sek69

I mean, it doesn't make normal pro wrestling sense for them to have Punk debuting and never directly say so on TV leading up to it, so at this point I'm thinking all sense is out the window.

Whole show is one long ass tracking shot like Henry walking through the restaurant kitchen in Goodfellas. Also how wild would it be if Punk debuts, the Elite come out and surround the ring ready to beat his ass and Punk's like "oh you thought I came alone?" then Final Countdown starts playing.

I don't think anyone would deny that. The reason the Shield was kept strong was because of Vince's Big Dog Boner. Hell, the reason WWE Shaky Cam exists to the extent it does is because they originally started doing it to cover when Roman was green.

Pretty sure Dave confirmed at some point that the Shield was Punk's idea but it was Ambrose, Rollins, and Hero. They put Roman in and (per Punk) anyone who was in the ring with the Shield was told their role was to make Roman look as good as possible. Roman certainly has all the rights to feel a certain kind of way about Punk, but him going off like that just comes off as someone trying to convince everyone that they are definitely Not Mad at someone. Plus it makes Tony Khan look smart, why pay to hype up Punk's return when you can get the top star of your competitor to do it for you?

Not to mention you're giving ammo to someone who doesn't need any extra motivation to blast the company on national TV, just not smart all around.

The state of anyone on the planet calling the Rock a mark.....

Yeah it's the modern day versions of when both WCW and WWF would show videos of someone about to join the opposing company jobbing in theirs.

Funny thing is I remember people being all excited on how the WWE version of the Summer of Punk angle would end, only for it to peter out in the most WWE way possible. But sure, Punk just wasn't moving the needle.

It's def. a case of Roman parroting the company line, even if Punk was a Grumpy Gus he was still right that it's bullshit guys who work all year get bumped off the card for people who work once or twice a year. The saltiness probably is still lingering from him telling Hunter to GFY when he offered a match with him as a make good for not getting the main event slot.

There were tons of ads for the Dynamite/Rampage tapings here during Raw on the local buy in slots. A lot of smaller wrestling companies around here buy local ads to air during WWE programmings.

That wouldn't surprise me. Brock always seemed the type of guy willing to do business if the money was right, and it seemed so odd to me that he had such a hard stance against giving Mox anything in their match.

To be fair, Mox stated he had a bunch of ideas for the Brock match and he turned them all down. Sure, the company could have stepped in but Brock just didn't see him as a guy he should even pretend to be competitive with and basically sandbagged him. I don't blame WWE for not wanting to risk upsetting Brock since he's the one getting the fat checks, but you can't do that then turn around and say "gee ol' Dean just didn't have what it takes to succeed here".

Also without fail everyone in WWE when talking about someone who's left the company sounds like a jilted ex partner who's totally over it guy, and won't stop talking about how over their ex they are to the point it's clear they aren't over them at all.

To me it wasn't so much what Roman said, it's that it was out of nowhere and was seemingly only mentioned by Roman because Punk's presumed debut is the hot thing everyone is talking about and not his Summerslam match. Also saying someone isn't as over as the Rock isn't the burn he seems to think it is considering literally no one else in the history of wrestling was over like the Rock.

I dunno, I saw a lot of people at the Rampage taping that were at their first ever wrestling show (not just kids either, although there were plenty of them too), I think we sometimes underestimate the non hardcore portion of AEW's audience. Clearly they're aiming for the hardcores but it does seem that they are bringing in more new fans too.

Kenny wearing shirts referring to things Punk has said "CM" has stood for the past (Cookie Monster, Chick Magnet) has been the best low key trolling. Also it's going to be wild how much of a surprise this is going to be to the "normies" while everyone in the building has known for weeks.

Historically the only two options in wrestling were to promote the shit out of a debut to maximize the TV rating, or to keep it a complete secret and not even hint about it. AEW taking the stance of "you know who's coming, we know you know who's coming, we don't need to beat you over the head with it" seems to be working since there's been CM Punk chants every time they mention the show. Same thing with the deal about Jericho not being allowed to use Judas last night. They never said they want the crowd to sing the song, but everyone knew what the deal was and it happened. The whole "don't assume your fans are idiots who need their hands held through everything" approach seemed risky but so far it seems to be working.

Saw in the WO daily update that Onita is coming to the US to have a match with Matt Tremont on Halloween. If we don't get Tony K to give us some kind of Onita/Mox interaction while he's here then what the fuck was the point of anything.

Jericho as the gatekeeper young guys beat to get to the next level isn't the worst thing they could do with him.

LOL I love that AEW banked on their fans to be able to sing Jericho's theme and they did.

Thunder Rosa was awesome as usual. It always cracks me up that Texas has a history of embracing Mexican wrestlers as their own, since.....well.... you know. You would think they would have the opposite reaction but it's been that way for pretty much the entire history of pro wrestling.

He's such a natural heel it just feels wrong for him to be a babyface. He can get a pop and do a babyface promo here and there, but it's just not in his DNA to be a babyface and doesn't look or feel natural doing it. I call it Randy Orton Syndrome.

Funny thing is he honed his skills in Impact so it's like an indirect gift from the Forbidden Door.

Somewhere Vince is like "goddamnit pal, this Khan kid can't book! you're supposed to embarrass people in their hometown!"

Texans tend to consider them selves Texan above all else, they really only make a distinction if both guys are from Texas then you go by city.