The wrestling news folks are aggregating each other to the effect that AEW is supposedly working behind the scenes on a buyout of CM Punk, and that WWE might have interest in Punk.
Don’t fall for it.
I say that because of my long-held distrust of what passes for wrestling journalism, which is really nothing more than basically a rumor mill with bylines.
In the case of anything involving CM Punk, you need to take several pauses.
First and foremost, Punk isn’t a guy who goes running to a wrestling news site every time he has either a gripe or something that he wants to get fluffed over.
And then: wasn’t it precisely because he doesn’t slip gripes and requests for fluff to the Dave Meltzers of the world that the post-“All Out” backstage scrum happened in the first place?
As to those who do play the media game, guys like Matt and Nick Jackson, nothing against them for doing so – they’d still be entertaining a couple of hundred rabid fans in SoCal on Fridays and Saturdays if they didn’t have media savvy – but you’ve got to consider the source.
When those guys leak to a Meltzer, it’s not necessarily news that they’re leaking – but spin.
This is how politics reporting works as well. When you read about sources who wish to remain anonymous, whether it’s something juicy about Donald Trump, Hunter Biden or CM Punk, the protection that comes with anonymity isn’t just because that person could lose their job if their identity was known.
Let’s go with my assumption here that Meltzer’s source on the AEW is negotiating a buyout with CM Punk news is the Jacksons. If that was true, and you knew that, you’re all the sudden thinking to yourself, what are those guys trying to achieve leaking that bit of news?
Anonymous sources have agendas, is the point here, and as much as you’d like to assume they’re on the up-and-up, I’d argue that it’s rare that there isn’t an agenda behind these kinds of leaks.
Which gets me to my thinking with these two bits of “news” with CM Punk, which is: somebody who doesn’t want CM Punk around backstage at AEW wants to make it look like he’s on his way out the door, and that it would be a soft landing for him, because WWE wants him back.
The first is a misread of the room with respect to the relative popularity with AEW fans of the Jacksons and CM Punk.
The Young Bucks weren’t putting butts in seats and drawing pay-per-view buys, but Punk sure was.
The audience for the second bit of fake news is one person named Tony Khan, just a bit of lobbying through the pliant press to get TK to think he may be doing Punk a favor if he were to let him go as is being rumored.
To reiterate: don’t fall for it.
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Chris Graham
