The Termination of CM Punk by The Coward Tony Khan

[JohnnyJ]

2 hours ago, (BP) said:

I don’t think it’s that dire, but a little more than a year ago there was a possibility of them being real competition for WWE and now it looks like they’re going to perpetually be the number two promotion. Which is fine, there isn’t any reason there should only be one major national promotion. There’s room for them, at least for the foreseeable future. 

I think it’s a question of what AEW learned from All In. What really separates WWE from AEW is the spectacle of their big shows. Packing that many people into a building with celebrities, media, etc. makes everything else look bush league. If I were them I would relax on the weekly touring as I’m sure it costs a fortune and they have trouble drawing big. Instead focus on stadium shows. 

[NoFistsJustFlips]

52 minutes ago, JohnnyJ said:

If I were them I would relax on the weekly touring as I’m sure it costs a fortune and they have trouble drawing big. Instead focus on stadium shows. 

Do you mean scale back to weekly studio tapings and do stadium shows for every PPV?

Taped vs live is a gigantic difference in drawing in viewers. Not running weekly towns would kill them dead in their tracks and turn them into current day Impact. Which YMMV on if you are entertained by them, but they make nooo money. Studio tapings are a thing that died on the vine 20 years ago. 3000 paying customers in new towns every week surely makes more money than 800-1000 of the same people over and over. And new towns = loud and excited. The same town over and over dont react as passionately.

If they could fill stadiums on the regular, yeah that's a great plan. But I don't think they could sell out 4 stadiums in the US per year. I'd happily eat my hat if they tried that and it worked. 1 a year in the US I think they could pull off at this point. But they aren't there yet to try that for every PPV show.

[COLETTI]

1 hour ago, Super Ape said:

https://twitter.com/fightful/status/1698374851004616920?s=46

A Young Bucks victory lap in a 30% full United Center is one of the reasons why right or wrong, I stand with Punk.

If this ends up being the death blow to AEW, at least I can take cold comfort in these assholes putting over the 2025 equivalent to Rybaxel on Main Event someday (probably under the names Jason and Jeremy Buckwalter or something similarly stupid).

So what you're saying is annoying douchebaggery is worse than assaulting coworkers? Personally I usually FF through the Bucks' matches but... come ON. 

[Craig H]

I just assume Super Ape doesn’t have a fucking clue about what they’re saying. It’s almost as obnoxious as Vile One. Death blow? Give me a break.

[zendragon]

29 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Do you mean scale back to weekly studio tapings and do stadium shows for every PPV?

Taped vs live is a gigantic difference in drawing in viewers. Not running weekly towns would kill them dead in their tracks and turn them into current day Impact. Which YMMV on if you are entertained by them, but they make nooo money. Studio tapings are a thing that died on the vine 20 years ago. 3000 paying customers in new towns every week surely makes more money than 800-1000 of the same people over and over. And new towns = loud and excited. The same town over and over dont react as passionately.

If they could fill stadiums on the regular, yeah that's a great plan. But I don't think they could sell out 4 stadiums in the US per year. I'd happily eat my hat if they tried that and it worked. 1 a year in the US I think they could pull off at this point. But they aren't there yet to try that for every PPV show.

Plus one problem Impact always had was you would get the same Yahoo going nut for Lance Hoyt and you never really got a chance to figure out what was working for the larger audience

 

1 hour ago, Super Ape said:

https://twitter.com/fightful/status/1698374851004616920?s=46

A Young Bucks victory lap in a 30% full United Center is one of the reasons why right or wrong, I stand with Punk.

If this ends up being the death blow to AEW, at least I can take cold comfort in these assholes putting over the 2025 equivalent to Rybaxel on Main Event someday (probably under the names Jason and Jeremy Buckwalter or something similarly stupid).

Like I said some months ago nobody's right if everybody's wrong. Bucks/Elite have really made it seem like they didn't want him there, I don't know if they really leaked rumors about him getting Cabana fired but I can understand Punk being upset about hearing that. Certainly not blameless from this whole thing not working out

[Octopus]

Everyone sucks except Samoa Joe

[Teflon Turtle]

Eh...barring another pandemic, the last 5-6 years of wrestling history have shown us that a lot of the wrestlers have options.

Even if this winds up being the beginning of the end for AEW (I don't really think it will be, but who knows for sure), it's not "WWE or bust" for AEW's biggest names. Honestly, it's probably just as likely that if AEW folds, Kenny and the Bucks call up New Japan and say "Hey guys...remember that U.S. expansion that stalled out when we left and COVID hit? How do you feel about making some money?" Things would just sort of reset to 2017-2018 when Kenny and the Bucks were the biggest names in indy wrestling and worked NJPW, in my opinion. Might be made more difficult by New Japan's lean years during the pandemic, but it's not unimaginable that something could be worked out.

[stuntmanc]

I'm as anti-Punk as they come, but despite being glad he's gone/upset that it's overshadowing all of the good stuff AEW did with All In.......

I do have to thank Punk for the Punk/MJF Feud.  I was "all in" for that(no pun intended) and enjoyed it so much I bought the shirt.  I do think AEW will be lesser without him, my personal feelings aside, but no matter which side you stand on, there is one common denominator with all of this nonsense and it was him.   

I'm curious how Collision looks going forward and I echo the sentiment (I forget who said it to give credit) that all roads now should lead to Brody King, monster heel champ.

[Ziggy]

3 hours ago, (BP) said:

I don’t think it’s that dire, but a little more than a year ago there was a possibility of them being real competition for WWE and now it looks like they’re going to perpetually be the number two promotion. Which is fine, there isn’t any reason there should only be one major national promotion. There’s room for them, at least for the foreseeable future. 

When AEW started WWEs business metrics was trending down but a year or so post pandemic its trending higher than ever in certain aspects. That doesn't mean AEW can't start doing better business plus by proxy of them being a legit number two they've managed to get better TV rights deals because of WWEs value going up.

My only concern about Comission is that they've been unofficially labeled and viewed as CM Punks show and now he's gone they've got to continue to do things to give it a different feel than Dynamite.  Now they can have more Elite guys on the show so that's cool but the need to keep that old schoolish feel it's had

[Craig H]

And I guess here’s my final thoughts on CM Punk for awhile. He was one of my all time favorites because he was completely one of a kind. I’m honestly shocked more people haven’t come along to try and emulate a lot of the little things he did. Holding up trans rights signs, the shirts he’d wear, talking about actual cool pop culture shit in the ring like the sports almanac from BttF 2, the tone of his voice, the dangerousness of not knowing what he would say, and all of the little things he’d do inside the ring.

Then I think about our proximity in age and how if we lived closer we’d likely wind up knowing each other. I had at least a few punk or goth friends with family troubles who would basically wind up living at another friend’s house or staying at my house sometimes. But I also think someone like Punk would wind up calling me a sell out, be an elitist when it came to music, or we’d just wind up growing apart. There’s a lot of familiarity with him that I just have never had with any other wrestler.

So this all sucks. I really don’t know what’s up with the guy, but he went completely off the deep end. I would suggest taking care of his mental health and hell, even his wife is an advocate for that, but for whatever reason he thinks it’s bullshit. There’s so many opportunities for fans that got flushed down the toilet for the dumbest of reasons. It just sucks. I think back to that promo he cut when he just came back at the First Dance and…it’s just all for nothing now. Feels very hollow and meaningless and that’s very disappointing to me. 

Ultimately AEW will be fine. They were fine before him, they’ll be fine after him. It’s just a huge bummer that such pettiness has rightfully taken him out of a promotion that was perfect for him. Just slowly over time the negativity built up more and more to absurd levels.

He’s an all time talent and he sadly let legendary meltdowns end what could have been the end of a great career. Now you just look back and wonder what the fuck happened and why did it happen. I feel something with him just isn’t right. In fact, you could say with almost 100% certainty that something isn’t right and it’s sad he won’t get it addressed properly. Doesn’t mean he’s going to take his life or anything, but it just sucks to see your all time favorites end up in this spot knowing what could have been.

There are other all time favorites who had their lives or careers end way too soon. That wasn’t the case with him and it shouldn’t have been, but here we are. 

[Craig H]

The fuck is anyone even typing about the possibility of AEW folding. Over this?! I would get people even uttering that if it was another slap on the wrist for Punk. That would be some WCW shit. Instead they did the right thing.

This is just totally bizarre to even see people type about it. They just sold 81k tickets. Do you think Punk is the reason for that? No. Just like WWE, the letters AEW were the reason. The brand was the reason. Everything associated with the brand was the reason. Punk was stuck in no man’s land on what is a good show in Collision, but it’s on a fucking Saturday.

The guy wasn’t even part of AEW for their first couple of years. He was then out for nearly a year. AEW has gone through plagues of injuries, a literal plague that deprived them of an actual audience, taping a bunch of shows in QT Marshall’s warehouse training center, and more all without Punk. That the dude was fired for attacking a worker, attacking the owner, and having a history of violence isn’t going to lead to any kind of exodus. If anything, I could see wrestlers protesting if nothing was done.

But anyone thinking about even the possibility of AEW being in trouble needs to get real and stop thinking like fucking Cornette. 

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

22 minutes ago, Craig H said:

The fuck is anyone even typing about the possibility of AEW folding. Over this?! I would get people even uttering that if it was another slap on the wrist for Punk. That would be some WCW shit. Instead they did the right thing.

This is just totally bizarre to even see people type about it. They just sold 81k tickets. Do you think Punk is the reason for that? No. Just like WWE, the letters AEW were the reason. The brand was the reason. Everything associated with the brand was the reason. Punk was stuck in no man’s land on what is a good show in Collision, but it’s on a fucking Saturday.

The guy wasn’t even part of AEW for their first couple of years. He was then out for nearly a year. AEW has gone through plagues of injuries, a literal plague that deprived them of an actual audience, taping a bunch of shows in QT Marshall’s warehouse training center, and more all without Punk. That the dude was fired for attacking a worker, attacking the owner, and having a history of violence isn’t going to lead to any kind of exodus. If anything, I could see wrestlers protesting if nothing was done.

But anyone thinking about even the possibility of AEW being in trouble needs to get real and stop thinking like fucking Cornette. 

But you don't understand! Matt Jackson is annoying! Surely this will be the downfall of the wrestling company built around Matt Jackson and his friends!

[JLowe]

Just read Page 1 of 17 after being on the road for 2.5 days BUT I know what the big news was so this should be a good read.

Also want to note that I had on a rock radio station in Roanoke, VA this morning and they played “Judas” by Fozzy (at which point I immediately changed the station).

[elizium]

Pretty ironic that for all his complaining about the part timers in WWE, that would have been the absolute best role for Punk. Come in, do a big feud like the MJF one, then fuck off for a month or two. Maybe like a slightly more active Sting. Give him a month away from the business to call MMA or whatever he wants to do, then bring him in to do a short trios run with FTR or whoever tickles his fancy.

[JLowe]

22 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

To be fair, there were people shitting in Tiger's turban. So I mean, people were already doing the literal dirty work.

Of course there has to be a sleaze thread reference

[JLowe]

Also, I just missed two huge PPVS and a week of TV during the craziest week of AEW since I started watching which really sucks.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I'm kind of surprised there's no CM Punk chant during the women's trio match featuring Skye Blue, who is wearing Chicago's colors. 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Greggulator]

I will say this: I avoided AEW mostly until Punk and Dragon showed up largely because I did not have a lot of interest in The Elite or Cody Rhodes and time commitments. Now that Punk is gone, I plan on still watching and I still have no interest in The Elite. There are too many people I enjoy watching like OC, FTR, The Acclaimed, the Bang Bang Gang, this new Toni Storm ripping off my e-fed character, etc.

[BobbyWhioux]

i feel like Samoa Joe occupying an Undertakeresque position in that locker room would be a good thing if he does not do so already

[Casey]

Bodyslam.net says that at Revolution 2022 when William Regal debuted, Punk refused to shake his hand backstage and called him - to his face - “a stooge for Triple H”.

Yikes. 

[twiztor]

well, at least CM Punk got back his two wins from Samoa Joe. /s

[BrianS81177]

5 minutes ago, Casey said:

Bodyslam.net says that at Revolution 2022 when William Regal debuted, Punk refused to shake his hand backstage and called him - to his face - “a stooge for Triple H”.

Yikes. 

[BobbyWhioux]

6 minutes ago, twiztor said:

well, at least CM Punk got back his two wins from Samoa Joe. /s

I am a real Chicagoan
Fight for the rights of just one man

[Casey]

3 minutes ago, BrianS81177 said:

I mean… yes, and it’s a definite yikes story. But is he wrong about Regal being a Triple H suck-up? I don’t think so, personally.

But still it’s a real bad look.

[EVA]

11 minutes ago, Casey said:

Bodyslam.net says that at Revolution 2022 when William Regal debuted, Punk refused to shake his hand backstage and called him - to his face - “a stooge for Triple H”.