Tony Khan says airing the All In footage helped explain Jack Perry’s absence from AEW TV ahead of his return to the company at tonight’s AEW Dynasty PPV.
Perry had been suspended from AEW following his altercation with CM Punk at the All In event in August 2023. He stayed away from wrestling for over 5 months before resurfacing at NJPW’s Battle in the Valley show this past January.
The AEW star finally made his return to Tony Khan’s promotion at the Dynasty PPV on Sunday. This came almost 10 days after AEW chose to air the real backstage footage of the altercation between Perry and Punk, following the Straight Edge Star’s explosive interview with Ariel Helwani.
On the post-Dynasty media scrum, Khan was asked if the footage helped Jack Perry feel like a bigger star during his return at the PPV. Tony first mentioned how ‘The Scapegoat’ had a great run in NJPW before his comeback tonight which helped generate some buzz for him:
“Well I’m really excited about a lot of things happening in AEW. I think Jack Perry’s return got a lot of excitement and got a huge reaction. Again, I mentioned we were in Chicago. It was a great night for the company when Jon Moxley became the IWGP World Champion. I got to watch Jack Perry’s return to American wrestling in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
He got a massive star reaction at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Windy City show and I think he’s been doing great work in New Japan Pro Wrestling. When you go over do an excursion and have a great run like he had in the New Japan Cup and a great performance like he had against Shota in Chicago. I think that had a lot to do with it.
We Made The Bold Call: Tony Khan
Speaking about the All In footage, Tony Khan admitted that it did heighten the circumstances around Jack Perry’s return to his promotion:
“I do think we made a bold call in the run up to this match. Really it heightened the circumstances and I do think it added to the presentation of the moment of Jack Perry’s return tonight at AEW Dynasty. The pay per view was a home run. I think a lot of people felt like it was a great return.
Also I felt like it was important to explain partially where Jack’s been because the last time we saw him on AEW television was at Wembley Stadium. He went through the curtain. We never saw him again since, so I did feel like some responsibility to the viewer given I knew Jack was going to return to AEW that we explain where he’s been.”
AEW Dynasty featured the finals of the Tag Team Title tournament between FTR and The Young Bucks. A Man in Sting mask interfered in the bout at the very end and helped The Bucks secure the victory over their opponents. The security quickly grabbed the mystery man and Jack Perry was revealed when they removed the mask.