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What if it’s CM Punk under the devil mask? Bully Ray: ‘It would be sheer genius’

Chris Graham
cm punk
Photo: AEW

I’m on the same page with WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray on who we both seem to hope against hope is under the devil mask being teased as a threat to AEW world champ Maxwell Jacob Friedman.

It ain’t gonna happen, but …

What if it is CM Punk?

“It would be sheer genius,” Ray said on “Busted Open Radio” this week. “I would stand in the middle of Times Square, with a giant sign held above my head, that said, ‘Tony Khan is a genius’ or I’ll kiss his ass in Macy’s window.”


Chris Graham: AEW News and Notes


MJF is scheduled to defend his AEW world title against Jay White at the “Full Gear” pay-per-view on Nov. 18, but there’s no way Khan is going to put White, a former IWGP champ, over on Friedman, far and away AEW’s most marketable star.

Khan, of late, has been building his “Dynamite” and “Collision” weekly TV shows almost entirely around his champ, having MJF main-event “Collision” last week in an instant classic with former champ Kenny Omega, and teasing upcoming feuds for MJF with Ring of Honor TV champ Samoa Joe and former TNT champ Wardlow.

The money match for AEW seemed to be an inevitable MJF-Punk showdown that was scuttled when Khan fired Punk after a backstage incident at the “All In” pay-per-view in London in August.

Punk has been rumored to be linked to a return to WWE, though wrestling rumors are barely worth the breath that it takes to spread them.

It’s funny to see Bully Ray speculating on Punk being under the devil mask, because I’ve had that thought myself.

I still don’t 100 percent buy the Punk firing as being legit, for one.

Among the reasons I’m skeptical on that: why would Khan, supposedly scared for his life, send Punk out to wrestle the first match on the biggest pay-per-view in AEW history, then let him go over Samoa Joe, if what happened backstage minutes earlier was serious enough to warrant termination?

I doubt Khan and his AEW team is disciplined enough to keep the dirt sheets from picking up on the Punk firing being a work, but if it was …

Yeah, it would be “sheer genius.”

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].