>First of all, I generally HATE worked shoots. And I don't
>think one was needed here. The Pipe Bomb promo worked because
>Punk was echoing what a lot of fans thought: WWE was ignoring
>its audience. That's one thing that AEW has never been accused
>of,

to me it went wayyyyyy past the point where it it could credibly NOT be explicitly endorsed by the company, and jumped the shark early.

>To echo Meltzer, AEW is playing with fire . They're coming off
>what they're saying is, again, their most successful PPV. And
>24 hours later, they're making TK and the company the heels?

even simpler than that it makes that fucking idiot part of the show now.

>I
>don't know if potentially setting up a dynamic where the
>audience hates the idea of bringing in ex-WWE talent, when
>generally they've been doing a good job at booking most of
>them.

this I dont agree with tho. everyone mattered more on the day they came in than they do now other than Punk.

>Right now things aren't perfect, but the roster is a
>good balance of "home-grown" talent and people the WWE was
>misusing or given up on. Conditioning them to reject these new
>signees seems counterintuitive and really is booking for the
>social media reactions, as much as I hate to say it.

the whole company is built around getting a social media reaction, and this seems to be entirely around being able to say they fooled the losers that make up 90% of the wrestling "media"

>Not to mention that the promo pretty much erased what Wardlow
>did the night before. He destroyed MJF, sending him off in a
>stretcher and neck-brace, and now he's back the next night,
>vaguely mentioning being "hurt," but mostly acting like
>nothing happened.

YES. completely diluted stretcher job. might as well have just gotten up halfway up the ramp and walked a la Sid Vicious 😂

>Seems like the next step is setting up a Punk/MJF rematch at
>All Out, where like Punk goes heel nad MJF turns face. Which
>is fine, but undermining their own success on the way to
>getting there is a... weird choice.

other than appreciating the conviction of his delivery, i dont really see why anyone would cheer for him. that requires an overwhelming amount of "oh this is all fake anyways so it doesnt matter". granted their 700K core audience doesnt have much problem with that, but still. i dont think this is a good foundation for that, especially if Wardlow is going to be a big part of the show.