So a little story, I sat ringside at Punk’s last TV taping with AEW, the Dynamite/Collision taping a few days before All Out. This was the same day that Funk passed away. With the Collision taping, they taped matches out of order and put the first match they taped, immediately after Dynamite went off the air, was the main event for that episode of Collision with CM Punk. Anyways, the interesting part in retrospection is that after the match, Punk cut a kinda long promo about Funk which was great. After that, with the seven other people in the match already gone, Punk still stayed around the ring area with fans. While this is going on, he’s very obviously getting instructions to wrap it up because they have the entire episode left to tape, and he ignores it. This goes on for a while, to the point where the camera person in front of me is miming to the other camera person across the ring area and getting annoyed, and then I see them pull their phones out and can tell they start texting each other about it because at this point it’s getting close to 11. Point of the story is, to the part of your post I quoted, I think Punk really thought he could do anything he wanted and I saw first hand that there were employees who were put off by it. Then 10 days later he’s fired.
Raw was up against two Monday Night Football games. Nobody short of Steve Austin was putting up a good number last night.
MNF is a new phenomenon for RAW’s numbers?
Two games at once is. With one featuring a New York team at that.
Yeah, not a game changer for the ratings at all…
https://x.com/brandonthurston/status/1734728036648370382?s=46&t=JWp1FDcxOniaaPmFyvmyrg
We aren’t going to change each others minds but I think we can both agree it’s not the best idea to send your biggest star to the competition before trying to get a new TV deal.
AEW should have either found a way to do business with Punk or let him sit. TK made the worst possible choice and it may burn them big time.
He was fired for attacking his boss and a co-worker. Punk needed to go. If anything, I stand by, that it shows leadership to have followed the proper channels and fire him, than bench him.
Punk isn’t missed on AEW TV. Not by a long shot. He was injured for half of his time there anyway. And now that he’s completely gone - his shadow isn’t hanging over literally everything.
People can enjoy CM Punk on WWE - and it really shouldn’t have any relevance to AEW at this point.
I sometimes wonder what it would look like if people started speculating on Post Wrestling.
We would see tweets saying; “Fans at each others throats on Post, can it survive”
Back in the days of really terrible RAWs when Wai sounded like he was struggling we’d see; “Post host on the edge of leaving in huge shock”
When John had his kid and took a couple of weeks off they’d be writing; “Rumours are spreading main host will have to step back from duties, can the show survive”.
If this did happen I wonder if it would still be going. The pressure and attention may have destroyed this channel.
This stuff is pathetic gossip. “Things are changing greatly” no sh*t sherlock, the companies just merged with someone else. This is not news, its click bait as said above.
Anyways, I think it’s USA Network coming back to the table to lock down RAW as well as the already announced SmackDown.
SRS is a much more dirt sheet type with the credibility of a pylon. Remember when he said MJF was on a plane or something
I agree - I think it’s USA or another TV network. WBD likes Punk but I think they are happy with AEW at the price they are paying.
Eh, I think SRS has more hits than misses. But obviously there are big misses.
I’d be inclined to believe Andrew Zarian more than anybody in regards to WBD news. And as of like two weeks ago, he stated WBD is in deep with AEW and expects a new deal to be announced early 2024.
As a fan, I don’t have an opinion on this. Unless a show ends up on “deep cable” (think Impact Wrestling circa 2015), it’s all just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic to me.
But I know enough to know that this is a “big boy” negotiation, not a carny wrestling one. We are likely not going to hear a lot of info or rumors – whether true or false – that somebody doesn’t want out there.
The ratings and making money part? And perhaps a belief that HHH and the WWE brass are better able to reign Punk in and make the most of his talents without controversy.
No idea where RAW or any other show is going, but it’s silly to assume Punk is blackballed by any networks moving forward. I’ve yet to find the corporation that doesn’t prioritize profits over feelings.
As has been mentioned, and I’m making these numbers up but they make the point, but paying 5 times the rights fee for only two times the ratings number doesn’t “make money”. Even with an increase from what they’re being paid now, AEW is a bargain at the price-to-rating ratio compared to WWE.
Some more click bait, since everyone loves it. The bottom line is no one knows and it’s stupid to think AEW to WBD is a done deal
I’ve never negotiated a major TV rights deal and I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you never have either. I’m guessing there’s a lot more that goes into figuring these numbers out than the elementary (and, frankly, largely inaccurate) example you’ve given. They don’t simply compare the ratios of dollars to viewers to determine these values. But certainly more eyes on the product doesn’t hurt the evaluation.
The only thing I know for sure is that Eric B knows nothing
This.
Why the hell would Eric Bischoff of all people, have absolutely any insight into modern television or wrestling companies?
Looks like we’re getting close to posting Jim Cornette tweets now, by the looks of this thread.
So what’s great about the latest round of rumours about this is that it is positioning Punk as the guy responsible for a meeting between WBD and WWE.
Clearly Phil and his “journalist” friends can’t get enough of his stories to try and make everything come back to him.
I’m sure WWE and WBD have met. Why wouldn’t they? This is clearly all parties doing their due diligence.
People have absolutely no idea how many “meetings” happen in the media world.
No way WBD is spending roughly 400M a year / 2B for five years, and eliminating both reliable cheaper content from AEW, but also shutting themselves out of NBA negotiations…