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

[nate]

On 3/12/2022 at 11:19 AM, HarryArchieGus said:

Ha, have we ever seen a pro wrestler speculated about so much, with so few actual facts of the matter, yet treated as tho every little speculative newsbit or opinion is indeed a fact?

Benoit, for about a week.

[The Great ML]

18 hours ago, Infinit said:

Would Dusty have been as much a beloved star in the 80s if people knew he was booking himself to be a beloved star? 

There was a small contingent in the Carolinas that knew who Virgil Runnels was and he received his share of boos on the house show circuit. Not overwhelming by any stretch...but they were there.

[ka-to]

We knew that Dusty was booking and just laughed every time that a babyface had an interview and had to speak about Dusty before actually starting to talk about what the promo was actually about. 

[Infinit]

1 hour ago, The Great ML said:

There was a small contingent in the Carolinas that knew who Virgil Runnels was and he received his share of boos on the house show circuit. Not overwhelming by any stretch...but they were there.

The guys from Greensboro, right? I've heard some of the stories of Dusty vs that section on the 605 pod...hilarious how they got under his skin lol

[The Great ML]

By 1988 late in his run, he even had some jeers in the TBS studio and he’d say things like “I don’t care if you don’t like it, deal with it.”

[odessasteps]

I seem to recall Dusty’s name being Virgil Runnels was in the Apter mags, by the time he was booking in JCP.

and he was listed in the tv credits as executive producer or similar. 

[Technico Support]

Here's a two for one:

[Kang]

 

[Robert S]

19 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I seem to recall Dusty’s name being Virgil Runnels was in the Apter mags, by the time he was booking in JCP.

and he was listed in the tv credits as executive producer or similar. 

I have been watching some mid 90ies WCW PPVs and it is so inconsistent who is listed by his shoot and who is called by his work name. Even the same guy one month might be listed by his shoot and the next month by his work name. For example I am sure I have seen both "Arn Anderson" and "Marty Lunde" being listet as well as "Mike Graham" and "Mike Gossett". Same for Dusty. Only Jody Hamilton - I think - is never listed as The Assassin (probably because they considered that too silly). I don't think I have seen Bill Dundee listed under his work name as well.

[RIPPA]

Joey Janela says his contract with AEW is up May 1 and he isn't interesting in re-signing nor is he interested in a per appearance deal

[paintedbynumbers]

On 3/14/2022 at 5:41 PM, The Great ML said:

There was a small contingent in the Carolinas that knew who Virgil Runnels was and he received his share of boos on the house show circuit. Not overwhelming by any stretch...but they were there.

this is absolutely true, they were known as Ric Flair and his ex wives. 

[Death From Above]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Joey Janela says his contract with AEW is up May 1 and he isn't interesting in re-signing nor is he interested in a per appearance deal

I am also not interested in re-signging with AEW, I'm above that now wink

[TheVileOne]

On 3/12/2022 at 5:13 AM, Casey said:

I did find it a little suspect that supposedly the reason Cody left AEW was in part because he had a smaller creative role in things, so the idea of TK just handing over the book to him for ROH when he's rumored to have paid tens of millions of dollars kind of seemed... uhh, not right. He's going to buy this entire company just to 1) keep Cody and 2) immediately hand over booking duties to someone like Cody? That always felt like a recipe for disaster.

Of course, the other side of this is also funny, if he did indeed leave AEW because of lack of creative input - so your immediate decision is to sign with the company that famously DOESN'T collaborate with its talent? Unless you're someone like Becky, Roman, etc of course. And Cody is most definitely not in that tier of talent. He wasn't even in the top echelon of AEW after a certain point, because they kept growing so fast and eventually passed him by entirely. I know money rules the world, but still. For all his faults, he doesn't seem like the type of dude to just leave something like AEW and go to WWE because of money. But that's a fan on the outside looking in, of course. I don't know Cody, for all I know he's more of a capitalist than an artist or a dreamer or whatever.

The more realistic answer to all of this is right in the Young Bucks' book, I think. He's crazy indecisive. One minute he wanted to challenge the throne of WWE by founding AEW, the next he wanted to sign with WWE again, the next minute he wanted to leave wrestling entirely.

Cody sounds like a butterknife. Not the sharpest one in the drawer. He's going to fall victim to "another guy" syndrome in less than a year. Will be replacing Jeff Hardy in 24/7 scrambles with Akira Tozawa. 

His so-called creative control was literally him doing cringe BS like smashing Triple H's throne, using golden shovels, and as late as last January, publicly trashing the WWE product on-air. 

His reaction to stuff like this getting criticized is to only continue doing it more. That's behavior internet trolls do.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

That's why it's so weird he's going back to WWE for me. He smashed the throne with a sledgehammer. He used a golden shovel. He was teasing using The Pedigree as a finisher, but would say he's not resorting to using a shitty guy's moves or whatever. His music was all about WWE taking his name but not his legacy and shit.

I realllllyyyyyy hope he got a gigantic money deal. Because there's a good chance his future is shit sandwiches, and learning to like the taste of them.

[JLowe]

WWE should have brought back a Million Dollar man gimmick, with the “every man has his price” catchphrase, and then have Cody be the “big surprise”. 

[paintedbynumbers]

1 hour ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

That's why it's so weird he's going back to WWE for me. He smashed the throne with a sledgehammer. He used a golden shovel. He was teasing using The Pedigree as a finisher, but would say he's not resorting to using a shitty guy's moves or whatever. His music was all about WWE taking his name but not his legacy and shit.

I realllllyyyyyy hope he got a gigantic money deal. Because there's a good chance his future is shit sandwiches, and learning to like the taste of them.

I hope his future is polka dots and rainbows  literally.  I was a fan of Cody the person. Not a huge fan but I always liked what he did and wanted to do. With the exception of going out of his way to bury the WWE. Now he is going back there and to me he is more than a hypocrite it's just cringe. It wouldn't look so bad if he didn't go out of his way to bury them but he did and it's going to bite him in the ass.  It will never happen but I'd love to hear him drowned in chants of "You sold out' the second he debuts.  No bigger sellout currently than Cody. 

[SirSmUgly]

If you can't get the creative freedom that you want, might as well get paid, right?

 

[NoFistsJustFlips]

31 minutes ago, paintedbynumbers said:

I hope his future is polka dots and rainbows  literally.  I was a fan of Cody the person. Not a huge fan but I always liked what he did and wanted to do. With the exception of going out of his way to bury the WWE. Now he is going back there and to me he is more than a hypocrite it's just cringe. It wouldn't look so bad if he didn't go out of his way to bury them but he did and it's going to bite him in the ass.  It will never happen but I'd love to hear him drowned in chants of "You sold out' the second he debuts.  No bigger sellout currently than Cody. 

Meh. Call it selling out if you want, but the correct term is cashing in.

The wrestling business is a... business. Always weird to me when fans turn on a guy for doing what he's supposed to be doing. Making money. I would have preferred if he stayed in AEW because I liked the narrative of him betting on himself and trying to live up to his father by being more than just the wrestler. But that's all just a narrative. None of it's true. He didn't own AEW. Not even a piece of it. He is a businessman trying to make the most money possible. Good on him for cashing in.

You sold out is about the dumbest thing anyone could ever chant at a wrestler. EC-dub chants didn't buy Taz a house, but that WWE money sure did. I loved ECW. But this idea that wrestlers are supposed to destroy their bodies for "the love of the game" and not piles and piles of cash is pretttttttty antiquated.

[Kang]

Brandi Rhodes isn't expected to join WWE, she still is training to become Women's World Champ of somewhere...

Keep in mind PLANS CHANGE magic can happen.

[BrianS81177]

25 minutes ago, Blue Dragon said:

Brandi Rhodes isn't expected to join WWE, she still is training to become Women's World Champ of somewhere...

Keep in mind PLANS CHANGE magic can happen.

Maybe MLW can create a women's title for her to win only for it to lead to absolutely nothing like everything else MLW tries

[DEAN]

3 minutes ago, BrianS81177 said:

Maybe MLW can create a women's title for her to win only for it to lead to absolutely nothing like everything else MLW tries

Well, the featherweight title hasn't quite finished leading to nothing, so it could be a while.

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

7 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Meh. Call it selling out if you want, but the correct term is cashing in.

The wrestling business is a... business. Always weird to me when fans turn on a guy for doing what he's supposed to be doing. Making money. I would have preferred if he stayed in AEW because I liked the narrative of him betting on himself and trying to live up to his father by being more than just the wrestler. But that's all just a narrative. None of it's true. He didn't own AEW. Not even a piece of it. He is a businessman trying to make the most money possible. Good on him for cashing in.

You sold out is about the dumbest thing anyone could ever chant at a wrestler. EC-dub chants didn't buy Taz a house, but that WWE money sure did. I loved ECW. But this idea that wrestlers are supposed to destroy their bodies for "the love of the game" and not piles and piles of cash is pretttttttty antiquated.

I think there is a sense in which "You sold out!" can be seen as highly complimentary. It kind of means "We cared about you. We identified with you. We considered you 'one of us.' We are sad and even a little angry that, in moving up, you have moved on." 

 in that sense, "You sold out!" chants might actually be a good sign w/r/t Cody Rhodes. I don't think you get those chants if people have stopped caring about you.

[SirSmUgly]

8 minutes ago, Gordlow said:

I think there is a sense in which "You sold out!" can be seen as highly complimentary. It kind of means "We cared about you. We identified with you. We considered you 'one of us.' We are sad and even a little angry that, in moving up, you have moved on." 

 in that sense, "You sold out!" chants might actually be a good sign w/r/t Cody Rhodes. I don't think you get those chants if people have stopped caring about you.

Salient point here. 

Counterpoint: Douchebag wrestling fans will chant any old shit.

[John from Cincinnati]

9 minutes ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

Counterpoint: Douchebag wrestling fans will chant any old shit.

What?!

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

47 minutes ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

Salient point here. 

Counterpoint: Douchebag wrestling fans will chant any old shit.

 

37 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

What?!

That's s good counterpoint!

But...

You may recall an isolated asshole fan trying to start a "What?" chant during an emotional ( Kingston? Mox? Punk?) promo on a recent episode of AEW TV and getting shut down immediately while receiving ZERO apparent support from anyone else in the crowd.

I can recall Jericho successfully asking the crowd to stop with WWE-reference chants as "bad ideas from bad creative" and I am pleasantly surprised by how easily Bryan kept an "AEW Yes Movement" from becoming a thing that grew out of control.

 I won't even pretend to argue that there aren't asshole wrestling fans. Obviously in any large gathering of human beings there are going to be at least a few assholes.

I might, however, try to argue that the assholes certainly don't seem to be the majority any more... at least not in AEW crowds. 

Not sure what the ratio might be for a WM weekend crowd in Texas.