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Bobby Fish explains why he kicked out of CM Punk’s GTS finishing move in AEW

Aaron Rift

While speaking in a video published to his YouTube channel, Bobby Fish explained why he kicked out of CM Punk’s GTS finishing move in AEW. Here is what Fish said about his match with Punk from October of 2021…

“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, you know, being a martial artist myself, I definitely was including some things and it did appear to me that he was going to do some of the same things. Sure — let’s do it. I think the match itself — our chemistry wasn’t bad. 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 — 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, or… I don’t, to be honest, it was so long ago I don’t remember exactly what it was. But it’s what we call in the industry ‘the office’ or ‘the Iggy.’ You generally do it to get someone’s attention. Now try to picture this — follow me on this. When you do an Irish whip, that’s when somebody gets whipped to the ropes and then they come back, right? So picture this, y’all — you’re all wrestling fans, so I know you can do this. Picture you’re both grabbing each other by the forearm. 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. This has since multiplied over many iterations to mean quite a few things in the industry. 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 are 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 — you know, sh*t or get off the pot. It was like, okay, 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 whatever he’s trying to get out of me? There wasn’t a lot of time to think about this. It was ‘do or don’t do,’ and I did — and what I did was kick out. Knowing, okay, if this wasn’t the intention, pick me up and hit your move again — or whatever you want to do. I don’t know. It was an instance where I didn’t 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 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. When we got to the back, obviously something happened — there was a mistake of some kind. So when I got to the back, my expectation was that I would encounter my opponent, we’d discuss it, I’d 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, who was the owner and booker of AEW. It was obvious to me 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 — not only from me but from each other.”

“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 and my things. I encountered him in there — yet another opportunity for him to discuss with me whatever he may or may not have had an issue with. I gave him that opportunity. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I gave him the chance 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 he was saying it made it obvious that things were not fine. To me, it was super passive-aggressive, and it’s not the way men — it’s not the way masculine people — handle business.”

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