As a wrestling fan, what do YOU lose if CM Punk relinquishes the AEW World Heavyweight Championship?
CM Punk made an announcement about his career and the AEW World Heavyweight Championship.
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Yesterday, on AEW Rampage June 3, 2022 edition, CM Punk made an announcement about his career and the AEW World Heavyweight Championship title that he won just (now) 6 days ago. CM Punk won the AEW World Heavyweight Championship on Double or Nothing, May 29, 2022, from Hangman Adam Page.
CM Punk announces that he’s injured. He doesn’t tell us what kind of injury and how long he will be out. He was limping since Wednesday, AEW Dynamite.
The bad news is I'm injured and I need surgery. A couple of things are broken. The biggest thing is my heart because I love nothing more than performing for you and I wanted to go on one hell of a run. That's the bad news. The good news is I can still do all that. I told you I was going to go until the wheels fall off. Well, the wheels are still there. They haven't fallen off. It's just that one of them happens to be broken. But I've come back from worse.
CM Punk revealed that he was willing to relinquish the AEW World Heavyweight Championship however, Tony Khan told him to keep it because he “believes in him.” AEW Commentary plus the Internet Wrestling Community were all confused on if CM Punk will relinquish the title or not. He will not relinquish the title as per AEW and Tony Khan.
Next time, make sure you have a press release ready to go, and everyone has their story straight on what’s going to happen. In the beginning things were done right. It wasn’t until Cody Rhodes left that you can see how AEW is falling apart behind the scenes in the Public Relations and Social Media Departments.
If most of wrestling isn’t broken - such as traditions that has always been there to uphold the sanctity of wrestling - don’t fix it. Lately, everyone has this anger towards structure and want to deconstruct it so we get a circle of: EVERYONE WINS!
You can’t please everyone.
Wrestling has always been a competition, a sport that tests the limits of one spirit. Wrestling is unlike any other sport and yet the wrestling fans try to win for themselves which at times can be in selfish ways.
As a wrestling fan, what do you lose if CM Punk relinquishes the AEW World Heavyweight Championship?
You lose nothing except an ex-WWE wrestler recovering from injury and not rehashing stories.
The chase for CM Punk to get back the title would be better (hopefully) when he comes back. It’s going to be ok.
CM Punk can still be your savior by being an undefeated champion. Is that not a good bragging point?
Case in point: Will Ospreay.
Will Ospreay had to relinquish the title once he found out he had a broken neck. NJPW decided to have a match to crown an interim champion.
Shingo vs Tanahashi.
Shingo won the match and was crowned champion. Will Ospreay was and still is undefeated as NJPW World Champion even if he had to give it up. See?
I don’t think AEW should have an interim champion. An interim champion is a lesser champion. It wouldn’t hold value once the undefeated, unbeaten real champion comes back and reclaims the throne. Wrestling fans won’t talk about the interim champion like their real champion. The interim champion will be forgotten. And Tony Khan freaks out like a child when something goes wrong with AEW and its wrestlers. He panics.
Creating frequent interim champions isn’t “long term storytelling”. That didn’t help Sammy Guevara with his Cody Rhodes feud when Cody announced he caught COVID. It isn’t creating new stars. It isn’t creating new stories. It’s not putting the AEW day 1 guys first when they are going to take a back seat once the real champion comes back.
Interim champions are not the quick fix answer to avoid the tough decisions that need to be made as a BOSS. Tony Khan runs away from his problems more than fixes them. Running away in this instance is to create interim champions on panic so the hardcore fans - the ones he outright says he caters too - are happy. Don’t upset the hardcore fans with anything less than what makes them happy because that’s TK’s income right there.
I’m not sad over Punk’s announcement. I no longer care or love Punk after what happen 7 years ago. We have each other blocked on Twitter (not boasting, just providing a fact you may not know). It’ll be ok. It’s not the end for him. He accomplished getting another championship. He can retire now.
I will say that by him wanting to relinquish the title is a standup act. Punk was going to do the right thing but Tony Khan wants to please everyone without stepping on toes. That’s how a business tanks. We’re starting to see the threads slowly unwind, and it’s revealing too much.
Tony Khan thinks he’s creating good wrestling content, trying to blur the line between fiction and reality-based wrestling but Tony Khan forgets that this isn’t the late 90s when the internet wasn’t so drenched with information, that now, currently in 2021 we can now see through the bullshit and create connections that can destroy the narrative he wants to put out for the fans. It’s been sloppy once Cody Rhodes left.
I don’t think we as fans lose anything if Punk would’ve given up the title. When I say “lose anything”, it means this: from my twitter timeline, people have accepted we are getting an interim champion rather than voicing their opinions to change that, and by accepting it feels like they’ll lose the significant moment of Punk’s win from Double or Nothing as if he can’t reclaim it or the second win for the title won’t be amazing.
If anything, we as fans gain a better healed Punk with a better chase for the title because he’s undefeated.
While it’s always sad for a wrestler to leave due to injury, CM Punk will be ok. He didn’t choose the Z-Pak.
See you on my livestream in a bit!