username

I appreciate the notion but like... the company is owned by a billionaire, asking everyday folks to pay "extra" to make sure they don't end up taking a loss on this feels like misplaced I guess loyalty?

Yeah I have the impression that a lot of people didn't watch Paige's work in her last comeback/post-injury authority stuff. She wasn't good, particularly on the mic. She definitely has some charisma or presence to her and I could see wanting her around for this type of role when AEW was starting off... but at this point they have several people who are either better talkers or better workers than her. I assume she has a brief introductory period where people's happy memories of her will let her maybe draw some eyes onto what she is doing but barring her randomly improving during her retirement I think she's gonna get exposed sooner rather than later.

Many of these people have worked for HHH before in NXT and likely credit him for helping them advance and improve in their career, if a guy who you have a relationship/history like that with is suddenly in charge of the biggest company in your industry it isn't unusual that a number would go "man I'd like to work with that guy again." Like take wrestling out of the equation, many people in most lines of work would have to stop and take stock of where they want to be if such a situation came up.

FWIW I thought most of the "elder" actors were good except for Rhaenyra who I thought was a noticeable downgrade with none of the spark the younger actress brought to the show. On the flip side I think the new Alicent seems on first blush to be an upgrade. I think this was clearly the weakest episode of the show so far but that isn't completely unexpected due to the sheer amount of place setting and re-establishing the show had to cram in here. My biggest concern moving forward is that none of the new kids comes off as all that interesting of characters so far, hopefully the next few episodes will address that or time jump to new versions of them.

It is forgotten but Buddy was also "kinda" suspended/disciplined in AEW previously due to some issue with working an outside show that may not have been agreed upon and if we are honest hasn't really had a chance to do a lot outside of being the 6th person in trios matches, if he wants out that both seems fine and given that AEW hasn't really seen much use in him beyond that I don't get why they would be opposed beyond the principle of the thing. I think that if their is concern/a desire for the locker room to become less... let's say explosive moving forward then having people who don't want to be there any longer in it is a questionable decision, and if any of them decide to make a public request for their release it is a legit problem for AEW given how much people asking and in a certain case being denied their release from WWE plays into their "creation myth". If the tv contracts do get sorted out in the immediate future then I could see the wisdom in offering a blanket one time "you want out, you can go" offer to the entire roster afterwards and having a unified "everyone wants to be here and pulling in the same direction" locker room to build around, and it will likely do a good job of tightening up the roster IMO which has grown too fat around the middle. If that's too much then I think the most reasonable thing for Tony to do would be to tell the people who asked out "listen, give me six months as we've got tv negotiations coming up and the appearance of everyone jumping ship could hurt everyone here. Give me that time to get those taken care of and to prove that this is the best place for you and if after that time you still want out then so be it." I can see the companies wanting the certainty of knowing people are gonna be around X period of time when it comes to planning ahead but I think the bigger deal is that these independent contractors should have the right to quit their jobs and not be throwing their careers away (this is industry-wide opinion, not AEW specific) so if they gotta eat some time off so be it but I don't think anyone benefits from keeping someone in a job they don't want or on the shelf for the better part of 5 years.

Man I got Undertaker's autograph at a flea market around Halloween when he was out injured (I think right before he came back as bikertaker maybe) and it was like $20 or so.

It is gonna be pretty ironic if the show about the Targaryen civil war ends up spawning a civil war among the fanbase due to them switching half the actors out midway through the first season. If the actress playing the older version of Rhaenyra doesn't hit it out of the park immediately I could see the reaction being... notable.

I like that Colt on his twitch stream mentioned that his brother, who is a director on Family Guy, also shares a bank account with their mom. I also like to think that this means that Colt secretly hates his bother and is trying to make him look like a loser >_>

I heard the "Kenny told the locker room he'd fire/wouldn't hire 3/4 of them" line somewhere at least a week or so back, so that's not just something coming out right now. It didn't have any larger context back then either FWIW. What's gonna be funny is when they suspend Punk but do so while he is injured so he doesn't miss any actual time, which in essence is just a fine.

I am unsure if this is touched upon in the books but the show has given me the definite impression that Daemon is rather impotent (this scene, his wife never getting pregnant, I recall something in episode 1 as well). I think the rest of what you write up is plausible but I'm pretty convinced that if he could have performed in that instance he would have.

I assume the brothel is sort of Daemon's "safe space" where he can let his hair down and not have to worry about those there telling folks the specifics of what happens. Of course this is now the second time one someones spies caught him doing/saying something there he shouldn't have (although how this episode played out makes me wonder if the "heir for a day" line happened as described) so he really should know better by now, but if the Hand said nothing I'm not sure it does get back to the king.

I would say based on his expression beforehand that he was torn/hesitant when it came to playing the "king, your daughter and brother were seen banging in a brothel" card, that he was cognizant of the fact that the repercussions of telling the king were potentially beyond even his ability to foresee/steer.

Someone I know who checks in on Cornette's podcast said that one of them on it had a criticism of the Elite or Page in recent history that sounded very much like what Punk said at the press conference. Given that Punk is unlikely to being talking to either of them, many people shifted their focus to either member of FTR. Last apparently was talking about the Cody stuff that climaxed with him leaving AEW earlier than most others as well, so there is more than a bit of smoke hinting that someone fairly well connected in the company is talking to him.

So stepping back from this to look ahead... the one thing that seems to turn the AEW crowd on someone is a promo they don't like/agree with (gestures towards Cody and Sammy). While this isn't televised... the crowd turning Punk heel in that sort of manner is 100% in play. The issue is that if MJF is the feud while you can sort of turn MJF face... if that group is really his moving forward that faction just ain't gonna be faces. Ethan Page, the Ass Boys and the former big Cass do not feel like they are gonna get the crowd rallying behind them any time soon. Should be interesting I guess?

I feel the opposite, I think the single biggest improvement AEW can make is drop the win/loss records. Tony wants to protect everyone and the rankings as-is often have only a tangential relationship to what actually happens on tv with people randomly jumping up right before they are asked to do something on Dynamite. With both of those gone people would probably get to show up on tv more as there would be no permanent record of them eating the L that would require.