Impact ratings have been somewhat of a rollercoaster in recent months and in this piece, we’ll take a look at the numbers they’ve been hitting as of late. We’ll also look into the shirt that CM Punk was wearing on Rampage this past Friday and the weight it carries. All that and more.
Punk tributes “the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be”
It was no mystery that CM Punk was wearing a Bret Hart T-shirt on Rampage this Friday when he sat down to do commentary on the Darby Allin match against Daniel Garcia. The history behind the shirt is a bit more intricate and dare I say weightier than just paying tribute to the legend that is undoubtedly Bret Hart.
The shirt in question was actually licensed according to Wrestling Inc, by Bret Hart himself and it pays homage to the events known as the infamous “Montréal Screw Job,” which took place in Montréal, Québec, Canada at WWE’s Survivor Series event in 1997. You can find it here: www.rootsoffight.ca
The “Montreal Screw Job,” is known in professional wrestling circles as when chairman of WWE then WWF, changed a finish to the match between Hart and Shawn Michaels at the aforementioned Survivor Series event—and all without Bret Hart knowing a thing. Essentially, he was told the match would end one way, with him still holding the WWF Title, which he would subsequently vacate the next night on Raw, as he was headed out of the company and into the waiting arms of WCW management.
That was not how it went down, hence the name of the incident.
The details are perfectly showcased in the documentary film: Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows.
Which brings us to why Punk was wearing the shirt…
The two do have a history. I was actually there the night that the two had a confrontation in the ring back in WWE , they both selling the heck out of the fact that they were supposed to hate each other, but the respect was seen and felt by everyone in the stadium that night at Montréal’s Bell Center.
And Punk obviously feels like Bret Hart is a kindred spirit in a sense, as he too was treated very badly by WWE on his way out of the company. (He was fired by the company on his wedding day!)
And in AEW Bret Hart has a very important history as it was he that carried out the heavyweight title on the very first installment of Dynamite.
The shirt has this printed on the back: “11.9 97 MTL” It was the date of the incident in question. The shirt also has a quote in the back that is very appropriate when thinking of the Screw Job and Hart’s career over all:
“Art is a wound turned into light.”
via: Georges Braque
In fact, it is perhaps fitting for CM Punk as well.
Impact Ratings
The ratings aren’t as high for Impact as they were when Kenny Omega had the Impact Title and was making appearances for the promotion. At that time, they were hitting well over the 200 000 mark. In fact, as I’ve previously written, the ratings went up a whopping 33% the very first night he appeared on the televised program.
According to ewrestlingnews.com, the ratings for this week were 126,000 viewers. Last week, they hit an unfortunately low 98,000.
Considering that AEW has been teetering over and just under a million views in recent months and WWE has held on to over a million viewers and up, despite some pretty lackluster programming, the viewership at Impact is definitely in peril.
All Out on FITE TV in the US
And as has been reported by wrestlingnews.co, All Out will be made available to order on FITE TV in the US as well. Until now, that wasn’t possible.
NEXT: Former TNA Star, Daffney Unger, Takes Own Life
This was the way wrestling fans in the rest of the world were able to watch AEW events and PPVs, but not in the US. It is unclear at this time if this will be the case for future events.
