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The AEW Brawl & Its Fallout


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Candidly, my biggest gripe with Punk is the fact that he just couldn't resist doing CM Punk things long enough to get the TV deal in place. 

It was a great promotion before him, and it'll be great again after him - I'm just upset this guy couldn't fulfill the one major thing he was brought in to do.

Moving forward, I think this will ultimately be good for the show. He was the last big fish out there under a certain age; now, instead of an everpresent dangling carrot, hopefully the focus is back on producing a killer show instead of going crazy with the FAs. But it doesn't mean shit if you don't have someone willing to air it.

Edited by Zakk_Sabbath
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5 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Popular sentiment seems to be largely against Punk, so it might not be an issue in that way.

In all honesty, I think a lot of people had long already concluded that Punk was probably a pretty crappy person - but the idea of him coming to AEW and sticking it to Vince made a lot of people put shit to one side. Maybe coming back would make him a better person even? It seemed to for a few months there.

 

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The diction in that SI line is hilarious: You tie Punk and Ace together because they’re boys and imply that because the more likely of the two (Steel) would be let go, you get to assume Punk would back up his friend. 
 

It’s an incredibly speculative sentence and people run with it because you see “Punk” and “gone” a few words apart. Then you get to project Punk’s pettiness, the drama behind a top guy leaving, etc. An amazing piece of SEO aggregation writing, honestly. 

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15 minutes ago, TimLivingston said:

amazing piece of SEO aggregation writing, honestly. 

Agreed. I think also people are sweating it because SI is a WBD property (or was pre-merger, anyway) so there may be the perception they know something we don't yet (whether accurate or not)

 

 

Edited by Zakk_Sabbath
Scratch that - they ditched SI pre-merger - thank you @colonial
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7 minutes ago, Dog said:

If Tony's ultimatum to Punk is "go to therapy and come back in a better head space," would he do it? Or is he too convinced he's never wrong and always makes the best decisions?

Yesterday, I baselessly and recklessly speculated that Punk may be struggling with a cluster B personality disorder, and the great @natechimed in (paraphrasing) "You are never supposed to diagnose from afar... However..." 

So, if that were indeed the case? Zero chance. Or damn close to zero, anyway.

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13 minutes ago, Jiji said:

After the initial bump, it didn't seem like Punk or Danielson made a huge impact on the TV ratings. He's a familiar face though and helped move tickets. 

True, I was moreso just trying to think of who had the biggest likelihood of being over with/familiar to the Network people. God willing, they'll be ok with Mox, Danielson, Regal, Jericho, Sting, The Giant, Mark Henry, Taz, Arn, Jake, etc.

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10 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Agreed. I think also people are sweating it because SI is a WBD property (or was pre-merger, anyway) so there may be the perception they know something we don't yet (whether accurate or not)

SI got booted from the WB portfolio pre-AT&T merger. 

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1 hour ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Popular sentiment seems to be largely against Punk, so it might not be an issue in that way.

This interests me. I'd like to know how many people saw that and said "he's shitting on the company, fuck this guy" and how many people said "he's defending himself, I'd do the same thing". Hopefully this was a glimpse at the real petty ego-monster that Punk seems to be for people who didn't see it before. 

But the chants will stay. Wrestling fans can't help themselves. 

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22 minutes ago, Dog said:

If Tony's ultimatum to Punk is "go to therapy and come back in a better head space," would he do it? Or is he too convinced he's never wrong and always makes the best decisions?

Some men will sit around and watch Bret Hart comps all day instead of going to therapy.

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Wow, I can't believe a well-adjusted guy like CM Punk is blowing up his spot in another wrestling company. 

This company is going to do 980K~ a Wednesday until Tony Khan hires some bookers who can put together simple, compelling TV anyway, so having or not having Punk there doesn't matter to that number. Or anyone else, for that matter, as sad as it makes me to say as a True Believer that Danielson could have been that guy for WWE, and the moment passed. 

My read of AEW fans (generally, of course) is that they're like ECW fans and no one wrestler will take precedence over the company itself, so from that perspective, losing Punk (or Omega or the Bucks, for that matter), doesn't really mean much either. 

Tony K. will probably try to turn a shoot into a work instead of doing the right thing and backing away from that stuff entirely because he seems to love that sort of thing (along with having wrestlers curse on TV with the zeal of a rebellious fourteen-year-old). 

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17 minutes ago, TimLivingston said:

The diction in that SI line is hilarious: You tie Punk and Ace together because they’re boys and imply that because the more likely of the two (Steel) would be let go, you get to assume Punk would back up his friend. 
 

It’s an incredibly speculative sentence and people run with it because you see “Punk” and “gone” a few words apart. Then you get to project Punk’s pettiness, the drama behind a top guy leaving, etc. An amazing piece of SEO aggregation writing, honestly. 

Reading between the lines it’s hard not to assume that came from the Omega/Bucks camp. Logically TK most likely has more important things to worry about atm so unlikely to have come from him. The uncertainty around what will happen to Punk/Steele seems to indicate it didn’t come from that camp either. So it seems most likely someone from Omega/Bucks side fed the writer that and they’ve run with it hoping to shape public opinion because no one will really care if it ends up being completely off base. I suspect Kenny & the Bucks have offered to accept a suspension on the proviso that Punk/Steel are fired, and this new leak (which is what the entire thing has started from), is another attempt to pressure TK into choosing them over him.

 

From a business perspective, I find it hard to think TK will go down any path that results in him losing Punk and giving him every motivation in the world to go “Well now Vince is gone it might be different”…. If Kenny or the Bucks showed up there, it wouldn’t have anywhere near the same impact as Punk would. Considering Punk’s drawing power both within AEW, and his potential drawing power with the WWE (the heat and interest in Punk/Reigns would dwarf anything WWE have done in the last 5+ years), it seems like in a them or me situation, Tony would have no choice but to chose Punk. Given the HR implications of the confrontation, it also seems like it would be way easier to get rid of The Elite over Punk, by virtue of their executive positions. Regardless if someone calls you a MF’er to your face, you cannot physically confront a subordinate (especially if you outnumber them 3-1) and expect to keep that position.

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31 minutes ago, TimLivingston said:

The diction in that SI line is hilarious: You tie Punk and Ace together because they’re boys and imply that because the more likely of the two (Steel) would be let go, you get to assume Punk would back up his friend. 

Given that this all presumably is related back to Colt, I wouldn't necessarily count on Phil backing up his friends.

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I think as a wrestling promoter you have a true dilemma on your hands. On one hand this entire thing was almost comically bush league. This is something you expect out of an immature 20 year old, not a bunch of seasoned vets. Putting up with this makes you look like an ineffectual leader and the inmates are running the asylum.

On the other hand, you just stepped into a Montreal type situation where there is a ton of palace intrigue. Page who has been directionless the last few months has now been reheated. The Elite who were no longer the focus of the promotion have all eyes on them.  If played properly, there is a ridiculous amount of money to be made. it is probably the best chance in the short term for AEW to get to the next level. If played the wrong way, AEW is TNA 2.0. 

 

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1 minute ago, odessasteps said:

Given that this all presumably is related back to Colt, I wouldn't necessarily count on Phil backing up his friends.

Ace (during that motivational promo): Friends come and go, but we are FAMILY!

Punk (on Wednesday, probably): Um, yeah, no. Byee-ee!

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1 minute ago, EVA said:

Did we finally find CM Punk’s DVDVR account?

DEAN gonna be so disappointed when he finds out who really hooked him up with some WSX ep’s back in the day.

But seriously, it’s just hard not to think those involved would’ve been told to keep those discussions quiet, and process of elimination tends to point strongly in Bucks/Omega’s direction (and if bot directly to the media, where the source that eventually went to the media got the info from). If it was TK or people close to him, they would likely already known his triggers on what to do with Punk/Steele. The fact that it has somewhat solid details on punishment for one side and a vague deadline for a decision for the other side is also pretty telling. If it was from Punk/Steele’s side, it likely would’ve included whatever conditions would need to be met for them to return.

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Lost in all this is the absolutely classist bullshit of "these guys couldn't manage a Target."  I can say with a pretty high degree of certainty that managing a Target is more honest and difficult work than this jackoff has ever done in his life.  Thin skinned as he is, imagine Punk managing a Target and just losing his shit the first time some Karen demands to see him because her Circle Rewards aren't being applied properly to her purchase.  I hope the Michael Nakazawa trades in his black polo for a red one just to troll this jerk.

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