d-d-d-dAz Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Supremo said: Spotted a pretty big clue on social media this morning, guys. Still doesnât look or feel real. Bring on the chaos though. I wonder how, if at all, heâll reference AEW and what led him here. Do you think his NDA is tight enough that he canât say anything?  Not even a cheeky, âcry me a river,â down the camera lens, during his entrance? Absolutely insane to think CM Punk returned to WWE before Jack Perry returned to AEW. But yeah, how do you even address the multiple, humongous elephants in the room? âThis company misdiagnosed me, forced me to keep working despite being severely ill, nearly killed me, destroyed my passion, ruined a lifelong friendship, fired me on my wedding day, sued me, tried to bleed millions in court costsâŚand I still prefer coming here to sharing a locker room with the Counterfeit Bucks.â Best case scenario is Seth Rollins jumps the rail before he even gets going and we see a wild brawl filled with security and agents. That crazy fuck you energy from the Twitter clips after Survivor Series is the best thing Seth has done in as long as I can remember. He better keep it up. If he comes out dressed like a knobhead and cackling then he can get back in the bin where he belongs. I think this is the key to how they handle itâŚÂ https://www.instagram.com/p/ChgNoAyNQt4/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== He has to go down the route of âI fell back in love with professional wrestling, and the truth is once youâve been bitten by the bug - whether its the first time or the twentieth - all roads lead back to the WWE. This place has the best talent in the world, performing on the biggest platform, and if I truly believe Iâm the best in the world, then this is where Iâve got to be. Thereâs a lot of water under the bridge, some of it toxic to drink, but as my new best mate Paul said itâs a clean slate. Itâs 2023, this is a new company, under new management, and Iâm a new CM Punk whoâs standing in this ring saying⌠Iâm going to be the new World Heavyweight Champion.â Enter Rollins. Big fight. Away we go. âYOURE A CANCER YOU HAVENT CHANGEDâ, âFUCK YOU I JUST WANT TO WRESTLE.â Blah blah blah.  I donât think thereâs much else they can do. I think their instinct will be to have him almost apologise to the WWE universe (âI may have had problems with individuals, but I never meant for you guys to get caught in the crossfire, youâre the best fans in the worldâ), but thatâs such a hard line to walk. I think he has to just be positioned as the guy that fell back in love with wrestling, and position it as completely logical that anyone who thinks theyâre any good has to be in the WWE. Edited November 27, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 There will definitely be a line akin to 'I'm done playing with children' in there somewhere. I'm going to watch just so I can play 'CM Punk promo bingo'. If he can even get close to the heights of his first AEW run, WWE are in for a good ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members mim731 Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 1 minute ago, d-d-d-dAz said: I think this is the key to how they handle itâŚÂ https://www.instagram.com/p/ChgNoAyNQt4/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== He has to go down the route of âI fell back in love with professional wrestling, and the truth is once youâve been bitten by the bug - whether its the first time or the twentieth - all roads lead back to the WWE. This place has the best talent in the world, performing on the biggest platform, and if I truly believe Iâm the best in the world, then this is where Iâve got to be. Thereâs a lot of water under the bridge, some of it toxic to drink, but as my new best mate Paul said itâs a clean slate. Itâs 2023, this is a new company, under new management, and Iâm a new CM Punk whoâs standing in this ring saying⌠Iâm going to be the new World Heavyweight Champion.â Enter Rollins. Big fight. Away we go. âYOURE A CANCER YOU HAVENT CHANGEDâ, âFUCK YOU I JUST WANT TO WRESTLE.â Blah blah blah.  I donât think thereâs much else they can do. I think there instinct will be to have him almost apologise to the WWE universe (âI may have had problems with individuals, but I never meant for you guys to get caught in the crossfire, youâre the best fans in the worldâ), but thatâs such a hard line to walk. I think he has to just be positioned as the guy that fell back in love with wrestling, and position it as completely logical that anyone who thinks theyâre any good has to be in the WWE. I largely agree with this, and I think that's roughly where they'll go. Punk is too stubborn and too smart to make it an apology, he'll talk about how much he loves the fans, and there will be some allusion to having worked somewhere else and things not working out but he wants to wrestle, and he wants to bring things full circle. There will almost certainly be some chat about unfinished business and wanting to main event Mania, and then Rollins can get involved and they're off to the races. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 Is Bret still under a WWE Legends deal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 3 minutes ago, Supremo said: Is Bret still under a WWE Legends deal? What you thinking? Punk/Bret vs Seth/HBK in a blood money covered Saudi dick on a pole match in downtown Jeddah? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 Goldberg vs. Punk. Bretâs revenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 28 minutes ago, Supremo said: Still doesnât look or feel real. Bring on the chaos though. I wonder how, if at all, heâll reference AEW and what led him here. Do you think his NDA is tight enough that he canât say anything?  Not even a cheeky, âcry me a river,â down the camera lens, during his entrance? Absolutely insane to think CM Punk returned to WWE before Jack Perry returned to AEW. He's going to smugly say the word "Elite" then smirk at the camera, and Twitter will collectively praise it as the second Pipebomb. I'm not going to tune in to RAW - life's too short - but I am definitely curious how he maintains the faux-credibility of the CM Punk persona without admitting that he came back to the place that he's been saying for almost ten years killed his passion for wrestling, and that he was openly mocking on TV not that long ago. I think the smartest thing to do is to skirt around that, and just say that he came back for "the best fans in the world", or because he had some "unfinished business". I know it's CM Punk we're talking about, but it's one case where he needs to stay as far from worked shoot nonsense as we can - though you can guarantee that his first promo will be full of veiled references to Tony Khan and the Elite, partly because he can't help himself, but mostly because it's what audiences will want from him. I think him doing the principled outsider/rebel/"Voice Of The Voiceless" act is going to be a really hard sell if he's come in on a huge money part-time deal, walked right into a main event spot at Wrestlemania, and gets booked in Saudia Arabia. I remember saying at the time of the Colt Cabana podcast that in among a lot of very real grievances and serious issues that he had with WWE, there was an awful lot of sour grapes that basically came down to not being booked as strongly as he would have liked - he had been the longest reigning champion in years, been given considerably more creative freedom and leeway on promos than anyone in years, worked a PPV main event match with The Rock, and had been consistently a featured part of programming, even being kept on TV when he was injured, yet he was still moaning about not being given the right main event opportunities. What I think was pretty clear then, and we may see become even more clear now, is that he wasn't ideologically opposed to part-timers taking full-timers spots, or former champions waltzing into a Wrestlemania main event, he was annoyed that it was his spot he felt they were taking, and that if he could be that part-timer making Brock Lesnar money, he'd take that spot in a heartbeat. As much as they'd be crazy to not give Punk a major babyface run, I think the smartest thing they could do, and in many ways the most believable - and Punk's always at his best when he's believable - would be to really lean into that sense that he's gone back on his word. He's Jawbreaker promising they'd never sign to a major label, then signing to Geffen. Corporate sellout Punk that's just in it for the money might be the best version of him he could possibly be, but I don't know how keen WWE would be to go in that direction given that they've finally managed to babyface the company after almost twenty years of the promotion itself being the biggest heel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 (edited) 9 minutes ago, BomberPat said: I know it's CM Punk we're talking about, but it's one case where he needs to stay as far from worked shoot nonsense as we can This is my inherent problem with CM Punk as a character really. When he's just doing traditional pro wrestling stories I really enjoy his work. However I find the worked shoot stuff is just so dull, exhausting and counter productive but it's become a key part of his act (or at least the fans see it as such). So the whole "will he mention AEW on Raw tonight?" stuff and the resulting annoying discourse and drama just depresses the absolute fuck out of me. It's men in pants play fighting - can't we just have fun with it and just crack on telling wrestling stories? But no, we'll get him saying "I'm here in WWE to face the REAL elite" or some other bollocks and everyone will fucking wank themselves silly over it. I hate wrestling. Edited November 27, 2023 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 âYouâre just a more famous MJF.â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 (edited) 14 minutes ago, BomberPat said: the faux-credibility of the CM Punk persona People who are die-hard Punk fans will always buy him as an outsider, even though it's not been true as you say since probably his earliest days in WWE. Â If him getting his own show in AEW and still behaving like a child didn't sour people on that character, sucking a blood-covered Saudi dick isn't going to. We're going to get the same Punk character we've always got - the one who acts like he's better than everyone, like he's a real wrestler and everyone else is playing, who goes straight at authority figures like they're his absent father, who cuts long-winded shoot promos about how rubbish his opponents are, and who moans about being held back even as he's put into main events and handed championships. You know, the character he plays both on-screen and off. Â He is who he is. Â He doesn't have the self-knowledge to allow himself to be thrown into a dump truck like Eric Bischoff or the reinvention gene to remould himself like Christian has. Strap in for some chaotic tv, a couple of good PPV main events, an injury and the Self-Destruction of Punk documentary that the WWE will make once he's taken his ball and gone home, some time around Wrestlemania. Â Edited November 27, 2023 by Loki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 the funniest possible outcome might be Punk putting Reigns over at Wrestlemania, and them holding off on the Reigns/Cody rematch for a whole other year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 2 minutes ago, LaGoosh said: I hate wrestling Is that why you love AEW so much. Zing! Zing! Zing! Lads! Lads! Lads! I got him. Seriously though I agree with you 100% but your focus is wrong. This is what wrestling has become now. Everything has some sort of inside reference, it's lazy booking. From people referencing Becky as Seth's wife to him in promos as a dig all the way back through pipebombs and HHH telling Billy Gunn that they might buy that pissant company, to Heymam, and Russo and Sunny Days, snarky insider shit drives the wrestling narrative. It's driven by social media and an average fans desire to peep behind the curtain but lazy booking has leant into it. For example, if the Devil in AEW turns out to be Jack Perry then it doesn't get much more inside baseball than that. I am aware that both of us may come across as old men shouting at clouds but I agree with you. I hate wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 I remember the summer of 2011 where Raw was endless convoluted worked shoot pipebomb bollocks from CM Punk but then on Smackdown you had Mark Henry doing the Hall of Pain story and it was just pure, simple brilliant proper pro wrestling stuff producing some of the best and most gripping telly in ages. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 This sounds redundant, but it's only lazy when it's done lazily. Unfortunately, it almost always is. The reason the original "Pipebomb" promo worked wasn't just the novelty of CM Punk "shooting", it was because all of that was threaded into an excellent promo that actually sold his match with John Cena, and was still from the established point-of-view of the CM Punk character, not "this is Phil Brooks talking to Paul Levesque" stuff. It added intrigue to the match at Money In The Bank, and that match played into everything established by the promo. Using the audience's knowledge of "real" events - or their assumed knowledge of them - is fine, and can really add to a story, if the people involved actually go to the effort of making it make sense within the context of a wrestling promo or match. Unfortunately, since the Pipebomb, we've had a decade or so of counter-productive attempts to replicate it without understanding what made it work, which usually just results in wrestlers telling their opponents that they're shit or can't cut promos, which helps nobody aside from getting an extremely short-term pop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted November 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2023 1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said: What you thinking? Punk/Bret vs Seth/HBK in a blood money covered Saudi dick on a pole match in downtown Jeddah? Yeh, they're gonna want some of that Jeddah cheese Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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