There could be some legal issues ongoing between Punk and Tony, since Tony recently said he couldn't comment for that very reason. I also don't really expect Punk to go after AEW regardless.

I see some calling him a hypocrite, I've seen an MJF "PG Punk" promo video making the rounds, etc.

Shouldn't we want a "different" Punk, though? Many over-invested fans won't, obviously, but as HHH said in the Survivor Series press conference: If you're still the same person from 10 years ago, you've messed up along the way.

I'm still eh on Punk being back, but I'm willing to see where this goes, to see if he's changed. Some fans may not want that from him, but if he hasn't, he's not going to be around very long so why want more of that?

Yeah I'm kind of sick of the negative "Let's wait and see how things go in a few months" narrative making the rounds now. I know he hasn't earned anyone's trust as far as behavior goes, but like... give the dude a chance. People were pro-Punk when he walked in 2014 but suddenly since the anti-Elite stuff, people are quick to blame him because of his past. But given their own personal responses to everything, the blame looks to be a two-way street to me. And anyone else backing The Bucks or Hangman (guys like Jericho, Mox, etc) are obviously going to be towing the line for AEW because they don't want the alternative.

But most of those guys shitting on Punk for going back to WWE would go there in a heartbeat if the stars aligned. Jericho might be the only one who wouldn't go back because WWE wouldn't have him out there every week like he is in AEW. AEW is his best shot at going out strong in his 50s.

I'm two weeks behind on Collision and Rampage and... I really don't think I'll bother. I might check out what I'm interested in and forget the rest. I watch Dynamite because TSN airs it in Canada but because they don't air Collision or Rampage unless it's in Canada (which it will be this week), I have to use other means and it's more difficult to watch it.

My love for AEW has turned to frustration and I don't think anything has even changed that much. What was there 2-3 years ago is still there and maybe that's the problem. It hasn't grown or changed. It's still doing the same things. It has hyper fixation on a few things (currently MJF, Timeless Toni Storm, etc.) and the rest is just random at best.

Tony Khan and AEW was THE alternative to a depressing era in Vince-run WWE. Now that it looks like Triple H has a stronger hold on WWE creative, AEW doesn't hold the same appeal. A lot of what it gets right is by accident. Kind of like the last years of Vince-run WWE. Tony Khan is more of a hype man at this point. All about hyping AEW's successes and wants to ignore the failures.

AEW never should have touched half the WWE releases. Jon Moxley is an exception. If he ever goes back to WWE, they should let him keep the Mox name, forget about Dean Ambrose. But for every Moxley, there is a Miro, an Andrade, a Malakai Black, a Saraya. People who have random pushes that go nowhere of note.

I can understand not liking CM Punk, but the amount of people still desperate for his own demise and misery is sad. Maria Kanellis posted something last night that seemed to allude to Punk before she deleted it. Punk is putting in the work. The Smackdown promo made up for the RAW promo. The NXT appearance was just fun. He looks content. Let him be.

I still see so many "let's give it a few months" comments. Stop actively wishing for someone's own destruction. And stop assuming his AEW run and his AEW promos means he's a hypocrite for going back to WWE. Promos against the competition are nothing new. He also had real life, valid issues from 2013-2014. He was hired for WWE Backstage in 2019, and even if it was for FOX and not WWE, it showed he was invested in the WWE product long before he debuted in AEW. And it's possible both he and WWE are different from ten years ago.

I say all this to you guys on here because I don't engage with Wrestling Twitter.

As someone who loves Chris Jericho and feels he has had a tremendous, enduring career in wrestling, it makes me sad to see him become what he likely fought against, especially during the dying days of WCW before he jumped to WWE. Ever since Brawl Out, he has tried to make Punk against the Elite also about him. Over a year later and after CM Punk has made a huge splash in his WWE return, funny how Jericho suddenly wants to speak up again about it.

I believed Jericho's run in AEW was special because he was working with younger talent and potentially pushing them up in the process. But... who has benefitted from working with Jericho? The Inner Circle produced zero stars. Santana and Ortiz should have been a top tag team but they got nothing and now their friendship is apparently finished. Jake Hager survived not one but two Jericho stables and all he got was a hat. Sammy Guevara should be a star but he continuously gets stalled.

The less said about the JAS the better. Daniel Garcia could have been a big star when he was threatening to break away from Jericho, but then it went nowhere.

I don't honestly believe Punk is innocent of course. I think it was an overall shitty situation that should have been handled better. But it's hilarious to see Jericho implicate himself in this yet again. He did it when AEW had their first show in Chicago post-Brawl Out and now he's doing it again. If WWE offered for him a huge deal that included much of the spotlight he gets now in AEW, he would be gone in a heartbeat. But it eats at him that WWE wouldn't want this version of Jericho all over their TV shows, so he has to be the company man for the company that will let him play ball, even when he should be doing something different by now with his wrestling career.

There, now Chris Jericho has his very own controversy!

I didn't watch Worlds End. I haven't watched hardly any AEW since the start of December. I needed a break because I felt overwhelmed by Dynamite, Rampage and Collision and trying to keep up with them all. I might limit myself more in 2024, with both AEW and WWE because there's just too much else to do in life than spend over 10 hours a week watching wrestling. And I was feeling fatigued by some of the storylines, especially the Devil storyline.

But sounds like they did the safe answer for the Devil, which was also the smart answer. Vince and WWE would probably want to pull a swerve here after most figured it was Adam Cole, but for once they did the right thing and did it the right way.

And super excited for a Samoa Joe title run. I'd imagine it won't have the same run as the average world title run in AEW, but that's fine.

I'm suspicious that Samoa Joe winning title from MJF is like when Orton won it from McIntyre and then lost it back in like 3 weeks, but still happy they pulled the trigger on it as he really should've had WWE title run.

The Cole turn seemed like a better idea before finding out he's still injured, I don't know if him being manager of a bunch of mid/lower tier guys is going to keep feeling that important.

I like the Vince Russo-ness of the Edge and Christian storyline, both Wayne members and Killswitch have done well in their parts.

Yeah I feel like Cole and the Undisputed Kingdom can go a few ways. I feel like the overly obvious allusions to Wardlow turning on them is a bit premature. And AEW has a serious problem with stables. Too many of them and they tend to either break up FAST or they end up in neverending feuds (The Inner Circle vs. The Pinnacle felt like it went on for YEARS).

Wild to me that we are roughly two months away from Wrestlemania 40 and we are again having the conversation that Roman Reigns could retain again. Just for the sake of eclipsing Hulk Hogan's reign, a reign that he held for a title Roman didn't even technically win until 2022. The only thing more wild than that is the fact that the last person to hold the Universal title before Roman was Bray Wyatt BEFORE he was released.

I'm just kind of exhausted with the discourse now. Roman has defended the title TWICE (!) since WM39. At some point, this "reign for the sake of a reign" just comes with so many asterisks. The Bloodline story peaked with Sami's turn a year ago. I really haven't felt invested in this for a long time. And I do still like Roman Reigns as a character, but when up until WM39, it felt like they still had a strong story going. Now it just feels like we're stretching it as thin as we can.

Joe rek’ing Hook lived up to expectations

Free Jeff from having to team with Matt, he looked midcard singles title caliber on Rampage vs Darby

Joe and Hook was the kind of random Dynamite match that made me love AEW from the start.

Yeah I have lots of love for the Hardys, but considering his age, I'd love one more singles run for Jeff. Heel Jeff would be even better.

So...RAW is going to Netflix starting in January 2025. It'll end the 30+ year history of being on cable TV. Will it not be live anymore? Does Netflix currently offer live programming?

Makes me wonder if Smackdown, the PLEs, and the other content on Peacock will be moved over to Netflix when that contract is over. Paying for 2 streaming services to watch WWE would be weird to me.

And the deal is for $5Billipn for 10 years. Basically $500mil per year for RAW.

Jesus. That's 1.89x more than the previous deal. Nick Khan is the best Khan in the wrestling business

I doubt it, it will likely be spread among different services like NFL. Netflix will gain very few new subscribers that didn't already subscribe for Raw, so somewhere else with no piece of WWE will pay a lot more for it than Netflix will

I can't get confirmation but seen speculation that Canada would be getting PLEs as part of the "outside US" thing. But I'll believe that when I see it. If they will be offered on Netflix, that's huge for me.

If I see that old man stroll out on Smackdown tomorrow night to do another victory lap, I swear.

Those text messages... Wow. Also confirms he has a thing for big, sweaty men if he's naming dildos after them!

I feel that WWE has turned the page on Vince at last, though. We'll see him again down the road, but I don't think he'll come out over this lawsuit like he did the last.

Also, I can't begin to imagine what all happened in the 90s, early 00s. If he was doing all this so recently, there's probably a ridiculous amount of sexual harassment / rape that occurred those years.

Yeah, really hoping this stayed within his inner circle, but I'm scared to think how deep this all went and who else could be involved or implicated in it all.

Terrible way to end his business career. I feel like if he had stayed gone in 2022, this wouldn't have come out. Which is fine, I'm glad it did come to light. But the fact that this is only part of it and it all happened so recently, makes you wonder what else has happened in 40+ years. Scary.

People are sharing that "Thank you Vince" promo Stephanie did after his "retirement" as a way to dunk on her for knowing what she knew and going out and doing that. But like... I always felt that was a really overt way of saying "Fuck you Vince, you're out and now this place will be run by us". Which of course didn't last forever, but still.

Some rumors are saying Slim Jim has pulled out of their sponsorship of the Royal Rumble tomorrow night.

Doubt it hurts WWE (TKO) much, but this will be the best way for sponsors and supporters to get their message across. Hit them where it only really matters to them: Their bank account.

And Vince has resigned from TKO!

I assume more or less forced by the board so they don't lose any more sponsors. Good going, Slim Jim! But will he stay away now? Insiders say he doesn't have the pull or votes to make another comeback, so here's hoping.

And Slim Jim is back as sponsor. All those years ago when I saw Macho Man feverishly promote Slim Jims, I never would have guessed that Slim Jim would become a hero in 2024.

Years of abuse, harassment, poor management. All undone by Slim Jim. You love to see it.

Nice to see such a big name speaking up like this. Speculation is that TKO will take this opportunity to rid WWE of those connected to the Vince problem, so hopefully we see current and past talent and staff contribute like this.

Now, if TKO does decide route the company of this problem, chances are probably decent a few names we've all enjoyed over the years could be linked to it too. Lesnar, for example, who was all but named in the lawsuit, doesn't appear to be going to the Rumble now when there were apparently plans to have him there to get him ready for a Mania match.

Lesnar said in his book over a decade ago that he didn't like when Rena (Sable) was on the road because he was worried what the guys could say or do to her. Speaks volumes today.

But it doesn't matter. Even if my favorites were involved, I'd want them gone yesterday. Taker was probably my favorite all-time, and not accusing him of anything of course, but he's always been very close to Vince and Bruce, etc., so if an allegation came out about him, I wouldn't be shocked and would be all for seeking justice.