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Death.

It's a good thing for Tay Conti that not everyone feels this way. ?

On the plus side, with TK shelling out money to license real music, at least Quad City DJs would get paid.

One aspect not mentioned about Barun yet... he lost his aura when he cut his hair. Wrestling is a cosmetic business and your look matters. When he first showed up he had a bad look, giant Baby Huey. But once he broke off from The Wyatt Family and did the shaved sides ponytail he looked badass. That coincides with his squashes and building him and him becoming a big deal. Once he shaved his head he lost his look. Aesthetically he went way down hill. Bald didn't suit him. Even less so now that he's completely clean shaven. Plus he started wearing like that weird military green and work boots and work gloves. Couple that with the choo choo noises and he was basically a train conductor by the time he left. No aura left what-so-ever. He was solid in the ring for a few years but he's had injuries and regressed sharply. So he's bad in the ring now. Has an awful look. No aura. Shiity attitude. Plus AEW already has Archer & Wardlow, two monster hosses that don't have the negative baggage. Braun would be a terrible signing. @Zakk_Sabbathhad the right idea. If he wants to stay in the business, call up Rowan and create a hoss team if New Japan will have them. Repair that bad reputation and rebuild that missing aura by having a good run as a scary monster team.

The question is Smoot.

If AEW's going to back up the proverbial money truck for anyone, it should be Danielson. He's the only non-signed person out there right now that might legitimately get some new eyes on them. I'd personally be cool with Black/End, too. He'd fit right in style-wise. I feel like he falls under the Miro-type guys who'd be a revelation to a lot of people who'd only seen their WWE work. Mojo would be fine if he came cheap. He's someone that we've only seen in a WWE setting. Who knows if he'd be better with Dustin or someone working with him? Fuck Braun.

To pile onto the Braun problems, every other ex-WWE guy who is a current big player in AEW has a good body of work outside of the WWE system. Any East Coast indie dude knew the Jon Moxley gimmick was money, Jericho speaks for himself, La Sombra was a main-eventer, Cody took his years in the wilderness very seriously, Christian and Hardy had their TNA runs, PAC always had Dragon Gate. The exception is Miro (and FTR if I'm being fair), and I have no reason whatsoever to believe Braun can take advantage of the AEW system as well as Miro currently is. Let him try to figure out how to be a non-WWE wrestler on his own. See if he has the capacity to give a shit about the business in any other way. If he can do a solid year in Japan or Mexico, great, consider him. I don't love his odds.

Babyface Bob Orton Jr.

Are we certain they're talking about signing Braun as a wrestler? With Wight and Henry, AEW was already clearly trying to amass the biggest, strongest commentating team in wrestling history. Braun would be a natural next step.

DUN DUN

Samoa Joe cosplaying as 1984 Bill Watts in NXT? That's something I didn't know I wanted until now.

On paper, you're absolutely correct. In reality though, they could have four titles across all of the brands combined and nothing would seem important anyway. The belts are a symptom, maybe even a side-effect of a symptom. In a world where nothing matters anyway, let them having their belts as storytelling crutches.

I've been led to believe we're not meant to concern ourselves with roster space or Tony's wallet. In fact they have a second show coming. They're expanding. Sign the man. Keeping the ramp attached to the ring might impact his ability to go choo choo. So we might end up finding out how smart a worker he is after all.

My little guy (4) got sick a couple weeks ago. He threw up in bed once, but then made it to the toilet for the other times. It was in the middle of the night and the poor guy kept saying, "I just want this to be over. When will it be tomorrow?" But then for about two weeks he tried to use his sickness to get out of eating anything he didn't want to eat. "Oh, my belly is still sick", said after eating his weight in mini-muffins earlier that morning.

It was dramatized on the show as worse than that. It seemed like Dynamite really nailed him in the back of the head, hard enough to knock him out of his chair, then went after him while he was down and dazed. If that's how it happened, it's far from the way you're characterizing it, like he gave him a smack to get his attention and then squared up like Marquis of Queensbury or some shit. The way the episode portrayed it was definitely more in line with Billington's character as a person, being a cowardly, sadistic bully. But you're right, it's all second hand. Considering Billington's reputation as a bully who absolutely went after those who couldn't fight, and even then, went at it in a cheap way, then I'd say all bets are off as far as retaliation goes. To paraphrase Vincent Vega, Dynamite didn't expect Jacques to react like he did, but he had to expect a reaction. Come on, there are no rules to that shit. On one hand, you have a guy who is not a fighter and on the other, you have a fucking lunatic. Once a bully finds someone they know won't fight back, they won't stop. And stop with the "Jacques went too far scaring Billington's family" stuff. If Billington was concerned about his family, he shouldn't have been pulling this kind of shit at his place of business. That's on him. You never know who you're fucking with, so just don't fuck with people. His family is lucky Billington just got scared into moving. Another bullying victim may have just killed him. All that is not to say I romanticize that culture. Quite the opposite. Undertaker is an asshole for pining for the old days and calling today's wrestlers softer or whatever that dumb hillbilly said. If wrestling wasn't so full of "tough, hard men" who were ready to "handle their business" with guns or knives, maybe Bruiser Brody would still be alive. Dynamite should have been fired the very first time he pulled that shit.

I mean Drake mentioning Kingston about wrestling being too woke when Kingston has BLM IN HIS TWITTER NAME is hilarious. It is like Drake stepped out of a cave from 10 years ago and can't believe seeing all these people have changed/grown up.

The most shocking face turn in wrestling history, even if it is only for like a week.

IWA-MS and "woke" aren't two things I ever thought would go together, but here we are. Good for Ian, though.

I’m sure a lot of people will lament that Miro didn’t make short work of Uno, but I thought it was a sneaky good match, as Uno matches often are. He seems to have a good understanding of what he looks credible doing and works smartly around that. Here, pretty much the only times he got any offense going werewhen Miro slipped on a banana peel or lost focus. If I’m remembering correctly, the only 2-count Uno got came after Miro ate the exposed turnbuckle. Even his swanton just got a 1. Also, that might be one of the slickest turnbuckle setups I’ve seen, because I totally buy Miro as a guy who would improv throwing a turnbuckle pad at somebody for no damn reason.

It is jarring just how much bigger Karrion Kross Was than everyone else in that match. He actually screams “pro wrestler” when you see him in the ring. But man what exactly is he supposed to be as an act? A mean tough-guy old-school dude? Then why is he wearing Roman Gladiator trunks and have a valet who is a metaphysics enthusiast? Or is he some apocalyptic warrior with a siren girlfriend? Then why is he wearing a suit at the press conference? The best characters are those you can describe in less than 10 words or less. They need to write that down and have a look that matches. Everyone else in that match had a defined character you could see from their wrestling. Adam Cole: Slimbeag opportunist. Johnny Gargano: Goofball technical specialist. Pete Dunne: Tactician/borderline sadist. KOR: Emerging all-around Star. But Kross? His act is just... ugh.

I said it last night in one of the nine million other threads about it. ?

There's a Performance Center joke in there somewhere ? I'm not so sure AEW should be hiring anyone, either for in-ring or for scouting talent, who never worked outside the WWE system for their entire career.

Chihiro Hashimoto, DASH Chisako & Mika Iwata vs. Mei Hoshizuki, Mio Momono & Rin Kadokura from the GAEAism 6/13 show. Marvelous vs Sendai Girls, winner gets a bunch of defunct belts.

As I understand it, Henry helped get Strowman a look from WWE back in the day. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to see him sticking up for one of his guys who he thinks has really come along professionally and has a lot of value to offer. He also apparently helped open the door for Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. Sounds like the kind of guy I'd want as a scout.

Henry took a long time to develop into what he did around 2008 after debuting in 1996. He figured it out finally and developed into a good super heavyweight who figured out what he could and couldn't do. He was good at projecting an aura of impending violence and intimidation. His run faltered when his body broke down. These are the first two people that have been mentioned with Mark Henry since his tenure with AEW started. If this comes as a shock to his new employer, they made a bad hire. They'd have to be absolutely stupid to hire a guy as a talent scout and not ask who he thinks is any good before doing that. Secondly, do you think that complete unknown Bryan Danielson just slipped under the AEW radar and that they need Mark Henry to advocate for him? Come on man.

Hook is supposed to be having his debut next month or so. You save the big moments for the big buildings.

The one they'd really need to keep him away from is Wardlow.

I don't want Braun in AEW. I sure as shit really don't want Mojo. Mark Henry fucking sucks. He had, like, 2 good years. Fuck all of the air bills and that shit. And post wrestling he's been something of an idiot. His thoughts on signing these guys when Danielson and other way better guys are out there is annoying.

QAnon/Trump/Russian social media propaganda's worse crime: Inspiring an insurrection OR turning awesome, positive dude Drake Younger into a raging piece of shit It's a tough call. Seriously, though. As a guy who cheered him on through his comeback and checked out podcasts and interviews because he was such a cool, positive guy, reading the truly ugly stuff he wrote is so sad.

Wuertz probably gets along very well with Necro Butcher, sadly.

Now that's a shirt.

The only good thing about TK hiring Brawn is surely he would rename him each week using the million different names that he’s been called on here Week 1 - “oh my god, it’s Bong Snowman” Week 2 - “here comes Prawn Slowman” ad infinitum

Geez I hope not, for his sake. Why would anyone with options sign there right now? Or ever, now that they think they’re Marvel?

@GordbergMan!

I agree, even though I said I'd prefer Mojo to Braun ,the right answer is "neither". At this point, AEW has enough rising stars that they don't need WWE folks unless they are really, really good. You don't want to clog the rise of all the young stars like Hobbs/Sammy/Ricky/etc. That said, you need to have a reserve for when Vince manages to snatch some of your top young talent ,and some folks are going to take that WWE money. I think AEW has that reserve, and it's important to show you can elevate folks- as that is what would make ambitious talent hungry to be in AEW. If I belt I was going to be a star one day as a young wrestler, I'd rather take my chances as a jobber on Dark than go through the NXT system. At least there's evidence of folks moving their way up in AEW quickly if they're good enough- Eddy and Ricky being the best examples.

I don't see the point of signing Braun right now. If he's really asking for $10,000 per appearance on the indies, let him try to get that for a year or two. And then, if he hasn't returned to the WWE by then (which seems likely), maybe make him an offer. A lowball offer. Then have him lose matches to Marko, Fuego, Shawn Dean, Lee Johnson and Danny Limelight, and then release him because he doesn't know how to get himself over as a monster.

I love this little nod to WWE. Such a cool build up all-around for this. I don't think I've ever paid money specifically to see Gage or Cordona/Ryder, but I'll definitely be paying to see this. Wrestling done right in 2021.

I can kind of understand being afraid of Dynamite's crew and feeling like he had to respond physically to show the locker room he couldn't be pushed around. Although he waited a month to knock Dyamite's teeth out, so Bad News and the boys had plenty of time to rough him up again or decide he was a pussy or whatever. I think I'm just too old for this "code of the locker room" nonsense. Seriously, most of us grew out of fighting in our teens and taught our kids not to fight, so why am I supposed to romanticize this stuff, exactly? It's not Jacques. I have the same reaction to Taker waxing nostalgic about his era when men were men and guys reached in their bag for handguns instead of their Switch and dudes knew their place in the locker room because Taker and his crew would beat on them if they didn't. Honestly, the one thing these documentaries prove over and over again is that a lot of wrestlers consistently make bad decisions. Sometimes it's a combination of drugs, booze, and steroids. Sometimes it's just sheer stupidity (NIck Gage, bank robbery, something something something). I forget the exact quote, but, in the Collision in Korea ep, Scorpio says something along the lines of "Well, what am I supposed to do? Let Hawk get one over on me in front of the boys?" This is in reference to his plan to shiv Hawk. And I'm sitting their thinking "Well, your alternative is to murder a dude, cause an international incident, and maybe spend the rest of your life in a North Korean prison. So, yeah, letting it go and allowing Hawk to get one over on you in the locker room seems like a sensible plan to me." And of course, the whole beef started because Scorpio had some idiot beef with Flair that possibly only existed in Scorpio's head and Hawk was in withdrawal because he couldn't walk around pilled up and plastered. I think I'm just tired of dudes who never grew up thinking the only way to live is to beat up dudes on the playground 'cause they looked at you funny and party like a rockstar in between. I mean, I enjoy football, I enjoy wrestling, I enjoy combat sports. Doesn't mean I go out and fight guys in real life after I turn the tv off. I haven't been in a fight since my mid-teens and do not expect to get in one any time soon. And I did my share of drinking (and some drugs) in my 20's. My first job out of college was stressful and I'm in a white-collar profession kinda infamous for the "work hard, play hard" stuff. Didn't take too long to figure out that I was wrecking my life and my wife was going to leave me if I didn't dry out. So I did. Not easy peasy, but not impossible either. What has Flair said about Scorpio? I can't remember, even though I've seen shoots with Flair, read his book, etc. Scorpio thinks Flair got him fired from WCW? Any truth to that?

Was Ian the Rotten who did a tape trading or selling business in the mid-90s? I'm not exactly sure the specifics of this story but a 13 year old me was internetting back in the day - I think I must have been in like a chat room or something - and he was stunned that I had never seen ECW before. Said he'd send me a tape, he did, and I wore that shit out and passed it around all over my middle school. It was just a best-of style dub, with the cane Dewey angle, lots of 2-Cold/Sandman, Rey/Psicosis, a bunch of other stuff. Also, 13 year old me happily handed over my home address to someone on the internet ( who may or may not have been Ian or Axl Rotten). Edit : Just to say that I could be misremembering this whole story and it was just some random person who sent me the tape. For whatever reason, I remember it being one of the Rottens though.

I'd imagine the new eyeballs on the product really don't give a shit about Effy's workrate.

Lives are gonna be in Waylon Mercy's hands.

Effy is a genius. And here is why. During the show last night, #FearTheGayAgenda (the name of the show) was trending top 10. And so lots of LGBTQ people clicked on the trend not knowing what it was (and generally assuming it was some homophobic bigot thing), and instead discovered for the first time that Gay Pro Wrestling was a thing that existed, and decided that actually this was very interesting and something they would like to know more about. So Effy is actually successfully making people who don't watch wrestling, into fans. That was his masterplan all along. And it's genius.

When he was in Mexico? Who did Jim book as the top guy in ROH, even though the fans weren't buying it? Oh yeah, DAVEY RICHARDS.

It’s already too late for WWE fans.