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I was waiting for the new topic to be made but I think it's time we acknowledge that somehow Karrion Kross is one of the hatter acts in the company and I never expected having to type that? Like sorry for linking to reddit but listen to the response he's getting for this promo, guy may have timed his contract expiring better than anyone else in recent times. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1lucpjq/wwe_raw_spoilers_karrion_kross_promo/

I mean they are all old wrestlers and the classic old wrestler trick is to feign interest in working elsewhere to try and get a raise so this all checks out to me >_>

I do have to say asking people how they feel about their current boss/promoter publicly is a... let's say flawed metric. Any wrestler who outright criticized their promoter is either looking for a way out or is in for a rude awakening (a.k.a. the Lio Rush special).

Bowens seems like a really likable human being outside of the ring but I struggle to see where his spot is as a singles in the company. He's not old but not really young either, Caster really carried the personality half of the act, it's not like he's being exposed in these singles but he's also not really standing out much either. If ROH were more... well many things I could see a run/push down there possibly being helpful for him in terms of development but it feels like there are so few eyes on it right now that I'm not sure it'd be that productive.

So don't really know where to put this, this seems as good a place as any. On my walk today I was thinking about AEW's for lack of a better term "missing in action" list, basically those who aren't injured or climbing Everest but are under contract/haven't been seen in a while for no officially known reason. Some I assume are just having their contracts run out, some I assume aren't as healthy as they claim they are (sorry Keith Lee), some are truly confusing (Gunn Club & Jack Perry aren't my favorites but should probably be doing something)... and then there is Nyla Rose. It was another pride month come and gone where AEW seemingly forgot about the existence of Nyla which always irks me a bit, but I went to check cagematch after and saw she has not been booked by AEW/ROH all year (working the Jericho Cruise was as close as she got). It sticks out as she was regularly working ROH and dark matches right until the end of 2024, then a hard stop with 2025. I don't know why this is so but I would be lying if I said I saw the timing and didn't have a certain fear cross my mind. Let me just say that I really, really hope to see her work an AEW/ROH match soon. Please.

I think it was definitely initially intended as counterprogramming but just look at WWE's recent/current big event schedule: going from Saudi PPV to the GAB/SNME/Evolution triple shot a couple weeks later to their first two day Summerslam a few weeks after that. I know NXT is to a degree its own thing but I'd assume the creative side of the company is just straight up beyond overworked right now and at some point you pick something that gets the short stick. If it was my choice I'd probably just hope for the best with GAB and SNME too.

I swear there is a HBK/Lawler match in WWF where Shawn does this.

I pondered the opposite in a different AEW thread, but you also have to question the theoretical wisdom of having everyone who has come to work all year be used to build someone up for the guy who decided to take half a year off right when you make your big jump to Max and such. I love Darby (he's legit in my top 2 or 3 guys in the company) but I do think you kinda have to be careful with how you handle him in the near future for purely human nature reasons.

See part of me wonders the opposite, if that perhaps the plan of having Swerve have to help Hangman is as dumb as it sounds and he catches a stray and just murks Page instead.

I can't see the upside of signing either. Danhausen is fine at what he does but I don't think that it "scales up" beyond the indie level, maybe they just want to see if he can sell some shirts for them. Private Party... I guess a NXT flyer shot is fine to see if a change of scenery unlocks something in them (it happens sometimes!) but that's about it.

I mean they were in the main event, but I'm pretty sure most of the tickets were sold before there was a single match announced. It would be interesting to see what would have happened if he remained healthy as I'm pretty sure the Devil was bad enough to have killed whatever momentum they had regardless (TK so far has just not been good with these big angles) but like... ...and let me just state for the record I'm not happy when people suffer horrible injuries that take a year off their careers.. ...but... If Cole stays healthy Swerve and possibly Danielson are never AEW champ (Joe too, but that was largely a gold watch reign so whatever). It would require an amazingly persuasive argument to convince me that getting those instead was the bad turn of events.

I'm sorry, but if they play this Kaiser/El Grande Americano deal the way it appears they might (Ludwig has been skulking around and with Gable out saw a chance to seize control of a group of dangerous idiots by putting on the outfit because Gable never bothered to smarten them up) is so amazingly silly that I can't help but be on board with it.

FWIW there is a world of difference between pre-heel turn Kyle Fletcher and what he has become since then. Beforehand he was generic workrate guy #427, but he has tapped into something as a heel that actually sticks out.

I have missed a bunch of Punk's ppv matches (today's as well for obvious reasons) but my feeling on him in-ring is that at this point he's very dependent on the quality of opponent. With a dialed in good opponent he'll hold his own, if in there with someone who ain't he's not gonna be able to elevate/save things. Which is another way of saying that he's a very bad choice for a 2025 Cena opponent.

On the other hand... kinda here to watch the matches not the crowd, you know? Be loud and enthusiastic but when they get more into popping themselves than responding to the match itself then I think it's fair to push back on them a bit. Like I remember the Seth/Dolph ironman match where the crowd basically tanked the match by counting down the final ten seconds of the minute every single time and getting pissy when they took the clock down because of it.