Confirmed: no police report filed in CM Punk/Ace Steel/Young Bucks/Kenny Omega backstage altercation
A backstage incident between CM Punk, AEW Producer Ace Steel, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega following All Elite Wrestling All Out on September 4, 2022 has become one of pro wrestling’s biggest stories of the year.
Multiple versions of the altercation that took place following CM Punk’s address to the media after All Out have been reported on by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer and Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful on the Fightful select platform among others in the wrestling media. While there have been varying details emerging regarding the altercation and what actually took place in the backstage melee between CM Punk, Ace Steel and The Elite, it is clear that some type of physical altercation between the two parties occurred.
Early Monday morning following the reported altercation with word of potential legal involvement or action being mentioned, WrestleMap filed a freedom of information request with the Hoffman Estates Police Department in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, the location of the NOW Arena, the site of Sunday night’s AEW All Out pay-per view event. In our filing, we requested copies of police reports for any calls answered by police in or around the vicinity of the NOW Arena on the night of All Out and into the early morning hours of Monday, September 5th.
Prior to WrestleMap obtaining the documents from the Hoffman Estates Police Department, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported on Tuesday, September 6th during a live Fightful Select podcast that he had spoken with the Hoffman Estates Police Department and that they had notified him that they did not respond to the NOW Arena on the night of All Out for any backstage incidents following the pay-per-view event.
Now, after acquiring documentation of all police reports for responses made by the Hoffman Estates Police Depaetment in and around the vicinity of NOW Arena in the time frame during All Out and the hours following the event, WrestleMap can independently verify that Fightful’s report is correct and the police did not respond to any calls regarding a backstage issue at the event.
Hoffman Estates Police were in the arena and the vicinity of the arena five times in the hours before, during and after the All Out PPV. The four incidences that were responded to by the department included public intoxication, a car battery dying requiring police assistance, a fire alarm being activated in the arena, a family dispute in the arena and two fans who had traveled from the United Kingdom that were stranded at the arena and waved down police for assistance. As per the filed report, the Hoffman Estates PD were kind enough to give the duo a ride back to their place of lodging.
One of the narratives surrounding the altercation between the two sides centered around a legal investigation or pending legal action, leaving both sides and AEW unable to make any public statements regarding the incident as per those reports. As police filings from the hours before, during and after All Out show, WrestleMap can independently confirm that any pending legal matters are not of a criminal matter. This would leave the only possible pending legal matters as civil actions being considered or taken by the talent involved or All Elite Wrestling in some capacity.
