AEW stars very upset and frustrated.
How the decision to air the footage was made.
WWE releases and more.
I’m Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News
We’ve now had an extra 24 hours to process AEW airing the shoot CCTV footage of CM Punk
and Jack Perry’s backstage altercation at All In - the incident that led to AEW firing
Punk with cause.
And with that extra night’s sleep, and some distance, and just a bit of time to emotionally
work through what happened, I think today we can all, with heads that are a little clearer,
say: Yep, that was still a terrible idea.
That was a really, really dumb thing to do.
Ironically, there’s an argument that AEW, by doing this, has largely managed to eradicate
wrestling fan tribalism.
Because everyone from AEW hardcores to WWE stans are united in thinking this made them
look second rate.
So how was this decision made behind the scenes?
PWTorch’s Wade Keller first reported on his podcast that:
“I’ve been checking with people in AEW and I have been told that this was not something
The Bucks were in favor of doing.
“It wasn’t their idea, it was Tony Khan’s idea that he wanted this out there.”
He then expanded on this in a written report.
“One prominent AEW source, when asked if the Bucks were initially on board with the
idea of airing the Punk footage, said: “They were not.”
The source said they didn’t know “one person [other than Tony Khan] that was on
board with this.”
Another source tells me the Bucks were ready to move on and not get into this again.”
Keller continues, claiming that once it was clear Khan had made his decision, Matthew
and Nicholas Jackson pitched ideas on how to make it part of a storyline.
“Some of those ideas, we’ve been told by multiple sources, were shot down by Khan,
perhaps due to legal reasons or wanting to keep their comments in the realm of Khan’s
vision of promoting the Bucks vs. FTR match” Keller then describes the Bucks as ““willing
participants” and said any framing of this situation as this being something they were
forced or pressured into doing against their will is not fair or accurate.
Other sources say they had ideas that didn’t make air and wanted to do it differently.”
So it seems by Keller’s report, the Jacksons were not initially on board, but once Khan
had made his decision, they went along with the plan without being forced.
Keller has posted a written summary of his report to clarify this, as he feels parts
of his initial podcast report were inaccurately portrayed elsewhere.
Fightful Select then reported that Matthew and Nicholas were both “fine with doing
the angle”.
I don’t know if that necessarily refutes what PWTorch is now claiming in their write
up, as they say that too, just that the Bucks weren’t initially on board.
Fightful do corroborate, however, that this was Tony Khan’s idea in response to Punk’s
comments on Ariel Helwani’s podcast, and the interview shots from WWE at AEW over WrestleMania
40 weekend.
Sean Ross Sapp adds that FTR were also on board with the idea, as they thought it would
add some social buzz to them vs the Bucks at Dynasty.
There are no issues between CM Punk and FTR as a result of this.
There just might be issues with everyone else.
Fightful write that most of the internal reactions in AEW were “tepid”
Fightful writes that most people in AEW had “tepid” reactions to the footage.
Tepid Reactions, title of your indie wrestling show.
As many saw it as a “one night ratings ploy”.
There was talk, however, of the mood decreasing backstage once the footage had aired, and
it created dread over the inevitable “social media bulls***” it would bring.
If you’re wondering what decreasing backstage mood and dread over the social media fallout
looks like in human form - it’s this.
It’s Tony Schiavone immediately after they played the clip.
The Wrestling Observer team described stronger feelings backstage, with Bryan Alvarez claiming
the vast majority of reactions in AEW can be summed up as:
“Why are we doing this?
I can’t believe we’re gonna show this.
Why?
Very upset, disappointed.
Is this ship sinking?
...This has got to be rock bottom.”
And Dave Meltzer noted people in AEW were “really frustrated” that the All In incident
wound had been reopened.
Fightful added that, despite the doomheralding of some commentators, no-one in AEW believes
this is a company killer.
Meanwhile, over in WWE… …the reaction was this.
Fightful reports that many backstage in WWE were talking about the footage being aired,
but the actual content didn’t really shock anyone.
There’s no heat on CM Punk in WWE for it, and a few WWE wrestlers described the video
as a “self-own” from AEW.
One described it as no worse than anything that happened in the Monday Night Wars between
WWE and WCW.
Which, I must remind you, though, was a quarter of a century ago.
Thankfully, Alvarez reports people in AEW believe Tony Khan has “gotten this out of
his system,” where the President allegedly said: “It’s done, we’re moving on.”
I presume he was just talking about the CM Punk stuff specifically, and not the overall
shots at WWE, because that wasn’t the only segment that had WWE living rent free in on
the episode.
Immediately following the Punk All In footage, Dynamite had Will Ospreay cut a promo on Triple
H. Levesque had recently said that free agents
who chose AEW over WWE were afraid of the grind, and just wanted a lighter schedule.
This was presumably about AEW’s genuine coups this year, of signing Okada, Mercedes
Mone, and Will Ospreay.
So Ospreay shot back, accusing Levesque of only getting to his position because he was
grinding the boss’ daughter - a reference to Triple H’s real life wife, Stephanie
McMahon.
PWTorch reported Ospreay was “an enthusiastic participant in the crafting of what he would
say on the promo during the production session”.
Apparently the decision to make the comments was made hours before Dynamite aired.
PWInsider write that Ospreay was the one who came up with the boss’ daughter line, and
it was not given to him by someone else.
Fightful Select reports that the promo was Ospreay’s idea, and had got approval from
several people backstage.
Another shot at Punk in his speech was considered, but that was considered overkill following
the footage being aired on the same show.
I personally believe the best response is to let Ospreay wrestle the best matches you’ve
ever seen - which we’ll likely get two of next week, as not only will he fight Bryan
Danielson at Sunday 21st’s Dynasty.
He’ll also wrestle Danielson’s Blackpool Combat Club faction mate Claudio Castignoli
on the go-home Dynamite.
With all that intrigue over playing the CM Punk footage, with Tony Khan taking a huge
reputational risk for his promotion, how well did it do in the TV ratings?
Nothing to write home about.
The show did 819,000 viewers with a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
While that is up from the previous week’s 747,000 and a 0.23 - that number was its lowest
in years.
The Punk footage episode was AEW’s joint second highest rating of 2024, but as that
girl once asked Thanos: ‘what did it cost?’
AEW’s biggest success this year was the January 17th episode, which pulled in 891,000
and a .33 demo because they expertly promoted a big championship match between Samoa Joe
and young challenger HOOK.
Rather than keep HOOK a focal point of programming, he’s just become Chris Jericho’s latest
way to stay relevant - so it’s concerning SEScoops is reporting HOOK is interested in
exploring his options when is AEW contract expires later this year, and that WWE will
likely have interest.
Perhaps if AEW focused more on the talent and matches they do have, they could steadily
rise to those numbers again.
Which is why it’s a promising sign that Jack Perry might be getting over as a result
- with his Scapegoat t-shirt selling out on his official website, while House of Torture’s
Cry Me A River design is currently New Japan’s top seller.
Speaking of top stars, here’s Turbo Jack to say thank you to our brilliant Pledgehammers
on Patreon.
While onscreen wrestler releases have become far less common in WWE, corporate personnel
appear to be in constant flux.
This is likely still because of the WWE/UFC merger into TKO, where many back office roles
would have been duplicated, and therefore phased out, and the beginning of the Paul
Levesque Era - he’s in charge now, I don’t know if you heard - putting his own hires
in place.
Thursday the 11th saw two high profile corporate departures amidst a shake-up of one of the
most important departments in WWE - talent relations.
SEScoops first reported that WWE’s EVP of Talent Dan Ventrelle has been “removed”
from his position.
Ventrelle got that job replacing Levesque when Levesque was promoted to Chief Content
Officer on Vince’s first exit in 2022 in a game of corporate musical chairs!
Dave Meltzer then confirmed Ventrelle is no longer with the company, and Fightful posted
the following memo that was sent within WWE: WWE has begun the process of reorganizing
its Talent Relations group.
Moving forward, Chris Legentil, in addition to his new role in Comms, will help us in
leading this new group.
Matt Altman, in addition to his role in Marketing, will be working closely with Chris to help
in this endeavor.
Talent Development and Recruiting will now report into Shawn Michaels.
All of Talent, which includes Talent Relations, Development and Recruiting, will continue
to ultimately report into Paul Levesque.
As of today, Dan Ventrelle will be moving on from WWE.
We thank Dan for his tremendous contributions.
Sincerely, Nick Khan
Following this, PWInsider added that the Senior Vice President of Athlete ID and Development
Trent Wilfinger had also departed the company.
Wilfinger had been in WWE since 2021.
A brand new Survival Series is up for you to watch now, and it’s way more difficult
than you think…
here’s a clip: