10 Times AEW Got Into Serious Trouble
7. When Brawl Out Happened
Brawl Out is rapidly becoming the 2020s version of Montreal or the Pipebomb: the seismic event about which there's little left to be written.
CM Punk rehearsed a premeditated promo - Nick Hausman of WrestlingInc stepped on his d*ck - in which he buried the Elite for allegedly playing childish, passive aggressive games with the media that cast him in a monstrous light (despite both Dave Meltzer and Sean Ross Sapp staking their reputations on this not being the case). That empty-headed dumb f*cking f*ck Hangman Page disrespected him on live television, too (as someone trying to build interest in their pretend match).
Depending on whose side you believe, the Elite either kicked CM Punk's dressing door in and said "You've got no fans - MJF got a bigger pop than you in Chicago - and if you want some, I'll give it ya!" or they knocked politely as CM Punk threw his dog Larry at them as a projectile before Kenny Omega swooped in, got him out of there, and nursed him back to health like the Birdman of Alcatraz.
You can either make dumbass jokes about it, or wish these people would grow up and make money in a guaranteed legendary wrestling programme.
The feeling has been calloused entirely, but it was a very funny culture war at the time before it evolved into a bleak situation in which the realisation set - that we may not see anybody involved for months - and canvassed the entire promotion in darkness.
When it was at its rawest, unsurprisingly, Warner were not happy. They wouldn't be; they had lost four major stars in one stupid, potentially avoidable incident.
Speaking on a stream, Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp disclosed that in the immediate aftermath of the story breaking, he received texts and calls from a source who suggested that Warner weren't remotely pleased about it.