Tony Khan says it’s just the right time for a fight.
CM Punk and Jon Moxley are set to compete for the Undisputed AEW World Championship on the August 24 episode of AEW Dynamite. The match was initially mentioned (by Punk and Moxley during a promo) as taking at All Out on September 4, but AEW quickly confirmed that the match would instead take place on Dynamite.
During his appearance on Wednesday’s episode of Busted Open Radio, Tony Khan was asked about how he approached the decision to put the match on television instead of pay-per-view. Khan cited the storyline taking over the show and said it just seemed like the best night for a fight.
“It’s a great match for the fans now and I feel like it would be a great match at any time. But tonight, it felt like the right night for this big fight, and given that last week, we really could not keep these guys apart, it just did not seem sustainable to try and have this show get taken down week after week by these guys who were clearly just going to tear the ring apart if we continued this way. So we saw last week we couldn’t even get the show running, Mark Sterling and Tony Nese were coming out for an interview and they couldn’t even get that going. Jon Moxley hijacked the show and CM Punk was out and they were fighting again for the second time in the same night. So these guys wanted to fight and I think tonight on TBS presents a great opportunity for a big fight. Of course, as we approach All Out, the card is going to be massive and we’re going to have a much better idea of what that’s going to look like.”
One other notable moment on Dynamite saw Punk call out Hangman Page for a title match. Hangman didn’t show and Punk called him a coward, and there’s been plenty of speculation about the moment being unplanned.
According to Khan, he feels like Punk’s remark was just a result of some “unresolved anger” after Double Or Nothing. Khan reasoned that Punk and Hangman never resolved their issues at the May PPV, but Punk moved on to another match and then stepped away due to injury.
Update: Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select cited AEW sources who noted that Moxley was in favor of moving the match up, and one source suggested that the shift was Moxley’s idea and pitch. This same source stated that CM Punk “eventually” agreed to it. As of this writing, it’s unclear if the move was linked to the reported issues with Punk last week. Fightful Select previously reported that they heard that “multiple plans” for AEW All Out had changed.
AEW Dynamite saw a shock main event made for Cleveland on August 24, as the planned All Out main event between Jon Moxley and CM Punk to unify the AEW World Titles was moved up a week and a half. Will Washington of the Grapsody Podcast noted on-air that he heard there was an idea a few days ahead of the show to boost ticket sales and buzz for Dynamite in Cleveland.
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