The most notable part of former AEW champion CM Punk’s three-minute loss to Jon Moxley on Wednesday Dynamite has nothing to do with the cadence of the story presented on screen, in the ring, or by the show’s commentary team. It all boils down to an incident last week in which Punk, at the start of the show’s inaugural ad, allegedly made a legitimate attempt to mock another former champion, “Hangman” Adam Page.
Quick refresh: As the rumors went away, Punk felt disrespected for the real-life elements Page had incorporated into their title feud earlier this year, so upon returning from an injury in foot, Punk wasted no time rekindling the beef by setting up a trap intended to make Trang, a main events staffer and fan favorite, look like a coward. In essence, this is no big deal – the punk heel is amazing, and taking down a sympathetic character is a quick and easy way to build up the disease, set the prediction for a match. large, thereby bringing in pay-per-view purchases and cable ratings. It’s textbook pro wrestling storytelling, except there’s one big problem, according to rumors: there’s no plan for the Punk/Page feud to continue, nor is anyone behind the scenes even knowing. Punk’s intention to mention Page that night. In the end, if these reports were to be believed, Punk was prepared to damage the stock of a colleague on national television, and to some extent he succeeded. Worse still, if you believe anonymous sources, this stunt is not done in the service of a good buy-per-view or cable TV viewership, but rather a pay-per-view. small enemy.
There’s a reason why the words “report” and “rumor” are used so frequently in the above summary of this mess – it’s that struggling, water-smudging is part of the industry’s DNA. It’s impossible to get a clear, nuanced picture of any hidden drama by looking at a series of tweets. Although accounts of Punk’s lack of professionalism are said to come from generally well-sourced and trustworthy industry journalists, including Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp and Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, at the end of the day , reports like these are informed by anonymous sources with personal relationships to the parties. related, to be stakeholders or have their own stake in the company’s behind-the-scenes politics. Sure, watching the dirt can be a lot of fun, just make sure you train yourself in a thick layer of skepticism before working through that mess.
However, giving much credence to these reports was that last night, a week after his alleged unscripted ambush, Punk – undoubtedly the face of the AEW franchise – had lost the title in a humiliating way, forced through a motion like a bag of tattooed powder and hobbled miserably the night after Moxley ran past him in a short world title match the company’s best ever. You don’t put up a million dollar investment to get into such trouble for no good reason.
Plugged fans immediately connected the dots, reasonably speculating that Punk’s embarrassment last night was a direct punishment for his behavior last week. But there are other possibilities as well. Maybe Punk really aggravated his injured foot and needed to be cleared of TV. This does not appear to be the case and apparently, according to Meltzer, a rematch of this defeat is still scheduled for the main event. All go out (How they’re going to make this match interesting again and get them out of this corner they’ve written themselves in is anyone’s guess). Or, maybe, according to a different school of thought, this is some sort of weird meta-narrative, a way for Khan to hit AEW’s Very Online fanbase into a confused frenzy. Not likely, but if that’s the case, mission accomplished…congratulations?
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If indeed this booking decision was a punishment for Punk, as it appears to be, then a heavily-qualified round of applause goes out to Khan. It was a ballsy move for him to so publicly dole out consequences to a guy he’s leaned on as the company’s MVP for the past year. Nobody’s bigger than the show. It’s a good precedent to set.
Still, it’s hard to see the events of last night’s Dynamite as anything but a colossal fuckup for a number of reasons, especially considering the silent majority of casual viewers who don’t know or care about the salacious backstage rumors, who have never heard of Dave Meltzer (how I envy you) — the ones who tuned in, watched Punk get killed, said “huh?” and flipped back to an NCIS rerun.
Because no matter the intent, whether or not Punk deserved his fate, this booking choice was as lousy as it gets — inexplicable at best and, at worst, a serious blow to the prestige of their world title. Think about it: Just two weeks ago, a Punk/Mox championship unifier seemed like an obvious pay-per-view main event. Most expected it would headline All Out, and few were opposed to that idea.
This week? That same match didn’t even main event a random-ass Dynamite in Cleveland. That distinction went instead to a six-man tag tournament match featuring Death Triangle and United Empire, a team not signed to AEW.
Is Khan sending a message to Punk, or anyone else on the talent roster, worth sacrificing the narrative cohesion of the company’s flagship show and its most important belt? Hell no. But that seems to be exactly what happened.
To make matters worse, the Dynamite commentary team didn’t even attempt to explain why this hugely important match was placed so low on the card, nor how the company could have had the foresight to schedule several more matches afterward when Mox and Punk could conceivably have gone the full hour. (Standby matches! It would have been so easy to handwave away and they didn’t even bother!) Yes, suspension of disbelief is important, but there’s a limit when the plot becomes as aggressively nonsensical as it was last night.
It’s Khan’s business, Khan’s creative, and therefore Khan’s prerogative whether he wants to squash Punk, suspend him, or make him talk to mop in the next six months (please do this). But either way, the overarching story presented to the viewer – all viewers, not just those dedicated enough to sign up for a written notification of what Kenny Omega ate for lunch – needs priority and meaningful. Last night, it didn’t. AEW has dropped the ball and it won’t be easy to pick it up again.
