Tony Khan thinks he made a really smart decision on the CM Punk backstage fight footage

Last week’s (Apr. 10) episode of AEW Dynamite had a lot of buzz going into because Tony Khan decided to air the actual security camera footage of last year’s backstage altercation between CM Punk and Jack Perry that led to Punk’s termination from the company.

Khan’s decision on the Punk/Perry footage was largely met with ridicule online, both before and after it aired. There were even rumors of widespread internal frustration at AEW over this ratings stunt, with viral screenshots of Tony Schiavone’s face giving flashbacks to WCW 2000.

Despite all of the negativity surrounding Khan’s decision, Dynamite’s ratings did see a significant turnaround from the prior two weeks. That’s all Tony needed to see to know he made a smart decision on airing the footage.

Here he is on a call with the media today explaining why his decision to air the security camera footage was a major success for AEW:

“After the ratings came in…TBS called me and told me good job. You have to remember that I’m responsible for everybody’s job in this company, and it is really important for us to please the network. And TBS was really happy with that show and that performance. That’s the most important thing. And our fan feedback on the show that we got, the rating is the number one source of fan feedback in the end. The network, and they were incredibly pleased, it was over 400,000 viewers in the 18-49 demographic, and that was a strong performance. And that is how TBS judges the show, and how TBS judges the show is the most important metric I have for the performance.”

As far as fan feedback goes, Tony added that the live audience was very loud for this week’s angle with Matthew and Nicholas Jackson on Dynamite, and that’s in part because the backstage fight footage from last week “added a lot of intrigue” to the upcoming Young Bucks vs. FTR ladder match at Dynasty this Sunday night (Apr. 21).

One week later, has your mind changed at all regarding Tony’s smart or dumb decision to air the Punk / Perry footage? Give me your thoughts in the comments below, Cagesiders.