spoilers under the cut, almost all about the response to WWE & the footage from All In
Honestly, Ospreay's response to Tripaul H Levesque was better than anything involving the footage from All In - the idea that Ospreay isn't interested in """the grind""" of being a pro wrestler is fucking ridiculous, especially when it's pointed out that the person saying it was basically gifted the top spot from the beginning (albeit via The Kliq as much, if not more, than via Stephanie McMahon).
The footage was... not much but directly proves Punk is wrong with his version of events. Punk said Perry approached him first, clearly not the case. Punk said he didn't punch anybody, clearly not the case. Did it need to be made into a big thing and aired on the show? Nah, I liked having FTR come out afterwards to be like "this is petty as fuck, why are we doing this?" (for all that I can't stand FTR right now) but releasing the footage is entirely about holding up a reputation - and killing Punk's reputation, or what little he hasn't already killed off himself.
Both sides fucking suck, I think (and certainly hope!) most of us know that, but exactly how and why they're bad is different. A lot of AEW's reputation is staked on being, yes, chaotic and disorganised like WWE, and yes, billionaire-funded like WWE, and yes, repeatedly insensitive like WWE, but still better at all of that than WWE. It's a low bar, but it's one WWE can't seem to overcome, even as they push Vince Fucking McMahon away little by little, so AEW has to do what it can to keep that reputation at least - and if they can draw a little publicity in the process, then they're sure as hell gonna do it.
And that's kinda the thing here. For all that this shit is petty as hell, and makes neither side look good... it's goddamn captivating to watch. There's a reason WWE are going on the attack now! For a while, they didn't want people to know about AEW, but we're past that point now, so it's about bringing in viewers & hoping that AEW write their own downfall in the process (and honestly, that's not beyond them at all, given the aforementioned careless statements).
Anyways. Glad to see the Bucks reference Jack Perry's whole scapegoat thing (and wear his shirt), because it means there's a decent chance he comes back. He was really good in-ring, and I think his heel work was getting pretty damn good at the point that he left, so having him in a place where he can really showcase that again would be nice.
Also, unrelated, Penta Copeland good. Penta good, who knew.
