Tony Khan’s CM Punk-Jon Moxley AEW title reserving was atrocious

The most noteworthy a part of now-former AEW champion CM Punk’s three-minute loss to Jon Moxley on Wednesday’s Dynamite had nothing to do with the story beats introduced on display, within the ring, or by the present’s commentary staff. It had every thing to do with an incident final week through which Punk, in the beginning of a show-opening promo, was mentioned to have legitimately gone off the reservation to taunt one other former champion, “Hangman” Adam Page.

Quick refresher: As the rumors go, Punk felt disrespected by real-life components Page integrated into their title feud earlier this yr, so upon getting back from a foot harm, Punk wasted no time rekindling the meat by springing a lure supposed to make Page, a fellow main-eventer and fan favourite, appear like a coward. On its personal, that is no massive deal — heel Punk is superior, and demeaning a sympathetic determine is a fast and simple solution to construct pathos, which units up anticipation for a giant match, which in flip brings the pay-per-view buys and cable rankings. It’s textbook professional wrestling storytelling, besides there was one massive concern, in line with the rumor mill: there had been no plans for a continued Punk/Page feud, nor was anybody backstage even conscious of Punk’s intent to say Page that evening. Ultimately, if these stories are to be believed, Punk got down to harm the inventory of a colleague on nationwide tv, and to some extent he succeeded. Worse but, should you imagine the nameless sources, this stunt was not carried out in service of scrumptious pay-per-view buyrates or cable viewership, however petty revenge.

There’s a cause the phrases “report” and “rumor” are hammered dwelling so ceaselessly within the above abstract of this mess — it’s wrestling, muddying the water is the a part of the business’s DNA. It’s inconceivable to get a transparent, nuanced image of any closed-door drama by a collection of tweets. While accounts of Punk’s alleged unprofessionalism did come from usually well-sourced and reliable business journalists, together with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp and Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, on the finish of the day stories like these are knowledgeable by unnamed sources who’ve private relationships with the events concerned, are the events concerned, or have stakes of their very own within the firm’s backstage politics. Sure, following the filth will be plenty of enjoyable, simply be sure to insulate your self in a thick layer of skepticism earlier than wading by way of that muck.

Lending plenty of credence to those stories, although, is that final evening, one week after his alleged off-script ambush, Punk — unquestionably the face of the AEW franchise — was booked to lose the title in humiliating trend, pressured to roll by way of the motions like a sack of heavily-tattooed dough and limp off pathetically into the evening after Moxley ran by way of him within the firm’s shortest-ever world title match. You don’t e book a multimillion-dollar funding to get trounced like that with out a good cause.

Plugged-in followers instantly related the dots, speculating moderately that Punk’s embarrassment final evening was a direct punishment for his habits final week. But there are different potentialities, too. Perhaps Punk actually did irritate his injured foot and wanted to be written off TV. This doesn’t appear to be the case and apparently, in line with Meltzer, a rematch of this fiasco continues to be deliberate to primary occasion All Out (how they’re going to make this match thrilling once more and get themselves out of this nook they’ve written themselves into is anybody’s guess). Or, possibly, as one other faculty of thought goes, this was a bizarre type of meta storytelling, a means for Khan to whip the Very Online contingent of AEW’s fanbase right into a confused frenzy. Unlikely, but when that’s the case, mission achieved… congratulations?

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If certainly this reserving resolution was a punishment for Punk, because it seems to be, then a heavily-qualified spherical of applause goes out to Khan. It was a ballsy transfer for him to so publicly dole out penalties to a man he’s leaned on as the corporate’s MVP for the previous yr. Nobody’s greater than the present. It’s an excellent precedent to set.

Still, it’s laborious to see the occasions of final evening’s Dynamite as something however a colossal fuckup for quite a lot of causes, particularly contemplating the silent majority of informal viewers who don’t know or care in regards to the salacious backstage rumors, who’ve by no means heard of Dave Meltzer (how I envy you) — those who tuned in, watched Punk get killed, mentioned “huh?” and flipped again to an NCIS rerun.

Because irrespective of the intent, whether or not or not Punk deserved his destiny, this reserving alternative was as awful because it will get — inexplicable at finest and, at worst, a critical blow to the status of their world title. Think about it: Just two weeks in the past, a Punk/Mox championship unifier appeared like an apparent pay-per-view primary occasion. Most anticipated it will headline All Out, and few have been against that concept.

This week? That identical match didn’t even primary occasion a random-ass Dynamite in Cleveland. That distinction went as a substitute to a six-man tag match match that includes Death Triangle and United Empire, a staff not signed to AEW.

Is Khan sending a message to Punk, or anybody else on the expertise roster, price sacrificing the narrative cohesion of the corporate’s flagship present and its most vital belt? Hell no. But that appears to be precisely what occurred.

To make issues worse, the Dynamite commentary staff didn’t even try to clarify why this vastly vital match was positioned so low on the cardboard, nor how the corporate may have had the foresight to schedule a number of extra matches afterward when Mox and Punk may conceivably have gone the complete hour. (Standby matches! It would have been really easy to handwave away they usually didn’t even hassle!) Yes, suspension of disbelief is vital, however there’s a restrict when the plot turns into as aggressively nonsensical because it was final evening.

It’s Khan’s enterprise, Khan’s inventive, and due to this fact Khan’s prerogative whether or not he needs to squash Punk, droop him, or make him speak to a mop for the following six months (please do that). But it doesn’t matter what, the overarching story introduced to viewers — all viewers, not simply those devoted sufficient to enroll in textual content alerts about what Kenny Omega ate for lunch — must take priority and make sense. Last evening, it didn’t. AEW dropped the ball, and selecting it up once more gained’t be straightforward.