sek69

It was widely expected he was going to win the belt at the PPV before he left, and all the storylines seemed to point in that direction. Not to say he shouldn't have putting his family first, but the timing of it absolutely sucked for him career wise.

His reign was a disappointment because he took paternity leave at the exact time he was at his hottest, and by the time he came back a bunch of hot names were signed and he got lost in the shuffle.

Yeah, that's kind of the point everyone is trying to make. Page's comments that set this whole nonsense in motion weren't even directed at Punk, he basically just said "yeah we got a lot of veterans here, but I'm the type that wants to learn on my own" and Punk created an entire blood feud in his head over it.

From what I gather (and from what Punk has said), he seemed to have an expectation folks would be coming to him for advice/listening to his wisdom and got salty when that didn't happen. Which granted sounds incredibly petty and dumb, but *gestures wildly at AEW*

The whole issue with Punk is reminding me of the famous XKCD comic about free speech:

The more info that drips out, the less it looks like AEW is a den of chaos with everyone at each others throats and more like everyone there got gradually more tired of Punk until it finally boiled over. It probably didn't help that a lot of people there had to put up with older wrestlers telling them to stop doing what would end up making them stars and as such would be not be predispositioned to listen to Punk's (largely unsolicited) gems of advice.

For what it's worth, it has been mentioned that she wasn't happy that Toni basically called BS on her injury in the presser.

I get it's probably not your intent, but this seems like you're saying it's somehow Page's fault that Punk is an asshole? Even if you think Page shouldn't have said what he did, Punk losing his shit over what could be at best be called a cryptic comment that 99% of the people watching didn't get the meaning of seems to be the bigger issue here.

Page's only crime was being a little too vocal he wasn't interested in hearing career advice from a bitter asshole.

The suspensions all seem to be from the fight, which to my knowledge no one is saying Page was part of.

lol did Regal slip in a Jimmy Saville reference there? "I'm an eccentric Englishman, I can get away with it"

I died at the crowd getting BIG MAD at Max Caster getting rap-blocked.

As much as I personally like the Bucks, the more I think I'd kind of welcome an AEW not dominated by people with Endless Opinions On The Bucks.

I would not object to any of this.

Also the report of Jericho being one of the leaders of the AEW team meeting today makes me wonder if he didn't have some kind of (perhaps literal) "come to Jesus" moment with his health scare? He's physically improved greatly and seems to have really leapt into the "veteran leader" role.

I got the impression they are trying to elevate Hobbs and Starks at the same time, which ironically is going to be easier to do now with all the new found open space on Dynamite.

I wonder if Punk knew he was fucked from whatever injury he got and that's what triggered him to burn the building down on the way out again.

Having a locker room brawl in the presence of the chief legal officer of the company is some real galaxy brain shit no matter who did what.

Yup. Also Baby Santina is gonna fuck around and steal Kiana's gimmick.

Did Brandon Cutler hit them with the cold spray after Nick got clobbered with a chair?

Meiko vs Roxanne? Yes please

Gigi, respectfully.

Part of me thinks they can't wait to make references to the AEW mess on NXT tonight, but another part thinks post-Jesus HBK seems to have enough self awareness to realize how that would look for a show he runs to do that.

FWIW, while I believe Dave does tend to have a blind spot for sources he's been friends with for a while (hi Ric!), I do think that when push comes to shove he wouldn't knowingly publish news spun to one side. At least without acknowledging that it's spin. This is the guy who will steamroll Bryan on a podcast to correct some random factoid in the Observer no one could possibly care about one way or another, I don't see him knowingly report spin.

From what the rumors are saying, the heat on Punk is at nuclear levels and keeping him around could cause more problems than getting rid of him would.