SquaredCircle

Punk is so controversial and this is captivating considering everything else going on and now Pretty Ricky is here.

That was one of the BEST top to bottom TV wrestling shows I've seen in a long time. Wow!

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 :(

Hahaha Schiavone is such a bad luck charm. I would refuse any interview from him

Murder Granpda is here. I remember Darby ducking this fade at Forbidden Door 2

That's it. Darby's dying.

"For my...for our championship!"

Christian's such a greaseball.

CM Punks best buddies cheating to win

So TK has to hate Gravity. Books him against Pac on Wednesday and sacrifices him to Joe on Saturday.

No baby no MJF don't cry :(

Hartford's funny. They treated Punk like a face on his way out and a heel the second his music stopped lol

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.

And just in case Kevin or Ian stop by:

Anne-Draw-Day
Ill-E-Doe-Low

You can do it. I believe in you.

Reminder to please boost and upvote this thread. In return, I’ll upvote and boost every *comment you make here.

*Low-effort, hateful, divisive comments don't apply. Offer excludes any of you reptilian-humans that Ancient Aliens warned me about.

Real hyped for tonight.

BCG in action, hopefully Jay is doing something as well.

Joe pop's back up and we hear from Punk.

Andrade and Buddy in a Ladder match. I think Hob is banned as well but if not Rush resigned so maybe some LFI vs HoB action.

FTR/BTYBB is going to be a guaranteed banger. FTR can drag watchable out of just about anyone and MJF is really good at this wrestling thing.

Kiera Hogan: "Fuck Mercedes."

Graphic for Hogan vs Martinez appears on screen

KH: "No! Not that one!"

That spinning elbow looked lethal. This match is awesome.

These boys are gonna be sore tomorrow

Andrades back elbow is so money, I could see it as a desperation finisher.

That's the first time I've seen spooky Julia Hart scared.

Where did everyone go? It felt like this place was on the ups last week...and then activity just cratered :/

Lol it continues, if you've done some questionable things in the past avoid Schiavone at all costs.

Also Punk really managed to tease Starks, MJF and The Elite feuds in like 2 lines.

75 abs. That's how many abs Jay White has according to the rest of BCG lol

😂😂😂Not exactly the Jay White involvement I was hoping for

"Dumb stupid cow Hikaru Shida"

Nigel you just made me an enemy for life.

I've followed Kiera since her Impact days. This might be the best shape I've ever seen her in.

It was a somewhat random setup for Stats next thing but I get.

Mercedes feels right as a heel too.

look at how dirty aew did christian