The notion WWE would not be interested in Punk never made sense to me.
“Oh, he’s a douchebag!”
Yeah, like most wrestlers, especially top stars.
Whatever you think of him Punk is one of the biggest wrestling stars of his era.
When you have FOX telling WWE to sign Punk, Dana handing out an MMA rookie like Punk his first two professional fights on PPV and adding all the impact he made to improve AEW’s numbers, you can understand the guy has some pull power.
There’s a reason his name was chanted for years in his absence.
Ultimately, WWE wants to own all of that. It’s in their best interest that guys like Punk are WWE guys. Same applies for his wife.
WWE puts beefs aside when there is money to be made. From Bret, to Goldberg, Lesnar and even the recent example of Cody.
Just imagine how bad it would look for AEW to upstage their CM Punk debut with CM Punk’s return in a packed stadium. Imagine doing MJF v Punk 3 in a WWE ring after AEW set that thing uo and is arguably the best feud in AEW to date.
I personally have no doubt WWE is monitoring the situation very closely and will approach both him and AJ at some point regarding a final run and eventual HOF induction.
Fox were not pleased with WWE at all when they didn’t sign Punk when he was going back to wrestling. They really liked him from his time working on the Backstage program they did.
He is money, although he’s tarnished his drawing power a bit with what’s gone on in his run in the lower leagues. He’s also miles below the level he was at in ring when he left WWE. He also seems to be more injury prone although that might just be because where he was working looking after their wrestlers isn’t really something they do.
If he were to appear, a limited or part time run would be best. I’m still not really fussed if we see it though.
AEW does need Punk to somehow come back in order to salvage what is becoming a stale product. It’s increasingly looking like it won’t happen now, though.
The last PPV was very good (All Out). I can’t see Full Gear being in the same bracket.
I was online when AEW was airing last night and it has gotten so bad.
Won’t spoil anything but MJF all his heat after returning.
I hae no clue why Bryan Danielson wasn’t made AEW World Champion and is booked like a geek still. Even if that’s what he wants, Tony should put his foot down and tell Bryan that’s not what AEW needs right now.
Anyway, I guess I looks forward to all the AEW backstage drama that’s about to unfold with Jericho now taking on The Elite after Cody and Punk did. Jericho is a master of the dark arts, they better not underestimate him.
Tony Khan is a fan before anything, I’ve been saying that for months and the way he handled Brawl Out proves it.
That’s the reason why WWE will always be the number 1 promotion, in America if not the world. They’re ran by actual businessmen who understand the wrestling business. Okay they don’t always give the fans what they want all the time, but from a business standpoint, they’re no slouches. They know how the wrestling business works, especially Steph seeing as it’s been her in family for generations.
In terms of Malakai, apparently Malakai himself came out and said on IG live that he’s just taking a break and hasn’t left, and not to believe everything the dirtsheets say.
I reckon Khan will be out of the wrestling business in the next few years. Jim Cornette has always said that he’s a billionaire who wants to play wrestling and that’s why he refuses to let significantly more experienced / knowledgeable people make decisions in AEW.
Even Vince lent on his creative team, his writers and his experienced guys to get him through. He had Pat Patterson handling finishes, he had Jim Ross handling talent relations, he had a variety of different wrestling guys on creative + writers from outside wrestling. He had ex wrestlers in executive roles assisting talent and giving him ideas.
Vince is undoubtedly the greatest promoter in the history of the business for what he accomplished with WWF/E even if you accept he ran it into the ground in his later years.
I’d still want AEW to push WWE to entice me to watch it again. Competition breeds success. I’ll still watch the Survivor Series when it airs but I can’t imagine being bowled over.
AEW needs something better in terms of storytelling and creative now.
I’m gonna sit through every 5 star match on the network. There isn’t as much as I thought they’d be.
Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat - WCW Chi-Town Rumble
Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat - Clash of the Champions VI
Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat - WCW WrestleWar 1989
Ric Flair vs Terry Funk - Clash of the Champions IX
The Four Horsemen vs Brian Pillman, Sting and the Steiner Brothers - WCW WrestleWar 1991
The Dangerous Alliance vs Sting’s Squadron - WCW WrestleWar 1992
Razor Ramon vs Shawn Michaels - WrestleMania X
Bret Hart vs Owen Hart - SummerSlam 1994
Juventud Guerrera vs Rey Misterio Jr. - ECW Big Ass Extreme Bash 1996
Bret Hart vs Steve Austin - WrestleMania 13
Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker - In Your House 18: Badd Blood
CM Punk vs John Cena - Money In The Bank 2011
Andrade “Cien” Almas vs Johnny Gargano - NXT Takeover: Philadelphia
Adam Cole vs EC3 vs Killian Dain vs Lars Sullivan vs Ricochet vs Velveteen Dream - NXT Takeover: New Orleans
Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover: New Orleans
Mustache Mountain vs The Undisputed Era - NXT 11/7/2018
Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano - NXT Takeover: New York
Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole - NXT Takeover: XXV
Walter vs Tyler Bate - NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff
Walter vs Ilja Dragunov - NXT UK 29/10/2020
Ilja Dragunov vs Walter - NXT Takeover 36
Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins - Hell in a Cell 2022
Gunther vs Sheamus - Clash at the Castle
By the way: side note - I’m glad the HBK/Bret iron man match is not a 5 star. That’s a strong contender in my mind for most overrated match in wrestling history.
This match actually got over 5 stars, with Dave Meltzer giving it 5.25/5, making it one of 4 WWE matches over 5 stars.
This was one of my favourite matches I’ve seen in a long, long time. These 2 compliment each other so well in the ring, with the Goliath stature of Walter against Dragunov, who is more of a Danielson type build. However they both have similar styles of wrestling, rough, strong style-esque wrestling, but both can slow the pace down if needed. Walter also hit an awesome splash off the top rope at one point.
These 2 bring so much prestige and a sense of legitimacy to wrestling, you can tell they take the business serious and this match could of been shown in the 70s and it wouldn’t look out of place at all. The ending surprised me in a good way (Won’t spoil in case anyone is interested in watching)
One negative (This is probably just me nit picking lol) but there was a very visible audible called by Walter halfway through the match when you can see him point to the turnbuckle and you hear “Ilja, top” or words to that effect.
In summary, this match was fucking awesome and one of best single matches I’ve seen in a long long time and I absolutely agree that this was even higher than 5 stars. Check it out if you can.
