Samoa Joe was one of many individuals who played a role in the backstage altercation between CM Punk and Jack Perry at AEW All In: London. The Ring of Honor World Television Champion is reported to have calmed the situation down in the aftermath, ensuring that his match with Punk for the “Real” AEW World Championship opened the show as planned.
Now Joe has become the latest AEW talent to give their thoughts on the incident after Chris Jericho broke his silence on an episode of his Talk Is Jericho podcast a few weeks ago. Speaking to Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, he discussed his upcoming AEW Grand Slam clash with MJF, working with the late Bray Wyatt during his time in WWE, his thoughts on CM Punk as an individual and the All In incident as a whole.
The 44-year-old ultimately sidestepped going into specifics on the altercation or his thoughts on the ordeal, instead discussing how he and the rest of the roster rallied in the aftermath to deliver on what was statistically the largest event in AEW history.
“For the most part, I haven’t read what’s been portrayed,” Joe said. “There’s been so much said. I’m not the one to go out there and try to debunk everything. I know we had the initial incident. Everybody rallied. Everybody got together. Got their heads together and lined up and got ready to do the show and we went out there and we did the show.
That really was the focus at that point in time. We got a massive show to do and we got fans out there rabid to see that happen. So it’s important that we step up and do it and it’s important that we did and I was proud to be a part of that.”
When pushed on the reported intensity of the altercation, Joe claimed that was down to the feelings of each individual who witnessed it. Talking personally, he admitted the incident did not rattle him and he instead put his focus on ensuring the show went as planned as his match was set to occur just moments after.
“That’s up to whoever perceived it,” Joe replied. “I’m used to that environment. Those things don’t seem very intense to me, but it could be something crazy intense to someone else. I wasn’t really affected by the moment. I was more focused on getting the show back on track and getting us going because it was bell time.”