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A recent report has shed light on the advice CM Punk gave to Tony Khan before AEW Rampage went head-to-head with WWE SmackDown last Friday night.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Punk suggested that there should be no changes to Rampage's card simply because it was competing with SmackDown. Furthermore, the Straight Edge Superstar himself asked AEW higher-ups that he would open the show.
The report also suggested that Punk was confident and told Tony Khan he was ready to "take the bullet" by going against SmackDown. The former WWE Champion squared off against Matt Sydal at the show. Their fun back-and-forth contest ended with CM Punk registering his fourth consecutive win in AEW.
It's also worth noting that even though Rampage and SmackDown clashed for 30 minutes, the latter show drew more overall viewers. However, the AEW show attracted more fans in the key 18-49 age group by drawing 328,000 viewers compared to SmackDown's 285,000 in the same demo.
Backstage reaction in WWE to AEW Rampage winning the key demos
Soon after ratings for SmackDown and Rampage became public, a report giving insights into WWE's reaction to the numbers emerged. As per this, the news was a "hot topic" backstage in Vince McMahon's promotion.
However, this report was quashed by WWE producer Shane Helms. He tweeted that he didn't hear a single word about the ratings backstage. Even Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirmed that no one in WWE, including Vince McMahon, was worried about the numbers to a huge extent.
It now remains to be seen how Rampage and SmackDown will perform this week since there wasn't any 30-minute broadcast overlap this time around.
What do you make of CM Punk's advice to Tony Khan? Do you think Khan did the right thing by not engaging in counter-programming? Sound off in the comments section below.
