It was a tremendous week in professional wrestling for sure and perhaps AEW started the festivities on Friday with the return of an in-ring legend and they still stole the show, no matter what happened over the course of the SummerSlam event last night. In other news, Tessa Blanchard is making a return to a more major promotion despite her controversial past.
The competition for the biggest return—and the loudest pop
The winner is undoubtedly CM Punk. Please don’t consider me biased. All you have to do is look at the footage of both SummerSlam and Friday night’s Rampage on TNT.
In wrestling, a pop is the level check…to see exactly how interested the audience is in a particular member of the roster. The louder the pop, the more ‘over’ that particular performer is.
Here at Pro Wrestling News Hub, we concentrate on AEW and AEW-affiliated wrestling promotions—particularly those that partake in the magic that is the forbidden door—but every now and again, something happens in pro wrestling that clearly needs to be written about and at WWE’s SummerSlam, that was certainly the case.
Becky Lynch made her return to the ring, which was quite the shock overall, as she wasn’t exactly expected back so soon. Her pop was tremendous and if looking at the whole picture—at CM Punk’s return the night before—I’d say Becky was undoubtedly a close second, with Brock Lesnar’s return a close third.
These returns are definitely important returns to the world of pro wrestling but the necessity of them is indeed quite obvious.
For WWE, who was king of the mountain for so many years, the emergence of a viable wrestling promotion in AEW wasn’t expected. They dispatched of TNA/Impact pretty easily, as well as any other promotion that came along. Yet the massive force that was and is AEW has proven to be too strong.
They hit over a million viewers in ratings before Punk’s return, but his return is a moment that those in wrestling will not ever forget—a definitive moment if you will, dear readers, and the ratings will definitely go up from here.
It’s too soon to know anything for sure, but these returns seem a tad too coincidental if you ask me…a little too close to all of AEW’s work in promoting Punk’s arrival and his subsequent return. Regardless, if they were trying to compete, which is obvious to most, they didn’t exactly win the race for the greatest pop, no matter who returned.
In truth, I absolutely love Becky Lynch. I love what she has done for the Women’s Division, and expect her to revitalize it once more—which is what I can also say for Brock Lesnar in the men’s division, but the overall winner of the weekend is undoubtedly still CM Punk…in anticipation, crowd reaction, delivery and overall dominance, and all he had to do was sit down in the middle of the ring. Go figure.
I’m reminded of the Monday Night Wars occurring in 1998-2000…when WCW and WWE were trying to outdo one another. It’ll be very interesting to see at what lengths both companies will go from this point on, and with a rumored Bray Wyatt and Daniel Bryan on the way to AEW, I’d say AEW has that old edge needed in such a war.
Tessa Blanchard in NWA?
Tessa Blanchard’s name has unfortunately been shrouded in controversy since her leave from Impact. The company graced her with the World Heavyweight title—she being the first ever female to win it. Reportedly, she left with said title and on terrible terms with the company, and reportedly charged them a whopping sum of $150,000 to simply return their property!
She was also accused of being a racist backstage and that caused quite a bit of infamy overall, and that in combination with her alleged primadonna behavior, her name was tarnished significantly in the industry.
But Billy Corgan seems to be ready to convince one and all to move on, granting this young woman another chance to make things right for herself in the business she was born to compete in (her father being the legendary Tully Blanchard–now with The Pinnacle).
According to webisjerico.com, it is rumored that Billy Corgan is in fact in talks with her to have her signed with NWA, and she just may appear at the Empower event—the 1st ever NWA all women’s event.
