10 Times Promoters Sided With A Wrestler The Locker Room Hated

2. CM Punk

CM Punk Tony Khan
AEW

Of course, this whole entry could be viewed through hugely different eyes depending on when you're reading it...

As of this writing, CM Punk's AEW future is completely up in the air due to what happened once last weekend's All Out PPV had finished. There, the Second City Saint used the post-PPV media scrum to brutally, brilliantly (?) berate 'Hangman' Adam Page, Colt Cabana, the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and quite frankly made a mockery of his own boss (or now former boss?).

Regardless of how valid Punk's gripes were and are, and regardless of whether you view him in the 'right' in all of this, the fact is that his handling of this situation at said media scrum was wholly unprofessional. Despite this unprofessionalism, the cold fact of the matter is that Tony Khan - as in, the President of All Elite Wrestling - sat there for for the entirety of Punk's tirade and didn't say a damn thing.

If you're one of those targeted by the Straight-Edge Superstar's words or are one of those who thought Punk was an unwelcome locker room presence, Tony's silence was utterly deafening and showed that, even if unintentionally, he'd rather let members of his roster feel angered or upset instead of dare to rock the CM Punk boat.

As mentioned, how this situation fully plays out will dictate how this entry is ultimately viewed, but there's no doubting Khan could and should've had the stones to do something - even if that was abruptly ending the media scrum - to stop this whole messy situation from escalating.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.