Bully Ray reacts to the All In footage.
On this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, AEW EVPs Matt and Nick Jackson aired the footage of the backstage altercation involving CM Punk and Jack Perry at the 2023 All In event. This video showed Punk shoving Perry after what appeared to be a tense back-and-forth conversation. Before Punk could land more strikes on Perry, though, AEW producers and talent quickly stepped in to separate the two men. On Busted Open After Dark, WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray shared his reaction to seeing the footage broadcasted on Dynamite.
“Before I put my weary head down on my pillow, I will pray to God for AEW and I will say, ‘God, I hope they popped a rating tonight.’ I hope something positive came out of this footage or came out of tonight. Because when tomorrow comes, if that rating is not good, if they’re not back up to at least 800 [thousand], it’s going to be dogpile on the rabbit. And the rabbit is going to deserve the dog pile,” Ray said.
“This is not on the talent, this is not on the locker room. And most of the time it never, ever is across the board. It’s on creative, it’s on the booker. It’s on the matchmaker. This company needs help. At this point, I hope even you die-hards realize that.”
Bully Is Willing To Help
While he already has jobs with the Busted Open brand and Team 3D Academy, Ray noted that he is more than willing to help AEW as well.
“This business has been very, very, very good to me, and if anybody ever needed help, I’d be more than willing to help them out just to see the talent grow and the business grow,” Ray said.
In August 2023, reports indicated that Jack Perry and former AEW World Champion CM Punk were involved in a backstage physical altercation at AEW’s All In event. This confrontation then reportedly led to both performers being suspended while AEW conducted an investigation. Upon completion of this investigation, AEW shared the news that Punk had ultimately been terminated from his contract. Following his departure from AEW, Punk then made a surprise return to WWE at the Survivor Series event in November.
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