Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[PeteF3]

"Uninvited"? Was Punk's rant about saying it to his face not an invitation?

Edit: Not taking sides here, neither side really looks good.

[Petey]

14 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

If that is the case, holy shit. 

Bucks got punked by a dude who got tickled on a UFC fight. This is giving me life. I love gossip. I love when wrestling is wrestling and shit is carny.

It's funny because as a child of the Attitude Era, I sometimes fall into the trap of, "I miss when the wrestlers really gave a rip and were ultra competitive with one another, to the point where they'd have legit issues with each other behind the scenes."

And now that it's happening, I don't know, I feel kind of ambivalent. I'm a very casual AEW viewer. I will watch the TV every once in a while but I often order the PPVs because I appreciate that there's so few of them, they all feel pretty special. I feel like the whole situation is just ridiculous, and I kinda wish it wasn't the case.

[sek69]

You know, in retrospect we should have all seen the guy who's been doing a lengthy remake of Bret's greatest hits to eventually getting to "shoot fight in the locker room with a hated rival".

[Timbo Slice]

Everyone did this to themselves:

-The Bucks and Omega did it because they’re the leakers to Meltzer and the like to sow the seeds of discontent with Punk. 
 

-Punk did it because he reacted with the unheralded vitriol that made him leave the business in the first place and the first sign of malice was an opportunity to give into his worst impulses. 
 

-Page did it because he worked himself into a shoot and it made things difficult to actually confront Punk about it because in his eyes, he should be the face of the company, worked it into multiple promos related to Punk, and then more or less did what his on-screen character did in the locker room. 
 

-Tony did it because he grew up reading dirtsheets and thought using them as a vessel to drive “organic” interest in the product no matter how it actually manifests itself is worthwhile because that’s what got him interested in wanting to do this shit in the first place. 
 

-And the sheets did it because they run a perpetual motion machine that when actually confronted with needing to report on something, show their collective asses because their sources are obvious and their behavior screams, “How can I get more clicks off this?”

The ecosystem that allowed this to fester is something that won’t go away anytime soon, and the fallout from it is not going to be as interesting as anyone hopes. It will be sudden, it will be dumb, and it’ll end with whoever decides to take a side saying the other person did it. 
 

Also, people saying Cody was smart for getting out as if he could see this coming: The only difference between Cody and Punk is that Cody knew he had a backup plan and went that route instead of confronting folks more than he already did. He was just as isolated as Punk was, he was trying to craft his own narrative given how the locker room had been shaking out, and he believed his own bullshit enough that it turned folks off. And if folks think he’s the guy once he comes back now that Paul is in charge? Cmon now. 

[Jesse Ewiak]

1 hour ago, KawadaSmile said:

 

Bucks got punked by a dude who got tickled on a UFC fight. This is giving me life. I love gossip. I love when wrestling is wrestling and shit is carny.

As somebody who doesn't like either Punk or The Elite, this is win-win for me - Punk's still a goof who lost in a little over a minute after pushing that whole UFC deal, but the Elite are such goofs they got beat up by that guy. 

Quote

Also, people saying Cody was smart for getting out as if he could see this coming: The only difference between Cody and Punk is that Cody knew he had a backup plan and went that route instead of confronting folks more than he already did. He was just as isolated as Punk was, he was trying to craft his own narrative given how the locker room had been shaking out, and he believed his own bullshit enough that it turned folks off. And if folks think he’s the guy once he comes back now that Paul is in charge? Cmon now. 

I'd argue that Cody made the correct decision not to be a miserable asshole, and from statements of people still in AEW, he was nowhere as isolated as Punk is, and for the last part, I'll make a Trading Space dollar bet with you the main event of Mania is Cody vs. Roman or if Rock is around, Rock vs. Roman and Cody vs. Rollins is the male main event for the other night. 

[C.S.]

33 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

And if folks think he’s the guy once he comes back now that Paul is in charge? Cmon now. 

Cody has repeatedly called Triple H his favorite wrestler, said they shared a nice private moment after his return, and you know H is going to respect Cody gutting it out in Hell in a Cell with a major injury like H himself did after he tore his quad.

Cody is still the guy.

Tony Khan should have backed the Brinks truck to keep him. Biggest mistake ever.

[Jmare007]

Cody was incredibly smart leaving when he did, just perfect timing. Him staying would've not helped this situation. He was already kind of isolated and him being in the locker wouldn't have stopped Page from saying a line only Punk and 1% of the audience understood as a reference, he wouldn't have stopped the Young Bucks from leaking shit (they've been doing it for years now) and he certainly wouldn't have stopped Punk from going full Punk during this whole situation.

Man, if the first segment of Dynamite isn't the biggest quarter hour in company history then just close shop, lol.

[sek69]

13 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Cody has repeatedly called Triple H his favorite wrestler, said they shared a nice private moment after his return, and you know H is going to respect Cody gutting it out in Hell in a Cell with a major injury like H himself did after he tore his quad.

Paul seems to have a bit of that "you told me to go fuck myself, I respect that" thing that Vince was famous for. Plus perhaps now that he finally secured the keys to the kingdom he realized he doesn't need to be paranoid someone is going to steal his spot and bigfoot them. 

[Stiva]

It’s crazy that, lost in all of this, is MJFs total superstar making moment that, if they book it right, will give them a bonafide top guy. I wonder how much of it all was Tony and how much was MJF. If it was the latter, let Max book his own shit because it was clearly the hottest and most well done thing on the show, besides the tag title match

[Lukeless]

Let's not rewrite history just because Cody had a good couple months in WWE.  

The promo where he cures racism.  Having a major feud with...QT Marshall.  Beating Penta for no reason in a 2 week feud.  The failed reality show and game show.  Beating Agogo after making him go along with his shitty America vs. Britain idea (and that shitty weigh in segment).  The feud with Malakai Black that was cyclical and killed all of his momentum after Black's hot start.  The Rhodes doing a gender reveal ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.  I'm probably forgetting more but in any case, Cody was actively impeding the product for about a year and a half.  If he stayed, it would have been the same garbage and he wouldn't have helped in this situation.  The EVP's already stopped liking him and Punk hates everyone.

[Dav'oh]

heh heh heh...a room full of video gamers, tiktockers, instagrammers and twankers, and no-one thought to take a photo of or video all these backstage altercations,

Everyone must've forgotten their phones. Weird, hey?

[NintendoLogic]

The fact that Omega and the Bucks are EVPs makes this far more than a typical clash of egos. Management getting into fistfights with talent is completely unacceptable. Some kind of punishment is obviously warranted if Punk threw the first punch. But executives have a responsibility to defuse tensions, not escalate them. Barging into a guy's dressing room en masse is not the way to do that.

If it wasn't already, it should be clear by now that letting wrestlers just do whatever they want in the ring and say whatever they want in interviews is not tenable in the long run. We're seeing the fruits of the former in the sky-high injury rate and the fruits of the latter in...all this.

[Dav'oh]

Seriously. No-one was texting or tweeting or receiving texts and reading tweets after Punk's interview, so no-one had their phones out? No security cameras in the hallways of a modern, major arena to show Kenny and Pals stomping aggrieved to Punk's locker room? Down presumably empty hallways, devoid of people and phones. The guy that got knocked unconscious by a chair? Well, you'd presume he went to hospital, right? Which one? No photos of CT Scanners (or blackened eyes) from unadulterated, unabashed social-media whores?

It's 2022. People are glued to their fucking phones. Except when there's "tension in the air" and the biggest star in the company "blistered" the EVPs in the planned epilogue of a scripted wrestling show? Yeah, nah, as we say around here.

[NintendoLogic]

Law enforcement is now involved per Alvarez, so we can say with absolutely certainty that this is not an elaborate work.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

26 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

Law enforcement is now involved per Alvarez, so we can say with absolutely certainty that this is not an elaborate work.

To me the fact that Colt Cabana is involved in it made me pretty certain of that from the start.  It’s not like Punk is going to do a PPV program with him or that a business-altering level of fans give a shit about Colt.  I assume his MJF comments were all work but aside from that I don’t see any business potential from the scrum tirade other than Page selling an empty-headed fuckwad (or whatever Punk called him) shirt.

[Dav'oh]

33 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

Law enforcement is now involved per Alvarez

Per Alvarez and Meltzer, not per Law Enforcement. They said nobody's talking due to "pending legal issues" and "legal people" are now involved.

I'll wait.

[Al]

Backstage issues like this happen, both in wrestling and legitimate sports. In MLB from time to time a locker room incident will leak out and the standard operating procedure is to smother it with silence. That CM Punk was allowed to rant like that with his boss sitting next to him is the holy crap part of all this. Everything else you can come back from but Tony Khan looks awfully feckless right now.

[KawadaSmile]

Yup. That's why I think making this all a work is the dumbest fucking idea possible.

When the Sixers, Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid started taking shots - deserved as they were - at Ben Simmons, the public thought about how hilarious that shit was and how much of a messy fucking organization they were. It's no different here. 

[Migs]

10 hours ago, sek69 said:

You know, in retrospect we should have all seen the guy who's been doing a lengthy remake of Bret's greatest hits to eventually getting to "shoot fight in the locker room with a hated rival".

Why doesn't this board have a love button?

[Flyin' Brian]

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Are there any adults in the room, vets that can sit everyone down and lay down the law? Regal, Arn, Dustin? At this point just put the World Title on Orange Cassidy and chill everyone the F out. 

[Migs]

38 minutes ago, Al said:

Backstage issues like this happen, both in wrestling and legitimate sports. In MLB from time to time a locker room incident will leak out and the standard operating procedure is to smother it with silence. That CM Punk was allowed to rant like that with his boss sitting next to him is the holy crap part of all this. Everything else you can come back from but Tony Khan looks awfully feckless right now.

Watching Tony during the presser is incredible. You can tell he's trying to figure out if he has the guts to cut Punk off and decides that he doesn't and that he's going to have to endure it, but he has no poker face.

[Jmare007]

3 hours ago, Dav'oh said:

Seriously. No-one was texting or tweeting or receiving texts and reading tweets after Punk's interview, so no-one had their phones out? No security cameras in the hallways of a modern, major arena to show Kenny and Pals stomping aggrieved to Punk's locker room? Down presumably empty hallways, devoid of people and phones. The guy that got knocked unconscious by a chair? Well, you'd presume he went to hospital, right? Which one? No photos of CT Scanners (or blackened eyes) from unadulterated, unabashed social-media whores?

It's 2022. People are glued to their fucking phones. Except when there's "tension in the air" and the biggest star in the company "blistered" the EVPs in the planned epilogue of a scripted wrestling show? Yeah, nah, as we say around here.

The leaps in logic in this have me very confused.

The people fighting ain't recording this shit so you either want AJ or Ace's wife to leak footage of an embarrassing fight that makes everyone involved (including their husbands) look like shit? And probably go against both their wishes to not make shit more public than already is.

Who the hell is gonna upload a CT scan online over a shitty backstage brawl?

Then you want who to leak the security camera footage? And who is going to go out their way to get it from the Now Arena? wrestling journalists? lmao.

[Embrodak]

9 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

The leaps in logic in this have me very confused.

The people fighting ain't recording this shit so you either want AJ or Ace's wife to leak footage of an embarrassing fight that makes everyone involved (including their husbands) look like shit? And probably go against both their wishes to not make shit more public than already is.

Who the hell is gonna upload a CT scan online over a shitty backstage brawl?

Then you want who to leak the security camera footage? And who is going to go out their way to get it from the Now Arena? wrestling journalists? lmao.

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.

[Dav'oh]

23 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

Who the hell is gonna upload a CT scan online over a shitty backstage brawl?

Same people who take photos of their chest when they get slapped. Pro-wrestlers 

 

25 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

who is going to go out their way to get it from the Now Arena? wrestling journalists? lmao.

Um...yes? It wouldn't be finance journalists. lmao

19 minutes ago, Embrodak said:

anybody who leaks anything to the press is fucking fired.

Unless they speak on "condition of anonymity", as they usually do.

 

32 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

so you either want AJ or Ace's wife to leak footage of an embarrassing fight

You act like they were the only two others in the building, after a loaded PPV. There was a before, a during, and an after to the "altercation", across multiple rooms it seems - not a cellphone in sight while #omgicantbelievewhatpunksaid #shitsabouttogetreal #shitjustgotreal went down. From this generation?

These are just questions I have.

[Jmare007]

This is flat earth territory to me, but you do you my man.