If you ask Tony Khan, airing the CM Punk and Jack Perry backstage fight footage from AEW ALL IN 2023 at Wembley Stadium in London, England made all of the sense in the world from a promotional standpoint as it relates to the upcoming AEW Dynasty 2024 pay-per-view.
Stick with him, he has his logic.
During an appearance on The Chris Russell Show, the AEW and ROH President explained how it made sense to air the footage because of the story of The Young Bucks having to deal with things, being unable to pray and other pre-match distractions leading up to their loss to FTR at the same pay-per-view.
“I think it made a lot of sense,” Khan said. “First of all, the Young Bucks-FTR ladder match is coming up at AEW Dynasty for the World Tag Team Championships. 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.”
Khan continued, “We’ve seen the Young Bucks change a lot. We saw them get really dark during the retirement run of Sting. 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.”
Check out the complete interview at Apple.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
