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I was charmed by Triple H saying he didn't know the term "joshi" until a couple of years ago and that it's all wrestling to him. It was like a confused uncle listening to his niece's Spotify playlist and not really knowing what he's listening to but enjoying it all the same. More of that from older folks, plz.

WWE Subfolder.... He's your problem now .

I think for me, I don't personally feel as though AEW respects my time as a viewer. The breakup of Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland is probably the best example of this. They were building tension between the two, they lost the titles, they stayed together for nearly three months after, then they just... did nothing. Swerve started his own group, but there was never a match between him and Keith Lee to play off of the tension that they had. If the story they wanted to tell was that Swerve turned and as a result Keith drifted away from him, fine. If it was a health thing from one of them, fine. But we didn't get a true conclusion to their story, it just sort of ended, and to me, I struggle to see why I should have gotten invested in Swerve and Keith as a team or in the tension they had because it was all just thrown away to move onto the next story. All it takes is one angle someone really enjoys being blown off with an unsatisfactory conclusion to completely tank someone's interest. The primary hook a lot of people fall on is "but there are great matches", but there are great matches everywhere. What's the incentive if you want more than that? Not only that, but there's six hours of regular TV each week. How do I know which show will have my favorites, if any? I don't. AEW used to be really good about advertising what matches would happen the next week, and nowadays you might not get an announcement of what's happening on each show until the day before. It's almost as if AEW relies on their audience to just watch each week and they don't need to say what they're going to be delivering. You can't try and sell as much product as AEW does while also not saying what's inside the package.

Right as I turned to my wife to say, "see they didn't need him, they made that crowd happy just with Randy Orton going nuts." Cult of Personality hit. I'm really just not interested. His time in AEW wore me out, which sucks because he was really having quality matches. Like him vs. Reigns sounds fun, but after all the shenanigans I just don't want Punk around acts I'm invested in.

From a people-watching POV, watching people float “AEW’s problem is the former WWE people they have working backstage” or “AEW has went downhill because they strayed from what they used to do” is fascinating. I suspect a big part of the equation is that AEW was better prepared to face Vince than Hunter and now that the WWE is hotter and the boss isn’t in his 70s and they're cutting valuable guys loose less often than they did in 2021, it’s a little tougher. Some of the “AEW is too sports entertainmenty now” feels like an ideology thing where if things go badly, it gets blamed on drifting from the shining path. Like if your party loses an election and it gets blamed on not catering enough to the base.

And people accuse me of having "Wreddit-level takes." Jesus Christ.

The show was a blast. It was the first time in months my friend Chris, who I've been watching PPV's with regularly since 2010, was able to come over. We had a great time. I filled him in on all the angles, and told him early in the show about the Punk rumors. After the main event when all the babyfaces are holding up each other's hands, I get up to go rock a piss and I say to Chris, " I knew it. What are they gonna do? Have Punk just come out and wave at the crowd?" I come back into the room and see Punk on the TV and Chris is all, " Dude, I got goosebumps!" I totally missed it AND had loudly proclaimed there was no way he was showing up exactly one minute before he did. And I'm jazzed. I have no interest in arguing with anyone about Punk, but I've been a fan since 2004 and I still am.

WWE has been safe vanilla Disney wrestling for awhile now. So I'm pretty intrigued to see if Punk sparks some danger or edge into the product. I think he'll be okay politically at least for a year or so. Nothing motivates that man like a grudge and I think he feels like the AEW Tony Khan grudge is the biggest one of his career now. Sure WWE fired him on his wedding day, but that mean Cowboy guy got to make a tame worker's rights joke at him & Luke Perry's kid had the audacity to say "that's real glass". The horror lol. This does make me wonder about the opposite world we could have gotten. Had TK thrown all of his support behind Punk and lost The Elite to WWE. I feel like that's what went wrong. TK wouldn't pick a side. He played both sides until it was too late and everybody resented him. A motivated Elite showing up in WWE would have been fun. Punk getting more control to mold AEW in his image to compete with his enemy would have been fun. To me this is the least fun outcome. The Elite stay in AEW and meander around. Punk goes to WWE and has to tone himself down to fit into the Disney product. Lose / lose outcome here. But I'm still gonna watch Raw for the first time in years just to see how much of a leash they give him on the mic. I hope it works out and Punk gets to end his career with a few positive fun years at the end.

I really am not excited for Punk. Everyone has their own taste obviously. But worked-shoot stuff to me is empty calorie cheap heat — kind of the same thing as, say, insulting a local hockey team (another Punk specialty.) My tastes lean much more into how wrestlers use character work to tell their stories. I think a lot of wrestling fans are over that. The Bloodline ran its course (or is on pause) but it was the best storyline in WWE history, IMO. There was almost zero work-shoot stuff in it, and Paul Heyman — who leaned into work-shoot stuff harder than anyone — is actively involved. I really can’t remember a Punk promo I dug in AEW. The only one I really remember was the one with Kingston, and Eddie stole the show by delivering his material with real emotion while Punk was saying cornball stuff like “ST. LOUIS KNOWS!!!” If Punk was coming back as a sXe goon and tormenting other members of Rey Mysterio’s family — I would be all in. Being able to deliver stories while playing a character I am all in on. But “maybe we’ll bring back ice cream bars NOW!!!” is not for me.

Cody was the only one of those three that mattered and he's been gone for nearly 2 years and AEW is trucking along at the same pace. Punk was on TV for like a month of his last year with the company and everyone was ready to move on from him. Jade was pushed hard, but was never a key piece of anything. Stat did more for the secondary belt in a few months than Jade did in her whole 60 match streak. If there's one thing that's become abundantly clear over the last couple of years, it's that WWE is the clear #1, AEW is a healthy #2, and no amount of talent movement changes that.

Oh btw I love this shit. I unapologetically loved worked shooty bullshit. And I been wanting a real promotion war between WWE and AEW for a while, but Tony keeps playing the high road horseshit instead of having Moxley or Rusev or Keith Lee or Toni Storm or whoever do a scorched earth anti-WWE promo. Other than Punk taking some lightweight shots, the worst we've gotten is Serena Deeb (rightfully) calling Vince, Johnny, and Bucky creepy old men for making her get implants. If Tony won't go Bischoff on his own, maybe Punk can coax it out of him...

Guess I will record raw for the first time in about 8 years. I hope this run is magic while it lasts. Regardless, reading the haters cry about it will be entertaining enough.

Rhea’s outfit was a homage to Sherri Martel, wasn’t it?

Tyler Black is All Elite!

FUUUUUUUUCK, FUCK FUCK! JUST GO THE FUCK AWAY YOU PIECE OF.SHIT!

I’d use Punk as a vehicle to put Logan Paul over at Mania Thats about how much time you have before he implodes again

Are we in the pretend world where one of WWE’s current top babyfaces in Cody wasn’t always taking shots at WWE from 2019 literally right up until his last promo in AEW? Straight Edge Man bad.

Nah, you see, Punk never broke his foot, never got mad at the Bucks, wasn't fired, and this is just to set up Raw moving to TBS next year, when WWE and AEW will start working together. In Memoriam of A_K

Tony Khan never learned that he's the owner of the company and his word is final. Yeah, Punk is back in WWE and they can take the "risk" because it's not really a risk for them. Hunter will fire Punk's ass on the spot. You can tell from the press conference he still doesn't even really like the guy.

So you're the mother fucker with the Monkey's Paw.

And my Peacock subscription is cancelled.

there is a certain spirit of 2000s indy wrestling that CM Punk represents, which is probably a bit of a matter of taste (or a matter of if you experienced that scene too) without knowing which WWE people were in Punk's phone contacts, I'd think one of those contacts may have unintentionally made this all a reality (maybe not Paul Heyman, but Paul Heyman feels like someone who could have gotten the sides in contact with each other)

I think 'Bucky' in this context is Kevin Dunn, referring to his teeth.

I feel similarly about NXT vs AEW when that was more of a thing. As a concept it was more successful as an Indy killer with ROH and other hot independent talent. AEW across more like a bigger deal. I saw Reddit posts dunking on HHH and saying NXT was a failure which was downright laughable. The AEW honeymoon of excitement and earned good faith was maybe up to Double or Nothing 2022. At least for me, when AEW had something that maybe wasn’t working they usually found a way to turn it around and I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Even the criticized Codyverse was almost entirely pointed at Cody instead of the booker/ owner. After or around that point we started seeing interim titles, added belts, ROH, injuries and highly talked about backstage drama. I feel they’ve returned to mostly good television but I’m much more critical and less likely now to assume something I don’t like will work out in the end. I’m interested in a similar 3 year period of potential good faith for TKO-WWE-HHH. Compared to when they were the only major game in town, there is a lot more die hard fans that really really love this product. Will the eventual transition away from the Bloodline maintain an era of prosperity? I think so, but I also thought AEW could do no wrong a little over a year ago. This is fair. I look at AEW as an alternative to things I don’t like. I understand that caps them as a forever #2, but I’m a dumb consumer that likes dumb things and has dumb thoughts. I’m very uninterested in Cope in AEW. Toni Storm’s gimmick is going too far into parody for me. What the fuck are the Righteous? These are things that can grow them as a company so maybe I wouldn’t listen to me. But I went from a buy all PPVs and see the live shows to not going to Dynamite next week. I’m not mad or anything. I’m just a consumer with tight money and making a choice on what I can spend on. eh. I think if there is a spiral downwards it’s already been in place. If not, then it all is what it is. Although fun, it is impossible to actually have this conversation until in retrospect with much more available information. No disrespect though.

Glad to know HHH and Nick Khan also do t-shirt and web design.

feels like some people should remember the lesson of the former/future TNA: it's impossible for wrestling companies to die if they don't want to die

Fun show but all I'll say about the end is that I'm truly happy for @Casey

https://twitter.com/luchablog/status/1728642218854891568

Pretty good show tonight. Women's war games was fun to watch. I kept thinking Damage CTRL was turning on Bayley, but I guess they aren't doing that quite yet. Gunther vs. Miz was went how I thought it would. I like seeing Miz fire it up and be serious once in a while. Surprised by the tap out ending. I thought Santos vs. Dragon Lee was good right up to the ending. It just felt a bit anticlimactic for him to win out of nowhere with the destroyer and then driver. I would have preferred to see him cheat to win or something. He is a bad guy after all. Rhea vs. Zoey was pretty good. Typical Rhea match at this point. But Zoey looked good in defeat. Mens wargames was good. It was good to see Randy back. He looked like he hadn't lost a step. The Super RKO was awesome. I'll admit they got me with the copyright logo and then the music hit. Oh boy there's so many ways this can go. I'm excited for the possibilities.

LOOK OUT, HE'S GOT A MUFFIN!

Is Brody winning really an upset? I don't think so, but that's just me.

The Punk- Ace Steel promo/pep talk segment was also clearly the best thing on wrasslin’ tv in many years. Absolute perfection.

@Octopus I feel the righteous are supposed to be dark side of flower power ala The Manson Family, not sure how much legs that has though. As for being a wrestling alternative while I certainly think the 2006-2007 ECW revival shows showed that there's is an appetite for something other than Vince's McMahon's vision of "sports entertainment". However, when you are running a national promotion, you have to respect that WWE has established what wrestling looks like on this level for 20 years. I liken it to this I've been to a few of Joey Ryan's Bar Wrestling shows, you want to do "dick flip" wrestling your gonna draw your wrestling neck beards but not much beyond that. PCW Ultra is a bigger indy and runs a much more traditional show and they get more people and more families at their shows. @Sparkleface I've long thought that one of Tony's weakness as a booker is overly relying on "special guest star". This week its Jeff Cobb, next week it Will Osprey!. I can watch NJPW on AXS for good matches, I could watch Impact in 60, when I go to AEW I want to get sucked into stories. It used to be we had a variety of characters and a handful of guys who could really work. But in an era where everyone can go, I need more than a great match for the sake of a great match like 96-98 Nitro.

the Patriots/Giants being a 10-7 game ending on a missed field goal sounds like the basis of a class action lawsuit

CODY: "Punk, I made sure you got warm meals, buddy. And this is how you repay me?" PUNK: "You think I look homeless or something? You didn't think I could get a good meal on my own dime?"

This is the beginning of the end of AEW.

No, but having a Daddy Magic kinda makes up for it.

With Florida and South Carolina both losing today, there officially will not be enough six win eligible teams so James Madison and Jacksonville State will be going bowling after all.

I am in hell. AEW’s on its way to being big-budget TNA if Tony wants to keep it running and we still don’t have a true alternative to WWE. Fuck me.

NSNA is not good, but For Your Eyes Only on a worst Bond list is wild. It's one of the only two actually good Moore Bond movies, and would be hands down his best and a contender for best Bond movie period if not for Bibi Dahl.

Same.

The WWE is a never say never company. I mean Bruno came back. Bret came back. Warrior came back. Punk coming back was an inevitability.

That brings me to something I was thinking about the other day about how Jericho is pretty much sucking the life out of everything I like in AEW. He just latches himself now on to whatever is "hot" at the time and it goes on and on for months on end. Jericho has become everything he used to bitch and complain about in wrestling and now Punk is on his way to doing the same thing. The moral to the story is that nobody is above the mighty dollar, these guys are ALL carnies, 100% of them. Cena was another example. Bitching about The Rock being too Hollywood and leaving the company behind and then he does the same thing. LOL.

I like how he made sure to confirm or deny nothing with his answer.

guess you can't use weirdos stalking airports to spoil debuts if the guy lives in the city where the show is happening

I just fell to my knees in the middle of Wal-Mart. guess I’m watching WWE again.

Really good way to spend a Saturday night watching three hours of AEW.