CM Punk chat

[Tommy!]

8 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Is there enough to be made to offset any potential headaches, though

I Don't know and I don't care to be honest. 

I'd say no, but ultimately that's a question only the people running the show could answer. My point is just never rule anything out where money is concerned.

[LaGoosh]

WWE is also no longer Vince McMahon's Domain like it once was, it's an incredibly corporate public company in the process of a high profile sale/merger. There may be significant resistance within the company to bringing in someone who has just been fired for assaulting co-workers and attempting to assault his own boss. They might see the bad press around it as not worth whatever short term business he brings in.

[Tommy!]

1 minute ago, LaGoosh said:

They might see the bad press around it

Besides "wrestling press", who have such high integrity, who would care?

I could 100% see them bringing in the no1 Merch seller from an 80k house at Wembley with history as a star in the company for a few raws leading to a match at mania on one of those horrible part time deals.

It's stupid and shouldn't happen but it wouldn't shock me.

[mim731]

34 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Well, one of the very men in charge, so that does sort of put the kibosh on it slightly I assume.

I dunno, wasn't he backstage recently and had a chat with Triple H. Suggests he's squashed that. Wasn't he very complimentary of Trips at the CAC the other day too?

I reckon for the Goldberg schedule and being treated like a "legend" he'd wind his neck in long enough to main event one night of Mania and get his HOF induction. 

[mim731]

EDIT- Double postaroonie

Edited September 3, 2023 by mim731

[d-d-d-dAz]

Within the AEW statement, and Tony’s words on Collision, were references to the safety of venue partners. If a third party contractor, or venue employee, has complained in any way I think Punk struggles to get a gig anywhere else.

Outside of that, if it’s all in-house bullshit, I can see a world where WWE are confident he wouldn’t bring that energy to their house.

Make him work Gunther. See how much he really likes chops.

[SuperBacon]

10 minutes ago, mim731 said:

I dunno, wasn't he backstage recently and had a chat with Triple H. Suggests he's squashed that. Wasn't he very complimentary of Trips at the CAC the other day too?

Nice, I didn't know that. Maybe Phil saw Triple H throwing up the West Ham "Irons" salute and thought he was paying homage to him and that thawed it all

[gmoney]

17 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

If a third party contractor, or venue employee, has complained in any way I think Punk struggles to get a gig anywhere else.

Only if something formal was registered, I would have thought. Even then unless it becomes public, I'd struggle to see WWE caring about that if they actually want him. Companies in Japan or Mexico 100% wouldn't give a shit. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

Just now, gmoney said:

Only if something formal was registered, I would have thought. Even then unless it becomes public, I'd struggle to see WWE caring about that if they actually want him. Companies in Japan or Mexico 100% wouldn't give a shit. 

Agree with most of this, but I think the one thing WWE would care about is a venue having a ‘No Homer’s’ policy against Punk. Just bad form, when the entire business runs on coming into town, being a guest in someone’s venue and then leaving.

I am fascinated to see if Punk tries to come back at Khan, because AEW have absolutely nuked Punk with their statements so far.

[Pinc]

Punk vs Eddie Kingston was the best one PPV feud of all time.

[air_raid]

Well, in wrestling more than any other industry, you can turn a blind eye to behaviour of malcontents that would get people sacked from most other jobs because of the unique nature of the asset and if there’s enough money to be made off them. Almost inevitably, eventually, there’s a point where someone becomes no longer worth the money to put up with their bullshit. Vince famously decided Bret Hart was no longer worth what he was going to have to pay him for years to come, especially juxtaposed to his chief nemesis in headaches, Shawn Michaels who arguably was even harder to deal with but was younger, cheaper and more likely to be bankable in the direction the company was moving towards. However, we might even have found out that Shawn himself would no longer have been worth the hassle had he remained an active part of the roster during early “Austin on top.” Now, most inevitably of all, Tony’s had enough talent of wrestlings most notorious moanarse and shit stirrer. Which makes sense given that the “AEW family” has always felt more like they’d only achieve goals with more of a co-op rather than the age-old dynamic of boss plus wrestlers with everyone fighting among themselves to protect their spot or get a push. Punk fitting into AEW was artificial because the company, the fans and him were all interested in something different than WWE, and that was enough to not question whether it was really a good fit. So now the question will inevitably be asked if WWE would have him back. Sure, if he patches things up with Hunter who may have been the chief reason he left to begin with, then maybe, and the company line is always that if they can make money together no door is closed forever. But I wonder if Punk would actually be worth it to WWE in their current business model? The only metrics don’t mean anything any more in terms of being “a draw.” Your value for ticket sales is increasingly meaningless - they did four house shows in August, two of which were sold off Trish wrestling in Ontario around Toronto TVs. One persons contribution to a PPV buy rate doesn’t matter either, every “premium event” comes with a Peacock subscription anyway. These days the question mark over Punk would not be “is he a wrestler that people will pay money to see wrestle” as much as “can we see him fitting into our existing team of content producers to contribute to 8 to 10 TV shows a month, one or two premium events and various additional pieces for our various platforms?” Added to which, the dressing room is a lot different from the one he left, in part regarding personnel but especially culture and atmosphere - it would remind me a little of Undertaker needing to be convinced by the office that the nWo were going in to “do business” rather than with their own agenda in 2002 - an irony, because Punk would definitely see himself as an Undertaker type character were he on the inside running the ruler over a potential returner. I can understand Punk going to AEW when he did where he knew he’d receive the reverence and spot that he felt like he deserved right from the start… but I think back to a discussion point about AJ, when we had to agree “You don’t pay “AJ Styles” kind of money to have him do 50/50 feuds in NXT for six months.” It’s a big question for me re : Punk about what they’re getting for their dollar and if they’d be prepared to go all in (heh) on him to the point hiring him and rebuilding that bridge would have to justify to begin with.

About the only scenario I can envisage that would placate Phil’s ego for what a big deal he’d need to be pushed as and get some value off him with minimal opportunity for him to upset the wrong people or flounce, would be to announce him as returning for the Rumble, do a big deal about his “unfinished business” and that he never main evented WrestleMania. Have him win, do two months of pre tapes, stick him in the Hall Of Fame, then have him go to Mania, fight Cody and lose. Give him a decent living wage to make figures and get him on as a talking head for the Network and let him pop the live crowd every time they do TV in Chicago, but let him sit on his sofa (or bus) without ever having to worry about his spot or politics or the monsters in his head telling him everyone’s out to get him ever again. Let him come back on his own terms and give him what he wanted while minimising the risk to poisoning the well. He only has to do one night in the locker room before Mania and if he can’t manage THAT without drama, fuck it, have someone else win the Rumble and fire his comeback under “we tried.”

[gmoney]

If I were WWE, offer him decent money short term to bring his AEW title and bin it or whatever, have a big feud with Cody or someone, and job to him at the Rumble. If he can handle that and not make a tit of himself then you can think about a longer contract and other feuds and the rest of it. If he's not willing, then fuck him. They really don't need him.

[Fanny Pack]

Tony Khan saying he felt "his life was in danger" seems to be a bit of stretch for me.

Hes made the right decision getting rid of Punk but saying that makes him sound like a right tit.

2 fellas have had a scuffle. No ones life was in danger. Seems he has snorted so much snowflake hes eventually become one.

Edited September 3, 2023 by Fanny Pack

[CTXRussomark]

I would imagine him saying he feared for his life has been a very conscious choice of words based on the reasons for dismissing Punk for cause.  Presumably if there's enough evidence to support his claim (and him getting it out there early will help towards that) it makes it more difficult for Punk to go down the legal route for unfair dismissal. 

[Jesse]

13 minutes ago, Fanny Pack said:

Tony Khan saying he felt "his life was in danger" seems to be a bit of stretch for me.

Hes made the right decision getting rid of Punk but saying that makes him sound like a right tit.

2 fellas have had a scuffle. No ones life was in danger. Seems he has snorted so much snowflake hes eventually become one.

From the sounds of it it wasn't just 2 fellas having a scuffle. It's one bloke losing his shit, throwing punches and choking out a co-worker and then physically going after his boss in front of a bunch of company employees and venue staff. Very few jobs in the world where that doesn't end up with you out on your arse.