strobogo

I think it will be hard to cut as much office people as you'd think. It's not like UFC and WWE are merging employees, talents, or logistics. They're two gigantic touring companies that have completely separate schedules and travel concerns. Cutting office people is going to fuck both companies in that regard.

Christian is great and has always been great, the idea that you'd even have to qualify being a fan as "unironic" is baffling to me. Jon Moxley might be the most inconsistent dude I've ever seen. Not even from match to match, but from move to move. Guy can go from awesome to the worst you've ever seen match to match, spot to spot, move to move.

It's been a decade since I went to a WWE show but I don't recall those being taken into consideration for the baseline ticket prices. It's just that the broker/venue fees have continued to skyrocket.

No, the ticket prices are fine. It's the fees added by the ticket dealers that are insane. The tickets themselves start at $20 for bottom row of the upper bowl, and $50 for lower bowl. I think the ringside was like $400 something. I'm talking about the add on fees from dealers/venues, which are an absolute scam to be able to double or triple actual ticket prices for absolutely nothing added. That's not something AEW controls.

I would have gone to Dynamite tonight in Indy if it weren't for every service having a 40% to 50% add on in "fees". That's fucking absurd. Factor in parking and it is nearly triple the actual ticket price.

When you watch the post show media scrum and Bryan is up there talking about wrestling....the difference between him and Punk is so vast. Bryan's genuine love for wrestling and his co-workers is so apparent. You can really see why TK made the comment about turning to Bryan if something were to happen to him. That's a dude every locker room in the industry should want just as a good influence.

Bryan is the only dude who has had two great strap matches (and one of them was with the fucking Fiend). King of the strap match. Yappapi Danny Bryan. The scars that are going to be left on those two, my goodness. I've never seen or heard shots that gnarly. Bryan once again fills in for Punk and produced something that was way better than what the original plan could have been. The meat matches. :lawd MEAT FOREVER lmao. Big E's legacy will live on forever. What's the deal with Shibata? Why won't NJ put him in matches, and why is he allowed to work pretty regularly for AEW/ROH? Takeshita rules. Main event rules. I don't think there is a bigger way to put over OC than it took a year of beatings and the top top MVP/ace, most decorated champion who has wins over all the other top guys, going to his absolute limit, to finally end his reign. It's hard to argue that the International Championship isn't the top title in AEW, considering the actual AEW Champion is in a semi-comedy tag team, and the run that OC had is pretty legendary. Both Starks and OC in absolute top tier star cementing loses in a way I don't think has been seen in American wrestling since Austin at WM 13.

Well he literally did tell them to come find him, and then Punk sucker punched one of them.

I believe when people talk about Punk "fucking with the promotion", they don't mean he was intentionally sabotaging things, but that his behavior repeatedly forced the company to change angles/cards, who could and couldn't be booked around him, etc. At one point they had to switch ROH tapings because multiple guys on the show Punk didn't like and couldn't be in the arenas with him.

I don't think he needs to be fired, but he's definitely not right for that position despite seeming like he'd be pretty much perfect for it.

On the other hand, he's probably somewhat relieved it was a guy like Jungle Boy and not another top guy that Punk had an issue with.

Matt Jackson doing a victory lap to troll the Chicago fans chanting CM Punk at him after the show was probably ill-advised, but also funnier and a lot less wtf man than Punk randomly talking shit about Hangman not being able to sell merch after a show.

Which could also be framed as "AEW banned their EVP top talents, and head of talent relations, from their new secondary show". Not even sure what kind of devil's advocate argument you might be trying to make here. The guy got his own show where he controlled the locker room and who was and was not allowed in (which somehow included office), and had the pull to nix angles that iddn't involve him that were previously approved.

Still confused at where the unprofessionalism from The Elite is coming from. Punk talked crazy shit about them in front of the press and said, "if you have a problem you know where to find me", then when they show up he throws a sucker punch and his buddy is hitting dudes with chairs and biting people. Their only response was to refuse to work with him, which seems fair to me. Meanwhile, Punk has to get his own show and little universe where anyone he has a problem with is banned from the arenas he's in, because he just can't stop himself from creating conflict. Clearly, The Elite were in the right to not want to do business with Punk. I think you can be pretty close to 100% certain that had they actually worked a program with Punk, there would have been another brawl and potentially more firings as a result.

Hopefully FTR doesn't do something stupid and torch their careers for a guy named Phil

Punk has acted this way his entire career. Dude was getting into fights with co-workers in IWA MS, TNA, ROH, pissed off vets in WWE, constantly paranoid people were using him or going to double cross him, cutting off friends over the most minor of offenses said friends might not even know they made. There has never not been a swirl of drama and conflict with Punk. Brawl Out was wildly unprofessional that he said all of that shit right next to his boss in front of press, but wasn't exactly out of character or unusual in the career of Hey Phil.

1. lmaoooooooooooo. 2 years is longer than I thought he'd last, although 10 months of that was injured/suspended 2. Hopefully some of the drama and discourse can die down 3. Looks like Jungle Jack just found himself another outlaw championship

At what point in the past 20+ years has "Punk involved in some stupid backstage bullshit" ever been a work

This is I think the 4th time Punk has threatened to quit. How many threats and how many altercations before you call his bluff?

There are also SCOOPZ coming out that Punk got into a big argument with TK before the show, and nearly got into something with Miro after the thing with Perry. It would really be something if he stepped to Miro and got redeemed lmao.

All Out (of suspensions)

Of course we cut Sting a lot of slack. He's 64, a legend everyone loves, who really only is there to hit a couple of moves and spots and pop the crowd while Darby does the heavy lifting.

Was really impressed at the pacing of the show, considering how long it was, and a lot of AEW PPVs that aren't as long felt much longer. Joe/Punk was a delight. I know we all have talked about Joe seeming broken down and washed years ago, but being awesome in AEW, and god damn was he great in this match. Golden Elite vs BCG had some good stuff, but was real weird with whatever happened to Omega on that roll through, and Ibushi still ain't Ibushi. JR was absolute dogshit calling this. If they're going to have him pop in for a match or two, it really should be stuff like Joe/Punk, because he seemed completely disinterested in this match, and completely unknowledgeable of Ibushi despite having called Ibushi matches for NJ. Nigel (or Don?) were talking about Ibushi's striking prowess and JR says "I've not seen that aspect of his game" or something similar like...what the fuck? "Why does everything have to be golden?" As an exasperated Excalibur tries to explain Golden Star, Golden Lovers while still calling the match. I am definitely hyped to see Kenny and Hangmen vs all 3 of the heels in a tag or singles. It's bizarre that Ibushi is the guy I want to see the least of. I can't remember if FTR/Bucks III was better than the previous match, but it's real hard to compete with those BCG matches. The Bucks take the Shatter Machine better than anyone. The actual finisher absolutely annihilated Nick. Result was definitely a surprise considering Cash's legal issues. I bet FTR vs Omega/Hanger in front of a real crowd would bang hard. I'm pretty over BCC and the big chaotic brawl things, but this was a lot of fun. Some real awful looking spots for both members of LAX, though. That fall off the ropes for Ortiz was hella rough. Eddie being the star, of course. However, god damn did Trent take a beating. That dude was bumping for the lord. Ancient way orange punch :lawd: It's kind of weird that the super group that is the BCC seems to lose all these big brawls. They really need D-Bryne back. Wouldn't mind Daniel Garcia actually replacing Yuta now. Claudio vs OC should rule. Pleasantly surprised with the women's match, as the division is half cursed, half afterthought, and two of the four involved are often not exactly good. Paige looked the best she's looked since her return, and I'd say Britt Baker looked better than she has in a long time in the ring as well. A break up of The Outcasts is a good move, as that really hasn't clicked except for Toni Storm, who is already on to new gimmick anyway. They should bring in Saraya Sr. to be Paige's heavy for a while. Coffin match had some crazy shit in it. Darby is truly a maniac. Hope Sting bought Swerve a couple of pints after the show for that table bump and the death drop on the coffin. Ospreay vs. Jericho was definitely the best match Jericho's been involved in his entire AEW run, and I think you need to go back to probably 2012-2013 or maybe even prior to that to get something as good from him. He definitely held up his end way, way more than I could have ever expected from a match with Ospreay. However, Ospreay truly is probably the best in the world at the moment. Heavyweight Ospreay fucking rules. Trios titles match was fine. Nice moment for Bray, nice moment for the fans to get to get the big scissor me daddy ass moment. Not sure there's really much to do for The Acclaimed as trios champions, but I did pop for the Prince Andrew line. I'm torn on the main event. At first I thought it was strange to have a face vs face match with no turns, but that's what Bret/Bulldog was and that seemed to work out well for everyone. I think it turned out pretty well and the crowd seems to bite for everything being fed to them. The whole thing is waiting for the other shoe to drop and honestly, I have no idea where it is going, which is refreshing actually.,

It's interesting that there's no stories of Punk telling Hook not to do the glass spot, or telling Moxley to cut out the deathmatch spots and bleeding every week. Or Darby to stop whatever he's doing that is more dangerous than a spot on a windshield. Darby did probably 5 spots more dangerous in the coffin match alone.

If the crowd doesn't chant Baddy Ass at some point