The “next man up” mentality is often employed in sports when a teammate sustains an injury or leaves the team, necessitating someone to step up in their place. When AEW terminated CM Punk earlier this month, it caused a similar instance.
AEW had Punk as a headliner for Collision and as a top talent for pay-per-views, but with him gone, Bryan Danielson‘s return from a broken arm was perfectly timed. He not only took Punk’s spot in the Strap match with Ricky Starks at All Out, but became the pseudo-face of Collision.
The ramifications of Punk’s departure will probably continue, as it’s still fresh in the minds of all involved. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Danielson addressed how the former AEW World Champion’s absence will impact the roster moving forward, saying everyone will move forward and it’s “a chance to bring people closer” amid adversity.
“In any job, when you lose somebody who’s very important, or you lose somebody you really like working with, that’s hard,” said Danielson. “But everyone keeps doing the job. And any time there is loss or controversy or struggle inside an organization, it’s a chance to bring people closer. It’s also a chance to divide people. So you have this thing where you can use struggle to make your life worse, or you can use struggle to make your life better. When I lost my father, I came out on the backside. I was worse. Struggling with my depression, I’ve come out of it better. So how you approach something and how you learn from something, that’s what makes the difference.”
Basically, everyone must keep moving forward in their job, regardless of how they feel about Punk leaving. This is something that applies to any occupation, and in this case, the AEW locker room.
AEW will have lessons to learn from this situation to grow, and it will be interesting to see how they come out of it. As Danielson says, that will be the most significant factor of all.
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