Wrestling Quotables: Who's the heel in this feud?

Good morning,

I have never been in a fight. I have never been in a shoving match, never mind any confrontation that actually involved fisticuffs. Thankfully, that also means that I have never been struck with or struck someone with a weapon.

It’s funny, then, that one of my favorite things about watching wrestling is creativity with weapons in street fights and other such matches.

The cricket bat in NXT UK might still be my favorite. I loved Edge and Christian using hockey equipment during their recent match in Canada. And I appreciated the innovation in this weekend’s parking lot brawl between Chuck Taylor and Trent.

This week’s wrestling quotables

As ever, there’s a nice range of entertaining quotes this week. Let’s get right into it with our old pal, the artist formerly known as the Scottish Psychopath.

“You think that’s cool, anti-establishment, to chant his name. He is the furthest thing from anti-establishment. He is now a corporate arse kisser.”

• Drew McIntyre talking about CM Punk

When CM Punk was finally selected in the eighth round of the WWE Draft (the rounds shouldn’t start over on Raw), he was introduced with his “voice of the voiceless” moniker.

Ah yes, CM Punk is standing up for the little guys. Finally, someone taking up arms for the business. Finally, someone is looking out for the best interests of huge companies. Finally, someone is advocating for the way things have always been done in pro wrestling, pushing back against people in their industry who want to try something different.

There’s some teeth to leaning into the hypocrisy and absurdity of still thinking Punk is some plucky underdog who’s standing up for the little guy. Building a story around that could be kind of clever, actually. The thing is, Punk seems to think that it’s just always the same as it ever was for him.

CM Punk seems to think nothing has changed from his first rise to popularity when he was actually the underdog fighting the big corporate bad guys. And a lot of fans chanting his name seem to agree.

People should like what they like. Cheer for Punk if that’s your thing. I want wrestling to be fun. If this is fun for a large segment of fans, then I hope it continues apace. I’m sincere when I write that.

But as long as this feud is going, I’ll be over here with Drew, asking baffled questions about who the heel is supposed to be in this program.

On a related note:

“I’m going to make your life hell.”

• CM Punk talking to Drew McIntyre

Classic babyface?

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“We know who the weak link is there.”

• Nigel McGuiness talking about his nemesis

Having just listed the members of the Blackpool Combat Club, Nigel was offering his perspective on Bryan Danielson. I’m late to the party here on the history between McGuiness and Danielson, but I’m definitely curious if there’s something in the works with the way they’re laying it on thick lately.

Whatever the case, I love Nigel’s commitment to the bit on the heels of Danielson recently having one of the best matches ever against Will Ospreay.

“He walked on his head!”

• Tony Schiavone

Of course this was during a Rey Fenix match. It’s great to have him back.

“The insurance guy?!?!?”

• R Truth, upon learning Patrick Mahomes was attending Raw in Kansas City

Raw was in Kansas City. None other than Patrick Mahomes was in attendance, sitting in the front row behind the announcer’s desk. He fist-bumped Pat McAfee (questionable). He handed Logan Paul three Super Bowl rings (inexplicable). Most importantly, he was available to talk insurance with R Truth. Hopefully those two found a couple minutes to chat.

Apparently, Logan Paul was Patrick’s host for the night. It’s an interesting twist, I suppose. Has there been another case where the hometown hero was chummy with a despicable heel?

“I don’t want to fight you in this ring. I want to fight you in the damn parking lot.”

• Chuck Taylor

There was a little bit of whiplash for us to go from one segment with the Best Friends on Wednesday night to a hardcore match. But really, was there any option for Chuck and Trent other than a parking lot brawl at Daily’s Place?

“Is that a shovel?”

• Daddy Magic Matt Menard, asking a question about a weapon

It wasn’t. It was a dustpan.

One of many weapon innovations from Chuck and Trent. Drywall played a surprisingly prominent role. Most of the match happened on cars. There were doors and sheets of drywall. There were light tubes on top of trash cans.

My favorite weapon was the dustpan. My second favorite to the dustpan was Trent throwing a TV at Chuck (he missed, it was still great).

Notes from AEW weekend shows

• Swerve Strickland book-ended Collision, and we will learn his Double or Nothing opponent on Wednesday night. I’m still guessing Takeshita, but I feel shaky about it at best.

• Trent continued to be vicious in the aftermath of his fight with Chuckie T. I think we’re headed straight for a stipulation match between him and Orange Cassidy next month.

• Rush made his return the same night as Rey Fenix. You can at least understand why Tony Khan gets a little out of control with trying to book dream matches. AEW has so many great in-ring performers.

• The Best Friends breakup is hard enough already. I was so nervous that Kris Statlander was going to turn on Orange Cassidy in the aftermath of that parking lot brawl.

Notes from Raw

• One more thought about these two: as the WWE Draft unfolded, did Smackdown not want Drew McIntyre or CM Punk? They both went to Raw in the middle rounds (yes, I’m insisting on this correction) on Monday, throwing some gas on their feud.

• It looks like we’re headed for a triple threat match between Sami Zayn, Chad Gable, and Bronson Reed for the Intercontinental Championship.

• Jey Uso was joined by Ricochet and Andrade for a trios match against the Judgment Day. Fans from the NXT glory days, unite!

• Nia Jax and Braun Strowman are storming around and being big again. It might be a new era, but that sure feels like something I’ve seen before.

• Ilja Dragunov was drafted to Raw. Rematch with Gunther, anyone?

• King of the Ring starts on next week’s Raw. Yes, I still think Gunther will make a good king.

That’s it for today. If you liked this free preview of the “Wrestling Quotables” newsletter, you can receive each new edition in your inbox each Tuesday morning in addition to full access to the rest of the Kanefabe’s premium content.