2022 WRESTLERS LEAVING COMPANIES THREAD (Releases, FAs, etc...)

[Octopus]

7 hours ago, A_K said:

I also appreciate this is some sort of bizarre internet persona shtick you have for feigning adoration for the guy, so more fool me for engaging with it, but when in Rome.

I’m really enjoying reading the differing points in this thread. Also with this being a story where it seems like every day we have a new article coming out adding to the drama/ story.

I will say, although I don’t believe you were intentionally doing this, but I read this as pretty demeaning to John. Apologies if my comprehension of this was poorly off and I made everything awkward. But his minority opinion on Codyizm from most of this board shouldn’t be referred to as a shtick. Agree or disagree with his thoughts, I feel he is articulating his thoughts in an honest manner. John is far from the meme-joke poster that I tiredly am most of the time here. Again, sorry if I completely misread this or if I’m coming off like a jerk.
 

As for Cody: There is nobody more hit and miss with me. I can’t speak on his decision making for leaving, because a person changing jobs is a big family decision that people, but this whole scenario is so weird that I honestly thought it was likely a work at first. 
 

I find it odd that his segments were mostly misses when Tony took more control of creative. But the little assumptions I have, I still guess that Cody was still responsible for the bad ideas. There’s no way of knowing this, so it’s speculation on my part. It’s interesting that early AEW had Cody as the face of the company and it being mythicized as Dusty’s Revenge. But now I feel AEW is perceived as Tony Kahn’s Boyhood Dream of what wrestling should be. Clearly Cody and Tony disagree with that and also Cody’s value to the company.
I thought the baby reveal wasn’t entertaining. I understood it as cross promotion though and made sense, in theory. His TNT open challenge was great and lead to great debuts.  He had terrible moments (more recently) and great moments). I feel he gets a bad wrap and takes too much of the blame for booking decisions when supposedly there is someone else in charge. If the baby reveal or any of his numerous duds were such a clearly bad idea, then why isn’t Tony Kahn equally to blame? The owner should be tough enough and the booker should be smart enough to say No to segments.

I do wonder if he would have eventually turned heel. Him not resigning puts a halt on the potential storyline. It’s sad we’ll have no way of knowing what could have happened, good or bad. Maybe he never was gonna turn and we’d have awkward IM GOOD tweener. Maybe we’d have an epic heel turn of the century. Maybe the segment would have been a celebrity filled botch involving a lot of production value and animals running fearfully away from fireworks. No way of knowing. Or at least until someone comes out with what would have happened. Lol.

All in all, if he never got the neck tattoo then none of this would have happened and him and Omega would be best friends.

[Curt McGirt]

I'm not a boss of anything, but if I was, somebody doing dumb shit that wasn't making any money and then hitting me up for more money might be a sticking point. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

1 hour ago, Octopus said:

The owner should be tough enough and the booker should be smart enough to say No to segments.

This was sort of addressed by Wade Keller earlier in the week - he said the feeling was that, Cody's segments still did good numbers so it wasn't as big of an issue at that point, or at least not big enough to warrant addressing it directly

Edit: I found the exact wording:

Keller continued, “it’s weird, because if it was nine months ago…Tony might have signed him for what Cody was asking for, or at least negotiated in good faith to a reasonable compromise. But Cody became a bit of a liability, Tony publicly would say, and he told me [that] ‘Cody still drives numbers, so I’m okay.’ But that’s not the biggest compliment. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I love Cody, and we’re on the same page.’ I was just like, well, you know, the undercurrent of what he said was, ‘yeah, he’s a headache, and every segment is a car wreck, but he’s still drawing numbers. So I guess I’m okay with it for now?’ Like, that’s how I read. — I kind of read between the lines on his choice of wording. I think the segment with Brandi two weeks ago did not help, didn’t belong on TV. It was just a disaster. But there’s been a lot going on with Cody. Pre pandemic, Cody was at the forefront of production meetings and, and really involved…”

Edited February 20, 2022 by Zakk_Sabbath

[JLowe]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

I'm not a boss of anything, but if I was, somebody doing dumb shit that wasn't making any money and then hitting me up for more money might be a sticking point. 

The Brandi-Lambert segment losing a full 25% of the viewing audience (and killing the PVZ debut) immediately before the huge MJF-Punk match that had been built for months cost the Rhodes’ any leverage they had at that point. 

[(BP)]

Keller may not be wrong, but he’s also reading an entire paragraph between the lines there. His pre-pandemic comment is thought provoking. If Cody decided during the quarantine that wrestling wasn’t going to recover and he’d need to pivot to being a more diverse media personality that would explain a lot.

[The Natural]

Kudos to @Gordlow for posting this on the day itself in the GIFS and Pics thread and it's relevant to here as well.

[odessasteps]

For those interested, a certain podcast discussing Cody and Brandy is out now. 

[TheVileOne]

1 hour ago, JLowe said:

The Brandi-Lambert segment losing a full 25% of the viewing audience (and killing the PVZ debut) immediately before the huge MJF-Punk match that had been built for months cost the Rhodes’ any leverage they had at that point. 

Tony Khan is also at fault for that. Let's be frank, the Dan Lambert vs. AEW crap was hit and miss at best, and it was mostly just vanity nonsense. 

[TheVileOne]

2 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

This was sort of addressed by Wade Keller earlier in the week - he said the feeling was that, Cody's segments still did good numbers so it wasn't as big of an issue at that point, or at least not big enough to warrant addressing it directly

Edit: I found the exact wording:

Keller continued, “it’s weird, because if it was nine months ago…Tony might have signed him for what Cody was asking for, or at least negotiated in good faith to a reasonable compromise. But Cody became a bit of a liability, Tony publicly would say, and he told me [that] ‘Cody still drives numbers, so I’m okay.’ But that’s not the biggest compliment. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I love Cody, and we’re on the same page.’ I was just like, well, you know, the undercurrent of what he said was, ‘yeah, he’s a headache, and every segment is a car wreck, but he’s still drawing numbers. So I guess I’m okay with it for now?’ Like, that’s how I read. — I kind of read between the lines on his choice of wording. I think the segment with Brandi two weeks ago did not help, didn’t belong on TV. It was just a disaster. But there’s been a lot going on with Cody. Pre pandemic, Cody was at the forefront of production meetings and, and really involved…”

OK...but arguably wasn't Cody still drawing numbers when he last appeared? He wasn't in the Brandi/Lambert segment. The ladder match show did good numbers. 

So if we're to believe these comments, it sounds like Tony Khan was letting Cody do whatever he wanted and book his own segments. Not sure what to make of all this. 

[(BP)]

The thing with Lambert is that some of his promos have been fun in a vacuum, but no one’s actually come out of being involved in his programs looking any better. Certainly not Sky and Ethan Page.

[Dewar]

The Lambert angle ran out of steam when they did it in Impact. I'm not sure why it needed to be brought to AEW.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

OK...but arguably wasn't Cody still drawing numbers when he last appeared? He wasn't in the Brandi/Lambert segment. The ladder match show did good numbers. 

So if we're to believe these comments, it sounds like Tony Khan was letting Cody do whatever he wanted and book his own segments. Not sure what to make of all this. 

My speculative guess is simple guilt by association - we also don't know to what degree Cody was pushing for her to continue appearing, if at all. I'm with you, it's a lot

[Bryan]

6 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

OK...but arguably wasn't Cody still drawing numbers when he last appeared? He wasn't in the Brandi/Lambert segment. The ladder match show did good numbers. 

So if we're to believe these comments, it sounds like Tony Khan was letting Cody do whatever he wanted and book his own segments. Not sure what to make of all this. 

Yeah, Cody was still drawing numbers, I’m pretty sure his ladder match with Sammy drew better ratings than Sammy and Darby.

If the EVP title had become largely superfluous as Tony Khan took more control, I could see how money could become an issue. Cody was the top baby face in the beginning, his open challenge was one of the best parts of the pandemic era, and that got a lot of popular guys hired, and just a few months ago he literally set up himself on fire.

If the reports of him wanting Jericho/Punk money were true, I could see how he could feel slighted for not getting it. Considering he was there in the beginning and a part of the reason guys like CM Punk (who Tony Khan approached in the beginning but who was unwilling to join a start up) were willing to sign, I could see how that could sting him and lead to this.

 

[paintedbynumbers]

We can debate all we want whether Cody drew numbers or not.  In my mind AEW is much different than WWE, AEW as a whole seems to have steady ratings for the full 2 hrs or 1 hr (depending on show)   WWE Raw will see ratings fluctuate (maybe during MNF more than anything) but AEW shows are pretty steady and I would equate that to the talent on each show. When you have stacked cards each week and a loaded roster that we hadn't seen since Fire Pro wrestling Returns it makes it hard to want to change the channel. 

Long, stupid rant aside. I don't believe any one person draws ratings when it comes to AEW. No disrespect to Cody or any of the talent.  I just think the product as that good that when I watch I watch it for AEW not for "insert wrestler name here"   where if I watch Raw it might be to see what  AJ is doing and then I turn it off.

 

 

[TheVileOne]

1 hour ago, Bryan said:

Yeah, Cody was still drawing numbers, I’m pretty sure his ladder match with Sammy drew better ratings than Sammy and Darby.

If the EVP title had become largely superfluous as Tony Khan took more control, I could see how money could become an issue. Cody was the top baby face in the beginning, his open challenge was one of the best parts of the pandemic era, and that got a lot of popular guys hired, and just a few months ago he literally set up himself on fire.

If the reports of him wanting Jericho/Punk money were true, I could see how he could feel slighted for not getting it. Considering he was there in the beginning and a part of the reason guys like CM Punk (who Tony Khan approached in the beginning but who was unwilling to join a start up) were willing to sign, I could see how that could sting him and lead to this.

 

Cody got Woody'ed from Toy Story to CM Punk and Bryan Danielson's Buzz Lightyear? Tony Khan playing Andy?

[For Great Justice]

23 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

Cody got Woody'ed from Toy Story to CM Punk and Bryan Danielson's Buzz Lightyear? Tony Khan playing Andy?

Sounds like they need an existential threat in order to bond, in that case. A certain next door neighbor of Tony Khans that likes to blow his toys up. A master and ruler of the world, as it were. 

Edited February 21, 2022 by For Great Justice

[hobo joe]

This may have been said already, but...

Cody gets an immediate main even push, loses to Roman at Backlash, drops down the card and is just another dude by Summerslam. 

That's certainly the most likely scenario, and I'd be shocked if it's not the case.

Also, having witnessed what turned out to be Cody's last AEW match live, he definitely got the loudest crowd reactions, and it was way more 50/50 than it comes across on TV. Punk was a close second, and Darby, Hangman, and Bryan weren't on the show, but you can't argue the dude wasn't over as fuck.

[zendragon]

17 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

My speculative guess is simple guilt by association - we also don't know to what degree Cody was pushing for her to continue appearing, if at all. I'm with you, it's a lot

I feel Brandi is the one person who you can point to as evidence of nepotism. Now way does she get this much TV time if she isn't married to Cody, I don't know what her backstage duties where or how qualified she was for them

[(BP)]

Brandi seems to love wrestling. She’s a good ring announcer. By most accounts she was great at her office job even if the girl boss stuff rubbed some people the wrong way. She wasn’t a good wrestler, but it wasn’t like they were building the Women's division around her. Her recent television appearances were awful, but it played like it was part of Cody’s strategy to polarize the audience as much as possible. 

The BOLA where she introduced Cody shortly after he left WWE is one of my favorite moments in wrestling in the past decade. It turned out to be part of the foundation of what we spend a lot of our time discussing on here. I hope she ends up  doing something that makes her happy even if it’s screaming at Stephanie during tv segments I would never watch under any circumstances. 

[Dog]

1 hour ago, zendragon said:

I feel Brandi is the one person who you can point to as evidence of nepotism.

Brock Anderson? The Ass Boys (though they've gotten better)?

[Hagan]

You wouldn't take a chance on Arn Anderson's son at a prelim level and see how could good he can get with experience? I mean, if he turns out as 75 percent as good as his dad in time you have a helluva of a professional wrestler. 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Hagan

[Dog]

That's just it. He's there because he's Arn's son, not because he's wowed people with his current ability. Good or bad, right or wrong, that's nepotism.

[Raziel]

2 hours ago, Dog said:

Brock Anderson? The Ass Boys (though they've gotten better)?

Hook's right there (I mean, he's good, but if he weren't Taz's kid...)

[odessasteps]

Is/was the promotion not full of relatives (name your wrestling kid) or friends (Luther, Cutler)? Is the Chief Brandi Officer really any different?

[Just Dave]

I mean, it seems like in a lot of athletic endeavors that it helps to have a parent who did it first. I can't remember what the exact percentage is off the top of my head, but Major League Baseball is lousy with guys whos dad played in the big leagues. Some pretty great players, too. Acuna, Tatis Jr, Vlad Jr, Dee Gordon, et al. I understand the appeal of hiring the kids of wrestlers. They understand the demand on their schedule and the toll it takes on your body. If Hijos de Ass and Brock Enforcer were coming in and taking top spots, I could see being irritated. This might be another reason why AEW could use a formal developmental program. Brock Anderson could use the reps and it would negate the nepotism criticism.