News Roundup: Former WWE star signs with AEW, Hall of Famer says CM Punk has been a flop

Welcome to another edition of the AEW news roundup as we get ready for Dynamite later tonight. On this edition, we take a look at a former WWE star signing with AEW, a WWE Hall of Famer slamming CM Punk's run so far and more.

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#5 Former WWE star Tony Nese has signed with AEW

Tony Nese was at ringside on AEW Dynamite last Wednesday and then wrestled at the AEW Dark tapings. Dave Meltzer confirmed on Wrestling Observer Radio that Tony Nese has signed with AEW, although we didn't get any further details:

"You know, on Saturday (AEW Dynamite), they showed him (Tony Nese) the stands, so, obviously, he's signed, but they didn't announce because probably they are doing something. But he did the Dark tapings yesterday in Orlando, I think he wrestled more than one match. So, he's signed. That's the deal," said Dave Meltzer.

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#4 Eric Bischoff says CM Punk has been a flop for AEW

On the latest edition of 83 Weeks, former WCW executive Eric Bischoff gave his take on CM Punk's run in AEW so far. Bischoff was less than impressed with Punk's decision to seemingly face up-and-coming young stars like Daniel Garcia and felt that Punk's run had been a flop, before comparing CM Punk's run in AEW to when Kevin Nash and Scott Hall showed up in WCW:

“Punk hasn’t delivered. Punk was the guy that came out and his first comments were ‘The addition of this talent was more significant than Scott Hall and Kevin Nash,’ constantly making references to WCW because they want to be the company that WCW was back in the mid-90s. There’s these constant references to WCW. When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash came in, we took off. Punk, you came in and you sh*t the bed, in terms of ratings.

It ain’t there and there’s nothing in reality to suggest otherwise. You just need to be careful about what you say until you’re delivering. That comment that Punk made about these guys being more significant than Hall and Nash in 96 and then two weeks after Punk made his big arrival the ratings dropped by 40-50%," Eric Bischoff said. (h/t: WrestlingInc)

Eric Bischoff has been quite vocal about AEW recently and has even gone back and forth with AEW President Tony Khan.

#3 AEW stars challenge Tony Khan to a match at Full Gear

Max Caster of The Acclaimed recently came out and challenged Tony Khan to a tag-team match at AEW Full Gear, which takes place in November. It's unlikely that Khan will accept the challenge and step inside the ring as he has stated in interviews that he isn't interested:

"IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Here's my *fire emoji* freestyle from after #AEWDynamite. In typical fashion, Tony Khan sent out his goons, led by CM Punk, to attack the Acclaimed *angry face emoji* So we're challenging @TonyKhan to a tag team match at Full Gear! @Bowens_Official @AEW #MicDrop," Max Caster said in a tweet.

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#2 Shahid Khan's reaction to Tony Khan wanting to start AEW

AEW President and CEO Tony Khan was recently interviewed by Business Insider. During the interview, Tony Khan revealed his father Shahid Khan's initial reaction to him starting AEW. According to Tony, his father expected AEW to "fail" but decided to give him the money regardless:

There were so many wrestlers without a contract, or their contract was ending by 2019. My dad expected it to fail, but I convinced him to take a leap,” Khan said. “He gave me the money because he said I’d inherit it anyway, so I might as well ‘blow it now'.

AEW has grown from strength to strength since the promotion started in 2019 and has quickly built up a fantastic roster.

#1 Vince Russo agrees with Roman Reigns' comments on AEW

Roman Reigns recently spoke to Complex and stated that he did not see AEW as competition because AEW caters to their own hardcore fanbase while WWE tries to appeal to everyone.

Former WWE writer Vince Russo gave his take on Sportskeeda's Writing With Russo, saying that he was in full agreement with Reigns. Russo said that he didn't believe it was correct to compare numbers from Monday night and those from Wednesday night because the competition was different:

I agree with him 1000%. Bro, there is no competition here. You know what it's like? It's like taking a team from the National League and a team from the American League and they're competing for the number of victories each team gets but they never played each other. That's what he have here. If we're talking head to head this is a different conversation. This is not head to head. They're comparing their Wednesday night numbers to Monday Night RAW who is going head to head with Monday night football. You're not going head to head with the NFL so how can you compare those numbers to RAW? There's is no competition. The only one that has created this competition is Tony Khan and the dirt sheet, writers. Until it is head to head, same night, same time, this is not competition.

Do you agree with Roman Reigns' comments on AEW? Let us know in the comments below.