One the toughest things in professional wrestling is finding ways to reinvent oneself and stay relevant past an initial surge.
AEW has two stars that are riding that wave and they’re now helping each other go in new directions as CM Punk’s return revitalized Maxwell Jacob Freidman.
MJF burst onto AEW and quickly rose to the top of the heel mountain as he had the mannerisms, look, and promos that mirrored the classic heels of yesterday.
It’s an artform we don’t see much of anymore as many just have one or two of those qualities. Unfortunately, after three years he started to grow stale as he remained stagnant.
Then CM Punk returned and things became fresh again as MJF entered a feud with him and they started rising together.
Keeping it moving
While MJF hadn’t found or was given an opportunity to renew himself until Punk came, there’s a thought that Punk’s on a limited run until he needs to do something as well.
Paul Heyman talked about this recently on The Masked Man Show and said he told Roman Reigns the same thing when the Tribal Chief character was beginning.
Special thanks to wrestlinginc.com for the transcript.
“I think what will be interesting is, what happens when the novelty that he’s back wears off?” Heyman asked. “Both for the audience and for him. I’m sure for him this is still like ‘I can’t believe I’m back! I’m actually walking into an arena, holy s–t.’
“I think it’s still very fresh for him. What happens a year from now? How’s he going to feel? How will the audience look at him and accept him in a year? If he can continue to drive himself, to being a progressive, compelling, riveting character on the cutting edge that presents himself in a different manner than anyone else can present, then he’s going to be a fascinating character to watch.
“If he doesn’t (continue to drive himself), then he’s going to be someone that came back, rode a wave of nostalgia but didn’t progress into the future when he as a rebel was always looking forward in the business and never trying to live off what the business had already accomplished or what he had already accomplished in the business,” Heyman said. “So the fascinating thing for me to watch is his mindset is his vision for that character, for that persona, for himself as a performer a year from now. We’re still in the honeymoon period.”
Heyman then asked, “Where does Phill Brooks want to take CM Punk?”
The reimaging is here
After MJF’s promo last night where he went into detail about what Punk meant to him and why he hates him, it’s opened the door for the two of them to go in so many directions with their characters.
It’s softened MJF’s heel status by making him appear human and Punk’s having his own doubts over his own comments.
While it’s too soon to tell how this will play our, we think it was a master stroke of genius on theirs and Tony Kahn’s part as this will help revitalize both of them and avoid going stale again for a while.
What do you think of their storyline’s direction? Is it a good thing for them? Let us know in the comments below.
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