Tony Khan explains why airing the All In footage made sense.
AEW sparked plenty of controversy by airing the footage of the incident involving Jack Perry and CM Punk at All In on the April 10 episode of AEW Dynamite, as the move drew a lot of criticism/
Tony Khan recently spoke on The Chris Russell Show, and the decision to air the footage came up. When whether he regretted it, Khan stated that he thought it made a lot of sense. (H/t Jeremy Lambert of Fightful for the transcription)
“I think it made a lot of sense. First of all, the Young Bucks-FTR ladder match is coming up at AEW Dynasty for the World Tag Team Championships,” Tony Khan said. “This is the fourth chapter in FTR-Young Bucks. I believe they are the two greatest tag teams in wrestling, the two best on the planet. The last time they wrestled, Young Bucks-FTR 3, was at Wembley Stadium, AEW All In. A lot happened that day.
“Those guys at one point, they were the third match on the pay-per-view, and at one point, it looked like we were going to have to call them up and they were going to have to wrestle the first match. They ended up going on in the spot they were in, but the Young Bucks said the whole day, everything that happened, it affected their mental preparation, they weren’t able to pray before the match, they were very stressed out. They slipped on the banana peel, lost the match, and they blame FTR and what happened at Wembley Stadium. In hindsight, that’s why they refused to shake FTR’s hands.”
Tony Khan Highlights Jack Perry
Tony Khan went on to highlight how Jack Perry had a remarkable outing at NJPW Windy City Riot after the footage aired. He emphasized that Perry’s current run generates plenty of intrigue heading into AEW Dynasty.
“We’ve seen the Young Bucks change a lot. We saw them get really dark during the retirement run of Sting,” Tony Khan said. “They’ve only gotten darker and more twisted. That’s why they felt like they should play the tape. It was fascinating to see after the tape played, the reaction Jack Perry got at New Japan. He got the reaction of a superstar.
“That is not altogether unexpected and it’s something very interesting, perhaps a side effect of this, Jack Perry already a big star in wrestling, really the way the crowd connected with him in Chicago, that was interesting. It leaves a lot of intriguing going into AEW Dynamite and AEW Dynasty.”
Click here to see what Bully Ray had to say about AEW airing the All In footage.
WrestleZone will have coverage of AEW Dynamite as it airs on April 17.
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