CM Punk backstage altercation kind of confirmed.
Mercedes Mone’s AEW debut disappoints.
Sami Zayn upset and more.
I’m actually impressed it took this long.
CM Punk was photographed at Tuesday’s episode of NXT, watching the episode from behind the
hard cam position.
But this is potentially far more than just a guy watching some wrestling while he’s
out injured.
It’s work experience.
Almost as soon as returning home to sports entertainment back at November’s Survivor
Series, Punk has appeared almost equally as interested in developmental as the main roster.
Unlike Triple H, Punk has reportedly always heavily respected Shawn Michaels, who’s
the current head of NXT - and he has frequently shown up at the Performance Center to do everything
from learning about production, giving feedback to young wrestlers (like, don’t use real
glass), and even once appeared onscreen in the opening segment of NXT Deadline.
According to WrestlePurists, this is because Punk’s long-term career goal is to succeed
HBK as heading up NXT.
You can say many things against Punk and his various inconsistencies, but you can’t say
he doesn’t care about nurturing new talent.
From his first WWE run occasionally showing up in NXT and originally pitching The Shield,
from choosing to work with guys like Darby Allin and MJF in AEW, and now back in WWE,
putting in time down in developmental while he’s out injured.
CM Punk to NXT confirmed.
It wasn’t just us who were surprised to see him at Tuesday’s episode, though, as
Fightful Select is reporting many talent and personnel within NXT didn’t know he was
there either.
Apparently Punk kept a much lower profile than usual, and a lot of wrestlers only found
out he was in attendance when they saw the photos online.
But Booker T knew…
Booker T knows everything.
[CRAZY BOOKER T IMAGE] Booker T isn’t just the colour commentator
on NXT.
He also produces noise from his mouth on his own podcast, called The Hall of Fame.
Where in the most recent episode, Booker revealed if he saw Punk backstage at Tuesday’s taping.
“I did.
I saw Punk.
No, we’ll talk about that off the air.
But I almost had like a little run-in with CM Punk.
The internet might want to pick that up.
Me and CM Punk almost got into it at NXT this week.
We’ll talk about it later.
I don’t want to put it out there because they’re gonna pick it up and run with it.
But yeah, I’ll talk to you about that off the air.”
It’s important to note that Booker T did not want to put this out there, which he has
managed by posting that specific clip on his own YouTube channel Reality of Wrestling with
the title “CM Punk and Booker T Almost "Get Into It" at WWE NXT Tapings”.
Shucky ducky quack quack.
So why would Booker and Punk have the beef?
Booker has a lot of takes on his podcasts these days, and it’s difficult to know which
ones he actually believes, and which ones are just him reacting to a news story in a
controversial, I’m just working you marks, old school manner.
Some include: claiming LA Knight has a bad attitude backstage; trying to start a worked
shoot feud with Corey Graves in 2018, who had just replaced him on Raw commentary, for
the benefit of noone; and once calling CM Punk’s AEW debut was no good because he
spoke about WWE and ice cream bars.
And he also said, just over a month before Punk returned to WWE:
“CM Punk didn’t just leave WWE; he got fired from WWE.
He didn’t just leave AEW; he got fired with cause from AEW.
What value does a person like that bring to your company?...
his better wrestling days are behind.”
So perhaps that’s what Booker and Punk ‘got into’ this week.
But also, probably not - because they’ve already seemingly made up over that, when
Booker changed his tune in December, saying on his podcast Punk had been “very refreshing”
coming down to NXT - where they had actually already spoken to each other, and Punk brought
up Booker’s changing opinions: “I ran into CM Punk in catering, I was sitting
there talking to Jeremy Borash.
I walked up to CM Punk and said, ‘CM Punk!
What up, man?’
He stands up, and he goes, ‘What’s up, man?
You flip flopper.’...
It was very cool…
I can’t say anything bad about him.
I know people wish I would say something bad about CM Punk.
I ain’t kissing ass or anything, either.
It just seemed like he was in a calm space.”
Like the Graves situation from 2018, this feels similar to how Booker occasionally likes
to play up an exaggerated beef for the sheer thrill of working us fans.
That certainly seems to be the case in his YouTube clip’s comments section, where his
Reality of Wrestling channel has replied “Shh 🤫” - to someone comparing it to
the worked Corey feud.
What do you think is going on with Booker and Punk?
Let me know in the comments, where I’ll be replying to people…
FROM OUTTA NOWHERE Bare all this in mind for our next story…
which probably doesn’t just require a pinch of salt.
You might as well snort it.
Also according to Booker T on his Hall of Fame podcast, Sami Zayn was upset following
this week’s episode of Raw.
Zayn won the gauntlet match to be named the No. 1 contender to Gunther’s Intercontinental
Championship at WrestleMania 40 - where he overcame dastardly heels Bronson Reed and
Shinsuke Nakamura; but also, problematically for Zayn, an underdog potentially even more
underdoggy than him - Chad Gable.
WWE had done such an effective job of building Gable’s chase for the IC title, many fans
found themselves more invested in Chad winning than the usually fan favourite Zayn.
And according to Booker T, who was sat next to him on the plane afterwards, the online
reaction really affected Sami: "He was so literally upset about the online
heat that he got from the fans.
He's like, 'Man, I thought the fans love me.
And then next thing you know, I see all this stuff.'... he still, like I said, was feeling
that he let someone down, just because the fans didn't think the match was as good as
I thought it was."
One thing Booker T can’t be blamed for, however, is the death of WCW.
How’s that for a hard segway?!
So who is?
Here’s a clip from our brand new video going live tomorrow - Who Really
Killed WCW?
Thank you everyone who’s been watching our new Saturday videos like that.
They take a lot of work, but we’re all so proud of them.
Remember to subscribe and enable notifications to always on to know when that goes live first.
And remember, we’ve still got a SmackDown review - it’s just on our WrestleTalk Podcast
channel.
In the last several weeks, AEW has put on one of the best pay-per-views of all time
with the Sting retirement-focused Revolution.
They put on probably the match of the year with Will Ospreay and Takeshita.
And they’ve assembled what might be the greatest in-ring roster of all time, with
the addition of the aforementioned Ospreay, and debuting Kazuchika Okada as a heel.
Continuing the momentum, Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite was themed around another huge
signing - WWE’s former Sasha Banks, now called Mercedes Mone.
And all that excitement has paid off…
with AEW ratings staying completely flat.
Like, AJ Styles thinks the Earth is rounder than AEW’s ratings.
Despite drawing a very decent 9,500 fans to Boston’s TD Garden on Wednesday, the episode
was only watched by 801,000 people, with a 0.27 rating in the 18-49 demographic - which
Dave Meltzer has called an “obviously disappointing number.”
[TWEET] The demo is the exact same figure the show did the previous week, and is tied
for the third lowest 18-49 number this year.
Big Business.
More like The Exact Same Level of Business…
am I right?
Who cares about traditional TV?
It’s dying.
It’s all about online views now.
Far more fans will see it there.
That’s the true indicator of modern success!
Just one more thing.
Mone’s AEW debut clip on their YouTube channel has done 720,000 views.
Which is by far the most watched upload from the episode, but nowhere near the breakout
numbers you’d expect.
For comparison, Okada’s debut clip the week before is currently at a similar 698,000.
But Adam Copeland’s AEW debut video five months ago pulled in 6.3 million views.
Sting and Hook clips have done the best views for AEW’s YouTube channel in 2024 so far
- with the Samoa Joe vs Hook match currently at 1.1 million.
But to be fair most of those are me on my lunch breaks.
The disappointing number could be explained by Mone not having the level of mainstream
star appeal some vocal parts of Twitter claim she does.
And/of AEW’s presentation of her debut was a failure.
AEW decided to copy and paste their CM Punk First Dance booking for Mercedes by all but
confirming they’d debut at the show.
With Punk, the show was booked in Chicago.
For Mone, it was booked her hometown of Boston, and called Big Business - heavily referencing
her gimmick.
But despite a strong lead in from the preceding Big Bang Theory, only 70,000 more viewers
watched the opening quarter hour compared to the previous week.
It implies AEW’s strategy of not explicitly telling fans Mone would be debuting had failed,
as more might’ve tuned in as the show started.
Following Mone’s debut, despite a very strong card, the rest of the show heavily declined
as it went on, ending with just 627,000 viewers for the Riho vs Willow Nightingale main event.
Which makes sense, because while that was a really fun match, that feud has only been
presented as a midcard sidequest story.
AEW’s presumed intention was that viewers would stick around, because Mone had teased
she’d involve herself in the main event… but that obviously didn’t work either.
Mone’s debut, with a different name to her WWE character, and an absence that’s undermined
by also wrestling for New Japan in her two years away, was clearly nowhere near the level
of CM Punk returning to wrestling for the first time in 7 years.
Fightful is reporting Mone has been signed with AEW for over two months, and for a multi-year
deal.
Don’t get used to The Rock, by the way.
He’s going to leave WWE after WrestleMania.
Watch the WrestleTalk News on the left to learn more…