Flyin' Brian

I'm getting so sick of this 'Punk's effect on locker room morale' bs. You have two camps in AEW, the camp that probably didn't want Punk there to begin with (The Elite, Colt Cabana, Jericho, Matt Hardy) that have said things about Punk that were negative, then you have a second camp (FTR, Darby Allin, Powerhouse Hobbs, Ricky Starks, The Acclaimed) that have had nothing but positive things to say about Punk. It's just that in the wrestling bubble, the former have more of a relationship with the wrestling 'journalists', so their take is amplified vs what the latter has been quoted as saying. Unfortunately, the former group is so insecure that nothing positive about Punk can be allowed, the narrative has to be 'he's a cancer' so that they can be seen as right and the good guys. Dak and Punk's response to what Dak said seems to indicate that Punk is ready and willing to do business and make money, but the wrestling 'journalists' come out almost immediately and parrot the response of that former group that there's no way they can work together because if they ever do it shows that Punk isn't what they have made him out to be. They wanted Punk gone and they don't ever want him to come back, but it's nowhere near the entire locker room and never was.

Jericho and Matt Hardy sure, but I’ve never heard Christian say anything bad about Punk. Christian didn’t have any problem doing Carpool Karaoke with Punk.

Didn’t in past years the final 2 in the battle Royal have a singles match for the ring?

AEW’s Facebook page was saying the winner of the battle Royal got the ring and a title shot before the match. Maybe someone’s wires got crossed

Ok, it showed up in my Facebook feed that Ricky Starks won the Dynamite Diamond Ring battle Royal? Can someone please explain to me why he was in it when he already won the title eliminator tournament and had an AEW title shot? Does he get two title shots now?

Probably not worth starting its own thread, just some thoughts about how heel dynamics in wrestling have changed and not for the better. If a ‘heel’ is management or friends with management it seems they can get away with never having a payoff to their heeling. For every Vince McMahon willing to create a super over babyface in Stone Cold Steve Austin we have had several instances where the heel never faces any real consequences for their actions. The NWO mocked Arn Anderson’s retirement and the Four Horsemen in WCW, they never paid for that and gave the babyfaces a triumph. Curt Henning turned on the Horsemen in what should have been a blowoff match, and any relevance or momentum the Horsemen had remaining after Arn Anderson’s heartfelt retirement speech and passing of the torch was gone. Sting was setup as a super babyface to end the NWO’s reign of terror. Thanks to backstage politics, being friends with the boss, and general bad decisions that storyline was ruined with Sting getting an overbooked and tainted victory. The Authority ran roughshod over WWE for years. WWE was finally pushed to put over Daniel Bryan, but once he won the title was booked terribly. Roman Reigns was the next man to try to stop the Authority, but even though he won and put an end to them he was undercut by the perception that he was handpicked by the company plus terrible booking and only really recovered in the last few years. It seems times have changed and instead of building a heel to put over the babyface it’s all cool heels that get cheered for being assholes or the company setting themselves up as heels but never really facing any consequences. There’s no satisfying payoff, no one gets over, and the corporation is the most important thing overall instead of the wrestlers or fans. It killed WCW and killed a lot of interest in WWE. It led to things like WWE reenacting the screw job every time they went to Montreal. Sure, Bret beat Vince McMahon years later in a symbolic victory, but the damage had already been done. There are probably plenty of other examples. I just don’t care for it.

AEW: Don’t pay any attention to the ratings. You’re just a fan, they don’t matter to you. Also AEW: Hey look, we beat NXT in the ratings. Fans, this is important. AEW: Stuff that happens backstage doesn’t matter. Just sit back and enjoy the show and ignore all that. Let it go. Also AEW: Here’s some shooty shooty bullshit. Nod nod, wink wink. Aren’t we clever? Get the fuck out of here.

What the Elite are doing is the same thing that the NWO did when they mocked the Four Horsemen in a that skit, or when WWE were doing the authority stuff. They never got any real comeuppance and in their minds they probably thought they were right and the faces. It helped kill WCW. It caused a lot of people to lose interest in WWE. And AEW is making the same mistakes. No one is going to kick the Elite’s asses for their supposed heel antics, so it’s a facetious argument. I’m tired of the condescending ‘fan’ bullshit. I’m tired of being spoonfed crap and being told it tastes good. If my ‘job’ is to just sit there and watch it and not have an opinion or care about anything else then I quit.

You’re the 2nd person today to refer to my ‘job’ as a fan. I’m not getting paid. Fuck that bullshit. This is a tv show, no different than any other. If the writing or the acting is bad or they kill off your favorite character because of shit going on behind the scenes it’s no damn different. People stop watching and it gets canceled. I’m done. If this isn’t bringing me joy why should I keep watching? So I can watch people gloat because they won? I’m too old to hate watch stuff. If money and ratings don’t matter then I guess it doesn’t matter if people stop watching or going to shows or buying ppv’s and merchandise. I guess it’s the same difference “practicing their art” in front of 500 people as it is 5000 or 50,000 or 100,000 or a million. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound? If they don’t care if people watch then why should I?

Do you care about AEW continuing to exist? Because the only way that happens is if they have wrestlers people want to see. If the company isn’t making money it’s not going to be around long. I guarantee the executives at Warner Discovery care about it. You think they are going to invest in a company with declining ratings?

They aren’t getting heel reactions from most AEW fans it seems. They and apparently most of the AEW fans don’t consider them heels. They are the babyfaces in this world. If they are working toward something it’s great. If they are doing this and Punk gets released, what’s the point? You want people to get heel heat so people will pay to see them get beat. Who’s going to be the babyface that gets the benefit of that heat the Elite are building? Who are they going to put over, or who is going to get elevated besides the Elite?

Peacock is having a Black Friday deal .99 a month for a year if anyone is interested.

The WWE trolling of Punk. Playing Cult of Personality in Chicago and Paul Heyman coming out for one example.

If the Punk trolling leads to something good, sure. If not, it’s going to lead to more people not watching, buying tickets, PPV’s, merchandise, etc. What’s more important? If it’s just to troll Punk they are proving him right.

Doesn’t really help the perception while she actually held the title. Hopefully she gets another reign.

Think the BCC is dead. Jericho’s group’s don’t help anyone but Jericho. Maybe he helped Sammy a little, but he’s still just a Jericho flunky.

It’s too much to hope Ishii wins, isn’t it.

@KawadaSmileyou coined Jericho as the new Grand Wizard of wrestling, that’s classic.

It is a mystery. Especially since they lost to Darby and Sting and they’ve never gotten a title shot.

The Acclaimed was such an unlikely pick for a team to get over like this, but it’s great and I love it.

I don’t think the interim thing was anything Rosa really had control over.

It can be a good competitive match but yeah Hayter needs to go over. Send Britt after Cargill.

Thank goodness. I like Thunder Rosa but it was past time.

Yeah. AEW is a promotion that exists to troll Punk now. Guess all that let it go stuff was bs.

That was awesome. As a lifelong 49ers fan and a Penta fan that was great.