Jim Cornette Reviews CM Punk vs. MJF on AEW Dynamite 

Something not mentioned was Maxwell thanking Punk after the match, like when The Rock did the same for Austin. Normally wrestlers get straight back up. They were down there a while; he must’ve thanked Punk for everything he did for him. Respect.

It's getting harder to justify keeping the AEW championship off of MJF.

Kudos to Wardlow here. His acting is pretty good for a man that doesn’t speak. He sold being conflicted well, to a point where he crossed and double crossed and we still don’t know how he feels overall.

It's so refreshing to hear Jim talk about good wrestling matches!

Punk did everything possible to get MJF over...and rightfully so. Really good match.

There were a lot of nods to 70's and 80's wrestling. Good old fashion storytelling

Punk’s selling was great in this match. The psychology with his injuries was also good. Couldn’t do the GTS with an injured arm/leg. It was a entertaining match.

God i love reviews where Jim is actually excited to talk about it, so refreshing and we need more of this

This has to be one of my favorite AEW matches. It was pure wrestling greatness. It reminded me of a mid to late 90’s Bret Hart match. Punk wrestled smart and MJF wrestled like a heel. It didn’t need any pointless high spots. This match had terrific storytelling and it was believable. It seemed like both actually hated each other. Just fantastic.

This is really good booking and what a performance MJF gave. As heel wrestler making the crowd go ballistic, using under hand tactic to win matches whether using the tape or his ring. But Punk deserves so much praise for putting the MJF over. MJF is the future of this industry, and Punk is no Hulk Hogan who screws talent like the one Hogan did to Randy Orton back in 2005. I'm glad that Punk found his love for professional wrestling again.

I feel like an addicted fiend, constantly refreshing Jim's channel for new videos uploads.

Was waiting for this review. If nothing else I’m glad they made the right decision and put MJF over in Chicago. Punk needed to lose and MJF needed that to become a mega heel.

Really good old school match: storytelling, selling the moves of the opponents... such a refreshing change of pace from many of the spot sequences we often see nowadays. Maybe they could have save it for a PPV but it may have hard to stall for another month before Revolution; moreover, I can also see that MJF can now go on bragging for the rest of his career to be the man who has beaten Punk in Chicago twice on the same night. Shame that Brandi had already managed to scare away some of the casual viewers that had tuned in on TBS and did not come back after her painful segment.

I wish when they did matches like this they formatted the show differently so theres limited or no commercial interruption. Matches that could be on PPV shouldn’t be broken up with 3 commercial breaks

Jim recapping the match makes me want to go watch it again.

Can't wait to here if my 4.9 star rating for the Ricky vs Lethal match is in agreement with the Big King Corn!

I have a good feeling that Punk called a lot of this match before the match.

Corny is a genius that suffers from what most geniuses eventually suffer from - what worked 30-40 years ago should still work today. Brian always finds something to complain about. You can bring out the worlds best steak and he’ll complain about the green beans.

Give MJF the World Title. He’s the most compelling performer on the roster. He’d be great doing mainstream press. Dude is a superstar and far superior to Adam Page or Adam Cole.

The way I described this match is that this is how I hope wrestling moves towards. This match was great because it told a very good story where you had Punk at the start not exactly taking MJF seriously. He plays with MJF (the Terry Funk spot), hung on the ropes with a bit of arrogance, etc. where he makes the first mistake by hitting the corner post with his shoulder. Punk gets wily in this match, using his cheap tactics to pull one over any chance he has. Gradually, Punk has to fight fire with fire such as doing the biting spot. But he's selling really well all the way through, first the arm/shoulder then later the knee. The big build is towards Punk's Pepsi Plunge which he hasn't pulled out in years. It's a desperation spot that he's forced to pull from his bag of tricks as a last ditch effort to put away the kid. But MJF had been working over the leg the entire match so Punk can't cover. Then Wardlow coming out we get the big question. Will he sell MJF out or continue to be on his payroll? This match was excellent in having all the elements I could ask for in a good wrestling match. You had two wrestlers people actually cared about with a clear issue that they're trying to settle, a fair amount of time, very deep wrestling psychology, good selling, a very good pace where the moves are built up and are meaningful, the drama both as a result of the selling and desperation moves and MJF goes over Punk twice (to a degree) in Punk's hometown. This match was what Jericho could not really do when it was his turn. Right now in my mind, MJF is the most versatile of the 4 Pillars and probably the best of them just because he's far more well rounded. And this match really put him on the next level. At the same time, because of the amount of cheating that MJF required, the issue is far from over. It left me wanting more from these two because they didn't do everything in a single match. There's more that I'm sure both can pull out just because the psychology and story telling in their matches are pretty deep. Also, MJF is the perfect opponent for Punk now that we've seen them work. Not only can he match up with Punk, he has the respect for good wrestling and can wrestle Punk's style. And I have to agree with Brian and Jim where it's frustrating watching AEW just because you get a Brandi segment and never want to watch AEW again. Then you have Bryan Danielson come out with a compelling promo and you get an excellent match like this. I like Jim's analogy of the movie production. Probably, a concrete example would be if for the last Avengers movie, if the entire cast had written their own parts and tossed it to an intern to make sense of it all, it would've been just a cluster because of all the egos with that many big stars. One thing i will say is if Punk decides to finish his career in AEW, he ought to become a producer at some point where he's the one directing traffic. When Bryan Danielson mentioned that he (and Moxley) could be controlling AEW, I think that is actually a great idea. Get Bryan and Punk to reign in the control a bit because they have the best segments.

I was really anticipating this match, and they did not disappoint me, they told a great story👌🏿. Moreover, MJF went over, which is exactly what I wanted😁. That said, for Punk to be able to go this long, after not wrestling for 7 years, is impressive. Suffice it to say, he is back in wrestling shape👍🏿

CM Punk did what Chris Jericho refused to do, what a guy

Listening to Jim recap this match (and all of the other matches) reminds me of the late great John Madden breaking down plays during live games.

Punk, MJF, Danielson, and Darby alll feel like such big deals. I love it

Haven’t seen anyone else mention it, but I wonder if the tape/sleeper spot was a tribute to Jimmy Rave, who just passed recently. Punk and Rave did the same thing at the ROH Anniversary Show in 05, and I always loved that spot.

I still can’t believe Jericho didn’t put MJF over … Thankfully Punk did the deed with a great match …

Give MJF the belt for 1 year and watch the ratings absolutely skyrocket

Jim's right ; when there's a good wrestling good you don't get bored but instead stay hooked throughout the whole thing like a good movie. Also, it helps that these two are stars.

Honestly the ONLY issue with this match was that it was only announced last week and the way they promoted it.... it was like "next week nyla v Ruby, punk v mjf aswell as pac and penta v knights of black throne" like... for real? It felt like a random match whereas it should have felt like a blockbuster! I'm sure the rematch will be announced for the PPV next week and will be built to but god dam, if you wanted to really bring in new viewers this was the match to do it. The match itself however was absolutely fantastic, as soon as it restarted punk went for a quick roll up, I loved the Wardlow interaction I really thought it was done well and subverted expectations in a match that had already done that and would again even after Wardloe came out. 5* match with 2* promotion (not AEW the promotion, just how it was actually promoted)

3 of the best wrestling matches I’ve seen in a long time have all been in aew. This one and Adam page vs danielson 1&2

Been waiting like a kid on Christmas for this segment from you! “A grudge match!” Haven’t heard or seen that in a long time!

0:19 Like Mussolini! I can hear Jim Cornette sing cult of personality on repeat! Brings a smile to my face EVERY time. Hilarious 😆 😂

Can you imagine how MJF feels. From meeting punk as a child to wrestling punk and punk putting him over twice in the match, I know mjf had to shed some tears 😢 lol

Nothing gives me dopamine like hearing Cornette sing *LIKE MUSSOLINI!*

It was a fantastic match and breezed through like it was 5 minutes.

Punk legitimately did everything possible to give MJF the rub I do agree the format hurts the set ups some times the body slam pops is crazy, the selling was top notch, MJF should be champion by the summer, also agree Punk MJF Bryan Hook Adam Cole Darby Sammy FTR and Moxley should go to Tony be like wtf are you doing to us this show is legitimately a roller coaster it’s sometimes the best show I’m wrestling then becomes the worse thing you’ve ever seen

I actually wanted that tape choke to remain the finish. Much more heat going forward, an out for Punk to lose, and much more necessity for the rematch. All of that was still accomplished, but I liked the tape screwjob.

I haven't seen it yet. Its on my dvr and i'm away for a while. I love Corny's rundown! Now I have something good to look forward to watching.

It's a damn shame Brandi chased off 150k viewers early in the show, That match was fantastic and deserved more eyes on it.

Phil Brooks did the job and gave mjf the push he needed to get over.

Dam I've never agreed more with Cornette . He was spot on, I like AEW but shit they still have things to fix that should've been fixed. But he is right they can go and look absolutely brilliant to wtf was that. The match though was great

Jim Cornette always create new lyrics for Cult of Personality "LIKE MUSSOLINI, AND AL'S NO.1 CHICAGO ITALIAN BEEF"

Glad Cornette mentioned the ref. Everyone in the comment section on YT for AEW's upload of the match was praising the tape spot, but the ref's hollywood reactions completely killed the spot for me.

I liked the way they did it when Wardlow passed him the ring. Not showing it in the first camera shot made it more mysterious. But i guess Jim's got a point about the live audience not seeing it. It worked good for TV though.

I was like this is going to last 45 minutes , Awesome !!! I never liked CM Punk but I started to get compassion for Punk. Finally Punk Won me over.

My favorite match! It was outstanding, the story, the way they told each other off, and the chemistry, historical match. What a show AEW!

Would you look at that, a veteran putting over a younger talent IN HIS HOMETOWN. Take notes Vince, you crazy old man

Brian Last is right the rest of the card made it tough to sit through and get to the main event.

Punk's doing what he can to build everybody up, but god damn it, Tony needs to get out of his own way.

I popped for “wooden face” hahahah

"This is wrestling" - Jim Cornette

Amazing match ,great storytelling. Proper professional wrestling.

The right man went over. Props to punk.

This was a good match. I thought the ratings for this show would be over 1 million, but it wasn't.

13:55 Khan would never do that, he has so many people calling him a god and praising him, he doesn't see anything wrong.

Punk landed on his neck on that reverse ranna

I would have been happy with the false finish where Punk was choked out. Everyone expecting it to be an epic match but it just ending due to some heel fuckery to build up to the next match. But no, it restarted and it was a great match. Compliments to both guys. Shame the rest of the show was not great.

I popped HARD when he referenced Al's Italian Beef. I've been living off those ever since I moved to the good ol Chi.

speaking on someone who was there, it looked like our entire section including me saw wardlow pass the ring to MJF

Great analysis Jim. Punk takes every chance he can to put over the younger talent like he said he wanted to. To let MJF go over in his hometown says a lot

People watching the whole show to get to this match must of felt like the little engine that could.

AEW is really made me love wrestling again

The refereeing was absolute trash in this match

13:49 kinda came true

This was great stuff… between this match and the danielson/page broadway, AEW has delivered 2 of my fav matches in decades over the last 2 months

CM Punk did what Chris Jericho should have done at All Out. This was the perfect way for Punk to take his first loss, MJF gets a huge win, and nobody thinks any less of Punk considering he’s still one of the best old school wrestlers on the roster. A+

Awesome Shoot Today Jim!!😎🐐🐐

Imagine the bragging from MJF on Dynamite on Wednesday. Hopefully he draws a shit tonne of heat from reminding the fans he beat Punk not once but twice in a night. Interested to see how Punk reacts as well.

Man, even with all of AEWs faults, it is single handedly responsible for me getting back into wrestling and I pretty much love every minute of it. Could it be better, absolutely. Is it cringe at moments, countless. But it's still bringing entertainment straight to my home that I can enjoy and even my son has gotten j to it. Looking forward to it improving as time goes

Corny's statement to Khan at the end = 100% on point.

Been waiting for this one!

Punk harking back to his match with The Rock, where the match was restarted and then the Rock won the title, which pissed Punk off for not putting him over. So Punk put it right v MJF. Think Jim's criticisms are nit picking.

I find it ironic how CM Punk is straight edge yet he looks like he has been smoking with New Jack for the last 5 years

You hear some people in pro wrestling say that wrestlers are having to perform more high risk moves or maneuvers because of other shows doing high risk stuff but I think pro wrestling just needs more of this!

Hey, Chicago native, here. Al's Beef is great! Good shout out!

Both mjf and punk are true students of the wrestling business true professionals! GOOD TECHNIQUE 👍

It really sucks that the show preceding this was so terrible, the ratings needed to be at an all time high for this match

This is why I listen to Jim Cornette. Great take also on how the finish of the match could have been improved. In general great attention to detail 💯

It was so glaringly obvious the difference in quality between MJF/Punk performing and everyone else on the roster

Mr. Jim Cornette you are a pro wrestling Genius! Although I disagree to a certain extent when it comes to Brandi Rhodes, respectfully, she is FLAMING HOT, truly eye candy & honestly I respect her psychology, she got passion for the business.

AEW has some gamers but the bad people on the show are really bad. It's a hard show to watch all the time. I want them to cut ✂️ some of the fat off the roster.

The only people who wouldn’t have liked this match, are those too accustomed to modern-day “sports entertainment”

Really good match. Loved it. Old school & made sense. Punk putting over MJF in the way they chose to go was perfect! The finish was very good lots of homage in this match to back in the day & also certain points in CM Punks career too. More of this on AEW Dynamite, PLEASE!

Punk should win the second match at revolution. If punk or bryan had won aew championship when they came to aew ,bryan vs mox for title or mjf vs punk for title would be far better in gaining newer audience and interest than hangman as champion.

I have watched aew from the beginning and when it first aired I knew MJF would be one of the biggest stars and has been one of the main reasons I started caring about wrestling again after 20 years. MJF is truly the next big thing since Ric Flair and that is the truth.

At first I’m like what a slow pace it’s so basic ugh OMG… but I stayed intrigued and I appreciated it man! This is 70s and 80s style!!!

The tape was also CM Punk before when he was a heel on the indies. The Yankee tights were another throwback. Also the people saw the ring. Read the lips of those who saw it up close. They were screaming "THE RING!" & pointing. It was the front rows only but info quickly spread. I thought the show was great except for Ruby Soho match.

They should have saved this match for a pay per view They threw the only match on live tv that people would have paid to see on a pay per view

Technically speaking....Punk just gave his biggest fan the best gift ever. CM Punk is on the Rushmore.

I have been watching MJF since he first began appearing in MLW, and he is really something special. He shows me something new every time I see him, and he is on a level that no other modern wrestlers even come close to reaching. I only hope that some of what he has eventually wears off on some of the clowns in AEW.

They would have had switched the women match and another match and put the starks vs lethal and thunder rosa vs martinez along with this match would have been a great show.

Danielson, Punk, MJF. Those are the 3 biggest stars in AEW, and if TK had half a brain, he'd be building his company around those 3.

I like how Cornett likes this one bcz of doing the classic wrestling match. He's an old man and he can't pick up on the newer stuff. Again, his hate for Indies will never end but they're sometimes very entertaining as well.

You can tell Jim was excited watching this match, he goes into pro wrestling terminology explaining it. Love it.

Jim is the best free consultant Tony could ask for.

Cant wait to hear Cornny's take on the Bryan Daniellson/Moxley promo from Rampage this past Friday! I expect he will love this!! 👍

Punk and Danielson have already been worth whatever they got paid because they have done wonders for AEW’s homegrown stars. AEW isn’t making the same mistake TNA is by jobbing their homegrown stars out to ex WWE guys

Everything Jim said at the end of this video about AEW is spot on. Let’s hope they heard it and took heed to it.

you don't get up and wrestle for 15 mins after being put to sleep, you should know this jim

This was not for me, And Jim buried Cody and Sammy for fighting in the crowd, but didn't bury it here, and they fought in the crowd for a while they could've been counted out, but there was no count (which Jim would've buried if it was done by a guy he doesn't like), And there were times when the referee was looking away with the intent of not seeing what's happening behind his back, (which is why they need managers to distract the referee), And if MJF would've been handed the win that first time, that would've been mega heat, And if Jim doesn't like a person, he goes out of his way to bury what they do e.g he hates it when Omega does his finger pointing, but barely mentions it when Finn Balor does it....