10 Worst Moments In AEW History
1. Brawl Out
‘Brawl Out’ unfolded on September 4, 2022.
On December 25, 2023 - a full 477 days later - people were still talking about it. Not that you need reminding, but December 25 is Christmas day. After Chris Jericho brought it all back up, a lot of people spent December 25 re-litigating the events of Brawl Out, and Jesus Christ: the fighting soldiers took that day off to play football during the first World War!
That about says it all. The sheer amount of time that people spent discussing the events of the All Out 2022 press conference underscores the extent to which it was a distraction from the fiction.
Did, as virtually the entire locker room believed, CM Punk heavily intimate to Tony Khan that he didn’t want to see Colt Cabana around the place anymore?
It almost doesn’t matter how it all started at this point.
The fact is that Tony Khan buried his hand in the sand and woefully mismanaged a situation that was destined to erupt. CM Punk, in an unprovoked rant, buried the Elite and set the company on fire after Hangman Page brought up the accusation on TV a few months prior.
A dire enough set of circumstances to begin with, none of this was remotely helped by two key factors: the real-life feud between Punk and the Elite was far more compelling than anything Tony Khan could hope to book on TV, and - through a steady series of leaks and Sports Illustrated interviews and yet another backstage fight a year later - it was AEW’s longest-running programme.
AEW has never quite felt the same since.