AEW went through one hell of a messy stretch when CM Punk’s Brawl Out situation exploded behind the scenes, and Robert Karpeles believes there was more going wrong than fans could see. Looking back at that period, the former WWE writer and producer says something about the company started making him seriously nervous.
Speaking on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, Karpeles looked back at the stretch where the CM Punk situation went completely off the rails in AEW. Between the infamous press conference, the backstage brawl and everything that followed, Karpeles admitted he started getting pretty nervous about what he was seeing from the company.
“He was very much a one-man shop, and you kind of need that. That was another thing where I was getting a little nervous with AEW for a little while, right around the time that the wheels fell off with all the CM Punk things, with the press conference that went south and the brawl and the reactions.”
And according to Karpeles, the Punk drama wasn’t the only thing that looked messy. He claimed AEW’s locker room felt seriously cliquey at the time, with different groups forming around Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, and Chris Jericho.
“It didn’t feel decisive, and AEW felt very cliquey. There were different camps of people. You were either in Cody’s group, or you were part of Kenny and The Young Bucks, or you were with Jericho and his crew, or you were everybody else.”
That kind of setup was a major red flag for Karpeles. Once everybody starts operating within their own little circles, he believes it becomes a lot harder to get an entire locker room moving in the same direction — especially when things are already getting heated behind the scenes.
“And when you have those factions, those groups within a locker room, everyone’s not working towards the same goal.”
For Karpeles, that’s when somebody at the top needs to take control and start making calls, even if those decisions aren’t going to make everybody happy. Whether that authority comes from respect or simply knowing who the boss is, he believes there has to be one person willing to put their foot down.
“And whether it’s through inspired leadership or fear, you kind of need someone front and center who’s not going to be afraid to make decisive choices.”
And that person’s decisions don’t necessarily have to be popular. Karpeles’ point was that when backstage drama starts getting out of hand, there can’t be any confusion over who gets the final word.
“And everybody knows, good, bad, or indifferent, it’s this person’s call.”
What makes Karpeles’ take interesting is that he was apparently getting worried about AEW before anyone knew just how ugly things were about to get. Once that press conference ended and the drama followed Punk backstage, whatever problems had been simmering behind closed doors suddenly became impossible for the company to keep there.
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