Alright, so I just heard that AEW booked The Firm to turn on MJF.

I heard Alvarez defending this. I’ve been masochistic and been in a mood to listen to things that are going to frustrate me to no end. I don’t know why I do it to myself lol. Alvarez was crowing about how no harm can come from a babyface MJF turn. That’s just flat-out wrong. This is probably sabotage. But that’s what you get for signing with this company, I guess.

But let’s say you wanted to turn MJF face. You can’t do a promo where he goes after Moxley and says “A few years ago I tried to take that World Title from you and I failed. I was a prodigy and I talked the talk, but I found out the hard way that every stupid rumor about you is true. I hate it, but you’re every bit as good as they say. You dress like crap but you’ve earned millions being at the top of the game for so long. But I’m not going to be knocked back again. I am going to be the change that AEW needs and this time I am forcing you to get up to my level.” They’ve got to have his group turn on him and beat the piss out of him to try and make people feel sympathy for him. It makes no sense. Why do you feel sorry for that asshole? He didn’t do anything active.

This is classic WWE booking, actually. It’s Vince’s fetish for humiliating people. This is not how you get a babyface over.

Now, there are people who say this is a SWERVE! The Firm are going to be with MJF all along. You know, the old Vince Russo trick. The heels beat up their own guy but secretly they all love each other and wrestling’s fake bro. Alvarez defended this because AEW is doing it. He says MJF is “the devil,” so it makes sense for him to go to such measures. What? Why? Why not NOT have your guys beat you up? If Moxley actually falls for that, then he’s a stupid babyface.

This is stupid either way you cut it. The best case scenario is that The Firm legit turned on MJF to go off on their own and he is still a heel. It’s messy, but it doesn’t fuck with anyone and could help The Firm.

But that is such a Jericho idea if I ever heard one. It reeks of the same gaps in logic and disregard for the faces as his current ROH World Champion thing. I bet Jericho still hasn’t let the NY Times article and Punk and MJF’s jabs at him go.

lmao

Nick Hausman has shared more of the alleged CM Punk side of the story. Not too much more, but basically Punk reached out to Hausman to apologize for the press scrum. Hausman told Punk he wasn’t friends with Colt Cabana anymore and said Punk didn’t owe him an apology really, but Punk did it anyway.

Hausman told this to Dave off the record, but Dave reported it anyway.

Hausman reached out to Punk’s camp about his side, not vice versa. He got the impression that Punk won’t wrestle again, but there are similarities between Punk and Cody who partly left because he was alienated in the locker room and had rumors spread about him by The Elite — the same thing happened with Punk. I’m not sure if this comes from Hausman drawing the comparisons or Punk doing it, sorry. But The Elite aren’t above sabotaging people and Hausman thinks he got a lot from Punk’s side because they’re frustrated.

Hausman is skeptical of the integrity of the investigation. Apparently contact between the investigators and Punk’s side was minimal. That’s probably the freshest detail from Hausman’s most recent appearance. He feels Punk is frustrated that the information out there is so one-sided.

Colt Cabana was a part of the badmouthing before Punk even got there — Hausman believes it because Colt did the same to him in the Chicago comedy scene.

holy shit now Noid is blaming MJFs booking on Jericho now because Jericho dared to tell CM Punk how trash he is. What a fucking maroon.

The Repeated Rise and Fall of Noid onto CM Punks Penis. This season on Dork Side of The Ring.

Cry harder. Jericho is a piece of shit and has sucked for years.

Slurp up that AEW kool-aid. Want a boot to go with it?

:rofl: love it

I love how all these guys can badmouth a ton of different people, but if Colt Cabana badmouths them, it all fucking burns. Why are they so fragile about Scotty Boom Boom, of all people?

He was just the tool The Elite used to try and fuck with Punk’s influence behind the scenes.

Imagine hating AEW so much you assume that the female head of legal must be fucking talent because the investigation didn’t yield the result you wanted.

From "believe women, always" to this. Unreal.

it's even better coming from the guy that was lecturing a queer about homophobia recently

Funny how the only person who agrees with Noid happens to be Dale. That speaks volumes in itself.

:kiss:

It tells us that Noid is a free thinker and visionary.

Those are fancy words for "wrong".

Imagine being so twisted this is what you think is actually going on.

Poor AEW having me picking on it.

Lol at Meltzer reporting that “some top names” in AEW refuse to work with Punk.

I’m sure Jericho, Omega, Page, The Bucks and Matt Hardy said that.

It’s funny how Meltzer has to keep those sources quiet. It’s very important that *some* of the top names in AEW let it be known they refuse to work with Punk. They’ve got standards after all. But don’t quote them on that.

Punk’s main issue is he’s a piss-poor politicker. And that’s a knock—politics are life and vice versa. I don’t think there’s anything all that wrong with him giving a Jackson brother a smack and I feel if he was willing to make nice afterwards just to move forward, all would be well. But he’s the type to double down and take the path of most resistance.

Honestly even if he apologized, he would still be the guy who punched a buck. He’d still have sway given the size of his contract. And well, Ace Steele bit someone so he’s collateral damage.

Left this comment on a YouTube video weeks before All Out:

"CM Punk is proving to be the king of dishing it out but unable to take it, that he is exactly what he claims to hate, a mark for himself and cancer to the locker room."

I would be good if we never hear from Punk again. He got some good Shad $ out of all this, he needs to retire and fuck off from the wrestling business forever.

To be fair though, I would have been good never hearing from him again before the scrum and fighting :rofl:

It's been said over and over, but how it went from the insanity of his return to this in one year is shocking but also pretty fitting.

Crazy how everywhere punk goes this happens. Why are people so unfair to him?

I hope Punk goes back to UFC, he deserves another public embarrassment :lol:

It's on brand.

Yeah, he’s exactly the sort of guy who would tell his story in an investigation, admit he did wrong, eat his lumps and expect the punishment to go round equally, only to discover that the other people told stories of purple monsters and dragons fighting knights.

When people in a toxic workplace don’t like you, you’re going to get in trouble whatever you do. If you don’t eat in the lunchroom, you’re antisocial; if you do, you’re trying to take over the lunchroom. He can’t negotiate that environment, because his mentality would be “I was just trying to eat lunch on my break.”

I really doubt he would want to return. If his goal is to help younger talent, he’s better off going to train at the Performance Center. In AEW, anyone he works with is going to receive pushback. Even if they learn how to work better, they’re going to be a political outcast. The well is poisoned.

Where is this “Punk can’t take it” coming from? Is it because Adam Page cut that promo live on Dynamite? Because there’s a difference between doing it behind the scenes, cutting a worked promo and going off-script and into business for yourself.

Tony Khan would have set a direction for Punk/Page. They all would have been clued in on what that is. Punk seemed interested in working with Page. He probably offered pointers on the promo and had input in the creative direction of the program (if not outright control). For a guy to walk out there and use his time to go in the opposite direction is absolutely insane and unprofessional. It’s fair enough to want an apology for that. Tony really fucked up by not putting his foot down there, because Page shat all over him too.

That’s not the same as “not being able to take it.” Say whatever you want about him, but Punk has always been the butt of a lot of jokes and had very vocal critics (sometimes rightfully so). To say the guy has thin skin is a bit of a sweetened perspective based on dislike. The dude went out there, got his ass hammered in the UFC and still has the audacity to go on TV and act like a tough guy.

I never got the TNA story, but WWE and AEW are two places. He didn’t work in 2014 WWE in the end. He didn’t get fired, he quit in a huff because he was burnt and didn’t like the creative direction for himself (and made the case for others, but who knows how self-serving this is). That doesn’t necessarily mean that AEW being a clown show where the talons are already out for him (pre-existing heat with Chris Jericho, Colt Cabana, etc.) is irrelevant.

I get once you’re labelled a problem child, bad teachers are going to blame you for everything, but that’s a tool for the sneaky children to use you as a scapegoat too. I guarantee this isn’t going to be the last of AEW’s backstage problems. And it wasn’t the first.

Conversely, haven’t The Bucks had heat everywhere they went too? In WWE they pissed off the vets with their attitudes. They left TNA in a huff to try and go to ROH, who didn’t really want them in the first place. New Japan got cranky at them for the whole AEW thing. Kenny Omega had heat with ROH and New Japan at different points. I don’t know what kind of impression he made in WWE developmental, but there are the stories about him being a prick at Harley Race’s camp.

I sympathize with and am similar to a few of the ways CM Punk is and live a lonely life because it.

I’m familiar with the ways of guys like Chris Jericho, Omega & The Bucks too. Punk is a blunt asshole. They’re sneaky assholes.

Punk is also likely a narcissist about his work. He probably thinks it’s better than it even is, but he at least strives for greatness. Jericho and The Elite want whatever they do to be seen as greatness.

Punk’s the kid who wants to get an A so he can go summer camp. Jericho and The Elite are the kids who get a new bike if they’re top of the class but are sitting on B’s.

Danielson’s the smartest guy in the class but is getting C’s because he doesn’t want to be fighting after school.

Moxley’s eating glue.

Tony Khan is the teacher who leaves a glass vase on his desk with a soccer ball in the room and tells his class not to kick it while he goes out of the room for 10 minutes, and if it does get broken, it’s going to come down to a vote as to who gets punished.

Yeah like I get CM Punk is an asshole but Jericho emerging from this as more of a locker room leader could have far reaching negative consequences. He’s an aging glory hound whose best days are behind him. I really dug some of his new Japan stuff when he started being more vicious but then he just got weird and lost in the sauce.


The Bucks and Omega will keep lowering AEW’s ceiling of course. On top of that, I can’t help but look at the treatment of thunder Rosa and question what’s going on behind the scenes in that company. Also, Cody. And Rusev being wasted tells me all I need to know as well.

I’m still more on the side of AEW in the “war” because unlike the Noidster, they serve such a crucial purpose as the opposition, even if AEW is a facsimile of a competitor. But Tony’s handling of this situation and many others are worrisome. The Sammy and Andrade beef is another situation he totally bungled.

It seems they’re going to veer more into indyriffic bucks and Kenny bullshit, too. So there’s that to dread.

That pretty much nails Jericho. He’s completely sold out what he once laid down as his artistic principles. To say “lost in the sauce” is right.

I get people want an alternative to WWE. I do too. I really do. I really hope something falls out in the coming months, years, etc. A lot of guys have a lot of money now. A network could get interested but not want to go into business with a pre-existing party. Hell, Punk could start his own splinter cell promotion when he heals up and maybe some AEW guys like FTR, MJF, Wardlow, Starks, Hobbs and Miro get free.

Splinter Cell Wrestling has got a ring to it. SCW was the name of the territory Joe Blanchard used to run. Could be a good homage if they can use those initials in a promotion with Tessa Blanchard (on good behavior watch) as the top female star. Plus you’ve got “SC,” “Second City.” It’s the promotion born from the fire of AEW. Just some branding ideas.

But anyway, I hope something shakes up this paradigm, because WWE as monopoly isn’t good and AEW isn’t cutting it.

I’m really hoping for a NOAH-like exodus from AEW lol.

I’m also hoping WWE under Triple H considers trying on some different flavors. I’ve heard Triple H and Jim Cornette both attribute “chocolate, vanilla” to Vince McMahon (in terms of different flavors you can serve people). But everything in WWE has the same goddamn flavor. Even if the recipe has improved lately.

WWE own the WCW IP. Try something different in an 18x18 and don’t slap WWE all over it. Please.