Jim Cornette Experience Special - CM Punk In AEW Year Two Omnibus (Part 3)

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Hello again, friends.

The great Brian Last here, still here, and we are back once again.

Part three of Jim Cornett's CM Punk and AEW Omnibus, Volume 2, Year 2.

Let's go now to the multiple hours of the conclusion of this omnibus right now.

They transition from the sweeping crowd shots to

Lac Mussolini.

It's our man Phil.

And he's back back, and he's going to raise some hill.

Well, I couldn't call him Phil, could I?

Pathetic.

But anyway, ladies and gentlemen, this review is brought to you by the official Cornet Face t-shirt available at jimcornet.com.

Wear it to collision tapings and CM Punk will wink at you.

Now back to our review.

So it was a huge ovation, and he brought the bag with the belt that he never lost, his wrestling shoes around his neck,

and his first words were basically, I'm tired of being nice.

No more Mr.

Nice Guy for the punkster.

And this is the professional wrestling business.

And he put over Chicago and the fans.

He

started the first of several times that he said what Maybe a new trademark.

I don't like the word catchphrase.

It's so a trademark line for him.

Tell me when I'm telling lies,

which might be something that he can use quite often around that place

when everybody else is singing, tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies, tell me lies, tell me, tell me lies.

Stop singing on the show, please.

So he said,

some people,

some people hate me for the same reason that you love me, Chicago.

And I understand that the sheer magnitude of me makes some people uncomfortable.

This guy, and then the fans start chanting, fuck the elite.

And again,

he is so brilliant verbally, such a cunning linguist, that he doesn't have to do the cheap shit that's obvious to get people to chant derogatory things about people he doesn't like.

He can just make a

blanket statement and they get the point.

And

one that got a lot of traction, as they say, on social media, was David Zaslov, who I had to check on that one, but he's, I guess, the president of Warner Brother Discovery Media Conglomerate.

But he said, David Zaslov calls me one Bill Phil because I'm the one true article in a business of counterfeit bucks.

And that one landed, and then he winked at the guy in the cornet face shirt.

And, you know, this was, it was a brilliant double-edged promo, I thought, because

for the casual fan, if there indeed exists that animal, but just for the sake of logic and continuity on the television program, if nothing else.

He talked about never having lost the belt.

He talked about his tricep injury, tearing the muscle off the bone.

He talked about surgery and the rehab.

He talked about always being himself and never compromising.

And

it was a straight, and he's coming back to

regain the recognition that he never lost with that belt in the bag, et cetera.

If you didn't know anything past what you'd seen on television, it was a strong babyface return promo in his hometown arena with a bunch of people there.

And for the majority of people, honestly, that are into this company in this day and age,

that do know what happened.

There was enough remarks without coming out and saying things

that he addressed that to.

And with the pops that he was getting from the crowd, one would think that Chicago would fall into that category of being the people who were up on it.

And, you know, again, he said,

for those of you who feel they're owed an apology,

I'm sorry.

The only people softer than you are the wrestlers you like.

And we know exactly where that's going.

And he's not wrong.

And then a brilliant line was: he reminds everybody when he reminded them that he had the, the, uh, or that he won the belt and never lost it.

He said, because I didn't have the best dog collar match, I won the dog collar match.

And this is mine until somebody pins me or submits me.

And until somebody can fill these boots, they belong on my feet, Mike dropped.

Boom.

12 minutes.

He had them on the edge of their seats.

They liked everything he said.

It was well done.

It hit all the right spots.

And

here we go.

There's not too much I could add to that.

Strong promo.

You know, I think with some people, there's a little bit of disappointment that there aren't going to be more direct shots, which I'm guessing there won't be until everyone decides to work together and be friends.

But it was the reintroduction that he needed, exactly where it needed to be.

And it was a promising start.

You know, I wanted to go into this show with some optimism that AEW will do something right.

They did his debut right.

And I think his return was really good.

The only thing I wouldn't have done, minor thing, to go to your point earlier, I wouldn't have had the commentators say anything until after this and you could show them.

As opposed to hearing any voices at all before that, because you could barely hear them with the way AEW mics the crowd.

Yeah.

Well, you know, and that would have been a way to,

that would have been a way to do it.

And I can see that.

At the same point,

I think they feel like they had to welcome everyone at the top of the brand new program, never been a program in this series.

But the bigger issue, I thought it was me and my bad hearing.

And I tried this on two different televisions, but in a lot of cases, the mix of the announcers was buried in the crowd.

And I know it was a rowdy crowd, but these things are controllable.

Did you have problems hearing them also?

I did.

And in general, I always have issues with AEW audio.

And I get that different people get different feeds.

Like if you're watching it on TV versus the internet feed, you may get different audio.

But on TV,

traditionally, it's rough.

Now, sometimes you could tell it's not you.

It's them.

Sometimes you can tell it's in the house.

It's on the mic.

Like there's nothing going.

There's nothing that's going to change it there, but other times you can tell it's the mix.

And Kevin Kelly's not Excalibur, and I mean that in a very good way.

He's not just screaming at you.

So maybe they weren't prepared for a human being, an adult, doing commentary here, but also the fans are loud.

That's why I would have just start the show with punk.

That's what everyone's there to see.

Start it with punk, then go to the commentators.

Because then the crowd would have started dying down anyway.

You would have been able to hear them better.

Yes, because when you got the crowd screaming and the music and the

announcers vying for your

oral A-U-R-A-L attention, it does get

problematic.

Which two commentators yell less than Nigel McGinnis and Kevin Kelly?

Well, and I mean that in a good way.

I'm not saying that in a bad way.

Well,

Ian Ricobani and Caprice Coleman.

That's true.

And so now

there are two accomplished announcing teams out there floating around in the wrestling industry.

One is now finally employed in AEW,

Nigel McGinnis and Kevin Kelly.

And hopefully our friend Ian Rick Aboner and his sidekick, Caprice Coleman, will land somewhere that we actually care about watching.

Yeah, on Wednesday Night Gorilla, whatever that show is.

Yeah.

All righty then.

And now it's time for our main event of the evening,

Samoa Joe and Jen and Juice against FTR and CM Punk.

And they gave it to us with 30 minutes left on the air and the big entrances and the place is ready for it.

And I got to tell you, again, besides the fact that this is the first time we've had a chance to see either Jay White or Juice Robinson

in a long competitive match with other people that can work and something sensible instead of just jumping in from behind or doing an angle or having hoo-ha match, whatever the fuck.

There's their top heel team to work with FTR, and there's Samoa Joe.

We already know that he and Punk want to work with each other.

So, this six-man

gave us a tease and a very good one

of what we can see for the tag team title and what we can see for the

Ring of Honor,

whatever title Joe has or still has, or potentially the AEW title that Punk may reclaim or some kind of title.

But Punk and Joe and FTR and Gen and Juice are going to be fucking just swell, in my opinion.

And I mean, the difference in this,

just jotting things down.

Six pros that look like pros, like athletes, they look serious.

They're wrestling.

Their timing and execution is good.

The pacing, the crowd is hot.

Good high spots, good action, but it's a struggle.

No furniture, no combative parkour, no aggressive tumbling, nothing endless on the floor.

The announcing, the production, everything makes this look like a major league wrestling show.

And that is a completely different vibe on several of those levels

than AEW usually reaches, except when, as we mentioned, there was the,

you know, the run that Punk had where his shit made sense and MJF has reached heights.

But overall, with the crowd, the announcer, the whole nine yards, everything,

it's not something

that we normally see on an AEW TV show that you could say this is as good or this is competitive or this.

company is apparently on the level of the WWE.

I mean, am I just overstating this, or did you get that vibe?

I don't want to compare it to WWE right now, but I think it was certainly a clear difference.

There was a clear difference, I should say, between this and Wednesday night.

And the commentating to me was the biggest thing because

I always say how Excalibur and that Wednesday night team were the least effective commentating team out there.

It's the tone, it's what they're saying, it's how they're saying it.

It's constantly yelling at you,

speed talking to you.

You know, not, and I've am not anybody to say on my announcing, you know,

constantly yelling, but with conviction, with meaning, with purpose, with delivering information instead of just

sounding disingenuous and hokey, and it's over the top winking, you know, at the audience.

I am a wrestling announcer.

Yes.

Because they all think they're mean Gene Okerland somehow.

But and let's, while we're talking about the announcing, this was the match, the main event where Kevin and Nigel were joined by Jim Ross.

And boy, howdy,

apparently everybody knows now, he said it on Twitter, Jim Ross had one of those days, a bad day and bad trip, bad performance, unfortunately.

But apparently somewhere

or sometime the night before, I guess, or early in the morning that he was supposed to go to the taping,

He was, he's at his place in Florida and he was in a fall and

blacked his eye and it was swollen closed.

He tweeted a picture that morning, bad fall, still going to, you know, Chicago for the dynamite debut.

And then when he was able to be in the booth,

he had no voice.

It just, it was gone.

And that's,

I

have had troubles with my voice in the past.

Remember, we've had it on the show here, and

it was from overuse.

When I quit doing announcing and screaming in loud arenas, you know, it's better.

But

there's no worse feeling than trying to be an announcer and having no voice.

It's just, it's fucking unbearable.

So I felt so bad for him, but he really couldn't contribute.

He was trying.

But the morning after.

The show, this morning, he basically tweeted out that, you know, he apologized for his performance and is going to step away and heal is what his quote was.

I don't know whether the, I don't know whether he was sick on top of the fall.

I can tell you that if he fell the night before, and obviously it might be hard to get sleep in a situation like that, then he's flown in an airplane from Florida to Chicago and it's fucking

9.30 Eastern time if he's been up for 14 hours.

J.R.'s 10 years older than I am.

That kind of shit makes you lose your voice, too.

I don't know to that extent, but

you know, I felt bad for him, and I hope that

he can take a few weeks off and just rejuvenate.

But

again, the dedication that JR has

to

is

I will say about Jim Ross what Jim Heard once said to Jim Ross about me.

I haven't seen such loyalty since Korea.

He refuses to call in sick or to not show up or to not be there to do the best he can with whatever to the point.

Remember, in Baltimore, he passed a kidney stone in a pre-tape on a pay-per-view

and didn't tap out.

But he needs to, none of us are as young as we used to be.

And

I'm not saying that anybody's too old to not be able to do what they used to do, but they sure can't do it as often or for as long.

And maybe they ought to try to pick J.R.

spots where he's an analyst for the main events on pay-per-views and he can come in and do production,

you know, during the daytime, not in fucking hectic arenas, not after dragging him across the country with one eye or whatever for 14 hours.

That might be a better use of his talents at this point.

Or they could just listen to him when he gives the wrestlers some advice on what to do, but he tried that before and they mocked him on Twitter.

So there's that.

Back to this match.

Dax is, I thought, was as smooth as ever, although he makes me nervous because he doesn't wear a sleeve over that knee brace.

And I saw the top, the thigh strap on his knee brace was loose.

I'm like, oh, God, because that's another one of my nervous nilly,

you know, situation, bad knees.

But Dax was great, but Cash is phenomenal.

And he doesn't get enough recognition for that.

Especially that dropkick series he uncorked and some of the other shit that he did.

And he's so smooth.

And as I said before, now that I've seen Jen and Juice in a real wrestling match, I think they're the top heel team in the company.

And that's, they were bringing Jay White in like he was going to be a big singles deal.

And I mean,

I guess they could still make him a big singles deal, but I don't think I think they need to be the tag team

because they're perfect for FTR and they work well together.

And then you get,

you know, Joe and Punk in there, and they did some good stiff shit.

And Joe

can still move like he did 15 years ago when he's motivated and involved in something important.

You know, he was doing his shit.

And I like the the babyface team

did the Midnight Express, Midnight Express.

Who are they?

Midnight Express suplex

pickup into the PowerSlam.

Midnight Explex.

Stop it.

I stole that from Slay.

I researched it from Slater and Orton, 1983 Mid-Atlantic.

We did it.

The job guys back then weren't great at going up for vertical suplexes.

So we switched it to where

Stan would fucking pick the guy up in an ass bump and hand him to Bobby, who's sitting on the top rope, and he'd do the spine buster.

Anyway, um, major league-looking match, cash, great buzz saw your power slam at one point.

Juice Robinson might be my new favorite wrestler, and he was I told you, he's great.

I know you don't have to keep saying that, though.

I told you so.

I told you so.

I learned that from you.

Well, you learned too good,

but I love Juice.

juice.

And then finally, Punk got the last big hot tag and made the big comeback.

And they did lots of back and forth.

And this match had flown by.

Instead of being a 30-minute series of chaos that you couldn't keep straight, nobody could possibly ever live through.

This was an athletic contest that went back and forth with twists and turns and believable fucking bumps.

They stayed in the ring, no dives.

And then finally,

as I mentioned, Punk made that big comeback.

And then they set the deal up where Cash and Punk tagged each other in at the same time, which you can't do.

But fuck it.

People were with it.

And Kevin Kelly,

who is just as quick like that,

saw that.

And so as not to bury himself, but as not to shit on the match, said, well, they might be taking a little liberty with that tag.

And so it was registered and noted, but it was moved on.

And,

but you still, you can't do it.

And then

Punk and Joe stood and traded.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

And it broke into a big six-way.

And Joe got punk in the sleeper.

And Jen and Juice were holding FTR on either side of the ring so they couldn't make the save.

And finally, FTR came out.

Cash hit that big body block of Jay White, I think, off the apron.

And Dax saved

the punk from Joe with the headbutt to the back.

And that's

brilliant.

I thought there was a chance Joe was going to choke him out there.

They got me.

Yes.

And

they milked it enough that you bought it, but then they didn't go too long that it

lost the momentum.

And then FTR broke it up just in time, but that was brilliant because

they've showed that Joe would have choked punk out.

And even the announcers said it.

If it hadn't been for FTR, Joe would have choked Punk out.

And that can be brought back in a single situation.

And at the same point,

FTR cleared the path for

gin and juice and then saved Punk.

And then

FTR hit the big rig on juice

and who took a bump and bounced into Punk's go-to-sleep.

One, two, three.

And what a finish.

It built.

It built bigger.

It wasn't like they did every big move they knew.

And then when they were done with that, somebody just won with a simple thing or tapped out or whatever.

It was that they built it and built it.

And finally it was slam, bang, pow.

One, two, three.

And then a big pop.

And I'm losing my voice like JR from staying up and watching too much wrestling.

But

that's the way you build a finish.

And then you blow it off, and then you pay it off, and then the people loved it.

This was the best six-man tag match in AEW history.

Now, I know that ain't saying much because normally they're the shits,

but they proved here you can have a good one if you try and you know what you're doing.

By far, this was the best six-man tag they've ever had, and it wasn't for their bullshit trios title, it was just six guys,

three on each side, that wanted to fight each other.

So

again, you know, we don't know what the ratings are.

This is Sunday morning, I guess.

Good God.

I don't know if this is planet Earth anymore.

It's afternoon now.

Well, there you go.

We talked too long.

But we won't get ratings for a few days.

We'll see.

It's a new show.

It's Saturday night, et cetera, et cetera.

But

one would think that if they keep doing shows like this without the silliness and the

softness,

that they'll get some of the disaffected fans back.

They're going to get the punk fans.

And if they keep having wrestling like that,

then they may get some of the wrestling fans that have given up on all this other bullshit.

We'll see what happens.

But in the meantime, I would think that they will have a better audience retention on this program because the last two segments were just as good as the first one was.

All right.

Well, that was AEW Collision.

You have no opinions?

Are there no opinions?

No workhouses?

Well, to your overall thought, I think the most important thing, and that's one of the reasons why I didn't like the House of Black blackout segment, even though I like Buddy Matthews' match,

I want a different tone here.

I think the experiment...

Should be a different tone.

Let's see how a different, a serious tone.

The original concept of a sports-based wrestling product.

Mid-South 2023.

Let's try to do that.

And it was a promising start.

Excellent six-man tag match.

FTR looked great.

Juice Robinson, I'm telling you, he's really good.

And I think Jay White, when you see him in the States,

you realize he's not, not that everyone has to be a bigger guy, but he's not a bigger guy.

And him and Juice together fixes that.

Yeah.

Because Juice has some size to him.

The crowd, when Joe and CM Punk squared off,

this is with zero time being spent on TV building up the history of these two guys.

Showing the old ROH tapes.

Zero time.

Which he owns, by the way.

Which he owns, which I'm sure we're going to see clips of and interviews about pretty soon.

And that was the reaction these guys got just squaring off.

That was promising.

FTR.

You know, I think there's something with FTR to be said for

mentally working against against people who you know you're not going to have an issue with

behind the scenes or whatever else, working with people you want to work with.

Again, the new show, the new tone.

I think it's showed in the work there.

These seemed like guys happy.

Not that like, you know, like happy, like, hey, they're smiling and shit, but they seemed like they were happy to be doing this.

They were motivated.

They were working hard.

You could tell there was extra aggression, extra of, we've all got something to prove here.

We want to stand out.

Because they've seen the other side of the coin.

A few weeks ago, they would have been in that Aubrey match on Friday night on Rampage.

That was what these guys were mixed up with, Mark Briscoe, and Jarrett, and all that.

And now here they are doing this, and it was an excellent match.

Can't wait to see what they're going to do with Punk and Samoa Joe.

You have to think Punk and MJF long-term has to be a thing because he still has the belt.

But we have a world champion.

I thought this was an excellent debut episode.

Other than the Wardlow match, I liked every match, although the Miro match I thought was too long,

but promising.

I mean, now it's going to be really interesting going from this to Wednesday night, just seeing the, again, the difference in the tone of the show and the quality of the show and who's on the show.

The opening video here, it was noticeable who wasn't in the video.

No Bucks.

Yeah.

No Adam Page, no Omega.

I don't think it was Moxley.

I was disturbed to see Pockets was still there.

And my God, that's a pox that they can't infect a brand new program with.

It is Tony's personal religion because Tony loves Orange Cassidy.

And Tony believes he's doing special stuff with Orange Cassidy.

And Tony is...

Yeah, the word special could apply in there somewhere.

And Tony's insistent on converting non-believers into being believers.

If a wrestler doesn't get it or doesn't want to do something with him, Tony will try to get them to understand the brilliance of Orange Cassidy.

Which is why he's going to put him on this show because he wants to stuff him down your throat.

Well, I'm going to coffee him back up.

But anyway, I thought this was a great debut show also.

And it's not as laborious to watch as Wednesday night.

It's not nearly as silly.

It wasn't as repetitive.

There was some control with the guys to what they were doing so that everybody's match stood out as somewhat different.

And just some logic.

logic.

No Justin Roberts, no Excalibur, no Schiavone.

Hate to put Taza.

No Barbarady.

No Barbarady.

Hate to put Taz in that mix, but you know, Taz, Renee Paquette, various people who are the sounds and the faces of Dynamite were not here.

Shivani shouldn't have been here, but I think that's important.

Set a different tone to the people who are already disinfected by AEW.

Let them know there's something else to embrace.

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The hardies and the guns.

And we've talked about this This is dying.

This is dying.

Yeah, it sure is.

6.21 on your calendar, June 21st, the summer solstice.

Everybody's brains were baked.

The Hardys and the Guns, and we've explained the folly of what they did with...

They reunited one of the most popular tag teams of all time and gave it away on free television in a meaningless match.

And then

sometimes they're around and sometimes they're not.

We mentioned they could have had a cohesive strategy.

I would have done something to Matt Hardy to make him not only a raving babyface, but in an injured, sympathetic position looking for revenge to bring Jeff Hardy back as a surprise.

Boom, boom, boom, to clear the ring and lead to a pay-per-view match because the first time

that you would see the Hardys together in this.

Given all the conditions, what prevail

would probably be even the most popular or the most most profitable one.

The big reunion in a grudge match on pay-per-view where the people got to pay it, pay to see it.

And then, possibly, about a month or six weeks down the road, you've maneuvered them into a huge match on free television for the ratings.

And then, if you were very careful, they would earn their money if you had them work

in some fashion back and forth between pay-per-view and television six or eight times in the year.

But you would get descending returns because

look at the condition of them.

And it's not,

that's not like, you know, an insult.

Look at what they've done to their bodies.

Can't do that shit anymore.

And I actually thought this was the best they've looked in a while, this match.

Well, I don't, then I'm glad I haven't seen what Jeff did last because what I saw was him just jumping up in the air and landing wherever the the fuck he lands.

And the other guy's supposed to catch him and break his fall or fucking cushion Jeff's fall somehow with the expense of his own body.

But anyway, they could have made something out of this.

The Hardys are icons.

Now,

what they did was they, without

giving them their due as legends and having a couple of big matches that really got notice, and you could have hid some of the weaknesses, and people would have been happy to see them.

Now they've just been here and been here.

And now they

want to get somebody over with using Matt and Jeff to do it.

The guns, young team,

but they don't do,

they don't, the guns don't beat the Hardys.

The interference from the two other fucking guys do.

So you've just negated the Hardys doing a shocking job for this young team of the future

to set up

an eight-man tag team match that doesn't involve either one of them.

That was the most interesting thing because, again, I thought the match, because I've seen some of their recent stuff, I was ready to shit on it.

It wasn't as bad as some of the other stuff I saw.

It was a hot crowd, and the guns were doing everything they could to move around.

So I wasn't going to kill the match.

But then I was like, oh, no, they're going to do something, I guess, with.

Ricky Starks and the Hardys and so on.

But then the Hardys just vanished and they were gone.

And it was almost like they weren't even there to begin with.

Well, and also, and I understand what you're saying about how it was one of the better Hardy matches, but unfortunately, with my

eagle eye and a discerning mind for this, it was because the guns were bumping like human super balls.

The guns were literally working around

Jeff to a big extent being immobile and Matt to some extent being immobile.

immobile, and all the action and movement, whether offense or defense, was the gunboys

in large part.

And

at one point, Matt made a big comeback and gave one of the guns a twist of fate, and the gun sold it like a stunner.

I don't know where that, but

anyway, the point is that

they created a situation where the green guys were having to

carry the veterans.

And

yes, there's been the Bruiser and Crusher effect for many years in wrestling where the opponents had to carry the icons, but the opponents were usually

Bachwinkle and Stevens for Bruiser and Crusher or also experienced or the Horseman for Nikita or whatever it may be.

And

so it didn't do the gunboys too many favors to do this.

to get this win when

they had to do all the work and then the Jen and Juice come down, and they're the ones that beat the fucking Hardys, basically.

And then Jen and Juice come back

and get heat on Matt and Jeff, too.

And then here comes Ricky Starks, and the heels stop him.

And then here comes FTR, and they get a big pop.

And they have a big brawl, but the heels are still up.

And then suddenly,

here comes, and I love the staggered run-ins.

No music.

And no music for the run-ins because it's a sense of urgency.

They're trying to save somebody.

And you got the pops.

And the people are going fucking batshit.

So this part, yes, as soon as they got Matt and Jeff out of there, I think that, you know, business picked up.

But it's just, it's been a mishandling, unfortunately, of the Hardees reunion.

But anyway, Punk clears the ring, gets the microphone, makes the challenge for the eight-man on collision.

And

so we will see Jen and Juice and the guns against FTR, Starks, and Punk.

And boy, I hope the third episode of Collision is not a 10-man tag team match, but at least we got some hope here.

That is the third episode.

Oh, for God's sake.

They said we want to have the match next week, not this week, next week.

Nick.

Well, that is next.

All right, now, how do you look at this?

This is an uphill or downhill situation.

Next week would be next Saturday to me,

rather than

not a show and a half from now.

I think if it was going to be on this weekend show, it would be we'll wrestle you this weekend.

We'll wrestle you this Saturday.

Not we'll wrestle you next Saturday.

Well, this Saturday is the next Saturday that we have.

No, it's the only, it's the Saturday that's coming up.

No, it's not the only one.

There will be more.

This is the next one.

It's the very next one, but usually the phrase is used for the week after.

Well, you don't have to put the qualifier very in because just the next Saturday that we have as

a humanity here, as a race of people on this big blue marble, the next Saturday we have

is next Saturday.

When they announced the matches on Dynamite later in the show for Collision, the only one, I remember they announced Brody Brody King versus Andrade, continuing the Andrade House of Black feud, but I don't think they announced the punk match.

Well, I'm goddamn confused then.

Or maybe they are, or maybe they confused me.

See, that's the way it became, but we're going to have an eight-man coming up.

It's what we're going to do.

A lot of multi-man matches, but at least it gets punk and FTR on the screen.

They produced last week.

You know what?

That's the thing.

They had that six-man match and they gave it time and it was great and it was different and it was paced well and it was exciting.

And if you're going to have Ricky Starks as one of the top baby faces on Collision as well.

He gets a good rub.

Gets a good rub from that.

Once again, to me, Juice Robinson stood out in this thing, just his screaming, just everything about the fucking guy.

Jay White looked good.

It's weird to say this.

They're trying to elevate the guns.

These guys were the tag team champions.

It's easy to forget that.

But they're trying to elevate the guns by having them involved with all these guys.

And the guns have looked good in there, I have to say.

Oh, they

did a masterful job of bumping, feeding, and falling, and etc., etc.

But

they're animated.

They're so animated.

But anyway, so basically, Punk made that challenge for whenever it may be

on Newfoundland time or whatever.

And then he called for his music.

Lakamo Salini.

He saved the day.

And the Hardys had completely disappeared.

Gone away.

Gone away.

You could have made it rhyme.

You could have worked it.

Well,

see, you scold me about singing so much.

Now I'm frightened.

And by the way, wonderful shot

pretty much all night, but especially in this match of...

This big bulb's head across from the hard camera,

the sign being held up.

It looked familiar.

As a matter of fact,

for those of you who might not realize it, you can purchase the official Cornet Face t-shirt at jimcornet.com, available in sizes small to 5x for our portly friends.

And you can have that right on your chest, just like that guy had the big sign.

My head's not that big, though, but I'm looking down over everything.

That was a gigantic sign.

It was pretty good.

Gigantic head.

Yes, it, yes, it was.

It hit well during that Jericho match.

Well, we ain't there yet.

Except for the main event, that was the whole program.

And that's why we were,

Brian and I, I'm speaking to the greater assemblage of listeners out there,

why we were downtrodden and downhearted and

kind of bummed out.

by what we thought was going to be a kind of a guaranteed bright spot after last week on Saturday nights.

But they brought it up at the end.

Should we go into the main event, Brian?

Please.

It was actually good.

An eight-man tag team match.

We've gotten away from the six-man tags.

Now we're going to, now, if they call the six-man tags trios, does that mean this is a quattro

or quadraphonic?

Well, definitely not quadraphonic.

That would be with the sound.

Okay, then it's got to be a quattro, right?

I guess it could be.

See, that's that's how silly trios is to call a six-man tag match a trios match.

But would it be quattros?

It's not trio, it's trios.

So would it be quattros match?

That's what I said, a quattros match.

I think they said quattro singularly.

Well, whatever it may be.

Point is, and then if they have a 10-man like the anarchy in the arena,

is that going to be a Quintos?

You might better just use the goddamn numbers.

What about quartet match?

Well, that would be a tag.

A quartet match?

Yeah.

Well, your tag team, your team is the quartet.

No,

the whole match is the quartet.

Well, why does that have to be the rule?

And then give one of them a violin and the other one an oboe and the other one a guitar.

You'd have a string quartet.

I'll take the guy with the oboe.

Well, I used to know a guy played an old oboe.

Used to play it across his knee.

Play me a song, Curtis Lowe.

Curtis Lowe.

All right, anyway.

These are the breaks, Curtis Blow, Curtis Blow.

No.

No.

Curtis Lowe, not Curtis Blow.

The ballad of Curtis Lowe by Leonard Skinner.

Play me a song, Curtis Lowe, Curtis Lowe.

I wish that you his

son would know.

Come on, you're upsetting people.

Alrighty, then.

So the eight-man tag was the Gunboys and Gin and Juice

against Ricky Starks, FTR, and CM Punk.

And they did all these separate entrances and saved punks for last.

And then you heard Lak Mussolini with cheers and boos.

And everybody was standing.

Some people were cheering.

Some people were flipping birds and going, fuck you, fuck you.

And then the people that were cheering tried to drown out the people that were booing,

and vice versa.

And now they have made it to where that punk is now not only the biggest babyface, but then also the biggest heel in the company.

And

it wasn't the EVP's plan with their slander campaign

after they got their

panties in an uproar because Tony wouldn't powder their pussies by firing the guy that kicked the shit out of them after they put the mouth on him, slandered him, and then instigated a physical confrontation that they were not equipped to handle.

And he has done absolutely nothing, he being Tony, to punish the officers of his company who have devalued one of his assets

and basically come out and told the most dedicated part of his audience, do not like this guy, don't support this guy, and don't watch this guy, even though he's in our company.

Because we're mad and he's a bad person.

But now the guy that was universally being cheered at, and he's still at attraction.

Punk is still because now he's the most controversial person in wrestling because he's the only person

in the business that can get the biggest positive reaction and the biggest negative reaction on the shows that he's on.

But it wasn't the EVP's plan to make him attractive in that way.

It was their plan to poison him to their fan base so that they wouldn't want to see him.

And Tony would spend the millions of dollars that he's paying Punk unnecessarily throwing it down a well

because

he couldn't get his full value out of Punk

because he'd been poisoned to the fans.

That's what the EVPs tried to do.

And

it still remains to be seen whether it's going to affect, is it going to affect his merchandise business

and the merchandise he sells?

Are the AEW faithful going to buy Punk's merchandise like they were?

That's going to cost Tony money.

Are they going to come to buy tickets on Saturday nights, much as the people who like wrestling and want to see a program that makes sense and is not pointed at and written for and catered to children and childish minds, they don't want to go on Wednesday now.

They want to go on Saturday.

But that wasn't punk telling them don't support the Wednesday night show.

That's just demonstrably we're going to get wrestling on Saturdays, hopefully,

rather than childish trampoline cowboy bullshit.

So

is Tony going to do anything about these motherfuckers that he's paying more money to than they've ever seen in their lives and more money than any of them deserve from a wrestling promoter for their limited talent that they possess.

Talking about Hangnail and Maddie and Nikki and old Twinkle Toes

and their assorted crew that's even less valuable than they are.

How long is Tony going to pay them all that money while they continue to do nothing but cost Tony money by devaluing things he invests in?

So the people,

every time Punk gets in, the booers want to boo him, then the cheers want to out cheer the booers, then the booers want to out boo the cheers,

and it gets a reaction, but it's needless and unnecessary.

All that Maddie and Nikki had to do was take their ass kicking that they asked for and get over it like men.

That's all they had to do.

Anyway, like last week, this match was

the in-ring work and general professionalism was way up compared to anything else on this show or anything else in this company.

This is the kind of match that the guns need to be in to learn because they're opposite guys that know what they're doing, pacing and fucking execution and et cetera.

And

again, with FTR and Punk in a match, it looks and feels like a wrestling program.

And Jen and Juice are holding their own every step of the way.

I love Juice Robinson.

And the guns are, they have such promise and they're so animated and they work so hard, but they need direction that these guys who are more experienced and more talented than the guns' normal opponents gave them.

And the match, it moved at 100 miles an hour.

For a long time, but it flew by because they kept it fresh.

It made sense.

They didn't bury the referee.

Everybody Everybody was tagging in and out.

There was no extended floor fights.

Was there a dive in this fucking thing?

Thank God.

I don't think I saw one.

Yes, Cash did the dive at the end and the finish when everybody went crazy.

Cash did a dive and it looked like it killed his opponents and him too.

Himself, yeah.

Yeah.

So it was a goddamn wrestling match instead of a bunch of guys on a trampoline jacking off, like the California contingent.

And then, again, the match made sense.

They got heat on punk.

And finally, he made the hot tag to Starks.

He made a nice comeback.

That's when it broke down into an eight-way, and some guys went to the floor.

And Cash did the dive that he almost overshot the barricade and everything.

But it was during the big build to the finish and the blow-off of everything.

That's when all the big shit happened.

And then Starks hits a spear on everybody.

But as he

ends up through the ropes headfirst, Juice nailed him from the floor and he spun into Jay White's finish.

Boom.

One, two, three.

So now the heels have won.

And holy shit, where are we going to go from here?

Great match again for a main event.

Unfortunately,

most of this program

felt like dynamite instead of what we got last week from collision, but you can see that they're trying with Hobbes getting a decisive win, with Miro getting a short promo where he just gets his new gimmick over, with the main event delivering in the ring,

with even the matches that weren't very good not just doing all the bullshit that happens on Wednesday night.

You can tell they're trying to make this show different,

but they do apparently need

a better line of demarcation crossed in the sand on what talent is going to be allowed on this program.

Well, there's the problem.

How much of this is going to be an ongoing problem whenever there's a pay-per-view the next day and everyone's in town at the same time?

And Tony forces.

And

I understand there's...

There's financial reasons.

You've got a national television show and you want to plug the pay-per-view you've got the next day.

It's not Collision's fault that the pay-per-view has a bunch of matches that nobody gives a shit about except for the people who would buy it just to see

New Japan's Howie the Mailroom guy.

Just random people.

But

that's why I'm sure he did a lot of this because it's the night before the pay-per-view and they wanted to push it.

But,

you know,

they're going to be preempted on Saturday nights.

And Saturday night is always the night before the pay-per-view

so if collision is going to be a good show except the night before a pay-per-view or except when it's preempted we might not be able to find it

that's going to be a handicap to overcome i wish they'd switch nights wednesday they never move anywhere can't we have the good show on wednesday and the shitty show on saturday

anyway We collided with collision.

They're batting 500 so far with two winners of a main event.

You know what?

I like the energy for the punk match.

I know it's not perfect.

In a perfect world, he wouldn't have his reputation and whatever value to AEW diminished, however much it's been diminished by,

can't even call it a whisper campaign anymore, the campaign to destroy him.

But the John Cena-esque reaction,

I like that.

And I don't think, I think the one thing John Cena showed is it doesn't drive people away.

You know, that's the kind of thing I'm sure his merch will be great still.

And you're going to get this kind of weird reaction in certain towns.

With Cena, you weren't dealing with a

subset of a niche audience.

You were dealing with what was still a...

If the WWE audience is three times now what AEWs was, during Cena's heyday 15 years ago, it was three times what WWE's audience is now.

That was a lot of people.

And there was plenty to go around.

The people that liked him, the people that didn't like him.

Kids would buy his shit.

Grown men would boo him, whatever.

It was great reaction, but it didn't hurt business.

But when you're talking about a much smaller group of people

that are AEW followers, you've got your base audience that likes the trampoline cowboys.

You've got...

some significant portion of other people that just like to watch all kinds of wrestling.

And then you've got

the, you know, a couple hundred thousand or however many it is that Punk brings

because they were wrestling fans and they'll follow Punk, but they haven't been particularly paying that much attention to what's going on these days since he was gone.

And you can't really afford to run any of those off.

Now, it's not bad for Punk besides his reputation being slandered by these Nimrods.

He still gets the same amount of money.

He's on contract.

And as we said, now he's the hottest guy on both sides of the roster.

He's going to get more reaction positively or negatively than anybody else on the card.

But again,

if I was Tony Khan,

I would run these fucking vice presidents over with a car

that they worked this hard and this long and right under my nose without me having the balls to do anything about it to poison people from spending money on or wanting to see or pay attention to the biggest star that Tony Khan has in his company because of jealousy.

And

I can't believe he doesn't take a stick to these motherfuckers.

Not just the EVPs.

No,

all of their

associated friends.

Well, beyond that.

Beyond that, Jericho, we heard about some of the things Jericho said.

I put Jericho in that friend and hanger on camp now because he, hello, fellow kids.

He wants to be with the fucking...

You know, the problem is now

the problem is now jericho wants to be with the young kids well the young kids 40 years ago were the ones in wrestling doing all the fucking drinking and drugs and partying and carousing and getting in trouble and kicked out of hotels all the shit that jericho's doing now when he's 60 and the kids that are 20 now

they're playing video games and diddling themselves in their hotel room because they don't want to get outed for actually going out and trying to get laid.

So that's some kind of goddamn time warp there with old Chris, isn't it?

Yeah, they want to go play video games.

And meanwhile, Dr.

Roxo is getting kicked out of the hotel.

Hey, Derek.

But anyway, so yeah.

And you were going to make a thought about it.

I can't believe Tony hadn't taken a stick to these people for costing him money.

I was just going to say, in terms of the slander of CM Punk, it wasn't just the Young Bucks and their friends.

Don't forget there were other people in the company who saw Punk as a threat for one reason or another.

Because the next match was the Owen Hart tournament match with Satoshi Kojima versus CM Punk.

And as we mentioned,

I think maybe they flipped a coin and said, okay, heads gets first, tails gets second.

We're going to Tony.

But you had again in Toronto, and this time with an actual big crowd, not like they had the other night with the TV taping they shoehorned in, but the original show they actually announced was 13 or 14,000 people.

And when they hear

Lak Mussolini,

they went out of their fucking minds in both directions.

And again, now

they've got

they've

ended up where their biggest star is now, again, the most popular and most unpopular guy in the company.

Because now he gets more heel reaction than MJF does because while everybody enjoys booing MJF because he is a fabulous heel,

the little buckaroo fans

really are booing punk because they hate him because he beat up their heroes.

And the people that love punk are trying to conversely

out yell and out cheer and out chant or whatever those assholes.

So,

and Toronto is where, but you couldn't hear the music practically.

And they could have had my vocals on Cult of Meat with Extra Cheese.

Nobody would have noticed it was so loud.

And let's be honest, it wasn't as much a mixed reaction as it was more anti-punk than pro-punk here.

Well, yes.

And also, because the booze are the loudest, but also they're in Toronto and one of the

One of the group that punk turned away with fucking,

you know, their hat in their hand and their dick in their hand was twinkle toes who's from canada and they loved him here and there's a lot of soft little buckaroos in toronto apparently

but it but that's the thing and then kojima

by process of elimination became the fucking baby face so punk because punk went with it because he was loving it

He's making a big fucking check regardless of what they do, and he's doing his shit and it's getting more reaction than anybody in the company again.

And so

in this one, Punk put

Kojima stuff over,

he leaned into being a heel and subtly switched to put himself in the heel position

without

kicking somebody in the balls or gouging eyes, but

selling a little bit more on an exchange or coming out at the worst end of the exchange specifically to keep the thing moving keep it entertaining and give people what they wanted fucking see

and

i mean for the most part punk was keeping it entertaining again

kojima's

and then he made the comeback and i get is he the one

that kingston got it from that does the ridiculous fake

fast chops in the corner that's so ridiculous and childish no i think he he got it probably, if I had to guess originally from Kenta Kabashi because he was doing it in the 90s.

But this guy does it too.

And this guy did it too.

And at one point, Punk finally just put his hand up and shoved him off and said, all right, that's a fucking nuff.

It's so ridiculous looking.

How can you be a grown man and want to do that?

And

I can't imagine a grown man would want to take it.

It's just.

This whole show, there were way too many chops, way too many people people standing there letting the other too many matches.

I mean, if you're going to do it one time on a show, which they do it so often, it's probably too much right now.

How many matches had that spot?

Well, this wasn't even the you hit me, I'll hit you spot.

We'll fucking eviscerate that later on.

This was that thing where it's so ridiculous where he's slapping the guy's chest with one hand and slapping his belly with the other hand and just Do it.

You're not even making contact.

And it just makes the guy that's having to stand there look like an idiot.

Phony fucking bullshit.

Anyway,

so Kojima goes up to the top rope and more or less fell off the top rope with an elbow drop right in punk's nuts.

And that's what they said.

Kojima is a 31-year veteran.

And I'm like, how the fuck old is this fucking guy now?

Do they have young wrestlers in Japan these days?

They do.

Takesha is a young wrestler from Japan.

He's not in Japan these days.

What are they doing on the new Japan cards?

Is it like goddamn chaos at the rest home?

Do they have a fucking hover round to get him to the ring and then a fucking stair master lift to get him up in the ring?

Well, it's a long process.

You have to be trained.

They have to teach you all the submission holes.

They have to really grueling techniques to stretch your neck and everything.

And then they send you to Sassoon.

And you get your hair done and you're ready.

How come all the young guys that were working for Anoki and Baba in the 80s didn't look crippled.

They looked like they were the baddest athletes on the planet and they didn't fucking sissy slap each other.

Anyway, Punk took back over and went to the top.

The crowd booed like crazy and he glorified in it and then hit a nice elbow off the top.

And then

he got the Anacon device, but old Kojima fought out and started with the Mongolian chops, which again, oh my God.

But Punk was selling them great with the fucking body language.

And then they did a false finish.

And then Punk went for the Lariat, or no, the other guy went for the Lariat or something, but Punk hit the kick and a go-to-sleep one, two, three.

And he did the best he could, just like MJF did.

He got all that they could get out of these guys.

You know, that,

I mean, you can't deny that people like the idea of seeing these people more than what they,

if they'd have just been honest about what they were seeing, it was a different fucking vision.

You may be right, but I actually thought this was a great match.

I really got into it.

I thought Punk, Punk's facials are the most underrated thing about his game because you believe everything he's going through in the match.

Yeah, he's reacting to everything.

It's great.

And that crowd reaction, I'm a major mark for crowds going nuts like that.

And

I don't know if that's going to go away.

And there's going to be different towns where it's different.

And it's going to create a unique energy.

You're going to want to see and hear every single week.

Punk played into it perfectly.

He knew what he was walking into.

Oh, yeah.

And he dealt with it perfectly.

And he delivered a fantastic match, I thought.

Well,

I really like this match.

I'm not as down on Kojima, especially this performance here, as you are.

I rated Punk's effort five stars.

Well, Kojima was the best of a bad situation, as Mama Cornette used to say.

Here, but again,

the goofy chops and just the other, and just

goddamn, they all do the same shit.

We're going to see, but this was the first time we saw some of it that night, but we're going to see more of it and more and more.

And I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of it.

I can't handle no more of it.

Old Anderson, if you move.

All right.

You know what it was time for now, don't you, old Brian?

Lack Mussolini on commentary.

CM Punk is on color commentary for the Owen Hart tournament match between Rowdy, Roddy, Strong, and Samoa Joe.

And did you notice Punk may not be that popular in Toronto or Hamilton or whatever, but the front row loved him.

Everybody that could get within range of touching him or getting his autograph, they love him.

It's just those cheap people up in the fucking stands that

they don't have enough money to be able to like CM Punk.

Anyway,

you know,

how can I say I didn't like Roderick Strong and Samoa Joe?

Because that was the reason why

that I was involved with and interested in the Ring of Honor style.

This is what,

and these guys, and of course now they're the previous generation, but they were the generation of guys that showed what modern pro wrestling could be.

They weren't fucking constantly breaking furniture.

Nobody was doing goddamn somersaults and flips.

They were in shape, believable guys, hitting each other hard in safe places, acting like it's a struggle.

Roddy's cardio is incredible.

He's in tremendous shape.

He wasn't blessed with size, but he's strong as a bull, and

he works the way that he should for his size and gimmick.

And Joe, the same way.

He's believable because he's a fucking beast.

And he can pull out a dive every now and then.

And it looks like a goddamn flying greyhound, but he will beat you and pummel you down.

And he's a...

got a mean countenance when he does it.

And

that is what I wished that

instead of this silly joke crowd,

the buckaroos and their ilk,

that the passion of these guys could have been looked kindly on by a gullible billionaire so that you could have modern-style athletic, competitive,

serious pro-wrestling.

that people could enjoy instead of a bunch of goddamn silliness from the fucking Ringling Brothers set.

Their chops and forearms landed.

They weren't standing there daring the other guy to take a free shot.

They were trying to avoid him, which is what you would do.

Aggression,

you know, Roddy sells and fights from underneath.

Well, Joe is a very formidable looking guy.

He moves his fucking weight around.

Punk was good on color.

He mentioned he has never beaten Samoa Joe, which is important to say.

And he's, he's named it, Brian, the fans of Collision were the colliders out there for all the colliders out in the audience.

Yeah, I don't know about that one.

But anyway, they went back and forth, Roddy and Joe, and

again, two really good workers doing what they do.

And finally, Roddy had built, he had tried to get some kind of backbreaker for a while and he couldn't pick Joe up.

But finally, he hit a backbreaker, but he sold his own knee.

And then he hit a kick and got a two count.

They go back and forth again, and Roddy gets an angle slam on the big son of a bitch for a two count.

But then boom, just seconds later, Joe maneuvers behind, gets the rear choke and takes Roddy down and he passed out and the referee stopped it.

There was no tap.

I don't mind a heel using a sleeper or a choke or a submission hold, but I hate it when the fucking baby face face taps.

Should always either referee stop it or pass out.

And again,

it was a good, solid match.

And I bet you this kept the audience like the last week's.

We don't have ratings yet.

It's holiday.

We may not have them for the drive-through.

I don't know.

But

you wouldn't, if you wanted to watch a wrestling program, you would not have changed the channel on this match.

You wanted to see what was going to happen.

And then afterwards,

Joe comes back in the ring and picks Roddy up and gives him a power slam on a chair in the ring, just one, just once.

And Punk rolls in and Joe leaves and they stayed with it.

And this is the most important part.

And there's a couple points to be made about this.

But you saw the EMTs putting the neck brace on Roddy and putting him on the backboard.

And I wrote, amazing, it's like a wrestling show.

And then they showed them wheeling Roddy out on the stretcher after a power slam on the chair.

This show is not embarrassing to watch.

This show,

honestly, right now, as I'm going to mention, in a vacuum, would make you care and want to next week.

Well, how is Roddy?

And God damn,

who's going to do something about this?

And is he still in the hospital or whatever the fuck?

But here's the problem, not only with the, I talked about the girls' ladder matches.

How can the fucking 250-pound guys get hurt taking a bump that the 120-pound girls get up from?

But this is how it's supposed to be done.

A guy was power slammed by a 300-pound fucking heel on a goddamn metal folding chair.

He should go to the hospital and get checked out.

We should have EMTs.

And there should be drama.

But the problem is

when these little hatchet-headed nitwit college dropouts wearing their floweredy fucking skinny jeans

come off the goddamn roof through three flaming tables and pop up to take a selfie with their opponent immediately afterwards

it kind of dulls the response of the fans to when somebody tries to do it right

which is why i've always said that all that shit

not only irresponsible for your health

and the longevity of your career, but also,

even if it's some wrestler, I don't give a fuck whether he lives, dies, turns blue, or drops dead, it's bad for the business because you're limiting what you can do to get a rise out of people and get a sympathy on somebody that's been injured when you've proven to them time after time that none of this shit can possibly hurt you, even when much of it does.

What do you think, Brian?

I thought it was a good match.

I think if you want to talk about sports-based wrestling, Samoa Joe and Roddy Strong are two of the guys that exemplify that.

Roddy Strong's not a big guy.

And next to Samoa Joe, Joe looked massive.

Yeah.

Like twice the size of him.

But he's an athlete and he works that style really well.

Really good match.

I'm not as bothered by the tap-out finish, although I think you have a great point.

The post-match.

Post-match was good.

It was serious.

It was a great way to go off the air, leaving you intrigued for next time.

I thought Punk's acting was a little better than Adam Cole's.

Maybe this is why I'm so accepting of buddy film Adam Cole right now with MJF, because I like it better than the dramatic Adam Cole.

I've seen too much of that recently.

You're okay, Roddy.

You're okay, Roddy.

You'll be all right, pal.

That was too much for me.

Beyond that, Punk was really good on commentary.

A friend like that.

I just got run over by a fucking locomotive.

You'll be all right, pal.

You're okay.

Beyond that, though, Punk rate on commentary, and they've done a good job of building up the anticipation for Punk versus Joe, and you have to think it's going to be more than a one-time thing.

That could be what this show needs.

Because right now, I think part of the problem, we don't know what the rating is.

There's some real good talent on the show.

There's only one star on the show.

And that's not to take anything away from MJF because I don't think he's going to be on the show every week.

Jericho was on the show last week.

He's not going to be on the show every week.

Hopefully.

It's all about CM Punk.

But you need another star, whether it's Samoa Joe, and obviously Samoa Joe's not at the level of star of CM Punk, but in terms of entering work and treating him like a credible star, you could do a lot with him.

But they probably do need some more star power.

Wednesday night needs the star power of CM Punk, and Saturday night needs more than just the star power of CM Punk.

I agree with you there.

And one more thing, we make the comment now.

Wonder what is in that belt bag that Punk has carrying around?

Because it seems to me odd that if it was the AEW World Title belt that he never lost, that he would have pulled it out and showed it by now.

What do you think?

It's the spinner belt, the old WWE spinner belt that he lost.

Maybe there's something going on, or maybe now that I've said that, that will plant a seed and there will be something going on.

Maybe a snake?

Maybe Jake gave him a bag with a snake in it.

Well, I don't know.

It's not moving.

So I don't think it's alive.

But it seems odd that he wouldn't pull it right out.

right?

And say, I never lost this.

Well, that's how Vince got in trouble by pulling it out and saying, I never lost this.

Maybe it's his laundry.

Maybe it's his laundry in the bag.

But no, Vince got in trouble just because he pulled it out and hit it several times, not because he ever lost it.

All righty, we get to the main event.

And this is the one that they sold the program on, obviously, Samoa Joe and CM Punk for the Owen Hart tournament semifinal.

And somebody told me on Twitter that I was not crazy.

That the initial bracket that I saw, I thought it looked like it would be Joe and Punk in the finals.

And it's not, but somebody said that the original bracket they saw was the same thing and somehow it was changed.

And I don't know whether that's true or not, but I would love clarification just so I know if I have a brain tumor.

But nevertheless,

this was the main event.

Joe comes out and then like a mussolini

in the wilds of Canada.

And, you know, they had to follow basically, I know Scorpio Sky was right there, but they had to follow the match, FTR and Gin and Juice, and nobody could follow that match, but it was a completely different kind of match between Joe and Punk

in that

they had the people.

The people wanted to see it.

It was over.

They were in no hurry.

They didn't open up 100 miles an hour and have nowhere to go for 20 minutes.

They did the stare down.

Then they did the feeling out because it had the big fight feel.

And the story they were telling earlier was Punk was evading Joe's chops, right?

He'd always duck it or get out of the way or whatever.

Then Joe did the deal where he walks off on the crossbody and Punk crashed.

And then

Joe started landing the chops and Punk would sell them big.

And then the jabs and Punk could fight from underneath because he's the smaller guy.

Joe's the big bully.

He's on top.

He's a good heel.

He taunts the fans.

He has the facial expression.

So we're having a wrestling match again.

Imagine that.

Two on the same show.

And then they took a break, but when they came back, Punk started fighting back.

Both of them were tired and selling.

Punk, his mouth was bleeding.

I don't believe he bladed his tongue, so I don't think he's got Moxley's disease, but

they were landing some shots.

And then Joe gets the sleeper, rear naked choke, whatever.

Punk gets a belly to back, boom.

Then they go back and forth.

And Punk, with a series of knees in the corner, to clothesline, the elbow off the top and gets a two count.

And then again, they go back and forth.

Punk goes for the GTS and Joe drops, gets the crossface.

Punk gets the ropes.

Joe hits that quick power slam, gets a two count.

And then because the precondition with Punk earlier at the top of the show, the people are chanting, oh, and heart, oh, and heart, which is great to hear.

And then finally, they have more back and forth.

Joe went for the sleeper.

Punk dropped out, reached his legs up, hooked Joe, rolled him up, one, two, three.

And so Punk advances.

And

both of them were still selling the result and then recovering.

And then they milked it and stared at each other.

And then Joe comes out and offers his hand.

And Punk looks at him and takes it and they shake and the people cheer.

And then Joe snatches him into the sleeper.

And did you see as soon as they went down, the bell started ringing to give it some sense of urgency.

And the referee was in there and Kevin Kelly sounds like Lance Russell.

Oh, come on.

And he snatched a sleeper out of a handshake and it sounded and looked like a dirty goddamn deal.

And Joe puts Punk out and then rolls out and gets a chair.

But before he can do damage, here comes FTR.

And then the last day of Starks comes out to survey what's going on.

And they had a good match, but this, that's why I was saying this is

it to me, this is build for an eventual bigger Punk and Joe match.

Because

now Punk and Starks is the final.

Well, that's right now the way it's presented to babyfaces.

But will Joe cost Punk the win of the cup out of

heat over this without Starks knowing so that Starks is still nominally a babyface?

And then could Starks get mad at Joe and say, Well, God damn, I want to fight you, Samoa Joe.

You tarnished my win.

And then Punk make it cost Joe a match with Ricky Starks.

Starks gets a win over Joe.

But it's because of

there's things you can do out of all of this to eventually want Punk and Joe to collide again in a bigger match on a bigger stage.

We'll see what happens.

Let's talk about, and by the way, great match, great commentary, great match.

I'm happy that we're going to hopefully see more from these two.

Ricky Starks, though.

So he comes out there at the end.

You're not really mentioning him.

And, you know, we're talking more about the future of Punk versus Joe.

What do you do with Starks?

He's now one of the babyfaces on that show.

If Powerhouse Hobbs turns, he's a babyface.

I don't know what Scorpio Sky is officially.

I guess maybe a heel.

But Ricky Starks versus Punk,

who would you have go over to win the tournament?

And secondly, any consideration you think should be put into Ricky Starks heel turn?

Have they ridden the wave of him as a babyface, especially if he's not going to be a top babyface as far as they can?

Possibly because

they keep ruining their own waves.

In a one-on-one match, fairly and squarely, Punk has to beat Starks.

In a one-on-one match, if Starks was to turn heel and fuck Punk,

I think it's early or misplaced for that.

In a one-on-one match, if Joe causes Punk to lose to Starks, whether Starks knows about it and turns heel or doesn't know and remains a babyface, that works for me.

That's the thing.

I think

if Punk wins this, there could be some backlash

from some segments that have already been preconditioned.

Well, now he has to come in and win the Owen Cup.

And Owen wouldn't have liked him.

Well, he would have, but Owen wouldn't have liked him.

Whatever.

And Punk doesn't need the Owen Cup.

But Punk

could certainly get a good program out of the guy that fucks him out of it.

But right now, Starks is, I know you want to elevate Starks, but

I don't think he's ready there unless it's a TV match thing.

But Punk would have to win.

Punk would have to win and it couldn't be a long program.

So I'm pretty sure with the heads involved in this Saturday night program, there's something that's probably going to make sense, but that we're not thinking about, or is going to be in some element of the parameters I just talked about that's going to happen rather than Punk just winning the thing and

being carried out of the ring on somebody's shoulders, possibly.

In terms of what he's been saying in the promos or anything, now we saw him injure Roderick Strong, even though Roddy's more part of the Adam Cole MJF canon.

And now, this with CM Punk seemingly leading to bigger things.

What is Samoa Joe's motivation?

Well,

again,

if everybody that has gotten to this point had had proper build from the start,

Joe always works best when he's presented as just the Samoan submission machine and the fucking badass that doesn't put up with bullshit and bullies people and uses his size.

And he could be a dominant heel

on a champion of some description and on any program.

So

hopefully he's going to stay in the top singles mix on collision.

I don't care what he does on Wednesday nights.

And, you know, again, with Punk as firmly as the top babyface and Joe

definitely at or near the top of the heel list on this program.

That's why I say

their paths are going to collide, no pun intended, again.

And Joe's motivation is just he's got a want

to win and to beat as many people as he can beat.

And

it would help if there was a good

babyface secondary champion in this company.

But there's MJF is the champion.

And everybody else in the company has a fucking belt.

And I know Joe's got the Ring of Honor TV title.

Ring of Honor doesn't have television.

So that tends to compromise that somewhat.

If I were operating this fucking vehicle, I would have Joe as the

second, not secondary, I hate to term it that way, but the United States champion or the intercontinental champion on this program exclusively.

That's what I'd do if I were me, because we still got to get back to punk and MJF, but that's going to take a while.

Yeah, and the other problem, like you said, is everyone has a belt.

Even people who aren't even wrestlers here show up with other belts.

So that diminishes everything.

It happened on this show with Willow Nightingale and Athena.

Oh, I forgot about that.

I was petting Harley's belt.

They're talking about Willow losing,

was it the IWGP women's title?

She just lost that in Japan to Julia.

So they're talking about this other title loss, which I don't know if it had been referenced before on the show.

And then Athena walks in with another belt

because she's not the AEW women's champion.

Was she Ring of Honor women's champion?

Again, there's just too many champions on these shows.

But overall, excellent program.

We have no ratings.

It's the weekend, but we will update that, I guess, on the drive-thru this week.

Anyway, let's go to the main event: the men's division Owen Hart final

that surprised us when it came down this way.

Ricky Starks and

Lak Mussolini in Calgary.

CM Punk

in Calgary Stampede Territory.

And boy howdy.

You know, I said, okay, I said the Stampede Territory was where they liked men,

not as pussy-ish as Ontario, right?

Maybe,

maybe it'll be all CM Punk.

But no, even there, the buckaroos have infiltrated.

So again, CM Punk was simultaneously the most over babyface and most over heel

in the goddamn company.

And now,

as I believe I predicted, we predicted, it didn't take Nostra dumbass to predict it.

The Boers are trying to drown out the Cheers, and the Cheers are trying to drown out the Booers.

And now it's just a goddamn duel.

And Punk is sitting there clearly loving the level of both reactions and fucking

milking it for all it's worth.

But have you ever seen anything like this?

Half the crowd would like to fucking shank him and the other half would like to carry him out of the building on their shoulders.

I love it.

I love that energy.

And it, not that this match wasn't good, but it covers up for

things and matches when the crowd is that into the personality.

Yes.

When the people or person

is this over, it's like cholesterol medicine.

It covers up a lot of sins.

You can eat more doughnuts.

Anyway, as soon as the bell rang, they got dueling chants on arm ringers

and a big chant on a headlock.

And they went,

And again, this is the wrestling show.

And finally, they went back and forth with headlock takeovers.

And then Starks scored with a shoulder tackle and got a big pop out of it.

Imagine that.

Nobody was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver, but the people are still enjoying it.

How in the world can this happen?

And then they had a break spot where Punk, you know, they reversed hip tosses and Punk hip tossed Starks over the top rope with the momentum and then held the ropes for him for him to get back in

and then

when they came back from the break starks was in control but he threw punk to the floor and starks hold the ropes for or held the ropes for punk and punk walked around to the other side little subtle because he's he's enjoying

here's the thing

If somebody didn't know what they were doing, as soon as they got a bunch of the audience booing them, they would start healing.

They'd be pulling the hair and kicking in the nuts or pulling out a fucking foreign object.

But that wouldn't make any sense because that's not who Punk is.

So he's doing little subtle things that control whether people, it magnifies the cheers or the boos, but he's not doing anything out of character.

He's not suddenly becoming someone he's not presented as just because one crowd is reacting in a certain way.

And it's, it's difficult to do that on the fly.

And he got heat from the crowd with doing brett moves, the fucking forearm drop off the turnbuckle and etc.

This is where I wrote Ian is trying too hard.

I think by the end of the show, he was just beside himself.

And anyway,

then they started getting some two counts.

You know, Starks missed the elbow.

Punk hit a clothesline.

They did a double crossbody and both went down.

When they had the slug fest in the middle, Starks won the exchange.

That's a little subtle thing.

And then Punk hit a pile driver and got a two count.

Wasn't that on the completely banned list?

I guess someone approved a lot of things this week.

I'm just thinking.

I'm just thinking maybe he's, hey, nobody tells Phil Brooks how to fucking wrestle.

Maybe.

Maybe.

We will find out.

Anyway.

So Punk calls for the go-to-sleep, but Ricky Starks hits the spear and Punk goes to the floor and Starks goes out and has to roll him in.

And he goes for another spear, but Punk hooks the front face lock on him on a roll-through.

Starks gets the ropes.

And then Punk hurricanes him off the ropes and they go back and forth with roll-ups.

And suddenly, Starks rolls him up and reaches up and grabs the middle rope.

One, two, three.

And beats CM Punk.

And that was fucking perfect.

And I know everybody's going to say, what the fuck?

You had all but called for the victory party.

Punk had to win this thing in a match with Starks.

And I would have said that, and I did say that,

because Starks is a babyface.

I could not see

Punk doing a job for Ricky Starks as a babyface unless, as we mentioned, Samoa Joe got involved or there was something else that happened.

But Starks cheated,

just holding the rope.

That's all it needed.

Because in a Battle of the Babyfaces, the babyface that won had to cheat.

And that saves punk, but it gives Starks the biggest win he's ever had.

Your thoughts?

I thought it was very interesting having Ricky Starks leave there as a heel.

Because not only did he cheat, I don't know if you saw any of the, I don't know if I'm going to call it an overrun, the beginning of...

Battle of the Belts.

I did not.

My DVR froze right at the fucking one, two, three, and

arm up.

They go, we're going to go to battle on the belts.

And they do this big intro.

And I'm like, oh, shit, did they tape this somewhere else?

And then they just go right back to Ian and Nigel sitting there.

But you see Punk in the ring and Starks leaving and he grabs the trophy from Liger, Juish and Liger.

Ah!

On the stage, he grabs the trophy in a very disrespectful way and just walks off smiling.

I mean, he's happy.

He's not like an angry guy.

Yeah.

But he doesn't have time for Juish and Liger.

He just held the ropes against CM Punk.

We've been saying they got to do something with Ricky Starks because, as over as he is and was, and he still is,

it may be time.

He never does anything.

It may be time to do something different with him.

And you need guys on this roster, on this Saturday show, to do different things.

And this is an interesting twist.

No one expected, maybe.

And we'll see what happens.

In the first segment, they had Tony Schiavone, who is the interviewer now, I guess, the live interviewer, but they took your advice from some time back.

I'm starting to regret that advice.

He's starting to slip.

Well, but at the same time, at least

it's better than hearing more of him.

They b-rolled the win that Starks had over punk last week, and he disrespected Jush and Liger.

And I wrote, it's almost like they're trying to explain what's going on, and it makes sense.

It's amazing.

So Tony asked Starks about all the controversy.

But meanwhile, the fans are chanting, you deserve it,

because they know that Starks cheated,

but still they wanted to see Starks get ahead.

And they're going to be starting to pick up on that he's switching heel

because he agreed with him.

Yeah, I do deserve it.

And he had a Louis Vuitton satchel there.

What's in my bag?

Nothing.

I just bought a new

Louis Vuitton bag.

A new Elaton?

A newie.

It's a Neuilly Laton.

It's an offshoot brand.

He got it at boxofawesome.com.

No, he did not.

They have real brands there.

Not Louis Vuitton or Nui Luton.

Well, Louis Vuitton's a real brand, but they don't have that available.

You know what?

When I was in TNA, the only time that I've...

What's that goddamn bag

that all of the rich people have and used to have in the wrestling business years ago?

with initials all over it?

The three initials, the goddamn fancy luggage with three initials.

Oh, goddamn, you know it's got this is a great story.

It's got the initials all over it.

I've forgotten the name of them now, but Jeremy Borash got me one of those.

They regularly are like $1,500 or whatever, but he knew somebody that had black market shit of this brand that somebody that worked at the factory went in at night and made their own shit out of the real materials and then sold them under the table.

So I got one of these $1,500 bags for like $100.

What kind of bag is it?

It's one of those bags with the initials all over it.

Whose initials?

I can't remember.

I'm trying to remember the name.

I thought you'd know having all this fancy shit in your own home.

And he plugged his Prada shoes, too.

I know, I've heard about the Prada shoes.

They named it after the goddamn

newspaper, the house organ of the Communist Party, Prada.

No, no, that's Pravda, not Prada.

All right, well, he plugged his new Evaton bag in his Pravda shoes.

And then he said anybody else would have done the same thing he did when by any means necessary.

And he started talking about how sexy he was.

And the fans are still cheering it, but

he's got some oomph as a heel.

And you can see they're going to go with this a little bit.

And he doesn't want to be a pillar and blah, blah, blah.

And as he was talking,

here came Punk with no music.

And his name had just not been mentioned five seconds beforehand.

He's just tired of this goddamn prick that cheated to beat him last week, running his dick liquor, and he's coming out to goddamn complain about it.

They got along.

They got along.

Remember, the first main event of collision was that eight-man tag match with FTR Punk and Ricky Starks.

Yes.

And then suddenly he gets shanked in the ribs.

And again, Punk comes out and it's Newark.

So you got the pros and the cons, a lot of cons in Newark.

And he gets a reaction.

It's the biggest positive and biggest negative reaction at the same time.

And they're trying to outdo themselves.

And Punk's playing with it.

He said, I'm not mad, except it myself.

I'm, you know, I'm proud of you.

I've cheated too.

So have the people of New Jersey.

And they boo him.

And then he knocked the New Jersey devils, not getting out of the first round.

But he finally says, because he's just being him.

He's not necessarily being a babyface or a heel.

He's CM Punk truth teller.

I can live with the loss.

Can you live with the win knowing that you can't beat me without cheating?

And then Punk turns around to leave and he's walking out.

And Stark says, my bag is as empty as yours.

And that gets him to turn back around.

He comes back and gets back in the ring.

And now they're chanting CM Punk, CM Punk.

Because he's and see, we're going somewhere,

obviously with the bag that Punk was carrying that allegedly contained the belt.

And now they're talking about he's the champion.

He never lost the title.

So Punk turns back and gets in Starks' face and says, you want a shot at what's in.

What's in the bag, Ricky?

Or are you like Max and you just don't want me to have it?

I'm the real world champion.

And he's starting to get into that.

Should he have had the bag with him if they're going to reference it?

He's brought it to the ring before.

He's had it with him in promos before.

Well, and I think he should when he comes on purpose on his time and it's scheduled.

But when he just had all he could stand and he doesn't, you know, he just came out to tell somebody off, I don't think he needs it.

Because

that's when it starts getting hokey that people who, you know, well, I know so-and-so's back there eating his third piece of cake at catering and he comes out five seconds later carrying the belt.

Is it glued to his hand?

You know, anyway,

um, depends on what's in catering.

True, but now that they got good catering now these days over in the WWF.

We know that much.

We're not talking WWF.

Well, I know, but I'm just saying it.

It just depends.

Cage and Dino come out, and they interrupt and say, this is taking too long.

We're required to be here, but we don't want to have to sit through all this.

And then Cage, who is holding the TNT belt that Dino Douche won, asks, what kind of guy carries a title that he didn't win?

And then, as that's happening, Cage is being a good heel, here comes Darby.

And he snatches Christian's microphone on the way to the ring and gets in the ring and talks to Starks too.

and calls Punk his good friend and puts his arm around him.

So

this is

it watching

Watching the talent that knows what the fuck is going on and are kind of with it, playing with the crowd reactions that the Buckaroos and their fans have foisted off on them does my heart good.

You know, beyond the split reaction to punk,

show-wide so far on Collision, it's pretty defined who the baby faces and who the heels are.

Yes, which makes punk the special one and puts more attention

on the reaction that he gets.

So they've helped, they've handed him something to help him out.

They didn't mean to,

but nevertheless, Darby

says he's going to become the new TNT champion at all out.

And he starts, he's cut a good promo.

Darby is coming out of his little

shell, his cocoon, his coffin, whatever he was fucking wrapped up in for all that time, when he's in front of people and he's got something to work with.

And he suggested a tag team match and got the fans to want the match.

And everything that has been said here amongst all these people fit

and made sense.

And it wasn't just like we've, we've got a match.

Let's send some guys to talk until we make it.

It made sense for it to be that way, right?

So then

Tony Khan, of course, had made it official by the time they stopped speaking, but

through Tony Schiavone, he had sent word.

But

basically, the main event doesn't have to be advertised every week.

If it's good and if it's set up logically,

it's also less expected that way.

And it's less expected than the way WWE usually does it.

And you can,

you know, you can tell you got to watch the show to see everything that's going to happen.

You don't know everything ahead of time.

And they're trying to put enough interest in the actual matches where you want to see the fucking thing rather than,

okay, when's it going to end so another promo can start?

I don't know what you think of this whole deal.

I thought it was an okay open.

Again, they didn't bill CM Punk as wrestling.

You know, even like FTR, they were, you know, I think in the announcements beforehand, it was just, we'll hear from FTR.

And from AEW history, you're taught that that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be there.

It could just be a video.

Remember, we'll hear from CM Punk on Rampage.

And it would just be like a 30-second video of him talking about a match on there.

I think they can cure that if they would put the word live in.

We'll hear live from FTR.

Yeah, I think so.

But, you know, on the other hand, we thought Punk would be there.

It's collision.

They're back in the States.

There was no punk match billed.

So yeah, the people booed Punk.

Some of them did.

A lot of them cheered him too.

But at the end of the day, everyone was happy you're actually going to get a match with him.

And to the point earlier, they didn't bill this big match.

But if you were watching or you were there live, you reacted to the idea that all of a sudden you got it.

And there needs to be a mixture on wrestling television.

It's not like a pay-per-view or a big event where you're trying to sell tickets to a house show or even a big premium live event where you just want people to watch it because it's for

this is this is an infomercial that you make interesting.

And now, obviously in the the modern day, you're getting paid for television, but you still can't make every week

the great, you know, Nick Gulis'

greatest card I've ever signed.

He said that every week for 40 years.

So, anyway, now it's time for our main event of the evening.

Ricky Starks and Christian Cage with Dino Douche in the corner against Darby Allen and CM Punk.

And if there was any doubt about who the big star is, the first three of them, talented though they are, they enter and then suddenly, Lakamusolini!

Who's going to help Darby?

He's coming down to help his pal Darby Allen.

You know, Darby Allen's music ought to be that old folk song, Barbara Allen, but changed to Darby Allen.

And Punk helped his pal, Darby Allen.

Not too many wrestlers have come to the ring to folk music.

Well, see, it's a trend that could be growing.

With Darby Allen?

Of all the people to be the spokesman for the folk movement in wrestling, it's Darby Allen?

Well, all of his goth and friends and all the other friends, they sit around and drink coffee and fucking bemoan their misery, don't they?

Like Daniel Bryan or Brian Danielson, excuse me, seems more like the you know coming to the ring to Tom Dooley or something than Darby Allen.

The Kingston trio?

That's right.

Very good.

There you go.

Well, Punk was having extra fun with its clobbering time because he got the fucking, again, the big reaction.

And there's a CM Punk chant and there's a ton of people trying to boo over it.

They rang the bell with 27 minutes left in the show.

So they were settling in for to build a, again, another great main event with four top names in the company.

And everybody is clearly defined here.

Everybody is being true to their own selves.

I'm not going to say their characters.

I'm going going to say themselves.

Christian Cage and Starks argue about who's going to start.

Neither one of them wants to, wants the other one to against Punk.

And finally, Starks gets in and takes one bump and runs over and tags Christian.

And then Punk jerks Christian in over the top rope.

This is wrestling.

We're having a fucking wrestling match.

Imagine that.

And Punk worked Christian over a little bit and tagged Darby.

And then the babyfaces, Punk and Darby, started tagging in and out.

Christian

is, well, he's got to be, he's Edge's age.

He's close to 50.

He's been injured.

He's not going to be out there doing all this bullshit.

He's one of the best workers on a fucking card and he cuts a hell of a promo and he's a heel and he knows what to do.

So the babyfaces are getting a hell of a reaction from these people

while they're.

They've got Christian in an arm ringer.

And Punk will tag Darby and the people will cheer and Darby will crank the arm and then tag Punk and the people boo because they're booing that he tagged Punk.

But then Punk will grab the arm and wind it up and then tag Darby and they'll cheer.

And meanwhile, Christian is standing there getting his arm twisted.

This is wrestling, folks.

And then Christian and Darby do some fucking wrestling.

And then Christian goes to tag and Starks doesn't want to.

But then when Christian takes over, Starks tags in right away.

I wrote: Professionals are calling this.

And then Punk does a dive because the only dives we've had in this two hours was the goddamn fiery young babyfaces that are full of piss and vinegar and do that kind of thing.

Punk dives on both of them and then holds them for Darby to climb up and do a coffin drop.

And there's their break spot and the crowd's up.

And then they come back and and Punk is selling, and Christian's got heat going on him.

And then Starks gets in, and they do the dueling chants: Let's go, Ricky, see him, Punk.

Let's go, Ricky, see him, Punk.

And Punk's selling, and then hits a neck breaker.

And he gets the hot, well, he gets a tag to Darby.

Nobody tried to stop him.

So it wasn't really a hot tag, but the people still popped.

Darby makes comeback, dives on Starks, dives on Dino, and bounces off.

The dinosaur never moves.

That's the way to use the fucking lizard.

The big,

impressive-looking, mute force standing outside on the floor that can occasionally make an interest or make a difference, rather.

And then they get some heat on Darby.

They go through another break.

And they come back, and that's Darby's spot.

He's selling and fighting from the bottom.

And that's where he excels.

And then Christian misses a splash off the top

so that

Darby's going to try to tag Punk, but Starks pulls Punk to the floor and Punk chases him.

So he's not in the corner when Darby gets there to make the tag.

But finally, Darby fights out against both of them and hits an actual hot tag.

And big pop and big comeback.

And after Punk gives him a couple of bumps, he does a Bam Bam Bigelow cartwheel and a salute to the camera.

And again, they're pro and con.

They're fucking, they're screaming.

Back and forth, punk elbow off top rope.

Crowd is ballistic.

Starks gets back in, goes back and forth with Punk.

Darby gets back in, and somehow Starks hits his finish, gets a two count.

Then Darby somehow, while they were up on the top rope, hit a reverse DDT off the top rope.

That was a little bit of tightrope act for me, me, but I know the kids like it.

And then Punk goes for the GTS on Christian.

Christian shit cans him to the floor, but

goes out after him, and Punk hits it on the floor.

And in the ring,

Darby's going to the top, but Dino crotches him behind the referee's back.

Starks goes for his finish.

Darby jackknifes him, but Starks rolls through and grabs the ropes again.

One, two, three.

Two weeks in a row.

Starks wins by cheating.

Perfect finish.

Love the tag match.

Wasn't as good as last week, but certainly not as bad as

pretty much every match on Wednesday night.

Your thoughts, Brian.

Yeah, good match.

Really good main event match for the show.

Fans were into it.

And most importantly, it sets up more stuff with Ricky Starks and Punk.

And also, it aligns Starks for this match with the clear heels.

Everything makes sense.

And that's, again, that's the thing about this show on Saturday night.

You don't have to dread,

oh, God, what am I going to have to skip through?

What am I going to have to put up with?

How am I going to figure out what's going on?

It's a wrestling show.

It makes sense from start to finish.

Nobody's doing stupid, silly, obviously fake shit, forced comedy.

Not everybody is allowed to be on the floor.

Not everybody's allowed to fucking dive off the roof.

Nobody is burying the referees needlessly.

And

they're trying to impart

a significant amount of time to main event matches that the people are going to want to watch for ratings, but still give some of the program over to

matches that nobody's going to watch just because they're a dream match, but because the talent that they want to feature in the future needs matches to get over people first.

Because that's the key to fucking wrestling that Tony Kahn's been watching it for 30 years and has never figured out yet.

You can't make dream matches until the talent is over and you don't get your talent over

until they beat a bunch of people that the fans see them doing.

If you...

Like Tony signs these names that he knows and thinks are great and they're just swell and assumes that the rest of the goddamn entire audience across the length and breadth of this great United States of America knows every time

that fucking

Hanumashimu Watama Fafi

has goddamn won the Grand Pri title.

And so

people come into the company and they've been doing this since the start and we've been talking about it since the start.

People come into the company, and immediately they're put in main events when nobody knows who the fuck they are except the most hardcore faithful.

And usually, they get beat their first several times you see them.

So, the people that had never seen them before don't give a shit about them, don't take them seriously.

And then, after they've been around for a couple of years, they start getting matches against jobbers to win.

They're not making that mistake on the program on Saturday night.

So, they're allowing some matches to go on just to get guys good, solid wins, others to attract the viewers, and keeping a standard of logic of we're not going to all use furniture, we're not going to all fucking fight on the floor, we're not going to all bury the referee, and we're not going to all be a bunch of fucking gymnasts.

So you can watch this program, and it doesn't get old nearly as quickly as every one of the others.

That's my opinion.

And that was AEW Collision, and we'll see what happens next week.

Big tag team match.

A lot to look forward to.

And then finally, 50 minutes into the show, Tony Schiavone was in the ring,

like Mussolini,

about goddamn time.

Here came Punk to the ring, carrying his bag in his hand.

And he got the punk chance.

Connecticut likes stars.

California likes kids.

But there were booers also.

He played with some of them

he stopped Tony from

asking his questions so that they could hear the the booze settle in

and

you know he made a remark and I realized he was the first goddamn human being on their television to mention Wimbley Stadium wasn't he we've been following this on the internet

I hadn't realized that.

And until he said it, I'd never realized that no one had brought it up because we've been talking about it.

But it's an interesting thing, isn't it?

And it's been on the internet and it's been reported on Twitter and on all the wrestling sites.

And we've talked about it because they've talked about it, but they've never actually have they even had the announcers on the show say, hey, by the way, we're running a show and we've sold 70,000 tickets.

Isn't this Vince's biggest dream to sell all these tickets without announcing any matches?

Yes.

And it'll never happen again, probably in

history ever going forward for any wrestling promotion that that you would sell this many tickets for a show this far out they don't even know what they're going to fucking see yet yeah no no wrestler could say they're a drawing card here

unless they do wrestlemania

uh and do it in in such a building where they can sell more tickets i don't you know i don't see how it's ever going to fucking happen again but nevertheless wembley stadium two nights that's how it'll happen oh there you go

and Jesus Christ.

And then it'll be five hours a night.

All right.

Well, speaking of which, let's get back over here to Mussolini.

In the afternoon, but yeah, go ahead.

Well, that's better at least.

So he mentioned Wimbley and then started talking about Ricky Starks and how he's cheating,

cheating.

He's how he's cheated or beaten one or the other, beaten Punk twice by cheating, cheating.

And Punk said, sometimes you got to wake up and do what you don't want to do because you're the responsible adult in the room.

And so he's brought the bag out.

And what's in the bag?

I'm not no more Mr.

Nice Guy.

Pulls out the AEW belt and declares himself.

And we knew this was coming.

And it's obviously the natural thing to do.

He declares himself the real AEW world champion.

I beat Jon Moxley for this, and nobody has pinned me or submitted me since then.

I'm the real champion.

This is mine.

And he sprayed the black X on the belt as the symbol that he's straight edge, and that means he's better than you.

I wonder who else says stuff like that.

So that's minor threat.

Oh, go ahead.

Yeah, well, I'm just saying that's obviously what they're leading to because that's what everybody wants to see eventually, but it's subtle and it'll take a while.

But he's the real world champion.

What were you going to say?

Nothing.

Did you notice that he put the X over the E,

which is elite, so it's now all X pressing.

Anyway, here comes Riggy Starks, who, and it was cute.

He came out on his own, but then he stopped and called for his entrance music so he'd get his full entrance like a heel would do.

Or maybe even a coggy baby face.

And then Starks comes to the ring and says that Punk would have done the same thing that he did.

He would have cheated.

He would have won the thing by any means necessary, whatever.

And he thinks Starks does that the belt ought to be his because he beat Punk twice.

So he's the real world champion.

And they argued back and forth and agreed finally they're going to settle this thing.

And Punk said, We got to have a special referee

to make sure I don't get jobbed again, you know, by the referee missing some shit if I'm going to defend the title against you.

and Stark says okay, and then they shake hands on it.

And next week in Greenville, South Carolina, the special guest referee is going to be Ricky the Dragon steamboat.

I'm waiting for you to cheer.

Yay!

I'm supposed to cheer?

All right, dragon, no bonnie, yay.

My bonnie lies over the ocean.

My body lies over the sea.

I can keep going.

My bonny lies over the lawyer.

Bring back half my money to me.

So

it's Greenville, South Carolina.

Steamboat's going to be over like crazy, and he's in shape, and he'll

move around and do a good job.

And I'm pretty sure Punk is going to retain this thing.

And so at least

we got a little special attraction there next week.

And that was the promo segment that you mentioned or that you asked me if I liked.

And I said, yeah, there was one.

And that was it.

I thought it was great.

You wait for stuff like this.

You wait for that kind of energy.

Punk gets this weird energy now in every room he's in.

Sometimes there are more punk fans.

Sometimes there are more punk booers.

It's always energetic.

He excels in this kind of environment for a promo better than most people.

And it feels more real, more like genuine anger or frustration coming from someone.

The belt thing, we'll see how it plays out.

If it leads to an eventual merger of the world championship, which you think, you would think that's where they were going, it makes sense.

If not, it's the new FTW championship, so we have to be careful there.

I don't think he's going to bring out the new FD, FTW, or

FDW or FDR.

Yes.

I don't think he's going to bring that one out.

He wouldn't bring it out unless it was going to be central to the ongoing situation.

Beyond all that, I thought the story was Ricky Starks did great as a heel, even though, you know, it's a mixed audience.

I thought he was more heel than anything else.

Going back and forth with punk, it worked, and he worked stand-in-era with them.

And that's one of those things you look for.

How do they, how did they, how does it look and how does it feel when they're standing there doing a promo back and forth?

And I thought it was great.

Yeah.

So we got that.

But it's time for our main event because that's the thing.

Collision, it's a wrestling-flavored program.

They'll get you at the start with something pretty good.

They will sprinkle a few things in in the middle, and you know they're going to produce by the time the show is over with the main event.

And it was nice to see Jim Ross back on television.

He's had problems.

Apparently,

now we find out the fall where he bashed his face in was due to severe sciatica where his legs gave way

because

I'm pretty sure that that's what was going on.

You remember two years ago, Brian, when I couldn't walk for two weeks from bending over.

Yeah.

That was a flare-up of an injury that I had from my sciatic nerve.

And I don't know if I would have even, even though it was very painful and

awkward, I don't know if that would even be severe sciatica if a doctor diagnosed it.

So severe, he's been miserable.

I guarantee you.

So he's had a bad back,

possible infection on his radiation wound from his skin cancer and fell and gave himself a concussion.

So he's been off for a few weeks.

But that's what they should do.

Bring him back

and put him with a professional announced team that doesn't involve sock face sucking all the oxygen out of the room and let him do the main event.

And that I thought was

very well done.

And

Ricky steamed both the special referee

on the floor, as we found out.

His hair is gray, but he still looks great.

What Ricky is 70 now or got to be, right?

Has to be.

So he looks good.

But as we mentioned, or as I just mentioned,

he's the referee on the floor and they had a regular referee in the ring.

And I don't know that the regular referee in the ring did anything that Ricky couldn't have done, to be honest with you.

But it was a long match.

So, but I

probably find out Steamboat's got better cardio than everybody involved.

Anyway,

here comes Starks

and gets lots of cheers and you know, accolades, and then like a Mussolini in South Carolini.

Here comes Punk, and he again has a ball milking the various reactions.

And

he actually,

he can play with him because at one point in this match, a couple of subtle things he was doing

was making Starks the babyface and getting the people to boo him even more than the ones that were.

But by the end of the thing,

Starks ends up being the heel and they're cheering Punk for helping Steamboat.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

JR made the point that I think they need to start making on all the programs, not just Saturday night,

that Punk is the real world champion because nobody has beaten him.

And on Wednesday night, since MJF is so popular now and the...

Buckaroo fans are more inclined to watch that program, that'll just get him more heat with those people.

They did the big dueling chance, and that's this match.

Their main events on Collision have an atmosphere.

People want to see it.

They want, they're not just wanting to see, we want tables, you know, we want filing cabinets, we want a credenza.

They want someone in the match to do something positive, right?

There's a difference in just watching a fucking display and being

in support of somebody.

So I don't think we need to go play by play through the match because it was a long one too.

They put in time on these main events, which

helps that the other matches on the program are not inordinately, burdensomely long.

But it made sense.

They wrestled.

And the way that the match was constructed, they wrestled at first, then the tempers flared and they traded slaps with each each other.

But even like when Starks would do the steamboat arm drags and Punk would take them and then he slid out afterwards.

That was a subtlety to get the people behind Starks.

Punk slid out.

It's just little things.

And,

you know, they went back and forth through a couple of different breaks.

And they had a heck of a match, except at one point,

was it,

it's Starks usually gets a little excited in some of these big match situations, isn't it?

Has he done this before?

Has he done what before?

Well, I mean, get a little excited and blank out, lose track.

I don't remember that happening.

Quick or whatever.

I think there's been a time or two, but nevertheless,

boom, boom, boom.

Punk goes up to the top rope and is there for a second

and is there.

And Starks is down, right, selling.

But he's up there, and then you see his lips move.

He's telling Starks something, right?

And then he says it again.

And at that point, Starks gets up and starts coming in for a crossbody off the top rope.

Apparently, it was supposed to be Starks was going to stagger up.

Punk was going to crossbody him.

Starks was going to roll through and hook the leg, one, two, whatever.

False finish, right?

But Punk's up there.

And he said something.

He said it again.

As Sully Starks bolts to his feet, and Punk comes off with the crossbody.

And Starks was already close.

And Punk didn't look like he was trying to get any height.

He looked like he was just trying to come off and come down on him.

But Starks took another little stutter step in and then raised his arms when he realized that Punk was going to go over the top of his head.

So Punk went over the top of Starks' head, but Starks caught him with his right arm and it took them fucking both down.

And so Starks still rolled through but when he rolled over he came up knees first on punk's face apparently it looked like two count

so besides that

which was unfortunate they really had all this going

and

boom boom boom i think at one point did you see where

Ricky was doing the rope walk and Punk jerked him off the top rope across his shoulders into the GTS position, but Starks dropped behind.

He should have put more,

and I'm being this minute now because these guys are worth critiquing.

It's not like it's just a complete fucking mess and there's no hope.

He should have put more oomph in shoving Punk off into the post because Punk went and took a great post,

but Starks just gave him a little shove and then ran to the opposite corner so he could get in position for the next charge.

But Punk was selling the post and he didn't need to be there that quick.

So he should really put his follow-through a little bit

better.

Anyway,

boom, boom, boom.

I mean, they went back and forth.

Everything worked.

Everything looked good.

And then finally,

Starks hits an Alabama slam, gets a two count.

And as they're coming up, They bump the in-ring referee.

And Starks top spreads punk and puts his feet on the ropes, but Steamboat on the floor knocks the feet off the ropes.

So Starks turns around, like,

what the fuck are you doing?

And at that point, Punk schoolboys him, and Steamboat rolls in and counts one, two, three.

And that was a great, the finish was fine because that's a special referee and you're making use of him.

I still can't figure out why Ricky couldn't have been in the ring up until then.

I think it would have flowed a little better.

But maybe he's got some kind of insurance requirements or whatever for his

hospitalization or whatever he had.

Maybe he's got a policy with fucking

Lloyds of London.

What did you think of this match?

I thought it was all right.

I really can't add too much to what you say.

It got sloppy at a couple different points, but I thought it was all right.

As far as Steamboat, Obviously, they did the referee bump that got him involved in the ring.

It was either they wanted to do that spot really, really badly, or there's a reason Steamboat wasn't going to work the whole match.

I mean, he looks like he's in great shape.

I think he may have had some,

if not heart issues, he's had issues in the past with something.

No, he was doing something with the WWE and had

some kind of either concussion or brain thing or whatever.

And that's why they, you know, he hasn't worked.

But what I'm saying is I think he should have been in there.

Even when they bumped the referee, if Ricky could have rolled in then to take over

and Starks does the top spread with the feet, he could have done it from inside the ring.

It, it took a second.

I think the pop would have come a little louder and a little quicker if as soon as the schoolboy happened, if Ricky had been there instead of having to roll in.

But anyway.

The point is, now we got to do some business.

So as Steamboat hands Punk the belt and Punk holds his arm up and hugs him, Starks comes from behind and blisters Steamboat

and Steamboat knocks Punk off the ring.

It was a nice little bing-bing.

So that,

and at the same time, Ricky didn't have to take a bump.

He just went into Punk.

Punk took the bump and Ricky crumpled.

And then Starks got on Steamboat and

The punches were weak, but I understand.

I'm not taking off any points for that.

But he got Ricky's belt off and started whipping him with it.

And that's what they wanted because Steamboat got to do the Ricky Steamboat selling with the body language cringing and the facials.

He's not taking a bump, but he's doing the selling of the pain, which he was noted for.

And that was brilliant.

You see, it was like when Buster Keaton would be in a...

1950s TV show and you'd get a chance to see a master at work from 30 years previously.

And then Punk comes in with a chair and runs Starks off.

And

great deal because nothing's settled.

You know, Starks cheated, but Punk took advantage of a situation.

Nobody's been beat flat.

Starks was the heel when he left because he was beating up Ricky Steamboat in South Carolina.

And then

the people were chanting CM Punk, CM Punk.

So

they can change course in midstream in midstream.

The punches look like shit.

Yes, but it's Steamboat and he had a brain hemorrhage or whatever.

Hey, listen, he's so good at selling Starks at Heat with me by the end of it.

Yeah, but I think actually he probably should have just not done punches.

And so a couple of stomps would have been sufficient.

The fact that they did this to Steamboat.

I mean, Steamboat has to appear on TV again.

This isn't a one-off thing, you would think, right?

Well, I don't know, to be honest, because

i mean it it it served a purpose in that

punk gets a win back over starks but settles nothing and it didn't diminish starks they were in the carolinas steamboat works there for the live audience i don't know if you want to bring him back and program him

you know unless there's a i mean another interview appearance or something else where, you know, Starks might get involved with him or whatever, but I don't think it's going to be an ongoing situation.

I don't think it's called for again, but if they have an idea in mind, you know, I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I don't think it's going to go on long term.

All right.

Well, that was collision.

Are you ready for the main event?

Yeah.

Well, Jim Ross joined again, so apparently that's going to be the recurring thing every week.

And that's the perfect way to do do it.

Bring JR out and let him do the main event with the stars you want people to pay attention to and notice.

And you get

his credibility and his name value there without sticking him out there for two hours where he's wore out and or bored to tears by the time the thing's over with.

And then we did the House of Black entrance and the FTR entrance.

And then

like Mussolini.

with barbecue, because you know they're in North Carolina, right?

That honey gold barbecue in North Carolina

and punk is able to come out a trailboff

well

it's good it's good stuff you ever had the Carolina honey gold you were doing it in tune you were trying to carry a tune and all of a sudden you just left it

well I was tired of carrying it all right

it needs to do its own work I can't carry everybody.

I'm already lugging you around.

Hey.

Punk is able to milk the cheers and the booze at the same time by doing the same thing, and it gets a completely opposite response from whoever the intended target is.

I'm loving that.

But for the six-man tag team title, otherwise known to the children as the Trios Championship, it was CMFTR against

the former House of Black.

Because now that they're not teleporting,

and

committing all of the spookiness of the mind games where they used to stop the match down to sit down and talk to everybody or whatever.

They're wrestling.

They look like three big hairy, greasy, tattooed up fucking guys that's in a wrestling team.

I can buy that.

I think calling them CMFTR is so stupid.

I hate that they do that.

Well, they got to do all of the combined.

Why?

CM Punk and FTR is too long?

Jungle hook.

You remember that?

Yeah, every team does a stupid combination.

In this sense, it makes no sense because it's just initials.

CMFTR.

It's so dumb.

See you next Tuesday.

Yeah.

We talked about him earlier in the podcast one segment.

Yes, we did.

I will say, though, that Brody King still looks like Kamala if his gimmick had been an African panda bear instead of an African savage.

What the?

Why?

I don't.

He looks big and broad and tattooed up and everything, but then he's the panda face.

I'm not sure.

Odd choice of the decoration.

But he's working like a big man now.

And Dax and the other guys, they would have to outmaneuver him and double team him to take over.

And the announcers were putting over his size and power.

At least they're making something legitimate out of some of these guys instead of Sockface screaming about how many times they've been to the Tokyo airport.

17 times.

17.

But anyway, they went the first segment.

They did some nice wrestling, some spots.

They put the big guy over.

Then finally, they milked Malachi Black and Punk, having a face-off and doing a back and forth and going to a stalemate.

And then both of them sat down in the middle of the rig and stared at each other for a second.

But that Punk is known for this cross-legged pipe bomb.

And I guess Malachi Black sits a lot.

So that got a pop, and then all six squared off and got the big six way to go to the break.

And

when they came back now, they had a half an hour when this match started, when the entrances commenced.

And in

the WWE, you're attuned to realize that that means, especially on RAW,

if the main event entrances start a half an hour before the end of the program, chances are the main event will be 10 minutes.

But in this case, they're starting to establish with collision, and it's been working.

They either keep their audience or increase their audience, that the main event's going to be the long match that's good with the top guys in it, that doesn't insult your intelligence.

And,

you know, everybody's trying to be serious.

And that's what they did again here.

They broke it up into like the final three segments.

And they would get like when they came back from the first break, they got heat on Dax.

And then Dax gave the hot tag to Punk and he made a big comeback.

And he had leveled Buddy.

But when he went to the top rope, Julia came up on the apron almost too quickly.

You don't need to be that fucking fast, Julia.

You can wait because you're only going to hop up on the apron.

He's got to climb to the top rope.

So wait till his fucking right foot's on the second buckle before you feel like you need to hop up.

And when she did that and drew the referee, Malachi crotched Punk on the top rope and they started heat on him.

We went to the break again with Punk in Jeopardy.

And when we came back then,

that's when Punk is selling big for the House of Black.

And again, a main event wrestling match with stars, with time on the air, serious, no furniture, no flips, no gymnastics.

Trying to do business here.

And out of nowhere, Punk hits the go-to-sleep on Buddy, but Buddy rolls to the floor, so Punk can't capitalize.

But he does.

hit the tag to cash, and that's where the heels really let him down.

Because if Buddy'd rolled out to the floor,

one of the other heels went down to help Buddy.

And Malachi, I believe, was just standing there in the corner.

And they watched Punk tag Cash.

No heel ever tried to stop him.

Without you trying to impede the babyface's forward progress in any visual way,

the pop that babyface is going to get from the tag is only going to be so far, depending on how big the star is that gets tagged anyway.

Cash made a big comeback and hit the Buzz Buzz Sawyer power slam again.

And then

I swear to the only one dive, but Cash hit a dive.

I think there's another one coming up later, but Cash hit a dive.

I think it's the first one we've seen in the program.

But then he hit that Bulldog off the top on Brody King for a two count.

And that wasn't bad because it wasn't the Steiner shoulder Bulldog thing.

And then, boom,

they did the superplex, double superplex on Brody King, and Punk came off the top with an elbow for a two count.

That got a big pop.

Then all three of them hit the shatter machine on the big guy, and then everybody in turn hit a big move on everybody else, and they all sold.

And then this was perfect because now they've done everything they can do.

They've got him up as far as they can.

Punk did the dive then on Malachi Black and bounced off of him, and he's come to rest at the barricade in front of the fans.

Dax hit a diving headbutt on Brody King, got a two-count.

But right then, and the camera missed it the first time, or not the first time, the camera missed it at first when it happened live.

But that may have been the plan because it was better.

Because as Punk was leaning against the rail, Samoa Joe came from behind suddenly and grabbed him from the back in a rear naked choke and drew him over the barricade rail and choked him out.

And they went to that shot as Joe was already on him.

But then they went back to the ring because at that point, Brody had larioted or hit with a lariat Cash and got the one, two, three.

And then they go back to the shot of Joe, leaving Punk laying there.

And you got the point.

The House of Black retained the belts.

Joe screwed Punk over.

and his team over by doing that and is trying to force him to fight.

And Cash got beat because the odds were suddenly against them with the removal of a member of their team.

So nobody looked bad, and everything made sense.

So, again, we had a nice,

it wasn't as great as Jen and Juice for an hour, but we had a nice wrestling match with top talent

for the main event of the program.

Instead of Hikaru Shida against

Julia or whoever.

Anna Jay.

Don't put down Anna Jay.

Anna Julia.

Anna Jay.

Genitalia.

They wish they had Julia.

Julia is actually good.

I thought you were going to say they wish they had Genitalia.

I will say that I thought this was another great main event.

I mean, look, no surprise.

FTR right now are having a year.

I would actually argue,

look, the Briscoe matches were great, but they were different.

I think they're actually having a better year this year in a lot of ways than they did last year.

They just look so good in the ring right now.

Well, and also because they're getting a chance to do it this year on a program that has some level of production, whereas they were exiled last year to the Briscoes, to the Ring of Honor shows, and

small building, small crowd, and blah production.

Whereas with Gin and Juice, you could see.

That looked every bit as good as anything the WWE does from a production standpoint, but the wrestling was better.

And them and CM Punk together, you know, I'm kind of sick of these six-man matches, but with them, at least, they give them enough time, and there's enough weird energy in the room.

And they've had good opponents for these matches that they work out well.

This is the best house of black trios match I've seen yet.

I thought Buddy looked really good.

Malachi Black looks really skinny to me.

Tell me what you think.

He's lost some weight from the time he first came in, hasn't he?

It stood out to me, and it's the first time I thought it, so I'm saying it to you after the first time I thought it after seeing it, but he seemed rather skinny to me.

But it was the best match I've seen them in.

Go somewhere with the Joe punk thing.

Joe's gotten a few squash match wins.

Well, we're headed to Wembley.

You can see that coming a mile away.

You can see Wembley coming a mile away or that match coming a mile away?

Well, if Wembley's coming at you from a mile away, then you better watch out because there was a big explosion.

But you can see that match for Wembley.

That's, you know, I think that's going to be done.

A lot of the story for Collision came from what happened after collision.

And then I guess in the last couple of days, stories have come out about other things related to it.

But as you said recently on the show, it's typical in AEW and WWE at the end of the show, the biggest stars in the room or the biggest people in the last match, get on the mic and talk to the room a little bit.

And thank everybody and tell them how much they mean to them and all that stuff.

And every this is a new

phenomenon recent with modern wrestling.

They used to do it in Ring of Honor.

They want to be fan-friendly, right?

But

in this case, Punk and FTR did an aftermatch promo.

And

I would say FTR was friendly to everybody in North Carolina because they're from North Carolina.

At least Dax is.

I don't know about Cash originally,

but Punk wasn't friendly to everybody because

apparently somebody had a a hangman page sign and or was,

you know, shouting out the praises of hangman page and it caught punk's eye and ear and he responded i don't know do we have audio or do we have quotes i could find some audio various people filmed that the quality is uh different everywhere let me get this point but but basically the while you're doing that but the

The gist of the thing was that he understood now, the guy had the page sign or whatever, Hangman sign.

He said, I understand now why Hangman is called Hangman because that's what his action figures do in the toy store is hang on that peg unpurchased,

which I thought was kind of hilarious because then somebody on Twitter this morning sent out a picture of a toy selection in one of the major retail stores.

I think everybody can figure who I'm talking about.

And

all the figures that are hanging there are all hangman Adam Page.

Everything else is gone.

It's all Paige.

I'm like, what the fuck?

Do you have any exact verbiage there now?

Well, Jim, every example of the audio here kind of sucks.

I would need more time, but I have the quote here.

I have the actual direct quote according to.

What was said?

What was said?

Carolina is hangman country, referencing a sign in the crowd.

Earlier today, I went to a local supermarket and I figured out why they call him Hangman.

It's because the pegs in the toy aisle are full of hangman action figures because nobody wants to buy them.

He's a peg warmer, unlike me, who moves merchandise, pops ratings, and sells toys.

A peg warmer.

And again, all the people who like him go, yeah, you do.

And all the people who don't like him go, boo, fuck you.

And he likes both.

But like you said, that we saw that picture this morning of some Target or Walmart or whatever it was and just non-stop Adam Page figures.

Everything's not everywhere.

Yeah.

There's crumbs everywhere else and his aisle is completely stocked.

Well, Jim, coming out of this story, it came out, it was reported by Dave Meltzer and others, that Adam Page was turned away from the building, that he showed up to shoot promos backstage and was told that he would have to do it elsewhere.

And then it came out that other names that have been either this past week or previously asked to leave collision or not invited to collision include Christopher Daniels, who I think is head of talent relations, Matt Hardy, Hardy,

and Ryan Nemeth, a name that surprised some people, all, of course, have,

whatever you want to say, friendships with the Young Bucks and may be considered by some people who were not friends with the Young Bucks to be stooges for the Young Bucks.

Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Super Kick Party?

And this is.

I won't say names.

We don't know about Ryan Nemeth.

He never

apparently apparently

in the Being the Elite videos.

Okay, well, I was going to say we wouldn't know what the beef was with Ryan Nemeth because he's never on television.

He's Dolph's younger brother.

Oh, wait.

Actually, I have something right here.

The issues may stem from

when Punk did his return promo, Ryan Nemeth tweeted out, literally the softest man alive.

Oh.

Well, apparently now he's literally the most unemployed man alive, at least on Saturday nights, is Ryan Nemeth.

And here's more from Dave Meltzer.

Punk confronted Nick Nemeth or Nick Nemeth.

Ryan Nemeth on June 17th in Chicago, his first night back.

Something happened.

I was told it was all settled.

It wasn't a big deal.

Obviously, it wasn't all settled.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

You got tit for tat.

Matt Hardy was booked Saturday, told not to come.

And Christopher Daniels is not supposed to go on saturdays anymore yeah the head of talent relations is told to stay away on saturdays well it's because of the relations he has with some of the talent that's why he's i like christopher daniels he was a great worker and a nice guy but he busted in the locker room with the rest of them

and luckily nobody punched him in the face but

I can see where that one would think, well, this guy's obviously not on my side since he came in with the group that started this whole mess.

So here's the thing.

What have we been hearing for months since last September?

It's been almost a year now.

Punk is not allowed to be around the Buckaroos and their friends.

Punk has been told by attorneys, don't try to contact Kenny anymore and settle these things.

Punk has been told that he's persona non-grata.

in these various situations.

So in return, he said, okay, well, I'm the guy over here on Saturday nights, and you can't come and play in my sandbox if I can't come over and hang out in your backyard.

So fuck you.

You know, just put yourself in the position of CM Punk here.

You have a bunch of people that have constantly fucked with you, either overtly or in a passive-aggressive manner.

They continue to fuck with you, continue to put you down.

The company's not doing the biggest money thing they have on the table.

because of all this.

Hangman Page can come to the building and be in the back.

Matt Hardy could, why?

Because he's in the Carolinas.

He can come to the building and be in the back.

If you think someone's going to be a problem and you're trying to create a good atmosphere there where none of these drama hounds are around, why would you want any of these people in your building?

Exactly.

And why, if you've been told, well, you can't come over here and play with our friends.

And why are you going to let their friends come over and play with you?

The answer is because on Saturday night, they're not playing.

They're trying to do a television wrestling broadcast instead of a friend's social club.

The problem is,

is that Saturday has gotten short shrift on the talent because the only,

there are more aggressive parkour artists and cosplaying gymnastics experts on the roster than there are actually serious, accomplished, competent professional wrestlers.

So there's more names on Wednesday night, but the Saturday night television program is better because it's all people who actually understand what kind of fucking business they're in.

Well, there's some reporting here before we wrap things up.

Nick Houseman, who previously has been all over this punk stuff, previously was pointed out by punk in that press conference famously.

He's saying that Nemeth and Daniels being sent home was a direct result of conflicts with punk.

Notably, Christopher Daniels' involvement in the post-AEW all-out altercation was specifically portrayed to us as the reason the Fallen Angel is not at collision, since Ace Steele, Punk's good friend, was also involved in the altercation, but not allowed to return backstage for collision.

Yeah, even though he was told ahead of time that when he got his job back, he was going to be involved with the show and that he was going to be Punk's agent on the scene.

He's being paid.

and working remotely at last report that we heard because they're still all upset at him because he beat up two of them by himself.

But if none of them are in the building, what's the problem?

And again, to finish the sentence out-there is no problem.

A-Steele has never been dangerous in any way to anybody in 30 years in wrestling until somebody was trying to beat up a friend of his, and then he fucking kicks some ass.

Well, don't forget his wife was in the room too.

Well, yeah, and his wife was sitting there with a fucking cast on her leg, and he beats up some people who can't fight to begin with,

and they get mad.

And because

the various legal staff at that company are all under the sway or under something

of the talent.

They make up reasons why Ace is not able to be there because everybody's scared of you.

Punk is said to feel the same about Daniels and does not want him backstage either.

There we go.

Seriously, if you're trying to create a drama-free locker room, and so far collision has been.

I mean, very few people have crossed over.

MJF, obviously, is the world champion and that Adam Page thing or Adam Cole thing with him and FTR was a big thing on the show.

But you're not hearing too much drama.

You're still hearing plenty come out of that other locker room.

You're not hearing much come out of here.

Why would you want to introduce these, dare I say, cancers into your locker room?

You want Matt Hardy back there?

This guy, he almost brags about being a stooge for the Young Bucks.

Well, all he was doing was delivering a truckload of flowers for the Buckaroos

from Big Mama's Flower Shop right down the road in Charlotte.

And with this Ryan Nemeth thing, you know, at a certain point, there have to be repercussions.

You can't just go out there and run your mouth and talk shit because you're trying to buddy up to one side and then the other side comes in.

You're like, ah, I don't mean it.

I want to be in the back.

No.

Go to the back on Wednesday.

And I would have to suggest to Ryan, you need to have a little more weight in your fucking ass before you can start knocking the biggest star in the company on Twitter just because of who you're friends with.

Yeah, the softest man alive may not be CM Punk.

It may be one of the two bucks who went in there thinking they were going to do something and got their shit kicked out of them.

Those two may be the candidates for the softest men alive and their hangman fake cowboy friend.

But what do you think in general?

If you are a promoter, you are a booker.

I mean, Tony Khan is out to lunch on all this because he's afraid to do anything to actually put his foot down about anything.

Yeah.

And that's what causes every single one of these situations.

The key to all the drama is Tony Khan because Tony either likes it or is just too scared to do anything about any of it.

But if you are...

I'm betting on B there.

But what do you do?

If you're in the back and you are trying to have a good locker room and forget about like AEW split in half.

If you're just a promoter running a show and people just think they should be in the back, whether they're local wrestlers in the area or people that cause trouble or someone who used to work for you, whatever it is, Should you just let anyone in the back or should you have a tight group of people back there?

No, hold on.

Well, you're asking a million questions in a million different directions.

No, for people coming to look to get booked or just to hang out with their friends,

there's always been special cases.

You know, if a huge star came to the building just because they happened to be in his hometown to see an old friend of his and the guy's a legend in the business and blah, blah, blah, nobody's going to kick him out.

But if you've got a bunch of people just trying to hang around to get booked or talk to their friends or potentially get their face seen, you're doing business.

You're doing a national TV show.

That needs to be kept to a minimum.

All these people,

in one respect or another, work for that company.

So indeed.

But were they booked?

But was Matt Hardy booked?

Well, maybe he was and maybe he wasn't, but it's right down the road from Cameron, North Carolina.

So maybe he just thought he'd show up, but that's the problem.

The problem is, is that if they can do it, if the Wednesday night crew can do it, say, well, we're going to put those people over on Saturday.

And we know that CM Punk's the biggest star in the company.

He's making hopefully more money than everybody else, if Tony's got any sense.

But we don't want him on our show.

We don't want him around in our locker room because he might beat us up again.

So it's entirely

forgivable or expected.

for that guy to say the same thing.

Well, I don't want your fucking stooges over here fucking my show up, bringing this drama, putting a fucking mouth on me, as Dennis Corluzzo would say, running their dick lickers about whatever they want to take up for their friends.

We don't have time for that shit because we're running a business over here on Saturday night.

And if I was Tony Khan, and I've said this before, and I will say it again.

I would get everybody together and I'd go, yep, I think the biggest money match that we can put on is CM Punk and FTR against Hangnail and the Buckaroos or Kenny and the Buckaroos or whoever and the Buckaroos.

And that's what we're going to be doing at the pay-per-view at the end of the year or whatever.

And here's how we're going to get there.

And is everybody on board with that?

Tell me now so that we can help you carry your shit to the car and you can figure out somebody to call to get booked in the future because you're fucking fired.

I'm paying all of you hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, and you're going to do the shit you're supposed to do.

And I don't care if you have another real fight.

Have a goddamn real one.

Get it out of your system because the fake one is going to be on my TV or on my pay-per-view and drawing me money.

Otherwise, I don't care what you do.

Kill each other.

Doesn't matter as long as you show up for the match and you do the finish that I tell you to do.

Then go out in a parking lot and take baseball bats to each other.

I don't give a fuck there either, as long as you can show up next week for TV.

It doesn't matter to me.

You work for me and you are going to draw me money or you are going to leave.

It's not hard.

If he was

anally fucking penetrating people, say they're flying them all over the country for $100 a night, maybe they should say, well, fuck you.

But for that much money, for the talent that some of them possess and the fact that they never would have got anywhere if Tony wasn't green, inexperienced, and halfway clueless?

No, for that much money, I'd be going out committing fucking contract hits for the mafia.

So that's what I'd do.

All right.

Well, that was AEW Collision.

Well, Jim, we've had a long show, but before we get out of here, speaking of everything in AEW being a mess, let's go back to collision.

Stories have now emerged.

Another situation.

Apparently, Jack Perry and CM Punk

had some sort of disagreement over glass.

Have you been keeping up with this story?

I've seen a number of things reported on the internet and on Twitter, and I believe every bit of it because it sounds exactly like both individuals.

Well, I guess the story is that Jack Perry, in a backstage segment, either a promo or just some sort of attack,

wanted to use real glass in a segment.

Well, I don't think he's moondog mane.

He wasn't going to eat a light bulb in a promo.

It had to be some kind of.

Sorry to be a cavalier with you there, my fine feathered friend.

But it had to be some kind of attack or angle or something.

And there was obviously a disagreement.

Jungle Jack

wanted to somehow use broken glass, real broken glass.

And apparently, from the way I heard it, The agent of the match and or the medical staff and or other people said, we don't think you ought to do that.

So it was brought to Punk

to get his viewpoint.

And he told the child,

as you should do when you're trying to instruct and or discipline petulant children,

he said to Jack Perry, we don't do that on Saturday nights.

which indicates to me that at least one person in this company is trying to do what they're supposed to be doing, which is is do a professional television program

in the manner and kind and genre that it is supposed to be, professional wrestling, and do it well and do it professionally and do it somewhat safely and not have all this childish outlaw garbage involved.

And apparently, the petulant child that was being disciplined, or in this case, not disciplined, but being instructed that this is not the kind of thing that we we do on the real wrestling program that this company produces,

he got pissed off and was arguing about it.

I think at that point, they should have said, tell you what, you can use all the broken glass you want.

You go out in the parking lot, break you a bunch of bottles, roll around in it.

We don't care.

But you're not doing it on the television program because you're not important

and we don't want this bullshit that you people do on Wednesday night fucking up our show.

That's what I heard.

Did I fill everybody in appropriately?

Approximately, I believe.

What does this say about just the overall problems?

And we've always said they were going to be problems, but they usually were enough things on the other side of the pendulum to swing things a little bit the other way.

There was a Cody Rhodes in the back, at least sometimes.

But in terms of talent being given the ability to just do what they want in AEW.

Well, it's going to continue probably on Wednesdays because that's where Tony Khan is fully in charge and he has no balls.

And the rest of them have an indie mindset that they're never going to get out of.

And that's, you know, why they're the state that they are.

On Saturday, it appears that there are rules in place for what is and is not going to be done on a wrestling show.

And that's refreshing and sorely needed.

And again, you know, these

fucking jack offs these days, they think they're goddamn TV stars or they're entertainers or whatever.

Okay, if you were a fucking Hollywood actor, Jack Perry, since your father was a Hollywood actor,

when Luke Perry went and auditioned for a comedy,

as part of the role, did he just go against the script and break into song, even if the comedy wasn't a musical?

Or if he's auditioning for a part in a drama, does he start cracking jokes in the middle of the goddamn main dramatic scenes because he knows some funny jokes?

Now answer.

Well, again, I don't think that

you should use glass.

I was going to ask you about instances with glass in wrestling.

How careful do you have to be?

Well,

for one thing, most of these morons don't even know.

They're trying to fucking slam each other through the windshields of cars and

shit like that.

And that,

as Goldberg will tell you, that's a crapshoot every time.

And you'll remember when Lawler got run over in the fucking parking lot by Eddie Gilbert.

He had on long sleeves and he had on long pants.

And he was able with his,

even though it was a warm day outside, some people remarked on.

That's how he could cover up having some elbow pads on because you're not only taking a bump on concrete, but you're risking, you know, some glass along the way.

Goldberg

trying to punch, did punch through that fucking car window and severed an artery and almost bled to death.

I mean, broken glass, the only time glass was ever used in wrestling was the old bottle deal.

Break a bottle over a guy's head.

Some guys

wanted the real bottle broken over their fucking head.

Do you remember Cactus Jack?

Were you at that thing with Eddie Gilbert, the two out of three matches, Joel Goodhart show and

was that before your time that was before I was going to live events uh or at least independent events but it was two out of three falls but it was two out of three matches it was different stipulations and they spread it out through the night but at one point he had Eddie trying to break a real bottle over his head and Eddie had to hit him three or four times

And I mean, everything else is exposed.

I believe we've talked about it before, but it's not like they're smart enough to even know how to work with shit like this.

But what you do is you bake the bottle

at a certain temperature for a certain time.

Depends on the bottle.

You got to play with them.

And then you take it out with the tongs and you dip it in some cold water and it's going to, it's going to crack, but it's not going to fucking shatter.

It's going to stay in, and then you put it carefully in the goddamn holder.

And then it requires a little sleight of hand and make sure it doesn't fall apart.

during the swing before the impact and you break the bottle over the guy's head head.

And it's still gonna cut him because it's still real fucking broken glass.

But that real broken glass can be found by the fans and they can say, God damn, that's glass.

Whereas the fucking sugar bottles they use in the movies won't stand up scrutiny.

And if the fans don't see the bottle close before it's broken, then they don't know that it was cracked to begin with.

And you close your eyes and hope for the best that a piece of glass doesn't get stuck stuck in your fucking skull, but it's probably not going to sever a fucking artery like punching through a car window.

And for people rolling around on real broken glass or taking bumps through window panes and all this bullshit, well, you're the same to me as the fucking bank addicted drug robber or the plumber or any other of these garbage fucking geeks that bite the heads off live chickens and take bumps through broken glass.

You're a fucking moron and you deserve what you get, like old Grover.

And if you're using fake glass and you're rolling around in it and you're not ripped open from asshole appetite, then you're telling the people

that's fake glass.

So just don't use the fucking broken glass, you fucking morons.

Anyway.

All right.

Well, that was the CM Punk Jack Perry glass issue.

And again, that's exactly,

there needs to be a man with balls and commitment and authority to explain to these fucking children what kind of show they're going to do and what they're not going to do and what's tolerated on this program and what's not and what the rules and the guidelines are.

And this is the first time that that's been done in AEW, and that's what's leading to Saturday night being a watchable television program that a wrestling fan might enjoy instead of a fucking

LSD-inspired mess that only the fans that want to laugh at wrestling and think it's all a big fucking joke can sit through.

And they're not happy about it.

They can get mad or get glad as far as I'm concerned.

They need to do it on everything they fucking do.

And maybe then something would be accomplished.

And that's my thoughts.

Anyway, and they start the program off with a bang.

Here comes Samoa Joe.

He's entering the ring.

He's the Ring of Honor World TV champion.

He's the king of television.

He's facing the already in the ring golden vampire in a gold LeMay mask and bodysuit covered head to toe.

And as soon as Joe gets to the ring, the golden vampire dives out of the ring and jumps on him and beats him up and shoves the referee down and throws Joe in, hits him with a knee, picks him up, gives him the GTS,

boom,

pops the mask, and it's Mussolini in gold Lame.

It was CM Punk all along.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Samoa Joe.

Because who would hunt after the golden elite, the golden vampire?

That's right.

And after he knocked him out and stood over him, he took the microphone.

And as you'll recall, last week, Samoa Joe choked Punk out and said, fight me, bitch.

Well, Punk said, I accept, bitch.

And he left.

And if

now that woke the people up watching television.

It was a great deal with a big reaction.

Didn't take long.

A hot way to start.

We've seen the fucking unexpected surprise with Star of the Program.

What else can happen tonight?

It's also good that they've established in the last few weeks that Samoa Joe's been wrestling squash matches.

Yes, because now

it made sense, and other guys are doing it too.

And the golden vampire didn't look any more ridiculous than some of these other job guys they've found, so it didn't stand out like you knew that was coming.

And though, of course, they got a pretty good idea after he picked him up for the GTS before he popped the mask, but nevertheless.

But that starts at, okay, I'm good with it.

It's an old wrestling angle, as old as the hills.

A good way to start.

Unexpected.

Boy, we're off on the right track.

All right, is it time for our main event?

Now it's time for collision.

And collision started with Samoa Joe doing an in-ring promo.

He's the king of television.

I remind you, as he reminds us every week, as he should, to get something over.

And the deal was that he can't interfere in the main event tonight, or he's going to lose his match at all in with punk at Wembley.

So he's going to do color at ringside

and not interfere in a match.

And it's, again, he's got great delivery and he gets it, how to present a fucking image and how to get shit over and verbally and make shit seem important.

Imagine that.

So he goes down and sits at ringside to do color with.

I wasn't sure who was goddamn wrestling in this match for a minute because it's Sting and Darby and Hook and Punk,

but the entire heel roster came out for the match on the entrances.

Their opponents ended up being Swerve and Brian Cage.

and Dino Douche and Jay White, but they had both Gunboys and Christian and Juice out there at Ringside.

So it was a little

confusing at first.

But anyway, at that point, we had a goddamn

real wrestling match involving some level of talent, and they tried to be serious about it for the last 20 or 25 minutes of the show.

Like you said, collision.

suddenly broke out after Dynamite Part B.

And it was nice to see Terry Funk forever on Punk's wrist tape.

But anyway, you know, again,

it was a good match.

It wasn't to the level of the recent collision main events, but on this program, you couldn't argue.

But they got some heat on Punk.

Punk got tagged to Hook.

He made a comeback.

They stopped him.

They got some heat on Hook.

Hook cold tagged Punk.

Punk got a comeback, did the Hogan ear cup, and the fans were booing him there because they're on a Wednesday night crowd.

So the little buckaroo bonsais had bought the tickets.

So he had fun with that and milked the boos.

And then everybody hit something

over and over.

And then finally, Punk got the go-to-sleep on Brian Cage, but got the

Kakina clutch that Joe uses for the tap-out.

And as soon as that happened, Joe said, gentlemen, correct me.

Is the match over?

Yes, boom, and he's off and he's in the ring.

And it's supposed to be a big fight between Punk and Samoa Joe.

And Perry came out and jumped hook at ringside.

Everybody got in a fight, but the camera, to be honest, was on almost everything but Punk and Samoa Joe.

And they're the only

money issue in the whole thing.

So we saw a little bit of their fight and a lot of everybody else blathering around the ring.

And that's pretty much what we got out of colliding with

when collision collides with dynamite,

it's a popcorn fart.

Well, I know somebody whose stomach is upset after the weekend's happenings at Wembley Stadium.

Do you think old,

do you think old Jungle Jack Perry, what is it, F-A?

F

fuck around, find out?

Is that what the kids are saying these days?

I didn't know the kids were saying that, but I believe that is what that is.

Well, he fucked around.

I don't know if he's found out yet.

It seems like it's hard to teach these kids a lesson.

Yeah, he fucked around, but then Tony rewarded him by giving him a Saturday morning show.

Well, that's true.

And also, he was able to leave the show early because he didn't have to wait for five more hours till the main event was over to get out of there.

Now, old Jack Perry was asked to leave the premises after getting

reprimanded, I guess, again, for his behavior by CM Punk.

This was reported pretty much as the first match was going on, as Punk was in the ring.

He was already 1-0 in backstage skirmishes for

the afternoon or the evening, whatever time it was over there.

You know, when I saw the first report of this, I thought it was a joke.

I didn't think it was real because of the timing.

One would think, but again,

it is a joke.

It's a joke that this cannot be controlled.

It's a joke that Tony has lost the plot on getting his EVPs and their little fucking playfriends in their clubhouse to just stop, to just quit.

And

for those of you who have not been on the internet,

we reported here a week or two ago, and it was all over the place,

that old Jungle Jack Perry

wanted to tape a brawl with Hook here not long ago at one of the tapings

that would involve getting thrown through or slammed through a car window with real glass in it.

And apparently, now that the story has come out more fully and we understand what was happening, there were several people before Punk got to the building that day that had already told old Jack, no, we don't want to do that.

We don't have any gimmick glass.

No reason to take that risk.

I've heard of Tony Schiavone was one of the people that told him that.

I've heard that the

new director, producer, head of television production, can't recall his name, but he told Jack Perry, no, we can't do that.

Somebody else involved in talent relations may have been

You know, one of the

office people, whoever, several people had told old Jack, no, we're not going to do this.

And he's like, fuck you, all of them.

I'm going to do it.

And that's why they all came to Punk

when Punk got to the building and said, would you tell this guy

we don't want him to do this shit?

So apparently Punk had to be the one to tell him not ask him, we wish you wouldn't do this or please don't do this, but say, no, we're not going to fucking do it.

You've been told you're not going to do it.

Are you going to do it now?

Apparently not.

And so little Jack got his panties in a bunch over that.

And

on the pre-show

of all in Wimbley,

which added another, I guess, two hours to the four-hour pay-per-view.

So it was a six-hour presentation altogether there.

Old Jack is working with Hook,

and they're having some type of garbage match.

What was the rules of this thing, Brian?

Because

I saw the clip of the incident in question.

I didn't watch this whole match because why?

But what were the rules?

They were in the entranceway fighting next to a car.

I watched this and I don't remember because I didn't have the commentary on what the rules were.

I think it may have been like a street fight, maybe.

Yeah, I don't know.

Anything goes?

Something goes or nothing goes.

A Wimbley street fight.

So they're fighting in the entranceway next to a car.

And then old Jungle Jack looks at the camera and pats the windshield and says, see this?

It's real glass.

Cry me a river into the camera and then goes to suplex fucking hook on it.

But hook turns it around and suplexes old Jack through the windshield.

It didn't bust all the way out.

It's the windshield glass.

So it broke everywhere.

And you could see that it cut the guy, cut Jack on his arm.

You could see him bleeding when they staggered back to the ring.

But he just wanted to prove that

even though that he was told by people representing his employers, various people in charge of various things, that he shouldn't do it.

And then he was told by one of the big stars in the company, of which he is not one of those,

that he shouldn't do it.

But then he gets over there and he said, well, I'm going to do it anyway, and I'm going to make sure that this fucking guy that told me no

is suitably chastened for restricting my artistic creativity.

Hey, the bigger issue is since the story got out, did Tony tell him no?

Well, nobody even said Tony was there at the time.

I'm saying

for the second time for doing it at the stadium.

I thought that's what you were talking about.

Oh, no, I'm saying.

that all these people told him not to do it the first time.

It has not come out whether he bothered to tell anybody that they were going to go through the windshield this time around or whether this was just something he was going to do and he was going to tell the camera because he knew that Punk was on first on the pay-per-view as the next match and he'd be back there within reach of the monitor standing by like a good professional waiting to go out so they didn't have to run and look for him.

And you didn't do justice to his voice because you made it sound like, because again, like his voice.

I made it sound like he was a grown adult man, didn't I?

Yeah, his voice is part of the issue with his promos, but it was like, real glass, cry me a river.

Yeah,

and he's also 137 pounds.

But I have to think they have a car out there.

There's no way he's doing that spot without someone giving pre-approval.

And there's a car out there.

You have to expect it's going to happen, too.

Well, but the question is, is anybody supposed to go through the windshield?

Or are they just supposed to slam their head in the fucking door?

Were they going to start it and run over somebody?

We don't fucking know.

But point being, childish bullshit, right?

From the children, the same group that we always hear from.

Same children.

Same

locker room.

So,

and now that the Kookamunga contingent had been heard from, they go ahead and finish their match, does Jack and Hook.

And then, apparently, from what we were told, from what we are hearing that has been reported,

Jack Perry, and I can see, you know, if one guy's coming through, gorilla, the other guy's standing there, you're going to pass, right?

So Jack apparently comes through and either

the story was confronted Punk, but either said something smart ass and/or

bumped him as he went by him saying something.

And then at one time, the story was that Punk then punched Perry, but that was quickly modified to, no, no, no,

a lot of people are saying he choked him.

Now,

this has brought images to mind to people on the, on Twitter, apparently, of that Punk

reached up and grabbed the guy in a rear naked choke or a front head chancery or something and choked him out on the floor.

I don't believe this to be the case.

I have not heard.

We don't know yet.

But the first thing when I thought, and I'm envisioning

this kind of confrontation where this little fucking cocky ass wipe,

after he said that right in the fucking camera where he knows the guy is going to be watching the monitor, and then he comes through gorilla, whether he said something or whether he just shoulder bumped him on the way by or whatever, I think Punk goozled him.

And

that would be the normal reaction to me

would be to goozle the fucking guy and tell him what the fuck you have a problem with

i don't think

people may not know what the term goozel means oh good lord he grabbed him by the goozel pipe um

he

imagine you're gonna choke slam somebody ladies and gentlemen and the first move is to reach out and grab them around the neck

But normally you wouldn't do it if you're right-handed.

You wouldn't do it with your right hand.

If you're going to, and that used to be what the boys would say, well, I had to goozle that guy.

You grab him around the goozel pipe.

If the guy is up in your face, he's close enough, you got a problem with him, you're mad.

But at the same time, you either don't want to hit him, you don't have room to fight, you don't necessarily think it needs to come to that right now, but a point needs to be delivered.

If you're standing in front of the guy, you reach out with your left hand fairly quickly and snatch that motherfucker around the neck.

With your thumb on one side of his neck and your fucking fingers on the other side of his neck.

That means his goozel pipe, his windpipe is in the middle and you squeeze.

And while you're squeezing and if there's a wind, a wall behind him,

even better yet, because then you're squeezing and pushing and you got him pinned up against the fucking wall and that's where you can get in close.

And you can relate the message to him that you want him to hear while you're looking in his fucking eyes and telling him what's going to happen happen if he doesn't have the proper goddamn attitude when you let go of his fucking neck.

That's when you goozo somebody.

That's what Ron Harris did to Shawn Michaels in Madison Square Garden.

That's what the sheik did to that fucking collegiate wrestler that wanted to try him that time in the back of the kobo.

That's what I can't imagine.

Anybody in the wrestling business at one time or another hasn't goozeled somebody, whether it be fellow co-worker, fan, or fucking potential employer or representative of same,

or just

if you're out somewhere, I mean, you've goozled people in your goddamn daily life, haven't you, Brian?

What do you mean in your daily life?

Like, if you get into a life, you fight, you get into a fight, you do all sorts of things, but in your daily life, no.

No, you, you've never

have I ever put the banker against the wall by the throat?

No, I haven't had to do that.

Well, that's my lawyer does that.

You would be an odd standout in the wrestling business, at least up until the last 20 years or so, because I can think of about 12 to 15 people at various instances over time that I have had to goozle to make a point to.

But anyway,

that's what you, and I bet that's what Punk did.

He fucking goozled him.

And he put him up against a convenient wall and he said, you little motherfucker, I got to go out and work now or I would have more time to fucking go into this with you.

But you probably shouldn't be here when I'm fucking come back.

Something like that.

I mean, you know, whatever.

I have not seen any detail about him goozling him.

Where are you getting this?

Somebody said he choked him.

I saw a front face lock.

Do you think he got him in a front facelock?

I don't know.

I didn't, I didn't say, I just heard choked him.

And I'm thinking, well, that would be an odd place to just go for the UFC stuff right there.

I would think you would just.

With that little prick, because what's Jack Perry going to fucking do?

What's he going to fucking do?

He should have thought about that before he started running his dick liquor.

But if I was punk, I was, I got to go out for this match.

I'm going to fucking goozle him.

I'm going to tell him what I think of him and I'm going to fucking leave the door open to rehash this later on and go out and have my match.

So that's what I thought.

That's what I could envision happening.

And again, we don't know the whole story because Sean Ross Sap was the first one with a kind of a detailed story.

And then Miro said it wasn't true that he was there, but Miro didn't say what he saw.

And there's, you know, the punk side, and then there's the other side.

Everyone can agree there was a confrontation and some bumping.

Jack Perry was asked to leave the building.

If you're Tony Khan

and you are about to begin the greatest day of your life as a wrestling promoter,

do you appreciate the fact that Jack Perry started this shit?

No.

No, I don't.

But at the same time, I don't know if Tony will

realize that he's continuing to let these jackoffs do this or whether he just thinks this is stuff that happens and there's nothing he can do about it.

I don't know yet whether, you know, fire the fucking little goof.

Send a message.

Look, I don't care if y'all have a problem and you want to talk about it in the back,

then that's fine.

We'll all sit down.

But at next person that does shit on the air, I'm firing them just like I fired Jungle Stooge.

Get it?

That would send a message.

Either fire them or make them work together.

That's the other thing because now everyone knows this happened.

Everyone knows.

See, I think that's what hurts the Bucs.

When people see the Bucs now, people know that CM Punk hit their ass.

They know that happened.

And they know that there's never going to be any working retribution.

Now, here's another guy.

No one is saying Jack Perry came out of this for the better.

Everyone's saying it's a confrontation.

And one way or another, Punk schooled him, whether it it was goozled him or whether it was say fuck you to him, whatever it was, something happened.

People are going to know about it.

You either have to do something with it or what's the point of the whole thing?

Then you have more people on the roster who can't work with the biggest single star on the roster.

Well, but the thing,

is anybody clamoring to see CM Punk versus Jungle Jack Perry anyway?

They could make it mean something.

I'm not saying on the face of it anyone's demanding demanding that match certainly not i think we're stretching it to say that you could even make that match a try would that be the best use of punk's time and effort to try to drag a match and money out of jack perry the argument wasn't whether it was the best use of cm punk it certainly wouldn't be so i would make guys work together when you know with the with the group of the

Effete, I'm sorry, the elite versus Punk at FTR, you could get money out of a shoot incident that happened out of that.

But just

Punk versus Perry.

I'm not saying Punk versus Jack Perry the main event all out.

Although I don't know who Punk's working with it all out.

We'll see what happens.

Do we know who's working it all out?

It's only fucking five days away.

There's Miro versus Powerhouse Hobbs.

There's Ruby Soho versus Statlander.

There was another Darby versus Luchasaurus, I think, or Darby versus Christian.

One of the two.

But I was saying something, goddammit.

You were saying that we ought to make these guys work together.

I was saying it doesn't have to be the main event of a pay-per-view.

It could be a three-week program on collision because collision needs shit like that.

I don't know if collision needs Jack Perry.

You get what I'm saying.

Yeah.

You hate Jack Perry.

You hate Jack Perry.

I mean, it's ridiculous at this point.

This guy's had every chance in the world and he underperforms every time.

He's the anchor around everything's everything's neck,

you know, in the four pillars deal.

He's a good underneath mid-card baby face.

He gets sympathy selling against a veteran.

It'll keep him in line.

Otherwise, he can't talk.

He's obviously got an attitude problem.

And

the thing that maybe this is the problem.

Maybe you're like the

you know, average person in the locker room these days that's never been goozled or never goozled anybody.

There's not enough goozling going on.

These kids are in a fantasy world where they're all actors performing,

you know, with friends instead of in a goddamn business where it's predicated on fucking heat and violence and people that get out of control.

And if you fuck with somebody, they're going to goozle you.

They don't expect to get goozeled.

The solution is not goozling anyone.

Let's be very honest about it.

And that wouldn't work.

And that would cause a lot of problems for the company.

So there has to be something else.

But here's the thing.

The solution is not to goozle people.

But also

part of the problem is that there is not the belief.

There's not the threat.

There's not the trepidation that if they keep assing off, that they will get goozled.

And again, that's a systematic problem with AEW.

Well, the thing is, you need to know that there is potential goozling that's going to take place if you run your fucking pie hole about somebody enough.

And then

you either want to continue running the pie hole and risk the goozling that you believe you can handle, or you want to fucking shut the fuck up

if you don't want to get goozeled.

But again, this goozling, whether it was a real goozling or a metaphorical one in terms of some sort of discipline, why would anyone there be afraid of that?

What's been done to show anyone that there's any discipline for anything?

Punks goozled a couple.

No, he didn't goozle a couple.

He punched one.

You're using goozel now as an overall term for things.

Well, the goozel,

the overall catch-all phrase of goozling, he goozled the Bucks.

He goozled old Jungle Jack.

Kenny got goozled in the way of goozling by A.

Steele.

Why don't they just stop talking about him and just continue with their own other nattering about everybody else behind everybody else's back?

That's the other thing we haven't even talked about, just the stupidity of Jack Perry.

Why are you doing that?

Even if you were going to do the spots, say nothing.

Why would you do that?

Like you said, he has to know Punk's nearby.

He knows what the schedule of matches are.

I mean, that's why I think Jack Perry was the first one sent away.

It wasn't just because Punk was working that match.

What the fuck is he thinking?

He's not thinking.

They think they won't get goozeled.

That's what he's thinking.

That's what kept order in the wrestling locker room.

Not only the camaraderie, not only the nature of being a family, a brotherhood, but also the fact that most of the guys in the locker room, if you dicked around with them long enough, would fucking goozle you.

And you've had to, in turn, be ready to do the same thing.

And that kept everybody from goozling each other.

A lot of the goozling you've seen were because of things off-camera.

When it's something like this in a high-profile way, and again, enough people know the story that everyone immediately went to thinking he's talking about CM Punk when he said it.

Does that change things?

No,

no, because it was obvious.

That changes things for the worse.

That exacerbates him.

He's being obvious.

He can't even say it's the, what do the kids call it, passive aggressive, where you're too much of a fucking gutless pussy to just tell somebody, fuck you.

So you say nice shit to them that means the same thing.

He's just fucking around.

Fuck around, find out.

Tony Connors announced an investigation into the matter

at the media scrum after the event.

He couldn't comment on it.

He admitted that there was indeed an incident without naming anyone, but said that he can't comment any further.

It is under investigation.

Luckily, Inspector Jacques Clisseau

was able to immediately take care of the issue.

Well, let's see how they took to what they did already at All Inn.

I like that they opened the show with at least give me some reason to continue watching.

If they'd opened it with some of the matches they had, I would have mentally shut down.

But we got

the real world championship on the line first out of the gate with Samoa Joe versus

Lak Mussolini,

Goozel Jack Perry.

So the fans were singing.

And the big it's clobbering time.

Punk got a big ovation.

And again, you heard a lot of people singing the song because because the UK wants to see stars.

They're deprived of the live events, as we've talked about.

So they're there, the fucking atmosphere,

people ready to fucking scream and yell.

And

they reacted to punk.

And then as soon as the match settled in, they got firmly behind Joe and started booing punk.

And, you know, and he worked with it.

I was glad to see Jim Ross on the show.

And he sounded better and more energetic than we've heard him in a while.

Yes, and he crapped on all the stuff I was mentally crapping on watching it.

And it made, it made Jim Ross the highlight of the show in a lot of ways for me.

Yes, because.

And when he left the show, I should have left the show.

That's the thing is he was, you know, when he'd say, I never understood this, when two guys are doing something completely stupid,

but he sounded better and more energetic.

Of course, they switched out.

If you're not paying attention and you miss the start of the match where they switch out the announcers, then you're disoriented because whose voice is?

They had everybody on this show at one point in time.

Taz was out there, JR.

Sockface was all over it, and he was especially unbearable, as one would imagine, being as he was, I'm sure, creaming in his pants to actually

be doing something that he's not very good at in front of that many people.

But besides the Nigel's great, and plus, this was his environment.

Punk came out with a shaved head and the short tights, And at the bell, there was a big chant for Samoa Joe.

I'm enjoying this because

I didn't know at the time I was watching the match that he had just,

Punk had just had a skirmish with somebody,

but it just seemed like he was having more fun with being booed even than normal.

And when he's doing the Hogan ear cupping and he's just giving the people the look and encouraging it.

Do you think now he was thinking, you know, I've just had another one.

They'll probably start yelling at me when I go back there again and I'll fucking go home again.

So fuck it.

I'm going to come out here and have fun with Samoa Joe.

You think that's what was going through his mind?

Again, the news was breaking as this match was happening.

And I thought it was a joke at first because I was like, no way.

Come on.

Can't be every year at the same weekend or the same time period every year.

And I think he knew.

And I also think he's working with a guy he wants to work with, a guy he's going to enjoy working with, despite getting his ass kicked in the match.

And how do you not enjoy that kind of crowd reaction?

And

there was a big, oh, I know you love the, he did the Terry Funk tribute when he got hung up in the ropes and got bounced up and down,

upside down.

And then Joe did the thing where he walks off on a guy that's trying to do a dive on him and got a huge pop for it and then grabbed punk and ran his head through the front of the desk so punk came out bleeding and had good juice and again benefit of being on first before all of the indie riffic outlaw fucks get a hold of the ring and bleed for no reason that won't make any money

and then they were still having the match where joe gets heat on punk and punk sells big but fights from underneath even though joe was the babyface for the fans this kind of match works because Joe

can't and really shouldn't sell as a baby face

and it's still punk he it works for punk

regardless of whether the people are behind him or not when he fights from underneath in this instance against a big guy like that so

blah blah blah Finally, Punk makes a comeback.

He milks the ear.

He hits the leg drop and gets a one count.

And that was great.

And then Joe starts hulking up.

And the people are coming up.

And they do the finger pointing.

And

again, it's a little homage, a little tribute, but it wasn't over-the-top silly.

I'm not sure everybody actually picked up on it.

I'm sure a lot of people did.

And then Joe does the jabs, boom, boom, boom, and the power slam.

And then they're back and forth.

And again, Punk does another Terry tribute with a spinning toe hold.

We brought that back.

And then finally,

as Samoa Joe is going for the muscle buster,

he nails Punk and Punk falls to the apron.

Joe tries to pick him back up to give him a superplex, but Punk foils that and hits the Pepsi plunge off the top rope.

Boom, one, two, three.

And as soon as they hit the music, now there was a big reaction reaction again when Punk gets his hand up.

Okay, they're working.

They're working with him through the match.

We're going to boo you.

We're going to cheer Joe.

But we appreciated all of that.

And we're glad to see everybody's here.

And then they cheered and they booed and they sang and they did all the things they wanted to do.

But at least we started the show with a fucking wrestling match that actually had a story and an angle behind it.

And

there was no superfluous gaga.

and it got over.

What'd you think?

Really good match.

Can't add too much more to what you said.

Really good match.

I like the look of everything.

The ring ropes were lighter than they usually are.

The ring aprons were lighter.

I watched Collision after this, and everything was so dark.

I mean, obviously, they have to darken a lot of the arena because of the amount of people there, but the brightness, the changing colors, and the tones.

Now, were you using products from CB Distillery at this point in time where

the colors had such richer hues and the sound, it was so quadraphonic.

And then,

you know, maybe that's what it was.

It wasn't that.

And our fine friends at CB Distillery don't give you anything that makes you see colors, ladies and gentlemen.

That's not part of the deal.

You hear the colors.

All right.

Well, this isn't.

You ought to hear blue.

I'll tell you.

Well, what I was going to say is, I think it made a big difference, especially for a show.

In that building, with part of the show at least being open air or partially open air, it looked more like a WrestleMania than a dynamite.

Yes.

And just because the sea of people on the floor, if nothing else, because you never see that anymore,

was, you know, they were so deep and

they was deep and wide.

But anyway, so it was a good way to open with Punk and Joe.

We have some CM Punk news.

Uh-oh.

A few things.

A report from Nick Houseman, House of Wrestling.

The headline, no one from AEW Met CM Punk at Heathrow Airport.

Exclusive.

Before things backstage became chaotic for Punk, it sounds as if his travel also had some hiccups.

Uh-oh.

House of Wrestling has learned that when Punk landed at Heathrow Airport for AEW all in London on Saturday morning, no one from AEW was there to greet him.

There was also no car service to take him to his hotel.

And when he texted a number he was given by AEW for the driver, it bounced back as being an invalid number.

After waiting for a while, Punk chose.

They fly the biggest star in a company across the fucking ocean and leave him standing at fucking Heathrow Airport with no idea where he's supposed to go or how he's supposed to fucking get there.

And the contact that he's given for his alleged transportation is no good.

After waiting for a while, Punk chose to buy a train ticket and find his own way to the hotel.

We are told that the tube, that's the subway in England, was fairly busy at the time.

Punk got lost, and a few fans who noticed the Second City Saint helped him figure out where he was going.

Oh my god.

It appears that Punk got into London so close to the actual event because he had taping commitments in Atlanta on Wednesday.

and wanted to spend Thursday with his wife and dog Larry.

His wife's wife's not named, but his dog Larry is.

His wife and his dog Larry, before heading out on Friday and landing on Saturday morning.

So that's the first punk report.

Before the show,

right?

Was the show Saturday?

Was the show Saturday?

Oh, show Saturday.

Show was Saturday evening in London, afternoon here in the East.

Or the West, I guess, technically.

In the East.

Well, that's the first report.

The second report.

Brian Alvarez of F4W Online and the Wrestling Observer is reporting, the belief within AEW is that Punk and Jack were both suspended pending the results of an investigation,

which would mean neither will work all out.

What?

If they don't have Punk it all out, can you imagine?

In Chicago.

They'll boo him out of the fucking building.

What the fuck?

Why would you suspend the fucking guy that's the star of the goddamn show?

Because this small, fucking, insignificant num nut brained idiot jack perry decides that he's again going to do childish shit and when he finds out that at least some people in this business still stand up for themselves and he gets snatched

and then he goes crying to somebody about it

can nobody take their goddamn

earned ass kicking anymore

what What the fuck?

Tell the child he shouldn't have done what he did, and he's lucky Punk didn't do worse.

And if he don't like it, then here's your contract, Jack.

Rip, rip, rip.

Good luck in your future endeavors.

What the fuck is difficult about that?

I have a little bit more here from Nick Houseman about the actual incident.

Okay.

Reports regarding the actual altercation between Punk and Perry backstage at AEW All-In and the subsequent aftermath have differed, With some saying Punk initiated the confrontation, and others claiming it was Perry who acted first.

After asking around, here is what House of Wrestling can report.

Well, and we know that their word is like gold.

Well, we can say that Nick Housewood has been all over all this punk stuff.

He's a Chicago guy, and he's been involved in all this punk stuff.

So let's see what this says.

From what we are told, Punk was waiting in the guerrilla position before the show went live for his match against Samoa Joe when Perry entered the area and walked up to him.

Punk initiated the verbal exchange between the two, asking Perry if he had something to say.

And the conversation quickly escalated, leading to Perry asking Punk to do something about it.

Oh my god!

This is when Punk shoved Perry.

Perry responded by shoving Punk back.

Oh my god.

And then Punk put him in what is being described as a chokehold.

We're told Punk viewed putting Perry in a chokehold as a way to neutralize the situation, as he's a trained fighter and does not want to have to fight Perry.

No punches were thrown, as far as we know.

Punk then walked to his dressing room.

But again,

who does this little needle-dick simpleton think he is?

To tell CM Punk, boy, you're going to do something about it?

Yeah, apparently.

Why would you think he wasn't?

wasn't

who's going to be intimidated by jack perry well forget about even intimidation what big star in wrestling history hogan austin flair whoever you want to name

would let one of the mid-card or undercard guys in the pre-show match live on air say shit about them right into the camera And then announce to them afterwards, oh, are you going to do something about it?

Yeah, what would Hogan have done?

He would have had the guy fired.

That's what he would have done.

Punk then walked to his dressing room, got cleaned up, and spoke with AEW security.

Punk, knowing the situation was not good, asked them if it would be better for everyone if he left the building and was told that nobody was asking him to leave.

But it might make things easier if he did.

Punk agreed, left the building of his own accord, walked to his hotel, and ordered Nando's for some of the talent whom he met up with after the show.

Boom, Nando's, by the way.

What a fucking meal.

From what we gather, it does not sound like there has been much, if any, communication between Punk and AEW since last night.

So this is a developing story, just like everything seems to be every time we record.

How is this a surprise, though?

I mean, just...

Which aspect of it?

Well, that you're going to say something smart ass to Punk and something's going to happen.

How is it a surprise?

The thing that, again, that gobsmacks me is that it's a surprise to these guys that they are getting snatched or punched or whacked with a chair or whatever's happening to them in a wrestling locker room like that.

How in the world can this happen?

Do you think Jack Perry's been in a lot of fights in his life?

Do you think Jack Perry has had issues where something he said could cause him to get punched in the mouth and he would have to defend himself?

Probably not.

I would bet that that probably didn't happen growing up in Beverly Hills.

And maybe he has a false sense of entitlement.

Obviously, he has a false sense of entitlement if he thinks he could do that against one of the top stars in the company on live TV.

But that's what I'm saying.

They're all surprised.

They're all shocked when they run their fucking mouse and they stir people up.

Even if they are not aware of it, they're in the wrestling business.

And in the wrestling business, it's, you know,

reasonable regularity.

Somebody's going to get mad.

Somebody's going to get punched.

Somebody's going to get snatched.

Somebody's going to...

Things happen.

And I don't know why they're all so surprised over it and wringing their hands and going to lawyers and legal and human relations or human resources or whatever the fuck.

Again, all it boils down to is Tony doesn't have control of his shit and he never puts his foot down and tells his employees what they're going to do and what they're going to like and what they're not going to do.

And if the boss does that, then the employee has the chance to say, okay, I guess I'm going to have to do that, or fuck you, I'll go somewhere else.

And it all gets settled.

Nothing gets settled here because the boys have to do it themselves.

And apparently, the only one that's still in the wrestling business and wants to stand up for himself is fucking punk.

So

he's got to be the Lone Ranger.

Don't run your fucking yap,

and won't nobody get goozeled.

but they can't stop the yap running

and it sounds like he had a second chance do you have something you want to say

and then they pushed him apparently he did geez and he and then and here's another thing if you're gonna say shit

you can't look like jack fucking perry you can't be five foot nine and 142 pounds

and

look puzzled all the time.

You have to be ready to, you know, if the guy's going to say, well, yes, I'm going to do this and this and the other thing about it.

And then here, here we go.

Well, here we go.

Before this becomes a six-hour episode, it may already have to be split into two parts.

I have to see, but that's the latest news from AEW.

CM Punk and AEW,

more stories have emerged.

You may have been following this closer than I at this point.

Apparently, Brian Alvarez of F4W Online and the Wrestling Observer reported that there was a second incident backstage at All Inn in London.

Yeah, and that's how people started picking up on it.

Second incident at All Inn London.

And the story that was reported, and I'm somewhat paraphrasing, I don't have it in front of me, was that after the Jack Perry incident, Miro

confronted CM Punk.

And they almost got into it.

Well, here there was some verbiage exchanged.

We understand that it was like

Miro came in and Punk was like, do we have a problem?

And Miro's, I don't know.

Have you come all over you?

Yeah, well, no, he didn't.

He only wanted to come all over me now.

Come on, be serious.

I don't know.

Do we have a problem?

Well, do we need to go outside?

Punk said, do we need to go outside?

Well, maybe we do.

I don't know.

Let's just go out here.

And they stormed off.

That's what, and Brian Alvarez also, he said that he talked to five different and this is the greatest thing that Brian Alvarez,

who

bless him,

because it sort of like the Vanity Press project that I talked about that used to exist in printing a long time ago.

Brian Alvarez made himself a professional wrestler when it became a thing that you could do by just going and getting himself booked on

independent events.

And with his size, I would imagine that it was probably in exchange for favorable

reporting on

their

yellow journalism site.

Because for fuck's sake,

I don't know another reason why Brian Alvarez, who lives in Washington, would be wrestling in suburban

northern Indiana on a local event.

What?

Oh, yeah.

I didn't know about this.

Yes,

I actually saw this.

When I went to Chicago a few years before the pandemic, so four or five years ago, for something,

I saw a flyer, some kind of black flag pro wrestling in Crown Point, Indiana, and Brian Alvarez's name was on it.

I'm like, how the fuck does that happen?

Except that potentially they say, well, they'll talk about us.

But nevertheless.

Black Flag Pro Wrestling.

I understand Greg Gitton took all the money.

You know, I know they were a punk band.

You went too deep on it for me or I'd have popped for you.

All right, all right.

But the point I was making is Brian Alvarez, who manufactured him a little wrestling career and, you know, buddied up with Dave on the newsletter business, said he talked to five different people who were there.

And not only there, but he.

I know there was a bunch of people in Wembley Stadium, but I don't think he needed to talk to the hot dog vendor about what happened in the locker room.

So he's saying that he talked to five different people in the locker room.

And three of them were Matt Hardy.

Well, there you go.

Broken Matt, woken Matt, and fucking spoken Matt.

But he talked to five different people that would have knowledge of this situation, and they all said it was serious.

And that indicates not only

that Brian Alvarez, that there's a bunch of blabber-mouthed, whiny little fucking tattletale motherfuckers in that locker room that would immediately be able to report to Brian Alvarez.

But secondly,

that they believed it or that they wanted other people to believe it, whichever it may be, because we now find out that Punk and Miro were fucking around and joking.

Yeah, you got a problem with me?

Oh, we need to take it outside.

Let's take it to the ring.

Yeah, let's take it.

And they either bought it or want other people to buy it.

Like, oh, this guy's having a problem with everybody.

They were apparently laughing about the problem that did exist from the little whiny whiny jungle jack.

Yes, Miro has a problem with God, not punk.

I thought they were the same thing.

Oh, come on.

See, now your fandom of punk has gone too far.

Well, no, I saw the sign.

CM Punk is God.

They're all over Chicago, along with those people with those tiki torches, waiting for the opportunity to set the seats on fire if they bought tickets for three shows in one week in the same fucking town and they don't get to see their favorite in any of them.

From what I understand, AEW has banned tiki torches from the arena.

Well, then they'll have a fucking acetylene torch, a blow torch, a pro wrestling torch.

A few of those pro-wrestling torches have been set on fire

and they're going to fucking be pissed.

But yeah, the Miro and Punk thing.

And then that's why I I saw people shooting at Alvarez, shooting down his explanation that, well, five people said that it was a to what dip shit.

It doesn't matter because it still wasn't.

Apparently it was a whole big fucking hoo-ha over nothing.

What in the past did those five sources tell you about things backstage?

Whether it was the brawl out last year or brawl in?

Yeah, it was brawl out last year.

I'm so confused with all these pay-per-views.

What else have these sources told you that were reported in some cases as people see it as anti-punk stories, but what else do these sources who were wrong about this tell you in the past?

About what they perceived in the back, just standing in there and watching things.

What they perceived and assumed

was taking place or wanted people to perceive or assume was taking place.

Because we know a lot of these kids in the locker room ain't exactly smart to the business.

If a couple of guys are yelling at each other and it sounds ominous, apparently they're about to commit mayhem.

That's what they think.

Or other ones, hey, boy, we could see, you know, nobody likes this guy.

That's the story we'll tell.

And here's fucking, you know, lapdog and cauliflower head over there

willingly because they get attention and petting and ranch dressing, dressing, I guess.

I don't fucking know.

They get all the attention from these guys, so they parrot it because why would they lie to me?

We're friends.

Friends.

CM Punk was at the Cauliflower Rally Club the last couple of days in Las Vegas getting an award.

And the wrestling news is Lou Kippleman was there, and he approached him.

They asked him about this.

We may have made a mistake, though.

The question was, Hey, Punk, do you got a problem?

And then Punk put Lou in a front-face lock and it was over.

Well, no, come on.

Now, that did not happen at all because I've seen the size of Kippleman's neck and there's no way that Punk could reach all the way around that.

So I sent Lou.

I said, if you're out of the punk, here are some questions for you.

Hey, Punk, does Colin Thompson owe you money?

Now that you've attended CAC, when do you expect to test positive for COVID?

Did I have any other ones here?

Hey, Punk, do you want to step outside?

Well, and meanwhile, Punk was getting an award for his outstanding contributions to professional wrestling in and outside the ring and the furtherance of same

while these dipshits are over there rolling around in barbed wire and broken glass.

What do the issues with Jungle Boys say about the state of the rainforest?

Lou was going to ask these questions, but in approaching Punk, Ace Steel bit him.

So Lou is now out of commission.

Son of a bitch.

He's getting a tetanus shot.

Now, I thought they had required Ace to wear a muzzle within 50 feet of any public structure.

I don't know.

That may not.

Well, you know what happens.

Vegas stays in Vegas.

You can't enforce those rulings in Vegas.

That's right.

We're seeing Punk news.

Are you kidding me?

Well, I mean, it's minor news, but it's still interesting.

Fightful has a story, apparently.

Let me see what they say here, because a lot of people are sending this to us.

Apparently AEW is collecting statements and interviews about the nature of what happened with CM Punk and Jack Perry.

They're collecting them.

Then they're going to have the statements graded and slabbed for collectors.

Also, and here's the hottest bootleg on the market.

There's footage of the incident.

No.

There were cameras all over Wembley.

Also, after the...

When does this get aired on their program instead of the shit they showed us last night?

Punk and Tony had an altercation that was described as contentious,

but that's all anyone knows.

So

let's just recap this real briefly.

So they fly him over from Chicago to London.

He ends up at Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning.

The phone number they have given him for his car service is no good.

He's got no car there to take him to his hotel or to the stadium.

He can't call him.

Apparently, from what we have been told by a variety of fans and people over there on the scene, the Uber situation was not tenable in London that day with 80,000 of these raven wrestling maniacs.

So he has to ride, as they call it, the tube, the under, the subway

to

his hotel.

I guess he was going first and then to the stadium.

And there are pictures on the internet.

He got got lost.

Imagine that.

You're in God.

I assume he's probably never ridden the tube before because when he was in London for the WWE, they pretty much carry their guys back and forth, right?

So he gets lost, and there's pictures on Twitter of fans

helping him find his way

and sitting next to him on the tube.

Then he gets there to the building,

and right before he goes out for the opening match on the pay-per-view, he has has to watch this little childish indie nitwit, this little fucking Vienna sausage dicked moron that used to hang around with fucking chimpanzees swinging in the trees,

make mockery of him

on camera and

what he was asked to do by the company a few weeks ago.

Remember, it wasn't like he just of his own volition came up and said, hey, jungle jack off, we ain't going to do that.

Ain't going to be happening.

They came to him.

We've heard Tony Schiavone.

We've heard the producer of the television.

We've heard people from the office.

We've heard a variety of people came to him and said, hey, can you tell this guy not to do this?

Because he won't listen to us.

Now that same nitwit's out there in front of 80,000 people and all the pay-per-view audience putting the mouth on Punk's efforts.

that he was asked to do to begin with by the company.

Hey, I got a question.

I don't know the answer to, and I don't know if you would either, but

when Jack Perry did that, did he know Punk was there?

How late was Punk getting there?

Did he know Punk was there or was Punk so late that he wasn't even...

No, hold on, because it was the last match on Zero Hour and Punk was the first match on the pay-per-view.

And it's obvious Punk was at Gorilla.

He'd been there and he knew that he was going to be the next match and he was probably going to be in the vicinity of a fucking monitor.

That's why he did it.

And he figured his little fucking Kookamunga friends in the tree house, the boys' club, would take up for him and prevent any repercussions because there are none repercussions for anything there.

Or did he think Punk wouldn't do anything because Tony Conner would be right there if he was a gorilla?

Well, he probably thought that too.

But I don't know why he would think that because everybody does everything when Tony's around.

Sometimes they're doing things with Tony, from what we've heard from disgruntled employees.

So then

the fucking prick comes through the goddamn curtain.

Hey, you got a problem with me?

Got something to say to me?

Yeah, I just said it out there.

What are you going to do about it?

Well, here.

And now we find out he didn't Google.

I thought he just snatched the idiot around the fucking neck.

Apparently, he actually front-face locked him.

F-A-F-O.

But now we've, then the story has

been expanded to they knocked over some shit at the table because that's where Tony was sitting.

So apparently Tony was there.

I don't know why they're collecting statements.

If Tony was there,

what he saw is the only thing that matters and what he says the only thing should be the only thing that goes.

So.

Yeah, what does Tony say, really?

If he's sitting there when this happens and they get him broke up, if it's me, I'm the you, what's the fucking issue?

And to hear his story, you, what's the fucking response?

And whichever story that I think is fucking sounds more legitimate, I'm going to believe because I'm sitting right there.

And I'm going to boot the other one out of the fucking building and the company.

Who are the investigators?

Well, fucking Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe have opened up an investigative branch.

Apparently, I don't, like I said, Clusot could be on the case.

There were no investigators last time in the investigation.

There were no independent

fucking detectives on this case.

It was, okay, we're going to talk to a few people, and then we're going to fucking goddamn just wait until everybody forgets about it, we hope.

That was pretty much the goddamn deal.

It was the Khan family attorneys in Illinois that were doing the investigation, wasn't it?

But yes, we're going to talk to everybody, and then we're going to do nothing about it, and we're going to see if everybody will forget about it.

That's what happened.

So, I doubt very seriously if we're going to get any earth-shattering results from this investigation, but I think the footage.

Yeah, what does that say?

What does that say that the investigation would have to expand upon?

So, the owner of the whole company was sitting in the proximity of the issue, and they have it on camera.

We need more information.

If we only knew what happened, it's like putting together the goddamn Kennedy assassination.

We've got so little to go on.

We know what dipshit did on camera out there.

We know what Punk did when he came through the curtain.

Boss man was sitting right there, and they got it on video.

We have a Jack Perry update.

He's doing nothing and brushing his hair.

Well, that does take a while.

One thing you can say about the kid is he's got a lot of hair.

Do they reinstate punk before the pay-per-view?

If they have half a fucking mind,

remember, I put the qualifier if on there.

He's got to be out of his mind.

He's going to kill Chicago.

He's going to kill Chicago.

If these people, they might not have thought he was going to be on Wednesday night on Dynamite when they bought tickets, but for the people who bought tickets for Collision Punk Show,

and didn't they get screwed out of,

him one time before, didn't they, or did they, in this whole situation?

Oh, I'm not sure.

I mean, the AEW fans, they take a lot of screwing.

But nevertheless, if he's not on Collision and definitely he's not on the pay-per-view,

and when the people bought the tickets, it was after Punk had returned, correct, where they had every reason to believe he would be on these programs.

Right.

And now, if he ain't,

they're going to set the seats on fire.

What has happened?

Jesus Christ, what has happened to people's minds?

And I mean, and that's a joking line, obviously, but people have done that in the past.

One time they were bringing Jimmy Valiant back to Memphis.

He hadn't been there in a year.

Handsome Jimmy Valion was one of the most over guys in the fucking territory.

And they advertised it.

He was in the main event.

And goddamn, that's when he had a health issue.

And he passed out in the Charlotte airport before he was on the way to fly to Memphis and didn't make the show.

And guess what they did, Brian?

They set the fucking seats on fire.

So I mean.

Vader and Noki.

Vader and Noki.

They didn't set the seats on fire.

They threw him into the fucking ring.

Got banned from the building.

Not Vader and Noki, but all of wrestling got banned from the building.

You know, I'm just saying it's insane to me.

So what if he front-face locked a preliminary fucking boy?

The preliminary boy also ran his fucking mouth and deserved it, but god damn it.

The fucking main event guy in his hometown, you're running a pay-per-view and you're going to lead them to believe that he's going to be there up until five days before the show where they don't even know a card to begin with anyway.

And then you pull him,

they're going to kill Chicago.

They won't be able to go back there on a fucking bet.

All right, well, speaking of people running around crazily attacking people for no reason, let's update ourselves on what CM Punk has been doing these days.

Apparently now...

And Brian, you're going to have to fill me in on it because so much has been happening over here at the castle this week that

I've heard a little bit about this.

I think you have some more detail but now the story has become

after we on

what's your show's name the drive-through that's it listen to it folks he needs the positive reinforcement but after the drive-through where we reported that brian alvarez has been made a public laughing stock and tied to the proverbial whipping post because he actually reported that punk and miro almost got in a big fight when they were actually joking like hey you got a problem with with me?

Oh, you want to take it outside?

Bada bing, bada boom.

And that became, oh my God, I talked to five people that said they were serious.

Now, Punk, or Uncle Dave, Brian's spiritual grandfather, is now reporting that Punk lunged at Tony Khan and was held back from apparently assaulting him and committing bodily mayhem and aggravated fucking treachery on Tony Khan's carcass after he dispatched Jungle Boy Jack Perry.

What's the story here now?

Well, it's an ever-changing story.

Depends on which reporter is reporting it, it seems like.

But in this week's Wrestling Observer newsletter, Dave compiled several versions of the story, including the one he was told.

One person close to Punk who wasn't there, but talked to him

said he tried to help a young guy and prevent him from doing something dangerous with glass.

Oh, this is going back to the previous thing.

Excuse me.

Well, look,

we've already established what happened between Perry and Punk, and that's not in dispute by anybody except potentially the Kookamunga camp, is that

they were trying to talk Perry out of doing what he was trying to do, and he wouldn't listen to anybody.

And so finally, the

people that were in charge, Tony Schiavone, the producer, et cetera, went to Punk and said, said, hey, you're supposed to be the star around here.

Can you get this fucking guy to goddamn quit fucking whining at us and just do what we asked him not to do?

And that's what happened.

And that led to Jungle Boy believing that his panties were being put in a bunch along with his fucking artistry being suppressed.

So that was that incident.

Nick Hausman essentially presented the punk side.

He said Punk was in guerrilla since his match with Joe was next.

Perry walked past him.

Punk asked Perry if he had something to say, and the conversation escalated.

The version from either Punk or someone close to him,

but Dave's just flat out trying to figure out who that source is.

The version from either Punk or someone close to him said that Perry asked Punk to do something about it.

That version was that Punk shoved Perry.

And Perry shoved back.

Punk then grabbed Perry in a choke.

This was reported by others as a guillotine choke.

That's a front face lock for people who have been into business longer than there's been a thing called MMA.

With the idea of holding him there to defuse the situation and that he didn't want to fight Perry, and no punches were thrown as far as he knew.

That version was that Punk asked security if it would be better if he left the building and was told that nobody was going to ask him to leave, but it may be better if he did.

And then you may remember Jimmy ordered Nando's for some of his friends who were the talent.

Yes.

The version that Perry told people...

Cheeky Nandos.

The version that Perry told people is that he was leaving after losing and got backstage.

Punk came up to him with a lot of people around and said, do we have a problem?

Perry said no.

Perry then said to Punk that he said stuff that got online about him and that line using that term Crimea River.

It was noted that Perry probably didn't need to say the line during the match.

The wrestlers do that all the time, whether to get their frustrations out or to pop friends in some form.

Is this Dave speaking now, extrapolating on this?

This is Dave explaining the Perry side in his own words, yes.

Okay, because it's bogging down already.

It would have been no big deal to anyone, except he should have known better because it was punk.

The version Perry appeared.

He should have known better because it was charles man

and he was going to take offense at hit at fucking terry melcher not appreciating his music the version perry apparently said included that punk then said words to the effect of you know i could fuck you up at any time right

that version was that he then pie faced perry and tried to put a guillotine on him and also threw some punches that were awkward from the position punk was not doing any damage

oh

Not only the story is that Punk's just wailing on him, but that he's not doing any damage.

While Perry grabbed Punk's arm to try to keep him from locking in the move.

Somebody gave Dave the imagined play-by-play of this entire skirmish.

Most of the people who've been in these things can't remember exactly how they happen.

Samoa Joe came in and quickly broke it up.

Perry didn't have a bruise or scratch on him past those he got from the match.

Brody King, who is tight with punk, ended up being mad.

And one version of the story told by many is that he punched a wall and may have broken his hand.

Although he claims differently.

King did end up with a broken hand.

I didn't know anything about this.

Kid did end up breaking his hand, but he said it was during the match.

King later claimed he never punched the wall, but he did kick a garbage can

and broke his hand during the match on the guardrail.

However, other reports by those there have claimed to witness his punching the wall.

Oh, for fun.

And the word of the dressing group was that he may have broken his hand or wrist hours before his match started.

I don't see why he would make up a story, yet others have outright said that when people reported his story, they were being worked.

So who knows?

It is possible that he punched the wall

and people thought he broke his hand and then actually broke it in the match, which would be quite the coincidence.

And it is possible with all the goings on, people thought it was a punch when it was a kick.

Security took punk.

Can we get back to punk?

Hold on.

I want to talk about Walgate.

I want to talk about Walgate.

His goddamn medical file at his primary care physician is not as thick as Dave's fucking extrapolation on how his hand may have been damaged.

I hope Rody King's career could overcome all this talk about whether or not he did indeed punch this wall or not.

I don't know if he'll be allowed back in England.

I wonder, did the wall sell?

Security took Punk into his dressing room.

Punk was then screaming at Khan and swearing at him.

While this was going on, the announcers and production people were told to stall because at this point, no one knew if Punk vs.

Joe was happening.

Nobody, except those who saw the situation, knew why, only told to stall before the first match.

Let me fast forward a little ahead.

Okay, dude, do you?

I've watched the pay-per-view.

I got the pay-per-view from the start, not the zero-hour countdown or whatever.

But when the pay-per-view came on, they had the normal

Pyro, Bally Who, wide shots, crowd, now whatever the fuck.

Was there any goddamn, was somebody out there twiddling their thumbs for five minutes waiting for the first match?

According to the Wrestling Observer newsletter, Jim Ross was going to have a planned major entrance and it didn't happen

because of all this.

If they were stalling, why would they have taken something out?

Hello?

I don't have an answer for that.

I was trying to think of any logical answer to that.

I don't know.

Maybe J.R.

didn't want to walk all the way from the fucking locker room to the goddamn ringside and be blowed up at 72 years old with fucking leg cancer before he started the goddamn show.

But why would you take something out if you were being told to stall?

That makes no sense.

Back to the observer here.

The belief is that Joe convinced Punk to have their match, and the show then went in the order it was originally scheduled to go.

Another version.

And this would be a neutral source who was not a wrestler, but was there and witnessed it and his version was that right after Perry came to the back punk went nose to nose with him aggressively and asked if he had a problem that person said Perry said he was just looking to get heat as a heel

punk shoved him hard Perry got in his face and in that version Punk's sucker punched him and went for a choke People immediately broke it up and Khan was yelling at Punk to let him go.

That person said that once they were separated, Punk lunged in Khan's direction,

but a number of people got in his way.

He said, Khan!

And a number of people got in his way while Punk was yelling, I quit!

Monitors were knocked down during all this.

Joe was very upset.

and went to calm Punk down.

Well, let's stop there.

What do you think about him lunging at Tony Khan?

Yeah, I think a lot of this comes from almost nobody involved in this equation actually knowing what legitimate aggressive behavior is.

They think that if you look at somebody with a stern face and say, fuck you, that's aggressive.

I don't think they understand what the fuck they're looking at.

And secondly,

Tony Khan talking about an investigation.

Apparently, he was standing right in front of it.

Did he need a magnifying glass to investigate that?

If he was involved in the room when it happened, he was standing in front of it, and there's a video of it, apparently.

Apparently, as we've been told, there's video because there's security cameras all over Wimbley.

Down Wembley Way.

And also, yes, I can believe pieces of all of this.

I can believe that the whiny little fucking bitch,

Jack Perry,

thought that, as we've said, he was going to mouth off on TV and get his vent his spleen on what poor,

you know, the poor beleaguering that he'd gotten from fucking Punk for not doing his glass spot.

And we can believe that when he came back through,

Punk said, Do we have a problem?

Where it gets sideways is,

I would think and I would believe more of the,

what are you going to do about it, than either, I was just saying something to get heat.

Although actually,

I was just saying something to get heat is probably another goddamn

passive-aggressive thing that they'd say.

But

that's because they.

Heat from who?

That doesn't get heat from heat.

From who?

Nobody would understand except the guy that you're trying to piss off.

And it doesn't make any sense in storyline or context or anything else.

So he was saying it directly to him, but then passive-aggressive, he'd say, I was just trying to get heat.

Do I believe that Punk just started fucking punching him?

No, because the testimony there from,

you know, Pope Dave was that he didn't have a scratch on him.

And I don't care, you know, Jesus Christ, whether Punk won or lost his fights in the UFC, put Jack Perry in that fucking position and see what would have happened.

The point is, if there was the shove-shove, and whoever shoved who first,

Punk front-face locked him, which is what you do to neutralize the situation.

And then I could also believe that Punk was saying, I quit.

Like, what the fuck?

How much more do I have to put up with from these fucking children and these fucking backstabbers and these fucking connivers and these fucking pussies that can't even fucking come out and get in my fucking face?

They got to do it on camera.

on zero hour or they got to call Dave and his little lab dog Brian.

Hey, listen, a mid-card guy gets away with doing that on TV because they know the boss isn't going to do anything about it.

Exactly, because everybody can get away with it because they know the boss isn't going to do anything about it.

And again, I reflect back on CM Punk worked in the WWE for 10 fucking years

and a fuller schedule than he is now.

And I don't recall any lawsuits, locker room brawls, investigations, suspensions, whatever the fuck.

But he's been in this fucking romper room for two years part-time.

He's already been in a half dozen of them.

What's the common factor is he ain't putting up with any shit as it relates to shit coming his way,

and nobody at the top is doing anything about it.

In his previous place of employment, if there was any shit coming up, it didn't bubble over till it came out like that, either in public until the end, in public or physically,

because there was a fucking boss doing something about it.

In this case, you have a boss doing nothing about it.

You have a top talent who the network likes, who is paid like the top talent that he is.

Who is being run off?

by the executive vice presidents of the company and their associated stooge minions that are swinging on their dicks and riding the flying squirrel of their nutsack

and i believe he's still their biggest merch mover too

and then

here's another thing

who are the people giving dave and brian these play-by-plays and how much more veracity is is there in dave's latest one than there was in alvarez's tweet punk and miro Well, here's the other thing.

I'm not saying this is all a stooge test, but it may have become that.

If you're punk and at Miro, Brody King seems to have been busy with the wall in the back, but if you're punk at Miro

and this is happening, and now Dave's saying one person who's not a wrestler who saw this told me this, Alvarez is saying five people were witnesses who told me this.

How many people were there?

At a certain point, maybe you're figuring out who the problems are.

Reporter, reporter, can you tell me a lie?

You're going to find out.

You're going to find out the source source is Tony.

That's the problem.

That's the problem.

And he's telling him different stories depending on who the last person is he talked to.

He loves the drama.

Because he believes everything.

And he loves the drama.

Even, again, recently he did an interview saying that he doesn't think it's necessarily a problem when your locker room doesn't get along.

But he doesn't love the drama if he's in it because he won't be dramatic with anybody.

He doesn't want anybody to be mad at him.

We've heard over and over.

He won't talk to anybody if he has bad news for them, either to fire them or to fucking.

He's never told anybody they were suspended personally, as far as I am aware.

Wasn't that all handled through legal?

Does he ever tell anybody bad news?

Does he ever say no?

Tell him no, no, no, no, no.

Once again, the zombies, ladies and gentlemen.

Colin Blumstone, Rod Argent, the other guy with the glasses.

Rod Argent.

Whatever happened to him?

He then did the band Argent.

Well, I know that.

Hold your head up.

Well, the other song was God Gave Rock and Roll to You, which later KISS covered for, I think, the soundtrack of Bill and Ted 2.

But then Argent was gone.

But then Argent went away.

I actually saw the zombies.

Well, they are still reunited, but they had their first reunion tour.

They did some small venues and there was an industry function in New York City.

I got to see them.

Are they still losing body parts whenever they walk down the street?

No, they actually have remarkable heads of hair and

sounding pretty good.

Brains.

Not those zombies.

Not the Svengooli zombies.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Well,

Svengooly can carry a decent tune when he's got Freddy Boom Boom Cannon on his side.

What about that?

You know, you've talked in the past about stooge tests.

Could something become a stooge test inadvertently?

Possibly if

if the person who knows what the real story was

then was to make up a story

and only tell it to one person,

and that story then

got out and was repeated,

then that person that was told that story flunked the stooge test.

And there could be one of these floating around in there somewhere.

Because how many different stories can we get?

And generally, the wilder ones andor the ones that Uncle Dave puts all the flowery language in and the supposition and the assumption and all the rest of that stuff,

they're a little bit ridiculous rather than the simple version, which, hey, you got a problem with me.

Yeah, what are you going to do about it?

Ah, here you go.

That's what I'm going to do about it.

That's generally the way it happens.

I got some breaking news here.

Dave Meltzer reporting after the incident where he lunged at Tony Khan,

CM Punk was seen in catering where he cut the line and lunged at a salad.

He's out of control, this CM Punk.

And I understand that later on he was seen throwing puppies off the roof of Wembley Stadium.

He must be stopped.

He must be stopped at all costs.

All right.

Hello again, friends.

The great Brian last here.

You there.

We're back with another special edition, a breaking news edition of whatever show this is.

And of course, joining me, Mr.

Jim Cornette.

Tell him what's actually going on.

There's so much going on.

We're in the middle of recording a podcast where we're talking about all the goddamn wrestling that they're foisting off on us this weekend alone.

And this is not that podcast because we've stopped watching that wrestling and recording that podcast, the Jim Cornette experience, by the way, for those of you who are so inclined to listen, to record this podcast that can't wait because

the moral of the story, Brian, is that sometimes the bad guys win.

I think back to a song that Mama Cornette used to sing to me when I was just a little boy.

And I would do something that would flummox her, and she would be Verklimpt,

and she would say, They're coming to take me away, ha ha, hee, hee, ho, ho, to the funny farm.

Of course.

And there's the phone ringing.

Who could this be?

Wait a minute.

Hello, caller.

You're on the air.

If you can identify our 93.5 song in the next five seconds, you'll win $5,000.

They can't identify it.

Oh, well.

Anyway, where were we?

They're coming to take me away, ha ha.

Oh, he

to the funny farm, yeah.

All the way there.

Because

it is enough to make a person question their sanity, the things that go on in that

snow globe of a wrestling company that Tony Kahn, the real life Richie Rich, has put together based on his teenage fantasies when he apparently,

I thought everybody that had a billion dollars or at least had a family that had a billion dollars could get like

regular pussy

and jet off to the fucking Riviera and do drugs with Mick Jagger.

He was sitting in his fucking basement collecting action figures and booking them.

And now he's found out that with the $100 million that his dad gave him, so that he could see see him spend it and have fun with it before he died,

that he's collected the real-life action figures, and they don't just fucking do their kung fu grip when you press the fucking button on their back.

They're really interacting with people like normal fucking wrestlers, and he can't handle it, and he can't control it.

And now he's fucked around and dumbed himself

out of his biggest star, and the only

that was moving to fucking ratings,

and the only one that was moving to pay-per-views.

He has basically dumbed himself

out of the business.

He's killed Chicago.

They booed him

like a goddamn terrorist for fuck's sake, when he was out there on stage.

trying to tell those people his tale of sorrow and woe.

Nobody's talking talking about his company doing 80,000 people anymore.

They're talking about him being an idiot and fired his biggest star because he fucking front-face locked a preliminary guy.

I don't know if that's the reason.

I don't know if that's the reason, considering we're now hearing that he lunged at Tony Khan and the statement from Tony Khan.

Oh, yeah.

That may not be the reason that Tony Khan fired him.

No, the reason Tony Khan fired him, and we're going to play this hostage statement that was.

And by the way, we should probably say that.

What we're talking about here is: and we have the statement, we have a written statement, and a statement you could hear various other things, but Tony Khan, AEW, have fired CM Punk.

We didn't say that yet, did we?

No, you just went off.

We just assumed that everybody would know because that's the only thing that anybody's talking about about this fucking ridiculous romper room of a company.

So, yes, he's fired CM Punk hours before the collision at the United Center that was to set up the pay-per-view that is,

as we speak tonight at the United Center, Punk's hometown,

that he is now killed as a market for AEW when it was maybe their best one because of Punk.

It was the first one.

And

he makes it a couple of hours before the show on the internet and then opens the program.

stood up against the green screen,

reading from the teleprompter

a statement that whoever really made this decision has written out for him.

And we obviously,

by the wording, it's the attorneys, it's the legal staff.

Also, but we know it's the AEW legal staff because the wording is fucking, the syntax is tortured and the grammar is disemboweled.

But he read it.

like he was reading it for the first time because he didn't make this decision

because it was all worded by the attorneys because they are apparently convinced in their minds that Punk is going to sue their fucking asses and they're trying to set up a defense already.

I disagree with you.

This is absolutely Tony's decision, but he's letting the legal team write this because of the threat of the lawsuit.

We're at this point now because Tony decided this is the point.

Well, so Tony finally made a decision, you think?

I thought whoever really calls the shots over there is the one that would make a decision this big.

Because we know.

Whoever really calls the shots is Tony's dad, and he's not involved.

Well, that's why I thought somebody may have put the fucking foot down.

Or, you know, I'm thinking, because Megan,

you know, Megan, the head legal beagle over there,

she's been involved in this since the start because she was one of the people that burst into his locker room along with the Buckaroos and their ilk and started the whole goddamn deal a year ago.

And we know that Megan is close to the Bucks, Bucks, not as close as she is to some of the boys.

Why don't you actually say her name so people know who you're talking about?

The head of legal, Megan.

Mega.

It's not Megan, Mega.

What's her last name?

Perik.

Well, I thought it was Parrot, Megan Parrot.

But nevertheless, like I said, she's close to the Bucs, closer to some of the boys.

Some of the boys are so close, they're almost coming out the other side of her, from what I understand.

But nevertheless, that's who has been

leading this charge.

Is she on the discipline committee?

Well, hold on.

We're going to get to that.

We're going to get to that.

She's been leading the charge.

She's been the one that was screwing up contracts because she's in charge of AEW Legal, trying to throw stumbling blocks in the way of bringing punk back with messing around with the A-Steel.

employment and et cetera.

She's the one who's been trying to collect evidence for her friends, the buckaroos, all along.

And she's the one who, I'm sure, had a big hand or whatever other appendage she wanted to put in

in wording this

so that a jury, when the lawsuit eventually happens, will go, oh, my God, Tony was so scared.

Tony was so scared.

The night that he saw his first fight, it was traumatizing for the boy.

See, that's the the biggest problem.

And we'll get to, there's so many different things to talk about here.

CM Punk has plenty to be blamed for.

The elite have plenty to be blamed for.

Jungle Boy has plenty to be blamed for.

But at the end of the day, this is all Tony Khan's fault.

Tony Khan could have stepped in and done something a year and a half ago, and he didn't.

He could have done something before and after all out last year.

He didn't.

This all comes back to Tony Khan allowing this to happen, possibly wanting it to happen, and then not being able to deal with it when it happened.

And it happened right in front of him.

And he still had to do an investigation.

And boy, I'd like to see the written notes of all those interviews and the investigation that was done by the independent legal team of who and who.

Who were the independent legal people in charge of this investigation?

What did this investigation investigation consist of?

And do they work for your father?

And do they work for your father?

And who's the one that interviewed Tony?

Since apparently he was sitting close enough to be scared about the whole thing.

And before we go into any other of what actually happened, let me just say this.

And this is without hyperbole or exaggeration or

comedic effect or whatever.

As a booker, as a promoter, what would I have done

if I'm sitting at the gorilla position

and this happens

from the

jungle Jack Perry screaming into the camera, hey, it's real glass, cry me a river, all the way through to him coming back and the interaction with him and Punk and Punk putting a front face lock on him and knocking a bunch of shit over.

Here's exactly what I would have done.

I would have had somebody

find me a room

where I could go sit down with both of these fucking morons,

whoever it may have been,

and I would have said, hey,

number one, you, Perry, what the fuck are you doing?

We already had a goddamn issue and I thought it was resolved over the glass spot.

Now you're fucking mouthing off on camera.

Something that none of the fans would give a shit about or understand except for if they read the newsletters and it has nothing to do with my business except detrimentally.

So what the fuck are you doing?

And you knew he was going to be standing here and fucking watching it because you're a shit disturber.

He's my biggest star.

You're not.

Now, Punk, what did he say to you to make you put the front facelock on him?

Well, I asked him if we had a problem and he fucking was a smart ass to me.

Okay, Perry, sounds like you're lucky that he only front facelocked you instead of mashing your nose all over your face.

I remind you, he's my star and you're not.

Get your shit and go to the hotel and don't do this shit again or I'll fire you.

And punk,

not only don't front facelock anybody else, but don't knock over any more of my monitors because they're expensive.

Go have your fucking match.

Then go back to the hotel.

And then go back to the hotel.

What the fuck?

What else do you need to do?

What else would you need to do?

They're wrestlers.

If you're going to run your fucking mouth about another wrestler, if the other wrestler comes and fucking does something about it, well, now we're even.

It's only if the other side didn't get to do anything that we're not even and that shit's going to fester.

So you ran your dick liquor and you got put in a face lock for it.

I assume we're all done.

Can one of you tell me we're not done?

If the one that says we're not done, okay, then stand back up and see who can get the next fucking face lock.

Otherwise, we're done.

Does any of this happen if Jungle Boy doesn't send a message into the camera?

No.

Why would Punk have picked that particular point if he'd have just gone out and had his match, Perry,

and come back?

Why would Punk have picked that point to say, we got a problem?

Or what the fuck?

Why?

No, he wouldn't have.

Right.

Here's another thing.

When they had the original fucking beef over the glass spot, we've already established.

And now Uncle Dave's trying to put out the story.

Oh, it was cleared by AEW.

Then why did all those fucking AEW personnel come up to Punk and say, hey, this fucking little entitled ass wipe won't listen to us.

Go fucking fucking tell him what we're doing.

So that happened.

Do you think that Punk immediately the next day or whenever it was had to go over and say, oh, I got to go tell every journalist, every reporter, every news outlet what I had to do to stop Dickhead here from going through a fucking windshield the other day?

No.

Because it was an insignificant part of his fucking life and he didn't give a shit.

There was no reason for him to go.

So how did the story get out?

Story got out from Whiney Boy whining to his other whiny little bitch friends who then whined to their little bitch friendly reporters.

Well, we don't know how this story got out there.

Do you?

The original glass story.

I'm not saying it's punchy.

But we don't know where.

But we don't know where.

How else does it get out?

It didn't come from Punk's point I'm making.

Then if it didn't come from Perry, it came from the other people that are goddamn fed up with dealing with Perry.

And want to say, please, Jesus Christ, we had to go get punk and tell him not to do this shit.

The point is, in every room right now, in AEW specifically, but maybe even WWE, someone's immediately running and texting someone to tell them their perspective of what's happening or their view of what's happening.

Or the view they want people in the public to have of what's happening.

Or the view that benefits them.

Yeah.

So that's, again,

if Perry hadn't fucking mouthed off and just gone and done his garbage pre-show match, then nothing would have happened.

And if nothing would have happened, then Punk would be on the pay-per-view tonight in the United Center in Chicago, and people wouldn't be fucking all over Twitter and all over Chicago and all over the wrestling world going, Tony Khan is a fucking dickless pussy.

He's brought this on himself.

And I said at the top of the thing, sometimes the bad guys win.

It's actually,

it's a win for everybody except the fans and Tony.

Punk doesn't have to put up with these fucking children anymore.

He's old, he's tired, he's hurt, and he works with children.

Well, he don't have to fucking work with children, and he don't have to get hurt anymore from working with the children.

He'll still be old, and maybe he'll get better sleep.

So he's going to improve his situation.

And now the buckaroos and the camp kookamonga and all of the friends and relatives know that they can do anything they want.

They can wipe their feet.

They can wipe their ass with Tony Kahn.

And it doesn't matter what's best for business.

It's just what they want.

And as a result,

the talent that AEW will be signing heretofore will be one of two categories.

Either the Chris Jericho category,

I'm going to, on the downhill side of my career, bilk this billionaire for a ton of fucking money.

Or the guys who have no, they want to be on TV and they want to play with their friends and they have no choice and they're going to fucking, but the guys who are in the prime of their career, the Cody's who already left,

any

young talent from the WWE that's been used in any fashion, that has any kind of name, that has any kind of future in wrestling, that could be potentially a draw for AEW,

they don't want to go there because the Buckaroos and I don't know if Kenny's even in on this.

I think he's too much of a wishy-washy douchebag to even be mean to people.

But the buckaroos and the hangnail and all of their ilk,

if you're a bigger star than they are, if you're a better talent than they are, well, there's a lot of those, if you're a more serious

wrestler than they are, they don't want you around because they don't want anybody bringing any level of professionalism.

into that goddamn daycare center.

But that's not the thing that keeps people away because they get along with enough people that there are people that would go there.

And even the people that they don't get along with, there's other people to work with.

I think what you may see keeping people away, people who have options, let's put it that way, not people who are waiting for any offer they get, is Tony.

Because

we talked about it early on.

There have been episodes like the one we're witnessing right now where it really explodes and people see it.

But from the very beginning, there have been structure issues with AEW,

management issues with AEW, AEW, lack of leadership with AEW.

Quite frankly, the guy who owns the company or partially owns it with his dad wants to party with the wrestlers and be pals with the wrestlers and hang out with the wrestlers and then book the wrestlers.

But that doesn't necessarily mean he wants to be a boss and he can't be.

So you have...

Something where you may make a lot of money and have some great moments like Wembley,

and then the next week you can go and play a half-empty room in Chicago.

Or you go to WWE.

At least their structure.

You'll get frustrated,

but you kind of know the order of things.

In AEW, it's just chaos and it's a mess.

The CM Punk issues may die down now.

That doesn't mean the AEW issues are going to die down.

No.

And he was just the...

lightning rod because

when you

when you have these, and you know, the buckaroos are the classic, hey, you're going to look at Maddie's face, old pie face, the smarmy, self-indulgent little fucking grin that he has on his face.

They're convinced that they are revolutionary talents in this business, in their minds.

And then you've got a guy like Punk who has absolutely no patience for bullshit and is not going to let somebody get away with saying or doing anything to him if he can do anything about it, which I admire.

And they're fucking polar opposites.

And then they've been setting this up because now we find out

that there was supposed to be a meeting, another in-person meeting was scheduled with Punk and the elite to settle the issues right before Wembley.

And guess who canceled it?

The elite at the last minute.

That story has come out now.

Jim, I have an article here, House of Wrestling, Nick Houseman.

You have to wonder if the Nick Houseman business may be going down now that CM Punk's out of AEW.

But here's the article.

CM Punk and the Elite Meeting was canceled days before AEW All-In exclusive.

CM Punk was terminated by All Elite Wrestling today following an internal investigation into a backstage altercation between him and Jack Perry at AEW All-In London.

His termination from the company comes just a few days before the one-year anniversary of his infamous AEW all-out media scrum.

Wait, I don't know about the summer of punk, but the ending of every summer becomes the summer of punk.

The Labor Day of Punk is fucking great.

Where he denied rumors he held Colt Cabana back in AEW and took aim at the elite, who he perceived as not capable of leading the company.

Following the scrum, Punk, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and others were involved in a locker room brawl that resulted in those holding titles being stripped of them and all included being taken off TV.

In the months since, tensions between the elite camp and CM Punks have remained frosty at best.

While Punk has been open to clearing the air, he has been told by lawyers that no communication is welcome.

Yeah, remember when he tried to,

what did old Twinkle Toes?

Yeah.

He tried to send out a message to him and got a message back from legal.

Don't try to talk to Kenny.

And not like a message like, hey, I'm going to kick your ass.

A message like, hey, when can we talk?

Yeah.

House of Wrestling has learned that a sit-down with the relevant members of the elite, CM Punk, and Tony Khan, was scheduled to take place last week ahead of AEW All-In London, but was called off at the last minute by the elite's camp.

From what we understand,

it was going to take place in Atlanta, and Tony Khan would have been present.

The summit was intended to bury the hatchet between both sides ahead of the historic AEW pay-per-view and the cancellation of it appears to have added to Punk's overall frustrations with the situation heading into the event.

This is interesting because

the timeline we were previously given for the incident where he didn't have anyone at the airport to get him was that he flew from Atlanta to spend the day with his wife and dog and then flew to London.

So that means that Atlanta trip, which we assumed was him filming Heels,

he was supposed to meet with Tony and the elite there.

And

this is also so perfect because

we recounted the problem he had when he landed there.

He had nobody to pick him up.

The car was not there that was supposed to be there.

The number he was given for the car bounced back.

He couldn't get Ubers in fucking London with a weekend of Wembley.

He had to take the fucking tube train where he got lost and fans were helping him find his hotel.

This follows him going to Atlanta for a meeting with these Yahoos for them to call it off.

No wonder he went home, spent a couple of minutes with his wife and dog.

And have you seen this?

Now some of our

the better detectives are on Twitter and on the internet, the fans, instead of the investigators Tony has.

They have found out the guy who apparently does the travel for AEW,

the car services and the planes and the pickups and the transportation.

He's a goddamn young buck jock sniffer.

He has pictures on his social media of him dressed up posing with the young buckaroos, and he's one of their disciples.

Listen, if you want to talk about people who work behind the scenes in AEW, a lot of them are.

Yes.

And that's why the place is a fucking mess.

Yeah, my wife can handle the merchandise for a nationally televised wrestling promotion.

Hey, how about my buddy that picks me up in his pinto?

He can handle transportation.

Give him a couple hundred grand a year.

He'll do it.

You fucking moron, Tony.

You have been bilked, hornswoggled, taken, shystered, canoodled.

So they set this up.

They send him to Atlanta for a meeting.

Then they cancel it.

Then they fly him across to fucking England and they stick him at the airport with no transportation.

Then he gets lost on the goddamn subway.

Then he goes to the biggest show of all time and he has to sit there and watch some fucking curly-headed, fucking entitled little prick mouth off on him on television while he's standing there.

What you you think he was going to do?

I'm surprised he didn't football kick Tony in the fucking pussy.

And Tony

is not even smart enough to see what his own little fucking minions did under his nose.

And because Tony

has

only in his wildest dreams ever been a part of a wrestling locker room and his fantasies, he sees a fucking skirmish and he sees a guy get front face locked.

He's like, oh my God.

He wasn't really, even Tony couldn't have been scared for his life.

That's lawyers speak.

That's verbiage.

They're setting it up.

They know something's going to court.

They're trying to give Tony some kind of defense.

In the process, they don't realize that they have outed Tony Khan

to the,

I don't know how many there still are, wrestling fans that are actually grown to fucking adults that want to see men fight instead of kids play.

They vowed Tony that he's a pussy.

How can you be scared for your fucking life?

Oh my God.

As a matter of fact, we haven't even got to that.

The

Tony's little statement that he made on collision that was written for him by the attorneys, that's my favorite part.

That was, when I saw that,

I tweeted it.

I I said,

in 50 years, in a business filled with hyperbole and exaggeration, I don't know that I have ever heard one sentence so

filled with more of a metric fuckton of complete bullshit

than the one I heard tonight from Tony Khan's lips.

I was scared for my life.

Well, Jim, we'll play the audio in a second, but I do want to say,

I disagree with you.

I think Tony could have been legitimately scared.

How many times in Tony's life do you think he's ever actually been punched in the face?

Okay, well, then they've outed him as a big pussy.

But I'm serious.

But here's the thing.

He's in a small but crowded environment at the guerrilla position.

There are other people around.

Even if Punk lunged at him,

he's got nothing in his hand.

What's he going to do?

Hit Tony with the goddamn open-palm death strike that the Chinese kung fu masters killed Bruce Lee with?

How's he going to fucking kill him that quick?

It's not about reason.

If Tony wasn't the son of a billionaire and afforded...

I thought you were going to say son of something else.

No, no, no.

And afforded all the privileges that he has.

The football team, the NFL football team, AEW,

his analytics business, all these various things.

He'd be at home on the computer all day on wrestling message boards.

Because he's in social situations and he's socially awkward, that doesn't mean he would be that person if he didn't have all the money floating him.

So when you look at him and you think, oh, he shouldn't be concerned about this and other, he is

in a lot of ways, you know, we make fun of all the Bixes out there.

He's kind of one of them.

So the reaction to any violence anywhere near them, I could see, who knows?

But I could see him having a little bit of a meltdown because I doubt Tony Khan's ever been punched in the face.

And I doubt Tony Khan wants anything to do with a fight, whether he's in it or not.

Do you disagree with that assessment?

I get, you know, when you lay it out like that.

I mean, obviously it's lawyer speak because he wouldn't word it this way, but maybe he told him, oh, I was so scared.

And I said, hey, that's good.

Write it down.

It's absolutely lawyer speak.

And again, right before this is when it all of a sudden leaked out.

We have not even released the clip yet.

That's how soon this has happened from the story that he lunged at Tony Khan.

That story just came out a day before all of this.

So again, all the timing of all these things is

the question is when this, when all these other stories came out the day of and the lunging was left until six days later,

did somebody just think, hey, lunge would be a good word?

Instead of him turning around and pointing his finger and going, this is your fucking fault.

I quit.

Take this company and shove it up your ass.

Is that a lunge?

What is a lot?

Because a lunging, like if you told me someone lunged at someone in my eyes, if I closed my eyes and thought about it, it's kind of what you described as goozling someone.

I'm going for their throat.

I'm going to get them like that.

That's lunging at them, not taking a step in their direction, yelling.

Yes, I would go for a full-on crossbody as a lunge.

Like, here we go.

I'm lunging.

Yeah, over the table or whatever the fuck.

And again, important note,

all of this apparently is on video.

And I believe the UK laws, if Punk wanted to, he can get it and release it.

So whatever's out there that happened is on video.

And the parties involved can let us all see it if they wanted to.

But I mean, you know, and here's another thing.

It's another example of if Tony would be that frightened by anything like that happening and he...

has been a wrestling fan for this long and he never dreamed anything like this would happen.

He's taken a job he's not prepared to do because he's not mentally or emotionally equipped for it.

And yes, it's A, the first

50 or 60 times that some of the fans punched me in the face or fucking came after me or fucking bloodied my nose or gave me a black eye or goddamn, I was drugged down onto the ground while the cops were trying to pull everybody apart.

That's frightening.

But

that was not people that I knew personally that I was paying millions of dollars to that I employed in a company that I'm the fucking owner of.

I wouldn't have been that scared in that situation.

It was random strange people, probably drunk that I didn't know that were trying to kill me, not having a fight in my general area.

And again, nails lunged at Vince McMahon.

They were in a room by themselves.

Damage could be done.

This CM punk Tony Khan alleged lunging, if that's what we're going to call it.

Samoa Joe was there.

I guess Jack Perry would have still been there.

Whoever come on, are you asking?

I wouldn't help.

If the only person attacking me was Harley Quinn, I wouldn't rely on Jack Perry for help.

Just in terms of how many people were there, at least five sources, right?

Brian Alvaro said five sources who saw the thing said this.

So there's a bunch of people there.

I wonder if he was counting people or the number of eyeballs.

So that way, each person gets two.

So, I mean, that's the thing.

How scared was Tony?

And like you said, I think he probably could have been really scared because I think any sort of violence at all would scare him.

I don't think he's ever had any sort of conflict like that in his life.

He's not prepared for it.

But

with that said, we have a written statement and we have the statement that was released on Collision.

Should we just play the audio?

What do you think?

The written statement is a little dry.

The audio is what's,

to me, so entertaining.

So, Jim, a couple of weeks ago with everything that happened with Cash Wheeler, people tuned into AEW Collision, and there was no reference of it.

Things just continued on and still have on AEW-TV.

This time, this being such a big story and word-breaking,

the statement was issued, I believe, 4.33 p.m.

Well, and by the way, he also broke precedent because there was never anything mentioned on television about the first brawl last year.

It was never discussed, ever.

He never named who were suspended, right?

He just said the champions, their titles are vacant.

Yeah, so this is breaking precedent on advice of his legal team preparing for war.

So less than four hours before this is when the statement went out on Twitter and through various social media sources, I assume.

But here is the way AEW collision on TNT opened up.

I had to make one of the toughest decisions of my professional career.

Today I terminated Phil Brooks, CM Punk, for cause.

This stems from a backstage incident at AEW All-In last Sunday.

The incident was regrettable and it endangered people backstage.

That includes the production staff, the people who helped put the show on every week, innocent people who had nothing to do with it.

I've been going to wrestling shows for over 30 years.

I've been producing them on this network for nearly four years.

Never in all that time have I ever felt until last Sunday that my security, my safety, my life was in danger at a wrestling show.

I don't think think anybody should feel that way at work.

I don't think the people I work with should feel that way.

And I had to make a very difficult choice today.

It came at the recommendation of a discipline committee here in AEW, as well as outside legal counsel, who delivered a unanimous recommendation.

And I have followed up on that recommendation.

I'm sorry to any fans who are upset by this.

I'm sorry to anyone who's upset by this.

Despite that, we're going to have a great show tonight on Collision, and we're going to have a great AEW all-out pay-per-view tomorrow here in Chicago.

Last weekend was the greatest weekend in AEW history.

This is the greatest week in AEW history.

We're going to continue the great momentum here tonight on Collision and tomorrow night on All-Out Pay-Per-View.

Well, there's the statement.

Take a drink every time he uses the word cause or the word great, and in 90 seconds you'll be crocked.

Well, cause was certainly put there by the lawyer.

So over and over again, he's saying he had a reason to fire CM Punk.

Yeah, and that's what, for cause,

uh, is a term that can be used legally.

It's like he's the one that fucked up.

We had to do it, right?

But that's that's our defense.

And go ahead.

I was going to say, Tony also tried to give a very similar statement in front of the live audience in Chicago at the United Center.

And

very similar phrasing.

Obviously, there were terms and phrases that he was either told to memorize or told to say or remembered from the cue cards.

I don't know.

But instead of 90 seconds, because he wasn't reading it off the teleprompter, it took him about six minutes also because the people were booing him out of the building like the hunter that killed Bambi's mother.

And he sat down in a chair, and I believe it was six minutes in total.

Six minutes of that while the people were booing him.

Like Spalding Gray with no self-awareness.

And first of all, the discipline committee, not even the disciplinary committee but the discipline committee aew has a discipline committee

first we've all heard of it has anybody ever been disciplined before

and who is on this discipline committee that made this unanimous recommend recommendation is it megan is it maddie is it nikki is it jack perry is on the discipline committee who knows who it is because there isn't one They made it up for this occasion.

And

then

he said, I feared for my, not only I feared for my life, but my production people, the production, like Punk was back there with a goddamn hockey stick, waving it over his head like a helicopter blade, screaming, I want to take all you motherfuckers with me.

He snatched a fucking jerk and put a face lock on him.

How is that going to harm the production people?

Which of the production people has he been known to threaten

or been observed threatening?

Did he pull

some type of projectile firing implement out from his tights and was firing at random?

Rubber bands or fucking

those little discs he used to shoot out of the plastic guns or whatever the case and say it was going to put somebody's eye out?

The only production person we ever heard that got maybe a minor injury, that guy Topher in the original all-out locker room brawl.

He was the guy in there.

No one ever named him or anything, but he got, I think, like some scratches, maybe.

So the point of what in the fuck?

It's like that he's talking about a full-scale gang fight.

Nobody was going to get hurt that wasn't involved in it.

Tony may have been scared, but I don't really think that Punk would have knocked him out.

I think he would have told him off, flipped him off.

Because this is all Tony's fault.

Again, to go back to that,

whether Punk is right or wrong about any of these things or whether you agree with him or not, it's all Tony's fault.

Tony allowed all this to happen.

He let it all fester.

He wanted it to happen at times.

And if you're frustrated coming off a week where I'm just thinking about how I would feel if I was Punk, the meetings canceled, a meeting that potentially could lead to

company, not saving, but company.

Some revolution.

Some resolution.

Resolution of the issue.

Resolution and also potentially something great for the company, quite frankly.

That gets canceled at the last minute.

You fly to London.

You think there's going to be someone there for you.

There's no one there for you.

Turns out someone who's friends with the Young Bucks runs that department.

Interacts with a lot of fans on the way there.

No one's had a bad story about that.

You get there.

You're a gorilla.

You're watching the monitor.

Because what else are you going to do?

You talk to Samoa Joe a little bit.

You guys know what you're going to do.

You're watching the monitor, and there's Jack Perry looking right into the fucking camera saying, real glass, cry me a river.

You're like, what the fuck?

Right then and there, if I'm CM Punk, that's when I turn to Tony and say, what the fuck?

He may have.

He may have.

We don't know about that part because would he have gone over and leaned down with Tony with his headset on?

And would he have said, what the fuck is this fucking little jerk doing?

Because it's not just about Jungle boy jungle boy is a part of their locker room yeah

he's one of their their prime stooges if anything happens he's on the fucking

texting kenny right away yeah so the question becomes why did he feel comfortable enough in doing that or to do that they know how volatile cm punk is we all know that whether you take his side or not you kind of know what to expect

you had to know what to expect if you were jack perry he felt comfortable enough to do that because he knew whose locker room he was going to be in.

And

basically, again, Tony's sitting there.

Tony should have been meeting.

If Punk called it to Tony's attention,

let's say Tony was at the monitor but didn't see that particular thing.

Somebody else is whispering at him.

If Punk called his attention to it, Tony should have been the first one to meet Jack Perry coming through.

But he's not going to do that because he's not going to fucking tell anybody when they do something wrong.

And if Tony saw it, then he should have been the first one.

But same thing.

So it's left again to Punk to go, all right, this little fucking prick, not even a goddamn guy that allegedly is being presented on my level, but just some mid-card fucking goof that thinks he's hot.

I'm surprised he didn't just fucking drop him when he came through.

By the way, I'm watching now.

I had not seen this.

You retweeted it, actually.

Very Sean Michaels 1997-esque.

After Collision went off the air, the Young Bucks went out for a victory lap?

Yes, I...

In Chicago?

Yeah, somebody tweeted that.

It's apropos of this is how CM Punk's run in AEW ends with the Young Bucks taking a victory lap in an empty building.

Do you agree?

Because of a variety of circumstances from all parties,

that this is the best outcome.

This is the right thing right now for everyone.

Yes, because as I said, sometimes the bad guys win.

They got what they wanted.

Tony's too feckless to do anything about it.

But at least Punk doesn't have to put up with these fucking people anymore.

And he can move on to...

Whether it's the Survivor Series or the Royal Rumble or whatever, the termination with cause, we have to investigate whether there's any non-compete as a result of that or whether that may be tied up in court or whatever.

But he can go on because now he's the hottest wrestler in the business as far as people talking about him.

And

he can translate

the momentum that he had and the

news that he made and the attention that he got

on WWE television in front of a much larger audience into more money.

And he will not be having locker room fights with goddamn people because they don't do that there.

Because they know who's running the fucking show.

And it won't be him or anybody he's fighting with.

But as long as they give him,

I would think,

the level of input that they give the Cody's and the Romans and the whoever the fuck else.

Then, Eddie's got history with Heyman.

I don't know how they are these days.

I mean, you can't do it with Heyman because he's with

Roman Reigns, but

he got fired with cause.

So let's play with the idea that he's fired.

But hold on.

I didn't mean with Heyman.

No, no, no, I know, I know, I know.

I know, but what I was going to say is if it was with Heyman, it would be perfect.

But you can't, let's just say if it happened right now, you couldn't really do it this way.

But if he was fired with cause.

I wish Bobby Heenan was here.

You just have someone show up at the end of Raw and say, I have here the championship of the real world champion.

The real world champion.

He never lost that belt.

The real world champion, CM Punk.

But that's what I was going to say.

It's better for Punk because he just needs to move on and do two years with the big boys.

And he doesn't have to put up with all that bullshit anymore.

It's better for the Buckaroos and their ilk because they don't have somebody that's going to show them up.

and get in their way and stop them from doing the stupid things that they do and or just show that they're not the big names in the company the only people that it's detrimental to are tony for all the business reasons and

us

and all the fans because now we can't even watch a good show on saturday night

are we still going to watch collision i don't know whether anybody's still going to watch collision because it was rough it was rough this past week Well, that's what I'm thinking.

Let's give it two or three weeks to see if it turns into Rampage, and we'll know by then.

But

it and we'll all it'll also be interesting to see if they're applying their Wednesday formula to Saturday,

the Saturday program that's been holding its audience,

will that happen or will the same thing happen to us on Wednesday?

They go, okay, I've seen 45 minutes or an hour of this fucking same old shit.

I can leave now.

We'll see what happens to their numbers and to their patterns.

and to the quality, which we already are seeing.

But it penalizes the fans and it penalizes us that has to watch it.

But it's best for everybody that was making money out of the situation.

Maybe Punk could run his own show in Chicago.

He can call it somewhat in.

Ooh, I like that.

Or how about this?

He could do two shows every year.

One is

See Him In

and the other one is See Him Out.

Well, I guess they're going to have to take place Labor Day weekend if we go based on his prior successes with these events.

That would be the one where he sees them out.

Any final thoughts on this?

I mean, it's been such a crazy turn of events.

Every time something happened, another thing was reported.

Every time you talk about that, another thing happened.

It was snake bit from the start, and they knew what they could do.

They knew that they could get away with anything because of Tony.

And they, I mean, the Koo Kamunga kids, the Lollipop Guild.

They didn't want him there to begin with.

Their good friend, Cole Cabana.

Oh, Coca-Banna, Coca-Banna.

And they have sabotaged this since the start.

It didn't help that.

It helped them that Punk got injured because he was gone the first time.

He was gone for a while.

If you're out of sight, out of mind,

but he comes back and he's still bigger than they are.

So

they've been engineering this ever since and they finally got their way.

And,

you know, that's basically that Tony Kahn

is going to go go down in history as a guy that spent more money than anybody's ever had before, or even close to before,

to start a wrestling promotion,

had all these gifts given to him in terms of the right context and time for Wembley Stadium and the TV with TBS because now they're starving for viewers.

the whole nine yards, and he ends up looking like the star of a German Bukaki flick

after all the guys get finished with him.

This is Gordon Scasari times 100.

Gordon Scasari spent $1 million.

Tony spent 100.

And I was when they had

Gordon Scasari just had a goddamn pack of checks in his hand with no register and no checkbook, just writing guys' checks and tearing them off as quick as he could that night.

I witnessed it.

I said, I've got to get out of here and never see any of these people again.

And it's the same thing 30 years later with a guy with 100 times more money.

And it's

so there you go.

Well, there you go.

And this has been a special edition.

We're going to drop this as a special episode and get right back to recording the episode we were recording.

As all this happened, there are still about nine pay-per-views this weekend and a multitude of events to watch.

But I think we can close the doors on the CM Bunk bunk, the CM Bunk beat for the week or the weekend.

I don't know.

I think he's going to flip.

I think he's going to be out there throwing puppies off the top of the United Center.

He's in Chicago, isn't he?

Well, he has a home there.

They're in Chicago.

I'm thinking he's going to have a sack of a dozen puppies, and he's going to climb to the top of the United Center and start throwing them down to see if he can hit the fucking bucks.

Hey, one last question for you before we wrap this up.

Based on the limited feedback you've seen already on social media and whatever you're seeing in your emails,

the people who didn't like CM Punk, the fans I'm talking about,

who were just all about the bucks or maybe just not about the drama, whatever it was, they didn't want CM Punk there.

Do you think they're as happy as the fans who feel disappointed and upset

with either Tony's decision or what collision now is, or the promise of AEW, whatever it is.

Are the people happy that Punk is gone happier than how upset the people or disappointed the people who are disappointed are?

I don't know.

I don't think so.

Me neither.

Me neither.

Because a lot of people,

you know, obviously the buckaroo bonsai's out there didn't want Punk, and they're happy he's gone, right?

And he was the root of all evil.

And oh my God, he let violence solve something in the wrestling business.

All that, whatever.

But there are so many people now that even if they were on the fence or whatever, this statement, and Tony,

if most of their audience, I would think, is male.

And every adult male is going, you were scared for your life, dude.

Seriously?

And the discipline committee, and just that Tony comes off like such a putz.

He's a wishy-washy, no bass in his voice, you know, distracted looking fucking guy.

I'm sure he, you know, he's very nice and friendly.

But a lot of people are making fun of him now because,

again, scared for your life

and a discipline committee.

And

let's see the video.

Here's something else.

He did not tell what the incident was.

He made it sound like, I don't know if Punk might not have a case for slander because when he made it sound like that people were scared for their lives legitimately and production people were in jeopardy, it sounds like he pulled out a goddamn assault rifle.

It sounds like there was chaos going on.

It sounds like he's telling Punk's lawyers all the various people that need to be sat down and talked to in a deposition is what he sounds like.

Yes, but what I'm saying is the viewer that didn't read the internet will think, my God, what did this crazy man do?

It sounded so ridiculous or it sounded so over the top.

So a lot of people are making fun of Tony because I was scared for my life.

And it just, he's just such

a Casper milquetoast motherfucker.

A lot of people are pissed off that this couldn't be handled or settled.

A lot of people are, wait a minute.

You have, think about this.

They have backstage attacks three or four times on every program and nothing ever happens.

And they never even get mentioned again sometimes.

But this time, the biggest star in the company that a couple hundred thousand people are tuning in to see, the owner comes out and says, they got to fight backstage.

I had to fire him.

We were all scared for our lives.

Goddamn, show me that on the show then.

It must have been better than the shit you show me normally.

None of it makes any sense to a variety of people.

Grown adult men think Tony Khan is a pussy and a coward.

Fans who wanted to watch for CM Punk or just wanted to watch for a goddamn decent wrestling show are disheartened and disgusted.

And everybody looks like a complete idiot.

They made bigger news than drawing 80,000 people to Wembley Stadium, and nobody even saw it.

How stupid do you have to be to do that?

And this is why WWE doesn't take Tony Khan personally seriously.

Bingo, the kid.

That's what I've been saying all along.

And that's why six months into this thing, the WWE stopped offering everybody a fucking fortune not to go because they saw what it was and they saw who he was.

And they said, okay.

We've been through this before and it was a stiffer fight then.

We got nothing to worry about.

How big will Cody versus Punk be in WWE?

it'll be ginormous those two promos are you kidding

i i can't

who else can the wwe bring in that will cause more stir and draw more attention and provide us with a little

any more entertaining promos in the wrestling world today than cm punk

that's

hulk hogan

or maybe shibata and his missing brain.

It's not missing.

Again, we have to go through this.

He has the brain.

All right.

So Shibata comes in and brings the brain in a box or a wheelbarrow or whatever.

It's in his head.

It was returned to his head.

It was returned to him.

I'm sorry, I forgot.

It was overdue.

They had to pay an overdue fee.

But yeah,

who else in the world of wrestling?

I'm just going to, this is my comment.

Who else in the world of wrestling?

Can the WWE bring in to legitimately do big business with and try to make money and not some past-the-prime broken-down Japanese legend or some indie darling that everybody's going to turn their nose up and fart at?

And the answer right now

in this environment is CM Punk.

Well, we will see what happens.

There's some background noise.

I apologize for that, but we weren't supposed to be recording today and we won't be recording much longer.

This is the special edition update.

CM Punk fired F-I-R-E-D, as they say in professional wrestling.

But until, I guess the experience.

Until somebody else gets fired, we're going to go back to doing the show we were doing a while ago, and the experience will come out before you know it.

That's right, or before someone knows it.

But for Jim Cornette, I'm the great Brian last.

Tell me-ho!

They had about 10,000 people in the place because it was a pay-per-view, and the tickets went on sale months ago.

And with AEW running the Chicago United Center, one would imagine that everybody that bought a ticket, whether they bought it for him or not, pretty much assumed they were going to be seeing CM Punk.

Would you think that's not the case, Brian?

I would think anyone who bought a ticket within the last two months minus the last week thought that CM Punk was going to be there and more than likely in one of the featured matches.

Yes.

And then they find out the day before that he's not going to be, and there was a smaller crowd for Saturday night for collision.

They weren't happy.

And then they have 10,000 people coming.

So you heard what they did before the pay-per-view when everybody was coming in, right, with the shirts.

I've seen several reports of this, and it seems so ridiculous that I almost like I want visual confirmation.

It just seems preposterous in Chicago with all of this happening that they'd be confiscating shirts or signs.

Well,

they weren't able to take people's shirts away.

They were confiscating the signs.

But if you came with a CM Punk sign, they would take it away.

And if you came wearing a CM Punk t-shirt, they would make you turn it inside out or deny you entry to the building.

And think about this on that whole pay-per-view in Chicago, in the United Center.

And this is the hottest topic, not only in the company, but in wrestling.

Did you see a CM Punk t-shirt?

I thought I did.

I actually thought I saw a few.

That's why I was surprised when I saw these reports come up.

You didn't see any CM Punk signs, did you?

Except for the one guy in the front row that said Tony Kahn cured cancer.

They made sure to leave that one.

No, there was another sign I saw.

I don't know if it was collision or I thought it was the pay-per-view.

It said, cry me a river.

And then someone, it almost looked like they wrote in after the fact, CM Punk.

Maybe because they couldn't get the sign in if it said CM Punk.

But I don't know.

I mean, that's.

That's it.

He's their biggest merch mover.

He's their biggest merch mover, I believe, up until, you know, they fired him.

I'm guessing they can't sell his merch anymore.

But, you know, WWF got killed in the observer by those readers years ago for when they they would make people who showed up in a four horseman shirt.

Like, you had to switch that shirt.

You could not sit within camera view in a Crockett promotion shirt.

And that's what Tony Kahn's doing now.

Well,

except they're his own shirts.

That's the funniest part.

Well, now it's going to be in The Observer, it's going to be, oh, he was just trying to keep the peace amongst the locker room by not letting the fans stir stuff up or some shit.

But

anyways, so they thought they might be safe.

Well, Jim, speaking of athletes, we have some AEW news that we should get to here.

Word has come out overnight.

In a surprise move, Tony Khan and AEW have announced that Ace Steele has been promoted.

Vice President of Talent Development, they're giving him a facility in Florida to train people.

I'm shocked by this, but what an interesting move.

Well,

in a bizarro world where actually AEW is the bizarro world.

So in the bizarro world of AEW, where everything is normal, that would probably be what is happening.

But, in actual fact, what they did was they fired him.

And apparently,

again, we all know the history of this, so we'll try not to go into granular detail.

But

after the

brawl-for-all last September was settled to everyone's tenuous grasp on

satisfaction, where

it was agreed that Punk would come back and he'd be going over on Saturday night and the little fucking

cowards would be still over on Wednesday night so that nobody got scared.

A.

Steele was supposed to be coming back to Saturday nights to collision to be Punk's producer as he was before he was Punk's producer.

Guys had 25, maybe 30 years' experience in the wrestling business.

So, what the hell, right?

Why not make him a producer since he's been around the business longer than most of those fuckers have been alive?

And

then, when Punk was about to come back and they were about to announce the Saturday Night Show, we all remember the brew haha when, after they had gone through all the trouble of negotiating another deal with A.

Steele to put him in the back of the producer's position, to give him back pay for the time that he was unceremoniously fired beforehand for defending his friend and wife,

and everything was fine, and everything was going to be swell, and this was going to be the deal.

And that's what Punk was told, and that's what Steele was told.

Then you'll recall that at the last minute,

A.

Steele's contract was screwed up.

Wonder who was in charge of AEW Legal would be in charge of executing these contracts and making sure that they matched the deals that Tony Khan had made with these people.

I wonder what in the world, because AEW Legal's a crack staff.

We know that.

A number of their staff is cracked.

Well, also, HR would be involved because for an employee to come back or an employee to be hired, you would need human resources involved.

Yes.

So why couldn't all this be translated properly that they were about to announce the big debut of collision and suddenly they're trying to fuck A.

Steele around on his deal and Punk says, well, I ain't going.

And they have to get past all of that and get everything settled again.

And then

as soon as they make the deal, still, and still...

They've basically ended up with, they gave A.

Steele his job back, but said, you can't do it.

We'll pay you for it, and that's your job, but you have to work from home because people don't want you around because of all of the backstage brawls that you've been involved in in your 30 years in wrestling, all one of them.

They were scared of him.

So they were paying him to work from home.

You can't be a wrestling producer from home.

And again,

they were lied to and misrepresented to, and still Punk finally agreed to come back and try to save that fucking sinking ship.

And still agreed to fucking work from home.

You know, we, and we talked about for four fucking years,

Tony wouldn't fire anybody.

He had wrestlers without all of their proper God-given appendages.

He wouldn't fire them.

He had the worst wrestlers of the indie scene that couldn't even be shown on television.

He'd pay them for two, three years.

He wouldn't fire them.

Now,

in the space of a week, he not only fires the biggest star he's had the whole time he's been running this fucking joint, but

how do you fire A.

Steele over this?

By the way,

A.

Steele's now been fired twice by AEW.

He's the iron chic of AEW.

And again,

they just gave him his job back.

They just said, okay, you're back.

We're paying you.

You work for the company.

You're going to do something.

You can't come to TV, but you're going to do something.

This deal has been made.

And A.

Steele wasn't in London.

A Steele didn't front face like Jungle Boy.

A Steele wasn't even there.

It was Bunk.

Punk front face locked him.

But all of a sudden, as soon as now

they feel brave enough

that as soon as they get rid of the evil CM Punk, this guy

who had put up with everything else that they'd fucking done to him

and was fucking making him sit at home and not do what he was supposed to do,

and the time that he was maligned publicly because he was helping his wife and his friend.

And then, as soon as they feel like, okay, Punk's gone, now we can just fire him again.

He didn't do anything.

New.

If you gave him his job back a little while ago, well, he ain't done anything else.

He wasn't even there.

They're just liars and fucking backstabbers.

Not Tony, the people really running his company.

The fucking legal team and her buckaroos.

I'm sorry.

I'm just cranky today.

No, I mean, that's the big thing.

If Ace Steele was rehired,

and hasn't done anything, he hasn't interacted with anyone.

He hasn't been there to cause trouble.

Whatever job they're asking him to do,

I'm assuming he's doing it.

That it's not just a, we'll pay you to stay home kind of thing.

What did he do to be fine?

And, you know, it's now being reported, it's public, and we had heard this, at least I had beforehand, that Tony Khan is about to open a wrestling school or maybe not a school, but just a place to train people.

A training facility.

With Ace Steele.

That Ace Steele was either going to run it or be the top trainer or something.

And then all of a sudden that all changed.

Because he spent quite a bit of time around Harley Race's wrestling school, and he spent quite a bit of time around various different training programs.

So, that would have been, once again, something they need over there.

But here's the problem: you can imagine that the Buckaroos and their ilk don't want somebody training people how to be professional wrestlers because it wouldn't involve gymnastics and trampolines.

So, there's, oh, God,

Last thing we want is another bunch of guys that can outwork us.

So, you know, I'm sure they were highly against that to begin with, just from a

philosophical standpoint.

But again, you know,

the only people he has ever fired are his biggest star and his biggest star's producer twice.

One time for fucking retaliating and coming in and making a save, and the second time for sitting at home minding his own business.

You know, he fired Jimmy Havoc and

well deserved.

I forgot.

Well, no, no, but well deserved.

How come he didn't fire Excalibur for choking out Jimmy Havoc in front of him?

That happened in front of Tony Khan.

He wasn't afraid of his life then.

I forgot.

He's already seen a chokeout.

Well, he was probably too drunk at night.

He doesn't remember it, though.

Well, he likes to hang out with the boys, you know.

He's one of them.

He considers himself one of them.

But anyway, so that it's a sad state of affairs now that,

again, this guy is not even hardly two weeks removed from running the biggest attended wrestling event of all time.

And the only thing people are talking about, about his company, is who he's firing.

And as a matter of fact,

more people are talking about who he's firing than watching.

his television program.

We talked earlier about the collision ratings plummeting off the edge of a cliff.

Our

YouTube clip talking about Tony firing CM Punk

did more downloads than viewers of the show where Tony announced it to begin with.

Because

everybody's talking about, and by the way, I got the numbers as of yesterday afternoon, 412,000 to 345,000.

But the point is, everybody's talking about who AEW is.

Just on YouTube.

Just on YouTube.

And that's just on YouTube, by the way.

But nobody's actually going to AEW to fucking hear it from the source.

Everybody's talking about them rather than watching them for fuck's sake.

We beat Rampage 2, by the way.

But that's part of the problem.

The drama around AEW is more interesting than everything they have on TV.

And it has been for at least a couple of years.

Nothing they put on that show is as intriguing as their self-induced drama.

WWE has plenty of drama on their own, and then the shows happen, and it kind of, after a while, things go away.

AEW, it's one thing after another, after another.

There will be more.

We'll see who the next bad guy is.

But that's the thing.

They

let the drama overwhelm everything else that's happening there.

And then they complain about everyone talking about it.

Fucking you guys get off Twitter and work on your locker room.

You know what, though?

I've just realized this is all a carefully orchestrated plan.

TNT drama.

They're trying to go along with the fucking branding of the network.

It's all been a massive web of lies and work.

And now everybody's going to come out and take a bow on stage.

Punk will be in the lead.

Well, there it is, Jim.

A long road it took to get here, but an important story to tell, and we tell it here in chronological order.

CM Punk and AEW year two.

Final thoughts on something that will probably, as time goes by, be a year that a lot of people look at what went right, what went wrong.

Well, a seer and soothsayer once said, it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.

And it took him a long,

circuitous journey through fantasy land for CM Punk to finally return home to be the hottest and probably one of the highliest paid, is that a word?

Highliest paid stars in the wrestling business, courtesy of Mr.

Tony Khan.

Amazing journey, but we haven't got there yet.

Maybe we'll have that on the next year's omnibus.

At that point in time, we can announce that Tony Khan fired a WWE champion.

Well, there will certainly be more omnibuses and more story to tell with AEW, with CM Punk, and of course with the cult of Cornette.

Listen to the drive-thru and the experience wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

But from all of us here, to all of you there, happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Anything else, Jim?

That's right, it's a great one.

Tally-ho!