We’re still riding high, a mile in the sky on rye, from WrestleMania 40, which purposefully, strategically ushered in a “New Era” (official name tbd?) for WWE. It’s a Vince-free zone led by Hunter, who we’ve all wanted to succeed Generalisimo Dickcheese for a decade now. Triple H has a HoF career, easy, but it was his work in NXT that truly elevated him to indispensable. As a booker, mentor, and guy who makes amazing grilled cheese sandwiches (I have no evidence to support this, he just looks like he does).
All ships rise in the tide but it can also be very hard to ride the wave of WWE when they’re in ‘Mania mode. Especially after what many consider to be one of, if not the (which is WWE’s line), best WrestleMania ever. In every metric that gets metric’d. WWE’s Endgame, if you will. These past three months have drawn a ton of casuals back to wrestling, as this time of year often does, but it can still be a challenge to exist in the shadow of that mammoth influx (my favorite Flaming Lips album).
The best thing you can do, as another company, is keep your head high, deliver your best product, and maybe book some shows in WrestleManiaCity during that week. You may be tempted to take swipes at the giant, despite all the mass attention the giant’s bringing to the industry. You might even feel like trying to take WWE down a peg or two, even when they’re at the tippy top of Everest.
Well, AEW -- which had an excellent showing for itself back at Revolution, in the midst of ‘Mania season -- decided to boop the dragon’s snoot.
This week, the company aired the controversial backstage footage from All In, featuring the skirmish between CM Punk and Jack Perry. In an attempt to… do what exactly? Draw ratings? Expose Punk? Save face? Be weirdos? The answer is complicat... wait. It’s not. It’s just all four. All four of those. And it felt like a chump move. A complete herb tactic. An utter s***baby maneuver.
This past Saturday, on AEW Collision, Adam Copeland came out and gave a very passionate, gently awkward speech about how awesome AEW is. How incredible the company is to work for and how terrific it is that it exists. And that’s all well and good, sure. But it seemed like a bizarre, defensive promo to cut, the addressing of vague things floating, hovering out there on the internet. Like, this speech had nothing to do with AEW TV or any of the storylines currently happening. It was all in defense of AEW, more or less, because WrestleMania was happening and people are more excited about WWE than AEW right now. If you weren’t chronically, detrimentally online, you would have been like, “Yeah yeah, Cope, we know you’re having the time of your life. Can Mercedes Mone just wrestle, please?”
I have no doubt Copeland is having a blast. Whether or not we’re having a blast is a different story, but it’s nice that he’s found his smile again. And his match with Penta on Dynamite this week was a barnburner. But the most interesting thing about Adam’s promo was when he brought up how wrestling company tribalism, the toxic AEW vs. WWE element, is all fan-driven. The wrestlers themselves don’t have that beef. They all support each other and want everyone to do well. We’re the ones who make things awful and petty. The calls are coming from inside our asses. Fans are the blind loyalists who do nothing but hurl the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
...Until AEW decides to release the Punk footage four days later. The second-hand embarrassment here was unrelenting. It was like if cringe took the Super Soldier Serum. Ooof, it was so so so less than ideal. Best case scenario for AEW? Punk was a liar. That the footage showed him doing things counter to what he said he did. And then... vindication? Validation? The whole world hates Punk? And therefore WWE? Whose angel dust-fueled science fair project was this?
Now that the footage turned out to be benign, and so much less than we’ve all been imagining, they look like amateurs.
Worst case? Well, probably what wound up happening. Which was all the egg on all the faces. Heading into last night, I was hoping it was just going to be a bit, plain and simple. A goof. Like, the Bucks would say "roll the footage" and it was clearly them dressed up as Punk and Perry and then it turned into a flash mob or what have you. Something ridiculous. And, to be fair, it was, in the end, a half bit. It was used to add zest to the upcoming Bucks/FTR match since the Bucks claimed the Punk incident cost them the All In match. So there was a tinge of silliness.
But that wasn’t enough to justify the company looking like a parliament of dinks in front of the entire world. Punk fans weren’t going to care one way or another. Even if Punk had run up to Perry and immediately sucker-punched him, it wouldn’t matter. As it so happens, he didn’t. And the fight played out exactly the way Punk said it did. No punches. There were words, a dialogue, and then a shove and a choke. And then a pull-apart. Done. The only thing that truly resonates here is Punk’s now mostly-memed “I'm hurt and I'm old and I'm f***in tired and I work with f***in children.” Because this, more than anything, more than Punk’s self-sabotaging behavior or quick temper and impulse control issues, has wound up being the takeaway. Children. It was a child’s decision to air this footage. All that stands now, in the wake of AEW looking like a clown academy, is that there’s no level-headed boss in control. It all feels like the Emperor has terminal internet brain.
I’ve mentioned this before but it probably bears repeating - I watch both WWE and AEW. Both are good and bad. It’s all wrestling. WWE s**ts the bed too. Neither company is infallible. And WWE has a much larger and longer legacy of beefing things too. Hell, they almost wonked up their enitre WrestleMania two months ago when it was Rock vs. Roman. But they avoided it. And this felt avoidable too. It was one hundred percent Bad Idea Jeans from the moment it was announced. And now that the footage turned out to be benign, and so much less than we’ve all been imagining since September, they look like amateurs.
And then there was Will Ospreay trying to dunk on Hunter with the lowest of all hanging fruits? That Paul slept with the boss’ daughter? An insult from 20 years ago that no longer rings true since Hunter and Steph have a loving, lasting marriage with children? It’s like “Hahaha you found your soulmate, chump! Ya burnt!” It’s never, ever a good look for the second place company to mention the one ahead of them. It always feels minor league.
The same goes for WWE too, back when they had DX show up in tanks at a WCW show when WCW was ahead of them in the ratings. It’s desperate and churlish. It’s always better to ignore the comment section. There's an adage that gripes go up, not down. So when you gripe, in a way, you automatically put the target above you. It's like that elevator scene in Mad Men (I know, super specific) when Don's like "I don't think about you at all." You know the one. Aw, heck... to Google!
WWE isn't infallible here. An argument can be made that they started this, or caused this, because of the pre-Mania interview rounds with Punk and Hunter and the s*** they said (or alluded to) about AEW and Ospreay. And then there was some of the snark from the commentators during the weekend itself. That was in poor form. Absolutely. But everyone, except AEW apparently, seemed to know that responding to any of this was only going to end in fire. AEW had every right to do so, yes, and hopefully it brought in good ratings for them. But the overall cost may have been too high. That being the fact that they now feel like fish four days old.
It’s wrestling though. It never stops. For anything. They’ll shake it off. We’ll shake it off. They look like court jesters today but next week there'll be some other cascade of foolishness to deal with. And if you think this was “bashing” AEW and ya feel like you want to yell at me, a total stranger, online then you need to be taken back to formula. It’s 2024. Don’t act like the internet is new and you’re just a baby who doesn’t know how to behave.
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