I haven’t written anything about pro-wrestling for a while just out of sheer frustration with the products. That said, the WWE is still leagues better at this stage than what AEW has devolved into. Any hope of AEW establishing themselves as a serious competitor to the WWE was dashed when Tony Khan allowed CM Punk to be released. I have no idea what that entailed, what Punk lost, if he lost anything or if he even cared at that point. What is clear though is that the fans certainly cared about him when he made his WWE return at the end of Survivor Series 2023 last night.
I haven’t bothered watching the PPV, although I read that two other returns also occurred in R-Truth as well as Randy Orton. However, while both have been away for sometime, they still remained under WWE contract. But the impossible happened for which Triple H himself admitted as “hell freezing over” with CM Punk showing up with his trademarked Living Color Cult of Personality blasting after the main event. The place erupted with the few notes and the game has changed once again. What his future entails in the WWE doesn’t really matter because I’m sure at this stage of his career, he’ll be happy to be on TV as long as he’s not risking serious injury the way AEW is plagued by in their handling of talent.
The lead up to this point has been interesting too beyond the various mishaps within AEW. First, you had Seth Rollins supposedly bad mouthing Punk on social media. Of course, he was one of the key people at the end of the show giving Punk the stinkeye. Work or not, it’s clear that Punk being there and Seth having this “known” issue will make for a compelling storyline. In addition, you had WWE people telling so-called internet wrestling journalists that they had no interest in CM Punk. If anything, that only has me convinced that these so-called online journalists are nothing more than marks who can’t fact check to really get a clear scoop. And HHH supposedly has admitted that the deal only came about 10 days prior to the event with the people in the main event being told that night to really keep a lid on the situation tight. And to the WWE’s credit, they did a damn good job.
But going back to the part where these online writers picked up these uncredited scoops of the WWE not wanting Punk back, I’m of the mindset that they probably wanted to throw any suspicion off the scent. There was a story a while back where Regal and Punk might’ve had a scuffle. Since Regal returned to the WWE in a backstage capacity along with Cody, we saw Jade make a debut. Maybe they all figured Tony Khan is so stupid that they could fool him into believing that these people weren’t some sort of insiders to help the WWE do an internal scout of talent. Also, probably after Punk got whiff of Adam Page and the other AEW cliques’ stench, he wanted back and started creating his own stir to get out of his contract.
Obviously, this is all speculation and we’ll never truly know what really went on backstage. I mean, Punk’s unceremonious exit might be akin to Bret Hart’s Survivor Series exit. Because for a short period, it really made the WWE and McMahon look terrible for how they handled Bret on the way out. This time though Tony Khan isn’t smart enough to understand how to capitalize on the situation.
To me the whole situation merely exposes what an idiot Tony Khan is. At this point, AEW is completely unwatchable. I refuse to check out anything because their talent get injured and it’s disheartening how there’s no real plan in place for this promotion. I think ever since Wembly, it’s been a sharp downhill decline. They might’ve secured Edge and Ric Flair but who cares? It’s just embarrassing watching decent talent being used in stupid ways. Right now, I’m of the opinion that AEW just signs a bunch of old broken down rejects Tony is a fan of from the WWE or he gets highly inexperienced people who have no inclination to learn how the wrestling business works.
By contrast, the WWE gets people in their prime or those people who are super hot. The WWE wouldn’t have signed Punk if he still didn’t mean something. So those talent will sign multiyear deals with high pay and be sucked dry. By the time the WWE is done with them, they’ll be frail, broken down or have lingering injuries that prevent them from having the star making performances that Tony thinks he’s going to get.
I once said that the WWE would be interested in a small group of people that are actually worth anything in AEW. Those people will be Powerhouse Hobbs, Wardlow, MJF, Kris Statlander, Ricky Starks and Jamie Hayter. Maybe Takeshita. The rest aren’t worth a damn. Toni Storm would’ve made that list except she had that horrible exit so she could be blacklisted.
And if you look at the people that AEW has brought in from the WWE, the only person that really made anything for herself and has been in a better position than she was before has been Toni Storm. But I think she’s done more of that on her own than anything for which AEW could have provided creatively.
Let’s look at this situation holistically in retrospect. I want to go all the way back to the first Arthur Ashe Stadium show. This was the height of AEW. They brought in Ruby Soho, CM Punk and Bryan Danielson. There seemed to be a direction with Bryan Danielson about to have a feud with the Elite. Off to the sidelines was Adam Page during a paternity leave. They knew Kenny would be gone shortly for a sabbatical. Rather than give what the people needed which was Bryan Danielson as the world title holder and Ruby Soho as the women’s champion, they went for a 30 minute tie and a meaningless Britt Baker victory that sent both women spiraling downward. They did that partly because Kenny would shortly drop the belt to Adam Page after he returned with a stupid gimmick ladder match that was nothing more than a tool to put him back into the #1 position.
If it was me at that point, I would’ve fired Page on the spot and said, “Come back when you’re an adult.” All of AEW’s problems would’ve been resolved in that one moment. Danielson should’ve been crowned the title holder and given a 1 year reign as the promotion’s top babyface while Punk made his way back to the top since he was out for 7 years. That way the 2nd Arthur Ashe Stadium show would’ve meant something huge. Ruby would’ve won the women’s title in a much shorter match and force Britt off TV while someone else like Jamie Hayter would’ve been built up. Miro should’ve never dropped the TNT title to Sammy Guevara so that he would have a feud with Cody Rhodes. Just stuff like that would’ve given AEW a better path forward.
In part, I would’ve slowly wound down the Elite and pushed them out. Right now, supposedly the Bucks are taking a sabbatical. No idea why. Along with them the lawyer that was involved in the CM Punk backstage brawl also seems gone. So is AEW doing a small housecleaning? One can only hope because they’re in awful shape and I don’t think Tony Khan has the smarts to do the right things.