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

[Coletti]

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by christopher.annino

[twiztor]

2 hours ago, alstein said:

Brock is working the indies

i immediately thought Lesnar and was baffled. 

8 minutes ago, christopher.annino said:

OMG yes! definitely a bit too "on the nose" for some people, but i would freaking love it.

[Coletti]

4 minutes ago, twiztor said:

i immediately thought Lesnar and was baffled. 

OMG yes! definitely a bit too "on the nose" for some people, but i would freaking love it.

Especially with Eddie Kingston teasing a match/feud on Twitter, have him come out and confront Claudio after or get into a scuffle in the back while Tony's doing an interview with the newest AEW signee. 

[The Great ML]

9 hours ago, DangerMark said:

Kingston would have to be mondo stupid to tweet something like that to get everyone hyped up for a match that he didn't actually want because he hated the guy.

What’s a babyface? God bless that man...keeping it real in more ways than one.

Edited February 25, 2022 by The Great ML

[Cobra Commander]

Not sure if there's a coherent way to present this on a wrestling TV show but maybe a Cesaro/Claudio could be a bit of a chaos agent. Meaning he shows up and his presence/influence 'screws up' certain things or throws them into chaos. Like if he showed up around the Bryan/Moxley scene trying to nudge one of them out of that picture. Or if he essentially gaslit the Eddie Kingston thing trying to make people cheer for him at Eddie's expense. Or he could start stirring things up between other wrestlers for his own amusement.

Basically on-screen he would be the guy ruining things and making himself look better at the expense of others. Which is probably the opposite of what he's like off-screen.

[Matt D]

Re: Kingston/Cesaro:

Who knows? I don't know. But I do know he's been consistent about Cesaro for the last few years even when it didn't at all seem like Cesaro might come over. He said this in an interview last spring:

Spoiler

"You want to know the truth? You want to know Inside Baseball? He’s a scumbag. Cesaro’s a scumbag. I didn’t have fun with him at all. He’s a scumbag. Here comes Inside Baseball. He was supposed to put me over at Chikara before he left for WWE and he didn’t do it, so f*ck him. He knows I’m talking about him all the time. F*ck him. F*ck you Cesaro, Claudio, whatever you want to call yourself. Stay over there. Don’t come to AEW. Big b*tch Swiss motherf*cker. I don’t like him. I don’t know if you noticed that."

So don't think it's just something he started doing this week to hype a potential match.

[Cristobal]

1 hour ago, twiztor said:

i immediately thought Lesnar and was baffled.

Can you imagine being the promoter trying to tell Brock the house wasn't good and he can't pay him as much as he promised, but like, help yourself to some concession stand hot dogs and "anything you want from the merch table"?

Edited February 25, 2022 by Cristobal

[Zimbra]

20 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Re: Kingston/Cesaro:

Who knows? I don't know. But I do know he's been consistent about Cesaro for the last few years even when it didn't at all seem like Cesaro might come over. He said this in an interview last spring:

  Hide contents

"You want to know the truth? You want to know Inside Baseball? He’s a scumbag. Cesaro’s a scumbag. I didn’t have fun with him at all. He’s a scumbag. Here comes Inside Baseball. He was supposed to put me over at Chikara before he left for WWE and he didn’t do it, so f*ck him. He knows I’m talking about him all the time. F*ck him. F*ck you Cesaro, Claudio, whatever you want to call yourself. Stay over there. Don’t come to AEW. Big b*tch Swiss motherf*cker. I don’t like him. I don’t know if you noticed that."

So don't think it's just something he started doing this week to hype a potential match.

"Big bitch Swiss motherfucker" is my "cellar door"

[Horatio]

I'm thinking Eddie Kingston is drawing on old personal feelings SINCE he got signed. Who he was is integral to him being able to keep it real and still be that Eddie Kingston, and I'm guessing he looked back and said, Man, I thought that jealousy and those insecurities would never go away. 

Now, he's got a real-life lense to look forward to keeping it real AND getting paid. 

Never change, Eddie. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, King, and you'll never go wrong. 

[kafkonia]

So, if a "big AEW name" is supposed to be going to Control Your Narrative, and it's not Brian Cage because his option has been picked up (and, let's be honest, he isn't exactly a "big AEW name")... What if it's Cody? I mean, one of the alleged reasons he left is that he wanted more power to control his narrative, after all.  Plus, the C and the Y are right there in his name! 

 

[AxB]

Some twitter jokester was saying Vince was hot on to sign Cody until he saw the neck tattoo, but now he has seen it he's spun 180 and doesn't want him any more.

[odessasteps]

so Vince isn't as crazy as people say then. 

[Horatio]

3 hours ago, AxB said:

Some twitter jokester was saying Vince was hot on to sign Cody until he saw the neck tattoo, but now he has seen it he's spun 180 and doesn't want him any more.

Has anyone ever lost the fans in a more depressing way? 

I mean, it's like he humped Katie Fick and she gave him a hickey from Hell and we all saw it.

[BrianS81177]

Would turning heel have saved Cody with the AEW fans or was it too late by that point? 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

31 minutes ago, BrianS81177 said:

Would turning heel have saved Cody with the AEW fans or was it too late by that point? 

Absolutely, IMO. Some people were as sure of it as a destination as, say, Hangman beating Kenny for the title.

[Go2Sleep]

2 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

Would turning heel have saved Cody with the AEW fans or was it too late by that point? 

Yeah, I know the power couple bit is played out since HHH/Steph, but Cody and Brandi definitely had potential in that role. The only problem is that to be an effective heel, you have to be willing to lose feuds, and that was an issue for Cody in AEW (in fact, probably the main reason fans began to turn on him).

Also, yay for Claudio getting out. I think it's too late for him to be a top guy in AEW, but he should definitely go there for the dream matches.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Go2Sleep

[Curt McGirt]

Probably the best base in the world, a guy built like a brick shithouse, who can have a good match with anyone, who can take any role in the roster and master it (I know there's talk about his verbiage but he's been under lock and key on that for years)... if I was Tony I would fire any of the last arrivals save Punk and Danielson if I had to, just to sign him. 

This is incredible news. 

[paintedbynumbers]

3 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

Would turning heel have saved Cody with the AEW fans or was it too late by that point? 

I think it would have helped. It did wonders for Roman Reigns and Hulk Hogan, and let me tell you it would have done a ton for Cena too had it been done at the right time (before he hit Hollywood)   

The son of a famous wrestler tends to get a lot of flack. Sometimes it works (Dustin, Hook, Greg Valentine, David Finley, Curt Henning, Ted Dibiase)   You could argue that those guys had characters that distanced them from their dads. Hook is too new but you get my point I hope.  

 

For every Greg Valentine we have an Erik Watts, a Cody Hall, a David Flair.  I put David Finley in the group because he has the makings of a star should someone in the US take a shot with him. 

Cody to me is a good hand but he tries too hard to come off as the second coming of his father. He has huge shoes to fill  in that regard but he never will be Dusty. Dustin realized it pretty fast, Cody never has.  Nothing wrong with that per se.  If my dad was Dusty Rhodes I'd want to be just like him too.  

 

[paintedbynumbers]

55 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Probably the best base in the world, a guy built like a brick shithouse, who can have a good match with anyone, who can take any role in the roster and master it (I know there's talk about his verbiage but he's been under lock and key on that for years)... if I was Tony I would fire any of the last arrivals save Punk and Danielson if I had to, just to sign him. 

This is incredible news. 

He absolutely is the best base in the world. Whenever the discussion comes up the answer is always Claudio.  If you ever want to see just how strong Claudio is, go watch the ROH training videos he put out when he was challenging Nigel for the world title. He was giant swinging trees for fucks sake.  The guy has no idea how strong he is either.  I could not be happier that he is gone from purgatory and can be himself again. 

[Leonidas]

Give him the JR sit down interview treatment, or keep him to pre-recorded promos for a while until he gets his footing and allow his in-ring actions to do the talking as they always should have. When you have all the talent of Cesaro/Claudio it really shouldn't have been this difficult to book him properly. But we could say that about so many over the years.

Yes we have the possibilities of dream matches, but the one thing that slightly worries me is that if he is institutionalised, he was there for 10 years. The best 10 years of his physical life. It's going to take a major rehab program to get the WWE stink off him. It took Miro a full year to do it, maybe he's even a worse case. But I have faith in AEW, that is, if they actually sign him.

[The Natural]

 

[Coletti]

13 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

Would turning heel have saved Cody with the AEW fans or was it too late by that point? 

At the very least he shouldn't have gone out on the mic and said, "I won't turn heel." That was so brutally lame.

[nate]

Cesaro didn't kill our March Madness just to fade into that good night.

[Wyld Samurai]

21 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

Also, yay for Claudio getting out. I think it's too late for him to be a top guy in AEW, but he should definitely go there for the dream matches.

It's never too late to be a top guy. He could easily be on top until he just doesn't feel like it anymore a la AJ Styles.

[Go2Sleep]

It's not too late because he's washed up (I've seen no indication of that in the limited WWE I've watched the last couple of years). It's too late because AEW has a clear path forward with younger home-grown stars, and if they decide they need an established guy on top for whatever reason, Danielson is the obvious choice. Claudio will have a nice place on the card and his matches will be must-see, but I wouldn't expect him to be the guy in AEW at any point.