Embrodak

I don’t necessarily know why we should take the word of Dave and SRS here, but even if we do, it’s not like The Elite don’t have ways of getting out their agenda without sending it to Meltzer themselves. FTR already said Dave was full of shit when he said very confidently that the Bucks weren’t holding FTR down or ducking them, so at the very least, there are, uh, differing interpretations of what’s happening in the AEW locker room that are not necessarily represented in the wrestling press.

WWE has Austin Theory, Bron Breakker, and Solo Sikoa. AEW has MJF, Darby Allin, and Hook, and the Gunn Club. In terms of under-30s with a lot of potential, I’m not seeing a huge difference, unless we want to claim that there is a ton of talent on Dark and Elevation with big upsides.

Punk is an asshole, but that is very much a part of the reason I want him on my TV. He’s an asshole I can relate to, if only because his inability to let little shit go is like the opposite of me and I appreciate seeing someone who embodies an aspect of living I’ve so thoroughly repressed in myself. I’ve liked everything he’s done in AEW so far and am less likely to watch going forward if he’s gone. I understand it may be inevitable, but I’ll be sad to see him go.

So Arcadian Vanguard is trying to branch into wrestling journalism, and Brian Last wrote on Twitter that their sources have told them that Ace Steel actually wasn’t in the room when the confrontation started, as well that Omega and Punk tried to talk things out later that night but couldn’t get anywhere. Idk how seriously to take that, but they do have Sempervive as their anchor, so I don’t know if they’d outright lie.

IDK if Punk is *so* much of a draw that he can just punch a motherfucker and be the one that stays. Him and Mox appear to be approximately equal ratings draws.

Lmaoooooo if Punk got injured so bad having a shoot fight with the goddamn Elite that he has to vacate the title again.

Yeah I don’t get this. I guarantee the first thing Tony sent out was an email saying that anybody who leaks anything to the press is fucking fired.

Theory’s booking is utterly baffling to me.

Next steps really depend on who threw the first punch and/or instigated. I can’t imagine the Bucks or Omega having the chutzpah to throw the first punch, but I can imagine them shoving or grabbing CM Punk when he blew them off and him responding with a punch, then the others trying to restrain Punk and Ace Steel throwing the chair to try and even things out. Not a good look by any measure, though. I’m sympathetic to Punk in the sense that I can imagine the Bucks and Omega being really annoying to try and deal with as bosses and creatives, but if he started a fight after that rant at the press conference, he prob should just leave AEW.

All this makes one wonder how much of the stories about Cody being an egotistical primadonna were true, and how many of them were a function of who had a good relationship with the wrestling press. He clearly wasn’t in a good headspace at the end, given how bizarre the Codyverse got, but now it’s like, can you blame him?

Godspeed, brother. Don’t understand it a bit, but much better to just not watch something you’re not interested in than hate watch like so many wrestling fans have become accustomed to.

Punk is an asshole, but I can’t find any lies in what he said. That weird-ass promo Kenny cut off-air when he returned did not do him any favors against the accusations that he and the EVPs have shut themselves up in a bubble of self-regard, and supposedly there was a similarly off-kilter speech by him during the talent meeting. Idk, it feels like something has popped in AEW in the last six months, and they’re going to have a hard time fixing the leak without doing further damage.

It’s got Mox in it, what do you think

Wrestling being subsumed into nerd culture is surely the definitive difference maker here, and it’s really a question of how much you can stomach that and in what quantities and combinations. I personally find the stuff that is pure sports entertainment and burlesque cringy and embarrassing, whether it’s Effy jacking off while Mox chokes him, The Elite dressing up like Ghostbusters and getting beaten up by Adam Page in a Staypuft marshmallow man costume, The New Day when they turned face and became memelords, or guys doing Thriller in the middle of a match, but it’s also impossible to argue that these things aren’t a logical progression of the art form post-Monday Night Wars. The real problem is that *any* particular style or aspect of wrestling is basically niche at this point, and it’s only by doing them all that you really get everybody that you can get under a single, financially viable umbrella. However, it also renders the final product a little incoherent. Most modern fans don’t mind that, there’s a heavy layer of irony that goes into wrestling appreciation anymore, but it does have a self-undermining tendency that I think is evidenced in the Adam Page reign. You can have a guy get over by being relatably awkward and anxious in a way that a nerdy crowd will pop for, but then when he finally does get the belt, he’s not really used to acting like and projecting that he’s a big deal, so his reign kinda flounders. Big E kinda had the same problem, where he spent so long being a merch-pushing midcard goof that he wasn’t really in a position to transcend “eh” booking of his actual reign.

Jacob Fatu rocks, but WWE has passed on him because of his criminal record, no? He’s way too good for MLW, but it seems like it’s where he’s maxed out, unless AEW decides to take a shot.

Wrestling is different from most other art forms in that 1)more popularity/more people being there really does improve it, in that you can get hotter crowds, and 2) when something you like makes money, it is in some sense “proof” that, at the very least, the company should do more of it, since making money is the primary goal of wrestling and pretty much always has been.

Will he? Idk, I think that assuming the AEW audience will remain hot for everything AEW just because it’s AEW has to prove false at some point, especially three years in. MJF is mega over as an entertaining heel, but him being a quasi-sympathetic antihero is uncharted territory, especially if the strategy is to have him recite Jim Cornette-adjacent criticisms, whom a solid chunk of the smartest parts of that smart audience think is an irredeemable bigot whose AEW criticisms shouldn’t be taken seriously by anybody. (Note that I’m not commenting on the legitimacy of such accusations leveled at Corny, just that there are those who won’t even allow any criticisms substantially similar to one’s he’s made.) If MJF and/or Khan weren’t willing to really commit to this angle, do extra leg work to make it look like MJF really got fired or was really acting independently, I’m not sure that it was worth doing. It doesn’t work if it’s obviously worked, and it’s especially obviously worked in a world where Tony says “no comment” to this every time but shoots on talent for real on Twitter. Live by the shitpost, die by the shitpost.

Yeah, but there’s a difference between putting something on the back burner to reduce and get richer and just letting all the liquid evaporate. MJF got Wardlow so hot even three months of terrible booking haven’t totally cooled him off, but at this point, have you even thought about MJF in the last two months? MJF should have at least been out in the world talking shit or something, or they should have gone all in on the work and convinced people backstage he was really fired. It’s a little like how Summer of Punk 2 made no sense if WWE wasn’t willing to let Punk go pop a few big gates at some independent shows with the belt, just a total waste of what is actually interesting at the core of the concept. Which makes me think there was at least a little stank to the way it’s been handled so far, but eh, what do I know?

MJF has to be actually in trouble, right? There’s absolutely zero reason to stretch the storyline out this long unless he was actually serving penance for the no-show and for publicly talking shit about how unhappy he was with his contract situation.

I mean weight classes are a thing in real fighting for a reason. It’s one thing to say that one can allow a degree of flexibility for a Rey Mysterio or Daniel Bryan or Shawn Michaels, a generational talent, but “small guy who can hang with heavyweights” should also probably be used sparingly if one is to maintain any pretense that this is worked combat, rather than an athletic burlesque that has combat as a loose theme. I can sympathize with some of this thread, but there does seem to be a converse “AEW brain” where rules of thumb and best practices that have guided the business (not just WWE) for decades are just not applicable at all if they come into conflict with enjoyment of the product.

I must admit, I don’t understand this at all unless it’s just personal with Punk. Even if one does not like or believe face Punk, and I think that’s a fair criticism even if I disagree with it, I would kill to have a higher proportion of the roster take their shit as seriously and present it as straightforwardly as Punk has. Even if it was melodramatic and over the top, which I don’t necessarily agree with but think is a valid read, the stuff with Punk last night was 1000x more wrestling to me than that six-man main event, where my 67 year old dad lost track multiple times of who the legal person was even supposed to be.

Is this the first time WWE seems to have a stronger card on paper than AEW?

It has more juice this way, but it’s hard for me to be hyped for a main event between two of the sloppiest top guys in the history of the business, with both guys as babyfaces. It’s a weird way to heat up a match that, on paper, seems ill-conceived, but I guess it’s better than just running the match cold.

God help them if Austin Theory cashes in MitB and a more substantiated accusation from a teenage fan comes forward. Right now I think they’re operating on the assumption that since the original accuser has disappeared from the internet, it may have just been a bogus headline grab in the midst of all the #SpeakingOut stuff, but if that was legit and the person just dropped it because it wasn’t worth it to her to pursue it, there’s pretty much guaranteed to be more out there.

If people were being misogynistic, take them to task, but if people were pointing out that the team that looked markedly worse in the ring should not have won the titles, get over it.