Ultimately, there’s simply an excessive amount of cash to be made and too many issues for AEW to perform with out the bounce that CM Punk supplies.
Whether or not the marginally missing ticket gross sales of the corporate’s new Saturday present have been the ultimate push, the hope of utterly filling Wembley Stadium in August, transferring All Out to an even bigger area, stress from the higher-ups at Warner Bros., or some mixture of all of it, Tony Khan needed to make it work. Even with final week’s hiccups, Punk was all the time going to return, as a result of they want him. The truth that Punk is aware of that gained’t be an issue in any respect down the highway, absolutely.
With the official announcement that the primary AEW Collision on June seventeenth will happen on the United Middle, it’s mainly official that Punk will return there. And it seems that Khan is storing all of his issues on the Saturday present. As soon as it turned mainly identified that Collision was occurring, wrestlers like Miro, Thunder Rosa, and Andrade began popping up both again on TV, or on promotional supplies. And all of them have offered points for Khan prior to now.
Go sit within the nook
It does appear the simpler path for Khan simply to place these wrestlers on a separate present, however does it clear up a lot? We nonetheless haven’t gotten phrase that there will probably be a onerous model cut up, although that’s been rumored, particularly within the ladies’s division. So is Rosa by no means going to withstand Britt Baker and Toni Storm? These could be one of the best matches for followers, however clearly there are issues to be smoothed over if that’s going to occur. Fuck, Khan let a complete backstage present middle on Storm, and Baker Imply Girling Rosa behind her again, which took a far too heavy a toll on Rosa in actual life. Is Khan pondering that simply holding everybody partitioned is a everlasting reply?
Andrade’s AEW profession by no means fairly launched in an try and be No. 1, partly because of Cody Rhodes I’ve and can argue as a result of it’s my factor, after which he drifted Sammy Guevara backstage (which ought to make him the world’s largest face, actually). Is Andrade penned in on Saturdays to not need to work together with Guevara? Don’t followers need an Andrade-Sammy match now? It could do loads for each, however holding them on separate reveals appears one other path of least resistance.
Clearly, the large query is Punk, who for now will simply be saved in his personal pope-mobile of a present, and away from The Elite. And that’s tremendous for some time, particularly if as rumored he begins with a feud with Samoa Joe, after which will get again to the third match with MJF that the corporate didn’t get to get to final yr due to Brawl Out. And that’s simply in regards to the largest match AEW may have.
But it surely isn’t the largest. The Punk/FTR v. The Elite, or simply Punk and Omega, to a barely lesser extent Punk, and Hangman Web page, these are issues followers will probably be clamoring for. This gained’t be an issue via the summer season, however that invoice will come due sooner or later. Possibly Khan is simply banking on extra time being one of the best healer, in addition to the general momentum of the corporate because it rolls via Forbidden Door, and All In at Wembley being much more of a salve. That will be finest.
Or perhaps Khan is simply ready everybody out? Discussing the excitement round contracts for wrestlers will get exhausting, however there may be the mothball on the market that the Bucks’, MJF’s, and Kenny Omega’s contracts all are up on the finish of this yr or someplace round there. MJF makes it a plot level in his character, as you might have heard. Is Punk some sort of insurance coverage for an exodus? It’s onerous to see AEW letting any of those guys go, or WWE is wise sufficient to supply them another in the event that they ever get out of their “hiring freeze,” however that is wrestling, the place something is feasible.
Or perhaps the ultimate push for Khan was that the 4 Pillars match that can essential occasion Double Or Nothing this weekend has come up slightly flat. The construct has been too lengthy, and fairly merely nobody aside from MJF in it might probably carry it. The match itself will nearly actually be nice, even Sammy Guevara can shine in multi-man contests like this. However Sammy and Jungle Boy have seemed like beige wallpaper when put in a persona check towards MJF. AEW positively needed to pivot it to its youthful, extra “homegrown” components of the roster going ahead not so way back, and but solely MJF has made it seem to be there’s an actual future in that (together with Orange Cassidy). Possibly the previous heads are nonetheless the way in which to go.
Nonetheless not the Boss — and in addition nonetheless wants The Boss
All of it nonetheless provides off an air of Khan not desirous to be the boss and nonetheless be everybody’s favourite wrestling fan. There are clearly points nonetheless round, points which arose partly as a result of Khan by no means stepped in to squash the perceived slights and ensuing beef. After which they received past his management.
Khan ought to have made clear to the roster that Punk wasn’t the explanation Colt Cabana wasn’t round, if that was certainly the case. He ought to have silenced all of the whispers about Rosa faking an damage to get away from Baker and Storm, although they’ve apparently taken it upon themselves to clean that one out. Andrade and Guevara may in all probability use a sit-down. Possibly Khan received too into his fandom and thought all of this was good for enterprise And a few of it was, however a few of it wasn’t, and there was clearly actual life penalties. Merely walling off folks on separate reveals is just a short lived resolution, at finest.
And even with all that, it’s all extra thrilling than foreboding. AEW simply has a lot coming this summer season, issues that would enhance it to a brand new stage. The partitioning of components of the roster might be bother, or perhaps there’s simply an excessive amount of at stake for anybody to immolate all of it. It’s going to be a white-knuckle trip, that’s for certain. But it surely’s tremendous, Punk is nice in tense conditions, proper?
Observe Sam on Twitter @Felsgate as he prays that Jay Deadly doesn’t truly win on Saturday.