Bobby Fish/AEW
Bobby Fish has addressed the incident involving himself and CM Punk that happened when the pair had a match in AEW in 2021.
At the end of their match, Fish appeared to kick out just about, if not before, the referee counted three, which caused some controversy.
In a new YouTube video, Fish has talked about what happened and the backstage fallout in the aftermath.
He said:
“I think, dare I say, our chemistry wasn’t bad. I remembered him from my days coming up, that when he went out and just wrestled, he was actually a decent wrestler. A pretty marginal athlete, I think he was very awkward, but as just a pro-wrestler, I didn’t think he was bad.
“Where I thought he dropped the ball quite a bit was when he attempted to do more of a martial arts based thing, which, him coming back to pro-wrestling after the years of being away, I was actually a little surprised that that’s what he was coming back with. Because when he fought in the UFC, I think he represented our sport pretty poorly. I don’t think the man’s a very accomplished martial artist, and that just is what it is.
“In our match, I was definitely – being a martial artist myself – I definitely was including some things, and it did appear to me that he was gonna do some of the same things, which… sure. Let’s do it.
“Like I said, I think the match itself, our chemistry, wasn’t bad. What everybody’s interested in, what everybody wants to talk about, is the ending of this match. When the match ended, I was putting Phil over. In our industry, that’s doing the job, that’s doing the honors – you get paid to win or lose. So you go out and you do your job, or you do the job.
“I was set to do that that evening, and planned on doing it. In the moment of the pin, he squeezed my arm or my leg, to be honest it’s all this time ago, I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it’s what we call in the industry the office or the iggy. And you generally do it to get someone’s attention.
“So now, try to picture this, follow me on this – when you do an Irish whip, so that’s when somebody gets whipped to the ropes and they come back, right? So picture this, y’all are wrestling fans so I know you can do this. Picture, you’re both grabbing each other by the forearm. So it doesn’t need to be spoken, from there, if I give you a little squeeze, that’s what’s affectionately known as the office or the iggy.
“All that means is I’m telling you to reverse me. So this has then multiplied over many iterations to mean quite a few things in this industry. I know sometimes, you’ll have a good match with somebody and on the pin you give them the iggy to let them know, ‘Hey, I appreciated that. Thank you.’ There’s different kinds of iggies, as crazy as that sounds.
“But the iggy that I got in that moment was as if he was trying to get my attention. I don’t know what it was or why it was, but in that split second, I had an opportunity to, for lack of a better term, s**t or get off the pot. So it was like… why is he trying to get my attention? Do I let it pass, or do I do something to change the outcome of what’s happening and acquiesce to, ‘Okay, what are you trying to get out of me?’
“There was not a lot of time to think about this, so it was like, do or don’t do. And I did. And what I did was kick out – knowing, okay, if this wasn’t what the intention was, pick me up and hit your move again, or whatever you wanna do, I don’t know.
“It was an instance where I did not have a lot of time to think, so I kicked out. I know after the fact a lot of people have said I was going into business for myself, etc etc. I can confirm for you that that certainly has nothing to do with what my mindset was at that time.
“But it was what it was. After the match is when I have a hard time respecting my opponent, after that. When we got to the back, obviously something happened, there was a mistake of some kind. So when I got to the back and my expectation was that I would encounter my opponent, we would discuss, I would apologize or at least own what happened, that opportunity was not given to me.
“What was given to me was Mr Brooks in the ear of Tony Khan. It was obvious to me that they were talking about me because they were looking at me and talking.
“So I approached the couple. When I got there, they split and walked away from not only me but each other.
“After that, I had to go back to the locker room. Not the boys’ locker room, because he didn’t change in the boys’ locker room, so I went back to his locker room, to get my gear bag, my things, and I encountered him in there.
“Yet another opportunity for him to discuss with me whatever he may have or not had an issue with. And I gave him that opportunity. I mentioned – I don’t remember what I said – but I gave him the opportunity to air whatever grievances he might have had.
“He continued to say over and over, ‘No, it’s fine, it’s fine.’ Meanwhile, the way that he was saying what he was saying, it was obvious that things were not fine. To me, it’s super passive aggressive and it’s not the way men, it’s not the way masculine people handle business.
“In that moment I start to feel like, okay, I’m a pro-wrestler, way down on the list – I’m a father before I’m a pro-wrestler, I’m somebody’s husband before I’m a pro-wrestler, I’m somebody’s son before I’m a pro-wrestler. So if you’ve got a grievance with me or there’s an issue with something I did or didn’t do, let’s talk about it.
“I’m not even saying we have to fight, I’m just saying, if it comes down to that because that’s the only way that you can feel as if you’ve been heard, then that’s fine because that’s what men do. But men also discuss and talk about what the grievance is. That did not happen.
“And I gave Phil more than one opportunity to do that. And he didn’t take that. So that for me, I lost some respect for the man at that time, because if you’re going to have a problem, the quickest way to get a resolution to your problem is to go to the source, not to go to the booker, not to go to anybody else.
“Go to the source. And the source came back to your locker room and you could have handled it there but you didn’t. So I think it kind of comes down to like, okay, so forever hold your peace, because if you’re not gonna say it to the person, you kinda disqualify yourself from airing the grievance at all. But that’s not what happened.
“That’s what I was thinking and feeling in the moment. I would have to say because it was a split second and you don’t have time to consider, you either do or you don’t. I’m not sure, if presented with the same scenario, I wouldn’t do the same damn thing.
“I guess my claim to Phil would be like, own your part of it. You iggy’d me. I don’t know why. But I guess it’s neither here nor there.
“I didn’t do it to go into business for myself. It was a misunderstanding and misunderstandings happen, especially in any competitive live work. And then it comes down to the way you handle things afterwards, and in my opinion, he didn’t handle things afterwards in the best way he could have.”
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