The closest analogy is probably Cena coming out as the Doctor of Thuganomics against Elias at Mania a few years ago.

Very obviously the big disconnect is the huge time in between then & now. Like, people got when Seth Rollins just came out to The Shield music against Roman. But that was the same company & it wasn't that long ago. Punk came out to his old theme from a different company from like 15 years ago. 

Seems like the whole Twitter ordeal is really being blown out of proportion though. 

1 hour ago, TheDuke said:

It would have been really cool if for one night Hogan had come out to Eye if the Tiger again.

He did actually in TNA on the UK tour that his last couple of matches were on.

imo Punk was not rude enough to Paul Fontaine, who joins a long list of absolutely terrible F4WON contributors with zero actual value

4 hours ago, Kadaveri said:

Paul Fontaine isn't just a fan; he's a Wrestling Observer staff member/writer.

So, a glorified fan.

I mean the whole meat of the feud was MJF being traumatized that his hero abandoned him, so the Punk he got for the match was the Punk in the famous photo of the two meeting each other. It was the ultimate "fuck you" from Punk, MJF got his ass beat by the guy he was excited to meet back in the day. 

As someone who's barely ever watched ROH I figured it out after Excalibur explained it. And I knew Punk was "going back to his roots" going by his promo a few weeks ago where he went back into the "I'm straight edge, which means I'm better than you" bit. If a Luddite like me who abhors hearing, "Well, it makes sense if you watch BTE" can get it, anyone can.

I wasn't watching ROH back then so I had no idea what significance  the music had, but as soon as I saw him come out in the basketball shorts I knew he was going back to his ROH gimmick. 

Also all these people complaining about music references is why Vince thinks wrestling fans aren't smart enough to deal with two people having the same first name. 

29 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Also all these people complaining about music references is why Vince thinks wrestling fans aren't smart enough to deal with two people having the same first name. 

the main event had duelling adam chants so vince ain't wrong there!

3 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

The closest analogy is probably Cena coming out as the Doctor of Thuganomics against Elias at Mania a few years ago.

Sadly that’s the closest.

 Probably better examples, in terms of not at all meant for comedic purposes include Cena going through different career stages in the Funhouse match, Undertaker going back to classic gong and dirge when he returned after the end of American Badass run.

PWO favorite, Edge, coming out to the Brood theme.

Kinda funny that this nothing tweet by Punk generated more discussing that fucking Stone Cold Steve Austin

 

Maybe if Hogan came our to the instrumental version of the Bonnie Tyler song "Ravishing " 

I've never seen a Punk ROH match, and I immediately figured out. Then Excalibur referenced it.

For someone who's actually on the WON staff not to know what was happening is pretty a fucking embarrassing indictment of Dave's hiring skills*.

*By hiring skills, I mean taking anyone who will write for free, most likely. 

Excalibur literally explained what Punk's entrance meant while he was walking down the ramp. If you're too busy tweeting to pay attention to the show you paid to watch, that's on you.

I just figured out due to basic deduction  because my VERY LEGAL stream was going out on me

 

It is just a shame Punk won't ever use This Fire Burns again.

Even Dave is burying his own writer now.

 

22 hours ago, SteveJRogers said:

Sadly that’s the closest.

 Probably better examples, in terms of not at all meant for comedic purposes include Cena going through different career stages in the Funhouse match, Undertaker going back to classic gong and dirge when he returned after the end of American Badass run.

Actually a better example is the undertaker at WM13 coming out in the original Deadman grey outfit.

I think Loss may have hit upon something when he mentioned part of it seems to be from people mad that a national company made something that happened on the indies canon. After decades of being told anything that didn't happen in WWE or WWE approved-history doesn't count, people seem to lose their minds when AEW ties 2000s ROH into their storylines.

Is this really an issue for some people ? I mean, I know there are shitloads of idiots out there, but still, this strikes me as a really, REALLY idiotic complaint. Fuck, I did not even remember that was CM Punk's old ROH theme as I've only watch his Raven feud years ago, and even before Excalibur explained it I understood what it was all about. People are just dumb. 

Honestly I think it's just more of the "if it isn't specifically tailored to me and my interests, it's trash" mindset that seems to have taken over pretty much any kind of discourse these days.

20 minutes ago, sek69 said:

I think Loss may have hit upon something when he mentioned part of it seems to be from people mad that a national company made something that happened on the indies canon. After decades of being told anything that didn't happen in WWE or WWE approved-history doesn't count, people seem to lose their minds when AEW ties 2000s ROH into their storylines.

This is also linked, I think, to the idea of people freaking out that stuff from BTE could be canon that would be part of AEW stories. As always, it comes down to, if it didn't happen on the TV show, AEW has to do a good job of explaining the connection. But when they do, it's part of what makes them fun - it helps people realize that there's a broader wrestling world with its own rabbit holes. I talked to someone at All Out who was only a casual New Japan fan and was SO EXCITED when I told him that Mox and Suzuki had wrestled in Japan before. Because it meant there was more great wrestling to see and add to his enjoyment.

I think it might be something that ties in to fear of missing out. Something like jealousy at having missed out. JAHMO? Can that be a thing? Like, feeling kind of put out that, even if you understand something, other people can enjoy it on a deeper level because of their increased familiarity with it. As someone who never saw Punk in ROH, I got what he was going for because, well, Excalibur explained it straight away, and there were other context clues as well. I enjoyed it on the level of just thinking it was a cool entrance, the crowd popping for it, MJF selling it etc. But there's that feeling that it would be a more meaningful experience if I had seen Punk making those entrances first-hand back in the day. And, I think that's kind of a valid feeling to have. But I can also see that really irking people to the point of lashing out about it, which is obviously just silly. Yeah. JAHMO. 

Aside from this topic:

My biggest general problem with AEW’s booking at this moment is that they don’t do interesting things with a lot of their title reigns. Reeks of “the money is in the chase” mentality.

I wouldn’t even include Hangman in that conversation, but look at the Lucha Bros. for example. After winning in what got voted MOTY in a bunch of places, they spent a good chunk of their time doing random defenses on Rampage with no build and maybe cutting promos on Dynamite. The FTR feud was the clear highlight, and it never felt like they were losing the AEW belts there.  Then they drop the belts out of nowhere in another match without much build to it.

Sammy’s first TNT reign was a total nothingburger where he was still just Jericho’s little buddy.  We all know the problems with Britt’s current run. I will say they’ve done pretty great with Jade though, the TBS feels like the main women’s belt right now…but there’s an overall kinda alarming pattern there.

They’ve had plenty of great reigns in the past, but i do worry that TK has too much on his plate especially with ROH now. Hell, for all i know he still edits the Youtube shows???

I think Jade has been great as the TBS champion, but I think it would have been a huge boost to Britt's reign -- and the women's division as a whole -- if she had been chasing Britt's title, especially if they could have gotten her in the ring with Deeb as a "gatekeeper" to build her up.

Then again, I'm not even convinced that the TNT title has been a net positive other than Miro's reign and Cody's initial run with the belt, so maybe I'm just down on the secondary belts in general.