"He was sitting next to the f**king guy" - WWE veteran slams Tony Khan for mishandling the CM Punk situation during the post-All Out media scrum
WWE veteran Jim Cornette was critical of how Tony Khan handled the CM Punk situation during the post-All Out media scrum last Sunday.
In the said press conference, Punk took shots at Colt Cabana, Hangman Page, and The Elite (AEW EVPs Young Bucks and Kenny Omega), all while addressing the allegations about him. While the AEW World Champion was speaking, Khan noticeably had awkward facial expressions and nodded most of the time.
At one point, the former WWE star stopped Khan in his tracks when he was about to chime in on the latter's explanation. The president even said he should've not commented on the Colt Cabana issue, placing the fault on himself.
Moments later, a reported backstage melee between Punk and The Elite occurred.
Speaking on Jim Cornette's Drive Thru, the veteran thought everybody should shoulder the blame for the locker room mess in AEW, especially Khan.
The former WWE manager claimed that the CEO might have either known what Punk was doing all along or that he was just afraid to reprimand his world champion.
"Who's Tony gonna be mad at? Everybody, including himself. He was sitting next to the f**king guy [CM Punk] for 20 minutes while he said these things so... and he was nodding his head while Punk said 'em. So that either means that he agreed with it or he's [Khan] just lost and didn't know how to tell his stary 'hey give him the iggy under the table' or reach over and give him the office and go 'hey, we'll talk about this later,'" said Cornette. [from 28:25 - 28:56]
Check out the clips from this video:
WWE legend Jim Cornette believes Tony Khan should scrap a certain position in AEW
During the same podcast episode, Jim Cornette suggested that Tony Khan should remove the Executive Vice President position because it might lead to potential legal ramifications.
The former WWE personality added that active wrestlers should not be executives in any wrestling company.
"I think the Executive Vice President thing needs to go away because they're a legal liability now because if anything else happens where they are even remotely culpable and instigating it. Now, they've got a track record and then whatever wrestler involved can just 'okay unsafe work environment,'" Cornette added. [from 27:25 - 27:46]
Reportedly, The Young Bucks confronted CM Punk about his comments at the media scrum.
Things got physical with CM Punk throwing punches at one member of The Young Bucks and Ace Steel biting Kenny Omega.
#AEW #AEWAllOut #CMPunk #TheElite https://t.co/F6rt5nb6IR
With everything going on recently, it will be fascinating to see what can happen in the coming days. Tomorrow's edition of AEW Dynamite might be the most anticipated episode in the Jacksonville-based promotion's history as it will have the fallout from the reported altercations.
Do you think Tony Khan mishandled the CM Punk situation? Sound off in the comments section below.
Please credit Jim Cornette's Drive Thru and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription when using quotes from this article.