On the April 6th episode of AEW Collision, it was announced that the EVP’s, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, would be releasing unseen backstage footage from All In: London. If you’ve somehow been blessed enough to be unaware of what this footage is allegedly going to be, it is related to the incident coined as “Brawl In” that occurred between Jack Perry and CM Punk.
The main question a lot of fans are asking is why now? What’s the motivation behind this? Which, to say the least, is a very fair line of thought to take. I’m going to talk through what I believe to be the end goal for this, and why I think now is the choice time to be doing it.
Obviously, there’s no ignoring the first conclusion everyone has jumped to – they’re doing this as a way to take a shot at CM Punk. After his interview with Ariel Helwani and the several comments he’s made on social/over WrestleMania weekend on the panel, it’s a very hard point to argue against. I’m not here to do that – this could very well be the main motivation for releasing the tape!
There are a few points I do want to discuss, though. I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind on what they believe or don’t believe as the reasoning to use this footage on Dynamite. I simply think there is more, as a fan, to consider that’s much more fun to get swept up in.
The first point I want to bring up is the fact that this Collision was taped the same night as the April 3rd episode of Dynamite. This is notable for two reasons : firstly, the Collision segment in which the EVP’s announce they will be playing this footage is a direct contrast to the promo cut by Adam Copeland in the opener of Dynamite (more on this later). Secondly, it means that any comments made by CM Punk (or anyone else in WWE, for that matter) during WrestleMania weekend had no implications on the decision to release the footage. What that means regarding the actual overarching motivation behind the decision, I don’t know, but it feels like an important thing to have included here.
All implications of what influenced the decision aside, though, I want to discuss how this footage could potentially be used as a story vehicle in AEW going forward because let me tell you, there are a lot of different angles that could be explored after this upcoming Dynamite.
I want to go back to my previous point about Adam Copeland’s promo last week and how this was taped in the same four hour block. I think this is one of the main driving story pieces that is going to be affected by this footage being aired.
On last week’s Dynamite, Copeland’s promo essentially boiled down to “AEW is a great company for professional wrestling!”, which many interpreted as a direct response to the aforementioned CM Punk interview that had been aired. The online reaction to this was quite split, and personally, I thought it was an unnecessary segment at the time. Now, knowing about the planned segment for this week’s Dynamite, there is a new light to consider the segment under.
If my suspicions are correct, Adam Copeland is already on a collision course with the Young Bucks, and they’re likely to come face to face at All In this coming August. The question has been asked, though: how on earth do we get from point A to B? Personally, I think we’ve been given the answer.
It’s no secret that the new characters for the EVPs are meant to echo the sentiment of the criticism shouted at them for years now – selfish, lazy wrestlers who only care for themselves, use more talented people around them, and will do anything to get what they want. Looking at their work on TV now? That’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re cheating to win matches, spinning tales of how their actions are for the good of the company, and even bringing Kazuchika Okada into their group after kicking out Kenny Omega. They’re now using everything that people hold against them, and as a TV act, it has worked tremendously so far.
They debuted these characters when they returned at Daily’s Place in January to confront Sting and Darby Allin, who were at the time gearing up for Revolution. Tony Schiavone had asked Sting who he would be facing in Greensboro when the Jacksons made the appearance. We now know what the fallout of all of this was, but during the build for Revolution a couple of members of the roster spoke out against the Young Bucks’ actions. One of these people was Adam Copeland. At the time, it made a lot of sense – a veteran who was still fairlynew to AEW, who had history with Sting, of course was going to feel
some sort of way about it.
I thought at the time that this was AEW’s way of signalling that somewhere down the line, a matchup between Copeland and a partner and the Young Bucks was on the table. After the announcement of the All In footage coming to light, I don’t think it could be any clearer.
Another element of the new characters that Matthew and Nicholas are portraying is their belief that older members of the locker room who have come in from other places are too stuck in their ways, and that they need to ‘clean house’. During the Revolution build, they touted this belief to Darby Allin, who, of course, rejected their attempts to have him turn on his mentor. Circling back to Copeland, however, from a story perspective, he is absolutely someone this mentality from the EVPs could apply to. Certainly a veteran in the business, and someone who came in from another place. This, paired with him already voicing his displeasure with the Bucks, and his promo from Dynamite being a direct contrast to the EVPs releasing the All In footage, all make for a very solid argument that this could be the story they’re aiming to tell.
I think there’s way more to this, though.
Of course, the All In footage that will be aired on Dynamite is centred around CM Punk and his actions backstage. I’ve purposely avoided mentioning the other man involved in this, though, as there’s a lot to say about him, and I wanted to put it all in one point.
Jack Perry, now infamous for his “go cry me a river” line on the preshow of All In, is the other person that will be involved in this footage. Of course, Perry is currently off in NJPW on somewhat of an excursion and hasn’t been seen in AEW since that fateful night. In recent times, though, his presence has been felt, but who exactly is making references to the Scapegoat?
Of course, I’m referring to the Young Bucks. During their match on Dynamite last week, their entrance had a moment where Matthew looked down the camera and said “hey Scapegoat, love your work!”, which was followed later in the match by him telling Sue to “cry me a river”. Even in previous appearances, both members of the Young Bucks have done Perry’s previously signature ‘hands shielding the eyes to search the crowd’ gesture, and have tagged him in pictures of such on their Instagrams.
This referencing isn’t one-sided, though. Jack Perry has mentioned the EVPs multiple times in backstage promos at New Japan, and even borrowed a few of their signature moves (locomotion northern lights, apron soccer kick, and top rope elbow) in a recent bout. It seems like there is definitely a story brewing when it comes to bringing Jack Perry back into the fold within AEW, especially when you consider they’ve already tried to recruit one of the other “Four Pillars”.
How does this play into my discussion around Adam Copeland, though? Well, the answer is simple, and his name is Christian Cage. Anyone familiar with Jack Perry’s work in AEW knows all about his history with Christian and how he turned on the younger man. Now that Perry himself is a heel, there’s a new layer of potential to tap into with that story. After all, if Jack Perry does come back into AEW aligned with the EVPs, Adam Copeland is going to need to find some friends.
Who better than one of his oldest, who’s already proved he’ll do whatever it takes to succeed? It’s often discussed how we could possibly see Copeland and Cage get to a point now in AEW where a reunion is even possible, and I think this storyline is the missing piece. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they say.
One last thing about Jack Perry as well. I’m not here to discuss whatever his intentions were at the time, but I do believe whatever he was looking to achieve has accidentally created an incredible piece of the story, if this is the direction they’re going. By fostering the situation that led to CM Punk’s release from AEW, he accidentally achieved the now primary goal of the Young Bucks – drive out the old veterans who have come from other places. It could be an absolutely ingenious tie-in – all it would take would be a simple line of “he’s been embracing our vision since before it even took shape!”.
Even with all that discussed, I still think there’s even more evidence that points to this being the story at play. Of course, a lot of my talking points here boil down to me believing that this is AEW taking a shot at producing some long-term storytelling for All In London this year, but there’s a handful of PPV’s before that, and one of them has an interesting match that will have implications in this.
At Dynasty, the Young Bucks will come face to face once again with FTR for the AEW tag belts. Of course, this match itself has a lot of history, and the two teams have been intertwined for years now. However, I think there’s two things people aren’t considering, which are the most relevant to whatever story is at play here: FTR are very well known friends of Adam Copeland, and the last time this matchup happened was in fact at All In. The former point could see some six man tag teams happening over summer as part of the build (eight-man and ten-man tags when we take stock of all the moving pieces surrounding this story, but that’s a discussion for another day). The latter is just another interesting note in how this all ties together.
Of course, this is all speculation on my part, but when you look at the moving pieces and all the evidence that is there, I just find it hard to ignore that this could be the play that AEW is making. I’m sure we’ll know more after Dynamite airs, and this will either age incredibly well, or it’ll just be a couple of fun theories I wrote about. Only time will tell.
