Jack Perry recycling CM Punk's playbook shows AEW's past still haunts its future

Ghost in the machine

Three years removed from the backstage brawl in Chicago that fractured AEW's locker room, the ghost of CM Punk still haunts Saturday nights. On the July 25 episode of AEW Collision, Jack Perry walked out with the TNT Championship over his shoulder and delivered a monologue that felt eerily familiar. Echoing lines from Punk's iconic WWE run, Perry leaned directly into the heat that defined his own career turn, playing to a crowd that remains divided over his legacy.

It was a calculated piece of heel psychology, but it exposed the lingering dependency AEW has on its most turbulent era. As detailed in recent reporting on CM Punk's unprecedented backstage control over Collision, Saturday night was explicitly constructed as an isolated sandbox for Punk to run his own kingdom away from elite opposition. Trying to subvert that history in 2026 feels like a double-edged sword: it generates immediate online chatter, but it reminds the audience that Collision's foundational identity was built around a performer who isn't there anymore.

Recycling heat instead of building leverage

Perry's work since returning from his Japan excursion has certainly improved in terms of cadence and ring positioning. His promo work has lost the awkward hesitation that plagued his initial babyface run in 2022. Yet, leaning into meta-commentary and direct homage to Punk's famous verbiage reveals a underlying creative reliance on old rivalries.

According to reports detailing Perry's July 25 promo, borrowing Punk's cadence gave Perry instant heat, but it also placed his work directly next to a master orator. When a young champion relies on cheap echo-location to get a reaction, it shifts the focus away from the current TNT Title division and back onto historical drama that AEW has supposedly moved past.

Pacing mechanics and structural flaws on Collision

Beyond the promo work, the broader match structure of the July 25 broadcast showed familiar pacing issues. Match execution on Saturday nights often struggles with mid-card transitional flow, leaving high-spots feeling isolated rather than built upon. The workrate remains undeniably high—few rosters match AEW for pure mechanical speed in the ring—but without distinct narrative momentum, matches blend together into a parade of near-falls.

The central structural issue remains: Collision was born as a bespoke show for one singular focal point. Rebranding it as a flagship brand requires distinct, forward-looking focal points, not clever callback promos to 2023 backstage politics. When the show's current champions spend their promo time winking at old dirt sheet headlines, it signals a creative loop rather than genuine evolution.

Moving past the sandbox mentality

AEW has all the talent required to make Collision an essential two hours of television every week. The roster features some of the finest technical wrestlers on the planet, capable of putting on clinic after clinic. However, to truly establish Collision as a standalone entity rather than an echo chamber of past grievances, the creative direction must sever its remaining ties to the Punk era.

Jack Perry has proved he can draw heat and handle heavy work loads. Now, he and the AEW booking team need to trust his own voice rather than reaching into the vault for someone else's classic lines. Relying on past controversies might guarantee a temporary buzz on social media, but building a durable future requires writing new chapters instead of re-reading old ones.