AEW - All Elite Wrestling (*Spoilers for Latest Show*)

Yeah because a good work is to make your company look stupid and second rate. Totally.

Whether it's a work or not, I'll probably watch Dynamite live so it's working.

Really enjoyed the PPV, the crowd for the acclaimed v Swerve in our glory was great. That will be a regret I'd sat not putting the belts on the acclaimed, they'll never get a crowd as hot again

Even if it is a work, which I don't think it is.

I am so tired of this worked-shoot nonsense. This is the company that's meant to be about 'wrestling' and they're consistently taking the audience out of the immersion wrestling creates with backstage drama and the real lives of the wrestlers. It's exhausting and for me does little to add to the story, if you can't tell an interesting rivalry without telling me, these guys actually hate each other though then you're not a good storyteller.

Like if I watched the Dark Knight for the first time and found out Bale and Ledger actually hated each other on-set. What good would that do for me? Unless it's on screen and in the performance I don't care. It's like method acting, I don't give a **** how method you went, was the performance good or not?

I know at some point, they'll maybe briefly mention backstage stuff on TV and people will immediately applaud it being some fantastic work, does that count as pay-off? Especially when it made your company look like an absolute mess. When they play some promo package and it has a headline from PWInsider or some Dave Meltzer audio clip, are we really going to get excited because we're told these people have drama which rarely played out on television?

Might be an unpopular take but I thought Tony did the right thing by sitting there and saying nothing while keeping as much a neutral face as he could. If he tried to quell it there by telling Punk to shut up it would have gotten ugly quick, whereas by staying quiet he's kept himself separate from the situation while he makes his decision. Had Tony spoken up in that moment Punk would have diced him making the latter look even worse. Now he can just release a statement and say this is the deal and be done with it.

Anyone who has managed difficult personalities (in our modern HR red tape filled environment) will tell you there's only one way to deal with them, and that's to let them keep talking - because eventually they'll dig their own grave.

AEW Stars Believe CM Punk Could Be Fired After Backstage Fight - WrestleTalk

I think Tony did try to cut him off once or twice but guys like Punk are a nightmare, give them even a hint of defiance in public and they'll have no problem making an even bigger scene.

Tony has been praised for a lot of things over the last 3 years and rightfully so, but this is his first major obstacle. Bosses aren't always going to know what to do especially when they're relatively inexperienced and that needs to be acknowledged, all they can do is take their time before a decision is made having listened to all advice.

It's pretty sad watching all these posters on Reddit and Twitter tear into him when they should, and were I'm sure, be thanking the guy while also acknowledging there's no quick easy solution here. This hasn't really happened since Bret and Shawn and even Vince, Mr Pro Wrestling himself, botched that through inaction.

I just think it's absolutely mental the abuse that Tony's getting, and really it's more to do with how people project their own failings onto a authority figure in their lives.

• He received a text at 05:00, followed up by a phone call at 05:30, that suggested that Discovery wasn't happy about the situation. He originally wasn't going to talk about it, but since people keep ****-talking his journalistic skills (my words, not his), he decided to. He prefaced it as "incredibly, remarkably unconfirmed", but Punk may have received an email saying that he was expected to be fired or that led him to expect to be fired, with a meeting scheduled for 13:00. He emphasised that this was not confirmed.

Punk's gonna be gone, lads.

He did try and cut him off.. and then didn't and nodded along while he tore into them and complained about the media who they invited to a presser. If Tony can't speak up and defend his employees or keep them in line then what good is he?

Tony deserves a lot of praise for what AEW has done and accomplished but he's also not above criticism and people have said for a long time that he doesn't come off as a boss to his talent. We can say this is his first challenge (we've said it before) but it's also something he continually refused to nip in the bud and now it's going to cost him. Inexperience can be acknowledged but it's not an excuse. I'm not dogging him for not taking action yet on the backstage brawl (that takes time) but strictly on the press conference, he did not help his case and I have no doubt talent will see his inaction as totally placating Punk at the expense of other talent.

Vince is a POS and no one is saying he handled Bret/Shawn well but do you think for second he would have stood silently nodding while a champion tore into one of his top babyfaces and some of his top guys/executives? I don't think he would.

Nobody is saying Tony is not in a difficult position. I think it's disingenuous to say people are projecting but I digress. Especially as Tony is the authority figure and people are wanting him to take action and he didn't. That's weak, it's situation of his own making and if it had been properly handled. Keep in mind that talent meeting reportedly did not address the Punk/Hangman drama. So he didn't address the ticking time bomb* until it blew up in his face.

*I deliberately didn't say pipebomb here and I'm quite proud I did.**

** Heard someone refer to the scrum rant as the Gripebomb and it deserves more attention haha