24 hours before All Out 2023, Tony Khan finally made a decision.
A day short of a year removed from when he should have made one, Tony Khan finally made a decision and elected to fire CM Punk.
This wasn’t a choice made in the spirit of compromise or a peace-keeping attempt that gave no thought for the next peace-keeping attempt when the first one failed to keep the peace, this was a decision with serious consequences for everybody involved, equally hefty ones for those on the peripheries, and ramifications that broke new ground for the AEW President.
It defined the narrative for an otherwise-poorly built All Out card. A card initially due to feature Punk prominently now stood to be the first of a post-Punk era. Eyes were on AEW, on Chicago, and Tony Khan as a leader and booker.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
