AEW - AUGUST 2024

[The Green Meanie]

52 minutes ago, just drew said:

I mean, the rumors have always been out there about Baker. If the story is true, that she was upset that the two most over wrestlers on the roster were given an hour to do their thing, then she's an idiot. 

I wonder if her breakup is any factor in this/her behavior also.

[Curt McGirt]

"King" and "Lucha Brother"? 

...

[Elsalvajeloco]

The spirit of Ole Anderson lives on in Britt Baker as she gets pissed about someone going broadway like Ole did during Flair's heyday.

That said, there is an unofficial thing in pro wrestling that's now become pretty much official now that most stuff is carefully timed out and that's respecting the time you've been given or allotted and not going over that time. However, if it was the plan all along, your problem is not with the talent but the producers and booker. Take a chill pill and shut the fuck up. Welcome to pro wrestling.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

Something about "multiple people physically confront the woman whose opinions they don't like and she's the one who gets suspended" doesn't really pass the sniff test to me. Something else had to have happened, or they're looking for a reason to turf her out.

[EVA]

3 hours ago, NikoBaltimore said:

 

 Fenix I feel is a bigger loss for AEW but with him at 33 he's going to have time to fill the Rey spot

We really have to retire the idea that there is a Mysterio “spot” or that anyone is capable of being the “next” Rey Mysterio. It should be clear after 30 years that there is never gonna be another. He’s utterly singular.

(Also, he’s never going to retire, so there won’t ever be an empty spot to fill.)

[Elsalvajeloco]

10 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

Something about "multiple people physically confront the woman whose opinions they don't like and she's the one who gets suspended" doesn't really pass the sniff test to me. Something else had to have happened, or they're looking for a reason to turf her out.

So I am going to do my best to not to add details to this story as I didn't graduate from the Dave Meltzer School of Wrestling News Inference. 

1. Physical confrontation is a very broad term especially if none of us have video evidence. Anytime I hear or see "physical confrontation", I am thinking blows are about to be exchanged. Then, I again I grew up watching Riddick Bowe pop Larry Donald smack dab in the face and Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales going rock em, sock em robots on each other at press conferences. So I may be on the more extreme end.

2. If it's a bunch of wrestlers at the monitor and it's an exchange of people sharing their thoughts of the match, it's probably going to be construed more as your average opinion especially if everyone's POV varies. However, when you get the masturbatory pro wrestling epic match, anything that's not effusive praise is going to be taken as an unwanted, unsolicited opinion. So she probably found herself on an island alone there. Now the pillow talk aspect of it with whoever is dating one of the participants hearing said unsolicited opinion, you're going to have that anywhere where folks work and it's more than one gender around. I would have been more surprised if it didn't get back to MJF. People tend tell their significant others EVERYTHING even when they shouldn't. 

3. I wouldn't go as far to say there is some hidden intention to get Britt out of AEW. In pro wrestling, if someone wants you out of the paint, they usually get you out of the paint. In the case of AEW, they just stop using you period or sparingly.

[JLowe]

7 hours ago, FourPostMassacre said:

 

I have no idea how Penta will work in WWE. 
If Vince was still around he would 100% be the next La Parka circa wcw. 

His whole schtick is a La Parka rip, I’ve always been surprised he didn’t get heat for that.

[DreamBroken]

For what it's worth, PWInsider is saying now that the 'entering the women's locker room' aspect of the story was not true, and that both conversation/arguments with MJF and Ospreay happened in a common area. The suspension is up and Britt's apparently expected back tomorrow

[username]

5 hours ago, just drew said:

I mean, the rumors have always been out there about Baker. If the story is true, that she was upset that the two most over wrestlers on the roster were given an hour to do their thing, then she's an idiot. 

If this happens to be true then the suspension was the wrong move as the proper response would have been to put her in an hour long match and see how it went >_>

[TheVileOne]

6 hours ago, Technico Support said:

The bolded part is funny to me.  "Whether they did it the right way or not makes no difference!"  Apparently, they did knock and ask if they could see Baker, didn't barge in or anything, and HR reviewed the footage and thought it was fine.

What's now being reported is that Baker was shit talking their match while it was happening, Atout told MJF about it, Baker called Atout a "stupid fucking bitch" or something like that, and it all blew up from there.  The wall punching was done far from Baker.  The whole situation is dumb but why the fuck is Baker talking shit about people?   All this falls under the legal precedent of "don't want none, don't start none," subsection "FAFO."

I don't think it was fine because it just seems like an imbalance of power situation and it seems like they shouldn't be back there, and it also seems like it would only cause further problems and blow-ups. See what happened with The Bucks and CM Punk, of which there are multiple accounts from them kicking down the door and hurting Larry to the Bucks going into the room along with AEW's head of legal and knocking gently before it got out of control. It sounds like Britt Baker made the mistake of talking shit about her colleagues and did it in front of MJF's girlfriend.  But all of this is still just hearsay. 

Also to respond to something else Kevin Wilson said earlier, most of this information isn't coming from anti-AEW sources. Most of the information about this is coming from the likes of Meltzer, Ibou of WrestlePurists, and Sean Ross Sapp with Fightful. So this isn't ANTI-AEW HATERZ causing all this to get blown up.

[Go2Sleep]

Just watched Collision, and my main takeaway is MXM is going to be the next big thing in AEW. Not like "faces of the company" big, but that niche act that is massively over with the core audience, kind of like Danhausen.

Neither guy is gonna set the world on fire in the ring, but Mansoor is a decent enough technician and Madden is definitely imposing while still being goofy. A little sports entertainment can go a long way in AEW.

[Serious Darius Bagfelt]

The whole situation sounds like Baker is a few steps closer to being a full time dentist again. You have a situation where she sounds a little self important and can't keep opinions to herself. And then you got a couple of ego filled wrestlers who thought they just surpassed Flair-Steamboat in the Superdome out there and how dare she. Especially MJF who looks like he is borrowing some of his buddy Hammerstone's "vitamins" so he probably has a short fuse since he is a short guy. Maybe Baker is trying to impress MJF by living her gimmick 24/7 but again all you do is give Baker a 2 week paid vacation so nothing was accomplished here.  Once again you need a locker room leader or TK needs to grow a backbone but Jericho is busy thinking up his next brilliant reinvention and TK isn't that type of guy.  He's a hugger. This isn't going to cause an uproar but hopefully it gets obvious to those in charge who the pains in the asses are on the roster and maybe start weeding them out

[Brandon Bones]

Is there any known reason why Danhausen is back doing indies and not in AEW?

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

11 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

So I am going to do my best to not to add details to this story as I didn't graduate from the Dave Meltzer School of Wrestling News Inference. 

1. Physical confrontation is a very broad term especially if none of us have video evidence. Anytime I hear or see "physical confrontation", I am thinking blows are about to be exchanged. Then, I again I grew up watching Riddick Bowe pop Larry Donald smack dab in the face and Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales going rock em, sock em robots on each other at press conferences. So I may be on the more extreme end.

2. If it's a bunch of wrestlers at the monitor and it's an exchange of people sharing their thoughts of the match, it's probably going to be construed more as your average opinion especially if everyone's POV varies. However, when you get the masturbatory pro wrestling epic match, anything that's not effusive praise is going to be taken as an unwanted, unsolicited opinion. So she probably found herself on an island alone there. Now the pillow talk aspect of it with whoever is dating one of the participants hearing said unsolicited opinion, you're going to have that anywhere where folks work and it's more than one gender around. I would have been more surprised if it didn't get back to MJF. People tend tell their significant others EVERYTHING even when they shouldn't. 

3. I wouldn't go as far to say there is some hidden intention to get Britt out of AEW. In pro wrestling, if someone wants you out of the paint, they usually get you out of the paint. In the case of AEW, they just stop using you period or sparingly.

We have very different definitions of physical confrontation, I'm used to it meaning entering someone's physical space, which is what I thought I read happened here. If I misread that, I retract.

Anyway, the reason I say this doesn't pass the sniff test for me is because of AEW's prior handling of backstage incidents, which is to suspend all parties. In this case, only Britt was suspended. It's beyond strange to me that you have an initiator (Britt), an instigator (Alicia, in telling MJF), and two escalating parties (Ospreay and MJF), but only the initiator gets suspended, and only for having opinions that others didn't like. That's why I mentioned what I did. I'll elaborate on my theories:

- Something else happened that has thusfar been unreported. Suspending Britt for saying she didn't like the booking or calling Alicia a stooge is a pretty weak reason to suspend someone, especially when she gets confronted by at least three other people over it in Alicia, Ospreay, and MJF. That means something else that Britt did would have had to have happened to have justified only her being suspended.

- They're looking to get rid of her. I agree that they would just stop using her (see Starks, Ricky), but she had also already been advertised for All In against Mercedes, so this could be the way to start getting out of that match. "Oh, well, she's a backstage issue, we already had to suspend her, now we have to get her out of the match", etc etc.

- A third theory as I have my morning coffee is that this could also be a suspension for an unrelated matter and this situation is just what's being reported. It wouldn't be the first time that someone has been involved in two incidents in a close space of time and their suspension was reported as being for the incident that wasn't actually what had gotten them suspended.

I'm not saying this had to have happened, mind you. They very well could have just suspended Britt only for this. It just wouldn't make a whole lot of sense considering their prior disciplinary procedures, and it also doesn't seem to match up considering the response to what she's stated to have done. (There's also the whole "why is a woman being suspended for not having the correct opinion" aspect, but I don't want to get into that too deep because AEW has benched plenty of folks for not having the correct opinions, again see Starks, Ricky.)

[mystman]

Part of me sympathizes with Britt, because her criticism of the match might have been valid if they were 1) It didn't need to go an hour (it didn't) and 2) It took time away from another women's segment (it probably did). But it's hard for me to assume she was making valid criticisms because of her past history.

[SovietShooter]

Eh, it's probably all a work .

[NikoBaltimore]

1 hour ago, Brandon Bones said:

Is there any known reason why Danhausen is back doing indies and not in AEW?

I've been thinking that for some time.  The guy is a money-making machine and people have had signs asking about him.  I'm sure he could find a spot somewhere but with Best Friends broken up I'm not sure where exactly that is.  I think he was also friends with Punk so the cynical part of me is wondering if that's why he's been missing.

[Elsalvajeloco]

3 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

We have very different definitions of physical confrontation, I'm used to it meaning entering someone's physical space, which is what I thought I read happened here. If I misread that, I retract.

Anyway, the reason I say this doesn't pass the sniff test for me is because of AEW's prior handling of backstage incidents, which is to suspend all parties. In this case, only Britt was suspended. It's beyond strange to me that you have an initiator (Britt), an instigator (Alicia, in telling MJF), and two escalating parties (Ospreay and MJF), but only the initiator gets suspended, and only for having opinions that others didn't like. That's why I mentioned what I did. 

Based on having a disciplinary committee for like a year or so, nothing makes me believe that every form of discipline doled out is going to make sense anyway. There is going to be some arbitrary shit going on. That and for a two week suspension, you don't exactly need the biggest smoking gun in the world. Matter of fact, if there was one, she's out for more than a two or three weeks. So if she got suspended for either talking shit or trying to vaguely intimidate someone, that may seem like weak sauce. However, that's more than enough to justify a punishment that's far closer to not being a real punishment. If there was a BS reason for it, that's something you appeal immediately if they have some sort of appeals process. Doesn't sound like she did. In my mind, a true message to her would be "hey, sucks you cannot be at our biggest show of the year." and she missed Wembley. IMO That means she is actually on thin ice. As is, she gets punished but not punished enough where she loses out on a big time match. Hence, the reason I stop short of theories. There just isn't enough to glean either way without adding information that isn't there. That and there more than enough to start weird theories going the other way where Britt looks worse coming out of it or she wants out of AEW. I personally don't read that much out of it on that front. We might get some further evidence later on, but all I expect is mysterious subtweeting for wrestling sites to jump on. For all we know, she might have apologize to Alicia and MJF and everyone moved the hell on. Who knows?
 

2 hours ago, mystman said:

Part of me sympathizes with Britt, because her criticism of the match might have been valid if they were 1) It didn't need to go an hour (it didn't) and 2) It took time away from another women's segment (it probably did). But it's hard for me to assume she was making valid criticisms because of her past history.

And that's sort of the red herring of the reporting. The story or the version of the story being posted put enough out there where best case scenario for Britt is her being presented as an undesirable and a malcontent backstage. So from that angle, this probably doesn't line up with actual journalism if the complete story isn't being reported.

[Tromatagon]

She blew up in ten minutes.  What was she going to do with extra time?

[HarryArchieGus]

I hope Fenix/Penta don't become ghosts before their contracts end. I'd like to see them 'pass the torch' to Komander, Beast, etc. Wishful thinking, I'd also love to see them feud with Pac. I lastly hope for a nice send-off against the Bucks. I recently rewatched the Rampage tag from June 2022 and was thoroughly entertained.

[JLowe]

9 hours ago, Brandon Bones said:

Is there any known reason why Danhausen is back doing indies and not in AEW?

Saw a rumor somewhere (so either FB clickbait or Bluesky unless I read it here) that he was selling unofficial merch at appearances.

[Phantom Lord]

Well whatever the reason its stupid not to use him. He's popular and makes money. I'm not saying make him world champion, but I'd rather use him and get people watching which is what AEW needs more than ever.

Edited August 7 by Phantom Lord

[odessasteps]

I thought maybe he was still injured. Always a valid line of thinking with people not on tv for Months.

[Technico Support]

10 hours ago, mystman said:

Part of me sympathizes with Britt, because her criticism of the match might have been valid if they were 1) It didn't need to go an hour (it didn't) and 2) It took time away from another women's segment (it probably did). But it's hard for me to assume she was making valid criticisms because of her past history.

1) Going an hour wasn't MJF & Ospreay's call; they don't deserve to get shit for it. 

2) The show was planned and timed out with those two going an hour.  Nobody lost time. 

If this is all on the up and up, I have no idea what Britt was complaining about or why.  Mad that these guys got an hour?  Thinking they weren't good enough to do it?  I have no clue.  Because "she was angry that they were going long and possibly taking time away from her segment" makes no sense at all.

11 hours ago, Brandon Bones said:

Is there any known reason why Danhausen is back doing indies and not in AEW?

Because for every Orange Cassidy, there are 40 Warhorses, Dan the Dads, Danhausens, etc...meme wrestlers who don't bring much more to the table than a cute gimmick to be shared on social media.  Not to say there's no place for it, but a workrate company might not be it.

Edited August 7 by Technico Support

[Casey]

Damn is that why Chuck Taylor retired?