Niners Fan in CT

Punk is in WWE because he blew an easy $5M/year contract in AEW and is salty as fuck about how it all played out. That doesn't mean everything he does will be some going through the motions bullshit but I can't say I have high hopes for any of it. Also, I have to laugh at these dumbass dirtsheet reports about how Punk was in a "good mood" backstage and getting along with everyone. You think? It was his first fucking night in the company. He's an asshole but he's not so dumb that he's going to jeopardize his new deal on the first night back. It takes time. Give it a few months. Hell, give it six months. Then we can talk.

That promo sucked ass. Let's hurry up and get to the Punk and Rollins pissing contest. Maybe one of them will go too far.

If AEW goes out of business, a lot of people lose jobs. A lot of wrestlers lose jobs. They go back to grinding or maybe not wrestling at all. The top performers lose a lot of money too because there's nobody to drive the price tag up. Wrestlers themselves LOVE that AEW exists. I'm not sure why this is a topic anyway, AEW has hit a rough patch but they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

That feels like "night 1 opener" or "middle of the show marquee match up" than a main event to me. Roman will main event night 2 and I'm thinking Rhea is slotted for night 1 with someone, maybe Charlotte or Becky

Well now you're speaking a language that I recognize.

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.

Rollins isn't that great of an actor. He was being "held back" by people but not really. So I'm guessing that was a work and they will play into the little Twitter beef he and Punk have had over the years. I guess.... two guys I don't really need to see much of so if they are occupying each other's time that's ok with me.

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.

Yeah that is a stacked lineup. I would have liked to see Omega obviously (and I don't like the team with Jericho) but I guess that was unlikely to happen. Other names that could have been considered include Hobbs or Starks or Hangman but the field is strong, lots of potential great matches there.

As for 'The Devil' reveal, I think it has to be Cole. It just makes the most sense. I don't want to see them do some bullshit surprise just to shock everyone. Cole was damn near handing Jay White the belt and the ring last night. There was no "reveal" because The Devil was ringside.

I think that's a copout. I'm beyond tired of the Roman formula now just waiting for someone to interfere and this MJF/White match was along those same lines. They had some good stuff in the match it just ended up being overshadowed by all the nonsense. If they had gone 20-25 minutes with no frills and just had a great technical match or match revolved around some limb work it would have been really good and nobody would have complained.

Hangman and Swerve had an incredible match. It was everything (and more) of what you expect out of a blood feud. I loved this probably more than any other street fight or hardcore style match I've seen in AEW because I felt they really SOLD the brutality of it all. It wasn't just spot and next spot. The violence was captured in every moment of the match whether it was a punch or someone biting someone, everything had a sense of urgency behind it. I don't do stars but five stars. Classic stuff. There were some other really good matches on the show too. Overall a good PPV but I did not like how they handled the main event. I thought it was neat to utilize Zero Hour to build an angle headed into the main event but the payoff was lackluster. MJF didn't need more obstacles. I thought maybe this was setting up to reveal Cole as the Devil or something major and instead what we got was just overbooked Attitude Era, Russo-ish crap. The thing is these guys can wrestle. MJF and White could have had a great match without any of the bullshit. Meh.

WWE has been on a great run of PPVs and character building. I've been enjoying it a lot. If they want me to lose interest they can start by debuting Punk at Survivor Series.

Wasn't the old Boston Garden setup with the entrance facing the hard cam as well?

Gunther vs. Bronson Reed was a lot of fun. Good ass TV match

But that's WWE. There's a larger pool of fans to pull from in whatever location they are in. AEW wasn't having issues selling tickets like this until more recently so I don't even think it's just overall burnout. They are cold right now and I don't know exactly why that is.

I don't think it's just that they go to a lot of the same locations . A lot of the scheduling seems to be nonsensical, such as running a Collision in Seattle the night before a big PPV in the same city.

AEW ratings have been 'fine' for the most part. One night doesn't make or break it. The bigger issue for AEW right now is attendance. I'm not sure how they go about fixing that.

AEW has been struggling with ticket sales in the U.S. most of the year but I'm wondering if some of it is on the scheduling? By no means am I saying the product is hot right now but running Independence, Missouri twice over the span of like 5 or 6 months seems odd? I've also seen some situations where they are running the same city in back to back shows like the Collision prior to "Wrestle Dream" also being in Seattle. Maybe they are burning these towns out but also expecting too much from some areas. I'm not an expert on scheduling obviously.

That was the best ending to a SD! in a long time... Place became UNGLUED for Cody and Main Event Jey making the save. Cody, Cena, Jey and L.A. Knight has to be the most over pure babyface team I've seen in forever.

Aside from Christian and Copeland which was simple and quite effective, I did also like Toni Storm vs. Skye Blue. Timeless Toni Storm needs to beat Saraya and take the title. Skye Blue is getting over, I'd like to see her win some matches soon. I'm liking all of the Jay White and MJF interactions also. That should be a hell of a main event for 'Full Gear'. I wasn't sure if Tony Khan would load up next week's Dynamite or not, I'm sure everyone has heard by now that WWE is send Cena and Cody to NXT next Tuesday but Khan did book some great looking matches. Tuesday will be fun.

Darby is a maniac. I loved that match truly because it was a car wreck and I don't mean that as a bad thing, it is what it is... I can't look away. I had the feeling of Foley and Taker and the Hell in a Cell spectacle running through my veins as I'm watching this unfold. I'm not a huge Edge fan but that was definitely a moment and it's great to see him and Christian back together doing shit. Christian is on another miracle run right now too. Swerve vs. Hangman was probably my personal favorite match... but Danielson and Sabre Jr. was really fucking cool too. Good show.

Tony fumbled. Jade is going to be a big star in WWE

I could be wrong but I don't see Mercedes signing a longterm contract with AEW. A match or two? Yes but I think she'd still rather wrestle in Japan and then eventually work around back to WWE on some type of part timer deal. I don't know if this counts as 'mainstream' or not but since leaving WWE in May of last year what Mercedes was doing (other than filming season 3 on 'The Mandalorian') was modeling. She did some covers for Vogue and did the New York Fashion Show and L.A. Fashion show for various designer brands. She also wrestled of course for NJPW and Stardom before the ankle injury that's had her sidelined for a few months.