AEW Full Gear 2022 Post-Show Media Scrum: Colt Cabana, PPV Buys, MJF, The Elite, ROH, Jungle Boy, Saraya

AEW held a post-show media scrum following Saturday’s Full Gear 2022 event in Newark, New Jersey.

Some of the notable highlights included:

• On the topic of if CM Punk had any involvement in Colt Cabana’s removal from AEW programming, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated “No. No, he never asked for that. The first time it came up, I think you asked me on a scrum call and I wasn’t looking at you face to face, it was before Death Before Dishonor, I think. He never asked me that. I could have probably addressed it then and I just didn’t comment on it because I wanted to keep talking about the wrestling that was on the show because Colt Cabana was wrestling on the show. You weren’t asking me specifically about the show, so I didn’t answer that there.”
• Khan also gave his thoughts on the decision for Colt Cabana to make his recent return to AEW television in a match against Chris Jericho for the ROH World Championship. Khan stated “As far as the match with Chris in Baltimore, I thought it made a lot of sense because we had the Ring of Honor Championship Series and Chris Jericho is wrestling so many of the great name in Ring of Honor and when you talk about great people who have won championships in Ring of Honor, we brought in Bandido, Dalton Castle, a lot of great people. When we’ve been booking the shows, I’ve been using Colt Cabana both as a coach and a wrestler in Ring of Honor. I looked at the roster and he’s a very logical challenger because, not only has he held the RIng of Honor Tag Team Championship, but he’s also somebody who has been wrestling in the 2022 Ring of Honor, is undefeated, so I thought he would be a logical challenger for Chris. It’s also a good match.”
• On the topic of Full Gear 2022’s pay-per-view buy rate, Khan stated that the early numbers and data currently trend to a buy rate in the range of 140,000 for the event.
• At one point during Khan’s portion of the media scrum, MJF interrupted and gave his thoughts on become the new AEW World Champion. MJF stated “The times, they are a changing. Wait your turn baby [speaking to Tony Khan], people pay to see me, not you. Let’s talk, shall we. AEW is now destination television, once again. The ship has been steered properly, once again. This belt is now the most important belt in this entire sport, and it’s thanks to three letters. It damn sure ain’t AEW. I know for a motherfuckin’ fact it ain’t MOX. It’s MJF. Goddamn, you people are fucking dumb. No offense. Are you fuckers stupid? You morons bit on every single word I had to say this past couple of months, huh? ‘I wanna earn it.’ ‘I wanna…’ fuck that! I deserve it because I’m the best wrestler in the fucking world. Every single one of you know it. On the microphone, in the ring, nobody can touch me. That’s a fact, nobody is on my level. To think you guys still believed me when I put over this [Tony Khan] motherfucker. Grow the fuck up, no offense. Grow up. ‘MJF, what’s going on with you Regal? We’re all really interested.’ You think I’m going to tell you anything. With 70,000 fucking hardcore marks watching at home, jerking off in their grandma’s basement. You think I give a shit? If you want to know anything about the most important man in professional wrestling, you have to tune in to the MJF show, that’s every Wednesday on TBS. You know damn well that it’s destination TV. Here’s what’s going to fucking happen. I’m going to take a shower, I’m going to get all of Moxley’s disgusting hepatitis A through Z off of me, and then in the morning, I’m going to do what nobody else on the roster does because I’m the only real fucking star here, I’m going to hop on a jet and I’m gonna go to my goddamn movie set. Anybody got any questions? Just kidding. Thank you. Fuck you. Bye.”
• In regards to the idea of Ring of Honor running ROH TV shows on YouTube, Khan stated that this was an idea he had considered but decided against due to him feeling that ROH deserved better for their weekly shows and is still hopeful of a television deal being signed in the future.
• On the topic of Adam Cole and Hangman Adam Page’s injuries, Khan stated that he has been in recent contact with Cole and Page but AEW currently does not have any timetables in mind for their potential returns.
• On the topic of The Elite using “Carry On My Wayward Son” as their return entrance song at Full Gear 2022, Khan stated that Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks never had any real plans to change the name of their group to the Wayward Sons but thought using the song would have been a great idea for their return. Khan also stated that he is currently very open to the idea of using the song again in the future in AEW.
• In regards to the Elite’s return, Khan stated that they have returned back to their previous backstage roles and duties in the company.
• During Jungle Boy’s portion of the media scrum, Jungle Boy gave his thoughts on his recent ring name change of “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry. Perry stated “I don’t think I’m going back to just Jungle Boy. That originally, when I was on the Indies, came about as a way to not use my real name and sort of stay away from my personal life. Then Christian went and blew that out of the water. At this point, there’s no hiding it really. I’m happy at the moment. It may not be Jungle Boy forever. We’ll see. I think people dig it. The kids.” Perry also gave his thoughts on Jim Ross referring to his real name on commentary at times during his matches in AEW. Perry stated “In the beginning, I really wasn’t ready for that. I think Jim Ross was the first one to put that out there and, there was nothing I can say about it, I’m not going to tell this guy not to. I was really thankful, to Tony I guess, that I was allowed to go out on TV and be called Jungle Boy and that was it. It was good that I could do that. It makes sense as the character progresses a bit. I used to eat bugs out of people’s hair, I don’t do that anymore. I’m happy with the progression of it. It’s more like a nickname now. It’s not as literal, Jungle Boy. I’m happy with the way it’s going. Who knows what it will look like in the future. The first time I heard it, I was watching the show back and I didn’t know he was doing that. ‘Oh, I guess that’s it now.’ I think he had the best interest in mind. I never really had a problem with it, it’s not something I say myself, but it was cool for me. Here is Jim Ross yelling my name over and over again. That’s pretty neat. Looking back at it, hats off to him.”
• Perry also confirmed that his gear at the event was a tribute to the gear Shawn Michaels wore during his Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker at WWF’s Badd Blood: In Your House event in October of 1997.
• On the topic of Thunder Rosa’s injury and AEW Women’s World Championship status, Khan stated “It’s a new championship reign and I have been evaluating that and it’s something we’re taking under consideration, certainly have been trying to give Thunder Rosa every opportunity to comeback and defend the championship. It’s been a few months now and when we get a better timeline for her return, I’ll have to make a decision about whether to continue with the interim or to make the interim champion possibly some kind of an opportunity to become the lineal champion.”
• During Saraya’s portion of the media scrum, Saraya gave her thoughts on the process she went through in order to be medically cleared to compete in her first match in years. Saraya stated “I feel fantastic. Tony really takes care of us, down to a T he was like, I’m not going to let you get back in the ring until you’re 100% ready to go. ‘I promise you, I got this, I promise you.’ We did MRIs, CT Scans, X-Rays, and my neck was 100% ready to go. Even I was shocked, I didn’t realize it would be 100%. With Tony, he’s very understanding when it comes to injuries. We said, ‘I want to take it slow coming back. I don’t want to rush back in like I did the last time’ where it was a lot of work straight away. He was so understanding. I really appreciate him. I’m happy I got to do this in AEW, I’ve been wanting to come here for a long time. It felt very cool that I got to do that here today. Before the match, they worked on my neck, heated it, put those electric pads on. Then they did all the pressure point stuff and they said, ‘we’ll do this every single time you’re here, even when you’re not wrestling.’ After, they checked on me to make sure I was okay. They massaged it a little, and made sure everything was good. ‘I promise you guys, I’m so good.’ Everyone is totally cautious, they want to be. I’m 100% fantastic and I feel good.”

Full Gear 2022 post-show media scrum full video:

Sources: F4WOnline.com, Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5