All Elite Wrestling has shared arguably its most infamous moment with the public. Earlier this month on AEW Dynamite, AEW Executive Vice Presidents Matthew and Nicholas Jackson (The Young Bucks) aired security camera footage of CM Punk and Jack Perry’s physical altercation from August 2023’s AEW ALL IN: London. The footage sees Punk and Perry exchange words before Punk shoves him, puts him in a headlock chokehold for a couple of seconds, and is pulled away by Samoa Joe and Chris Hero. Fan reaction to the footage has been relatively split, with some feeling that it vindicates Punk while others believe it puts him at fault as the aggressor.
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Response from the wrestling world has also been contentiously cryptic. Talent from across the industry shared caption-less gifs and videos on Twitter shortly after the AEW ALL IN: London footage aired on television.
One who’s reaction was caught in real time was AEW commentator Tony Schiavone. After the Bucks’ segment concluded, cameras cut to the announce table. Schiavone appeared visibly frustrated and embarrassed at the segment.
Tony Schiavone Clarifies AEW ALL IN: London Footage Reaction
It’s all part of the storyline.
Speaking on his What Happened When podcast, AEW commentator Tony Schiavone clarified that his reaction to the AEW ALL IN: London security footage was to play up the Young Bucks’ current angle.
“My facial reaction to what happened was my facial reaction trying to put more heat on the Bucks for being a——s within the storyline itself,” Schiavone said. “I did not have any reaction to the footage we saw because I don’t give a damn.”
Schiavone continued by noting he had already seen the footage prior to it airing on AEW Dynamite.
“I was not upset at the promotion. I was not upset at Tony Khan. I was not p—ed off about what we had shown,” Schiavone continued. “I was trying to be fully in the moment of the angle. That’s what I was doing. Of course, everyone wants to create their own story and that’s fine. I’m sincere when I say that I don’t care.”
Despite his efforts to react in storyline, Schiavone’s visage drew parallels to his response to controversial angles in World Championship Wrestling, a former challenger wrestling company that battled the WWF throughout the late 1990s. Schiavone worked for WCW as a commentator and was on the call for the infamous “finger poke of doom,” which saw Hulk Hogan defeat Kevin Nash with an over-the-top finger poke.
“Some people are saying, ‘The footage you were showing was like the Finger Poke of Doom moment for AEW.’ That’s what you want it to be because you want to see us fail,” Schiavone added. “There is no way, because I was in both companies, there is absolute no way that you can compare us to WCW. You can’t. You may want to. You may think you’re right. You’re wrong. You cannot compare us to WCW. I was there for both. You were not.”
