Bryan Alvarez Reveals Inside Scoop on CM Punk-Jack Perry Incident

Posted By: Ben Jordan Kerin on Aug 29, 2023

During the latest Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez discussed what he's learned about the tension between Jack Perry and CM Punk at Sunday's AEW All In London at Wembley Stadium.

Alvarez mentioned that he has communicated with multiple sources since the episode aired and found that there are varying accounts of the incident.

Discussing the background of the Perry-Punk issue, which occurred weeks prior and involved a glass stunt with Hook, Alvarez verified that Perry had pre-arranged vacation plans. He further added that while the car glass stunt in the Collision event was initially green-lit, CM Punk vetoed it. Alvarez shared, "The issue from the Jungle Boy side was the belief that 'I got this okayed, it was cleared with the company and then this guy didn't let me do it.' He felt 'he's not letting me do it because I'm friends with The Young Bucks.' That was what was in his mind, apparently." Alvarez clarified that this information didn't come directly from Jack Perry but had been circulating within the company for weeks.

On the subject of CM Punk's reported transportation problems, Alvarez commented, "I have heard two versions of this story. One version is that CM Punk arrived, nobody was there, he couldn't get a hold of anybody and so he decided that he was going to take the train. The other version I heard is that when he arrived there was nobody there but he did get a hold of people and he offered or they asked if he wanted to take the train. But that he was fine with taking the train. That's the other story that I heard..." He also raised the question of why Punk didn't opt for ride-share services, suggesting that it's possible no drivers were available, based on his own experiences in the UK.

Regarding the Perry-Punk altercation at the All In event, Alvarez said, "Jack goes through the curtain...He goes through the glass and they're working on his cuts. This was shortly before the show was supposed to go on the air. CM Punk walks by and he says 'do you have a problem with me?' Jack Perry says something to the effect of 'well, you heard what I said out there.'"

Speaking about what happened next, Alvarez continued, "CM Punk, according to several people said something to the effect of, 'you know I can beat your ass, right?' Then there was an incident. It was very quick...Pretty much 100 percent (of the witnesses said) Punk made the comment and either shoved or pie-faced Jungle Boy, grabbed him in the guillotine front headlock and it was immediately broken up. Somoa Joe was right there, everybody was right there. Nobody got their ass kicked, there was nothing like that."

Alvarez underscored that all these events unfolded in close proximity to Tony Khan, with Alvarez noting, "They got close enough to Tony Khan that I believe monitors were knocked down onto Tony Khan. He was right there and he saw everything and a lot of people were right there and they saw everything."

Finally, Alvarez said that CM Punk was visibly angry, stating "Several people said he threatened to quit and he didn't want to go out for the match...I believe they went to FTR and The Young Bucks and they were like, 'can you guys open the show?' and the response was, 'we're not ready to open the show.' Then they went to the six-man with Kenny and Hangman and all those guys and they were like, 'I guess we can' and so they were getting ready to go out. I was told that Joe was furious. He's at Wembley, there's 80,000 people there and he's about to go out and apparently, he talked Punk into doing the match."

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