As noted before, AEW held a talent meeting prior to the start of this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Buffalo, New York. While details of the meeting were sparse at the time, it was believed to revolve around the backstage fight incident from AEW’s All Out 2022 event this past Sunday.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that it was Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, and Bryan Danielson who had called for this talent meeting to take place. One source spoken to described the meeting as the best backstage meeting they ever had in the company and made them realize the damage done to the AEW brand that they had to overcome.
Those spoken to reportedly also stated that talent were told at the meeting to no longer air their “dirty laundry” publicly. One person spoken to stated that after the meeting concluded, everything that happened this past Sunday was forgotten and nobody was looking backwards, only forward in the company.
Several talent spoken to stated that they felt proud of putting together a strong show for Dynamite this past Wednesday after all of the bad publicity towards the company in the days following their All Out 2022 event. Meltzer reported that while most talent were excited about the future for the company, some talent had felt depressed over how everything had gone down over the past week.
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that talent were told during the meeting to “keep their personal issues personal” and try to solve their problems backstage instead of leaking it to the news outlets and public. Those same sources also stated that the meeting itself was not meant to be “anti-CM Punk” in tone or focus.
In regards to the speakers at the meeting, it was reported that Danielson was described as commanding a “calming” presence while Moxley was “adored” by talent over his speech given. Talent spoken to reportedly also stated that they agreed with his promo during the show about him being “the answer” to AEW’s problems.