Tony Khan Explains His Decision to Announce CM Punk's Firing to a Live Chicago Crowd
The AEW president explained why he appeared in front of an enraged Chicago crowd hours after CM Punk's firing.
AEW announced on Sept. 2 that it had terminated CM Punk's contract following his backstage physical altercation with Jack Perry at the All In pay-per-view the week prior. At the time, the company was in Punk's hometown of Chicago for that week's episode of AEW Collision and the All Out pay-per-view the following night at the United Center. Tony Khan chose to confirm Punk's firing in front of the live crowd before Collision went on the air. And while the crowd loudly booed Khan at first, he slowly started winning fans over before officially starting the show. In a new interview with Insider this week, Khan explained why he took that approach.
"Chicago is home to my family. I grew up in Champaign. I've been going to the United Center since it was first built when I was 11. My family was at the show, countless friends, everyone I grew up with. It meant a lot to go out and speak to the fans and be able to put on a great show," Khan said.
"You can't see everybody's face from the center of the ring," he continued when asked why he chose to sit on the entrance ramp instead of cutting the promo from the ring. "You have to choose one side of the crowd to face when you're in the ring. And I wanted to be able to see everybody. I felt like, I'm not a wrestler and I don't need to be in the ring, and for this moment, I thought I would just sit down and talk to everybody. That's why I brought out a chair. And when I was done and walked backstage, the first person I saw was Ricky Steamboat and he said, 'That was great, you turned the crowd. You turned them around. That's so hard to do, and you did it.' I felt I at least owed that much to the wrestlers and the fans, to go out there and talk to everybody."
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