re: Cm punk is back on AEW

I don't know how they book him, either. Everybody on the roster seems like amateurs compared to his skillset.

CM Punk made his bones with fans by openly fueding with HHH and his cronies of WWE creative and leadership. How will he bring that kind of heat when it's openly known that AEW will give him whatever he wants.

CM Punk vs Darby Allin is fricking $$$$ whoever suggested not is freaking retarded! They are going to tear the house down! And the rest of you talking shite about AEW, yea they may make a few mistakes but they have been on a complete upswing since the pandemic and they are really giving fans what they want. Their story lines aren’t useless pieces of shite, they have meaning to them and ends unlike WWE where they take the biggest fricking star they have and shite all over him and then give his creation to a fricking chick, BRAY WYATT! I really hope The Fiend shows up as the new leader of the Dark Order. And last statement for the haters, AEW is about to take over the wrestling world, so sit back and enjoy the ride.

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Cody Rhodes and Tony Khan have given Vince a run for their money.

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Yeah WWE is so scared considering they still double up even AEW's best TV ratings each week

But as someone who worked in TV for almost a decade, measuring success by TV ratings is a 20th century metric. In 2021 TV ratings are a small slice of the pie, it's all about engagement and attribution these days and when that is factored in its not even close - there is a reason WWE profits keep rising despite falling TV ratings. It's because audiences are consuming WWE content via other ways than linear television.

AEW caters to a very specific niche, and that is what will prevent AEW from ever going mainstream. They have reached saturation among their intended audience, and to actually grow to where they can compete with WWE they would have to shift their product in a way to appeal to new audiences, and they won't do that. Because that would mean risking alienating their core base which are IWC wrestling smarks who want to see generic bland vanilla midgets with no character or charisma do a bunch of flips in the ring and hate big wrestlers who don't have the workrate.

Darby Allin is the best example of why AEW has a ceiling if they continue their current route. He looks about 150 pounds. Does anyone actually believe in kayfabe that he would be able to compete for heavyweight titles? The casual non mark fan tunes in and sees this twig having much larger wrestlers having to sell for him and tunes out. But since he can do flips in the ring, the core AEW fan thinks he is great.

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the Young Bucks

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hard, hard pass on them and their flippy crap

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Why didn't they bring him back on the PPV instead of a shown in Friday night that no one watches. Isn't their PPv scheduled for this weekend in Chicago as well?

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From what I read they basically announced it to pop a huge number for this new show no one would have probably watched otherwise

Loved wrestling as a kid and got back into it in the late 00 early 2010s, punk was my favorite new guy like many so I set the dvr for last night. Have never watched aew before and haven’t watched wwe at all since the no fans.

Aew looked better than I was expecting appearance wise on the show but to say they’re the old school wrasslin company to wwe sports entertainment bs after punk they had a guy dressed up like a dinosaur in a match and I immediately turned it off

I dropped the network years ago but may take a peak at summerslam tonight since it’s apparently free on peacock now

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They are by far the superior product right now.

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You couldn’t be my wrestling mark

I’d put AEW close to the early years of WCW. They’re definitively the #2 promotion behind the global WWE brand, which is incredible considering AEW has only been around for a couple of years. Ratings wise they’re doing great (by 2021 standards), though still behind Raw and Smackdown. I do feel the presentation and storytelling is superior and they actually respect their fans. WWE has a few good things going, and some of the best wrestlers in the world, but it’s so repetitive, boring, and overproduced much of the time they run that good stuff into the ground. See “The Fiend” recently or their entire women’s division outside of Becky Lynch.

I’ll say this, WWE neutered things so much as the only game in town that AEW is really awakening latent fandom in many. I’ve not felt this way about wrestling since the Attitude Era where their shows are just a blast to watch and leave you wanting more. Adding huge names like Punk (and soon Danielson) is only going to stoke the flames. These guys are two of the biggest stars of the past 20 years, and it’s a big deal they’re showing up. On top of that, the collab with Impact, NJPW, AAA, etc. has really blown the doors open to countless dream matches. It’s a fun time to be a fan.

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or their entire women’s division outside of Becky Lynch.

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At least WWE has a women's division

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Adding huge names like Punk (and soon Danielson) is only going to stoke the flames

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Both of them appeal to the anti-WWE mark and that crowd already watches AEW.

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One thing to realize is AEW now has 3 hours of TV time and 4 hours of dark matches per week, so there is a lot of time for guys to get their stuff in.

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The thing is Dark doesn't count, its mostly filler matches so low/mid carders can pad their records against jobbers.

When Cody, the Bucks, or Kenny Omega wrestles on Dark I will take it seriously. It's no different than what Main Event is for WWE.

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AEW fans would follow that promotion into the grave just because it isn't WWE.

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Pretty much this. If you've ever browsed SquaredCircle on reddit, AEW fans are paranoid by any criticism. In a lot of ways, they're like Democrats/Republicans. They come off as people who hate WWE more than they like AEW.