Former WWE star CM Punk has aimed a dig at his former employers after they decided to move next month’s Money in the Bank premium live event to a smaller arena.
In a move that took fans by surprise, WWE elected to change the location of the event. Instead of being held at the 65,000-seater Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, the event will now occur at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which has a capacity of 17,000.
Alongside the arena change, WWE’s plans for the event appear to have alerted as well. They released an updated advertisement for Money in the Bank to promote the new arena. However, most of the stars in the first ad are nowhere to be seen in the second.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer (as per WrestlingNews) reports that WWE planned for Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns to compete at the stadium event. However, those plans are now apparently “up in the air”.
Why have WWE moved Money in the Bank?
At the time of writing, WWE have given no reason why they have decided to move to the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
There has been speculation amongst fans that poor ticket sales was the reason for the change of plans. According to Sportskeeda, WWE have sold 18,000 tickets for the event.
Another possible reason is that UFC 276 is in Las Vegas on the same weekend. Although the UFC does not generally break the 20,000 attendance barrier for live events, it could potentially draw some fans away from attending Money in the Bank.
CM Punk aims dig at WWE over stadium switch
CM Punk and WWE have a strained relationship that stretches back almost a decade – so it perhaps is no surprise that the former WWE Champion aimed a dig at his former employers over their recent decision.
Punk made his last appearance in the company at the Royal Rumble event in 2014. It was reported that he legitimately walked out on WWE. He had creative disagreements with the company. In addition, he was also dealing with injuries.
He then made allegations of medical malpractice against WWE doctor Chris Amann on Colt Cabana’s podcast, for which Amann filed a defamation lawsuit. A jury ruled in favour of Punk and Cabana after trial.
Punk also said the company fired him on his wedding day to former WWE Divas Champion, AJ Lee. Vince McMahon later apologised, and said that Punk receiving the termination papers on that particular day was a “coincidence“.
On Friday, the current AEW star took to Instagram to mock WWE over their decision to move stadiums for Money in the Bank. Alongside an image of a poster for WrestleMania 7, he wrote: “Another bomb threat, smh [shake my head].”
The other event Punk is seemingly referring to occurred in 1991. WrestleMania 7 was supposed to happen at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Sgt. Slaughter took on Hulk Hogan in the main event. However, WWE made a late change and switched the showpiece event to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena instead.
There were two reasons behind this decision. One, as confirmed by current WWE executive director Bruce Prichard, was due to poor ticket sales. WWE planned to hold the show at the 106,000-seater Coliseum, and Vince McMahon even did an advertisement a year out from the event claiming that over 100,000 fans would be in attendance.
However, WrestleMania 7 did not generate a huge amount of interest. There were also security concerns about the event, created by the ongoing Gulf War at the time.
Another issue was a storyline that WWE built up before WrestleMania. Sgt. Slaughter was portrayed as an Iraqi sympathiser, which went down like a lead balloon with fans. That was because of the unstable political climate at the time.
WrestlingNews claim that WWE said they switched the stadium because of ‘bomb threats’.
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