just drew

I mean, maybe. I've been pretty open about some of the stuff I struggle with. It doesn't change the fact that CM Punk has marketed himself for the better part of two decades as a moral crusader, both inside the ring and out. Now that he needs the money, and has burned every other bridge with any company who could potentially pay him what he thinks he's worth, he's willing to be "Company Man Punk." This is a guy who cut off contact with any WWE employee in his life when he left the first time. He's made himself a target for scrutiny with his own actions. But his fans will keep moving goalposts to avoid admitting to themselves that he's just as big a corporate stooge as the performers he made a living calling out, my guy.

I mean, it's entirely feasible to me that they bought AAA just to get Vikingo. If I were a billionaire, I would.

I did. Took my son to the park. Checked again when I got home. CM Punk is still a sellout, bro.

That’s what I thought, too. It really feels like they’re ramping up their efforts to mess with AEW. Sucks that Vikingo won’t be back in AEW for the foreseeable future.

I remember liking that first Good Charlotte record.

In baseball, catchers do something called “pitch framing.” They do their damnedest to make every pitch look like a strike, including sleight of hand. Or glove. It’s the closest thing I can think of.

My kid is very excited about the live action Lilo & Stitch. That is all.

Donnybrook in the Breakfast Nook.

I mean, you aren't wrong. I'd watch.

I want you to know before I say this that you're legitimately my favorite poster here, and someone I consider a friend. Having said that, this really disappoints me. CM Punk has made his entire career on being "the voice of the voiceless." An advocate for the unseen and unheard. And now that he has no choice but to tow the line, he's turned into a corporate bootlicker. "They don't want us to get political." So? For his entire career, Phil was the guy who knew what they didn't want him to do and did it anyway. I don't begrudge the guy for wanting to not get fired. Eggs are 8.50 a dozen. Do what you have to do. Just don't pretend to be the rebel when you're a taxpayer in your mid-40's. My absolute least favorite thing on the planet are phonies. I think that's why I despise the Jacksons so much. These two upper-class homeschoolers pretending to be tough guys because they can't seem to admit to themselves what they are. CM Punk now falls squarely into that category too: a guy who made his name being anti establishment. A self proclaimed "punk rock kid." A guy who wasn't afraid to call out MJF for teasing leaving for WWE is now "main-eventing" night one of a "buy one get one free extravaganza." CM Punk is selling off his integrity a piece at a time. He's already fallen in line with Triple H, a guy he once claimed to despise and would never work with again (until Triple H was the only guy who could pay him what he needs to make his mortgage payment). I can't wait to see Phil make the media rounds in Dubai leading up to "Saudi B L O O D $ 2; Electric Boogaloo." I already know what Casey is gonna say: "Touch grass." Ok. Maybe I should. There's not enough in front of my townhouse. But Punk has become who he is because his persona is that of a rebel. Someone who speaks out no matter what. And now he gets squeamish because his boss is a MAGA diehard? Fuck that noise. And fuck Phil. He's a pretender. A corporate bootlicking sellout. He used to be Black Flag. Now he's Good Charlotte.

I think the Jacksons are gonna get DR their Trios titles back through chicanery. Then Mox will be like "fine. We'll walk you home from the library to make sure none of the sophomores who smoke in front of the QuikTrip take yall's lunch money." Speaking of geeks... if TK insists on Adam Cole winning matches, that formula is the way to go. Catch an epic ass beating, heel loses focus, fluke win. I will say, to his credit, that's the first time I've ever seen him work a larger opponent and not pretend he's the same size. Only took him 17 years. Kevin Knight rules. Speedball Bailey also rules, but less. Ricochet is super fucking annoying, but in a good way. Happy for STP. They are now apparently on the official roster page. IDK if that's a new development, but someone pointed it out last night. Megan Bayne is dollar signs. They should've done the Clubber Lang "appears from nowhere, murders beloved babyface" angle. She'll be fine. If I'm TK I'm offering her and Harley Vlad Jr-esque $ and years. Toni isn't going anywhere, so those are the two I'd worry the most about getting poached. Everyone else is replaceable. Maybe not Statlander and Hayter, or Julia Hart. But yeah, everyone else. Lol. Ok, lock Athena up too. Shit. Have I mentioned how good I think AEW's women's division is now? Begone, Mariah. Unless you decide to stay. Happy as hell to see ROOSH back on my screen. LFI rules. RUSH and Joe beating the piss out of each other in a trios title match sometime in the near future would make me happy. Main event was good. Toni makes me laugh. Harley should probably be doing a little better at this point from a match standpoint. Like, getting more offense and whatnot. Statlander is so effortlessly good. Solid, solid week of TV. Would've been impossible to top Dynamite but very good Collision.

Sarah Stock done with AEW. There is a rumor that she is pushing female AEW talent to sign with WWE when they become available. IDK if it's true or not, but it's come up in more than one place now.

You could do a real big one with the bucks & Okada on the DR side and Hanger and Swerve with the Opps. Maybe Kenny too.

If you disregard the hardcore title, the list gets slightly longer, but it still isn't long.

According to Bret Hart, the ropes broke early in a 2 out of 3 falls match and the teams struggled through it as best they could. The refs and officials didn't want to stop the show to fix the ropes. Because the change was supposed to be on SNME, the decision was made that the footage was unairable and the title change scrapped.

The only guy I can think of who did anything of note is Jim Neidhart, and he was gone before the Attitude Era REALLY kicked off. Dan Severn comes to mind.

While we're on the subject of titles, it's crazy to me how differently titles are viewed now than they were in the 80's and 90's. i'm always astounded by how many dudes were over as fuck who never won a singles title in WWF/E. Lex Luger, Tatanka, Doink, Crush, Adam Bomb, Jake Roberts, Vader, IRS, Bam Bam Bigelow, Savio Vega, Earthquake, Dusty Rhodes, Big Bossman, etc. People never dropped titles back then. I guess it's not so much a "hot take" as it is an observation on how the business has changed.

I agree, and there haven’t been enough women cross over to WWE for Mariah to have much indication of how she’d be treated. The grass is not always greener.

Holy Shit. Not an ounce of fat on that TV show. That was fucking spectacular. The Alexander debut, Ospreay and Takeshita having the match of the week on fucking Wednesday (no one's touching that, don't kid yourselves), I thought Mercedes and Athena were really, really good. The Hurt Syndicate was tops, as always, but I thought the "hoes" segment dragged a bit. Shelton popped me a couple times, though. Then that main. Holy. Shit. That main was AWESOME. I'm probably the biggest Death Rider Rider on this board, but even my balls were tingling when Hobbs showed up. good to get the trios titles on a team that can focus on them more. And that crowd. My God. There's been a lot of talk about "restoring the feeling." THAT was the feeling. The roster TK is building is truly breathtaking. Adding Alexander and potentially Michael Oku is, as the kids would say, diabolical work. I love that Tony Khan didn't respond to Nick Khan's absolute nonsense by tweeting or doing a press conference. Instead, he put THAT on free fucking TV. Congrats to TK on defying the odds and officially having the longest running wrestling show in the history of Time Warner. Suck a turd, Bischoff.

This is a fantastic idea. She can bring out the Mercedes puppet wearing the stereotypical local garb of every city she's in.

Not everything needs build. I’ll have more in-depth thoughts on this show later, but for now I’ll just reiterate that I find it both hypocritical and hilarious that so many of yall are bitching about the Death Riders doing what they’re doing when yall are the same folks who tried to convince me that it was fine when Kenny & the Jacksons did this same exact shit 4 years ago. Only Mox isn’t hemorrhaging viewers like the Elite did.

Boy, it’s like that ending was designed specifically to piss me off. Like TK sat there and thought “what’s the one thing I could do to get Drew to hate this Death Riders angle?” And voila, there it is. Still really enjoyed the show, though. Other than Adam Cole. I don’t understand that decision at all. FTR fucking murdered Cope. Like, Wheeler should probably catch his second strike on that beating.

They’re gonna keep making $ because their marketing & PR is next level, but they’ve pissed off a LOT of long time fans with the increase in ticket prices.

AEW being between 850k and 1.1 mil per week would be serious improvement. Ticket sales appear to be up. The product is measurably better. I think TK has really done well to alter his approach to WWE over the last 9 months or so. He’s focused on making his product the best possible and stopped letting his jimmy get rustled by WWE. I wonder if that’s why the Fed has gotten so aggressive: they aren’t getting a response anymore.

AEW certainly got paid like a successful content creator. It’s not hard for me to believe at all that wbd believes AEW is a popular, sought after property. To me, the biggest sign that AEW is on the upswing and gaining popularity is how aggressive WWE has gotten in their counter programming. They schedule specials on the same weekend as AEW PPV’s. They have those deals with arenas where if they book a WWE event they can’t run any other wrestling company for a certain period of time. And does anyone believe it’s coincidence that after weeks of rumors that AEW Shockwave was going to be on Tubi, that a WWE affiliated product just happens to show up there? WWE is playing hardball, which they never did with tna or Ring of honor.