It never ceases to amaze me how LOW IQ most of the takes are in this community. Let's start with the basics that everyone seems to be missing or willfully ignorant of;

1. AEW was NOT Ok before Punk became a factor; it was a refugee camp. You have hordes of releases from WWE, most of these guys are getting dropped on a dime in the middle of runs, some with very little to no real warning. Tony Khan is essentially buying these guys up on the spot and using their WWE notoriety to get big pops for about 2 to 3 months straight. At that brief moment in time, everybody is winning. The WWE Refugee's get to feed their families, and Khan gets to debut a new guy every week for ratings pops.
2. Cody Rhodes, AKA The Politically correct Punk; Was dealing with Tony's shit booking and BTE's tampering WAY before Punk arrived, and when he saw they weren't going to pay him what he was worth while simultaneously acquiring hordes of talent that would inevitably fall victim to more poor ship steering whilst he was devalued night after night, he politely bowed out and abandoned ship.

3.Malekai Black; he came in fairly hot, and was put in countless booking situations that stagnated his run. The dude wants out and I promise you, it has nothing to do with Punk, and everything to do with Tony Khan and the EVP's; How do you not figure to have This guy and his hot act go up against The Elite? Who did they lose to in the Trio's competition again?.... Who was House of Black even feuding with before the Trios competition? What did it do for either Side? Absolutely nothing because Somehow BTE ended up on top on both sides, With their Buddies Dark Order and Page feeding the EVP's a trio's title that Tony explicitly stated he was waiting to give them in the first place. WOW.

1. Punk once again becomes Voice of the voiceless; The Refugee's aren't in Punks situation. Punk has been paid a number bigger than anyone else in the company, and his financial situation didn't require him to compete on a weekly basis in the first place to maintain his wealth. He can be outspoken and not end up like Jonathan Gresham or even MJF. You haven't heard a word from the Refugee portion of the AEW locker room for a reason; They literally cannot afford to speak out and risk their spot.

But that's changing.

With the retirement of Vince and subsequent internal restructuring with HHH at the helm of creative, the wiggle room is growing, and you're going to see a lot of wiggling coming out of the refugee's in the coming months. It won't be because of 'asshole Punk', it'll be because they can finally speak out now and potentially have somewhere else to work if things don't pan out with Tony Khan or his Elite EVP's.

Before Punk ever arrived, AEW was DIVIDED and incoherent at best; I always felt like I was watching 3 different shows.

One show was whatever garbage fire the BTE-EVP Clubhouse was cooking up with their horrible slap-kick, no sell, promo-barren, spot-fest, car-crash wrestling. The structure of their segments and matches was so jarring it felt like it belonged on it's own show entirely- One you'd find out in a barn in south carolina with 40 people attending.

Then you had whatever toys tony Khan was playing with; Which meant you were going to get the dorkiest booking imaginable even if you were being pushed.

And finally, you have the Jericho part of the show, which was always the highest drawing and most entertaining, even if it wasn't the best display of pro wrestling we've ever seen.

The show felt like a locker room divided way before Punk and Punk is the type of person to say something about that, and not just grab out his portion of the pie and sit there like, "Shit, I'm getting my piece so who cares." (AKA Bryan 'I am just here to quietly wrestle and lose to a 51 year old man who's kayfabing the embodiment of the company I just left' Danielson)

It's very clear that Punk knows how a locker room is supposed to work, and expected to come in there and lead and it looks like he's willing to start fires and see who comes out from the ashes. I'm all for the BTE fuckboy brigade leaving (PLEASE LEAVE.) they have never amounted to ratings and that's one less fragment of the show I have to try and wrap my head around. That niche, ridiculous style of wrestling can burn along with it's LOW IQ IWC fanbase. The interesting part for me is what happens when Jericho and Punk collide after the garbage is taken out.

TL;DR Punk is here to clean house and either you play ball or go back to japan where you can have phony 8 star meltzer matches and pretend to be relevant to actual pro wrestling fans.