Lets Discuss All Things Wrestling - Even The T-Shirt Company AEW!

[Dr LBC]

6 hours ago, StLunatic88 said:

They could (and probably eventually will, you pointed out Trips slow burns in NXT) but right now that would feel very messy. 

I think most of us have been complicating this. They tried to skip over Cody and his story to get to Rock taking over the Bloodline. Fans rightfully revolted on that (which seems was an idea from “the board” and not creative) so now they have to retrace the steps and finish the long terms they are in the middle while building to the next. (AND the next after that)

I’d bet we get the Rock turning on Roman (or just over taking him) before Seth turns.

With the heat that Hollywood Rock 2.0 is getting, I’d put my money on him being the new “big bad” of the company, with lackeys doing the show to show business for him. And that is where I think Seth comes in. As the stand in for Hunter (who can’t get in the ring again) combatting the Chairman Rock for the “Wrestling guy” as much as WWE can represent that. 

And as possibly the most linked NXT guy to Hunter, Seth could absolutely be that guy to fight for him and all Wrestling Fans against the new Corporate Monster. 

Cody doesn’t need that rub, he’s already there, especially if he dethrones Roman’s historic run. Whereas you could potentially send Seth into that stratosphere if they play it right if he is the one climbing the mountain for Hunter. (Or… that could be the heel turn, against Triple H, down the line)

Turning on Cody may make for a moment, but it would be a flash in the pan. The Shield turn was so amazing because it actually meant something. Not a few promos on raw and lingering onstage at a press conference 

This is the main thing.  Plus, like I said, I really don't like Rock's chances of doing a full singles match without getting injured is extremely low, which unless they do a swerve that would, as things stand right now, have quite a few logic holes to it where Rock is big braining Roman (or that Roman's ego has blinded him to seeing the writing on the wall - which would require Rock getting Heyman - i.e. the big brain - out of the picture first) and has been working with Cody the whole time.  So assuming none of that is the case, if they do a Rock/Cody match at any point, Rock is probably going to be in a promo only capacity for quite a white following that match - which could be serendipitous because, let's be real, if the aim is delivering on that Rock/Roman match at WM41, Rocky isn't doing any other match between whenever he wrestles Cody and then - so the injury bakes in an excuse.

Also, Rock becoming the new big bad does somewhat diminish the what Cody has said "finishing the story" is (i.e. taking everything from Roman), if yes, he did it but they just replaced one arrogant Samoan at the head of the Bloodline with another even more arrogant Samoan - who also won't be in matches to potentially get any comeuppance or humbling but now once or twice a year as opposed to 4 or 5 times.

Another dynamic I'm not sure we've seen evidence to show whether they'll go one way or the other with potraying it, but they've blurred out some kayfabe lines in openly recognizing that Seth and Becky are  married but also share a daughter - so it begs the question as to if the two can have differing alignments without them having to acknowledge some sort of in-story/kayfabed drama between the two of them.  They still very much appear to be keeping actual established real life couples on the same brands (Seth/Becky, Tez/Bianca, Jimmy/Naomi, Candice/Johnny).  The only major exception I've seen to this in current couples is that Kaiser and Tiffy are on separate brands, but assuming that Gunther is the logical next-big-bad after Roman for Cody and that Cody's likely shifting to Smackdown if he beats Roman, Imperium is likely destined to head over there too as soon right around whenever someone actually does beat Gunther for the IC strap.

But long story short, if Cody goes to Smackdown, they're going to need main event babyfaces on RAW while Punk's injured to keep Drew hot until that feud is do-able.  And past Cody, they've got Sami (who I think could actually be a dark horse to dethrone Gunther - working a similar program to what Ilya did with him in NXT UK as the guy who has been built up to just take unfathomable amounts of punishment and keep getting back up), Jey, and... ??? if not Seth - because as much of a supporter of is as he is, I can't see Hunter strapping that rocket to Gargano. Maybe you can rekindle Ricochet as a B-event challenger.  Maybe you see if Andrade and Drew can rekindle the NXT magic they had in inverted roles.  Best bit of business they could maybe do is a post-Mania swing of LA Knight over to RAW (since having him on the same brand as a Hollywood Rock doesn't really do either of them huge favors).  And I suppose you do have the possibility of Rey once he's back from injury, but I'm not really sure there's a ton of juice with the crowd (barring maybe another Puerto Rico show) of doing a ReyRey world title program at his age.  But they need Seth as a babyface - they just need to freshen his character some to get him off the Visionary/Revolutionary/Bad-Penguin-Impersonator stuff; and if he does get dethroned as has to rebuild himself that gives him a logical catalyst to go about that and back to something in the vein of the "Redesign, Rebuild, Reclaim" era for him.

[Edge]

19 hours ago, Edge said:

Who do you guys think will show up at Revolution to say farewell to Sting? Or maybe will be seen via video message?

I have no clue who is under a WWE legends contract, which might forbid an attendance or a video message, but besides RIc Flair and the AEW contracted wrestlers, like Paul Wight or Jeff Jarrett, i'd love to see or hear from guys like Lex Luger (if he's healthy enough), DDP, Steiner Brothers, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Sid Vicious, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Kurt Angle and maybe even Great Muta. Obviously Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff also played an integral part in his carerr, but i guess we're not seeing them in person at Revolution. I'm not even sure i'd want them there, because it would be controversial, which again could take away something from Stings career ending. At most i could think of a video message, but i'd not expect any of those two.

To quote myself. More or less, we already got an answer from Lex Luger. He said in his podcast:

"You want me to answer that? Let me put it this way. I will go back to 35 years of friendship. Friendship sometimes transcends the kayfabe or workup the other and there may be ramifications or there may not. Sting was there for me at three in the morning when I had my motorcycle wreck and they wanted to cut my arm off and kind of stopped the doctors from cutting my arm off. So people could read into that what they want, on whether I might be at the building or not. I won't confirm anything, but I'm just saying. I'll leave it in that context. How's that?"

https://wrestlingnews.co/aew-news/lex-luger-gives-an-interesting-answer-when-asked-if-he-will-be-at-stings-final-match-at-aew-revolution

He also said he signed an ambassador deal with WWE, so that doesn't seem to prevent him from appearing at Revolution. Unlike Kevin Nash with his legends deal, but then again maybe Kevin Nash just used it as an excuse, because if he wanted to go there, does somebody really think HHH or TKO would fine or fire him? So after thinking about it, i don't think WWE prevented him from attending, but Nash just doesn't want to do so. But whatever. It's great to basically get the confirmation of Luger being there.

[stl4life07]

On 2/24/2024 at 8:54 AM, Rainmaker90 said:

I see later that Toni Storm also WON best gimmick on the same poll lol. How weird. 
 

I don’t think it was the worst. I really disliked it though, not because Cole got hurt , but the Cole/MJF storyline in general . 
 

The friendship videos were cringe and nothing I’d share to any non wrestling fan. 
 

And it made Max lose his aura. He was a crowd pandering baby face and then it made him look stupid being betrayed. 
 

Him being off tv is the best thing that could’ve happened to him. I hope he comes back a bigger heel than ever. 

Really?! Yeah that is weird about Toni Storm. Does make that poll not to be taken seriously.

I actually like the Cole/MJF storyline. Cole is selfish and calculating. MJF is selfish and calculating. He was the champ so Cole getting close to him to get him to "change" and let his guard down only to stab him in the back and take his title from him was brilliant. Now Cole getting hurt ruined it bc he couldnt "finish his story" since thats the term now. That put AEW in a terrible spot. That would be if the Bloodline storyline around Jey, Roman, and Sami all was hot then all of a sudden Jey got hurt and had to be sideline for awhile and then Roman got hurt and had to be sidelined for awhile thus losing his title to idk Drew at Clash at the Castle. Then the Solo angle wouldnt have happened the way that it did. The Sami angle that ended up reuniting with Kevin angle to then take down the Usos at Mania wouldnt have happened the way that it did. Like the ripple effect. 

I think MJF being off tv is a good thing. I want to see him come back though and he face the same thing he put Cody through in order to get to Cole. He have to get to 10 lashes, have to fight Wardlow and other obstacles that if he lose once he wont be fighting Cole. Meanwhile I do think these injuries allows someone like Swerve to truly get the spotlight to get at the title. Had Cole and MJF never gotten hurt Swerve wouldnt have been in this position right now to fight for the title with a great possibility of winning.   

[bcb1213]

On 2/24/2024 at 6:28 AM, Fresh Prince said:

Think they should had Bianca win to face Rhea. I’m kind of sick of Becky at this point. They could’ve had Tiffany pin her to start a feud. Also what’s with Liv also being the second to last person in these type of events. The past two rumbles, and now EC. Unless she starts using that In her promos about her becoming this close, what’s the point.

well to build the drama of having someone the fans think could actually win with her injury storyline with Rhea.  No other woman in that elimination chamber could be forseen as a winner with zero storyline with Rhea going into it

 

Also, I don't see Rock doing much in ring work with all the movie/insurance stuff to have this be more than a summer run.  I still think the best path is to just have him hold back the bloodline during the match and make the ME a true 1 v 1 for wrestelemania then go to summerslam with rock vs roman and the fans can pick who they want to root for

[Rainmaker90]

58 minutes ago, stl4life07 said:

Really?! Yeah that is weird about Toni Storm. Does make that poll not to be taken seriously.

I actually like the Cole/MJF storyline. Cole is selfish and calculating. MJF is selfish and calculating. He was the champ so Cole getting close to him to get him to "change" and let his guard down only to stab him in the back and take his title from him was brilliant. Now Cole getting hurt ruined it bc he couldnt "finish his story" since thats the term now. That put AEW in a terrible spot. That would be if the Bloodline storyline around Jey, Roman, and Sami all was hot then all of a sudden Jey got hurt and had to be sideline for awhile and then Roman got hurt and had to be sidelined for awhile thus losing his title to idk Drew at Clash at the Castle. Then the Solo angle wouldnt have happened the way that it did. The Sami angle that ended up reuniting with Kevin angle to then take down the Usos at Mania wouldnt have happened the way that it did. Like the ripple effect. 

I think MJF being off tv is a good thing. I want to see him come back though and he face the same thing he put Cody through in order to get to Cole. He have to get to 10 lashes, have to fight Wardlow and other obstacles that if he lose once he wont be fighting Cole. Meanwhile I do think these injuries allows someone like Swerve to truly get the spotlight to get at the title. Had Cole and MJF never gotten hurt Swerve wouldnt have been in this position right now to fight for the title with a great possibility of winning.   

I don’t mind the premise of MJF getting betrayed.  I think it made him look stupid over him gushing over Cole being ‘best friends’ and everything. 
 

The ‘friendship’ videos were so fake ( and when you’re a reality based character you should be relatable ) that it told the audience that it’s not real, like the wrestlers are in on the joke ( which is one of my main gripes against The Elite) if the show/wrestlers make it a joke, I’m not interested. 

plus, they were doing multiple different ‘friendship ‘ angles and it was like I was back in school. 

Im also a fan of limited comedy in my ME feuds. Sami and The Bloodline was perfect imo . 

[Edge]

8 hours ago, Edge said:

Unlike Kevin Nash with his legends deal, but then again maybe Kevin Nash just used it as an excuse, because if he wanted to go there, does somebody really think HHH or TKO would fine or fire him? So after thinking about it, i don't think WWE prevented him from attending, but Nash just doesn't want to do so.

Nash basically confirmed it, that he doesn't want to be there, because of his friendship to HHH. So it's most likely not a WWE issue, but a Nash issue. The "Is All Elite" argument is stupid, though. He just needs to inform himself, about who gets a "Is All Elite" graphic and who isn't. Whatever. I think it's sad that someone like him isn't there, but if he doesn't want to be there, then it is what it is.

Edit: Okay this reads a little bit different to me.

https://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/kevin-nash-clarifies-that-hes-not-on-wwe-payroll-explains-the-real-reason-why-he-cant-go-to-stings-last-match

“I never said that (that I was on the WWE payroll)," Nash said. "What I said is I’m a WWE guy. I can’t have a picture of me in the crowd and underneath it says, ‘Is all Elite.’ I just can’t have that. It just doesn’t work. One of my closest fu**ing friends is Paul Levesque. As much as I love Steve and I know he will only have one last match, I will watch it. We will talk about it. I haven’t been to a WrestleMania, a RAW, a SmackDown, or any of the other pay-per-views. I haven’t been to any events. I don’t want to go to any place and be around a bunch of people, let alone wrestling people. I just don’t want to do it. I’m a hermit and that’s it.”

 

This sounds more like he just doesn't want to be around wrestling and i'd interpret it as, he has still not fully healed from the losses of Scott Hall and his son, who both died in 2022. Therefore i guess he avoids wrestling events. Dunno, if that's true, but i guess that could make more sense.

Edited February 26 by Edge

[Dr LBC]

2 hours ago, Edge said:

Nash basically confirmed it, that he doesn't want to be there, because of his friendship to HHH. So it's most likely not a WWE issue, but a Nash issue. The "Is All Elite" argument is stupid, though. He just needs to inform himself, about who gets a "Is All Elite" graphic and who isn't. Whatever. I think it's sad that someone like him isn't there, but if he doesn't want to be there, then it is what it is.

Edit: Okay this reads a little bit different to me.

https://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/kevin-nash-clarifies-that-hes-not-on-wwe-payroll-explains-the-real-reason-why-he-cant-go-to-stings-last-match

“I never said that (that I was on the WWE payroll)," Nash said. "What I said is I’m a WWE guy. I can’t have a picture of me in the crowd and underneath it says, ‘Is all Elite.’ I just can’t have that. It just doesn’t work. One of my closest fu**ing friends is Paul Levesque. As much as I love Steve and I know he will only have one last match, I will watch it. We will talk about it. I haven’t been to a WrestleMania, a RAW, a SmackDown, or any of the other pay-per-views. I haven’t been to any events. I don’t want to go to any place and be around a bunch of people, let alone wrestling people. I just don’t want to do it. I’m a hermit and that’s it.”

 

This sounds more like he just doesn't want to be around wrestling and i'd interpret it as, he has still not fully healed from the losses of Scott Hall and his son, who both died in 2022. Therefore i guess he avoids wrestling events. Dunno, if that's true, but i guess that could make more sense.

I think it's that last bit, among a number of other things.  Nash has always, always, always been a money guy.  He'll put up with the crap, the pain, the whatever if the check is big enough and it doesn't harm his ability to access future checks.  And we're talking emotional pain as well as physical pain - dude had multiple surgeries last year, IIRC, and that was after having his hips realigned in 2022.  And some of these guys - whether that includes Nash or not, I'm not positive, but I'm basically quoting the guy who moderates Kliq This for him, Sean Oliver (who is one of the more pre-eminent out-of-kayfabe interviewers and has interviews a ton of vets) - some of them just don't want to go somewhere just to be a show pony and be reminded of what they physically can't do anymore.  It's an especially easy conclusion to arrive at if you've made good money and taken care of the money you've made, so that you don't have to be one of these old guys that are still doing the convention circuits and hocking 8x10's and photo-ops to combination pay-the-bills and cling to the threads of past-fame in their 60's+.

Though, I definitely think the bit from the earlier Nash quote has a lot of relevance too; I don't think, barring needing a big payday from it, a lot of the vets from Sting's past that aren't already AEW trust Tony Khan to handle them the way they want to be handled - and/or used as some sort of cheap bludgeoning weapon to take a shot at WWE.  Tony's been a consummate in-bed with the dirt sheet guys and, especially Uncle Dave, doesn't really have the best reputation with the older vets.  So even if you were to get an instance of, for example, Sasha/Mercedes' re-debut over in Japan that Bailey and FTR attended and a photo still leaked of the 4 of them together backstage - that was an independent promotion.  But, even if (as some might want to do) they were to just be in attendance and entirely backstage and away from TV cameras, do they really trust that Tony wouldn't, particularly just having Dave or Alvarez leak it, try to piggyback that attendance as an endorsement of AEW when it was really just the boys supporting one of their own?

Bear in mind, Luger's on a Legends deal as well.  I wouldn't doubt for a second that he'll at minimum have sought to get special dispensation to be there - particularly since in his condition I don't think they're going to wheel him down to ringside for the match, so he would almost assuredly be backstage only.  Steamboat's on one.  Jimmy Hart's on one, too, I believe, but I don't think he's used at all as an Ambassador and hasn't been in a while.

[Edge]

I'm pretty sure Tony Khan would respect his wishes. I can't remember, that there was any incident, in which someone later claimed, that he mishandled a sensible topic or exploited someone by showing him, although the person asked him not to do so. There are some things to criticize him, but that's not one of it and i think any veteran could be pretty sure about that. Even if they don't trust him, everybody could be sure, that he wouldn't do any ****, just out of respect for Sting. He handled him his entire run with the upmost respect. He wouldn't want to overshadow the retirement of him because of some backstage backlash. But ofc word would still come out, that Nash was backstage. 100%. But that's not a Tony Khan issue, as there are way to many people around, especially for a PPV and especially on such a night. It would get out for sure, because somebody would mention it to the dirtsheets, when asked about it. That would definitely happen, but i don't think that's something Nash is really worried about. If he's worried about, than it seems like it'd be the presentation, which he wouldn't need to worry about in my mind, because i'm 100% sure his wishes would be respected, there as well.

But in the end after reading the entire statement, i'm pretty sure that all of this doesn't really matter. Just like his original statement doesn't matter anymore. The last parts of his statement makes it clear to me, that Nash just doesn't want to be around so many people or the business. If it's true, that he didn't even attend a WWE show, than i'm convinced the real issue isn't really AEW/WWE related and that is totally fine. 

[bcb1213]

ahhh, so they are just gonna have gunther lose the belt in a ladder match, that's smart

[BetterCallSaul]

2 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

ahhh, so they are just gonna have gunther lose the belt in a ladder match, that's smart

I think it cheapens the victory for whoever does win it.

...unless they do a rematch at Backlash & Gunther loses clean.

 

I think Gable is going to win the title, so they might as well just do a 1-1 and make him a big star. Otherwise, it's going to come off as a "sneaky, undeserved win." The sole reason you let dudes hold belts for this long is to eventually lose and deliver that energy/push to someone else. Gunther can survive a clean loss. He's an established monster champion.

 

I don't want to see Sami Zayn as IC Champ. I don't hate the idea, but he doesn't need the belt to establish himself any further. He's already a big star. Gable is literally the perfect person to win for multiple reasons. Hopefully they do right by him.

[bcb1213]

3 minutes ago, BetterCallSaul said:

I think it cheapens the victory for whoever does win it.

...unless they do a rematch at Backlash & Gunther loses clean.

 

I think Gable is going to win the title, so they might as well just do a 1-1 and make him a big star. Otherwise, it's going to come off as a "sneaky, undeserved win." The sole reason you let dudes hold belts for this long is to eventually lose and deliver that energy/push to someone else. Gunther can survive a clean loss. He's an established monster champion.

 

I don't want to see Sami Zayn as IC Champ. I don't hate the idea, but he doesn't need the belt to establish himself any further. He's already a big star. Gable is literally the perfect person to win for multiple reasons. Hopefully they do right by him.

I imagine it's gonna be gable or andrade

[BetterCallSaul]

19 hours ago, Edge said:

I'm pretty sure Tony Khan would respect his wishes. I can't remember, that there was any incident, in which someone later claimed, that he mishandled a sensible topic or exploited someone by showing him, although the person asked him not to do so. There are some things to criticize him, but that's not one of it and i think any veteran could be pretty sure about that. Even if they don't trust him, everybody could be sure, that he wouldn't do any ****, just out of respect for Sting. He handled him his entire run with the upmost respect. He wouldn't want to overshadow the retirement of him because of some backstage backlash. But ofc word would still come out, that Nash was backstage. 100%. But that's not a Tony Khan issue, as there are way to many people around, especially for a PPV and especially on such a night. It would get out for sure, because somebody would mention it to the dirtsheets, when asked about it. That would definitely happen, but i don't think that's something Nash is really worried about. If he's worried about, than it seems like it'd be the presentation, which he wouldn't need to worry about in my mind, because i'm 100% sure his wishes would be respected, there as well.

But in the end after reading the entire statement, i'm pretty sure that all of this doesn't really matter. Just like his original statement doesn't matter anymore. The last parts of his statement makes it clear to me, that Nash just doesn't want to be around so many people or the business. If it's true, that he didn't even attend a WWE show, than i'm convinced the real issue isn't really AEW/WWE related and that is totally fine. 

If I'm HHH, I call Khan and tell him he can have Nash appear at the event, but they want Dustin Rhodes for a match.

 

It's fair. Dustin Rhodes would be protected with a victory, so it's not like it would be a conflict of a WWE guy getting the best of an AEW guy. It'd be great marketing for both programs and possibly open the door for future dealings, if it made mutual sense.

[bcb1213]

46 minutes ago, BetterCallSaul said:

If I'm HHH, I call Khan and tell him he can have Nash appear at the event, but they want Dustin Rhodes for a match.

 

It's fair. Dustin Rhodes would be protected with a victory, so it's not like it would be a conflict of a WWE guy getting the best of an AEW guy. It'd be great marketing for both programs and possibly open the door for future dealings, if it made mutual sense.

They really don't need Dustin for anything or give any pub to aew to bring Dustin in , especially with Dustin's contract up in the fall anyhow.  Nash already said it's basically his choice not to do it.  

[Totty]

Former WWE wrestler Virgil dies at 61 YO.  

[Dr LBC]

On 2/27/2024 at 8:30 AM, BetterCallSaul said:

I think it cheapens the victory for whoever does win it.

...unless they do a rematch at Backlash & Gunther loses clean.

 

I think Gable is going to win the title, so they might as well just do a 1-1 and make him a big star. Otherwise, it's going to come off as a "sneaky, undeserved win." The sole reason you let dudes hold belts for this long is to eventually lose and deliver that energy/push to someone else. Gunther can survive a clean loss. He's an established monster champion.

 

I don't want to see Sami Zayn as IC Champ. I don't hate the idea, but he doesn't need the belt to establish himself any further. He's already a big star. Gable is literally the perfect person to win for multiple reasons. Hopefully they do right by him.

I like Chad Gable.  But I need more than a single one-off promo from him as a serious (non-comedy) character before I'm willing to call him the "perfect person" to elevate.  And I'm sorry, but this is why I feel like there are more than several AEW guys who get overrated "because they're great workers" and they put on great in-ring performances, but their character work is mediocre at best and very one-dimensional.  Gable has, I suppose a credit to his natural personality (for anyone who has seen him on Celtic Warrior Workouts, for example), always been a comedic-lean guy (even dating back to when they were first assembling American Alpha in NXT.

Gunther can survive a clean loss... to the right guy.  A lot of the buildup on Gunther actually does suffer if he loses to a guy that has been largely a comedy act (and part of a bigger comedy act - that is assembled of cohorts that were almost entirely used as comedy acts by Vince prior to being brought together gradually) for more than a year.  It's the Otis MITB push all over again.

Conversely, while it's definitely the case that Sammy doesn't need the IC title to elevate him, he genuinely could use the win that ends Gunther's streak to elevate him from a main eventer that - if we're being honest - would be extremely low odds to actually be expected to win in a main event feud to something more than that.  And he's able to pass on rub of "beating the guy that beat the guy" (which is still very much a thing) to what they could arguably use just as much right now because they have more viable heels coming up that are in a ready-position to main event or near-main-event than they do babyfaces.

Sammy's not my out and out preferred choice, but he opens more doors for more people than I believe Gable, as he currently sits, would.