Tony Khan discusses the build for the CM Punk and Jon Moxley title match at All Out.
When it was revealed that CM Punk and Jon Moxley were set to unify their respective AEW World Titles on the August 24 episode of AEW Dynamite, fans around the world of wrestling were caught by surprise, as many people were expecting the two to clash at the All Out pay-per-view.
Jon Moxley would go on to defeat Punk in the bout, crowning himself the undisputed AEW World Champion. Although he had doubts on the August 31 episode of Dynamite, Punk eventually agreed to challenge Moxley for the title at All Out after being willed to by the Chicago crowd and his longtime friend Ace Steel.
On today's AEW All Out Media Call, Tony Khan discussed the controversial booking decisions that the feud has produced.
"I do think it’s been a big benefit. It’s different than what we’ve typically done. It’s from one extreme to another because I’ve done go home shows where all the hay is in the barn and sometimes it can be a challenge and you’re taking practice swings with the ball on a tee. I knew it was going to be a fast and furious build up, but the anticipation has been even stronger. I wouldn’t say we should do it like this every time, but this is the 15th pay-per-view for AEW, we’ve never done anything like this, and I think it made the build very exciting. it’s raised a lot of questions going into the match, there is a lot of speculation about what the future holds for both men, what the future holds for the championship, and what’s going to happen in part two based on what happened in that match on TV. It was also undeniably a great ratings draw for us. We had tremendous ratings last week. The biggest thing of all, which I thought was cool, is we built more interest in the pay-per-view, while doing the biggest total audience the show has done since February. I was really pleased with it. What it created was a week of people loudly wondering ‘what the heck is going on here, this is crazy.’ In this case, that was good. The promos that Jon and Punk did, I think reeled a lot of people back in."
Moxley commented on the squash match days after it happened, noting that he doesn't get paid by the hour. To learn more, click here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.