I was convinced in my head that Dave loved most things Punk, but now, along with all his followers over on Twitter and SC etc…Punk and his comeback and his matches all seem to be about as welcome as Hogan main eventing WM in a handicap match against the New Day and the Street Profits, pinning each of them with a leg drop in under 5 minutes all whilst wearing blackface makeup. They all acting as if Punk was ALWAYS hated at AEW, his matches sucked, he was off the pace etc. So I took to Google and looked up Dave’s star ratings for Punk’s matches over the years. Turns out, Dave loved ol’ muffin munching Phil! SO MANY STARS! Ok, there’s all out classic matches on there like that year he wrestled Cena at MITB in Chicago, I remember watching it at the time thinking it was great, man those guys went at it. Dave rightfully gave it 5 stars. Ok, that was over a decade ago, fair enough. So I looked at the more recent stuff, stuff that I hadn’t even seen (I don’t hate myself enough to watch AEW) and lo and behold….Punks matches, 4.5 stars, 4.25 stars….real high end shit. As Dave himself says, the star system is just one man’s opinion, but goodness, Dave was loving himself some Cake Man Punk. But not now. So what can we deduce?

Dave is on the AEW payroll? Personally I don’t see it. If that were the case he’d be trashing EVERYTHING else, WWE, IMPACT etc, and although he’s sometimes overly harsh, he certainly doesn’t trash them.

My personal feeling is that Dave is a good businessman, the guy makes his living selling subscriptions, it’s how he’s paid for his PEDs for ever. Dave is able to work out very quickly what his subscribers (and potential subscribers) want to hear, and gives it to them. He slips up sometimes, like giving Punk’s match with Moxley a high rating, before realising that, shit, the neckbeards really don’t like that Punk put the kids on their arse, and he had to make the U turn pretty quick. It doesn’t happen often, Dave’s barometer is pretty reliable, but this time it was out.

What does everyone else think?