For a lot of the previous 4 years, professional wrestling’s latest conflict has gone primarily in a single route.
However the momentum has most positively shifted following WWE’s newest strike towards upstart challenger AEW – the signing of CM Punk.
The previous WWE and AEW world champion made his return to the previous on Sunday at Survivor Collection, almost 10 years after his contentious exit.
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Lawsuits, sniping feedback and his long-awaited return to the ring coming by way of the competitor made a WWE return appear virtually not possible, till Punk fought his approach out of AEW – fairly actually, by twice entering into backstage altercations, the second forcing proprietor Tony Khan to fireside him.
However, in maybe the perfect instance of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my buddy’ doable, Punk negotiated a brand new cope with WWE head of inventive Triple H and president Nick Khan – the previous making it obvious Vince McMahon had little or nothing to do with it – over the previous two weeks and emerged following Sunday’s principal occasion Battle Video games match.
The response of Seth Rollins, seen screaming and flipping the chicken at Punk whereas being held again by officers, to Punk rising from the again was a transparent storyline and suggests Rollins might be his first feud.
This factors to how Punk could also be used, because it’ll enable WWE to play off of actuality, together with his AEW stint marred by damaged relationships with a few of the firm’s largest names.
Rollins infamously mentioned of Punk final yr: “Keep away, you most cancers, get away from me eternally. I don’t like Phil (Punk’s actual title).” He walked again these feedback in a while, however the sensible cash is on WWE capitalising on Punk’s latest popularity for an intriguing return storyline.
That popularity is why Punk was obtainable within the first place – and speaks to the constructive and adverse of the 45-year-old.
Absolutely the final thing AEW wished to do was hearth Punk. He was the corporate’s largest real numbers-mover, promoting pay per views and merchandise whereas popping TV rankings – and likewise signifying precisely what the corporate was about.
AEW has been an inarguable success – don’t let ex-wrestling personalities who maintain claiming the alternative inform you in any other case, they’re the most important US success story because the fall of WCW – and have been capable of finding a spot available in the market due to how WWE acted for thus lengthy.
Hardcore followers, usually extra captivated with match high quality, have been pushed away from WWE within the mid-to-late 2010s by years of complicated storylines, halted pushes for intriguing younger wrestlers and basic disappointment within the firm’s behaviour. Their American TV rankings declined at a a lot quicker charge than cable did general, and by the top of the last decade, unusual strikes like bringing failed WCW govt Eric Bischoff again to briefly run Smackdown confirmed simply how determined they have been getting.
These followers have been the core of AEW’s new fanbase, wanting a much less sports activities entertainment-centric product which you would belief to comply with by with long-term storylines. A lot of their success over the primary two to 3 years of the corporate was pushed by following these key traits, together with unimaginable pay per view match high quality.
Two males typified AEW’s rebellious spirit greater than most – Cody Rhodes, who had left WWE to make a much bigger title for himself on the independents and by the point he returned at 2022’s WrestleMania was instantly a large star; and Punk, who shared the core fanbase’s distaste for WWE due to how he felt he’d been handled.
And now each are again within the WWE fold.
“Punk will not be the non secular centre of AEW like Cody Rhodes was, however Punk was the most important star AEW ever had. That’s simply the truth of it – he moved numbers greater than anybody else,” revered wrestling journalist and historian Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio.
“Once you change sides, you get actually, actually massive … folks know he was fired, it was not a man who selected to depart, however it’s nonetheless an enormous star going there.
“And I take a look at what occurred with Cody – it damage AEW. It damage their momentum, it damage sure facets of their notion, it helped WWE a large amount.”
Rhodes joined WWE on the good time, when the long-term Bloodline storyline was lastly beginning to pay dividends, with the present followers and lots of lapsed WWE supporters enormously having fun with the heavier emphasis on the leisure half of sports activities leisure – maybe most notably, the elevated deal with mid-match dialogue, which started through the pandemic when followers weren’t in attendance and wrestlers wanted to make a few of their very own noise to compensate.
Roman Reigns and the Bloodline angle obtained scorching in late-2022 specifically with the introduction of Sami Zayn and later Rhodes, peaking at this previous WrestleMania, although the results of that principal occasion – interference as soon as once more permitting Reigns to retain – didn’t precisely assist.
Whereas some have gone off the Bloodline factor of the present, the corporate has remained scorching, with higher attendance figures and TV rankings till a latest flatlining.
That’s the place Punk’s signing is ideally timed; simply because the momentum has slowed, and heading into the always-hotter WrestleMania build-up interval.
“It was a no (to re-signing Punk), besides in the event that they felt the general public demand was there … they’re not gonna be an organisation that fights the followers,” Meltzer mentioned.
“I at all times anticipated that some day he could be again, and doubtless earlier than later.
“There’s a wrestling conflict happening, and for those who tally up the free brokers, or folks whose contracts have been up and taking a look at going each locations, AEW’s executed a hell of a job signing them. Will Ospreay being the actual massive one, Kenny Omega the opposite.
“There’s a variety of motion in WWE proper now so far as, they don’t need anybody leaving. There’s lots of people who’re being provided very massive cash, in addition to simply Punk, way more than they’re making, to remain. Lots of people thought with (new house owners) Endeavor no-one could be getting massive contracts however it’s truly been completely different.”
It has helped that Endeavor, who additionally personal UFC as a part of the brand new $32.5bn ‘TKO’ firm which incorporates WWE, is used to paying its fighters way more than WWE pays its wrestlers.
UFC arms out round 17% of its revenues to fighters – though the decrease and mid-card varieties are underpaid – whereas WWE provides a lot much less. Meltzer estimated the typical WWE mid-card wrestler could be on over $2 million a yr if the corporate gave out the identical portion of income UFC does as salaries.
AEW can nonetheless compete with the elevated salaries which might be flooding into professional wrestling. However they nonetheless have to choose the best folks to pay, and of their bid to show the tide, they haven’t discovered the right combination simply but.
The issue for AEW is two-fold; signing ex-WWE expertise has usually been a boon for the corporate, however doing an excessive amount of of it dangers them changing into like earlier secondary American promotions, who simply turned WWE-light and a approach for many who’d left the corporate to money in on their title worth.
The second factor is how even these ex-WWE skills who’re price signing – the squandered stars, those that the hardcore AEW fanbase really feel have been robbed of the push they deserved within the greater firm – generally don’t respect their new residence, figuring out it’s the secondary model.
Punk feeling this fashion, when he was legitimately AEW’s largest star, is sensible (although he went too far with it on quite a few events). However guys like Malakai Black (aka Aleister Black), Andrade and Miro (aka Rusev) have proven clear moments of discontent – the latter has reportedly refused to take losses in sure matches, which has been why he hasn’t been on TV as a lot as anticipated – and definitely aren’t residing as much as the billing from after they got here into the corporate.
Then you’ve got greater names like Saraya (aka Paige), whose AEW run began poorly and has featured minimal high-quality wrestling, and Adam Copeland (aka Edge), who continues to attract huge reactions in arenas however doesn’t actually drive numbers like TV rankings in any respect – each theoretically huge signings, costing tens of millions of {dollars} a yr, however not hitting the way in which you’d need. (Copeland’s run has been critically profitable, no less than, so there’s nonetheless time to alter his story.)
Definitely none of their signings have hit like Punk did in late 2021, as a result of he was the perfect personification of AEW’s anti-WWE vibe – and the most important title obtainable, too.
With out guys like Punk, AEW has been left making an attempt to determine what its new vibe is – and led by world champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF), who has a heavy say in his personal storylines, they’re making an attempt what we might name the “ice cream” mannequin.
After receiving criticism for a serious change in his character, the place a cocky heel turned one thing nearer to an amalgamation of The Rock (quipping nicknames for his opponents), Stone Chilly Steve Austin (coming again mid-show in an ambulance) and Hulk Hogan (getting massive reactions from doing little issues like a bodyslam), MJF defined: “What I’m making an attempt to do is deliver again a flavour of ice cream that I really like and dare I say is simply as a lot skilled wrestling.
“All I’m merely saying is, nothing I do is a gimmick. I consider that skilled wrestling, in all sizes and styles, is necessary, and it’s all completely different flavours of ice cream.
“However I additionally consider, to me, for my two cents, if you are able to do what I do and get that response, I feel it’s a lot tougher truly than doing a triple indie regardless of the f—ok. Clearly, they’re gonna clap. It’s insane.
“Are you able to make them completely freak out and have a rattling close to panic assault when you perform a little factor? To me, that’s skilled wrestling.”
MJF’s new character, which is a stark departure from the heel which made him an rising celebrity – together with throughout a spectacular, heated feud with Punk – has been joined by Toni Storm (who helped AEW’s girls’s division attain new heights with unimaginable matches towards Jamie Hayter) turning right into a heavily-gimmicked previous Hollywood actress referred to as ‘Timeless’ Toni, full with black and white filter and comedy segments.
Some AEW followers have loved this flip in the direction of sports activities leisure. However others, who simply months in the past have been those cheering when Chris Jericho’s faction the Jericho Appreciation Society instantly mocked WWE and the time period sports activities leisure, have been turned off the product.
On the very least this flip in the direction of a WWE type, which has come on the similar time numerous ex-WWE producers have gained a big affect on Khan and the AEW product extra broadly, isn’t driving a brand new scorching interval for the second.
It might work, however it might additionally simply guarantee AEW turns into the secondary alternative for WWE followers, who’ll at all times want the unique flavour of sports activities leisure as a result of they grew up watching it. The rankings for AEW’s new Saturday evening present, Collision, are down most closely after they’re instantly up towards WWE exhibits somewhat than main sports activities occasions, suggesting there’s a bigger crossover within the audiences than earlier than.
And traditionally, making an attempt to be WWE has by no means allowed an organization to beat WWE. It didn’t work for WCW within the early-Nineteen Nineties or late Nineteen Nineties – they peaked after they did issues in a different way, bringing concerning the Angle Period with angles just like the NWO. Nor did it work for ECW, whenever you examine their Nineteen Nineties peak to the 2000s WWE revival, nor did it work for TNA/Impression, who discovered restricted success with a six-sided ring and a higher deal with match high quality earlier than hiring Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, ex-writer Vince Russo and others to turn out to be a WWE tribute act (which quickly flopped).
With Rhodes and Punk gone, Kenny Omega seemingly nearing the top of his full-time profession as his physique breaks down, the Younger Bucks not often being featured and reportedly planning a hiatus with whispers they’ve misplaced motivation, and ‘Hangman’ Adam Web page spectacular when he seems on TV but usually disappearing for months at a time, AEW feels misplaced.
It can’t merely recapture the maverick spirit which drove it to new heights between Punk’s late-2021 debut and the 2022 WrestleMania, when the momentum started to shift. Historical past suggests this new feeling, pushed by MJF and the producers who reportedly informed one veteran wrestler “that is simply how wrestling is now” when requested why they have been doing one thing within the type of WWE, received’t be the motive force of a brand new golden period.
There’s no simple reply. They’ve spent a while making an attempt to construct up youthful stars like Ricky Starks and Swerve Strickland (who’s an ex-WWE man however doesn’t actually really feel prefer it), however the constructing course of is rarely good for rankings.
But it’s in all probability what they should deal with. The most popular durations in professional wrestling are pushed by stars, not the businesses themselves – Reigns and Rhodes typify that for WWE proper now, similar to Punk did for AEW.
Theoretically, MJF must be that man for AEW, however as talked about he has turned loads of followers off together with his transfer in the direction of the WWE-style leisure he grew up loving – a wierd and convoluted damage angle on the firm’s newest pay per view, Full Gear, arguably being the low level of his run.
And so Punk joins WWE on the time after they’re completely primed to run up the rating on AEW. They’re already successful – now it’s about successful massive.