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AEW has been on the receiving end of a lot of pressure from the dirt sheets, due to all the internal strife and conflict within the promotion. An All Elite star recently sat down with Dutch Mantell, where he toyed with the idea of purposely misleading dirt sheets.
CM Punk and The Elite's backstage brawl has slowly lost interest from fans due to the promotion shrinking away from addressing it. However, could Tony Khan and AEW be pulling back due to having fabricated some of the details?
During his appearance on Storytime with Dutch Mantell, Jake Hager speculated that the internet is amplifying the dirt sheets in ways they weren't before.
"As an industry that works people, I know this is a new thing where the dirt sheet is more prevalent now than ever because of the internet, but at a certain point I would like for us or somebody to start working these dirt sheer writers. Let’s feed them some bulls**t, and make it pretty believable," Hager proposed. [From 03:55 onward]
Dutch Mantell continued, speculating if the story behind the Brawl Out is also a story fed to the dirt sheets.
"I think they’ve been fed some bulls**t, and since you brought it up, this little fight between CM Punk and the Bucks? What if it turned out to be a work?" Mantell speculated. [From 04:27 onward]
Seth Rollins recently had an exclusive interview where he shockingly claimed that he doesn't want to see CM Punk make his way back to WWE.
Missed out on last week's AEW Rampage? Catch up with the results right here.
Jake Hager hinted at believing that CM Punk was the wrong party in the AEW backstage brawl
The Brawl Out initially divided AEW fans, and while more and more seem to be rallying behind CM Punk, he still has numerous detractors. Dax Harwood of FTR once claimed that Punk's detractors are far louder than his supporters.
Earlier in the same podcast, Hager seemed to be suggesting that he believes that CM Punk was the one in the wrong.
"Who knows how animosity builds and how lack of communication leads to certain things? I think it all stems from how you view things, and obviously, one person in that party was viewing things so negatively. And I don’t think he [CM Punk] was correct." [From 01:15 onward]
Unfortunately, neither Tony Khan nor any of the stars involved in the brawl are allowed to openly comment on precisely what happened, leaving fans with absolutely no closure months later.
If you use the quotes above, please credit Storytime with Dutch Mantell and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.
