The Wrestling Discussion Thread

Tony gave a similarly disappointing answer when asked about an all-women's show, cutting off the question before it was finished, and going into a very egocentric rant about much he does for women's wrestling because he paid his wrestlers to go on NWA's show.

@brian_: Yeah, meanwhile they skip on hiring any of the talented female wrestlers they've had on Darks, especially Willow still not getting signed is a fucking travesty given how good reviews her match with Rosa got. She's also apparently carrying Brandi's worthless ass on the next Dark, so let's hope that's a sign of her getting signed, though. Not to mention that they signed Hogan and she hasn't been featured at all.

It's also freaking ridiculous that apparently Rok-C might be getting signed by WWE and AEW hasn't even publicly shown interest for her. Like what? When WWE does something better than you, you should really be looking in the mirror. AEW's complete lack of even an attempt to build a women's division is my biggest gripe with the company.

Without getting too negative, that match between Anna Jay and TB on Rampage was so much better than it had any right to be. Both are green as can be but they still put out a coherent match that actually told a good story and definitely felt like a proper TV main-event.

Also, why did everyone shit on Steve Maclin when he was in WWE? That son of a bitch has been putting in work in Impact and he's seriously one of the best pure heels I've seen in a long time. Absolutely wonderful psychology, knows how to sell, makes his opponents look like a million bucks and just technically sound as can be. He's been the perfect base in X-Division matches and his match against Gresham on latest Impact is a match everyone should check out. You rarely see a match centred around the face being smarter and more accustomed to the rules, since nobody ever wants to look dumb.

It's weird, I remember being incredibly hyped for wrestling at the start of 2021, then NOAH, Impact and Dragon Gate all kind of floundered due to dumb decisions, but now they're all in an even better place than then. NOAH is doing well enough for NJPW to ask them for help, Impact finally has a good commentary team and MOOSE, and Dragon Gate is doing some really intriguing stuff with Shun Skywalker, RED and the Dream Gate. Plus AEW is still doing well, except for those small gripes I have with it.

Royal Rumble next Sunday and 15 slots are open for the Men's.

R Truth

Lesnar(If he loses against Lashley)

LA Knight

Bobby Roode

The Miz

WALTER

Reggie

Bad Bunny

Logan Paul

Corey Graves

Elias

Omos

Tommaso Ciapa

Titus O'Neil

John Cena

Super psyched for Danhausen!! Honestly, the most exciting thing to happen in AEW in months.

I didn't watch the rumble. Reading this tweet I made the right choice.

It was bad and illogical. So... par for the course.

@marino: I know it's cool these days to complain about WWE, but the Rumble was fine and made sense. Brock vs Reigns will be great, and letting him win the Rumble lets the Elimination Chamber actually have a purpose this year.

Besides the mediocre men's Rumble, pretty much everything else last night was great.

@ragtagbag: I'd love to not complain about it, but they keep serving up hot garbage.

It's illogical because Brock already has a built-in reason to go after Roman. He got screwed out of the title. He doesn't need the Rumble to justify anything. The story is already there. It's bad because as soon as Lesnar lost, everyone knew exactly what was going to happen in the Rumble itself.

@marino:You may not like it, but it's far from illogical, and it's the way they've been booking the Rumble for the past 30 years. How many actual surprise winners have there been? Maybe 5? And the winners almost always have a clear story path to the Wrestlemania main event that starts long before the Rumble. Guy coming outta nowhere to win a title shot he'd never get otherwise has never been a Rumble thing. That's what they use Money in the Bank for.

At least this way, the chase for Bobby's belt will be interesting for the next month instead of just having two months of promos between Brock and Roman and Bobby and whoever would've won. An Elimination Chamber with stakes is always better.

@marino: If it makes you feel any better according to the #dirtsheetz most of the talent backstage was annoyed with everything leading up to the rumble as well. And yo... if you signed a contract with WWE in the last 5 years I am sorry but you know what you were getting into at this point.

For those not keeping track, Mia Yim, Athena FKA Ember Moon, Scarlett Borduex, Karrion Kross, and Keith Lee are all free from their non competes this Wednesday. Nixon Newell is free in 2 weeks.

#freeali

I watched the 1988 Royal Rumble with my 8 year old son over the weekend. One of the first things he said was, "Wow, guys were a lot stronger back then." I guess it was pretty obvious, huh?

Also, I'm probably the biggest Ultimate Warrior fan you will find, but his appearance in the first Rumble was comically bad. He runs in without music, wanders around the ring awkwardly for a few minutes apparently not able to find anyone to pair up with, pokes someone in the eye, then gets eliminated. It was obvious they hadn't quite mastered the formula yet to give everyone something to do in the match.

Additionally Swerve, Tegan Nox, and John Morrison are free the 18th.

Boy Spanky sure speed ran WWE > AEW > Canceled.

@dizzyhippos: We don't know how canceled he was, especially since it was a long time ago and he has shown a willingness to apologize and at least pretend he learned.

My guess is that it was not a great look to have a raging anti-semite on the show when the most prominent Jewish person in wrestling is going over the biggest star in your company in your home town. If nothing else it would have been a huge distraction from the win. They pulled him from the show and we'll see if he's allowed/capable of making an apology tour and putting his career back together. Given that he's legitimately delusional and believes the sun is cold my guess is he's not up to it.

Either that or the Zionists got to Tony and threatened him with their space laser! Not even a billionaire's son can stand against the vast Jewish conspiracy.

P.S. I've said this elsewhere on the forums but to be clear I am, myself, Jewish. I can't believe the gentiles found out about our space laser! Who told? It was probably Seth Rogen. We never should have let that stoner in on it!

They James Gunned Kendrick.

I can't be the only one who feels canning him is kind of disingenuous when the show is prominently featuring a noted Trump supporter Chris Jericho, who is married to a person that took part in Jan 6 attacks. Mostly because I genuinely believe Kendrick has gotten better, dude was in a really dark place back then if you saw anything he was involved in, whereas he's showed remorse and apologized for those things for years now. Not trying to come up with excuses for what he said back then, given that most people don't say shit like that no matter how much they're in need of rehab and are doing badly.

Kind of notes from Dynamite:

I really want to see Danielson feud with Orange Cassidy. That shit would be so good and they've had chemistry when they've wrestled before. Plus Danielson needs to get his win back from Chuck Taylor. Danielson's heel character is just phenomenal.

Other Best Friends related note: I like Danhausen, but him being in AEW Best Friends before Tracy Williams is a fucking crime. A crime, I tells ya.

Finally, I love the Death Triangle, I hope they never break up.

I don't know much about what Kendrick is up to nowadays. As some with heavily stoned conspiracy theorist in the family, that stuff can rot your brain. I do believe people can change with time, and I hope he's doing better nowadays, but he should have been pulled either way. And if he has changed, by all means, bring him back. I just don't know how much I can trust the people in charge there to make that type of character call. I feel like any day now, with the number of figure-fours, and wooing going on, Ric Flair is going to show up on AEW like nothing ever happened, while continuing to deny he has ever sexually harassed anyone or apologize for it.

RIP Cody-Verse

Brandi and Cody can't just leave AEW. What about Brandi's feud with Dan Lambert? I need closure there.

I'm curious as to what happened back in late 2019 when there was supposedly a big fight between Cody and the rest of the creative team. What was the fight over? Because I feel like that has been festering this entire time.

During that promo where he challenged Sammy to a ladder match, it's kinda funny that he had that line about "I go away for a week and all of a sudden there's speculation that I'm leaving!?" . . . And then he actually just leaves lol.

There's a chance that this is all a work and they're setting up Cody to return after going off to shoot something else or whatever. There's also the chance this is just soured contract negotiations and Cody's pissed at the money offer.

Still if this is all real and Cody is leaving it seems like a terrible move. He might make more money in WWE but it's not guaranteed (AEW never cuts people during their contracts unless they can't perform or do something terrible), he's probably giving up a lot of auxiliary income with his other Warner shows, he's not going to be nearly as prominent in WWE as he was in AEW, and if this is over creative control, well, we all know what his creative direction in WWE would be. 50/50 midcard booking and they probably make him either give back the trademark to his name or change it to something else. In a year he could be chasing the 24/7 title or end up eaten by zombies like The Miz.

Maybe he leaves wrestling completely or takes a hiatus but it seems like he would be better positioned to do that after a couple more years of his other shows and expanding his profile.

In some ways Cody seemed to have the sweetest deal of anyone in AEW, which is what makes this smell like a work.

@bigsocrates: Why would WWE want anything to do with him? There's zero chance that he's leaving AEW to go back to WWE.

He's not nearly a big enough star to unburn those bridges.

If this is a shoot, then it just made Dynamite significantly better in one fell swoop. If it's a work, it's kind of a shitty work. Same with Impact and Josh Alexander, except Josh is one of the best parts of Impact each week. Strangely, freaking W Morrisey aka Big Cass has been a highlight of that show. Dude managed to get his life into shape and is putting on some fine work.

Would WWE sign him out of spite, though? Trying to get that headline of "AEW founder jumps to WWE?" Maybe, but Cody's contract demands might be too high anyway. Not the money so much, but things like creative and NIL rights and so forth.

@redwing42: I don't think WWE cares about AEW anymore.

Cody is such a weirdo that I'd believe just about anything about what's going on. Why? Is it real? Is it a story line? Is he going back to WWE? Is he trying to work Vince?

I guess that's a good thing...? I don't think anyone else could be that.

WWE shouldn't sign him unless he agrees to remove that silly ass tattoo.

EDIT: Or go back to being Stardust!

I would be surprised to see if Cody Rhodes leaving AEW is to make Tony Kahn give him what he wants and play hardball. Why build up a alternative to WWE and suddenly leave your company to go back to WWE? It just doesn't make sense unless WWE gives Cody creative control where he can do what he wants whether it's helping with NXT or headlining WrestleMania with a World title shot. Looking forward to Elimination Chamber and to WrestleMania season to see what happens.

LETS YO FUCKING HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Observer awards are out, lots of exactly what you would expect.

@psmgamer: If he's playing hardball, it's going to be a tough wake-up call. Nobody's really going to miss him if he's gone. He's this generation's Jeff Jarrett. He's a mediocre talent boosted way above where he should be because of who his father was. AEW is better off not giving him 20 minutes of screentime every week.

If you believe the reports, Cody has been unhappy about his pay and his lack of booking power. He wanted to be paid as a top level talent, but it seems like Tony Khan didn't see him that way. Cody also lost his booking power when TK took over everything back in 2019.

If he can't get the money or booking power he wants in AEW, then going to WWE where he can at least get the money he wants, presumably, makes sense. Cody just had a kid and is at an age where he doesn't have that many years left of doing this. So even if he started a company that is an alternative to WWE, at the end of the day, money talks.

@williamhenry: But again, why would WWE pay him as a top level talent? Why would they pay him at all?

I don't know how well Japan pays, but that's the only place I can see him getting a hot at being a star.

Boy... I did not expect the Bullet Club news coming out of tonight's Impact show.

People seem to think the big announcement from TK is him buying RoH.

Gresham was backstage.

Swerve is all but confirmed signed, and Jeff Hardy straight up said in an interview hes going to AEW.

Brock Lesnar in current contention for "stupidest wrestling hair of all time"

Big E has a broken neck. Vince's size fetish is gonna get someone killed. And this was the same week that one of the Creed brothers nearly killed Fabian Eichner.

SEND BUTCH

Scott Hall on life support after suffering three heart attacks

How is he still alive

@sombre: They are taking him off life support soon according to Nash.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbEqfqau6zp/?utm_medium=copy_link

If you haven't been following Impact, you need to start now.

Also, Z-Brats just invaded NOAH, wrestling just seems to be full of Forbidden Doors right now and it's incredible.

Both STARDOM PPV's this weekend were really good, I have no idea how any of these women are not in traction.

@dizzyhippos: Finally got around to them, but yeah, STARDOM is once again doing great but is not getting the attention it used to.

So, anyone got any recs for wrestling Christmas?

FTR vs Briscoes was fantastic. This FTR face turn was pretty unexpected but I'm loving it so far.

Seeing Joe debut, I have to imagine that Castagnoli is a lock for ROH as well. I wasn't super sold on it at first but Tony running ROH as a separate brand is seeming like more and more of a good idea.

I am glad I know longer have to live in fear of Cody and Brandi Eden being on AEW/ROH anymore.

@dizzyhippos: AEW has been so much better without Cody booking himself to go over new hires.

ROH was a pretty bittersweet affair, because while it had the old ROH feel, a lot of ROH faces were gone and reportedly Briscoes are going to Impact now.

One thing that absolutely has me so glad is the hype Speedball got from the week. Dude has had so much bad luck in his career from getting banned from the US due to visa troubles to COVID halting his bookings in Japan.

Wow, AEW is coming to NJPW World in Japan. Hoping AEW will repair their relationship with Impact at some point, because that had cool opportunities before AEW nuked it. While AEW has bolstered their women's division, they'd really benefit from someone like Jordynne Grace getting a stint there and vice versa. Same with Deonna Purrazzo, since she's kind of treading water AND she is the ROH Women's champion after all.