AEW: “This Book is All Elite’ Author on Reason Why CM Punk & Jack Perry Fight Is Not Covered in Book, Ortiz Makes In-Ring Return and Billy Gunn Makes Return & Manages New Tag Team at 12/10 AEW Dynamite Taping

“This Book is All Elite’ Author on Reason Why CM Punk & Jack Perry Fight Not Covered in Book

Features of Wrestling held a recent interview with Keith Elliot Greenberg, author of the This Book Is All Elite: The Inside Story of All Elite Wrestling. One of the topics discussed included Greenberg’s thoughts about his reason why the infamous backstage fight between CM Punk and Jack Perry at AEW’s All In 2023 event was not covered in his new book about AEW.

“Some people have brought this up. Whenever I write a book, I’m always going to be criticised, and I take that for granted. Whenever I do an interview, I’m criticized sometimes by the same exact people on Twitter. I know their handles. By this point, they’ve criticised me so much, I know their names. So one of the criticisms I telegraphed in advance, and I even discussed this with AEW, was the people were going to be unhappy that I don’t talk about whatever chicanery occurred backstage that led to the departure of CM Punk. This is a tribute book. If I wrote a book about the New York Mets, which is my favorite baseball team, I even have a Mr. Met tattoo. I would talk about the two World Series runs. I would talk about their marquee players, but I wouldn’t talk about the fact that the owners at the time were supposedly investors with Bernie Madoff, this very corrupt financier who ended up, apparently, (stealing) millions of dollars from the U.S. Holocaust Foundation. The guy was just robbing everybody. As a fan, it’s a lot of suspicion that may have compromised the team, because who knows? Was Mets money being used? They said not. But as a baseball fan, as a fan of the team, you suspect things. But if the New York Mets asked me to do a tribute book about the New York Mets, I could do a really great tribute book, and not mention Bernie Madoff. So I was asked to do a book that is a tribute to AEW during the first five years, and that doesn’t belong in a tribute book, because really, we’re just talking about one or two incidents, but there’s a lot of backstage stuff in it, and a lot of positive backstage stuff in the book. There’s a lot about how Stadium Stampede came together and how The Acclaimed got their name, and why Tony Khan wanted to put Max Caster and Anthony Bowens on the same team. Let’s go to Mariah May, who’s now in NXT, and Toni Storm, the movie that inspired Tony Khan’s mind, that story. So it’s not like it’s all surface stuff. There’s deep stuff that you wouldn’t know about, and I don’t think the book suffers at all from not mentioning an unfortunate incident backstage.”


Ortiz Makes In-Ring Return at Dec. 10th AEW Dynamite Winter Is Coming 2025 Taping

AEW held several dark matches prior to the start of Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite Winter Is Coming 2025 show at the Gateway Center Arena At College Park in College Park, Georgia.

One of the matches included Ortiz making an in-ring return to AEW.

Ortiz competed in a singles match against HOOK, which was won by Ortiz.

This was Ortiz’s first match in AEW since January of 2024 due to a torn pectoral injury and surgery. During his time away from the ring, Ortiz has been working as a producer and coach in AEW.


Billy Gunn Makes Return & Manages New Tag Team at Dec. 10th AEW Dynamite Winter Is Coming 2025 Taping

Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite Winter Is Coming 2025 tapings in College Park, Georgia also featured Billy Gunn making a return and revealing himself as the manager of a new tag team.

Prior to the start of Wednesday’s show, AEW also held a tag team dark match that featured Billy Gunn coming out as the manager for Brady Booker and Elijah Drago. Booker and Drago faced off and defeated two local enhancement talents for their match.

Booker, former Bodhi Hayward in WWE NXT, has competed in several dark matches for AEW and Ring of Honor since 2023.

Drago also has competed in several dark matches for AEW and Ring of Honor since 2024.

Besides AEW, Booker and Dragon have worked together with Gunn several times in the indies over the past three years.