I want Better Than You BayBay to go until Full Gear and then end with Kyle and Roderick coming back as UA (or whatever version they use to not get sued by the E) but also I trust MJF less than I trust Don Callis :(
I like it. I can't imagine this 'friendship' ends tonight. It's just too much fun and there's still too much money from merch to be made (#1 for the year I think?).
Crazy good show this week. MJF and Adam Cole are obviously the highlight, and not much to say there that hasn't already been covered. Best storyline they've got right now by a country mile.
The CM Punk stuff is interesting, I'm a fan of any belt defacing and/or duplicate belt angle, so this is right up my alley. Pleased to see they're finally making strides toward All In.
The ladder match was crazy, they put it all out there and created a hell of a fun match.
The upcoming dynamite card is weirdly un-exciting for a special dynamite 200 in my opinion, outside of Storm/Shida which should be a banger. But sometimes the best shows are the ones with the least exciting cards.
Really solid show, quite possibly the best so far, but I continue to be incredibly confused with what they are doing with Punk.
If you're gonna do a pretender angle, then the show cannot support or suggest the idea that matches with Punk are anything more than a match with Punk. He can say and claim whatever he wants, but if there starts to be graphics, or stipulations, or anything else, for "the real world championship", etc, then it all falls apart because why would AEW, in kayfabe, actively promote a disputed linage, or entertain that it is possibly legitimate, from someone they suspended and stripped the title from?
Possession of a belt does not make you the champ, and they are literally showing this right now with Christian, and did it a few months ago when QTV stole the TNT belt from Wardlow. They have made it very clear that the belt is a symbolic representation of the championship, not the literal thing, which is also why MJF has the Triple B. So given a match against Christian is not a championship match for the TNT title, then neither is a match against Punk for any other title.
AEW, the kayfabe wrestling promotion and controller of titles, have a vested interest in challenging the narrative of a pretender in order to protect the integrity of their titles. Part of that presentation should include people like Tony Schiavone, any face commentator, other face wrestlers, and things like prepared video packages, graphics/overlays, etc, pointing out how Punk isn't the champ, that he was stripped of the title, that he can't just declare himself the champ, etc. Given they are doing this with Christian, it feels almost Codyverse levels of disconnected from the rest of the programming to have Schiavone announcing special guest referees for Punk's matches, while Christian is met with rightful contrition. It is after all the same story being done twice; man claims to be champion due to holding physical belt, but he isn't.
Again, I'm talking kayfabe here. Khan's announcement back in September exists in kayfabe because it was made on official programming.