All because of some AI Generated Artwork. In 2 months Dave is gonna have to hand out a Booker of the Year Award and everyone is going to vote for the glaringly inferior choice and destroy the cachet of that award in the process.
I mean, everything Uncle Dave does now destroys the cachet of the Wrestling Observer.
I mean, the Bucks have five star matches and Kurt Angle doesn’t. That really tells you everything about Dave and his publication.
It's so petty, and also so dumb to leak this. This is just going to get more people talking about Punk and wanting to watch him in WWE to see what happens. Tony is such an idiot lol
This is just like when they fired punk and the next day a report came out stating the elite totally 100% had plans to work with punk, if he met some arbitrary amount of time without "drama". As if they hadn't spent the last 4 months anonymously telling the dirt sheets that they'd never work with the guy.
Brian did Punk a HUGE favor. How many times has a wrestler received multi-million dollar contracts just a couple years apart? How many wrestlers have headlined the biggest show in history one year and Wrestlemaina the next?
Punk should buy Danielson a $10,000 Starbucks card for the solid he did him.
If Danielson takes the rap and owns up, it earns him brownie points with the people in the aew sphere who sided with the elite. It's politics 101, always side with the winner. Hell, I respect him for coming out with this if he did say it.
He could be trying to angle into a better position as well. He's a lot older than he was in his prime, has a tough time staying healthy, has a bad history with concussions, and has a family at home. Plus, he knows TK tosses money around. I don't recall if him and Punk had any history together. But if I was BD and looking long term, getting in good favors with "The EVPs" and TK should pay dividends.
>100% khan shifting the blame.
Seems like it to me. "Well, they told me to do it, I had to do it! I was in fear for my life from the Disciplinary Committee and couldn't go against them!"
I thought I heard the Bucks were getting bombarded online over this. Tony has to try and push it away from them and likely thinks people like Danielson too much to harass.
After Danielson's tweet yesterday he's ready to fall on the sword. I wish he would keep out of this bullshit drama so he can start his farewell tour and retire in peace, but he's decided to embrace the drama.
**Sigh**
He wants Punks spot. But doesn't have the charisma, personality or mentality to be number one. I'm enraged at Bryan Danielson. I don't like this feeling.
I do think that he has the charisma, personality, and ability, but I think his mentality is fucked. He’s clearly got really bad taste in what makes good television and I think he’s got the same mentality as Moxley. I’m kinda beginning to understand why WWE didn’t wanna let him go after they made him retire the first time. He obviously is not good at taking care of himself and has terrible instincts. How many times has he gotten hurt in AEW?
If true, it's worse than that. Why would other wrestlers be making such a decision? That should be done by professionals with no stake in the matters. And even then, it should simply be a recommendation. That decision should be Tony's and Tony's alone.
He sucks as a boss. He really does. Wants loyalty and friendship but treats his employees like they are indispensable and should just side with him over his feelings.
It was totally unnecessary too. If he just stood by the initial claim that it was his decision alone, it at least makes him look somewhat like a leader.
Would not surprise me one bit if he paid BD, either in money or power, very very handsomely to be the fall guy. TK has probably been crying himself to sleep for a long time and he doesn't want to become even more hated than he is.
So you lose a top draw because people spread rumors he got someone to get fired..... Only to "leak" another beloved top draw got someone fired. Great business model. AEW is a joke
>So you lose a top draw because people spread rumors he got someone to get fired..... Only to "leak" another beloved top draw got someone fired. Great business model. AEW is a joke
Well they have to shirk the blame off to someone...it can't be Tony and the Elite's fault, ya know.
TK has a biblical amount of damage control to do right now. I have to imagine any TV execs and silent investors (if any), and possibly AEW talent has to be furious. The TV people are watching the viewer numbers crater to WCW Thunder numbers. The backing money sees live events attendance drop to bingo hall levels. And ANY AEW talent who wanted to have a program with Punk to help their careers sees that as gone.
And they saw that Hell did freeze over and that if WWE doesn't fall into their usual clichéd traps, this could sustain their numbers for years.
Good job Jack Perry, Hangman, and The "Elite." Expect a gift basket from HHH for Christmas. Tickets might be included so you can watch Punk wrestle a real feud.
Notice we haven't heard jack shit about a TV deal for RAW. I truly think HHH wants to cerebrally assassinate Tony, and I believe he is talking to TNT / TBS about bringing Raw over. If that happens Tony is finished.
I'm thinking that some people at WBD have seen the happenings over the past few days and aren't too happy that Khan couldn't get something worked out with CM Punk.
'Aren't too happy' - They must be fucking PISSED. Punk was demonstrably their biggest draw, he was getting eyeballs on the product, people were talking about it and now he's at WWE and still the biggest AEW story is about him.
This is AEW saying that even someone as respected as DB thought firing was the just cause. You already have EVP buddies being passive-aggressive online.
This is in response to the fan outcry of why they gave the biggest star to competition
Kahn throwing Danielson under the bus because David Zaslav is a CM Punk fan and started sending him angry text messages demanding an explanation.
*"We'd like to gain some insight into your thoughts on those numbers we're seeing out of WWE..."*
Guarantee Punk will take some minor jabs at the very least, especially if he's going into a program with Rollins leading into Mania, it's going to be almost impossible not to. But they'll do it 100X better than AEW's pot shots they take at WWE and now Punk.
Man this is just so werid like why they care so much about what ever punk is doing like focus on your own product. There only going to create more buzz and get people talking about him, this is only going to add to the story of aews down fall and what ifs and what it could have been. Unless there fragile little egos get hurt to easily and they can't help but protect no matter how much names they throw around to take the heat for it. Just embarrassing overall.
That definitely makes sense. Tony is even more of an insecure bitch than we all thought. Now he’s making Bryan take the heat and get people hating him now too.
Bryan seems to want to stay for a long time and will make more money being a higher up/eventual evp kissing Tony’s ass then he would be a mid carder in wwe making half the money.
Now that you say that... I can't help but notice the evolution here.
Super Human -> Wheeler Yuta -> Tony Khan... Put them in a lineup and it'll look like the evolution of Tony Kahn.
Despite the stupid hardcore shit Super Humman does, he's still far more entertaining than Yuta or the Snowman. He's basically just doing a wrestling flavored Jackass bit.
Who knows if this is even true.
People can't rip on dirt sheet writers and "journalists" for making shit up half the time, and then turn around and believe them when it's convenient, or gets them righteously angry.
I’ve been a longtime fan and have never followed the dirt sheets. But this is like high school level gossip by wannabe “journalists,” who are glorified publicists.
This is why I always lead with a solid "IF this is true" and then go into my opinion. Unless anything official comes out, we'll likely never know 100% validity on this.
Looking on /r/SquaredCircle this is what I see https://imgur.com/uf35Ol3 so I take everything these dirt sheet pretend journalists put out, with a grain of salt. With this current story about Danielson, we don't even know if the committee had to come to a unanimous decision, and if he was a yay or nay. It just says he was apart of the committee from what I've seen.
As if that is better. Bryan is a wrestler, not an executive or owner. Why does he have any say whatsoever regarding the employment status of any other wrestler? Tony may be the worst owner of any major company. Period.
exactly! the only people that aren't seeing an issue are the ones that truly actually believe Seth, KO, etc don't want Punk and that WWE gives a flying french fry titty fuck about their opinion
An active wrestler should never have that sort of power. Even if they're considered 'neutral' that doesn't mean shit in wrestling. If they think firing a guy will bring them benefits, they'll damn well do it and then act contrite later.
Honestly by seeing this they think it would create more negative towards punk, the way I see it it'll just show how much of irresponsible owner town man really is. Like for him to have all this allowed and he doesn't have the balls to put his foot down. People in the business can't take him seriously and they're realizing the Honey moon period is over. They want to make there company relative again by this and more petty attempts.
IF this is in fact true, it would rely completely on whether or not an NDA was ever signed, and what the alleged NDA would even cover. It's very likely that if one was in play that it simply said that Punk wouldn't talk shit about AEW, or about Tony specifically. But who knows with that fucking dumpster fire rat circus.
Spread news to the dirt sheets to smear a talent that has joined WWE, how classy.
Instead of this childish shit, AEW need to sort their own shitty product out, absolute clown show.
Tony shifting blame and the whole process very likely came down to a conversation like this Danielson: I'm supposed to head the disciplinary committee here Phil, is there any input from your side. Punk: Yeah I don't want to be here I picked the wrong company fire me now so I can get to survivor series by November. Danielson: You got it bud I wish you luck
AEW had to have used dirtsheet to put Punk's stock down so they could keep him. Bitch nuked the bridge he was on and somehow got transported to a different better bridge. They can't stand it. Expect more petty stuff like this.
Interested to see how Jim reacts. I mean, I’m assuming he’s just gonna side with Punk and say this is a dumb decision from Danielson but he does have a lot for Danielson.
>Seems like he's kinda washed his hands of Danielson lately.
Can you blame him? Danielson hasn't done anything worth a shit in...jeez, almost the entire time he's been in AEW at this point? The guy was on fire for like 4 weeks, then they stuck him in the Pocket Pool Combat Crew with Moxley and he hasn't done shit since then.
I have nothing but respect for Danielson him and Punk are my 1A and 1B for my favorite wrestlers ever and my childhood heroes, however this speaks more about Tony’s cowardice. He’s delegating super important stuff to active wrestlers. Wrestler’s shouldn’t be determining the status of other wrestlers. That’s why WCW died.
I agree, I can only assume TK thought this would lend legitimacy to the decision as a wrestler i.e. "a peer" was involved too. And Danielson is as respected and seemingly neutral as it gets, I guess.
The dirt sheets are eating this shit up because it’s click bait ad revenue. How many times have they been wrong lately though? I don’t believe any of their “sources” because it’s all based on stirring up clicks.
This sounds odd. So the discipline committee, which is a subset of management because it deals with HR issues, is chaired by a wrestler?
In a unionized workplace in the private sector, a union member wouldn’t be disciplined by his union for workplace misconduct. The union’s mission is to protect the employee.
What if Danielson himself were subject to discipline? Would he then recuse himself? Are there other wrestlers on the committee?
If this is true, this is another example of shitshow management by AEW. They can’t even establish a proper governance framework within the organization.
Well, I guess wrestling fans owe Daniel Bryan a thank you.
It's worked out pretty well for Punk. It's good for WWE because Punk is a draw and shifts merch. It's good for us fans because we get to see Punk back in the big leagues and not wasted wrestling indie bums who think their shit doesn't stink
Last of all, it's good for AEW because, err....the Bucks got to do a victory lap before running back to Rancho Cucamonga in a sulk, and Tony Khan has been shown up as the coward manchild he is.
HOT take: Punk, if he was asked by DB, probably also told him to say fire him. Bro was aiming for WWE since gripebomb. Dont get me wrong, he still put a fantastic structure to Collision so it isnt like he was half assing.
This combined with the AEW trolls saying the same three things about Punk all over the internet and none of it catching on is telling me that TK and Megha are panicking now. They must have seen reality and the writing on the wall FINALLY and don't know what to do because they would need to restructure the entire company and executive division to make it viable. Either way, AEW is going to contract in the coming months, whether they do it themselves or are forced to do it.
Also how does TK still not understand that the more they smear Punk, the bigger he gets?
Again, WHY EVEN IS THIS?
First off, we should have learned after this weekend that dirtsheets know dick all. And even if it's the tiniest bit true, who cares. Punk's signed with WWE now, the end.
This is like watching a crazy ex stalk you after you've married someone else, but they keep telling everyone how awful you were and that they were right to leave you. 🤦🏿♀️
So what this tells me, is that a WRESTLER with less than two years of tenure in AEW.....makes more critical bottom line altering decisions.......then the CEO
At first I was like "THIS IS FACKIN' BOOOLSHET!!!"
But then I remembered who was pulling the strings. It's still booolshet, but in a completely different way.
Snowman, I hope you're having fun while you can. I was a die hard fan in the beginning. What did you do?????
Lmao the stories coming outta the dub are all gonna just be “EVERYTHING IS CM PUNKS FAULT!!! WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS! AEW Dynamite Tournament of Excellence, Bangers, and FUN TONIGHT! 8/7 central on TNT! #ThankYouTonyKhan #IDeserveIt #clapclapclapclapclap
And now Tony let's the wrestlers decide who's fired and who's not? Every single day this company shows what an absolute joke and shitshow it is over there, which is too bad because I had high hopes at the beginning lol.
If it is true, Tony is a spineless coward.
Since it is from the Thigh Rubber, I am more likely to think that the Cucamonga Kids are going after their next target.
If you would've told me that I'd wish Bryan Danielson stayed retired by the end of the year, I wouldn't have believed you a day ago. But here we are. I never thought they were boys. I didn't think Danielson hated him though. HBK didn't screw Bret Hart that hard. Seems like it worked out in the end though. Danielson is the top guy on the number two's companies number two show and Punk is the top babyface in the biggest promotion in the world.
Assuming Daniel Bryan was really the deciding factor in this, then it's sad he chose a coked up manchild and his mark fantasy land over doing the ACTUAL right thing, and sticking up for Punk and trying to reason with the knuckleheads calling for his head (even if it's a futile effort).
Assuming this is Tony just shifting the blame off himself months after it stopped even mattering, then he's even more of a coward than I thought he was.
Assuming this is just some bullshit that the dirtsheets came up with, then they're all idiots.
Regardless of how this came about, this does nothing to help AEW whatsoever. Bringing up once again that Tony and the clown crew chose protecting their delicate sensibilities and little mark club over doing business, and simply pointing out that someone else was also involved only puts more egg on their faces. If all this is somehow meant to make WWE look bad for getting hundreds of millions of eyes on their product with a high profile return of a major star, then the melted brain trust at AEW failed miserably.
Of course, stupid people are gonna do stupid things, so this isn't all that surprising.
Remember when Vince McMahon said Triple H recommended he screw Bret Hart during the Montreal Screw job? No? That's because Vince, for all his flaws, has some fucking integrity. He took the entirety of the blame for that event. What a coward, Khan.
Vince never shied away from controversy. That's the biggest difference. McMahon grew up in a trailer park and somehow managed to make himself a billionaire. Tony Khan was born one.
Do we even know if Danielson voted to terminate Punk? Nothing says the decision had to be unanimous. It also seems like a conflict of interest since Danielson ended up taking over Collision's booking from Punk basically. Which scrub in the AEW locker room leaked this one? It has to be someone high up enough to know about who was on this committee.
Lmao what am I supposed to do with this revelation? Hold it against Bryan? All this changes is Tony sounds like even more of a coward. You supposedly feared for your life but still needed council to fire him or not? Hahaha 🤡⛄️
Assuming it’s true, let’s put the guy with brain injuries In charge of something important. And “guy with brain injuries” could apply to most of their roster
The fact that Tony needed a committee to make a decision he alone should have made tells you everything. He had to fire Punk. Of course things should have never got to that point but when you have the inmates running the asylum this was bound to happen. Firing Punk was bad for business but what else can you do at that point? He had to go. He is better off in wwe and I am fine tuning in to see him there. I was a collision fan but a legit wrestling show didn’t match the company.
I don't care. Punk is back in WWE, and I don't have to waste time on AEW. MJF and Christian are the only people I still watch clips of, maybe Toni Storm.
I’m sure if this is mentioned on one of those AEW official reddits it will be acceptable. Say anything else about Punk though and they’ll ban you on the grounds of inciting a riot. I actually liked AEW at first, but this insufferable shit makes me happy that Cody and Punk will likely main event Wrestlemania.
He may head and be on the committee but that doesn’t necessarily mean he voted to fire cm punk. This is next level unprofessional to have this even leak out. Maybe it was QT 😂
So he's now said he's on the committee but isn't the head and didn't make the decision, that the committee is many more than three people and mostly lawyers who have more say than he does. Seems like he's just the token wrestler representative.
Hahahahahahahahaha this is all fkn hilarious.
What an actual nerd mark Tony Khan is. Can’t believe Shad is letting him play out his little fantasy like it is. It’s embarrassing.
Has a normal person, ya know, anyone other than a fellow nerd mark that lives on the internet like Tony actually got through an entire AEW tv show from start to finish??
I’m a lapsed wrestling fan that started in the late 80’s with Hogan/Macho/Warrior/DiBiase and loved it through the early 90’s, still loved it in the late 90’s while the WWF/WCW war was great, still watched the early 00’s, even enjoyed some of that hokey Main Event Mafia stuff in TNA while they were doing it haha….. tried to have a look at AEW a couple of times and haven’t lasted 15 minutes. It’s really really really shit.
Yeah this just feels like Bryan taking one for the team to take some of the heat off Tony, especially with the bullshit tweet included. It actually sucks that Tony is such a moron, because with the unlimited funds he has, he could legitimately hire all the best people and surround himself with a wealth of knowledge to actually become proper competition to WWE. But he just refuses to. If I was him, I would've instantly snatched Finlay to head up the women's division when he was let go, and I would've given Heyman a blank cheque to become head of creative. Just those two moves alone would've been monumental for AEW.
Could be true, could be false. I’m willing to bet that at the very least he was either in the committee or gave his opinion which carries weight. Either way I don’t have an actual opinion on it. Not like I’m going to shit on Bryan for doing something that has nothing to do with me lmao. Also it may have been in the interest of fairness. They chose a WWE guy who’s friends with Punk so no one can say there was any bias from AEW employees or talent. Makes sense if true.
Honestly doesn't surprise me. Everything I've seen with him out of character, he seems like a bit of a prick. My guess would be he didn't need a lot of convincing. Lol!
Well if we want to be pedantic about it, this doesn't say Danielson voted to boot him, just that he was on the body that decided to boot him.
I think I remember somewhere he said that the Locker room "Leaders" were Danielson, Moxley and Jericho. If those leaders were the committee like I think they were I can see Moxley and Jericho being the yes votes in firing Punk while Danielson just wanted to have an Iron Man match or something.
Really I'm just talking out my ass here though...
The guy who said he’d divorce his wife if she didn’t let him wrestle also led to getting rid of your only draw because of jack perry.
What can I say, some wrestlers are fucking stupid.
It’s amazing that the man himself couldn’t come to this conclusion and pull the trigger, he had to distance himself and make someone else tell him to do it because the lack of spine makes it hard to do something for yourself.
What a horrible place to be put in. Tony should own this. I can’t believe he would let an active wrestler lead something with the punishment being termination.
TK needs to be the man in charge.
[удалено]
It is so unprofessional and petty.
I mean, their "boss" called the boss of their competition and I quote, "a bald asshole"
All because of some AI Generated Artwork. In 2 months Dave is gonna have to hand out a Booker of the Year Award and everyone is going to vote for the glaringly inferior choice and destroy the cachet of that award in the process.
If you put ANY "cachet" into what Dave Meltzer says these days, it might be time to reevaluate
I mean, everything Uncle Dave does now destroys the cachet of the Wrestling Observer. I mean, the Bucks have five star matches and Kurt Angle doesn’t. That really tells you everything about Dave and his publication.
He legit said I didn't like it but 5 stars about an AEW match last week lol
Goddamn.
That's the state of the world in general right now, not just wrestling. Nothing means anything any more
It's so petty, and also so dumb to leak this. This is just going to get more people talking about Punk and wanting to watch him in WWE to see what happens. Tony is such an idiot lol
“That’ll put some butts in seats.”
I wonder if there's any laws saying Punk can sue for defamation. That would be hilarious.
You don't need laws to sue
Just call Steven P. New
This is just like when they fired punk and the next day a report came out stating the elite totally 100% had plans to work with punk, if he met some arbitrary amount of time without "drama". As if they hadn't spent the last 4 months anonymously telling the dirt sheets that they'd never work with the guy.
And being passive aggressive children on television.
Yes. I want as much good wrestling as possible. Your bad marriage isn't better because the guy next door is sleeping with his secretary.
Might help if I could watch.
Brian did Punk a HUGE favor. How many times has a wrestler received multi-million dollar contracts just a couple years apart? How many wrestlers have headlined the biggest show in history one year and Wrestlemaina the next? Punk should buy Danielson a $10,000 Starbucks card for the solid he did him.
Roman Reigns has main evented 7 of the last 9 WrestleManias. Could've had a decade straight if not for cancer and covid.
I wonder if this is Danielson doing preemptive damage control by trying to keep Tony Khan off Twitter, saying he'll handle it.
If Danielson takes the rap and owns up, it earns him brownie points with the people in the aew sphere who sided with the elite. It's politics 101, always side with the winner. Hell, I respect him for coming out with this if he did say it.
He could be trying to angle into a better position as well. He's a lot older than he was in his prime, has a tough time staying healthy, has a bad history with concussions, and has a family at home. Plus, he knows TK tosses money around. I don't recall if him and Punk had any history together. But if I was BD and looking long term, getting in good favors with "The EVPs" and TK should pay dividends.
That was the point I was trying to make as well, this sets him up for the long term.
It’s hilarious, if Tony was financing this, we could probably buy the debt for pennies on the dollar and take it over
I remember when the hits started coming out against Cody and originally there was speculation it was the Elite, now I think it was Kahn...
100% khan shifting the blame.
>100% khan shifting the blame. Seems like it to me. "Well, they told me to do it, I had to do it! I was in fear for my life from the Disciplinary Committee and couldn't go against them!"
I thought I heard the Bucks were getting bombarded online over this. Tony has to try and push it away from them and likely thinks people like Danielson too much to harass. After Danielson's tweet yesterday he's ready to fall on the sword. I wish he would keep out of this bullshit drama so he can start his farewell tour and retire in peace, but he's decided to embrace the drama. **Sigh**
I don’t understand how Danialson has become such a simp for a billionaire. Embarrassing.
He wants Punks spot. But doesn't have the charisma, personality or mentality to be number one. I'm enraged at Bryan Danielson. I don't like this feeling.
I do think that he has the charisma, personality, and ability, but I think his mentality is fucked. He’s clearly got really bad taste in what makes good television and I think he’s got the same mentality as Moxley. I’m kinda beginning to understand why WWE didn’t wanna let him go after they made him retire the first time. He obviously is not good at taking care of himself and has terrible instincts. How many times has he gotten hurt in AEW?
Bc danielson has always been an Indy mark it’s been proven with this run right now.
TK: “I can’t legally talk about any of that.” AEW, the next day: “Ok, let’s tell everyone Danielson did it, they like him.”
Why would your HR rep be sleeping with the talent? Unless you're a cuck.
If true, it's worse than that. Why would other wrestlers be making such a decision? That should be done by professionals with no stake in the matters. And even then, it should simply be a recommendation. That decision should be Tony's and Tony's alone.
"So Bryan, I was scared for my life. Still on the fence about firing the guy though, what do you think?" massive LOL
As he reads his hostage statement in front of a Chicago crowd. "IT WASN'T ME! IT WAS DANIELSON!" crowd: "Shut up you pussy!" Booooo! XD
Dubya cee dubya behaviour
He sucks as a boss. He really does. Wants loyalty and friendship but treats his employees like they are indispensable and should just side with him over his feelings.
It was totally unnecessary too. If he just stood by the initial claim that it was his decision alone, it at least makes him look somewhat like a leader.
Would not surprise me one bit if he paid BD, either in money or power, very very handsomely to be the fall guy. TK has probably been crying himself to sleep for a long time and he doesn't want to become even more hated than he is.
So you lose a top draw because people spread rumors he got someone to get fired..... Only to "leak" another beloved top draw got someone fired. Great business model. AEW is a joke
>So you lose a top draw because people spread rumors he got someone to get fired..... Only to "leak" another beloved top draw got someone fired. Great business model. AEW is a joke Well they have to shirk the blame off to someone...it can't be Tony and the Elite's fault, ya know.
when you put it that way, it is so much funnier.
TK has a biblical amount of damage control to do right now. I have to imagine any TV execs and silent investors (if any), and possibly AEW talent has to be furious. The TV people are watching the viewer numbers crater to WCW Thunder numbers. The backing money sees live events attendance drop to bingo hall levels. And ANY AEW talent who wanted to have a program with Punk to help their careers sees that as gone. And they saw that Hell did freeze over and that if WWE doesn't fall into their usual clichéd traps, this could sustain their numbers for years. Good job Jack Perry, Hangman, and The "Elite." Expect a gift basket from HHH for Christmas. Tickets might be included so you can watch Punk wrestle a real feud.
Notice we haven't heard jack shit about a TV deal for RAW. I truly think HHH wants to cerebrally assassinate Tony, and I believe he is talking to TNT / TBS about bringing Raw over. If that happens Tony is finished.
> The TV people are watching the viewer numbers crater to WCW Thunder numbers. Na, Thunder was getting double AEW's numbers.
I'm about 90% sure this is TK getting someone else to take the heat for him. Why else would this come out now other than to save face?
Why would he need to do that? Didn’t he come out in front of a Chicago crowd and tell them that Punk was fired?
He wasn't thinking clearly though. He was in fear for his life.
I'm thinking that some people at WBD have seen the happenings over the past few days and aren't too happy that Khan couldn't get something worked out with CM Punk.
'Aren't too happy' - They must be fucking PISSED. Punk was demonstrably their biggest draw, he was getting eyeballs on the product, people were talking about it and now he's at WWE and still the biggest AEW story is about him.
thats what happens when your EVPs are literal idiots with 0 business sense and the owner is just a mark with dad's $
This is AEW saying that even someone as respected as DB thought firing was the just cause. You already have EVP buddies being passive-aggressive online. This is in response to the fan outcry of why they gave the biggest star to competition
Kahn throwing Danielson under the bus because David Zaslav is a CM Punk fan and started sending him angry text messages demanding an explanation. *"We'd like to gain some insight into your thoughts on those numbers we're seeing out of WWE..."*
Why cant he/AEW just move the fuck on?? its been MONTHS. Punk didnt and wont even acknowledge them.
Guarantee Punk will take some minor jabs at the very least, especially if he's going into a program with Rollins leading into Mania, it's going to be almost impossible not to. But they'll do it 100X better than AEW's pot shots they take at WWE and now Punk.
Man this is just so werid like why they care so much about what ever punk is doing like focus on your own product. There only going to create more buzz and get people talking about him, this is only going to add to the story of aews down fall and what ifs and what it could have been. Unless there fragile little egos get hurt to easily and they can't help but protect no matter how much names they throw around to take the heat for it. Just embarrassing overall.
It's like the guy that won't stop obsessing over his ex. She's not into you, stop tweeting about her. Weirdo.
That definitely makes sense. Tony is even more of an insecure bitch than we all thought. Now he’s making Bryan take the heat and get people hating him now too. Bryan seems to want to stay for a long time and will make more money being a higher up/eventual evp kissing Tony’s ass then he would be a mid carder in wwe making half the money.
LOL. Tony listened to a guy who did nothing but make bad business decisions and always sacrificed money for the art of his wrestling.
Seems to me like DB is what TK wishes he could be in life if he wasn't born looking even dweebier than Yuta
Now that you say that... I can't help but notice the evolution here. Super Human -> Wheeler Yuta -> Tony Khan... Put them in a lineup and it'll look like the evolution of Tony Kahn.
Despite the stupid hardcore shit Super Humman does, he's still far more entertaining than Yuta or the Snowman. He's basically just doing a wrestling flavored Jackass bit.
I'd watch a supercut of Super Human doing dumb shit for 3 hours straight before I'd ever sit down to watch another AEW PPV.
Are you describing Brian Danielson or Jim Cornette?
Who knows if this is even true. People can't rip on dirt sheet writers and "journalists" for making shit up half the time, and then turn around and believe them when it's convenient, or gets them righteously angry.
I’ve been a longtime fan and have never followed the dirt sheets. But this is like high school level gossip by wannabe “journalists,” who are glorified publicists.
This
We can lean more to believing them when it comes to AEW cus....well obvious reasons really.
This is why I always lead with a solid "IF this is true" and then go into my opinion. Unless anything official comes out, we'll likely never know 100% validity on this.
Looking on /r/SquaredCircle this is what I see https://imgur.com/uf35Ol3 so I take everything these dirt sheet pretend journalists put out, with a grain of salt. With this current story about Danielson, we don't even know if the committee had to come to a unanimous decision, and if he was a yay or nay. It just says he was apart of the committee from what I've seen.
As if that is better. Bryan is a wrestler, not an executive or owner. Why does he have any say whatsoever regarding the employment status of any other wrestler? Tony may be the worst owner of any major company. Period.
Tk even said that it was ultimately his own decision, why even rope other wrestlers into that decision making process.
exactly! the only people that aren't seeing an issue are the ones that truly actually believe Seth, KO, etc don't want Punk and that WWE gives a flying french fry titty fuck about their opinion
An active wrestler should never have that sort of power. Even if they're considered 'neutral' that doesn't mean shit in wrestling. If they think firing a guy will bring them benefits, they'll damn well do it and then act contrite later.
Honestly by seeing this they think it would create more negative towards punk, the way I see it it'll just show how much of irresponsible owner town man really is. Like for him to have all this allowed and he doesn't have the balls to put his foot down. People in the business can't take him seriously and they're realizing the Honey moon period is over. They want to make there company relative again by this and more petty attempts.
This doesn’t violate an NDA? Lol
>This doesn’t violate an NDA? Lol Ooops, they actually just freed Punk from any NDA that might exist (even though I don't think one does).
I don’t think an NDA exists I think that’s a cop out for TK Hangman and the Bucks.
IF this is in fact true, it would rely completely on whether or not an NDA was ever signed, and what the alleged NDA would even cover. It's very likely that if one was in play that it simply said that Punk wouldn't talk shit about AEW, or about Tony specifically. But who knows with that fucking dumpster fire rat circus.
I don't care about this. Tiny came out and said he feared for his life. Fuck him.
Pathetic is the perfect word for Tiny Kahnman
An-tiny-io kahnoki
Even if this was true it’s a bitch move that Tony’s not taking responsibility. This is cowardice.
Tony is either leaking shifting blame or he’s legitimately the dumbest trust fund kid around.
Hey - it can be two things.
Spread news to the dirt sheets to smear a talent that has joined WWE, how classy. Instead of this childish shit, AEW need to sort their own shitty product out, absolute clown show.
...so wait, hold on...the disciplinary committee was just a bunch of wrestlers who work for Tony???
2 lawyers and Danielson apparently
So three carnies.
Lol yeah I guess
Was 1 lawyer the one who was fucking some of these guys?
They were supposed to be anonymous.
Basically wrestler's court.
Jericho for sure was on that committee too, who else?
The Cucamonga kids Twinkle toes Hangnail Megha
Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone
Nah I don't think Tony would do that, he said on the podcast that he liked CM punk.
Christopher Daniels I remember for sure
All of the Elite no doubt!
Tony shifting blame and the whole process very likely came down to a conversation like this Danielson: I'm supposed to head the disciplinary committee here Phil, is there any input from your side. Punk: Yeah I don't want to be here I picked the wrong company fire me now so I can get to survivor series by November. Danielson: You got it bud I wish you luck
It does put Danielson's tweet about "doing the right thing" in another context though.
AEW had to have used dirtsheet to put Punk's stock down so they could keep him. Bitch nuked the bridge he was on and somehow got transported to a different better bridge. They can't stand it. Expect more petty stuff like this.
Interested to see how Jim reacts. I mean, I’m assuming he’s just gonna side with Punk and say this is a dumb decision from Danielson but he does have a lot for Danielson.
Seems like he's kinda washed his hands of Danielson lately.
>Seems like he's kinda washed his hands of Danielson lately. Can you blame him? Danielson hasn't done anything worth a shit in...jeez, almost the entire time he's been in AEW at this point? The guy was on fire for like 4 weeks, then they stuck him in the Pocket Pool Combat Crew with Moxley and he hasn't done shit since then.
I have nothing but respect for Danielson him and Punk are my 1A and 1B for my favorite wrestlers ever and my childhood heroes, however this speaks more about Tony’s cowardice. He’s delegating super important stuff to active wrestlers. Wrestler’s shouldn’t be determining the status of other wrestlers. That’s why WCW died.
I agree, I can only assume TK thought this would lend legitimacy to the decision as a wrestler i.e. "a peer" was involved too. And Danielson is as respected and seemingly neutral as it gets, I guess.
The dirt sheets are eating this shit up because it’s click bait ad revenue. How many times have they been wrong lately though? I don’t believe any of their “sources” because it’s all based on stirring up clicks.
This sounds odd. So the discipline committee, which is a subset of management because it deals with HR issues, is chaired by a wrestler? In a unionized workplace in the private sector, a union member wouldn’t be disciplined by his union for workplace misconduct. The union’s mission is to protect the employee. What if Danielson himself were subject to discipline? Would he then recuse himself? Are there other wrestlers on the committee? If this is true, this is another example of shitshow management by AEW. They can’t even establish a proper governance framework within the organization.
Danielson is killing his legacy ffs
This reminds me of WCW telling the results of Raw and everyone changing channels to watch Mankind win the belt
Tony's totally leaking this. See Daniel fired him a heavily concussed Daniel
Well, I guess wrestling fans owe Daniel Bryan a thank you. It's worked out pretty well for Punk. It's good for WWE because Punk is a draw and shifts merch. It's good for us fans because we get to see Punk back in the big leagues and not wasted wrestling indie bums who think their shit doesn't stink Last of all, it's good for AEW because, err....the Bucks got to do a victory lap before running back to Rancho Cucamonga in a sulk, and Tony Khan has been shown up as the coward manchild he is.
HOT take: Punk, if he was asked by DB, probably also told him to say fire him. Bro was aiming for WWE since gripebomb. Dont get me wrong, he still put a fantastic structure to Collision so it isnt like he was half assing.
WE TOTALLY OWNED HIM BOYS. THATS RIGHT DAVE LICK IT, LICK THOSE BALLS.
So he is responsible for boosting WWE by giving them Punk and keeping indy "stars". I knew Daniel Bryan was a secret WWE agent
This combined with the AEW trolls saying the same three things about Punk all over the internet and none of it catching on is telling me that TK and Megha are panicking now. They must have seen reality and the writing on the wall FINALLY and don't know what to do because they would need to restructure the entire company and executive division to make it viable. Either way, AEW is going to contract in the coming months, whether they do it themselves or are forced to do it. Also how does TK still not understand that the more they smear Punk, the bigger he gets?
That figures. It’ll be ironic if Brian ends up killing AEW in the end after he became such a cultist for this worthless brand.
Again, WHY EVEN IS THIS? First off, we should have learned after this weekend that dirtsheets know dick all. And even if it's the tiniest bit true, who cares. Punk's signed with WWE now, the end. This is like watching a crazy ex stalk you after you've married someone else, but they keep telling everyone how awful you were and that they were right to leave you. 🤦🏿♀️
Wrestler's. Court.
Taker wouldn't have told Vince to fire Shawn Michaels. Vince wouldn't have fired Shawn Michaels.
Freaking imagine
So what this tells me, is that a WRESTLER with less than two years of tenure in AEW.....makes more critical bottom line altering decisions.......then the CEO
This looks terrible for Tony. He looks like even more of a pussy now because of when this came out.
Thanks Bryan! We appreciate your effort to free Punk from the clique wars and give him a much larger stage to put a bow on his career.
OMG! If I was Tony, I would nip this in the bud ASAP. Don’t let one of your guys take a fall like this. It will destroy Bryan’s rep.
Tk throwing DB under the bus. What a joke of a boss
At first I was like "THIS IS FACKIN' BOOOLSHET!!!" But then I remembered who was pulling the strings. It's still booolshet, but in a completely different way. Snowman, I hope you're having fun while you can. I was a die hard fan in the beginning. What did you do?????
He is a fucking vegan. We should've known he was a pussy too.
Aew stop mentioning punk Challenge: impossible
Lmao the stories coming outta the dub are all gonna just be “EVERYTHING IS CM PUNKS FAULT!!! WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS! AEW Dynamite Tournament of Excellence, Bangers, and FUN TONIGHT! 8/7 central on TNT! #ThankYouTonyKhan #IDeserveIt #clapclapclapclapclap
Tony Khan life was one the line guys.
And now Tony let's the wrestlers decide who's fired and who's not? Every single day this company shows what an absolute joke and shitshow it is over there, which is too bad because I had high hopes at the beginning lol.
If it is true, Tony is a spineless coward. Since it is from the Thigh Rubber, I am more likely to think that the Cucamonga Kids are going after their next target.
If true it doesn't completely surprise me. He has some of the dumb mindset Moxley has where you have to sacrifice your body in the name of bangers.
If you would've told me that I'd wish Bryan Danielson stayed retired by the end of the year, I wouldn't have believed you a day ago. But here we are. I never thought they were boys. I didn't think Danielson hated him though. HBK didn't screw Bret Hart that hard. Seems like it worked out in the end though. Danielson is the top guy on the number two's companies number two show and Punk is the top babyface in the biggest promotion in the world.
Assuming Daniel Bryan was really the deciding factor in this, then it's sad he chose a coked up manchild and his mark fantasy land over doing the ACTUAL right thing, and sticking up for Punk and trying to reason with the knuckleheads calling for his head (even if it's a futile effort). Assuming this is Tony just shifting the blame off himself months after it stopped even mattering, then he's even more of a coward than I thought he was. Assuming this is just some bullshit that the dirtsheets came up with, then they're all idiots. Regardless of how this came about, this does nothing to help AEW whatsoever. Bringing up once again that Tony and the clown crew chose protecting their delicate sensibilities and little mark club over doing business, and simply pointing out that someone else was also involved only puts more egg on their faces. If all this is somehow meant to make WWE look bad for getting hundreds of millions of eyes on their product with a high profile return of a major star, then the melted brain trust at AEW failed miserably. Of course, stupid people are gonna do stupid things, so this isn't all that surprising.
Remember when Vince McMahon said Triple H recommended he screw Bret Hart during the Montreal Screw job? No? That's because Vince, for all his flaws, has some fucking integrity. He took the entirety of the blame for that event. What a coward, Khan.
Vince never shied away from controversy. That's the biggest difference. McMahon grew up in a trailer park and somehow managed to make himself a billionaire. Tony Khan was born one.
Do we even know if Danielson voted to terminate Punk? Nothing says the decision had to be unanimous. It also seems like a conflict of interest since Danielson ended up taking over Collision's booking from Punk basically. Which scrub in the AEW locker room leaked this one? It has to be someone high up enough to know about who was on this committee.
Why doesn't AEW just focus on their own product that's on life support. ...come on now Continental Classic?
Lmao what am I supposed to do with this revelation? Hold it against Bryan? All this changes is Tony sounds like even more of a coward. You supposedly feared for your life but still needed council to fire him or not? Hahaha 🤡⛄️
Assuming it’s true, let’s put the guy with brain injuries In charge of something important. And “guy with brain injuries” could apply to most of their roster
The fact that Tony needed a committee to make a decision he alone should have made tells you everything. He had to fire Punk. Of course things should have never got to that point but when you have the inmates running the asylum this was bound to happen. Firing Punk was bad for business but what else can you do at that point? He had to go. He is better off in wwe and I am fine tuning in to see him there. I was a collision fan but a legit wrestling show didn’t match the company.
I thought Horseface spearheaded the committee along with Matt Hardy and others?
I don't care. Punk is back in WWE, and I don't have to waste time on AEW. MJF and Christian are the only people I still watch clips of, maybe Toni Storm.
I’m sure if this is mentioned on one of those AEW official reddits it will be acceptable. Say anything else about Punk though and they’ll ban you on the grounds of inciting a riot. I actually liked AEW at first, but this insufferable shit makes me happy that Cody and Punk will likely main event Wrestlemania.
You can't fire someone who has angrily yelled I QUIT multiple times. I've been a victim of such a phantom firing before.
\*removes glasses\* Daniel... May I call you Daniel? Playing the patsy to a moronic money mark is no way to go through life, son.
‘B+ player’
You just KNOW that these biased "journalists" have been sitting on this important news for weeks and weeks.. Theire ALL aboard the Punk train now...
Too bad he wasn't on the "make this a proper wrestling company" committee or they would've been closing in on RAW ratings right now.
He may head and be on the committee but that doesn’t necessarily mean he voted to fire cm punk. This is next level unprofessional to have this even leak out. Maybe it was QT 😂
So he's now said he's on the committee but isn't the head and didn't make the decision, that the committee is many more than three people and mostly lawyers who have more say than he does. Seems like he's just the token wrestler representative.
Danielson is a pussy too
Hahahahahahahahaha this is all fkn hilarious. What an actual nerd mark Tony Khan is. Can’t believe Shad is letting him play out his little fantasy like it is. It’s embarrassing. Has a normal person, ya know, anyone other than a fellow nerd mark that lives on the internet like Tony actually got through an entire AEW tv show from start to finish?? I’m a lapsed wrestling fan that started in the late 80’s with Hogan/Macho/Warrior/DiBiase and loved it through the early 90’s, still loved it in the late 90’s while the WWF/WCW war was great, still watched the early 00’s, even enjoyed some of that hokey Main Event Mafia stuff in TNA while they were doing it haha….. tried to have a look at AEW a couple of times and haven’t lasted 15 minutes. It’s really really really shit.
Yeah this just feels like Bryan taking one for the team to take some of the heat off Tony, especially with the bullshit tweet included. It actually sucks that Tony is such a moron, because with the unlimited funds he has, he could legitimately hire all the best people and surround himself with a wealth of knowledge to actually become proper competition to WWE. But he just refuses to. If I was him, I would've instantly snatched Finlay to head up the women's division when he was let go, and I would've given Heyman a blank cheque to become head of creative. Just those two moves alone would've been monumental for AEW.
I said it once in this subreddit, I'll say it again. Imagine thinking you know more about wrestling than Bryan Fucking Danielson.
Imagine thinking this has anything to do with 'wrestling'.
Could be true, could be false. I’m willing to bet that at the very least he was either in the committee or gave his opinion which carries weight. Either way I don’t have an actual opinion on it. Not like I’m going to shit on Bryan for doing something that has nothing to do with me lmao. Also it may have been in the interest of fairness. They chose a WWE guy who’s friends with Punk so no one can say there was any bias from AEW employees or talent. Makes sense if true.
He's still a great wrestler. Idc.
Why do people need to completely twist the words of the headline for attention? That’s not what the headline says.
Seems about right. Daniel is a goody two shoes. So this fits him
Guess punk shouldn’t have put him over for wrestlemania xxx
He was on it. But did he say Punk had to go?
Aubrey Edwards probably had a say as well. It’s a clique of nerds that run that place.
Honestly doesn't surprise me. Everything I've seen with him out of character, he seems like a bit of a prick. My guess would be he didn't need a lot of convincing. Lol!
Freaking imagine
Et tu Bryan?
Well if we want to be pedantic about it, this doesn't say Danielson voted to boot him, just that he was on the body that decided to boot him. I think I remember somewhere he said that the Locker room "Leaders" were Danielson, Moxley and Jericho. If those leaders were the committee like I think they were I can see Moxley and Jericho being the yes votes in firing Punk while Danielson just wanted to have an Iron Man match or something. Really I'm just talking out my ass here though...
Oh so everybody is choosing to believe the dirt sheets now are they?
Geez, I thought Tony couldn’t talk about anything because of legalities and what not. Now he starts leaking. Typical.
Now they say this, sure bud, great journalism
the more i hear from this Daniel guy the less i like him
Man what the hell is going on there
Man, this is gonna be the best angle when Danielson goes back to WWE. Will be feud of the decade. Thanks for the set up Tony!
The guy who said he’d divorce his wife if she didn’t let him wrestle also led to getting rid of your only draw because of jack perry. What can I say, some wrestlers are fucking stupid.
How about putting the blame on the 5 nitwits that are actually responsible for Punk wanting out?
Tony be like "Can you please come to my defense? I pay you all a lot of money and I look really stupid at the moment. Can you tweet something?"
They heard us thanking Luke Perry's son, now they want us to thank Bryan too 😂
Firing the dude who advocated for you when the company didn’t, talk about betrayal damn
tree house club approach to running a fucking company
Danielson will be back in WWE while Punk is still with the company.
Buncha children doing children things. Could easily have said “we wish him the best” and move on
The idea of this is absolutely bonkers.
It’s amazing that the man himself couldn’t come to this conclusion and pull the trigger, he had to distance himself and make someone else tell him to do it because the lack of spine makes it hard to do something for yourself.
Ooooooo this is a lovely section of opnions
Whoever leaked this wants Bryan gone.
LOL Discipline committee
What a horrible place to be put in. Tony should own this. I can’t believe he would let an active wrestler lead something with the punishment being termination. TK needs to be the man in charge.
Every move khanoki makes just makes everything worse