I’m Oli Davis, this is the WrestleTalk News.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m watching pro wrestling content, I’m usually asking
myself: Where’s CM Punk?
Wednesday episodes of Dynamite - Where’s CM Punk?
September 2022 to June 2023 AEW Programming - Where’s CM Punk?
Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon’s ladder match from WrestleMania 10 - Where’s CM Punk?
And now, finally, someone has looked and AEW’s upcoming Blood and Guts Don’t Call It War
Games match and asked: Where’s CM Punk?
It was reportedly CM Punk who was asking the question, sure, but it still needs to be asked!
I suppose the best answer to ‘where’s CM Punk in AEW’s upcoming Blood and Guts
Don’t Call It War Games match?’ is: he’s on AEW’s new Saturday night show Collision,
a show expressly designed to keep him and half the participants in said Blood and Guts
match apart.
The Third Ever Don’t Call It War Games match is set to take place on the July 19th episode
of Dynamite - a week and a half away - and it’s currently between the Elite’s team
of Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks and Hangman Page vs. The Blackpool Combat Club line-up
of Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta and Konosuke Takeshita.
That’s four apiece, but Blood and Guts matches traditionally have five on each team.
The Elite’s final man is reportedly set to be former New Japan star Kota Ibushi, who
has a long and rich history with Omega and the Elite.
Presumably before his injury, Bryan Danielson was going to be the BCC’s fifth man - but
he broke his arm wrestling Okada at June 25th’s Forbidden Door.
Enter absolute hero and match stipulation saviour CM Punk.
Fightful Select is reporting Punk has pitched himself backstage to be the fifth member of
the BCC in the match.
It’s not known, however, whether this was a suggestion he made seriously, or as a bit
of Punk trademark trolling.
Punk has previously publicly spoken about how he wants to work with The Elite, telling
ESPN he tried to contact them after their shoot backstage brawl last September, but
attorneys told them not to interact.
This isn’t the first time Punk has reportedly tried to work with The Elite, but the last
time he was told it “wasn’t happening”.
There’s an old school mindset that pro wrestlers should be able to overcome any real life beef
they have with each other for the benefit of money.
Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, for instance, hated each other throughout 1997, but had
a series of matches because they’re professional and they knew it could make big bucks for
both of them.
And that ended fine.
A CM Punk vs The Elite feud is arguably the hottest angle you could do in all of wrestling
right now.
But is it worth that money if it goes onto create more behind-the-scenes issues?
Making Kenny and the Bucks work with Punk could push them out the other Forbidden Door
in WWE’s direction, with their contracts expiring at the end of this year.
But, then again, creating a medium-to-well-done brand split with a totally separate show to
keep them apart isn’t the best long term solution to avoid bust ups either.
According to Fightful’s report, though, it’s not just the Elite that’s stopping
Punk being added, as “neither team would want him.”
This could lend strength to PWTorch’s report back in March that “Jon Moxley and CM Punk
do not like each other.”
Fightful did note, however, that Moxley wasn’t opposed to the idea of adding Punk, but as
the pitch was only made two weeks before the show, which meant it happened sometime last
week, the partners have already been decided.
The leading name right now is Chris Jericho to join Team BCCallis, after Don invited him
to join his new Family on last week’s episode, and Jericho answered ‘maybe’.
How would you book a CM Punk being added to Blood and Guts Don’t Call It War Games?
Let me know in the comments below.
But that’s not the only contrived booking AEW could do for Punk.
They could also give him a secondary world title!
Because disputed World Championships are back in wrestling fashion following WWE unveiling
the World ConsolationWeight belt for Seth Rollins, Andrade has teased AEW Collision
getting its own top title.
Taking to Twitter, because apparently that service still works, Andrade posted a mini-essay
on Collision’s strengths - after JustAlyx on Twitter pointed out the show’s ratings
weren’t so bad when you factor in DVR numbers.
Andrade noted he “respect[s] all the talent of all the AEW brands” but only “if they
respect me” - not a good start… - and that he wants “the people who were in charge
of preparing the first AEW Collision show in Chicago, those people are in charge of
doing all the shows week after week - implying the Collision creative team has changed in
the three weeks since its launch.
He shouts out the top talent - literally, it’s all in caps - himself (obviously),
“SAMOE JOE, CM PUNK, FTR, MIRO DAY, SCORPION, THE BULLET (presumably Bullet Club Gold),
RICKY STARKS, HOBBS” and teased “maybe having our own championship that CM PUNK never
lost.”
It has been weird that Punk hasn’t revealed what’s in his red bag yet.
Perhaps this is why.
He’ll eventually debut a second world title belt.
Because that’s what AEW needs.
More.
Titles.
Andrade’s rallying call aside, Collision’s ratings are a hugely significant story.
DVR numbers and Fite international viewing figures are an important missing factor, but
those aren’t the key metrics the TV networks judge a show’s future on.
If Collision sinks to 400,000 views on TV, it doesn’t matter how many Fite views they
get, Warner Bros Discovery predominantly cares about first run broadcast views on their network.
But what are WBD’s benchmark for Collision success?
Thankfully for AEW, it’s not the number of views Collision gets, but where it ranks
in relation to other shows on Saturday, Saturday nights.
Dynamite draws between 830 and 950,000 viewers a week, ranking it very highly in overall
shows.
Fightful Select is reporting WBD want similar performance for Collision - aiming for a Top
5 ranking on a Saturday night, which requires a much smaller viewing figure because there
are fewer people watching TV on a Saturday evening.
WBD is also aware that could be tough in the Fall with stiff competition from college football.
But enough of all these numbers.
What actually happened on Collision?
Let me tell you while talking way to quicking in our 1 minute 1 take review:
Broadcast from Regina!
Punk got cheered in his opening promo.
It’s hard not to when you’re putting over Owen Hart in Canada though.
Ricky Starks beat Powerhouse Hobbs in the Owen Hart Semi Final match.
QT Marshall interfered one too many times, costing Hobbs the win, causing Powerhouse
to beat up the faction and presumably quit it.
That storyline was worth it!
Julia Hart beat Bambi Hall.
Malachi Black criticised Andrade for living behind a mask.
Andrade said that mask represents his culture.
Bullet Club Gold beat FTR in a great match, which sets up a two out of three falls tag
team title shot for them.
Scorpio Sky made his in-ring return for the first time in a year, beating Action Andretti.
And the main event saw CM Punk finally beat Samoa Joe in the other Owen Hart semi final
match.
A slight shame, as Punk losing would’ve been a fun ‘he can never beat Joe’ twenty
year long story.
Joe beat up Punk after.
Just like how when you recruit CM Punk, he brings drama baggage, if you work with Logan
Paul, he’s going to do something really dumb and controversial.
WWE might have to PR around Logan’s latest incident, as Senator Charles Schumer is calling
on the FDA to investigate his and KSI’s PRIME energy drink - which isn’t just something
Paul promotes on his own media outlets, it’s been an integrated part of two of his WWE
Premium Live Event matches: with KSI appearing in a PRIME costume at WrestleMania, and him
chucking Logan a bottle of it during the Money in the Bank ladder match.
The issue is that PRIME has 200mg of caffeine in a 12 ounce can.
That’s the equivalent of six cans of Coke, or two Red Bulls.
That’s gonna give you a one way ticket to poop town if you’re an adult.
But if a young child drinks it, doctors of warned of more significant health impacts.
While PRIME say they clearly label the drink as not recommended for children under 18,
and that they make a separate product called PRIME Hydration for them which has no caffeine,
the senator said both drinks are marketed similarly, so parents don’t know the difference.
We’ll have to see if WWE phase out PRIME drinks product placements in Logan’s segments
and matches.
Paul’s next match is set to be against Ricochet at August 5th’s SummerSlam in Detroit.
Dave Meltzer has revealed another match is set for the show - Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Rodriguez,
which was penciled in as recently as last week’s Raw.
This probably explains why Rodriguez and her tag team champion partner Liv Morgan saved
Natalya from Ripley’s beatdown.
Let me talk to ya, because hopefully something big is also in store for LA Knight, who isn’t
just over in the arenas.
He’s also over on the YouTube.
Despite not winning Money in the Bank, Knight’s segment beating up Hit Row from the 7th July
episode of SmackDown has been watched 1 million times, making it the second most watched behind
the Bloodline clip.
Also, his digital exclusive segment uploaded to WWE’s Twitter account became their most
liked and viewed tweet - actually beating any clip from the Bloodline!
With BWE’s report that WWE are discussing one of their wrestlers getting “a big Stone
Cold Steve Austin rub soon” - kinky - the Rock/Austin homaging Knight could be the perfect
promo foil for a SummerSlam program.
Just please don’t do a dueling What/Yeah chant.
What are the 5 best and 5 worst decisions WWE made with Money in the Bank?
Watch on to find out…