>>15132805If I wanted WWE, I could go watch WWE. They do a better job at being WWE. The way Punk was booked really represented the heart being ripped out of AEW. He has these glorified essentially heatless squash matches where he buries all the AEW original guys one by one while claiming to elevate them as the card is just overrun with ex-WWE lifers who have no clear purpose or function on the roster.
That Darby match in particular stands out for me. Like Darby's a little dude, but there's something credible about him, and old ass out of shape Punk beating him clean through pure wrestling while he's getting gassed every 30 seconds and looks like he's going to die in the ring was so preposterous to me, and so masturbatory, and so damning of Tony that he would even book that match in the first place. It doesn't help Punk any more than would squashing any other jabroni, but it hurts Darby, and it hurts all of AEW to just announce that one of your most popular and best original talents is nothing more than the jobber of the week to a washed up old WWE guy.
