With all the hoopla around Punk/Elite, I thought it’d be a good time to post this anthology. For those who don’t know, TVChase was a reddit-user with a strong background in gathering and examining information (they worked in a newsroom, I believe). Their series breaks down how the feud may have been a work from the very beginning.
If you’re into the feud at all then I highly recommend giving this a read. It’s long—about the length of a novella at least—but it’s some of the most compelling stuff I’ve ever seen on the internet.
Below are links to each part of the anthology. The links come directly from TVChase’s website so you won’t have to worry about visiting that other place.
PART ONE - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tvchase/the-greatest-trick-devil-ever-pulled
PART TWO - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tvchase/the-devil-is-in-details
PART THREE - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tvchase/the-devil-disguise
PART FOUR - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tvchase/the-devil-is-in-details-1846112
PART FIVE - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tvchase/the-devil-you-know-the-devil-you-don
PART SIX - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tvchase/the-devil-due
I don’t want to get into the weeds on this; I find the dialogue around this feud becomes too divisive for my tastes. For me, speculating about whether this is all real or not is as much fun as trying to figure out who would sit on the iron throne in GoT, or what the island was in Lost, or who killed Mr. Burns in the Simpsons. Basically, I treat wrestling no differently than I do a scripted program. It’s fun to speculate where things are going, and if I’m wrong I don’t care, as long as I’m entertained.
If you guys want to argue about this go nuts. I’ll just be listening in the shadows, making sure you all stay kind to each other. BUT before you get your claws out, give this anthology a read. It’s a damn good time if you have an open-mind.
These threads are probably my favourite posts to ever come out of the old SquaredCircle. Can only hope one day there’s more updates to enjoy.
Couldn’t agree more. And I think the longer you read the better it gets. It’s worth it for the crazy numerology alone lol
Random thought: I wonder if Punk ever talked about the rocky movies before the Mox match and subsequent interview. That could be decent evidence that at least part of this is indeed a work.
Honestly, if this turns out to be a work, I will be simultaneously super impressed and genuinely baffled at the effort put in to make me thoroughly put off by this storyline.
The reality, to me, is that this shit may be incredible if they pull it off, but it won’t change the fact that a lot of the shit they did in the 6 months scramble to put the show back on track and “fix” the shitshow that was left after Brawl Out made me unsubscribe from FITE and switch to following TJPW and sporadically DDT, over AEW, because the quality of the content had severely declined.
It’s that whole “I was just pretending to be a moron” thing. Doesn’t change the fact that you looked, acted, and got treated like a moron.
Honestly, if this turns out to be a work, I will be simultaneously super impressed and genuinely baffled at the effort put in to make me thoroughly put off by this storyline.
Ditto for me. Day-ones (like me) are likely going to be put off as they remember the early days of AEW where the locker-room was relatively much more friendly; therefore resulting in a (perceived) negative impact on the enjoyment of the product (especially recently with reports of talent being supposedly banned from Collision). Regular marks are just going to be plain confused (and possibly eventually give up) when their babyfaces appear to be feuding with other faces along with heels.
Like how many simultaneous feuds does one person need?
TBH I would have never been an old school wrestling fan because the idea of people actually being this fucking psychotic to eachother, as opposed to playing psychotic characters in a story, absolutely does not entice me.
If keyfabe were alive I would not be interested in watching, say, the ongoing swerve vs wayne storyline, because that shit is literal gang warfare and in reality there’s nothing to enjoy about that.
If it’s a work, it’s the dumbest work of all time. It’s not intriguing me at all. I actively avoid Collision because I see it as “the punk show”, and if I’m honest it’s taken the shine off aew as a brand.
I haven’t watched any AEW since he came back. I went to a dynamite live right before he came back and was totally pumped but like, I just lost all interest with him being involved again. I don’t find him entertaining.
I’m gonna watch All In so maybe that’ll get me back into it. Idk. I’ve been following AEW since it’s inception so it kinda sucks to just not be into it anymore
“Brawl Out was a work” is gonna be this generation’s “The Montreal Screwjob was a work”, isn’t it?
Interesting to note: 944 days before All In, AEW published the Road to Dynamite featuring the very first Ryan Nemeth promo for AEW.
The promo made a lot of references to WWE and being passed over or ignored.
Additionally apparently Nemeth has heat with Punk, of late.
I still can’t figure out if this is just human pattern seeking gone into overdrive or legitimately some of the most convoluted foreshadowing I’ve ever seen.
The first couple posts have some decent weight to them, and I think I am willing to buy TFM Tony Khan thinking this was a good work to pull, like the days of old.
But half of this shit devolves into numerology that requires “Vince McMahon actually owns AEW” to track logically. It compares things like the start date of AEW and the day tickets went on sale for an event (not even the event, just ticket sales.) This is some full Charlie with a corkboard and red string vibes.
That said, there’s some great history here and it’s a super interesting read. Just a lot of “I will NOT be worked under any circumstances!” energy.
