Samoa Joe doesn’t think the infamous ‘Brawl In’ incident was that big of a deal.
Rewind to the summer of 2023…All Elite Wrestling was about to host a pay-per-view event in the famous London Wembley Stadium to a reported 75,000-plus fans, CM Punk was seemingly on the road back to the AEW World Championship, and a Ring of Honor dream match was about to be rekindled in the form of Punk against Samoa Joe.
However, during the event’s pre-show, Jack Perry was battling HOOK, and during the match, Perry seemingly took a verbal jab at the aforementioned Punk, when he mentioned the use of ‘real’ glass despite Punk’s reported best efforts to stop Perry from using real glass during an earlier episode of ‘AEW Collision.’
The words didn’t sit well with the current WWE superstar as when Perry came back through the curtain, all hell reportedly broke loose. The brawl led to Punk’s ultimate release from the company as well as a suspension for Perry, and according to multiple parties, Samoa Joe was the man who stepped in and cooled things down before his match against Punk.
Despite Punk’s firing, Perry’s suspension, and the wide world of wild accounts of what went down backstage in Wembley Stadium, the current AEW World Champion didn’t think the brawl wasn’t even much of a brawl.
When speaking with ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, Joe played down the actual incident itself, claiming it ‘wasn’t that big of a deal.’
“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.
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.”
– Samoa Joe on ‘All In’ Incident
(H/T to Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert for the transcription)
Samoa Joe is set to defend the AEW World Championship against HOOK during tonight’s edition of ‘AEW Dynamite.’
BodySlam will have complete coverage of Samoa Joe’s AEW World Championship defense against HOOK as well as all of the other happenings of the Jan. 17 episode of ‘Dynamite,’ beginning at 8:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. PDT.
