Select Answers: Counter programming, Saraya, CM Punk haters (Patreon)

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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We haven't seen as much WWE counter programming lately. Why is that and what issues did it cause for AEW?

Well, AEW had to move the times of a bunch of shows. Well, they didn't have to, but they did. I think it worked out well, because it showed their audience will follow them on PPV despite time changes. I know that reps from media partners do not like splitting an audience if you can avoid it, and that includes WWE's partners. USA Network was tired of their NXT audience getting split years ago and changed nights for that reason. WWE and AEW running the same buildings would also cause issues, although not from a counter programming point. For example, Quake by the Lake 2022 had a really quick promotion turnaround because AEW couldn't start promoting it until after WWE's show in Minneapolis.

I saw a question about Saraya last week and it got me thinking - her 2023 title run seemed really hastily planned. What happened there?

From what I understood, AEW went back and forth on the All In title win. Eventually, Tony Khan decided a feel good moment for her was the right one. The title reign was never meant to be long, but everything I heard was that the Hikaru Shida win was finalized not long before it ended up happening on TV. I don't think it was anything specific against Saraya, she just wasn't ever supposed to hold the title long.

There were a lot of people that we heard were mad about CM Punk coming back to WWE. Are they still mad about it? Were they just working?

They certainly weren't working....until it happened. A number of wrestlers were legitimately unhappy about it. They actively pushed against it happening, and weren't happy when they were told about it. But almost all of them were smart enough to know by then that what's done is done, he was there and they could make something of it -- and Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre did. A lot of those people are friends with the guys Punk had issues with in AEW, and in the past, Punk would take aim at friends of his foes. I've heard nothing resembling that since he joined WWE. I've heard nothing even remotely negative since he joined.