This is all Tony's fault. You can't allow one group to make fun of and antagonize the other and not reprimand them he should have never allowed people to leak lies or any info to Dave and ran a tighter ship. If you need Punk you better make sure he isn't pissed at your lack of leadership. Say what you want about Vince or Haitch but they run a tight ship.
Right. I think its Tony's fault in both directions.
He needed to make it clear from jump to the EVPs that they were EVPs for appearance purposes and title ONLY.
He needed to make it clear that he is running a business, and his top draw is going to be treated like a top draw- not doing matches in the middle of the card or beginning of the show to "keep the peace" (he was doing this with guys who should have been at the top of the card even before Punk joined the company because he was trying to be friends with everyone).
Tony's habit is to not want to rock the boat when he is running a business. Now he has a situation where:
1. The Elite don't respect him and think they are in some civil war for the soul of AEW where they should be at the top of the card, and all of their friends should be employed doing indie match shyt
2. Punk doesn't respect him because he saw that Tony doesn't take business seriously and likely made multiple promises to him of what the business would be like, from how they would treat him in the locker room as a veteran to how he would be treated as a part of the show and champion. (I don't care what anyone says, you don't treat top draws the way Tony has treated Punk - yes he's kept him when other guys would have been fired after that scrum incident but look at all the other ways he's handled backstage issues, Punk's booking having him do 50/50 with Moxley in a match that made no sense because Moxley thought he was bigger than he was "doing him a favor") From a top draw in their company like Punk's perspective he's put up with a lot of shyt from guys who have never drawn as much as he has in his career WWE machine sure but its the truth.
3. Jericho doesn't respect him because he can tell all he has to do is feed his ego and drop his bad ideas to pull any guy with heat into his orbit and stay on top. Every time someone gets organically over, they end up in Jericho's orbit and their heat gets snuffed out.
I could go on and on - but Tony's poor handling of all the backstage shyt has resulted in this. Never have I heard of a top draw being this disrespected in a wrestling company (whether you like the guy or not). Usually the promoter makes everyone play ball with that guy, not dancing around unable to make decisions and trying to keep people friends while splitting your own roster to spite your face.