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The 2021 WWE Forever Purge - Part 3 of ?


Gonzo

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15 minutes ago, Matt D said:

They can bring back 2009 WWECW.

 

5 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Only because Christian is unavailable.

Man, I enjoyed Christian's 2009 run in WWE ECW and as ECW Champion twice.

Best match in WWE ECW history.

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I genuinely wonder what HHH’s headspace is like right now. This is a guy who’s had to face, like, zero serious professional adversity for the better part of 25 years, thanks in no small part to his family connections in the company.  But now there’s “a new pharaoh who knows not Joseph,”so to speak, and suddenly he’s losing power and his little fiefdom is getting gutted and shat upon from on high. That has to be hard for him to process.

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For all the talk about Vince and Nick Khan being hatchet men--and make no mistake, they are certainly that--Triple H brought a lot of this to his own doorstep.

Sending only a few folks up to Vince over the past couple of years while hoarding the rest was a mistake. Especially so with the women. It raised questions about what was going on at the PC. The big man class for guys who should have been taught what Vince wanted before moving up was a big red flag. And since he's footing the bill, you can't tell Vince not to come look around. Factor in Nick Khan who is consolidating WWE, and it spelled trouble for NXT. So now anyone who's seen as having no chance of being on the main roster has to go.

Hunter wanted to turn NXT into his own fiefdom, a super indie with WWE's money and muscle behind it. Which went against the original mission of developing new talent into potential main roster stars. He hired a bunch of indie top guys who weren't ever going to impress Vince. So eventually, he winds up with a PC full of 5'9" 180-lb cruiserweights with MMA tendencies who want to put on 45-minute sagas. The rubber was going to meet the road at some point. Nick Khan simply put his foot on the gas to take the car out of cruise control. That's capitalism for you.

Losing the 'indie' cred didn't help. I'd say much of that was out of NXT's control. It was one thing when they could claim to be an alternative to WWE, despite being WWE-owned and supported. But with AEW actually being an alternative, even with its faults, the 'smarties' predictably moved in that direction. NXT may not be in a golden era right now, but it doesn't stink, either. It's a decent-to-good show.  But the landscape had changed. NXT needs to regroup and adapt. Become the developmental program it was originally designed to be. Up and comers with a few veterans mixed in with most moving up at some point.

As much as it stings, WWE had 350+ wrestlers signed at one time. No way they need that many. We can't accuse WWE of hoarding, then get mad when they finally realize it and course-correct, however much it stinks. Eventually, the dam was going to burst. From a personal perspective, it's lousy. Seeing someone like Bronson Reed being let go, who felt like he had a chance to catch on with the main roster, is tough. But if we're being honest, many of the cuts weren't going to ever make it to RAW or Smackdown. And they couldn't stay in NXT forever. Budget cuts don't mean a company is in need of money. It's often meant to streamline business, especially for stockholders.

Hopefully, everyone can catch on somewhere else. They're talented and capable, and there are lots of opportunities available. I wish them all the best.

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I’ve been trumpeting the “HHH Is Actually Pretty Bad At His Job” narrative for years, but I think there’s plenty of blame to go around. Trying to use NXT as a chess piece against Dynamite was a cataclysmic decision on multiple levels, and that was a pure, classic Vince move. That’s when it all really started to fall apart for NXT.

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NXT was always on borrowed time. It was doomed to either Vince getting involved in creative (which thankfully never happened), being a corporate budget cut (currently happening), or best case scenario Vince couldn't run Raw/SD anymore and HHH took his vision to those shows making NXT irrelevant. Say what you want about HHH, but at least he has good taste in wrestling and understands the idea of responding to crowd reactions.

It had a hell of a 6+ year run, though, and will have the lasting legacy of legitimizing women's wrestling in the US and being the first national exposure for top indy guys and others who will go on to great careers.

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I would bet on this company not being sold. Like others have mentioned, it would be putting it lightly to say that WWE had a bloated roster. So trimming the roster makes sense. 

What doesn't make sense is who they're cutting. I said it last year and it rings truer with each release, but you could easily build a major 3rd company just out of the folks that were released. The only problem is that apparently only one of us had a millionaire, now billionaire, dad to jump start such a thing.

However, I could maybe see HHH and HBK doing it and leading and heading up what would be the American version of NOAH. What even is HHH's role now. At one point he was incredibly close to being the heir apparent. Then they signed Bischoff and Bruce, then Nick Khan, and then gave Johnny Ace the talent relations job again. HHH is further away from being the guy to take the reins than he ever has been. That's ok, cool, he has NXT. He even has a sweet HHH logo for it. Oh, well, except now they're kinda gutting it and they want to replace his logo. 

 HHH should have kept going to school. 

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I guess this would go here since she was released in April, but apparently as of the 5th, WWE is moving forward with trying to trademark Chelsea Green’s name for use in wrestling - using a letter of consent she gave them in November 2020.

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I don't think that running NXT as a WWE-branded super-indy was a bad idea, but they didn't secure ALL the talent they needed to. If they could have brought the Bucks and Omega in, AEW might not exist. 

I don't discredit HHH for having the idea of trying to cater to that audience with a third brand, and I can't call him out for failing to predict that Tony Khan and a group of New Japan gaijin would do his idea better than he did it. 

Edited by SirSmellingtonofCascadia
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31 minutes ago, Craig H said:

What doesn't make sense is who they're cutting. I said it last year and it rings truer with each release, but you could easily build a major 3rd company just out of the folks that were released. 

This has been what bothers me the most out of the releases the past year and half. A good third of them at least have been nonsensical. I think the Bos, Ryders, Neeses, etc. of the world getting released is fine. The Rubys, Brays, & Blacks on the other hand was just dumb and is basically giving money away just with potential merch alone.

Edited by Eivion
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10 minutes ago, Casey said:

I guess this would go here since she was released in April, but apparently as of the 5th, WWE is moving forward with trying to trademark Chelsea Green’s name for use in wrestling - using a letter of consent she gave them in November 2020.

Oh boy, I can’t wait till down the line we get Chel-C Greene Vs. Chelsea Green at Mania for the rights to use the name Chelsea Green.

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1 hour ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Oh boy, I can’t wait till down the line we get Chel-C Greene Vs. Chelsea Green at Mania for the rights to use the name Chelsea Green.

Chelsie and Chelcea were right there! 

Also if this match happens, one Chelsea should wear purple gloves and the other Chelsea should wear gray gloves.

@Matt Dmade his last post in semi-jest, I think, but that fruit basket was the first time since he came off his quad injury that HHH had the unbridled love of the fans, and he craves that more than almost anything else. That fruit basket legit led him to his downfall.

Edited by SirSmellingtonofCascadia
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19 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Weren’t Tyler Rust and Alex Zayne just signed?  Jesus.

Bronson Reed just had a NXT NA title run for fuck's sake.

I'm also scratching my head over the cutting of Bobby Fish while hard working but charisma voided Roderick Strong gets repackaged.

I really do think the strategy of the WWE is to release as many people as possible to see if AEW is stupid enough to hire everyone and become financially insolvent because they cannot generate the revenue to bankroll all of the new additions.

WWE is liable to bring back a few of them after they figure out the cost savings after this latest bloodbath and see who they can afford to rehire... which most likely will be the workers that will generate the most immediate ratings bumps when they debut.  Joe certainly didn't stay fired for long.

Edited by J.T.
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It seems like the company never had a clear vision of what they wanted NXT to be.  That usually works out poorly in business.  If they wanted NXT to be a viable third brand and cater to the indy fans, programming it against AEW was a poor idea.  Even if the basic strategy was sound, they greatly overestimated the drawing power of the wrestlers they had under contract and the strength of the NXT brand.

If the purpose of NXT was to develop talent for the main brand, why did they sign so many people that looked like poor bets to make the main roster?  The skill set for WWE TV and the skill set for PWG or ROH is fairly different.  Even beyond the subjective criteria of having a certain size or a look Vince likes, you're probably not going to be able to succeed in the WWE without charisma and some mic skills.  By and large, the wrestlers that succeed on the main roster are the ones that have enough charisma to project their personality and are able to dial that personality up to 11 and connect with a large swath of the audience.  It's by no means an exact science - I was very surprised when Bryan Danielson dialed it up and transitioned so easily to sports entertainment - but I feel like NXT has seen a lot of people pass through that had neither the attributes Vince looks for or the skills for the main roster.

There's also the theory that WWE has signed people just to keep them away from NXT.  Fair enough.  I can see signing Ricochet or even Mercedes Martinez on the idea that AEW might be interested and it's a relatively small investment to sign someone to an NXT deal.  Was anyone really that concerned about Tyler Rust or Leon Ruff signing with AEW?  Only a handful of the WWE roster would be of much interest to AEW or, more importantly, move the needle one way or the other

 

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Ricochet signed with WWE a full year before AEW was a thing. All In wouldn’t even happen until September or something. Omega and the Bucks were still with New Japan, and Jericho had only just made his debut/return to NJPW when WWE announced they signed Ricochet. That’s how different the wrestling world was back then.

Mercedes, though? Yeah, maybe, but it was probably always a goal of hers to make it to WWE since she was grinding on the indies for like 16 years or whatever. The last person I remember that WWE signed that AEW wanted was Ben Carter, but I’m sure there were more. They went after Kingston and Starks after their debuts on Dynamite, and I believe they tried to sign Will Hobbs too? But as far as signing people to keep them away from AEW, I don’t think there’s too many. Re-signing is a different story.

Most of this talent hoarding was to try and kill the just now (back then) revitalized independent scene, most notably in the UK. Which leads me to mention that anyone thinking Mr. Pete “I think NXT UK will be good for the British scene” Dunne won’t re-up his contract with WWE is just fooling themselves.

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1 hour ago, J.T. said:

I'm also scratching my head over the cutting of Bobby Fish while hard working but charisma voided Roderick Strong gets repackaged.

Fish is 44 and coming off two major injuries. I think he'd make a good agent, but he's clearly lost a step in the ring.

Roddy can still go, and now he has Bivens as a mouthpiece. I'm surprised that third guy who never does anything in Diamond Mine survived while Rust didn't, and it seemed like they viewed him as a real prospect.

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