It’s no secret that the backstage atmosphere at AEW has been tense for some time now. The most obvious example of this was what transpired following All Out with The Elite still suspended and the future of CM Punk unknown. In the absence of the suspended EVPs, the leadership roles have apparently been fulfilled by three of AEW’s top stars. Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson and Chris Jericho have all been credited recently for helping to restore stability to the locker room.
There have been numerous headlines stressing just how toxic the backstage environment has been but Wade Keller of PWTorch has stated that these rumours have been overblown. He goes on to suggest that things are broadly fine in the company and that everyone is focused on steering the ship in the right direction.
“One thing that I am hearing from people I talk to in AEW, active wrestlers and otherwise, is that one good thing that came out of this Punk, Kenny, Bucks situation is that the leadership void or the leadership slots have been firmly filled by Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, and Bryan Danielson. None of the three is a perfect leader. But the three collectively are stabilizing to that locker room. And I’m not going to do a long thing about the shortcomings of each of them as leaders. Like I said, not one of them is the perfect leader for this moment in time in that locker room. But all three are good leaders. And collectively, they can help steer the ship. This locker room and AEW is not in disarray. And I’ve been reporting this too the last couple of months even before the Punk thing. I was told it’s not as bad as the headlines make it seem.”
-PWTorch.
Other backstage incidents involved more personal grudges. There were reports of disagreements between Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa as well as several controversies involving Sammy Guevara. Keller acknowledged that there have been issues involving certain groups but states that this is mostly normal and nothing for the company to be overly concerned about.
“You have what’s going on with Britt Baker’s camp and Thunder Rosa’s camp. You have Sammy Guevara being immature and a lightning rod for controversy and making bad decisions. People like Sammy, but they groan at Sammy’s decision-making. You had Andrade doing what he did for whatever purposes he did it. Maybe he wanted to be part of Legado Del Fantasma and he was trying to play that card. Maybe not. Maybe he just got irritated by Sammy and needed to do what he did. But whatever that was, that was another incident, and then also the Sammy and Eddie Kingston thing, of course. And you had the MJF controversy. And then you had the Punk, Kenny, Bucks thing. The Thunder Rosa-Britt Baker thing is not solved. I don’t know how the Sammy situation will be addressed going forward. But I think there’s been two high profile situations with Sammy that its sort of like two strikes. So I think he’s going to have to grow up and mature a little bit. And I think there’s going to be some leadership steering him in that direction now.”
-PWTorch.
Of course, AEW still have things to tie up regarding CM Punk and The Elite. It’s rumoured that the company are looking into a buyout of Punk’s contract but whether that happens remains to be seen.
H/T PWMania for the full transcription.
