This Week in Wrestling 2023 Week 33

Brian Damage

It’s Saturday and today we have ’This Week in Wrestling’, the 33rd entry of 2023. Today Brian looks at the latest drama involving CM Punk in AEW and shares all the best wrestling content from this week.

The Cult of Accountability

With AEW’s biggest event in their short history just around the corner with ‘All In’ , where 80,000 plus will jam into London’s Wembley Stadium…all the talk and buzz should be focused on that show. Instead, we are smack dab in the middle of yet another controversy surrounding perhaps the company’s biggest star…CM Punk. Now admittedly, some of it seems way overblown, while other parts of it do not seem to be getting enough attention. Overall, I really question Tony Khan’s thinking in all of this. Sure, it is true that at times…”Controversy Creates Cash” but is this the right time for such a motto?

As I stated, all the talk should be centered on their All In show at Wembley, but instead, it has taken a back seat to some of the antics of CM Punk. It started with Punk cutting a promo after Collision went off the air criticizing ‘Hangman’ Adam Page as being a wrestler who doesn’t move the needle as far as selling merchandise. Considering all the past issues between Page and Punk in the past, the promo seemed questionable at best. It was later reported that Punk texted Page to apologize for the things he said in that non televised promo. Why say any of it at all if that was the case?

Punk also supposedly has had backstage run ins with wrestlers Ryan Nemeth (who was reportedly) sent home and Jack Perry. In the case with Nemeth, he was confronted by Punk for allegedly tweeting out how “soft” Punk is as a wrestler. Punk took issue with Nemeth, confronted him and had him sent home from Collision. Another person who was interestingly “sent home” was Christopher Daniels. This doesn’t seem to be talked about enough, but Daniels is AEW’s talent relations executive. Apparently, Daniels was told to go home as a statement to Punk’s good friend and mentor Ace Steele who was sent home in the past and that what’s fair for one, is fair for all.

Imagine if, Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock sent home Jim Ross from a WWF show to send a message. Would Vince McMahon tolerate that behavior? Oh sure, there was a point in time when the Kliq ran roughshod over the WWF, but even then, you didn’t hear of anything like this with Punk sending home an official. How did the Kliq’s dominance ultimately turn out for the company? It was one of their lowest points financially. The point is, that while you get what you paid for in hiring someone like CM Punk, ou need a capable someone to be able to reel him in when needed. Tony Khan isn’t that person and he should be. Instead of dealing with some of these issues head on, Khan makes a statement that he is just glad to see people are interested in AEW.

The comment seems asinine to make, especially when you have All In coming up and all everybody is talking about are Punk’s latest antics. Khan should hire a go between executive between himself and the talent. Someone who can play the heel in all of this. Not a former wrestler who is buddies with the talent, but a real cutthroat executive to administer fines, suspensions and even firings if need be. Someone not worried about how he or she is portrayed by the AEW roster. Tony Khan while the owner, just seems to be too enamored with being a wrestling company owner and booker to be that guy. Hopefully, as we get closer to All In, we can spend less time talking about what CM Punk says and more about who he wrestles and give the AEW event the due it deserves.

Photo Gallery

Congratulations to Tetsuya Naito on winning this year’s New Japan G1 Climax!

Congratulations to Rhea Ripley and Buddy Matthews on their recent engagement

LOL

Marty Jannetty in an alternate universe…

Too Soon?

NXT fan Izzy Moreno is all grown up and is now a pro wrestler herself.

Speaking of grown up…here is Gage Goldberg. How long before we see him in a wrestling ring?

Cool photo of Dralistico and Penta Jr with their daughters

The struggle was real in the 1990’s…

Good luck to Bianca Carelli aka Arianna Grace in NXT, as she competes for the Miss Universe pageant representing Canada.

Summer Rae

Toni Storm

Maryse

Hulk Hogan definitely has a “type.”

Dean Malenko with Adult star Minka

NXT’s Nikkita Lyons

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NSFW Viewer Discretion is Strongly Advised.

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Catalina (Jake Hager’s wife)

Anna Jay

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Safety!!!

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Video Gallery

Here’s a Wendy’s commercial featuring the legend Terry Funk….just because.

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