Samoa Joe on CM Punk & Jack Perry’s Backstage Incident at AEW All In Not Being Big Deal to Him

As noted before, AEW terminated CM Punk’s contract this past September following their investigation into his backstage incident with Jack Perry and confrontation with AEW CEO Tony Khan at their All In event this past August. Perry has been suspended from AEW since the incident and recently made his first appearance in wrestling since his suspension at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Battle In The Valley 2024 event this past Saturday.

ESPN’s Marc Raimondi held a recent interview with Samoa Joe. One of the topics discussed included Joe’s thoughts about what had happened backstage between Punk and Perry.

“There was a little bit of an incident. We got it broken up. We went out there and wrestled, man. That’s the gist of it. Everybody wants it to be a lot more than what it is, but that’s what it was. And to speak any more on it would be pointless unless you’re trying to get a scorecard and stuff — but trust me, it wasn’t that type of a fight.”

In response to Raimondi asking Joe if the incident really was not a big deal, Joe stated:

“Not to me. I’ve seen fights break out. Stuff happens. But again, that’s me. I’ve been in these situations, I’ve seen that. I’ll find it funny when people are like, ‘Oh, Joe’s cool with it.’ I mean, nah man, it was a high-stress situation. Sure. But I mean, it’s one I’ve seen happen many times. We get it squashed out. We had a show to do. We had [81,035] fans waiting out there. And that was my focus, because that’s what it was about at that moment. We’re about to go out and have the best night of our lives.”

Joe also gave his thoughts about people calling him the “voice of reason.”

“Hey, listen, we all understood that there was something to be done. There was a mission ahead of us and everybody just got focused. And hey, if I was a part of that, cool. But my intention was to get out there and get this show on the road.”