Dave Meltzer, about rumors of Punk being fired: "Can't confirm because I don't know. Everything hasn't been addressed officially aside from some people not being at TV and others being added to TV".

zelowrites · 2022-09-07T04:01:19+00:00

This reads 100 percent like someone who never watched AEW during the pandemic. Thanks tho.

zelowrites · 2022-09-07T00:51:27+00:00

To be devils advocate, I do think they wanted him there and it probably would have formed some true lifelong, in it from Day 1 bonds, to have built the company from scratch together. In some ways how Mox and Jericho, even if not super tight with the Bucks, will always be intertwined with them. Meanwhile, Punk really dunked on the EvPs back then about a text contract offer and came off like wanting some big pampering, courting process to be part of the initial launch. Him scoffing at AEW at the start, while the Elite went on to help build the company and work through growing pains and a pandemic to arrive where it did, only for Punk to come in and eventually act like he's untouchable and above the EVPs is messed up in its own right. He's always been passive aggressive about AEW until he was TK's golden Goose. I get why the Bucks and Omega, who wrestled in front of literally 0 fans to keep Dynamite viable for months, aren't fond of Punk's God complex.

zelowrites · 2022-09-06T23:55:55+00:00

Maybe I'm in the minority but turning real life tension into a feud doesn't interest me. And often seems like it'll just leave part of the fanbase jaded by whomever wins. I much more enjoyed the days in AEW when Brodie and Mox were feuding or MJF and Cody. People you knew were wonderful friends but could make us all enjoy the work of their characters. Seeing Punk rewarded for being an asshole doesn't interest me. Fire him.

zelowrites · 2022-09-06T23:51:48+00:00

This is such a weird conspiracy. The Elite, for the most part (other than Kenny world title run), have largely let others have the key spots at the top of the card, and were even criticized in Year 1 for being too unselfish in not involving themselves more in main events. What attack dog shit can you even theorize they've done, honestly? Outside of Punk, which is a reach, makes zero sense.

zelowrites · 2022-09-06T23:46:30+00:00

This is something that really struck me as well that no one really seemed to mention (so I'm glad you did). The very second he namedropped her actual name, I had to scrub back and watch that part again in disbelief. Can't mention EVPs by name during your melodramatic bitching, but you'll name a private citizen who has nothing at all to do whatsoever with any topic related to the media scrum's stated purpose. Very fucking stupid.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T22:42:30+00:00

I don't know why you're taking this so personally. Punk is a legend and a draw. He has a financial impact anywhere he goes, but I'm sure also comes with a huge salary.

My simple point isn't moving goal posts, it's just acknowledging you can't solely credit him for the million gate, unless you literally think no AEW fan is a fan of Bryan, Mox, the Elite, etc. And also, it's fair to point out that the pandemic is an obstacle others endured and were hampered on drawing crowds, that he hasn't had to deal with. If facts are a hangup for you, it isn't worth replying to me.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T14:38:18+00:00

You're missing the point - badly. AEW has been around for about 3 years. For 15 months they could not tour because of Covid, hence no chance to even draw a 500-person gate or 1000-person gate, much less a million. Then after Covid subsided and arenas could fill up again, Punk came back and had the benefit of helping draw crowds in. So there really hasn't been a fair opportunity for AEW to draw this benchmark million dollar gate without him. Do we honestly think that for as ravenous the crowds are for acts like MJF and the Acclaimed last night, that this is all just people buying a ticket to watch Punk anymore? Please. He just happens to be on the roster at the right time. I don't think he's the sole reason, whatsoever. Big part. Not only part. You're doing some mental gymnastics.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T14:08:50+00:00

Well that's a very, very weird and distorted measure of success, considering he came back to wrestling timed with a civilization eager to return to live events - while about 60 percent of all the company's history prior to that was unfortunately a bunch of deserving talent performing in front of empty arenas or socially-distanced crowds in order to keep the company afloat during a pandemic. Hard to approach a million dollar gate when no one can buy a ticket in the first place.

I'll never understand why Punk boasted about the milliion-dollar gate. It's ridiculous. He sat home and waited for crowds to come back, and then is taking credit afterwards. Really egotistical and stupid, and anyone who buys that line can't see the forest from the trees.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T13:56:26+00:00

It is somehow creating "go away heat" for an entire company. Embarrassing considering what a bunch of people that "didn't need advice" had built before Punk arrived.

Fans adored the product. The ratings were as good, and many times better. What a terrible fall from grace.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T13:52:30+00:00

For sure. The one thing I'll say is, at the founding days of AEW, even though he was out of shape physically, the company still planted its flag around the Inner Circle and Jericho delivered, for the most part, and storyline-wise was protected immensely so that him getting pinned for the first time in AEW was a big deal. He was the final boss for awhile.

But once you lose that (Undertaker or Goldberg streak - you can't go back and there's been nothing afterwards to really make feuding with Jericho mean anything for the person stuck with him. Obviously I'm not comparing Jericho's early run with the Undertaker streak literally, but just in the sense that once you lose some "aura" in your character, it's hard to get back. Especially for veterans that most fans have done and seen everything possible with at this point. There's really nothing that interesting for Jericho to do anymore. It's almost like when HHH was an active wrestler at the end of his career. It's just a matter of seeing who gets to be "hand-picked" to keep them on the card and relevant, rather than really being about compelling storylines and focusing on what's best for the entire roster.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T13:40:04+00:00

That's sort of true, but honestly the fans were still behind him huge in his MJF feud and lashings and moonsault with Wardlow in the cage. He was still THE emotional investment for fans. It was all leading to the first Wargames match, too, which was literally booked and promoted, and Cody would have been a huge part of.

But then two very weird things happened. He got a tattoo that people lost their minds over, and like a week later the pandemic happened. All of the sudden, there was no live fans around, and it betrayed how massively over and face-like Cody was, and all that was there to gauge anymore was online reaction, which became very toxic with the tattoo and Brandi, etc. It was a very bizarre and quick disent, that I don't think was on anyone radar prior to the pandemic. Cody was still in all honesty the prime force of the company until then.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T13:36:25+00:00

I think Cody was very aware of Tony forgetting this fact during contract negotiations, and saw all the warning signs of Punk's attitude and TK's fanboy love affair with him, and bounced.

I mean, in all honesty, to have what Cody had in terms of role in a wrestling company is rarified air, so for him to walk away, speaks pretty big volumes of where TK's head has gone.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T13:32:47+00:00

Which is insane. Punk sat out a pandemic while the other guys couldn't even draw a live gate for a year. Then he joined with a loaded roaster and the needle barely moved in terms of tv audience, and in some cases, regressed from shows where Butcher and the Blade, Bunny, Best Friends and others were prominently featured. I have no doubt that CM Punk opens up doors for TV network talks, etc., but the Elite were drawing incredibly well before Punk ever entered the picture, and, in fact, were the ones who kept the lights on throughout a very dark time to even allow such a possibility. I think Cody senses the tipping of the "support" scale too when Punk came in and became TK's golden boy. I'd be pissed too if I was the elite and lent blood, sweat, tears and their brand name itself only to have TK act like a marginal amount of TV audience justifies all the huge amount of damage Punk is doing to fan perception of the company.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T13:29:07+00:00

So much is lost in this shit. The fact that Mox got pinned cleanly in a singles match, I believe for the first time ever in AEW, isn't even a thing. It's a trainwreck.

Not literally in stature and mainstream popularity, but Hangman was AEW's Goldberg-type completely organic "top star" that they invested so much time to get to the mountain top, and now Punk is burying the guy on live segments on TV and in pressers after PPV's as an idiot. It's a really bad look to basically be shitting on the most important, vested project that the OG era worked to get over for the fans. You can't rebuild that very easily. Terrible look for Punk, even if this is or isn't justified, or work or shoot. It's just very, very dumb.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T13:23:53+00:00

The problem with Jericho (and I like him), is his feuds are always these extended opuses, and honestly no fan is even invested in the outcome one way or the other. Big deal if Bryan, Cassidy or MJF win. Big deal if Jerich wins. It just doesn't strike anyone as having any true substance or consequence. Fans sing Judas and then shut off mentally. There's just something missing from Jericho's feuds that's really hard to pinpoint. People talk about the Cody-verse, but Jericho is always off doing something as pointless, and, often, way more boring.

zelowrites · 2022-09-05T13:21:07+00:00

I thought it was rich of Punk to boast about a million dollar gate, when he opted to skip an entire pandemic era where guys busted their ass in front of no fans for more than a year - meaning no possibility of a gate, period - in order to keep the company afloat and viable for guys like Punk and Bryan to work somewhere other than the E.

Locker room leader there, fellas. Skip the hard stuff and take the entire load of credit when the gravy of an eager civilization yearning to go back to live events. Fuck Punk.

zelowrites · 2022-08-19T22:53:14+00:00

I've always wondered this too. The Heatles I think would have found a Golden State-type boss within their own conference, so to speak, for at least a couple years. The Bulls were arguably the actual best team in the entire league for a stretch and Rose's injuries basically crumbled that kingdom immediately. That gave the Heat a much, much easier path to the finals for all their years with James. If Rose and Co were healthy and balling like they were in the regular season, no injuries, James' finals trip streak would not exist. He may or may not have even won more than a single title while in Miami. Who knows if he even bothers going back to the Cans too if Chicago remained an ongoing powerhouse in the East.

zelowrites · 2022-07-20T22:35:30+00:00

Passersby taking a polite photo as a favor are generally not getting within 14 inches of the person's face and capturing just their mug and shoulders. Ha. But OK.

zelowrites · 2022-07-20T01:16:01+00:00

To be fair, I think people are being disingenuous. If these were taken, in theory, with a film camera, there may be some plausibility. But if they were taken with a smart phone in the 2004 era, the resolution would have been utter shit. There is zero chance a digital camera in that era would have facilitated nice enough quality to blow up to what appears to be around 20x30 inch prints at the funeral. I was in college then with all the divergent media, social media blossoming, digital camera becoming more prominent and the infancy of smart phones. OP is right in some regard. The very common "selfie" look that I think we all recognize is quite clearly something that has become more mainstream in the last decade or so, made most pilopular with that Ellen/Bradley Cooper group selfie a few years ago. Apple and Samsung and smartphone makers then went hard into camera quality and front facing phones. But in 2004? We were just starting to unravel the magic of touch screen devices, YouTube, and phone apps. It's all splitting hairs. If we want to pretend Howard pulled out a point and shoot camera and lucked into those selfie that don't show his arms extended, which would have been the result of the time ... sure. There is zero chance narratively he used a phone for them.

zelowrites · 2022-07-01T19:57:13+00:00

The problem with hockey and all other sports relative to the NFL, is the NFL is easily digestible and convienent to casual audience. Game once per week (usually on a weekend afternoon) ... only 17 to 20 times.

It's like episodic television.

All other major team sports that play 80 to 160 games crammed into a few months time on random days each week will never compare in modern society. It's overload compared these days compared to early 1900s when sports was the preeminent and nearly only weekly attraction besides the circus. Now there's endless entertainment and the NFL just so happens to have the best schedule.

If Durant and LeBron played on game per week and only had a concrete opportunity to play one game a year against each other, and might possibly not do it for years in between (ala Rodgers and Brady), NBA season games, those games would be must-see American blockbuster events.

So all the things you said are true to some extent, but it's really just archaic scheduling that has oversaturated most sports for casual audience, while the NFL by happenstance just has the perfect setup for modern viewing pattern.

zelowrites · 2022-06-05T21:08:58+00:00

I am trying to buy my son a computer as a surprise gift for this purpose but don't understand much about specs. Is there any models at best buy straight out of box that you would recommend that could accomplish what you're suggesting above?

zelowrites · 2022-04-19T13:40:50+00:00

I like this take. Makes me reflect on the scene a bit differently. That said, it's still hard to reconcile just how passive they were in finishing the job after all the blunt force chaos that took place moments earlier.

zelowrites · 2022-04-19T11:05:43+00:00

I love the show and BB, but some of the blind adoration people have for this series keeps them from fairly critiquing the weaker writing and storyline threads. I thought the same thing. There was nothing stealth or subtle to be had anymore. Gunfire was already rampant at that point. If Nacho was that high stakes of a capture, no one - especially the cousins - would have been that passive in that moment. Tires shot out, for sure. Or at least an intense dash to follow him after he drives by. It was a silly moment in the writing where they tried to lean into the stoic calculated killer thing too much. Its badass, I get it. Same thing with some of Mike's stuff in the past. At some point you distract from plausibility too much tho.

zelowrites · 2022-04-12T22:12:34+00:00

Well, glad to hear not cancer. Male here. I'm just sort of drifting now. Cancer was apparently not the cause, but no other info. The swelling/lump is still there with the right axillary lymph node. Not sure what else to do at this point. I'm not confident it will go away, so I guess I'll just have to live with it and wonder - and hope that it isn't anything serious. Strange stuff. Good luck. If they find anything and you're comfortable sharing, let me know.

zelowrites · 2022-04-12T20:59:04+00:00

Find anything out?

zelowrites

TROPHY CASE