The Idiot King

I like Cody. I think he seems, by all accounts, like a really nice guy (if kind of a goof -- but that's wrestling for you) and he put on one of my favorite matches of 2022. But to say he isn't a safe choice is a bit of a stretch. He's over (probably the most important thing in any angle), is politically and media savvy, he's a dynastic wrestler (so his theme song tells me) and he is doing a, hmmm, I don't know quite what to call his gimmick, but it isn't NOT blonde superman. He'll kill it on the talk show rounds. All credit to Cody for his spot! He is my favorite mid-carder! He will be a good champ. But you know who else would have been good on the talk show rounds and was over? Big E. And well, y'know... My critique is purely from a story-telling standpoint in terms of what the WWE does, and how it functions. I don't think the way they operate is very conducive to interesting or exciting stuff, no slight to Cody and his -verse. Nothing truly evolves, nothing truly changes. So, it just rubs me the wrong way when WWE is getting heaps and heaps of praise for a story that ultimately didn't pay off because of the constrictions of fat wads of cash. They fumbled the third act because that's just how it works in this world -- there is no wiggle room for anything out of the norm, even if it serves the story better. There are a million meta-business-reasons why you wouldn't put the title on Sami, but not many good ones if what you aim to do is tell a good story. My point is that ultimately, there is only one story in WWE, no matter who fills the Cody role, and that isn't much fun.

I am absolutely in this boat. I'm sure this has all been beaten to a pulp at this point, chewed over and analyzed to death here and elsewhere, but with a real rising tide of "WWE ICHIBAN - When does Roman Reigns collect his Emmy and step over Tiny Tony Khan like Iverson over Ty Lue" around the rest of the wrestling internet, I gotta say: This was 2/3 of a good, compelling story that was never going to be able to stick the landing because of what the WWE is. The WWE is a gargantuan, international, publicly traded (for now?) entertainment entity that Puts Smiles On Faces, Makes Dreams Come True, Shatters The Glass Ceiling and Breaks Racial Barriers (Unless You Want Less of That, Because...) and is in the business of Wrestlemania Moments that please their shareholders. That is what they are, no matter who is in charge of creative or the company in general, and that's fine! It doesn't mean they can't put on good wrestling matches, hire talented performers, or be a lot of fun to watch, sometimes. What is DOES mean is that their stories, inevitably, suck. Like all multi-billion-dollar media companies in the 21st Century, they are lashed to never, ever, ever taking a risk. They are financially unwilling to get a little crazy with it. And again, that's their prerogative, but that makes for boring, formulaic stories, even by wrestling standards, and expecting anything different from WWE is delusional. What you get is a story that will end exactly how you think it will end, with nothing too out of place or genuinely surprising and that, to me, does not deserve the kind of kudos they've been getting for "storytelling." This is Sub-Marvel kind of stuff, and I think that is exactly the slot WWE is gunning for. I'm ripping off someone smarter than myself when I say that one of the worst things in sports (entertainment!) fandom these days is that nobody thinks of themselves as the workers anymore, they think of themselves as the OWNERS. They imagine themselves in the role of the GM or the moneyman and instead of being like, "I see myself in this incredibly talented, nearly superhuman (even when functioning as an underdog surrogate) performer, and am excited when good things happen to them," everybody is constantly playing fantasy football. Would putting the title on Sami "make business sense?" Could Sami "be The Guy(tm)?" What about how much merch Cody is moving? Who cares! I don't care if WWE (or AEW) make 1.2 Billion as opposed to 1.3 Billion next year. I just want to have fun. I want to be Sports Entertained. I watched the match, and it was really electric (and managed to convey a lot without much flashy in-ring work) until the over-schmozzed end because they had backed themselves into a corner. I'm glad Sami got this whole run, but let's not pretend that any of this is a good blowoff to the story (and to be clear, the story is OVER). Let's not pretend it was anything other than a cynical reverting to the mean, because that is what the WWE does. Good luck to Codylander, I bet he'll have a banger match with Roman, but the Story that WWE is telling you, the fan, over and over and over again, is that nothing ever changes because that would affect the bottom line, and there's nothing you can do about it, so don't bother getting too invested.

The short version, from what I remember, is Shawn was a real dick to him when he was coming up and was also (here's where my memory is foggy) rude to his grandmother dating back to some territory stuff? It's also why (to my knowledge) they've never worked together. I think it may have been floated at some point during Shawn's second run as a Wrestlemania dream match but by that time, The Rock had enough clout to just flatly say no. I can't imagine the Screwjob helped anything either, as Dwayne always has nice things to say about Bret, and unlike Bret, you've never heard anything about him letting bygones be bygones. But lol at the amazing pettiness from The Rock, 30 years on. Can't say Shawn didn't earn it.

So, say this happens, what are the immediate impacts of this in terms of the product itself, speaking amorally? Not saying any of this is good, at all, for any reason, just speculating about what it might mean in terms of what is actually getting put on television, if anything. I'd assume like most things when purchased by evil enterprises, not much will change on the consumer end of things and people will more or less keep on watching the thing they already love. They've been holding their Super Shows for years now, and it has only helped their bottom line, unfortunately. Are American television conglomerates really above doing business with the Saudis if McMahon serves as their American face? They're our allies in the Middle East after all! Modernizing more every day! And it isn't as though it's gonna say, "WWE RAW Brought To You By The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia!" at the top of the show every week. I agree that there are certain talents who will walk or at least try to (Sami, mainly, is who I am thinking here), but I'd imagine most stay. It doesn't strike me that the Saudi Investment Fund would really want much control over the day-to-day decision making or the material being presented, probably leaving it up to Vince and Co, and would ultimately still be catering to an American audience, so I don't see a lot of what's being speculated about (the women's division, for instance) changing even a little. More likely, there are another huge swath of firings, and everything reverts to pre-HHH/Steph status quo, no? Austin Theory rocketing back up the card! If nothing else, it will certainly make all the rah-rah-USA-USA stuff HILARIOUS.

I still maintain that even more than Kenny or The Bucks or MJF, the loss of Jade to the WWE would be the biggest blow to AEW. She has a great story, a one-in-a-million look, every one of my poor friends who I force to watch wrestling with me is instantly like "Who is THAT?" and the media seems to love her. I don't know what her relationship with Cody and Brandi is like these days, but she seems like such a natural fit for the WWE style and they wouldn't have to change a thing about her. I assume Tony Khan knows this and is doing whatever it takes to keep her happy.

I have a personal, insane, pet theory about people on message boards who give the most shit to specific wrestlers/promotors/promotions: They are the wrestlers/promotors themselves, intentionally making arguments about how bad they are, in hopes of creating an outpouring of support for themselves and/or taking the arguments people make in their defense and utilizing them for their own ends. I love to imagine TK posting about flagging ratings surely meaning the end of AEW any day now, only to have people pick his numbers apart, which he then takes and lays out for his investors. This is, of course, the Fat Spanish Waiter theorem. It's all a work, man, we're through the looking glass etc etc.

Liked the Page/Kingston match a lot and it made complete sense both internally and as part of a larger story of the tournament. That Ego’s Edge looked dodgy for a second but it ended up really clean. Better to take your time and look a little goofy than, uh, paralyze anyone. Liked the Saraya/Britt stuff a lot more than I expected and think that it is a genuinely big deal that she’s getting back into the ring. No real expectations about the quality of the match itself, but I do wonder if Saraya will be able to win the crowd over from Britt who is in that AEW Cool Heel space, through no fault of her own. Confused by the Joe turn, but whatever. I don’t care. Sure! If it means those three clubber each other, I am into it and I understand if a) You want to get the title off Wardlow and b) You don’t want him to eat a pin. Jarrett and Lethal stuff was whatever. Not great. Not much heat on it. I am sure the match will over-deliver, but not my cup of tea. Blue/Hayter was fun! If she keeps improving at this rate, Skye will be a very natural upper-mid babyface. Fun stuff all over. The main, to me, proved two things that maybe didn’t even need proving: 1. Bryan Danielson just pumps out great matches at any age, with any opponent, in any company like it was his part-time hobby. Effortless-looking like AJ Styles but with way more meat on those bones. 2. Sammy is a good heel. He is what Austin Theory should be. He is what either Paul could/should be. Young, annoying, cocky, punchable face, reach exceeds his grasp but completely capable of being an integral part of an incredible match. I LOVE how much the Boston crowd hated him. Felt like it came from the bottom of people’s souls. I bet he splits for WWE at some point but he is really good as a foil for the AEW audience who hate every fiber of his being in earnest.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but after this exchange, I checked Cagematch and it looks like Io and Asuka have never had a singles match against each other, which seems insane to me. Is that true? And if so, would it be too much to hope that could happen at some point now that they're both on the main roster, or is there a reason that hasn't happened already (I saw people speculating elsewhere on the internet about them having a falling out)?

Still feeling very pro-AEW even though I also thought the show kinda sucked and am eternally frustrated by the number of people on the roster, only because I think they have some real hot hands they aren't playing and are cooling off as a result. Glad we're getting Hobbs-Wardlow at Full Gear, but I worry for Pretty Ricky! Don't lose my boy in the shuffle! They really do need to start cementing some new people in the upper and upper-mid card at this point. I could do with less Jay Lethal, more Athena, and I think we are at the exact right amount of Orange Cassidy. The booking is all over the place, but the truth is, I would rather watch a show I mostly enjoy and then complain about what doesn't work for me on the internet (which is how it has always been, since time immemorial) than to watch something I mostly don't enjoy and then complain about how much I still don't like it. I think AEW is in a place in the cycle of fan consumption where of course the shine is off, and of course people are complaining more loudly than they have before, I think this would be the case even if it were a TV show about dragons or sad horse-men or whatever. If by this time next year, every Dynamite is as bad as this one and there is like 75% less Johnny Gargano in WWE, I am open to reconsidering. I thought the Colt Cabana thing was funny, at least. I like Punk and I really do think his presence will be missed (he and Bryan are what finally lured me into watching AEW), but I can understand people in the company feeling pretty salty about everything he brought into the locker room and it does put kind of a nice bookend on things, even if Colt almost killed Jericho (good catch, Daniel Garcia!). I have zero feelings about Jeff Jarrett, somehow, as long as he is on screen significantly less than, like, Wheeler Yuta and does not result in any King of the Mountain matches happening for any reason at all. As for the claims that this still very popular wrestling program is in a death spiral, I say only: ACCUSATIONS! FALSE ACCUSATIONS!

I hear you, but I don't think MJF's worked-shoot stuff really even comes into play. Unless I am mistaking, they haven't played with worked injuries like that and certainly no more than WWE or anyone else ever has. I remember WWE has on more than one occasion had a ref throw up a fake X, which I never liked, but I don't think that is the general get-down of AEW so far. A guy with a microphone, saying WHATEVER, however shooty or dumb or line-blurring, is a world away from working a neck injury. I think what you're talking about is more in line with stuff Danielson (bless him!) has done historically or other people who lean into selling parts of their body that are well-known to be delicate. Or to put even more of a fine point on it, the times that people have used "the Owen voice" for very clearly scripted stuff. I don't love that, but it is in a whole different universe than talking about how you were told you needed to work on your promos, however you feel about that. I think by its nature, anything in wrestling (including Owen's death) is always going to be speculated about and confusing for the audience until the truth becomes clear.

That didn't look good. It's crazy how in pro wrestling, performers do the craziest things and sometimes it's just a bad landing that gets you. Sincerely hope he's okay. I am glad we live in an era where a doctor's stoppage is a fine way to end a match. It's insane that in the past, you might have to go for a cover there.

There are people on Twitter shitting on this match (or rather, clips of this match) because they are concerned that Athena was somehow laying it into Jody Threat as punishment for blowing a spot, which seems completely insane to me and a total misreading of the match. Jody Threat looked good, got a great ovation and Athena looked like an absolute killer (she really may be the best wrestler in the company). It made me want to see face Toni Storm against heel Athena (or hell, vice versa, honestly) really badly. If hard-hitting competitive squashes are wrong, I don't wanna be right.

One of the cool things about AEW is that working the tag division doesn't feel like a demotion, even when you are slapping two guys together who would, in some contexts, be considered 'above' that (I'm thinking of War(d)Joe and Lee/Swerve here). I'm sure this has to do, in part, with having so much focus on FTR and The Bucks over the past three years. I think they have easily the best tag division in the world. It all feels like it matters. Being tag champ is a desired position to have (as evidenced by how everyone loves the Acclaimed). I like what WWE is doing with the Usos, but once they lose the belts, I am not sure how that plays out. I like how they're re-pushing Shida. It's been subtle, but has not been unclear. Big fan of the Youtube shows, however misguided that might be. The Taz/Excalibur podcast is one of my favorite things whenever it comes out. I wanna echo the Mox/Page segment being good. It made me look up from whatever else I was doing. I like the gray area stuff with both, it doesn't feel reactive to the crowd in the sense of "Since you are booing me, I will have to figure out how to react to this." I like Page responding to his name in this moment. I am higher on him than a lot of people -- though, I also like Seth Rollins. He does more for me than Kenny, and maybe that's some version of regionalism but I like the way he sells what he's doing. I think the amount of time he has been with the Dark Order has mattered a lot in terms of his character, and somehow even if he loses, his story matters a lot more now than it did when CM Punk was around (though, please, that's a dream match -- I hope there's enough money at some point to make it happen). I can see him being empty-headed, but I think that has only helped him so far. MJF makes sense as a part of this, and I am into it until it gets fucked up. I like that both companies have now embraced the (I think, totally boring, common sense) idea of multiple storylines all intersecting with each other again.

This thread formally introduced me to El Hijo de Vikingo, and wow. Wow. That threeway match is something else. Taurus is great too. I am in awe of these guys wrestling in full-on Halloween costume masks.

Was thinking about this last night with the Good Brothers coming back -- how long, roughly, do you have to be gone from a company for your return to be shocking? If you got fired and then got rehired a year later, is that 'shocking?' Is that more or less shocking than someone who is still employed returning from a year-long injury? Wrestling, by its nature, loves a shocking return/debut/signing. They're big moments that draw people in and make waves in wrestling media. AEW felt especially hot when they were signing so many big names over the last year or so (whether this was a good idea or not), and every show would have a huge pop and lots of scuttlebutt around who could show up next. WWE tried to sort of create an in-house version of this with NXT that sometimes worked (Sami Zayn! Shinsuke!) and sometimes didn't (Karrion Kross! ). I think Bron Breakker coming in will be a huge moment, but now that NXT is much more fully a developmental program, there's not a lot of meat left on those bones. With Hunter bringing all 'his guys' back in (for how long, who knows!), it makes me wonder if they have hit on a strategy the WWE could just use in perpetuity? Like, you still do your huge annual release, but then you rehire a handful a year later so you never run out of 'shocking returns' because there really aren't a lot of those left unless you are directly poaching them from AEW (see: Cody) or, I guess at this point, a Matt Cardona return would count as shocking? I also am thinking here of when Mickie James got fired and then was asked to come back as a one-off, like, four months later which always felt a little more embarrassing than shocking. I am surprised that there hasn't been more "Geez, weren't you the guy they said wasn't worth the money just the other day? Did you take a pay cut or something?" from the fan base when these guys come back, but then again, I have no idea what the 'WWE fanbase' is or even sounds like anymore.

Today's wrestlers are too soft! All they do is play video games! They never get perms and strut to the ring in diapers that say "MEN" on the back and then do a death drop before their loser leaves town match. Shazam has (correctly!) told me that the song here is "Electricity" by Midnight Star if anyone else was wondering.

That’s true and that’s definitely what they’re leaning on, but with an otherwise pretty short/spotty in-ring career, it is a little weird to have her “start a revolution” on a roster that has Toni, Riho, Shida, Deeb, Willow and a lot more who are already working in an arena so far beyond Jillian Hall and the Bellas. I don’t think it’s a bad signing, necessarily, but her role is undefined at best.

Just want to give a shout to Jericho here. What a performer, man. Is he kind of a dope? Sure. Do the Judas Effect or the Codebreaker look very good? No. But man, he knows how to lay out a match, and he’s such a good heel. I think he has a Top 5 All Time career, and it’s really fun to see him have his Ric Flair in WWE run, only better. I will always resist calls for less Jericho. He shouldn’t be The Guy anymore, but he’s so good in whatever you put him in and he’s really nailing the elder statesman part of his career. Everything else was pretty eh. They can’t all be winners.

I was thinking about this just the other day (Claudio, not Battlebowl). I think you're mostly right. Claudio exists in a similar place in AEW as he did in WWE at the end of his run -- steady hand, always over (more or less), usually in the upper-midcard, not quite in the title picture but you can put him there if you need to. I think the main difference is that in AEW he is treated as a star, no matter who he's working. His presentation (and reception!) is that of a main eventer, even if he is just out there holding high quality matches with whoever until the sun collapses in on itself. It's the same tired truism that there's just a ton of people on the roster and only one of them can be champ. I'm sure he'll get into the mix at some point and maybe even win it someday, and it will be a seamless transition from where he is now because of how he's been positioned. In WWE, I mean...for as fun as his brief moments of "What a workhorse/he's so strong/he's never been world champ but the people love him!" there was also just an endless amount of bad to nothing. Tossed around in the lower mid-card, meaningless title reigns, bad gimmicks, nothing sustained for very long. His best run in WWE, I think, has got to be his tag team with Sheamus. Outside of that, until very recently, it's hard to point to a period where he was treated like much of anything other than just some guy who's around. In AEW, he certainly feels IMPORTANT, even if he's not the focus. We'll see how that looks over the next, year, though.

At the risk of naively sounding like a "wrestling was tougher back in my day" kind of guy, outside of AEW, have there been any other historically important suspensions in wrestling for fighting backstage that didn't involve, like, stabbing someone with a pair of scissors? I feel like there's been a litany of backstage fights in pro wrestling and I am not entirely sure how many of those, if any, resulted in people being suspended. I feel like it was almost always drugs or missed shows.

I don’t think any of this is a work, for the record (all the Cody drama has disabused me of any belief other than the dumbest answer is usually the right one), BUT IF IT WERE I don’t buy the knock that “it doesn’t make any sense because it doesn’t further the story of MJF - Punk and instead functions as a distraction.” IF IT WERE A WORK (which, as just a lowly fan over here, I think would be a bad idea), a “backstage altercation” between MJF and Punk would be too obvious. Instead, you further the already bubbling tension around Punk and Hangman/The Elite which already exists in a mostly online rumor space. You keep your MJF/Punk story on TV and then have an increasingly heelish Punk working all the backstage stuff to eventually set up a payoff with Kenny or Page down the road with added heat because “we all know how much they hate each other” and “CM Punk is a locker room cancer and a selfish prick.” Essentially, you’re running two parallel stories for everyone at all times. The backstage stuff is its own universe, bolstered by the dirt sheets and message boards and internet content that wouldn’t make sense on TV and executives would see no value in. It doesn’t overshadow what’s on TV, it augments it and manipulates the audience into thinking they are cheering or booing people based on “the truth” of who a performer is, while actually playing into an expertly woven storyline.Everyone’s always working and kayfabe is back, baby! Of course, none of that is actually happening, and at this point it all becomes dumb 4-dimensional chess that I don’t think benefits anyone and isn’t what I’m looking for from wrestling, exactly. But it would be an overdue attempt for a company to try and fully embrace the now near-total onlineness of all wrestling fans and be able to generate real heat in a promotion where fans love to cheer anyone with a high enough workrate. Again, I think this is all stupid and too complicated to ever work, but I could see some nerds who were really invested in Wrestling As Carny Art giving it a shot.

I'm pretty into all of this. I like being surprised, I like not knowing what's happening next, I like when the dirtsheets don't quite know what's happening next and nobody is precisely sure what's a work and what's not. I don't like not knowing what's happening next and then what happens is nothing, or what happens is the same thing that everyone thought would happen but then convinced themselves it wouldn't because it would be too obvious. And, of course, the danger in working the dirt sheets is that it becomes your main, increasingly weird niche focus and you lose the larger plot entirely, but that doesn't feel like what's happening here. This isn't "GOLDBERG WON'T FOLLOW THE SCRIPT, SO THIS WILL BE A REAL FIGHT" territory, and it's not even close. I feel like some people are severely underrating how sharp and clear the death of WCW was. No idea what the main event for All Out is, not even sure I could make a reasonable guess, but it's not like that'll keep me from watching. Jon Moxley is maybe having the best year in all of US Wrestling and it's really fun to watch him get to enjoy it. I tend to buy the boringest explanation of all this, which is that Punk isn't actually ready to come back but they wanted to unify the belts and doing a squash match at the PPV seemed risky in a bad way. I like Interim Titles. To me, it just feels like a (slightly complicated, slightly nerdy) way to build up a match between the person who won a tournament for the vacated belt and the person who never got pinned to lose it in the first place. This is something that already happens all the time. The visual of someone holding two belts is fun, and it elevates someone as a legitimate world champion (and tests how the crowd responds to that) without taking any momentum away from the person on the shelf. I get why people don't like them, though -- there are certainly enough fucking belts as it is in this company. Weirdly, I am not really into Kenny or the Bucks, but something about how clean everything Ospreay does, and his smarmy little prick act is growing on me. I will also say, I think a lot of this go-go-go high spot no sell back flip choreography style of wrestling is WAY better in person than watching it by yourself in your living room. While that trios match was super fun to watch on my laptop, I can only imagine how hype it is getting to see a bunch of performers do so many insane things back to back while surrounded by a hot crowd. Yeah, it can be a little cirque du soleil, but that's fun! Who doesn't like Cirque Du Soleil!! As long as that is not the only style of wrestling happening on the show. Another reason why I am enjoying Mox as champion. Everything does feel a little chaotic, though, and everything could absolutely end up disappointing and fucked but I would rather have wrestling I am invested in break my heart as a grown-ass man than to watch Karrion Kross and Johnny Gargano be the exciting new direction of a company (with all due respect!).

Maybe this topic has been beaten to death or is better suited to the WWE thread, but now here we are at 700(?) days of Roman Reigns's Reign -- who takes the belt off him? Let's assume, barring injury, it's probably at Wrestlemania. The Rock? Rollins? Those both feel a little bit like a dead end. Cody probably makes the most sense, but that's assuming he's good to go by the Rumble, and he really hasn't had enough time to see if his whole thing is gonna stick. There's not a lot of viable contenders. Even in terms of an underdog getting a flash pin, who's even close to that spot? I feel like Riddle is over enough, but that still feels kind of unsatisfying. I know this is fantasy booking and a lot is bound to change with HHH at the helm, but it's not something I have any kind of obvious answer to. The Usos are in a similar situation, but truth is, with how the tag titles are generally handled, it could really be anyone with a few weeks of build. I'm thinking of when The Shield finally dropped the titles to the Rhodes Brothers. It sort of came out of nowhere, but it made sense! Also, when I was a kid, I always assumed Zbyszko being called "the living legend" was a semi-sarcastic heelish self-selected title, like Bobby Heenan being called "The Brain." Had no idea he was anybody other than an announcer for ages. Learning about the storied career of Dok Hendrix was equally mind-blowing.

Banner year for pro wrestling. So many good matches, so much young talent, so much possibility looking towards the future, and this is only the cherry on top. If Vince is really done done (which it seems like it!), and it sends Dunn, Pritchard and Brock all packing, that's only good news. I agree that the whole operation is basically an algorithm at this point, so I'm not trying to get my hopes up too high, but man, if ever there has been a chance that WWE could actually evolve into something beyond what it's been for the past, uhhhh, twenty years, this is it.

It's a play to bring in Chuck Taylor so he can finally say shit SOMEWHERE.