By now, if you are reading this, you are already well aware of what transpired after AEW All Out on Sunday night. There was the usual media scrum, where wrestlers would come and take questions about the show, and announce what is next for them moving forward. This, however, was a very unusual media scrum.
On a night where the news should have been about the return of MJF, new Trios champions, the emergence of The Acclaimed as legitimate megastars, or any other number of big things to come out of the show, all eyes (and ears) were on new AEW World Champion, CM Punk. Unfortunately, it was for all the wrong reasons, as he completely ran down the media, Colt Cabana, Hangman Adam Page, The Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega. He threw some shots at MJF as well (though these were likely in character), but nothing compared to what he had to say about the others. He used his time to drop another pipe bomb and certain people did not take kindly to his words.
An altercation took place soon after Punk’s interview was over, when he was approached by The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) and Kenny Omega. There are not many details on everything that happened and there is a pending investigation, but we do know that a chair was thrown and hit Nick Jackson in the face and, somehow, Ace Steel resorted to biting Kenny Omega. Both parties have come out and told their side of the story, but until the investigation is over, all that is really known is that, at this point in time, everyone involved has been suspended and had their newly won titles stripped. Not only that, but they have even been deleted from the intro at the beginning of AEW’s flagship show, Dynamite.
Where does this leave AEW now; with multiple title holders being stripped of their titles and suspended? The Trios titles have already been wrapped up in a title match held on Dynamite, with Death Triangle defeating Best Friends and Orange Cassidy. Things are a bit trickier for the AEW World Title, however.
Grand Slam Tournament of Champions
AEW boss, Tony Khan, announced the Grand Slam Tournament of Champions to crown a new World Champion. All of the participants are former champions spanning more than just their AEW careers. First round match-ups include Hangman Adam Page taking on Bryan Danielson, which Danielson won on Dynamite, and two of the “Four Pillars of AEW”, Sammy Guevara and Darby Allin, set to square off on Rampage this week. Two semi-final matches will take place on Dynamite next week in Albany, NY. We know that one match will see Bryan Danielson facing Chris Jericho, who got a pass to the second round. The second match will be the winner of Guevara and Allin taking on Jon Moxley, who also got a pass to the second round.
The finals of this Tournament of Champions will take place at Dynamite Grand Slam on September 21. But who will take home the most coveted prize in AEW? There are a lot of ways that this could go. You could put the belt back on either Moxley or Jericho – both men having been AEW World Champion previously and have proven they can carry the weight of the company on their shoulders. You could finally give the opportunity to one of the two pillars who, up until this point, have been TNT Champion, but not had the chance to carry the World Championship. For a company that prides itself on young homegrown talent, one of these two would make a lot of sense.
The last option, and for a couple of reasons, possibly the best option is Bryan Danielson. If Danielson can beat Jericho next week and make it to the finals and Moxley can beat the winner of Guevara and Allin to go to the finals, AEW would renew a very entertaining rivalry and also have an all Blackpool Combat Club title match which would be excellent in itself. The other reason Danielson makes sense is that not only is he an established big name guy who is more than ready to wave the flag for AEW, but he is hugely popular around the world and would generate big money for the company. Also, while he is only 41 years old, his injury littered past makes you wonder how much longer he will be wrestling. Most stories of Danielson state that he is a very unselfish guy and loves to put over younger talent, but it doesn’t make much sense to bring in a guy like him and not have him be the guy at least once before he retires for good.
Where do you stand? Who would you like to see become AEW World Champion at Grand Slam? Do you think major stars being suspended gives a good opportunity to the rest of the roster to really make an impact and show the world that this will not hurt AEW or do you think the whole thing is a mess and could become a bigger problem down the line? As always we will bring you more news related to all of this as details emerge.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. As well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TBS and AEW Dark: Elevation (Monday nights) and AEW: Dark (Tuesday nights) at 7 PM ET on YouTube. AEW Rampage airs on TNT at 10 PM EST every Friday night.
