Yeah, instead of creating an alternative to WWE, they've made it a closed shop.
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Yeah, instead of creating an alternative to WWE, they've made it a closed shop.
The world title situation is a mess. They need to keep it on Moxley until whenever MJF takes it off him.
Trios sounds rubbish as well, either call it six-man tag or rename the tag division as duos.
Yep. Danielson might have resulted in better matches but Moxley has really stepped up after the backstage scuffle so him carrying it until MJF is ready is the only way to re-legitimise it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
Also Jericho taking the ROH title off Claudio feels a bit WWECW title.
HHH must be allowing himself an "I told you so" moment with all this Punk stuff. The man has an ego the size of a house and it's super fragile at that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gray Fox
(And Punk is no better, lol, etc.)
If they keep going with a Jericho-Danielson feud and switch the title to Danielson to run with long-term then I can forgive it, but Claudio has just been squandered since joining; they debuted him randomly against ZSJ because Danielson was injured but he got a good win then did absolutely nothing until randomly taking the ROH title off Gresham then did nothing again until beating Dax Harwood last week (the FTR situation is a whole other fucking shitshow as well) and now they've whipped it off him because plans have evidently changed again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
Love what I've seen of the Acclaimed, crafty of them to cut his mic off for a few weeks after the big scrap too. The only thing I haven't liked is when Billy Gunn's kids battered him and he immediately got over it and start scissoring his new kids within seconds.
Selling and psychology are lost arts.
Billy Gunn looks in incredible shape. What a man. Even landed a decent Famouser last night. :cool:
Paige/Saraya genuinely doesn't look like Paige any more.
Funny how a surprise signing was actually a surprise now the Bucks aren't around to leak it to Dave. :sherlock:
What becomes of Omega and the Young Bucks now then? Everything I've seen of Smalltime Tony says he'll just let them come back as if nothing ever happened, but surely not when they've been causing fights that needed belts vacating as a result?
She'd already started down a bad path around the "PAIGE HERE!" times but she now looks absolutely nothing close to how she looked in NXT.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
Big fan of her using her boyfriends music though.
If they let all the elite dorks back surely they can't still be executives as well. Replace them with Regal and Mark Henry and keep everyone in line.
This has got to be the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by wullie
The Elite are the main reason for AEW existence Tony wont be stripping them of the EVP roles that's madness.
He could, if he had a spine, because it's his money at the end of the day and the AEW fanbase is probably entrenched enough that he doesn't have to pander to the Elite, but not sure he has it in him to give 'em the good news.
Surely it's not as simple as Tony buying them out? I actually dont know what they have done wrong apart from going out of their way to get Tony to hire Punk.
Well they got involved in a big scrap because they hired a dickhead and didn't like it when he went on to be a dickhead.
I dunno what the legalities are, but if he can he should.
The simple fact is, EVP's shouldn't be doing that. Also, EVPs that are also active talent is prime for conflicts of interest.
Yeah but not being EVPs anymore might not work for them, brother.
And they probably wouldn't accept a hug from Tony.
Sami Zayn is too damn good.
There are not many things I would "mark out" for these days, but if they gave Sami a (doomed) title shot against Roman I'd be there for it, heart and soul. He's probably getting a tag win with KO at so e point but seriously, face Sami vs heel Roman would be a classic.
Wait what. How long has Roman Reigns been champion for now? :lol:
Tony Khan's dad being very rich is the reason AEW exists really and they've grown beyond needing any particular individuals. If the EVPs were all that vital the company managed to get by when one was gone for the year and another was at Wrestlemania.
I dont think they are vital as EVP's I just cant see their roles changing at all going forward.
It was carny of them to confront Punk in his room.
There’s not really an alternative who can work full time. He’s so far above the rest of them. But that’s their own fault for not creating anyone new.Quote:
Originally Posted by Baz
But long reigns legitimise the title so there’s that. Whoever eventually beats him, it’ll be a massive deal.
Last time he was pinned was at TLC 2019(December 2019) by King Corbin. The reign is now since August 2020, but he's held both belts since Mania this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Baz
This was great for legitimising him then, but is causing them a big time headache now. They need the belts separated going into Mania season, but they do not want him losing in any way on the run up as they're supposed to be getting Dwayne back for one big last hurrah.
Best shot they might have is to put both belts on the line in a ladder match somewhere, have someone like maybe a Seth Rollins against him, both go up a ladder and grab a title each and fall off the ladder with them. Match counts as a draw so he doesn't lose, but one of the titles is now away from him.
Having two world titles is ridiculous but the whole product is held to ransom by two rival TV networks now so here we are.
The Bloodline stuff is pretty good again with him in. That whole bit was good and I love that all the Bloodline have distinct feelings about him. Heyman just wants him to shut up, Reigns doing the sinister smiling shark routine until he runs out of uses for him, Jey desperately wants to kick his head in but Jimmy seems to quite like him, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Andy Mahowry
The tag match was good fun too though WWE are really trying to cram as many people onto the show as they can right now.
https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/a...ts-for-release
Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews not getting released.
Yeah Cocaine Tony is really leaning into this "adopt everything WWE abandons" thing, so having picked up Vince's "don't release anybody no matter how little we need them" policy of 2017 or so I assume by 2024ish he'll be cutting people in swathes.
Buddy Matthews is so good. It’s criminal they’ve stuck him with that human botch machine.
Would that be the one who's not Malakai in House of Black?Quote:
Originally Posted by Baz
But yes, Buddy is amazing. WWE having him, him wrestling great matches for about four months straight on TV then going LOL BAD LUCK PAL is a solid example of Vince having lost the plot.
Also Raw was pretty solid again this week. 3 or 4 really decent matches, plenty of story/character progression.
And this "white rabbit" stuff they're doing to presumably build to Bray's return is by WWE standards remarkably subtle given it's very much a "fan engagement" sort of build.
205 Live also had an amazing run with him, Ali, Gulak, Cedric and Tony Nese.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
No I actually meant Brodie King. It’s a wonder he hasn’t killed Darby Allin.
I think it might be Edge. There's too many obvious references to Judgment Day (specifically Finn Balor "Demon" and Dominik "Patricide").Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
Although the way to go is have Edge be the White Rabbit and almost immediately re-debut Bray as the new Judgment Day leader just to work everyone.
Pretty obvious White Rabbit is Vince McMahon. It was him all along, Austin!
I just doubt it'll be anybody who's currently doing stuff on TV and Edge came back on Raw but I might be wide of the mark thereQuote:
Originally Posted by Ben
These things usually herald a return/ debut rather than a repackage and "feed your head" and "who killed the world? You did" sound very Brayish to me. But we'll see.
Whoever it is, I still like that they're doing something which is so far quite low key and non intrusive.
I haven't watched this week's Raw so forget I said anything. :D
:D
Well you see they have another exciting month of Edge burying The Judgement Day to do.
It seems I misread this. Yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
Also this weeks Dynamite is so bad.
I’m not familiar with Paige but my god send Saraya back.
Yeah it was shit. I've managed to whizz through it all in half an hour.
Danielson's matches haven't been top level for a while now (apart from the Jericho one the other week) but it takes some bad booking to get an awful match out of him. Moxley/Juice was just OK as a TV match but if you've seen them in New Japan this is clearly way below their capability together. I just skip women's matches now, the division is tragic. And I didn't care for the ROH match, can no fucker throw a punch anymore?
Promos weren't any better. MJF was great obviously but Yuta did his best to destroy the segment. And Saraya, oh boy what the fuck was that?
Crowd was dead. I'm done with AEW again for a while I think.
Also liked Tiny Tony saying (or reported as saying?) he had no idea what he was gonna do with ROH when buying them. What with this and the "No releases I don't care how much you hate being here" rule his Vince energy is really intensifying.
I've been reading through Dave Meltzer's old Observers over the past couple of years and I've not long finished 2001. The cluelessness surrounding what they should do with WCW and the whole invasion thing was incredible.
I doubt anything will top that as far as missed booking opportunities go.
Burying guys because they're WCW when they're now YOUR GUYS though? Chef kiss, Vince, you absolute moron.
Haven't AEW registered a name for a women's show as well? It feels like he's started a company and immediately tried to do everything WWE has done but all at the same time. It doesn't need all the shows, stables, turns, titles, tournaments, interim titles, people that debut and disappear, extra companies to add even more titles, what a mess.
The only excuse is that all the big names that would have made it work (Goldberg, Hogan, Nash, Flair) were tied up in Time Warner contracts until 2002-03. Other than The Rock who had a movie career starting, all the WWF guys worked every house show and operated within the salary structure (most of Austin's money was from merchandise revenue) and the WCW guys weren't going to go for that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
So to make it work, they would have had to buy out the Time Warner contracts (which is fine, because PPV money would have paid for it many times over) but then piss off all the current guys who will suddenly want pay rises and lighter schedules and that's how WCW destroyed their house show business. It was a sticky situation but one in hindsight Vince had to do because it was scary how hard business fell after WrestleMania 17 (eg. they panicked and bought out Flair in November 2001).
But Vince was never going to let it happen anyway. They paid $400k to buy out DDP who debuted to a monstrous pop and then within weeks he's being pinned by Undertaker's wife. Even in 2002, Hogan and Nash had to fight tooth and nail to get Vince to agree to them using the nWo gimmick when they returned.
It wasn't ever going to be plain sailing to make the angle pay off but it's still the biggest bungle in the history of the business. Hundreds of millions were potentially left on the table.