I was rooting for her in WWE as well until she quit because she was put in a feud with Charlotte. Imagine being that new and they go "We think you should work with Charlotte" and then you quit....It's like if they called up Trick Williams, told him his first feud was with Cody Rhodes and then he quit 2 weeks later lol. Toni is also very young so if we said man when she was 24 she peaked in NXT UK that would be insane.Originally Posted by Mazer
I don't remember her at all in WWE but it was likely during one of the spells I stopped watching. She's absolutely my favourite thing about AEW right now, which isn't a great compliment I suppose because I'm not loving all that much...
To be fair I'm usually utterly bored by the main event of Dynamite and just skimming through it, but remained interested because she was there and the last few minutes were the most entertaining close to the show in a while.
'I'm going to rip your tits off' is my favourite wrestling threat
Lol. I take your point. I could also see a world where she felt that it was a throw-away feud, and didn't feel like she was going to get the runway.
But....I'm also the anti-Donald, because I rarely care if someone quits. I may call out their statements, podcast interviews, logic, etc for being stupid though. But I also do that a lot for people who stay (see: Kngston, Eddie).
Her promos can be a little idiotic but she's the main reason I still watch AEW and everything isn't even in the same universe. I didn't care for her before Timeless. She just felt like another female wrestler. Even now I don't go "wow what a fucking great match" I'm just here for the character work.
I mean I can see a World where she was getting the mega push ala Lacey Evans where she was going to beat Charlotte, possibly for the belt or move on to a feud over the belt. It's just not normal for WWE to put someone with a main eventer and not have any intention on building that person up after the fact if they did well. She didn't give WWE the chance to see what world this was going to be in the first place lol.
I mean you should care if people walk out on their job. It's unprofessional and it can haunt you down the road.
Fair enough. I'm also a job/corporation cynic, so I'm probably overly forgiving if someone doesn't like their job.
Myself, I have never given less than 2 weeks. I worked about 3 years for a place, gave them a month's notice. Worked about 8 plus years for the next place, gave them a month's notice. Most recent job....they misled me on some things when I was hired, and were content not to backfill a position and have me do two jobs for a little less than a year. I gave them two weeks. They asked if I would consider giving more notice. I politely declined. However, I did spend as much time as I could those two weeks closing out as much as I could, and writing out everything I could for the folks still there. So, I kept great relationships with the people I worked with.
All those places....I saw them cut people instantly when they needed to. For me..... If you think a place will cut you as soon as its convenient, take care of yourself as best you can, and be as professional as you can be while still doing what's best for you.
Aside from the job leaving talk, I'm curious if Toni can get something interesting out of Mercedes.
So am I understanding that you think Toni thought a couple weeks into her feud with Charlotte Flair they were going to fire her so she had to quit? Hmm.
Mercedes is a bust. I haven't seen someone swindle a promoter that bad since Warrior did Bischoff in 1998. Or Vince in 1996 take your pick lol. Highest paid female wrestler (supposedly) and not a damn thing to show for it. Sad part is, as much as I like Toni Storm she's not exactly a needle mover either.
Their feud will be Mercedes with a bunch of meaningless belts and then she beats Toni for the AEW women's title. She'll be Ultimo Drag-on.
Toni vs Mone is probably the biggest money women’s match they could do right now. TBS vs AEW women’s title. Toni would have to carry the character work though.
Can’t see anyone else beating Mone (maybeee Willow) but also speaks to the lack of great credible women’s characters that have got a shot.
Also wondering where Mariah goes from here.
Last edited by Badger; March 20th, 2025 at 6:44 PM.
The reality is unless these women are bleeding all over the place and/or saying stupid shit about their tits and poop, most AEW fans don't care and it's clear the booker doesn't either. AEW's been around 5 years and have had 1 good women's angle. That was kinda ruined in the blowoff with the fuckin Tong Po fists dipped in glass spot lol.
Mariah is special but the roster isn't deep enough to follow up what she did with Toni. I don't really want to see Willow at all she's absolutely annoying and has no aura. Megan Bayne has a great look but not that great in the ring, barely heard her talk, but she might rise to the occassion.
Nah. More of a if you're not happy-uyou know that company (particularly at that point) will get rid of you at the drop of a hat-so do what you think is best for you.
Our perspective is just what we see on TV, and what people talk about in interviews.o idea what else is going on. Even if the Meltzers would have me believe otherwise.
I know I was once on the "Dont judge Mercedes too early train", but there's no defense at this point. Where now 8m wondering if there's any salvageable scenario for her.
Yeah, it has to be Toni/Mone. Everything else would be peanuts.
For Mariah though... I really think somewhere down the line when Toni is in trouble or PERHAPS is Toni turns heel heel... Mariah could return to save Toni or stop an out of control Toni.
They might be building to Mone/Athena first if the latter's social feed is anything to go by.
I just don't get what the idea behind keeping Athena in ROH this whole time is supposed to amount to other than some pointless stat of being the longest reigning ROH champion, maybe even champion in general right now. Beyond that....? If it's all just to have Sasha win another pointless title, it's all for nothing. IDC who it is, Toni or Sasha, if Athena is challening either one she has to win. If she doesn't, and loses the ROH title, seriously what was the point of keeping her hidden in the bowels of ROH's women's division? I'd rather see Athena beat Jericho for the ROH World title than see her get beat by Sasha or Toni.
I hope she comes back to WWE at some point cause I loved Ember Moon.
I was never really sure what her gimmick was supposed to be but I loved the look, the finisher is amazing too.
Honestly though....this is a low bar. How many people wouldn't we be ok with seeing beat Jericho for the ROH World title? He's veering dangerously close to the Jarrett zone.
I could probably talk myself into Danhausen over Jericho at this point.
Jarrett is ten times more entertaining than sex pest, maga bitch Jericho these days.
Despite being apolitical, Jarrett is not at all entertaining. And he hasn't been for quite a while.
Naw I can't forgive Double J for 3 things:
Ruining Kurt Angle's marriage
His WCW Run
His TNA run
Once those 3 things are absolved I'll be back to singing My Baby Tonight
I won't lie he had a thing with the guitars and Debra and the team with Owen. I liked the IYH match with HBk where HBK won the IC title. He always had good matches but he just didn't have "IT"
Well I can help you with number one, Kurt and Karen had already split.
How I feel about triple h
Jarrett's matches were always overshadowed by the overbooked messes they were 99% of the time.
Saw Paige is done with AEW. Will she return to WWE?
Would WWE even clear her to compete? Appeared to have a very limited schedule in AEW, she didn't seem to wrestle very much at all.
Remember reports back after the injury that she was well liked in WWE by higher ups. That was at the time though, not sure how much the landscape has changed there. A lot, I'd imagine.
My son and I were just talking about this last night. We don't watch AEW religiously but yeah it feels like she's barely been in the mix. The last thing I remember is she was trying to do something with her brother a couple months ago and that went absolutely nowhere. He was released too I think not that long ago.
She's a wildcard because there's a lot of baggage with her. I mean ffs the last dude she was with is a goof and she was defending him left and right on social media with his ignorance. She would be someone that I could see WWE signing and they'd find a place for her. Regardless of her baggage she always seemed to be very popular.
I thought maybe JJ could have a good run in WCW.TNA...etc.
He didn't. His matches were often messy. His stories presented him as bigger than he was....he was not that guy. His feuds were underwhelming, promos were average. And its not like he magically got better with age. JJ proves that adage that if someone stays in the spotlight long enough, people will eventually buy into the "nostalgia".
I mean, hey good for him, making a long career out of it. But he is not helping the show in any conceivable way. And this has been true since he started with AEW.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Paige return to WWE. Seemed like she had a good relationship with HHH. And theirs a lot she could do.
I feel like I haven't seen Jarrett for a few weeks now, has he been being used on Collision or are they over it now?
There were a few moments legit entertained by Jarrett. The IC title match with Michaels at IYH and the Good Housekeeping feud with Chyna which imagine how that would fly these days lol. Third moment being his tag run with Owen.
So not all that bothered if he makes his goal or not but does make one wonder why they cooled off on the MJF feud and have him be enticed by MVP.
Last edited by Badger; March 27th, 2025 at 8:18 PM.
Ha, I was watching WrestleDream last night, Danielson and Moxley and Mox gets the win to retire Danielson. Post match, Danielson is getting the shit kicked out of him by Mox's cronies. Jeff Jarrett tries to make the save and in the most sarcastic tone I can ever recall on a wrestling show, Jim Ross:
"OH NO. NOT JEFF JARRETT".
Utterly rinsed him and the company there.
JR in this couldn't give a shit anymore mood can be gold. More times it's annoying, but here it was brilliant.
They've been passing MJF around quite a bit. He did the short Jarrett feud, short Hangman feud, now this weird HB/MJF angle. It feels like Tony was sick of the sickos constantly suggesting nothing but black wrestlers be in this stable so they're trying to Owen Hart this thing a little lol. MJF puts on any more self tanner he's going to be a light skinned brother in no time.
I'm more concerned with Jarrett trying to resurrect Acclaimed when it was wrestling that killed that company.
@Murphy Jim Ross' IDGAF vibe has been one of the highlights of his post-WWE career. Especially in AEW where you can tell he's just getting a check.
Ha, to be fair, I may prefer this JR.
Go back and watch the 'attitude era' now and he really does overdo it with the screaming and yelling. In many ways, that era has not aged well. Lawler's commentary, yikes. Moreso in the women's matches, but of course it was a different time and it was what it was.
Plus of course they were being micro-managed, so. I mean, I used to think Cole was dull and bland until Vinnie left.
JR would be the worst wrestling announcer for me, if Tazz didn't exist.
Paige will be back in the WWE, but I think maybe only for the Hall of Fame.
I don't prefer this JR over the 90's JR. I don't even know how any wrestling fan could even say that to be honest but we all have weird takes that don't always lined up with reality. If there's one thing that has aged very well, it's Jim Ross' commentary. Just think how terrible some of those matches would be if we had today's Jim Ross......
So yeah I can't really get down with that opinion whatsoever as it's probably the worst take I've read, ever. And I listen to Konnan's podcast and Disco Inferno has nothing but bad takes but even he wouldn't prefer today's JR over the 90's Attitude Era JR. Who's sitting around thinking Jim Ross today is better than even Jim Ross from 2005? Wild.
Jim Ross was just as animated in WCW as he was in WWF. That's why he's the man. That's why nobody is begging Jim Ross in 2025 to call their matches, he lost the passion and he's old as dirt.
If she goes into the HOF before 2035 I'll be pissed. Did she have a HOF career? Definitely. But there are so many women like Victoria, Jazz, Miss Elizabeth ffs let's get her in there finally.
I didn't realize Paige is younger than Mercedes Banks. Not even 33, wow.
I remember him calling Wrestlemania less than a month after his wife died and it was painful to listen to (and uncomfartable to watch), he was just going through the motions. He's got no better since then.
Younger than all four of the horsewomen, yet debuted before all of them. Still got at least 10 years in front of her, who knows what she could have achieved had she stayed healthy.
Yes, to be fair, I was exaggerating somewhat here.
Ross was good in WCW and was great in WWE for a long tine. But later on, not a fan. Not a fan now either, his time has been and gone and he's too unenthusiastic to justify having him there, but he will make me laugh from time to time with his dry sarcasm.
As to Paige, run was a little short, though injury played a big part there. There are less deserving, but wouldn't be against it.
Yeah I mean if we're talking his later WWE years sure. But I'd still take him over everyone else.
I'd take Freddy scratching his nails across a chalkboard over JR commentating in any era.
This is your hottest take since Outkast.
I've had nightmares of JR just yelling "Stone Cold! Stone Cold!"
NICE HEARIN FROM YA CARLOS!
My absolute favorite one-liner in all of the Nightmare universe. A close 2nd is "Rick, you little meatball"
One time I meditated and cleared my mind of all thought, outside of memories of JR announcing Kane. "IT'S KANE! THROUGH HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE, KING! KANE!". After an hour of said reflection, I achieved a state of oneness with the universe and created a sense of universal peace that permeated a 5 mile radius for the next 48 hours.
AEW put on an ok to good PPV to once again shoot themselves in the foot. Maybe in July this Deathriders thing will end...maybe.
From what I've been reading, Swerve Scott's comment about Booker T has dwarfed anything done on the PPV.
I can respect the idea here is that Young Bucks were behind The Death Riders chaos. Is it a good one? Hard to say. I think for me it's who's in these roles that take me out of it. Imagine the nWo storyline but it's Dean Douglas and Waylon Mercy invading WCW and then Bobby Eaton turns heel and joins them lol. But the matches will be good I guess.
Swerve saying Fuck Booker T just shows his maturity level. Notice he never came out and denied anything Booker T said to him face to face, never said "And then I told Booker T to go fuck himself" Nope. Swerve like 20-30 years younger than Booker T too but Swerve ain't a big dude, he's not tough, he's the typical weird dude projecting his own downfalls on others.
I think the only reason I'm not up in arms about the result is because I think the angle has started to improve some over the last few weeks and I also don't hate on Mox's current ring work as some do. Like I think the main event was really good up until all of the interferences and stuff. That and I get wanting to have the hero to vanquish Mox be whoever wins the Owen. That said, feels like it would have been worth it to just pull the trigger on Swerve and count your losses. But I am at least intrigued to see where this goes with the Bucks reveal.
I don't really blame Swerve for having the stance he does, but also seems like he could have just ignored it and moved on with his life. He probably just said it for the pop
Oh yeah, Omega/Ricochet/Bailey was wild. A top tier 3-way.
Dude if you ever came in here and were "up in arms" and didn't constantly play AEW apologist, I might go buy a lottery ticket as well. But I get what you're saying.
You can't blame Swerve because that would require an AEW apologist to actually admit someone under the AEW umbrella is a moron. What's Swerve's stance? That he went to work for Vince McMahon 10-15 years after that ppv skit with Cena and now he's trying to speak ill of Booker T. Who btw has always praised Swerve more than most veterans. So Swerve gets confronted, doesn't say anything, takes it, then after a ppv he says Fuck Booker T.
There's a running theme with AEW and it's actually more impressive than lasting longer than Nitro (said no one with the warmth of another) that AEW will have a ppv and it's ruined by something dumb that has nothing to do with the actual ppv. Yeah we can get over a lame ending but 90% of the discourse is about Booker T and the other 10% is shitting on Jericho lol. I mean nobody really cares about Okada/Omega for the WCW TV title. It was easily their worst ppv so I can understand the deflection.
I liked the finish but this match should've been on Dynamite. Speedball already ruined.
I think AEW apologist is kind of silly when I've been open about things I don't like from AEW. Just because it's less things than most of y'all doesn't mean I'm incapable of being critical. AEW just happens to feature most of the wrestlers I prefer and the matches and good storylines are enough for me to shrug at most of the bad ones.
I literally said Swerve should have just ignored Booker's response. What he said originally wasn't even shade on Booker as much as he was saying black people had been taken advantage of and made a joke on WWE for years. He literally said that Vince saying the N Word on TV in front of him wasn't fair to Booker, then Booker took it personally and defended Vince and his position in WWE. Swerve didn't actually speak ill of Booker until after Booker's reaction, where she should have just left it and moved on.
I also don't really think the Booker T comment is holding as much traction as reactions to the main event result, but that also just might be my timeline on socials vs. what the world at large is talking about.
How? Mike Bailey had a standout performance that the crowd was going crazy for and he didn't get pinned. What's the issue?
Maybe because of Speedball taking a loss so quickly into his AEW career. They probably should have built him up on Dynamite more before featuring him on a PPV only to lose. Perhaps he should have participated in next year's Owen Hart Cup. He could have faced someone on the lower card on this PPV to build him up.
Everyone always has a standout performance and then nothing ever happens. It's not like he's going to feud with Omega. He's done.
And you're right, you did say Swerve should've ignored Booker T but you also said you understood Swerve's side. I mean the reality is that Booker T went up to Swerve about the situation and then Booker T addressed it on his show after the fact. Unlike Swerve who spoke ill of Booker T on DJ Vlad's culture vulture circus, then went and said Fuck Booker T after getting confronted.
And of course you don't think it's getting the traction because you're in denial like every other AEW apologist. Yes, the rest of the world is probably talking about non-AEW shit but in this specific sub-forum where AEW is a topic, we wil talk about things relevant.
90% of AEW's audience has the attention span of a toddler on crack. By the time I finish this post they'll have forgotten Speedball.
If he didn't eat the pin I don't really see the issue, especially when the finish implied he was screwed by positioning. Wrestling fans cling onto that kind of stat all the time. As long as he gets a bounce back victory and follows up with a solid feud that he wins, I don't think his momentum is ruined at all.
Now, if he just disappears from TV for weeks or doesn't get into something where he can win soon, then I'll say they fucked up.
But he didn't speak ill of Booker until after Book responded. He literally said Booker wasn't treated fair in that moment. It's not like he called Booker a bitch or a punk or something.
I'm not really gonna argue about whether the Swerve thing is actually getting traction because we have no metric to get a definitive answer and I literally said that it's probably just my timeline on social media that's less focused on the Booker T stuff
What time did this event end? Just saw the last two matches were over 30 minutes each. And then none of the other matches were under 10 minutes except for Bowens/Caster.
I mean I think that's fine if it's a 5 or 6 match card but man there were like 12 matches on this thing. Would AEW benefit from having 2 night events?
See that's the disconnect you're having as a die hard fan of AEW and not just someone who looks at things in reality. Swerve brought up Booker T's name on Vlad. Booker T confrontated Swerve face to face. Swerve then said fuck Booker T after the ppv to a crowd of what, 98% white neckbeards? What was he accomplishing and again, you're pretending you don't see how this makes Swerve look while still trying to lay blame on Booker T.
Going back to Speedball, he shouldn't have been in that match to begin with. Same with Ricochet. This was Create-A-Event x100. Not under these circumstances. Ricochet just lost a weird feud to Swerve and then winds up in a title match where he takes the pin. Speedball should've been on the pre-show maybe in a 6-man or something showcasing him in short bursts. Kenny Omega....Shout out to him for literally doing it for the bag and coasting that's how good he is in that pool of talent. He can go 40% and still look good. In flip flops too.
I don't believe you actually read what I wrote because there is so much misunderstanding in this paragraph
Around 12:30 am. For the record, the trains in Philly stop running in certain areas around 11:30pm which is why I left WM 40 after all the main event entrances. It was also a good time to get merch on the way out, we also got a ton of free candy. AEW needs to do top tier shit like that.
Swerve as much as I like him taking an extra couple of minutes just to say f you to Booker over this whole shit just to get a word in over a stupid Twitter feud does seem bloody petty. The whole angle as bad as it was….twenty years ago ffs.
Booker had to eat it and very likely hated it but probably doesn’t want anyone white knighting him while projecting their own frustrations. Swerve should’ve let it go.
I know nothing about this Vlad guy but surely if the guests don’t want to answer, they should just no comment.
Last edited by Badger; April 9th, 2025 at 2:26 PM.
Well that’s PAC been injured following a buckle bomb by Swerve. He’s not had the best of luck but yeah I hate that move.
Last edited by Badger; April 10th, 2025 at 7:24 AM.
I don't think you ever watched or heard what Swerve said to begin with. There's no misunderstanding.
Swerve wasn't the one who brought up Booker. Vlad did, and Swerve responded.
Tell me where in this video Swerve says anything that's worth Booker getting up in his feelings over?
I said Swerve shouldn't have said fuck you Booker T. But it wasn't until Booker came at Swerve for his comments(that weren't even disrespectful nor did he bring up the subject) that Swerve decided to respond that way.
The issue is that you're ignoring the actual details of how we got here and focusing on the "Fuck Booker T" part
The fact is Swerve shouldn't have even been on Vlad, shouldn't have responded to that question. Especially when the context was lost by Swerve's answer and the way he framed that segment. Yet no mention as to why he himself chose to sign with a company that did such a terrible thing. You can't see this objectively and that's understandable.
Not to mention---Booker T confronted Swerve directly and notice how not a single person including Swerve has disputed that and nobody has said "And then Swerve said this to Booker T's face" Instead it was let's wait until I'm a thousand miles away from the man and sound like a dork.
It just shows another glaring disconnect. You think Booker T was getting up in his feelings. I see this as Booker T acting like a man and confronting Swerve. You are from a frame of mind where you should be able to say what you want without consequence especially on the internet. It's a big reason why this society has fallen down so far.
Ok well you're making a assumptions about me and arguing points I disagree with but at this point we're just gonna go in circles so let's move on
Man, I missed a lot this weekend/week.
Poor Hook.
I will say this, in terms of beauty, AEW has the most beautiful female wrestler on the planet right now. Megan Bayne. Holy shit. She's ok in the ring, a couple more years, if she can get to WWE that's a main eventer.
What happened to Hook?
Sometimes it's the small things. Lance Archer. Has always said 'Everybody dies'. It's the open to his theme song. Noticed the other day that his titantron reads 'everyone dies'.
Puked in the ring. Maybe a concussion some reports are now saying just severerly dehydrated. Either way could have probably been removed from match since a tag match but instead took more punishment. So yeah not a good look for AEW
Last edited by MTR; April 14th, 2025 at 11:52 AM.
The last thing AEW wants out there is another story of negligence in the ring. Everyone needing to get their shit in like it's Arena Mexico.
To be fair, it all happened so quickly and even Taz on commentary didn't miss a step, so would appear didn't realise anything was wrong.
Seems took one bump after he puked, and if done correctly, not a big bump.
Still poor it happened at all though, especially with the experience of Claudio etc.
Possibly the best episode of Dynamite we may get this year, certainly so far. Ospreay/Takeshita fucking killed it MOTN. Ospreay has to beat Mox at All In if not saving it for Darby’s mountain climb return. Mone/Athena second best. Probably leading to Mone/Storm. Heart says Storm, head says Mone there.
One of those rare episodes where everything was basically everything was as it needed to be. All good matches and two strong MOTY contenders. And then Deathriders getting knocked down a peg for once.
Definitely one of the best episodes of Dynamite period
I was pleasantly surprised Moxley took the L for the team instead of Yuta which is usually the case in these things. Also wondered if PAC wasn’t injured if this was the initial plan. The Trios titles are kinda cursed lol. When Jay White was injured, Juice wasn’t recognised as an interim champ yet Mox stepped in easily. Maybe Joe’s win over him will give Mox something to do before likely facing Ospreay where I guess Bucks will somehow cost Page the win.
But yeah it was definitely a great episode considering what they’re up against this weekend. Let’s see if they can sustain it.
Haven’t seen Collision yet which they’ve understandably moved but loving Heel FTR from last week. I laugh how one week’s suspension is a punishment but also Schiavone was an idiot bringing up Dax’s daughter again and Nigel had to save him.
Last edited by Badger; April 18th, 2025 at 5:36 AM.
Loved Dynamite last week, not seen this week's yet.
Ospreay and Takeshita was nuts. So good. Nice to see Athena too and a good match with Mercedes. I've enjoyed the last few Mercedes matches, actually. Should be fun when she takes the title from Toni.
Liking these venues as well. Far more pleasing on the eye seeing a place full.
I was actually a little hyped up to see the Ice Cream Man get in the mix. Totally forgot Master P owned House of Glory.
Hopefully Jamie Hayter will win the Owen. She got hurt at the absolute worst time and I feel like the division has somewhat passed her by. A win here might get her back in the conversation but IDK. She just seems like she was part of a totally different era in the short time AEW has been around.
Yes. Hello, fellow early 2000s Rajah member.Shazza from Australia eh?
Shazza and PG....long-term storytelling at its best.
Aye I was very confused at that quote post, thought I'd been drunk posting and forgotten again lololol.
Marked a bit for Rhyno coming back…less so that he gets creamed in three minutes by a skinny beanpole in Nick Wayne.
Definitely the most interesting story right now is the MJF/Hurt Syndicate angle. Something tells me the minute Lashley let’s him in, MJF reveals his true colours and he has a team of his own to take them down (maybe FTR Pinnacle call back?). He justifies it because Lashley fucked him around too long but yeah definitely invested in it.
Said in the WWE forum but only fair to say here too. JR diagnosed with colon cancer.
Get well (boomer) sooner! xx
I saw that Collision was interrupted by Black Adam
Shout out to Darby getting to the top of Mt Everest. I'm unsure when we'll see him back but if the end game of whatever the fuck we've been suffering through with the Dork Riders is him winning the title off Mox-we have a little of bullshit to suffer through and then it'll be an awesome moment.
It's wild to me to think about where the "4 pillars" are these days. Jungle Boy-Dead in the water. Sammy G-doing a bid in ROH. Darby-the obvious. MJF-He's fallen the hardest. This is why you don't put that kind of pressure on talent calling them pillars when they hadn't done really anything to warrant the claim. And then you book them like ass 90% of the time.
The Rock has more stroke than people give him credit for uceI saw that Collision was interrupted by Black Adam
Fortunately, CM Punk pointed out the Britt Baker had become one of the pillars. And that is going great.
I'd have thought Cowboy Adam Page would have been a pillar, it seems like he's always doing something there.
AEW looks like Tetris level 7 where you start losing your mind and all the wrong pieces start stacking on top of each other before you have to do a hard reset while throwing your controller. They need to wrap up this bullshit in the main event, release some people, and work with a "less is more" mentality. The self-sabotage is mind blowing. I wasn't even a fan of Britt Baker but knowing she went from the absolute top of the AEW mountain to nosediving pretty much after winning the Owen.....I sometimes just blame a certain portion of their fanbase. I mean right now you have a guy with 2,000 followers telling people AEW is getting an extra 5-600k viewers on HBO Max. Despite Tony Khan saying for some reason he has no access to those numbers but this fucking kid on Twitter does.....Rant over.
Are AEW making a profit at least? I think that's all that matters these days, rather than ratings.
That's a fair point but my point is more about some of the extremely delusional fans that IMO turn fans away and have continued to hurt the brand. Are they making a profit? Who knows....Some people think so because of the new tv deal but I mean....If you have a $20 million movie budget and you only make back $5 million....is that making a profit? Plus you have a billionaire owner who doesn't give a shit if he makes money or not because his money isn't going anywhere.
Yeah it's frustrating, they had all the tools to become huge, but it's just organized and run by the wrong person. I wonder if we'll ever find out why Cody left, but I have a thinking he realized Tony isn't the guy who should be running things. I mean how do you mess up CM Punk?
Honestly, I don't mind Tony Khan running things. I think every promoter has flaws. We could sit here all day and talk about the fumbles of Vince, Bischoff, Lawler, Triple H, etc. People say he should surround himself with others but who? Jeff Jarrett? I could shit on that guy all day for the mistakes he made in TNA. Other wrestlers? It's an ego driven business where time has proven wrestlers put themselves and their friends first. Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.
Ultimately, and this is just my opinion that I've had for 25 years. Pro wrestling is so niche that there is barely room for a #2. WCW had a few years they were on top but then they went back to being a distant #2. Even in WWF's darkest years of the early-mid 90's, they were doing better than WCW-and WCW had Hogan, Flair, Savage, Sting, they were much bigger names than Diesel, Shawn, Bret, and Razor yet WCW couldn't even go to Europe and draw that well.
So with AEW....maybe Covid stalled some of their momentum at the beginning but Punk came in and that's when it really started to feel like a strong #2. Now it's just a strong #2 for the talent. The talent know that you can get serious money working for AEW, it probably doesn't hurt when negotiating with WWE if they're really interested in you. This was a major plus for WCW back in the 90's and even TNA to an extent. Less dates, more money, tv exposure, why not?
Cody was in a difficult spot in AEW, was never going to win the big one, maybe as a mega heel. I'm assuming when WWE came calling, it was a very easy decision to make. As a baby, the fans had already started to turn on him there.
For me this was the start of AEW losing a lot of momentum. Then Punk left, (being fired matters not), Vince was forced out of WWE and Levesque actually started booking logical shows. All bad news for AEW.
Now I don't order AEW PPVs anymore. Used to order them all. It's too expensive to follow AEW. For WWE, I get it all for £12.99 a month on Netflix, and there are cheaper packages available. So I get Raw, Smackdown, NXT and PPVs. For AEW, unless I pay for it via Fite TV or whatever it's called these days, we get Dynamite on a 2 day delay and Collision on a 3 day delay. And that includes PPV weeks, so Collision airs AFTER the PPV.
And for a single AEW PPV, £19.99. Yeah yeah, PPVs were always priced similarly before streaming, more expensive in the US etc, but I stopped ordering them regularly around 2013. WWE, obviously.
I will order All In Texas this year though, 8pm UK start time on a Saturday night.
I would probably only watch the Rumble and Mania if WWE still did the PPV pricing. Thank gosh for the WWE Network model with the $9.99. And yeah, paying a few dollars more for Peacock or Netflix is totally worth it, because you also get a vast amount of extra shows and movies with it.
I regularly bought PPVs back in the day, but more times than not the show sucked and I was upset I spent the money on it. But that's what WWE does, they'll make any show look great on paper and fail to deliver.
Looking back it always felt like Cody was the outsider thinking he was starting to fit in when in reality the others were just using him as their young disgruntled WWE guy who was entertaining when shitting on the WWE but outside of that...Did they really take to him? I'm talking about The Elite and their fans. You watch AEW and it's like, if Cody wasn't bashing WWE creative the fans weren't really feeling it at that time. Maybe he was just "too WWE" for certain parts of the crowd and even backstage. He's trying to do a reality show and his boys don't want to be shown on camera like wtf?Cody was in a difficult spot in AEW, was never going to win the big one, maybe as a mega heel. I'm assuming when WWE came calling, it was a very easy decision to make. As a baby, the fans had already started to turn on him there.
For me this was the start of AEW losing a lot of momentum. Then Punk left, (being fired matters not), Vince was forced out of WWE and Levesque actually started booking logical shows. All bad news for AEW.
Now I don't order AEW PPVs anymore. Used to order them all. It's too expensive to follow AEW. For WWE, I get it all for £12.99 a month on Netflix, and there are cheaper packages available. So I get Raw, Smackdown, NXT and PPVs. For AEW, unless I pay for it via Fite TV or whatever it's called these days, we get Dynamite on a 2 day delay and Collision on a 3 day delay. And that includes PPV weeks, so Collision airs AFTER the PPV.
And for a single AEW PPV, £19.99. Yeah yeah, PPVs were always priced similarly before streaming, more expensive in the US etc, but I stopped ordering them regularly around 2013. WWE, obviously.
I will order All In Texas this year though, 8pm UK start time on a Saturday night.
Would he have eventually won the World title? Probably as a mega heel like you said. He would've leaned into whatever people were bitching about, probably have his wife out there as his manager. He had good intentions but it made him look like a dork imo. He was trying not to be Chris Jericho. Trying to be a martyr like look at me I'm not the typical WWE guy who comes to a smaller promotion and wins the World title. Him being the first TNT champion was fine. It was just the stupid shit he did thinking he was progressive, thinking he knew what audience he was catering to and they resented him for it. They wanted disgruntled young former WWE guy smashing the throne, clowning the name factory, but then he's in a feud with QT Marshall........Almost as bad as when Punk came in and he was working with the bottom guys like wtf is this? lol.
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