Is Punk worth the drama?
Until C. M. Punk debuted in AEW, the promotion seemed like the happy place everyone wanted to be, especially those who felt scorned by WWE or those who did not want to perform for the world蘑菇视频 largest company out of fear for how Vince McMahon would portray them.
When Living Colour蘑菇视频 Cult of Personality blared from the speakers in Chicago on the August 20, 2021, episode of AEW蘑菇视频 Rampage, fans at the United Center lost their minds for their returning hometown hero in Punk.
There was a legit buzz about the company at that point, and AEW was the 鈥渃ool鈥� pro wrestling promotion, seeming as the newer and fresher toy than what WWE had become in the eyes of a way-past-his-prime McMahon, in storytelling terms.
But it barely took a year for drama to follow Punk, and now it has to be wondered, are his days in AEW numbered?
There isn鈥檛 enough space in this column to cover everything that has happened behind the scenes with Punk over the past several weeks, but it can no longer be doubted that when Punk is around, so is drama.
Definitely one of the best all-around performers of the past 20 years, Punk has always seemed to be his biggest fan.
That said, his backstage fight with The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega has led to all of them being suspended, and the last straw was Punk蘑菇视频 post-PPV interview at the AEW Media Scrum with Tony Khan, AEW蘑菇视频 CEO and biggest Punk fan, sitting right next to him.
While there is plenty of blame to go around with the backstage fight 鈥� Punk was said to have gotten hurt and has to have another surgery 鈥� there is now litigation going on.
When Punk walked out of WWE in 2014 after he found out he wouldn鈥檛 main event WrestleMania XXX, the wrestling world blamed WWE for how they were using Punk in storylines.
He disappeared from pro wrestling until showing up in AEW little more than a year ago, and WWE kept rolling.
Now 13 months into Punk蘑菇视频 AEW run, and things are a mess.
Coincidence, you ask?
AEW蘑菇视频 solid number
Despite all the turmoil going on in AEW, Dynamite drew its biggest rating this past Wednesday since last year蘑菇视频 Grand Slam show from New York.
It had an average audience of 1.175 million fans, and that is a good sign heading into Wednesday for鈥�
AEW蘑菇视频 Grand Slam II on Wednesday
AEW returns to Arthur Ashe stadium Wednesday night for Grand Slam II, and the show will be headlined by Jon Moxley facing Bryan Danielson for the vacant AEW championship.
AEW ratings
While AEW蘑菇视频 numbers were up this past Wednesday, things have not been good, and part of it is because of certain performers being placed later on the show when they aren鈥檛 the top draws they think they are.
The ego-driven decision to have The Young Bucks and Omega on at the end of Dynamite for three straight weeks is an eye-opener, but not in a good way.
Khan has been known to book for the 鈥渟mart鈥� fans, and I use the term loosely, with these fans thinking the Bucks and Omega walk on water.
The numbers of how many viewers tuned out when the three appeared on TV shows just how popular they aren鈥檛, but Khan kept putting them on late to appease the vocal minority.
Then on the Sept. 7 edition of Dynamite, Khan came out at the start of the show and announced Punk, the Buck and Omega had all been suspended.
According to Brandon Thurston (@Wrestlenomics on Twitter), a ratings expert, there were 1,221,000 viewers at the top of the show but by the end, there were only 881,000 viewers.
The show lost 340,000 viewers.
As of late, Khan and Chris Jericho have been slinging mud at WWE about different things.
Maybe they should worry about the hole in their own boat and less about someone else.
Owens move official
For those who did not see it coming, Kevin Owens is officially a good guy after this past Monday蘑菇视频 Raw.
His passionate promo on Austin Theory was some of the best work of his career.
This Week in History鈥�
In 1980 in a show in Pittsburgh, Andre the Giant defeated Hulk Hogan.
In 2000 on the last edition of Raw on the USA Network before WWE蘑菇视频 new deal with Spike TV, The Undertaker defeated WWF champion The Rock in a non-title match. WWE would return to the USA Network in 2005.
In 2005, Ric Flair defeated Carlito to win the Intercontinental title at WWEs Unforgiven PPV.
In 2011, at WWE Night of Champions, Mark Henry defeated Randy Orton to win the World championship and John Cena defeated Alberto Del Rio to win the WWE championship.
This week蘑菇视频 question
Can you answer why WWE ran Raw last week from Kansas City after having a PPV in England Saturday? Why not just run it in London, or somewhere close to Cardiff? Ron, California.
The guess here is that WWE wanted to have the show live and not pre-taped.
You used London as an example, and it is five hours ahead of the east coast here, so to have Raw in London but have it live, time-wise, here, it would have had to start at 1 a.m. in London.
That wouldn鈥檛 have cut it.
But back to Kansas City.
I was talking with a buddy who works for WWE behind the scenes, and he told me the crazy flight schedule to get to Kansas City.
They had a 50-minute flight from Cardiff to Amsterdam followed by a 7.5-hour flight to Detroit. After a two-hour layover, they had a flight that was just under two hours to KC.
Email questions/comments to powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III.