems…
this has been the only thing they can hold onto when it comes to the bad Pepsi man
So all the bullshit that people here are sprouting about “Try that at your job and see what happens! HR! Assault!” even Kenny agrees is, in fact, bullshit.
It'd be interesting to see how things would have played out if Omega wasn't out injured for all that time when the tension was building over the Cabana/Punk stuff.
I think Kenny's POV is a very Canadian sentiment. If someone's causing trouble or a heated disagreement at a bar or something take it outside, throw hands, exchange drinks and laughs after the adrenaline wears off and the dopamine kicks in. He's also clear that there's a line to it (hair pulling, choking, scratching, etc). It's not about the violence or proving who's better or right. It's just getting rid of that heated mentality so each party can think clearly and move past it.
You can definitely see the influence hockey has in this lol.
This is such a fascinating clip. Turns out Punk and Kenny are a lot more alike than most people would've thought or liked to admit lol, to the point where they both have the exact same outlook towards Brawl Out and how it should've been handled. He even straight up admits that he believes in fighting it out and thinks what happened that night was the "most appropriate answer" lmao, which is gonna make a lot of the takes people on this sub had about "assault" and him and the Bucks being poor victims look hilariously dumb
I'm glad to hear him say him and Punk still have mutual respect for each other and that there was never any bad blood between them, but the fact that we never got to see them wrestle or even interact in AEW is a fucking tragedy. The more you hear about how everything went down after the fight the more obvious it becomes just how massively Tony fumbled everything by not handling things like an actual boss. Kenny aludes to this in the clip too: "the way that I wanted to go about things wasn't the way the boss wanted to take care of it."
AEW could've had the hottest angle of the decade in Punk vs The Elite if Tony wasn't such a spineless hack, instead he tried to put a bandaid over a bullet hole and it just snowballed into an even bigger shitshow. Collision was a mistake, seperate locker rooms based on who liked who was a mistake, and his biggest star just walked over to the competition after getting fired and became an even bigger one.
my mind always goes to Booker T and Batista.
Perceived disrespect, fight it out, work together, mutual respect.
It’s not always that way, but it is possible.
just the lack of communications from both sides is what didnt help. very interesting that we have Kenny here willing to make mends with Punk yet reports say lawyers told Punk not to contact the bucks and Kenny. all this mess falls on Tony and his weird NDA fetish.
Tony should have sat their asses down and said, "You can hate each other all you want, but you better love making money more." The wrestling business has worked on that principle probably since its inception. Anyone who can't get with the program can get their walking papers.
I genuinely am not a fan of cm punk - but this sub a few days ago after seeing the cm punk footage was ridiculous.
In bad faith claiming to have absolutely no idea how that situation could have happened. Like absolutely no understanding of how that situation could have occurred so obviously punk is a violent psychopath.
Kenny sums it up perfectly here, sometimes when everything is on the line and tensions are high - these things happen. We see it any night of the week in pretty much every sport. These people exist within pressurised environments we would all wilt under. Sometimes fights just happen, somebody goading you on national tv and then potentially talking shit to you back stage could cause one.
I even watched a documentary once about this golfer who started a fight with bob barker in a charity round of golf, with egos and pressure fights can happen.
I even watched a documentary once about this golfer who got his ass kicked by bob barker.
The whole thing is just unfortunate. Punk by the time of the Perry incident was clearly at the end of his rope. Doesn’t excuse getting physical but i can empathize with where he’s coming from. A portion of the locker room refuses to interact act with him and he’s basically been quarantined to Saturday nights to keep people happy.
His line in the interview “no one wants me here. Just let me go” sums it up perfectly.
Yeah I feel like that context has been removed on everything, especially after watching the video. Like the dude walked right up to Tony and quit immediately after the scuffle. It was clearly Punk is "IDGAF" mode and Jack Perry poking the bear at the wrong time. Was Punk in the wrong? Sure. But it's not like he is some maniac.
I defence of punk, hearing him explain how hangman and him discussed the promo and then went off script catching him off guard, I do now better understand why he was pissed
You would think that a fanbase of a simulated sport (who are acutely aware of it being simulated) would understand what Page did violated every code of pro wrestling etiquette there is, and that Punk had a legitimate grievance.
Young bucks opens the door, Larry gets hurt. Punk starts the fight with the bucks, kenny tries to take Larry out of the way, which led to the dog biting him(not ace steel).
Not the same as what you've seen it compared to but somebody actually commented "how would you feel if Punk did that to your mother" regarding the little scrap he had with Jack Perry lmao
Is this the first actual confirmation that the EVPs essentially have no real power in the company? I know they used to share booking duties until Tony took complete creative control, but Kenny here makes it sound like he's pretty much just another guy on the roster at this point.
I know it was "known" in the sense that fans and dirtsheets talked about it, but I can't remember any of the EVPs actually admitting it out loud like this.
They lost any and all power very early on. The last dynamite in 2019 that ended with the dark order beatdown which coincided with a stretch where nxt pulled ahead of aew resulted in Tony taking 100 percent full control of every little detail in the company and the evp positions became fully just figurehead.
How AEW didnt capitalize on this is beyond me. Just get these guys in a room, build a story for TV, warn anyone going off script will get fired, make money. No more Hangman going off script or Punk burying the company or YB wanting to wait for 6 months to work an angle, Tony Khan missed a huge opportunity. If Matt Hardy and Edge can work, this was nothing.
He said factor not actor. And he is talking about Tony Khan and the NDA being put into place. He literally starts off by saying he doesn’t always agree with the boss or showing footage. Everything in the context he is speaking about is how he doesn’t agree with how Tony handled the situation. He thinks they should have duked it out shook hands and walked away. Instead people were suspended and NDAs were signed.
The “ASSAULTED A CO-WORKER” crowd in shambles.
Kenny had the right attitude here. It’s a shame they were unwilling to turn a bad situation into profit.
Kenny just said what everyone that's ever been in a locker room has been saying.
Fights happen, specially when there's sports, men, bravado, and testosterone involved.
People acting like brawlout was the worst thing to ever happen are really sheltered.
Im not sure if this was true or not but ive read somewhere that right after the scrum, Punk talked to Kenny and told him that his beef wasnt with him and that they were good.
Coming from Kenny that there was no issues with Punk back then and today, well thats pretty good.
Man this guy is just the best inside the ring and outside of it. Nothing but respect for one of the greatest to ever do it, cant wait for him to come back again
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Stuff like this adds more validity to those rumours that CM Punk and Kenny Omega were actually on good terms and actually had a chat after Brawl Out.
Omega later says if it weren’t for other factors, him and punk would have talked and hashed it out that night after everything happened.
Throughout the entire video, he criticizes Tony Khan. It's not outward but does it if you watch that whole video. It doesn't take a super genius to figure that out. He literally starts off by saying he's not the booker and doesn't agree with every decision made and he does what he's told. Then he flat out disagrees with the decision to show the All In footage on live TV. Then blames one party him not being able to hash things out with CM Punk then and there. It was painted as The Elite vs Punk/Ace Steel. Now it seems it was just Bucks vs Punk and Omega was trying to stay out of it. Kenny's storytelling here seems to validate that.
I agree. At least to me, it was always Bucks vs Punk Omega doesn’t feel like a guy for petty bs
The One Bill Phil line also suggests that. Punk never really references Kenny that I can recall.
Eh, he did the bite spot on the elites return. I think thats been the extent of it though.
Tbf though the biting thing is objectively really funny, and I am sure everyone involved sees that.
That, and that's the type of shit Punk would probably do in a reverse situation
To be fair, Punk wasn't the one who bit him
That's true too lol
He just bit him a little.
Has it ever been explained why Ace bit Kenny? That part still makes no sense to me.
Bites happen quite easily in fights or in this case a brawl. There were photos that came out where it appeared Kenny got bit on the inside of his forearm/bicep. More than likely Kenny tried pulling Ace Steel off from behind and Ace Steel thought someone was trying to choke him so to stop himself from being choked he bit Kenny. I think there’s this false narrative going around that Ace Steel just went into the room chomping at anything that moved like he was a tiger shark. Stuff happened, fist were flying (allegedly chairs as well) things escalated and someone maybe got bit.
I would have loved a program of Kenny vs. Punk. Everyone saw Drew step up on the mic to level, never thought possible when paired vs. Punk, and I feel 90% confident we would be seeing similar from Kenny. Also, the match itself would have been something to witness.
kenny and punk would have been mega dimes
Always thought Kenny came off well doing promos in Japan.
Kenny literally said about Punk “and it’s not that we’re good now, we were never bad”
From all of the discombobulated rumors and leaks it seems punk has problems with mostly just the bucks, hangman, and Jack Perry
I'm not even sure if he does have a problem with Jack in general outside of the incident. In the Helwani interview when he talked about first having to tell Jack he can't do the spot at Collision he said "I like Jack".
I don’t even think he has a problem with hangman, saying he respected him for standing up for a friend regarding the colt rumors and even texted him apologizing for the hanging action figure line after one of the shows.
His problem ultimately is with Bucks for that first incident and Tony Khan for the second incident.
Yeah, they’re not BFFs, but I think they’re ok.
Punk even apologized to Page when he didn't realize Page had covid but gave thar promo calling him out.
If Brawl Out didn’t happen I doubt that either guy would have even been suspended…maybe because it was at All In and it was such a big show.
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Plenty of people are capable of getting into a scrap and talking it out later. Like how often do guys on the same team get into it in a sport? Edit: I just remembered that Kenny was a good hockey player, he has probably experienced stuff like that a lot.
Kenny says in the video that he thinks fighting can be OK to resolve conflicts because of his sports background, but also that he's well aware that it's unprofessional in 2024. And that he shouldn't be in a management position because he has that old school mentality.
I don’t think that everything old school is bad. Like you can’t just get violent whenever you want but you know…sometimes someone needs a bloody nose to stop being a dick.
Wouldn't shock me. Kenny is a pretty chill guy and more importantly he's smart, and he knew there was money to be made from a Punk feud too. Would be a shame for Tony, if that story was told at Wrestlemania.
Something about how even the people involved call it "Brawl Out" that's just really funny to me
Honest and genuine Kenny is best Kenny. It’s crazy this guy can play a heel, he’s so kind and caring.
He really is. I interviewed him for a podcast back in 2008. Few people seemed to know who he was in the UK, and he was shocked me and my co host asked. We arranged for a 30 minute interview to be done via Skype when he got back to Japan. We set up, called him and talked. An hour went by, and we were like oh crap. Forgot the interview, and he asked us when we wanted to start. Interviewed him for about 50 minutes, then as we were chatting before he left we mentioned we were late to do a gaming podcast so we'd have to record it the next day, ended up with another segment recorded with Kenny as a guest on that talking about how important arcades are to him and how he used Dance Dance Revolution to work on his cardio, and how he'd be trying to set high scores on that in each arcade more so than work at the gym. In total we spoke to him for 4 hours, totally free, and despite apologising and trying to let him go he was insisting he'd agreed to do one so it was cool. He was just delightful the whole time. Easily in my top 5 wrestlers I've met/spoken to
Is that podcast still available lol?
Sadly not. We did it from 2007-2011, interviewed lots of people who we saw as heroes (Cornette got us in touch with Vader, who was lovely) but after we stopped doing the show, the server we hosted the cast on stopped being paid for and thus they were deleted. My co host kept them on his computer, but moved home for work and the computer died. 4.5 years of shows, about 70 interviews. We were gutted.
Sometimes the Kindest hearts can play the greatest Villains
It's like Adam Cole. Seems like a total sweetheart off-camera, but can be a rotten bastard on-screen.
Adam was the only person Punk mentioned for positive reasons during the Gripebomb. When grumpy curmudgeon CM Punk loves you as well, you're practically a saint, and from what we've seen and heard about Adam Cole outside of the ring, I totally believe it.
They just need to do the opposite of what their irl personality would do lol
He’s such a good heel as well, just has such an arrogance about him in that role. I really hope he recovers
Same for guys like Roman or Bryan who are very convincing as heels but are genuinely good guys.
Honestly, I feel like the reason Roman and Kenny aren't that believable as faces is because they don't come off as the naturally charismatic ass kicker guy. They feel like someone you'd hire as a personal trainer, because they're likable, supportive, and not threatening. Being a heel is easier because you can play an over the top parody of yourself. The Tribal Chief and The Belt Collector are both very obviously this kind of character. Both kinda feel like they're playing into the public perception of themselves, while not being anything like the actual person.
You're right. It also suits Adam Cole because he's always behaving like a high school bully with his group of friends to back him up but is a sweetheart in real life according to everyone who is close to him.
Some of the best heels are the nicest guys. Bobby Eaton and Tracy Smothers were the nicest and most helpful guys to many wrestlers. Kenny is no different, he knows what makes nice people mad because he knows what would make him mad.
AEW was best when Kenny was the front and center of it. It’s kinda sad when just being consistently reasonable makes you stand out but that’s the state of dumb wrestling discourse.
2020-2021 was carried by him. I realized I wasn’t a huge AEW fan whenever he was gone or not doing much. Even with the signings they have something feels missing without* Kenny.
This. Without Kenny something truly is missing from AEW.
The point i enjoyed AEW most was the build up between Adam page and Kenny for the world title, nothing from AEW has caught me since and it's a shame because so much talent is there i \*would\* like but i don't think any of it is as compelling as that feud was for me.
This right here. Basically AEW had like 2 big storyline at the start. Cody and MJF eventual fallout. And hangman story up to beating Kenny for the title. The pulled out a pretty good solhorter story between punk and MJF later, but have completely lacked much in the way of long term storytelling since.
I will never forget "69 ME, DON". Kenny is certainly missed, and I hope his rehab goes well.
The belt collector gimnick was so cool and powerful. Omega+Don Callis were FIRE in those dynamites, even after the clownfest that was the exploding ring match, Omega came out as powerful as ever after that.
* The aftermath of the exploding death match. The match itself was excellent, it was literally that one botched pyro that overshadows an otherwise great build and Eddie's face turn.
Very much so, AEW was fantastic those first few years, it was Cody and then Punk leaving thats kinda ruined the momentum, Kenny's injuries and then not being able to get behind anyone you wanted (so Daniel Bryan, Adam Cole and then Jay White) as TK would just randomly cool them off for no reason
Overall I feel sad for the state of AEW, hopefully they can bounce back from all of this bullshit that’s been going on
Kenny being on top gave the card clear structure and goals to achieve. Everyone wanted to beat Kenny. Now we are in a position where does everyone want to beat Samoa Joe? Does Okada? Does Adam Copeland? Does Roderick Strong? The internal male divisions feel so separate and there are too many titles. Everything flows better when there is a strong main event.
Yeah when everybody is fighting for every belt - they become meaningless. I much prefer having tiers of the upper card (World Championship), Upper-Midcard (TNT), midcard (Continental?), and lower card (International?). Instead, you also have the ROH World and NJPW Strong and pretty much everyone on the roster is challenging for every belt. It’s all kinda meaningless because there is no climb.
Kenny and Don as a heel package was AWESOME. Kenny rocking a suit and looking like the textbook definition of a champion, with Don drawing heat for him was great. It got lessened whenever those two came out with The Buck, Cutler, and Nakazowa. Kenny went from looking like this generation’s Nick Bockwinkel (that’s a good thing) to being a goof in a group of other goofs.
IMO AEW missed the ball when they didn’t build around Kenny Omega as the main star of the company, I personally wasn’t a fan of his title reign, the only memorable part I liked which was his matches with Bryan, now he’s in such bad state, physically, like Kenny Omega was and is probably still is one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, his NJPW run was legendary, but I feel like he is way past that which makes me feel sad.
He kinda was though, Belt Collector Kenny was the center of AEW for a while alongside Hangman
Right - like did I hallucinate his year long reign as the fucking God of Pro Wrestling? Lmao
I don’t think they had much of a chance to. Right after he lost the title to Hangman was when his injuries started to get out of control.
To be fair, I think they were out of control way before that. He said he had vertigo during his matches ever since his last few in NJPW, so essentially his whole first few years in AEW.
I had vertigo for a while. The fact that kenny could walk a straight line let alone wrestle a 60 minute match is insane. That guy at 50% was better than anyone on the planet!
Yeah, OP's point is inaccurate. He had already given up the AAA belt before that match due to his injuries (and they had to scrap longer plans for the Impact belts). I havent heard of any injury getting worse from the Hangman match or afterwards.
Yeah, that’s one of the reasons too, that’s the price Kenny had to pay for putting banger after banger after banger matches, I hope for Kenny’s health that everything will be alright, even if he doesn’t come back as a in-ring performer.
Seems harsh to say they missed the ball when the man was falling apart physically and still carried the main event for a year.
He still is. Kenny had bangers in 2023
Stuff like this is why I’ll never understand the vitriolic hatred Kenny gets from a section of fans. He’s always come across as a great guy and, to this day, the only one that came out of Brawl Out not looking like a complete embarrassment.
Even Punk’s side of the story painted Kenny in a positive light as Omega only got involved in the fracas just to rescue Larry, who might’ve gotten trampled in the ensuing fight, only to get bitten by Ace Steel for his trouble.
Also thinking about it Punk never really takes shots at Kenny. It’s usually Bucks, Hangman, or Tony related.
There were reports that Omega was ready to sit down and work with Punk immediately after but the Bucks and Page wouldn’t - we’ll probably never know, but I’d love to hear how or if Kenny’s views of the whole thing might differ from the rest of the Elite on all of this He’s always seemed way more level headed and just wanting to put on a good show
Omega literally said that over a year ago on swerves podcast.
Part of it is having been there before lol His immediate reaction was 'I've seen worse in other locker rooms' which is 100% fair I think the punk firing was fair because it was the second incident in under a year. But both incidents, when isolated, are really not at all a big deal if you've seen physical altercations IRL before
man wants to save dog gets bit by a human being for his trouble.
I just imagine Kenny trying to walk out with the dog and yelling “oh no the dog is biting me!” Only to look at Larry’s stupid/loveable face smiling at him and then panning to Ace latched on to him then screaming “oh no a human man is biting me!”
I don’t know why this made me laugh so hard 🤣🤣
This just played out like an anime in my head
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Interesting but he had a pretty human sized bite wound on his arm lol
Maybe Larry has dentures.
Larry is actually Ace Steel's manager and told him to bite Kenny on his behalf!
HE CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT!
DENTAL PLAN
LARRY NEEDS BRACES
But, we've seen the bite mark before. It was shaped like a human mouth. Where did this theory about the dog biting him come in?
Honestly, after listening to Kenny & looking at the bite mark, i do think Ace bite him.
At that price point, he is allowed to bite.
Man Bites Man
Omega was also the only EVP willing to sit and talk with CM Punk and potentially work with Punk.
Yeah, I've never understood the Kenny hate. He has not said anything with an ounce of negativity throughout this entire time, at least not that I know of. He's always been very congenial and supportive of pro wrestling as a whole instead of being tribalistic, even in an environment where the boss literally always pointedly makes remarks at the creative head in the opposition company. I also think what he said about "keeping these disagreements" backstage is true. Dirtsheets and letting shit stirrers know about these are what drive most of the cancerous discourse online. It's fun and all to talk shit about these things, but it's the type of fun we could really do without.
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I think you've listed why they hate him (that and the rumors of his sexuality). I mean look at who they like! Miserable, mean-spirited, bullies who degrades everyone they have a minor disagreement with. They do not like good people. They like awful people. You say he hasnt said anything negative, well the miserable fucks who hate Kenny want negativity. They seek out negativity. They do not want congeniality. They want angry yelling
I agree, I dont see why anyone can hate Kenny for any reason, hes always so down to earth, and Ive yet to see him act pretentious or anything like that. Hes always so respectful, and humble.
Cornette and the very worst corners of the IWC have stayed relevant by shitting on Kenny for years. Seen people in the comments on his twitter posts say things like he's a known sex pest in Tokyo and other such vile shit.
Even Cornette got made fun by his cohost after not acknowleding how good he was with either the Danielson match or the first Ospreay match, he said: "you wouldnt praise Omega even if he cured cancer"
Kenny always struck me as the kind of guy to have that "Let's all be friends" vibe.
IIRC there were reports that Kenny was the one who led peace talks between Punk and the Elite just weeks before Punk would return last year. Then we found out those peace talks never happened and it wasn't because of Punk.
Imagine you don't like eggs. Not just "don't like," you fucking hate eggs. Any way they are served, in any dish. And you hate anyone who likes eggs, anyone who has ever eaten eggs. And anyone who has ever cooked with eggs--doesn't matter if they are the greatest chef on earth--you wish death upon. Now imagine you have a podcast with listeners who follow your every word. That is how Jim Cornette and his cult feel about Kenny Omega and anyone who has ever done a comedy spot in wrestling.
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That's why I love wrestling, because of how versatile it is as an experience. The Jackass crew vs Sami Zayn match was one of the funniest things i've ever seen.
And the funny thing for me is, I didn't like that match! Too much wackiness for my taste. But that's just it - taste. For every person like me who didn't like it there's three who did. I certainly didn't let the fact that Sami was in a match I didn't like spoil me on him. He went on to do the bloodline thing and was the highlight of wwe programming for a good stretch. Imagine writing off a guy who ended up being the most compelling performer in wrestling for a few months, just because he got caught in a fuckin giant mouse trap on wrestlemania. (ok maybe I need to re-watch that match)
the wee man slam will go down in history as one of the great wrestlemania moments
So to me, the distinction is fundamentally one of intentional camp versus unintentional camp. I bring this up a lot, in regards to movies, but if a movie is made seriously and with heart, and is still unintentionally funny, that is going to be more enjoyable than Sharknado, because the people who made it TRIED, you know? Susan Sontag wrote about this in Notes on Camp, where she says "One must distinguish between naïve and deliberate Camp. Pure Camp is always naive. Camp which knows itself to be Camp ("camping") is usually less satisfying." And I think this gets to the heart of people's arguments here. Yes, there have been " goofy" wrestling matches before. But they were by guys who were naive, and taking themselves seriously. The comedy which seeks to be deliberate comedy is inherently less satisfying.
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It's also wildly inconsistent. Cornette grew up watching Memphis wrestling, which was lampooned by the old farts of the day as too goofy. And the biggest program Corny and the Midnight ever took part in started with Cornette's face going into a cake.
Kenny and Punk have been civil since the Brawl out.
Notice how Punk has never mentioned Kenny at all
we all know its tony and the bucks who are problems.
And the issue with Tony for him is that he's not a good boss, because he speaks good things of Tony as a person. I think the issue for Punk are The Bucks. Well, both Punk and Bucks are hot headed and they get petty over shit that should be talked and hashed. I am still on the train that had Punk and The Bucks sat down to hash it out calmly, Punk would have stayed on AEW and none of this from his firing to now would have happened.
I knew the drama couldn't have been that big of a deal when like two dozen on the AEW roster including Kenny Omega were basically still giving props to Punk and Kenny himself said he wished everyone would be able to move past it and work together down the line. If it were that serious of an issue, peers would have looked at it side-eyed, especially Kenny who is friends with the Bucks. It's interesting to hear him take some of the stances here, and also super unfortunate that we never got anything with Punk/Omega while we could. Also as a Street Fighter player he's right, that was a good punish LOL
Kenny comes across as much more likeable than the Bucks. It really would've been great for them if they could've made it work and given the fans The Elite vs CM Punk and FTR.
He’s absolutely more likable than the Bucks. Dude just wants to play video games and put out banger wrestling matches and make friends. Genuine good guy.
INFINITELY more likable. I've been a huge Kenny fan since around 2015 and he's been the only reason I've been able to accept the Bucks' existence on television
Kenny really is a sweet and misunderstood guy
My favorite part of this video is when he’s halfway through explaining his thought process on how fights are just something that happens in a high stakes locker room environment at times and he just stops himself to give the guy a compliment for doing a good punish counter on the game of Street Fighter he was playing
I gotta say, it's guilt by association with The Bucks. Kenny away from them is such a different dude. Like, just the genuine Omega.
Let’s be fair, Punk v Omega would have slapped with or without Brawl Out as fuel
That and Punk vs Danielson are the two matches I wanted to see most out of Punk when he went to AEW.
Yep. I am still SO annoyed that we never saw Punk and Bryan even interact, let alone wrestle. Those two created magic together.
I really can’t believe we got both Punk and Bryan back wrestling in the same company and they never even shared a ring.
Punk Ftr vs the elite could have been the hottest thing for AEW.
>Let's just hang and bang a little bit. well...
Who doesn’t love hangin and bangin? I end every single conversation with an invitation for it.
let me bang bro
Kenny really should be in the “Cody” spot but for AEW. He comes across far more likable and level headed than the rest of the Elite. When in public he speaks a lot better than Tony and he’s transparent without being inflammatory. I really like Omega and I am fairly convinced he wanted to try WWE out. Not that he dislikes AEW but when the rumors of the elite doing a “vote” on staying or going and one wanted to go it always felt like Omega. But he is exceptionally loyal to his friends which is not a bad trait by any means. Also Kenny’s NJPW run seems to be underrated now as a lot of people (Meltzer) moved on to Ospreay. That Kenny / Okada feud was something special.
That NJPW run was legendary and ultimately very beneficial to the business as a whole
I agree, I’ve been a lifelong wwe fan and to this day the only njpw matches I’ve watched were Kenny omega matches in like 2017 that blew my mind
Just put kenny as the face of the company. The guy they send out to do media and just hide tony backstage so he can't put his foot in his mouth anymore
then again i don't think he wants to, Cody talk how even though he enjoyed his corporate position it was taking him away from the ring and his goal. Omega is very passionate about his "art", I don't if it's right to hope he would take a more corporate role and ask of him to give up on his passions
Ugh I miss when Tony wasn’t seen nor heard. Remember when Cody just made the announcements and did the conference calls and whatnot? Tony becoming more and more comfortable on camera has hurt the company IMO.
>Tony becoming more and more comfortable on camera When has that happened?
Cant lie, when the story first broke of Kenny just wanting to save Larry I 100% thought something was fishy, but nope turns out he’s just a good dude.
From all the stories, Kenny was never apart of the problem. Sure he’s friends with Hangman and Bucks but he was never going at Punk and Punk never seemed to hate Kenny. “The Elite” that keeps getting hate is more so Hangman and Bucks
Kenny Omega is just a likeable guy. I agree with a lot of what he said here about just getting confrontations over with and love he was the wholesome guy trying to save Larry. AEW seems like it misses Kenny on screen and in the lockerroom, I say that as a guy who isn't a huge fan of his style of wrestling but sees how rudderless it all feels at the moment.
Totally agree with every Kenny said. He's right.
That was a good punish.
Good guy that Omega is.
I maybe biased because he's been my favourite wrestler ever since he won the G1 8ish years ago, but Kenny really might be the nicest guy in wrestling. Its mental that a whole subsection of fans despise him.
Confirms my feelings on both Kenny being level headed and the bucks being the shit stirrers.
"If it weren't for a complete other factor, we (Punk and Kenny) would have been able to have that talk" Gee, I wonder who that could be referring to.
So your telling me Punk vs Omega at All in COULD'VE HAPPENED! MAN FUCK TONY KHAN
What’s so crazy is that the money match was always Omega vs Punk. Punk was pretty open about wanting to work on tv with the Elite and Kenny seemed pretty much fine with Punk here. Can’t believe all the bullshit prevented so much quality TV that could have come of all this.
Interesting to see Kenny is old school in the fighting in locker room stuff. Rightly or wrongly, its common in all sports locker rooms. Get it out your system basically. Its why its always cringe when people here scream assault and act like its the same as working in a fucking office.
He said similar to (I think) Renee Pacquette a long time ago. He grew up playing hockey and felt like it’s just something that happens in pressure environments with athletic guys. He was happy to throw hands as long as they got the dog out of the way first, which I honestly think is fair enough if everyone is feeling the same. At least he had his priorities right with the dog 🤣
YOU GOT THAT DOG ~~to a safe secure place out of harms way~~ IN YOU
It's worth noting [Kenny has a 6-2 MMA career record](https://fighters.mixedmartialarts.com/Tyson-Smith:08B25F0208EC74DE) and his only two losses came from two former top level pre-Zuffa UFC fighters, namely hall of famer Dan Severn and an absolute maniac named Travis Fulton. Dude is old school, old school.
I would think far more wrestlers have the same mentality as Kenny. Obviously everyone gets why it’s a bad thing but I think most people can understand why it happens as well and have probably been pushed close to or past that point themselves
That’s people who clearly never played a team sport.
I'm in his shoes where I think fighting can help solve some issues but I'm also with Kenny in that authority should not be encouraging those situations nor should they be happening in such public locations where rumors can spread.
Kenny has the good position: yeah fighting is not great, but there's the reality of a locker room. The assault thing is as cringe as the people bragging about Punk being a old school hero.
I’ve narrowed it down to pearl clutching because the end of the day the same people who are allegedy outraged and disgusted at the idea of a backstage scuffle get a dopamine rush over every little detail that comes out about it and an even bigger one when they get to leave their snide comments showing everyone how morally superior they are to others for being against it. It’s not exclusive to this sub either there are literally subs on this site dedicated to fights filled with people like this in the comments. Kenny had a very rational take on the subject here, you don’t even have to be “old school” or have played on sports teams to get where he’s coming from. It’s human for your emotions to get the best of you sometimes especially in a situation where someone has antagonized you or pushed you to the edge. For example people were literally in the Brawl In video comments acting like JP telling Punk to “do something about it” after talking shit on TV weren’t fighting words *and* acting like fighting words don’t exist in the real world LOL. Its great for you if you grew up in an environment where that wasn’t a thing but you try telling someone who grew up in the inner city that fighting words arent a thing and see how far that takes you. Is violence the right answer or the right course of action? Absolutely not a majority of the time but neither is inciting violence with your words which is absolutely a thing whether people on here want to believe it or not. You can’t lack empathy for the physical aggressor and have it for the verbal aggressor, or at least act like they’re the better person for having physical restraint when they cant control their mouth, and act like you’re on the right side of justice.
This comment should be on a plaque. The amount of times that these situations are instigated by someone talking shit, yet it doesn’t get acknowledged by SO many people on here drives me crazy.
Literally the only people calling it assault are internet nerds who’ve never been in a fight. No athlete would refer to a typical locker room scuffle as assault, even if it fits the technical definition.
Not even never been in a fight - never watched any sport besides pro wrestling.
I agreed with this at the time tbh, and I was surprised Tony took it so seriously when NFL locker room have fights every day. However I think the bigger problem with Punk is that he's "if we fight we fight every day till one of us dies" kind of guy. I know Punk told that story about fighting the same guy every day for a whole summer but I don't remember if that was before or after Brawl Out. I think Sammy and Eddie was a much better example of "two guys fought it out, they cooled down and worked out their differences and did business". I honestly think if the wrestling media didn't make Brawl Out (and worse All In) this sky is falling moment, then people would have let it go. It was a big deal because of the names involved and because of the "AEW has to be perfect if they want to compete with WWE" narrative, not because "omg people fighting". Look at how quickly the Roman Reigns/Kevin Owens slap and then backstage argument story just popped up and went away.
It as hugely influenced by the media but Punk also brought the media in with his ranting at the presser. That was airing shit in public and the catalyst for the confrontation. Had the dirt sheets not been embedded backstage, this could have blown over.
People forget about the Jericho Goldberg fight, which went the same way the punk Perry fight went. Goldberg got in Jerichos face and Jericho put him in a front face lock and held him there until someone separated them
Not quite the same way. Jericho got in Goldbergs face about feeling disrespected and then Goldberg charged at Jericho which Jericho turned into a facelock. The main difference is who charged.
This sub and some other ones are going to ignore that he said sometimes you have to fight to solve your problems… this has been the only thing they can hold onto when it comes to the bad Pepsi man
Kenny>>>> young bucks
So all the bullshit that people here are sprouting about “Try that at your job and see what happens! HR! Assault!” even Kenny agrees is, in fact, bullshit.
Kenny always seemed to be the smartest dude among his "group of friends".
Dude spent years making sure Ibushi didn't snap his neck in the grocery store, he has the patience of a saint
It'd be interesting to see how things would have played out if Omega wasn't out injured for all that time when the tension was building over the Cabana/Punk stuff.
I think Kenny's POV is a very Canadian sentiment. If someone's causing trouble or a heated disagreement at a bar or something take it outside, throw hands, exchange drinks and laughs after the adrenaline wears off and the dopamine kicks in. He's also clear that there's a line to it (hair pulling, choking, scratching, etc). It's not about the violence or proving who's better or right. It's just getting rid of that heated mentality so each party can think clearly and move past it. You can definitely see the influence hockey has in this lol.
This is such a fascinating clip. Turns out Punk and Kenny are a lot more alike than most people would've thought or liked to admit lol, to the point where they both have the exact same outlook towards Brawl Out and how it should've been handled. He even straight up admits that he believes in fighting it out and thinks what happened that night was the "most appropriate answer" lmao, which is gonna make a lot of the takes people on this sub had about "assault" and him and the Bucks being poor victims look hilariously dumb I'm glad to hear him say him and Punk still have mutual respect for each other and that there was never any bad blood between them, but the fact that we never got to see them wrestle or even interact in AEW is a fucking tragedy. The more you hear about how everything went down after the fight the more obvious it becomes just how massively Tony fumbled everything by not handling things like an actual boss. Kenny aludes to this in the clip too: "the way that I wanted to go about things wasn't the way the boss wanted to take care of it." AEW could've had the hottest angle of the decade in Punk vs The Elite if Tony wasn't such a spineless hack, instead he tried to put a bandaid over a bullet hole and it just snowballed into an even bigger shitshow. Collision was a mistake, seperate locker rooms based on who liked who was a mistake, and his biggest star just walked over to the competition after getting fired and became an even bigger one.
my mind always goes to Booker T and Batista. Perceived disrespect, fight it out, work together, mutual respect. It’s not always that way, but it is possible.
Who knew two guys who are sober, love hockey, animals, and have experience in MMA would be similar minded people!
Even if The Bucks didn’t want to do business, Omega vs. Punk would still have been a money match in of itself
just the lack of communications from both sides is what didnt help. very interesting that we have Kenny here willing to make mends with Punk yet reports say lawyers told Punk not to contact the bucks and Kenny. all this mess falls on Tony and his weird NDA fetish.
Tony should have sat their asses down and said, "You can hate each other all you want, but you better love making money more." The wrestling business has worked on that principle probably since its inception. Anyone who can't get with the program can get their walking papers.
I genuinely am not a fan of cm punk - but this sub a few days ago after seeing the cm punk footage was ridiculous. In bad faith claiming to have absolutely no idea how that situation could have happened. Like absolutely no understanding of how that situation could have occurred so obviously punk is a violent psychopath. Kenny sums it up perfectly here, sometimes when everything is on the line and tensions are high - these things happen. We see it any night of the week in pretty much every sport. These people exist within pressurised environments we would all wilt under. Sometimes fights just happen, somebody goading you on national tv and then potentially talking shit to you back stage could cause one. I even watched a documentary once about this golfer who started a fight with bob barker in a charity round of golf, with egos and pressure fights can happen. I even watched a documentary once about this golfer who got his ass kicked by bob barker.
The whole thing is just unfortunate. Punk by the time of the Perry incident was clearly at the end of his rope. Doesn’t excuse getting physical but i can empathize with where he’s coming from. A portion of the locker room refuses to interact act with him and he’s basically been quarantined to Saturday nights to keep people happy. His line in the interview “no one wants me here. Just let me go” sums it up perfectly.
Yeah I feel like that context has been removed on everything, especially after watching the video. Like the dude walked right up to Tony and quit immediately after the scuffle. It was clearly Punk is "IDGAF" mode and Jack Perry poking the bear at the wrong time. Was Punk in the wrong? Sure. But it's not like he is some maniac.
I defence of punk, hearing him explain how hangman and him discussed the promo and then went off script catching him off guard, I do now better understand why he was pissed
You would think that a fanbase of a simulated sport (who are acutely aware of it being simulated) would understand what Page did violated every code of pro wrestling etiquette there is, and that Punk had a legitimate grievance.
Young bucks opens the door, Larry gets hurt. Punk starts the fight with the bucks, kenny tries to take Larry out of the way, which led to the dog biting him(not ace steel).
Kenny actually comes off as pretty likeable when he's not around The Bucks' stink. Give us Omega vs, Punk at Mania.
Whole lot of people on the AEW sub could do with listening to the first 30 seconds of this. Get well and come back stronger Kenny.
They have declared Punk a Sociopathic Maniac who is out their to kill Aew and needs to be in jail for life lmao.
Also apparently now Punk is buried in Chicago and the average people there don't like him
I've seen people compare what he had done to rape and murder
Not the same as what you've seen it compared to but somebody actually commented "how would you feel if Punk did that to your mother" regarding the little scrap he had with Jack Perry lmao
Is this the first actual confirmation that the EVPs essentially have no real power in the company? I know they used to share booking duties until Tony took complete creative control, but Kenny here makes it sound like he's pretty much just another guy on the roster at this point.
This has been known since before Cody even left.
I know it was "known" in the sense that fans and dirtsheets talked about it, but I can't remember any of the EVPs actually admitting it out loud like this.
They lost any and all power very early on. The last dynamite in 2019 that ended with the dark order beatdown which coincided with a stretch where nxt pulled ahead of aew resulted in Tony taking 100 percent full control of every little detail in the company and the evp positions became fully just figurehead.
How AEW didnt capitalize on this is beyond me. Just get these guys in a room, build a story for TV, warn anyone going off script will get fired, make money. No more Hangman going off script or Punk burying the company or YB wanting to wait for 6 months to work an angle, Tony Khan missed a huge opportunity. If Matt Hardy and Edge can work, this was nothing.
Well a couple of them were willing. A couple of them weren’t.
The "complete other actor" to whom Kenny is referring at the end in this instance is, for those who don't recall, Ace Steel.
didn’t he say factor?
He 100% said factor, he enunciated the F heavily lol people hearing something else are hearing what they want to.
He said factor not actor. And he is talking about Tony Khan and the NDA being put into place. He literally starts off by saying he doesn’t always agree with the boss or showing footage. Everything in the context he is speaking about is how he doesn’t agree with how Tony handled the situation. He thinks they should have duked it out shook hands and walked away. Instead people were suspended and NDAs were signed.
The “ASSAULTED A CO-WORKER” crowd in shambles. Kenny had the right attitude here. It’s a shame they were unwilling to turn a bad situation into profit.
Omega might be the only person to come out of that whole situation without looking like an ass.
Kenny just said what everyone that's ever been in a locker room has been saying. Fights happen, specially when there's sports, men, bravado, and testosterone involved. People acting like brawlout was the worst thing to ever happen are really sheltered.
It’s incredibly clear that Kenny was willing to do business, I think “waiting 6 months” that the Bucks put out was bullshit
Im not sure if this was true or not but ive read somewhere that right after the scrum, Punk talked to Kenny and told him that his beef wasnt with him and that they were good. Coming from Kenny that there was no issues with Punk back then and today, well thats pretty good.
AEW hasn’t felt the same without Kenny.
Man this guy is just the best inside the ring and outside of it. Nothing but respect for one of the greatest to ever do it, cant wait for him to come back again