For the primary time this previous weekend, and deliberately it doesn’t matter what they could say, WWE and AEW ran PPVs/PLEs on the identical weekend, maybe being in direct competitors with one another for the primary time since NXT was backed off Wednesday nights. Looks like pretty much as good of a time as any to see the place the businesses are individually and in relation to one another with huge modifications, huge tales, and the longer term as thrilling and intriguing because it’s ever been. Right here, we wrap up the largest story in wrestling…for now. Who is aware of what tomorrow will convey in the case of Sir Punk.
The line between those that communicate reality to energy or are real whistleblowers, and people which are simply jealously bitching might be quite a bit thinner than we notice. Whereas there actually are people who name out wrongdoing or issues which are amiss, in all probability as a result of they’re virtuous and simply doing what is correct, there’s a truthful quantity of others who really feel jilted, cheated, and lacking out on one thing they really feel they’ve earned.
CM Punk grew to become the wrestling icon — possibly even a cultural one there for a minute — by being seen as a paragon of reality. There was no yet one more REAL than Punk, and he would inform the followers and everybody round him precisely how all the pieces actually was, irrespective of who it pissed off or what it price him. However what’s turn out to be clear is that Punk has solely ever been taken with securing his place; he’s insecure and jealous about issues we are able to’t even establish, and his so-called truth-to-power is simply a considerable amount of very polished whining.
Punk taking a flame-thrower to AEW — maybe protected within the information that he was going to be out for a very long time once more by damage so what did it matter — colours nearly all the pieces that got here earlier than in his profession. Whereas Punk’s “pipe bomb” will stay perpetually, it doesn’t seem anymore as somebody making an attempt to drag again the curtain on an organization that was protecting the followers’ from the perfect wrestling they might have versus somebody simply offended he wasn’t getting what he deserved and nothing extra. It additionally usually leaves out that Punk was then given a 400+ day reign as champion, to turn out to be a crossover superstar, to open doorways he wouldn’t have in any other case gotten proper after, however hey, the squeaky wheel and all that.
What was so bizarre about Punk’s late-night rant after All Out was it didn’t actually have something to do with what he was requested or what the dialogue was about. Whether or not or not Punk had Colt Cabana blackballed was the dialogue, not what Punk considered Cabana. A mere “I’ve no relationship with him anymore” would have sufficed. And but, whereas the goal was to disclaim that Punk had something to do with the place Cabana was in AEW and that rumors saying he did had been false, Punk spent 5 minutes mainly saying, “Nicely I didn’t have something to do along with his job however listed here are all the explanations I hate the man, so if I did, this is able to be why, however I didn’t, but additionally he sucks.” And also you name them steamed hams although they’re clearly grilled.
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There isn’t much to Punk’s claims that hold water. When accusing Hangman Adam Page of nearly costing AEW a big gate at Double Or Nothing…well those tickets sold out in minutes, as all of AEW’s PPVs tend to, and well before Hangman had anything to say about or to Punk. And it was Punk himself who threatened to walk out on the show, reportedly, so who was risking what?
Or that the Bucks and Omega can’t run a company, except the one they started from scratch that has a major TV deal and draws viewers and crowds on the regular to be proud of. Or that the Young Bucks or Omega or Page haven’t accomplished anything, except for making NJPW and ROH household names among wrestling fans to the point where they could start their own company. And if being a big name in WWE means so little to Punk, which he’s made clear, why is it also a cudgel to beat The Elite over the head with, exactly?
And again, Page’s comments were innocuous at the time. No one other than Punk thought much of them, and then Punk sat on them for months while injured and then decided on his own to make it a thing when he came back merely to satisfy himself. It was the scene out of “Dracula: Lifeless And Loving It” the place Mel Brooks and Leslie Nielsen battle over who has the final phrase merely to battle over having the final phrase (sure, solely I’ve seen this film and I do know what it says about me).
Which leads one to marvel what precisely is Punk so mad about. What’s he rebelling towards? He was introduced in with what we’d should guess with a bag of cash that might dwarf an elephant. He was given his personal present within the United Heart to announce his return. He was given each match he wished. He was given the highest spot after being within the firm for lower than a yr. He was slated to face the largest title in Japanese wrestling at Forbidden Door, Hiroshi Tanahashi. He was then given the title again in his hometown once more simply on Sunday after lacking by damage and his first batch of self-interested shenanigans. What extra may he need? Who’s he lashing out at, actually?
It’s comedy of the very best degree that Punk laments the individuals who made essentially the most cash off his title are Cabana and Vince McMahon. Nicely, CM Punk has made a good sum of money off it too. Positive, cash isn’t all the pieces, however Punk will get all the pieces desires and but retains on the lookout for extra.
All of it smacks of the heyday of Hulk Hogan, who was well-known for doing something it took to guard his prime spot in both WWF or WCW. Backroom politics, reserving choices, refusing to work with folks, and even busting union efforts, Hogan was the main proprietor of the Hulk Hogan enterprise. Hogan was actually restricted within the ring, and his fame and place had been constructed on his character, and maybe he knew simply how far behind he was some others when it got here to in-ring work because the trade developed. Possibly he was all the time insecure about what he may do, which is why he fought so exhausting and in any trend to stay on prime of all of them.
However Punk isn’t that. He is an effective wrestler. An excellent one. Possibly again in WWE, he was even the most effective. However he’s not all that particular in AEW. Proper now, Bryan Danielson or Kenny Omega, or Jon Moxley, or a handful of others may simply argue they’re his equal or higher. [Editor’s note: The first two are definitely better in-ring, while the third arguably is too.] On the mic, he’s nonetheless an excellent promo, however Moxley, or Kingston, or MJF, or Jericho are simply his equal if not superior. He doesn’t stick out, besides when he tries to tear all of it down as a result of…he doesn’t stick out?
Punk nonetheless desires to invoice himself as an agent of change, besides all of the folks he tried to battle and ran down in entrance of the media truly did engineer the change he desires to take credit score for. They began a complete new wrestling firm that has turn out to be greater than viable and fashionable. Punk is merely a part of it, or was, and appears to be pissing himself as a result of he can’t take credit score for it.
Punk confirmed up in AEW saying he wished to spice up the profile of the corporate’s younger wrestlers. And he did, for a minute with Darby Allin, and even Britt Baker. However then Punk couldn’t cease complaining about working with MJF or Web page. What occurred to the man who wished to assist? No completely different than what he did to youthful wrestlers in New York, both.
And AEW will survive with out him. Simply. They’ll do what they all the time do, as they did final night time, and pack exhibits with nice matches that followers lap up. AEW’s one card it could all the time play over WWE to draw followers is that it has a number of candidates for “Greatest Wrestler In The World.” And it could all the time import Kazuchika Okada when want be. Who in WWE could make that declare? That’s proper, nobody. Oh certain, some followers will nonetheless bitch and moan. “C-M-PUNK!” chants may be commonplace for some time. However after sufficient nice matches and good storytelling, they’ll fade. AEW was a factor lengthy earlier than Punk confirmed up, and it will likely be once more.
Punk has spent his profession getting principally all the pieces he desires, and it’s by no means sufficient. In some unspecified time in the future, it turns into apparent it’s solely in service of himself. There’s a gap, for no matter cause, that may by no means be crammed. AEW might be higher off when it stops making an attempt to fill it.
