In this WrestleTalk News, CM Punk lashes out!
Steve Austin ‘not happy’ with WrestleMania, and more.
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the biggest, most serious happenings in the world of professional graps like…
Brock Lesnar is a Monica from Friends guy.
You hear that, Paul Heyman, he’s moved on already.
The current WWE Champion Brock Lesnar has been on a run of brilliantly honest interviews
where he pretty much just talks about what he wants because he’s Brock Lesnar and are
you going to tell him to say WrestleMania is stupendous.
I thought not, let him say whatever he likes.
And in yesterday’s appearance on ESPN’s Michael Kay radio show, he was asked what
Lesnar does in his leisure time.
Of course, we all know Brock’s main pastime is hunting people for sport.
But he also revealed that, while he doesn’t watch a lot of TV, he does occasionally indulge
in 90s sitcoms.
“I’m not a huge TV guy, I never have been…
I can honestly say maybe I’ve only ordered, probably a half-dozen [UFC] pay-per-views…
[I’ve watched] Seinfeld, I catch a little bit of Friends every once in a while.”
Thankfully, the hard hitting Buzzfeed quiz journalism followed that up by asking who
his favourite Friend was, to which The Beast Incarnate replied: “Is it Monica?
Yeah, her.”
Spoken like a true Friends aficionado.
Monica?
Yeah, I guess that one.
It’s like your always stuck in Full Gear When Twitter hasn’t been your day, your
week, your month, or even you’re year I’ll be there for you, CM Punk.
Nailed that segway.
At Sunday night’s AEW Revolution pay-per-view, CM Punk and MJF didn’t just do bloody battle
chained to each other by a dog collar.
They also had an entrance music war, with MJF first playing Punk’s current Cult of
Personality tune, then interrupting it for his own fake-out entrance, which Punk countered
by entering with his old Ring of Honor music, AFI’s Miseria Cantara, complete with overly
baggy shorts.
Punk’s ROH career has been a huge part of his character since his return to wrestling
last August, where he even disowned the WWE portion of his career, declaring this AEW
run as a direct continuation from the one he left in Ring of Honor.
Additionally, in his feud with MJF, both men have referenced Punk’s time in ROH, with
Max even copy and pasting a heel turn promo from him for the go-home angle, Tony Khan
actually buying Ring of Honor, and what has quickly become AEW’s new Canadian Destroyer
spot, everyone trying to shake each other’s hands - with Punk trying to extend the olive
branch gesture last Wednesday.
I must admit, when the first notes of AFI hit, I didn’t know what was happening.
I assumed it was a reference, and I quickly realised what was going on as soon as I saw
Punk’s attire.
But it was always going to be an uphill struggle for Punk and MJF’s storytelling subtleties,
because Twitter is dumb.
CageSideSeats have pointed to the overly tribal reaction to the spot on Twitter, where some
fans were annoyed that they didn’t get the reference, which brought out the worst in
the AEW-leaning ones.
“People are slamming All Elite for being wrestling snobs, and alienating viewers who
aren’t as well versed in history as [Tony] Khan is.
Instead of just explaining what the reference is and why they’re excited about it, others
are mocking newer fans as somehow “fake” or calling them Vince McMahon stans.”
It wasn’t just random people on Twitter, either, with Fightful’s Jimmy Van critically
tweeting: “The CM Punk/ROH entrance at Revolution
is getting a polarizing reaction.
My opinion - if not for Excalibur's explanation, I wouldn't have known since I wasn't a ROH
fan back then.
This is something Tony Khan still needs to realize - not everyone gets the indie references.”
One of the accounts that became the centre of this debate was oddly Paul Fontaine, a
staff writer for the Wrestling Observer - who you’d expect to be one of those wrestling
snobs.
But instead, as the dog collar match was getting underway at Revolution, he tweeted:
“What am I missing with this Punk entrance?
#AEWRevolution” Which is a fine tweet.
He wasn’t bashing anything.
Let’s not assume malice where ignorance also applies.
He just used Twitter like a Google Search, not immediately getting the ROH reference,
so he asked his followers what the deal was.
But by this point, loads of other accounts were engaged in WWE vs AEW tribalism, to the
point where Dave Meltzer, big boss of the website Fontaine writes for, tweeted separately
to Fontaine about the mountain out of a molehill: “This CM Punk theme stuff is so annoying.
Excalibur explained its meaning RIGHT AWAY.
If you don't get it, that's on you.”
Because, the biggest rebuttal to people not getting the meaning behind Punk’s entrance
is that the commentary team explicitly told you what it was referencing while it was happening.
Which turns out is exactly what happened to poor old Paul, who responded to Meltzer’s
post: “I never said it wasn’t on me.
And I didn’t hear Excalibur’s explanation because I was FFimg some between match stuff
to catch up after helping with Emily.
When it was explained to me, it made total sense and I thanked the people who responded”
But by this point it was too late, as Punk had been sucked into Twitter’s pit of anger
and rage and had lashed out at probably one of the only guys who didn’t mean any harm,
replying to Fontaine’s tweet directly asking what he was missing with:
“A deep understanding of story telling.
A brain.”
The problem with Punk doing that, is that a bunch of people then decided to jump in
on Fontaine - even though his exchange with Punk clearly shows him explaining his side
and apologising.
With Fontaine being labeled a “dickhead”, and another saying “he deserved it” because
he missed Excalibur’s explanation while trying to catch up on the show.
Similar to the MJF story, Punk might’ve then realised his own cult of personality,
as he publicly backtracked..
Punk deleted his initial reply to Fontaine, which likely helped the post gain traction
on Twitter.
He then posted: “I’m sorry if I was snarky to a guy who
was being s*** to other people in his replies.
Context is everything.
None of this is important.
Let’s all hug and drink Shirley temples.”
Fontaine himself then replied: “This is fair.
I made two comments I wish I could take back.
Looking forward to seeing what you do next….on screen.”
And, fitting of the ROH references, Punk tweeted a handshake emoji.
Fontaine mentioned in one of his replies to people dragging him, he has a full time job
and a daughter with special needs.
At the risk of sounding like a motivational Instagram post, everybody has their own struggles
which you know nothing about.
Be kind.
And delete social media from your phone.
Honestly.
Try it for a day.
But then you might miss Stone Cold Steve Austin announcing his return to WWE.
Because announcing stuff on your actual wrestling TV programmes is so 2014, Stone Cold replied
to Kevin Owens’ invitation on Monday’s Raw in a video posted yesterday morning on
Twitter - where he accepted: “Whether you want to call this the KO Show,
a match, a fight, a brawl, whatever.
I want to guarantee you this, in Dallas, Texas, where I started my career, at WrestleMania,
Stone Cold Steve Austin is going to open one last can of whoop ass on you, Kevin Owens.”
According to both Ringside News and Stone Cold’s good buddy JR, though, you can probably
rule out ‘match’.
While it’s been reported that WWE have “scaled back” their plans for Austin at Mania, Ringside
News claim the truth is that Stone Cold “never agreed to a full-fledged match.”
Apparently, right now it’s “just the KO Show, but Vince is trying to get [Austin]
to do more” and “it’s a negotiation in terms of creative, money, legacy and Austin’s
ability to deliver what the audience would expect of him.”
Speaking on his Grilling JR podcast, though, Stone Cold’s very good real life friend
Jim Ross revealed: “It looks like Austin is not going to do
anything at WrestleMania as far as wrestling in the ring.
He and I have talked, but at the time we talked, he didn’t know what he was going to do and
he didn’t sound overwhelmingly enthusiastic about it.”
JR said, in his opinion, these plans should’ve been made six months ago to give Austin the
time he needs to train for a proper in-ring return, but WWE have left him with “only
a few weeks to prepare for it.”
“he doesn’t like surprises.
He likes to prepare, and if anything, over prepare because he always wants to give the
fans their money’s worth.
He’s got a legacy that he’s built around the Stone Cold brand that he’s not going
to purposely, or by his own hand, make himself look bad, and I don’t blame him.”
Now count down the 10 most shocking WWE firings ever with Laurie Blake…