Which is why it’s important to look at the actual situation(s) and the context of what has went down. You’re not going to get an accurate read by just saying “Hmm, Punk’s an asshole, therefore it’s definitely his fault.”

The difference between the assholes in this scenario is that one side has a bunch of stupider assholes. And the more that Punk forces out of Meltzer the more apparent that becomes.

Mr. Nerfect is excellent at measuring and weighing assholes. He will scrutinize all the assholes and sniff out the s**t

Sometimes the safe position is the reality of the situation. Everyone involved behaved childishly. I don't find it necessary to single out who was more childish. It's irrelevant.

99.9% of pro wrestlers aren't the worst MMA fighter in history. :yes:

It's cute watching Noid blame Chris Jericho for everything with no evidence while complaining how its unfair for people to blame Punk for constantly getting in drama every single place he goes.

We all know the reality is that the only reason Noid stans for Punk now is because he has an irrational hatred of AEW and will digitally fellate anyone he perceives as going after upper management there.

"The sentiment is that CM Punk is not welcomed back. The wrestlers don't want him back, the vast majority of wrestlers don't want him back. Maybe 1 or 2 of the top 3rd of the roster would want him back and then I’ve heard there's some younger guys who really liked him.”

- Wade Keller (via PWTorch)

The vast majority of people that actually know him are wrong! Fuck Chris Jericho!

- Noid

I would disagree it’s irrelevant. There’s a difference between good business and bad business. There is a difference between the environment with Punk and the environment with The Elite. You can say both sides are assholes, but there’s context to the situation.

Who does Wade Keller talk to? Your irrational ranting aside, Punk left WWE on his own accord after navigating that system for almost a decade. What was his drama in ROH? Sure, some people are magnets for it anyway, but when you tell the truth in the room full of workers that can happen.

He’s an outspoken prick. He doesn’t suffer fools. It doesn’t make him wrong in this situation. He was ambushed by a jealous idiot on the microphone — true or false? He was asked to work hurt — true or false? Even if the issue WERE his in other places, it doesn’t excuse this mess. I can hate AEW and still assess the situation properly. Your Punk thing is way more out of balance than my AEW thing.

P.S. I don’t think I’ve solely blamed Jericho at all, but that dude’s a cunt. Let’s take a poll of the black wrestlers who know him. What is the point you are trying to make? Because he doesn’t like someone they should go?

This whole Dave Meltzer apologizing for telling the AEW-friendly story is good evidence that your view on this whole thing is skewered by a gang of toxic people who have Dave’s ear to get their narrative out.

Renee Paquette has confirmed that Mox will be on her podcast this week and that he will talk about the Punk situation and his now-deleted post.

Wonder how long until the podcast before Mox blades.

My view isn't skewed at all. The fact that Punk attacked Jericho in the post says everything that needed to be said. Jericho had nothing to do with it. The meeting was between Mox, TK and Punk. Meltzer wrote the report. Punk attacks Jericho.

You seem to really struggle with the concept that not liking Punk and thinking he's an overrated toxic asshole doesn't mean someone supports TK and the Elite. This has been repeatedly pointed out to you but you still just blindly ignore it. They are all assholes but the rest of them aren't using public platforms to throw each other under the bus; only Punk is doing that shit.

And he has a history of it which makes it way harder to keep overlooking.

I await your response trying to further insinuate Jericho is racist even though I'm not sure what that has to do with anything here.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“I will say this. As an observer, it seems like I spent 8 years on the Indies, did a couple years in developmental, did 8 years in WWE. <br><br>I have never seen so much bullshit drama in one place (AEW) in my entire fucking life.“<br><br>- Jon Moxley<br>(via The Sessions) <a href="https://t.co/QYpeEHLtPL">pic.twitter.com/QYpeEHLtPL</a></p>&mdash; WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) <a href="https://twitter.com/WrestlePurists/status/1640669640538955776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He does mention that the vast majority of the locker room are good people. But this is gonna be the line everyone runs with. Especially the weirdos who spend their days praying for AEW's downfall.

The "big happy family" narratives really did start getting blown up in 2022 though, starting from Cody's departure and rumored backstage power struggles right on through to now. Then again I don't think it was ever realistic for them to maintain the sense of "togetherness" you always heard about during the pandemic era shows.

Read any story about any company in any business growing and expanding and you'll find people concerned about what this means for their jobs, now multiply it tenfold to account for some of the bombastic personalities you get in wrestling and yeah. This isn't terribly surprising.

Stay tuned for the next episode, "MoX bAcK tO wWe CoNfIrMeD" or "ThIs Is AlL a WoRk LoL lOnG-tErM sToRyTeLlInG"

He doesn’t like Jericho. Why does he need to leave Jericho out of his gripe with the company of Jericho is part of that gripe?

Punk’s story is the one you seldom here. The others have been using Dave Meltzer and a whole bunch of other people to get their narratives through.

Fucking lol. Moxley is supposed to be “Mr. AEW.”

Moxley has stated that he was AEW World Champion without a contract. It’s hard to make out everything he meant, because he talks like an angry teenager, but in the excerpt I saw he claims he could have walked into SummerSlam with the fucking AEW fucking belt shit.

Does he have anything more on CM Punk other than basically “I was doing you a favor dude because I didn’t have to come back and work for this company at all?”

Is Mox trying to do a thing where he is such a company guy that he didn’t leave with the belt so he’s so great? Did he realize how much he was burying the company? My first read was he’s so frustrated with that place, but maybe he was just trying to (poorly) defend himself against the Punk implications?

He kind of highlighted that WWE really doesn’t want him anymore. If they could have had the AEW Champion show up at SummerSlam, they’d have done it. The self-mutilation and garbage stuff has really boxed Moxley off from them.

So Tony’s an idiot for backing a truck up.

I tried to listen to clips. Holy fuck it’s unlistenable. Renee is basically playing AEW cheerleader and Mox sounds like he’s a total mark. I think he is trying to do an “AEW has so much great wrestling, but why do fans not talk about that?” thing to try and remind people that there’s supposed to be this cult of not questioning anything they do.

He seems to want to paint The Elite as great trend-setters who made AEW possible. It was Tony’s money, guys. Hate to break it to you, but PWG ain’t getting off the ground without $100 million (maybe more) sunk into it.

Buy the line, guys.

Oh, and according to Mox there are a bunch of people who hate The Young Bucks because they hate themselves. It can’t simply be because they’re the drizzling shits?

“Love. This. Company. By the way, they made me World Champion while I had no contract. Also, there’s more drama here than anywhere else I worked. And I worked with CM Punk for years. So we’re blaming it all on him, even though it’s the guys I’m about to champion so I can continue to do garbage wrestling for millions of dollars.”

“How was that, Tony?”

I am absolutely loving the spin AEW fanboys are putting on it. “Of course people take the thing he said that makes the company look stupid and ignore the rest.” Yeah, because it made the company look so stupid. Stop doing that if you don’t want it to look stupid.

They’re asking why people aren’t posting the full quotes. It goes from “Tony put the World Title on me when I wasn’t under contract” to “Tony put the World Title on me when I wasn’t under contract…oh, and uh, The Young Bucks are great.”

LolAEW

Gotta say. Noid really hitting the nail on the head here.

Thanks man. Sorry about the stream of consciousness again — I just love this shit, lol.

Having inside sources at TPWW makes that little exchange so much more hilarious than it otherwise would be.

Mox spends a significant amount of the podcast putting over a ton of different people at AEW and talking about how much he's enjoying things. In general just seems like he'd like everyone to just sort their shit out because all stuff like this is distract people from the actual product.

But naturally this will all be lost to the ether because the first 10 minutes provide plenty of "juicy" material for everyone to run with and cherry pick as they see fit.

Like...does Mox not understand how the news cycle works? This is literally how it always works and has for over a decade.

AEW, WWE, doesn't really matter - you don't have to be an expert social media manager to realize that negative stories get significantly more engagement. Doesn't matter what "side" you're on, negative shit whips people into a frenzy. Positive stories are boring.

Ditto for the news industry as a whole really, even beyond wrestling. Says a lot about the human psyche.

I like how he said Tony isn't his boss. Another Tiny Khan meltdown soon, it will be glorious.

Also, what makes Mox think he could have just walked into Summerslam? I am thinking Brock Lesnar would have told him to fuck right off :lol:

It’s part of the product. The environment that throws random Omega/Vikingo matches in main events is the same lack of polish that sees the World Title go on uncontracted talent. They’re not completely unrelated.

Oh, the meltdown is coming.

Mox seems a bit drunk on that podcast…

I’ve seen a few people say the same thing. I just assumed the guy is a fucking idiot/has brain trauma.

lol damn

Random AEW I had. I don’t think I would do this, but I was spitballing, it came to me, thought I’d share. It’s very Russo, but because it comes from me, I feel it makes a little more sense:

When they do the Four Pillars match, Darby Allin wins the AEW Title. Christian Cage fucks over Jungle Boy. Andrade fucks over Sammy. Sting fucks over MJF. They’re all in cahoots. Darby is their chosen guy. Everyone whinge and whines, he’s the self-appointed savior of AEW.

MJF is pissed. He and Sammy shouldn’t see eye-to-eye. Sammy can spin-off into Jericho, who hates him breaking out. MJF is left picking up the pieces. He brings back Miro, he begs Wardlow and he even teams with a reluctant Jungle Boy.

Darby, Sting, Christian and Andrade as top heels against MJF, Miro, Wardlow and Jungle Boy. Wardlow is TNT Champ. Hobbs kills QT after losing it, beats Goldberg in a special attraction, is a loose unit — sometimes clashing against old friend Ricky Starks, who can maybe-kinda-sorta sub in for Jungle Boy, but also out of necessity, because Christian, Darby, etc. fuck him up.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Noid is the only person on Earth who can make me thankful that we have Cocaine Tony on the book.

I would get that show back up to the halcyon days of 999k viewers.

Tanahashi vs. Garcia added to the card now too. Sweet.

NXT Battleground announced for May 28th, 2023! Tiny Khan will NOT stand for this shit!!!!!!! :rant::mad::rant::mad::rant::mad::rant::mad:

Tony better put his foot down.

Meh. TK just ran a PPV on a Friday against the go home show for Mania. Turnabout is fair play. Hope they constantly start running shows against each other so maybe we can get some kind of actual competition out of this. It'll never be the Monday Night Wars, but it could be something.

It definitely won’t be the Monday Night Wars, that’s for sure.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tony Khan told <a href="https://twitter.com/SI_wrestling?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SI_wrestling</a> about the major announcement he's making on tonight's Dynamite <a href="https://t.co/LYAvSs1lzo">https://t.co/LYAvSs1lzo</a> <a href="https://t.co/K9ZhBVVcMQ">pic.twitter.com/K9ZhBVVcMQ</a></p>&mdash; Wrestling Observer (@WONF4W) <a href="https://twitter.com/WONF4W/status/1643651426445295619?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Oh no, he’s doing the thing again.


TONY, STOP HYPING YOUR ANNOUNCEMENTS!

If he isn't hiring a full time Booker, I don't care.

“It’s just a promoter promoting.”

No. It is possible to build up false expectations.

Announcing UK/international show?

Fight Forever gets a release date is my prediction.

He's going to announce they've signed the cinnamoji mascot

Apparently that Sol Ruca chick from NXT was in the mascot suit so wouldn’t be the worst plan.

But guys, they dont have scripted promos and they REALLY love Tiny!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Saraya wishes she didn't take a shot at WWE during her AEW debut promo.<br><br>&quot;The one thing I do wish I didn't say, I got asked to say a certain sentence, the sentence where I was like, 'Finally, a boss that listens to me' I wish I didn't take that low hanging fruit. I've always… <a href="https://t.co/F0taFMljXu">pic.twitter.com/F0taFMljXu</a></p>&mdash; Fightful Wrestling (@Fightful) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fightful/status/1643697927347396612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Ha I was just coming here to post that. Made me chuckle. TK makes people do the WWE bad promos.

That line helped bury Saraya.

It really did, didn't it? I mean she went from everyone being hyped at her return to everyone despising her pretty damn fast.

Also something that's been bugging me is that The Outcasts and The BCC are pretty much the same faction doing the same story. GRRRR WE'RE THE REAL PROFESSIONALS (except Yuta but we're working on him!) FROM THAT OTHER COMPANY AND WE'RE BETTER THAN ALL OF YOU NOW FEEL OUR WRATH GRRRRRR. Why they aren't just one big faction doesn't make sense to me as such.

Lol that a bunch of ex wwe people made to cut wwe bad promos by the boss are now running the gimmick of "we're better than you because we we're from that place that we said is worse than here".

Calling it now: Omega vs Ospreay in London.

I mean that was one line from a Top 10 Worst Promo.

“I was the revolution here, I’m gonna be the revolution because I am the revolution”.

“Your name rhymes with shit”.

Then she went and did a terrible job on commentary if I recall. Just bad.

Saraya is terrible in general. Hated the signing from the jump, and it won't be long before she does something toxic or tries to get her edgelord bf on TV.

lol Ronnie Radke is such a douche canoe. You know he's going to be on at some point though.

The Outcasts are a terrible gimmick in general - Saraya's awful and neither Toni nor Ruby are people I actually want to boo. Plus that gimmick has just enveloped nearly the entire women's division and got everyone running in circles on Dynamite. Meanwhile Jade gets shunted to Rampage and they just keep having her squash people ad infinitum because they wanted Statlander to take the title off of her and Tony can't ever give up on his plans even if injury means people go into a holding pattern for a year.

I don't think the BCC are the same as the Outcasts. Especially because people actually care about the BCC guys. Decent chance the Elite/BCC Anarchy in the Arena, Stadium Stampede, Blood and Guts, Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch Tack Match will headline the PPV.

Saraya had to turn heel because she was instantly dislikable

Bryan turned heel because shithead ROH heel Danielson is GOAT tier and he's outright said that's his favorite role to play, so I'm all for it.

Bryan's a good enough heel that he's gonna manage to get Mox booed by association.

Tony is a trash can booker.

Idk why they don’t just build up Willow to get her the tbs title. She’s got everything they should want in a younger talent; good in the ring, tons of charisma, she’s over, and has great music. Just let her dethrone Jade.

TK 100% has no idea what to with jade after she loses that streak/title so he'll just keep stalling until she's 100-0 and all viable options have become ineffective.

She should be in the Originals vs Outcasts angle, but for some reason, she isn't...

To be fair, TK 100% has no idea what to do with anybody. 4 years in and almost everybody is exactly what they have been since day 1.

When he does change something up, it is random and not followed up on at all. Remember Preston Vance and his dastardly heel turn? I dont even remember how long ago that was, because there has been nothing afterwards. What was the point?

To a lesser extent it's the same thing with Hook. He's afraid nobody will care about him once he takes a loss. But how do you expect the guy to improve if he's mostly wrestling the same match every time?

More broadly I think a lot of promoters now are aware that "the smarks" are the only people who watch anymore and it sometimes causes them to ignore the basics. Don't want to put the title on the hot babyface the fans have clamored for because the smarks always eventually turn on the faces, so guess the chase just needs to go forever.

Look guys, I don’t think 4 years is too long for TK to be getting his pieces into place. He’s playing 5D chess while Vince is <s>playing checkers</s> getting is sack licked by an intern.

Just be patient and TK will deliver a wrestling renaissance.

Hmm has there ever been a team/faction called The Renaissance?

It’s interesting that the only talent that seems happy after 6 months of the jump to AEW are the inmates running the asylum (Ambrose/Jericho). There have been some outrageously quick backpedaling.

It’s almost like the lack of structure and organization is a bad thing.

LolAEW

AEW is the pension plan for former WWE Wrestlers

It just plain sucks.

Ideal situation would be getting the title on Saraya, and building Jade up to destroy her in eventual rise to the top of the division. The story is right there. But for some reason Tony refuses to pivot when a wrench gets thrown into his plans.

Nah that doesn't work for me. Jade is Goldbergette. If she isn't built up to the top of the division by now then no one is. She's undefeated for like 2 years. Jobbing to Saraya of all people destroys that.

You want her in the main event then just stick her there because she's already qualified for it. If you want to get the title off of her, have her give it up before going for the big belt or do the ole multi-person match and have everyone gang up to take her out before someone else eats the pin. Do not under any circumstances put either belt on Saraya. She's terrible.

Just have her give up the secondary title after winning the main one and hold a tournament for it. Can’t stand the “winning a title by beating someone else” thing.

They could always merge the belts and give TK an opportunity to do one of his favorite things ever and unveil a new title as a huge announcement that will change the wrestling landscape for ever on Dynamite next week!!!!

The AEW Australia Title to cater to the Australian audience since AEW has a TV deal in Australia.

I think he means put the Women’s World Title on Saraya and have Jade beat her for it.

Absolutely I do. I’d have Saraya take the belt from Hayter, then build up Jade to be the one to overthrow her.

AEW at Wembley Stadium? I'd absolutely love to see this happen and for the stadium to be absolutely packed! I feel this is somewhat over ambitious for the promotion though.

While not as bad as the way I read it, it still involves putting a title on Saraya and that's gonna be a nope from me dawg. She's terrible and annoying. She was a turn the channel segment in WWE, she's a turn the channel segment now.

I never thought she was particularly good in any way but I can see it from a “building a star” standpoint. Have Jade take the title off your biggest star instead of someone she’s already above. Booking 101.

Pretty much what fan said. They’re clearly prioritizing Saraya. If she’s going to be their top heel, which she is, you may as well use that to help further elevate a young star that is clearly being groomed as the future of the division. It also works because Jade is homegrown and fits as a foil for the outcasts.

I think they’ll fill it, but they’ll also do an AEW show, so it’ll mean nothing.

Billie Starkz signs an AEW contract. She's worked a few Darks and was on TV this past Friday. But the full-time contract doesn't officially start until she finishes high school in a couple of months, similar to Nick Wayne's deal.

Wayne himself is scheduled to wrestle Swerve Strickland on Dynamite in July, a day after his 18th birthday.

Oh and Brian Cage re-signed as well.

Not really sure he had any other choice other than maybe Impact. WWE were never going to touch him since he would've never been able to pass Wellness tests. Guy is so comically roided.

I guess you’ve got to start somewhere, but talent that young could really use developmental and some life experience first.

How does this keep happening?

I thought the whole Speaking Out thing might have shone a more negative light on adults training kids to wrestle. Should maybe be something you start pursuing after your 18th birthday.

WWE wouldn’t want him, Impact Wrestling can’t pay him, Tony Khan wants to keep all his toys.

Brian Cage going to Wembley, baby!

There’s more AEW video game drama. Despite Tony Khan and Kenny Omega saying that the video game is finished, the social media manager for THQ Nordic has come out and said that it’s not finished. He’s had to go into overdrive explaining he’s not calling anyone a liar, there’s no miscommunication, etc. All the while he is saying that opposite of what the AEW side is saying. That sounds like pretty clear miscommunication.