Jmare007

That's what makes this thing entertaining to follow, at least to me. When Starks hangs out backstage with Cody it's covered but never treated as a big deal, but with all the fuckery Punk brings and the current situation he's in with AEW, it's bound to create overblown controversy and I'm here for it

Gotta say, the "what's Punk doing this week" news cycle hasn't gotten old for me yet. It's the right amount of fuckery with a taste of "not a big deal that people will make a big deal no matter what" that still keeps me entertained.

If we can't get Punk vs any of the Elite can we at least get a proxy match and see what he and Ibushi can do? Could be cool for Wembley...

I guess but like I said before, if you wanna use Punk to try and repeat what he did for MJF, then use it for Darby because that's almost a sure fire hit and doesn't have the trouble nor the uncertainty of doing it with Sammy. If they are so hellbent on Sammy, use Christian like they did for Jungle Boy.

More often than not, a match doesn't elevate you to main event status by itself, you gotta add some character work that goes along (hopefully) with a good feud. Considering Sammy hasn't had the latter, they only have to former to push the narrative that "he's ready".

A heel CM Punk with a 3-6 month feud with Darby could solidify him as a main event player, just like the MJF feud did for Max.

If business starts to go down in 2024, I'm not sure we can attribute it to Cody losing at this year's Mania though. I read a lot about it being a point of inflection and I think that will happen later, when WWE shows if they could make the wait worth it (which they haven't done in I don't remember how long, maybe ever?).

So it seems Cody losing didn't really affect much of anything, business wise. Ratings continue to be strong too.

I don't know if he's done it in the last two years or so as I stopped watching his matches but Rollins did the superplex to falcon arrow move that finished 1 of 300 matches and that shit made me more angry at wrestling than any other flippy move I've ever seen

In theory it can, but for it to work it needs the sort of focus and planning that I don't think any big wrestling promotion has right now, specially someone like TK. Seeing that whole talented roster AEW finally having a weekly outlet and more big matchups happening sounds cool, but I'm not confident it would last more than 3-4 for months, once the initial feuds/angles have finished.

Well, they are in a feud with Danielson soo....

lmao, where?? I need to see that.

The separate show for Punk could look incredibly silly if Punk gets injured again. Not just because of the "what was the point then?" angle but the backstage drama would once again increase when he returned

I don't think anyone doubts that Punk's side taking the initiative and leaking their plans answers to an ulterior motive. My thing at least is that we can't ignore how right now the focus (from Dave and Bryan at least) is in that ulterior motive. And six months ago when the other side was doing the same, the focus was on what they said and not that side's own ulterior motives. And yeah, not the best choice of an article by Cutler.

It's wild to me that now, this isn't about Punk coming back, but him trying to make other side look unprofessional. But when he was fed all the details about how unprofessional Punk was, that was the real news and not a peep about the "real intentions" of what his sources were telling him

I feel like you argue with ghosts sometimes

That was a legit sellout though, stro's point is about being able to run a set up were a big attendance (40k+) looks impressive regardless if half the tickets weren't sold....like WWE did at last year's Summerslam.

For last year's Summerslam? They announced 48k and according to the Observer the real attendance was close to 38k.

Masterful carny move by both of them. Punk has the narrative leverage of wanting to make things work and do business. Jericho has established himself as the locker room leader/representative and not only has the ability to change the narrative around Punk's return (or be seen as the one who "protected the locker room" from Phil) but also keep leaching off people that are over and the fans want to see to extend his relevancy as a performer

SRS with the counter This is better than Shams vs Woj.

Yeah, it's on AEW to run a set up were 40-45k looks impressive. That a lot of people in one place regardless.

We don't know. Last thing discussed was both Tony and Danielson talking about it in interviews in the context of the Revolution match against MFJ, both saying it would be difficult to let him do it if Danielson was AEW champion. Bryan did say that if he got Tony's permissions he would like to do it with other AEW wrestlers (Claudio, Mox and Eddie) so they could have a fun tour.

My guess is that TK checked with Gedo and New Japan to see if the Wembley show clashed with the last day of the G-1 (I know last year it ended almost 2 weeks before the end of August). If Danielson works the G-1 and gets a W over the champ he could also challenge for the belt at All In, which would feel pretty big too in the case Okada is not available.

You are not wrong but I feel Punk facing The Elite should be the n°1 program on a card, not a cool add-on for a huge show. And in that scenario, I feel that for Wembley, that 6 man tag should have legit stakes (final encounter in a gimmick match) and not just the novelty of Punk coming back. I could be wrong though, like I said, I'm lost on how much impact that novelty has.

I'm honestly lost on the impact that 6-man tag could have on such a huge show. I get that it's the match that puts the 6 people that have been more vocal or "exposed" about not liking each other but August is a looong way away, and a simple tag match doesn't seem big enough for me for Wembley. And a bunch of worked shoot promos aren't gonna help build it up. If it's a the final/grudge match between between both sides and we get a proper build of matches before, I can buy into it making a difference but if it's the first encounter I don't know, it kinda feels like a match with not a lot of stakes besides backstage bullshit, which I could see as a selling point for an arena show (like All Out or Grand Slam 3 in Arthur Ashe), but not a huge stadium. For Wembley I see Punk vs Omega (or even Hangman or vs MJF for the belt) and FTR vs Bucks in a title match as better suited for that kind of show.