"They're trying to serve the master of the ratings"- Jim Cornette opines on why former WWE star is wrestling on AEW Rampage
Jim Cornette recently opened up about why AEW is constantly booking CM Punk for its weekly Rampage shows.
The Straight Edge Superstar has embarked on becoming the backbone of Friday night's program, having wrestled in two matches on Rampage thus far.
While speaking on his podcast, Drive-Thru, the wrestling legend said Rampage is unable to garner even decent ratings when CM Punk is not competing on the show. Mr. Cornette stated that despite Punk's appearances being mainly booked to bring more eyeballs to the show, AEW might not be pulling the trigger on any of his dream matches on weekly television.
He even slammed the company for doing a split-screen interview featuring Punk and Daniel Garcia at the beginning of last week's Rampage instead of directly kicking it off with the former WWE Superstar:
"But the reason why Punk was wrestling on this program is because the ratings have been going down when Punk don't wrestle on the program. But the problem besides the formatting, which we're gonna talk about in a second. I understand what they're trying to do. They're trying to get some eyeballs on this show. They need to have an excuse for CM Punk to be wrestling on this show, but they can't give away, you know, the dream matches on Friday night Rampage. They're trying to serve the master of the ratings and etc., but at least if you're gonna do it, format the f***ing thing right," Jim Cornette said.
📸📸📸 Piledriver!! #AEWRampage #AEW #BITW @CMPunk https://t.co/PuawmjnHiG
Punk and Garcia put on a hellacious battle last week, which saw both men pushing each other to their limits. The Second City Saint won the match comprehensively after making Garcia submit to his Anaconda Vice submission maneuver.
It is worth noting that Punk's appearance didn't bring any fortune to the episode as it drew only 502,000 viewers on average, which is the worst rating since the show's inception.
CM Punk will be in action on AEW Rampage this week
#AEWRampage is LIVE this FRIDAY at 10/9c on @tntdrama with a HUGE lineup:
-@CMPunk v @MattSydal
-@IAmJericho/@sammyguevara/@RealJakeHager v @ScorpioSky/@OfficialEGO/@junior_cigano w/ Jorge Masvidal (@GamebredFighter) & #DanLambert
-@realrubysoho v #TheBunny (@AllieWrestling) https://t.co/xlqzxtsVIS
AEW seems to be laser-focused on making Rampage a star-studded show by having CM Punk appear now and then. The former WWE Superstar will lock horns with Matt Sydal in what many expect to be a show-stealer.
With the episode also going head-to-head with SmackDown for 30 minutes straight, Tony Khan might put Punk's match in that slot to counter the ratings. Whether or not AEW will have the last laugh remains to be seen.
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