AEW - OCTOBER 2022

[Casey]

Charlotte/Paige at TLC 2015 was pretty good from what I remember. IMO, this is when Charlotte was still putting it all together and wasn't fantastic or anything, so the match isn't entirely her doing.

And on the news of her getting cleared: well, yeah. Look at her debut. What the commentary team was saying the entire time. It's pretty obvious she was cleared before she was signed, and I'm sure that came from a doctor outside of AEW. Even Bryan Danielson had to get the WWE medical team to clear him to return after he had a laundry list of doctors that said he was good to come back. It's precaution.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

18 minutes ago, Casey said:

Charlotte/Paige at TLC 2015 was pretty good from what I remember. IMO, this is when Charlotte was still putting it all together and wasn't fantastic or anything, so the match isn't entirely her doing.

Refresh me, was that the one where Charlotte pulled a falcon arrow to the outside out of nowhere?

[Casey]

I don't think so. The match is on WWE's YouTube channel. I don't really have the time to re-watch it right now but scanning it pretty quickly, there isn't a whole lot of stuff on the outside that isn't just Ric Flair being a distraction and whatnot.

[Infinit]

14 hours ago, odessasteps said:

My freshman roommate got me watching GH for a while. My mom was always a strictly CBS soap watcher. 

This was during the Ian Buchanan/Finola Hughes era, asi remember it.

Duke Lavery was a BOSS

[Infinit]

9 hours ago, matt925 said:

Yeah and he burned that bridge too in the same Sammy interview. 
 

Man, next week would be Kenny’s first major league show in Canada, right? I know roh/new japan did a big crowd in Chicago for Kenny’s first time, but they never did Toronto right? That’s a damn shame. 
 

Edit: has he only done his local Indies or anything else?

Kenny wrestled a few times in Toronto for the NJPW/ROH joint shows. 

[Dewar]

58 minutes ago, elizium said:

He's wrestled multiple times at the Travelodge East in Winnipeg, I don't think you get bigger than that

I was at The Palladium/Lid/Whatever it was called at the time when Samoa Joe refused to do the job for Kenny, and the promoter wrote up an amazing rant on the PCW message board. 

Bowling and drinks, then wrestling and drinks on a Thursday night without having to work on a Friday was a high point of my university years. 

[Curt McGirt]

3 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Meltzer is reporting that Saraya has been cleared to wrestle in AEW by Dr. Michael Sampson.

 

 

...

 

You know I gotta do it, now especially...

Spoiler

Meanwhile I'm gonna steal Cubs' breakdown of the Andrade interview for y'all

Quote

Andrade 

Andrade did an extended interview with Bernardo Guzman of Mas Lucha this past week. You should watch the whole interview, I’m not going to summarize it all. In fact, I’m going to skip the most covered portion – Andrade saying Sammy Guevera complained “like a little girl” about getting hit hard – because it is the most covered already. The two got into a back and forth on Twitter about it, one that Andrade had to know was going to happen when he brought it up in the interview. The interview seems to have been filmed recently (so recently that neither man was aware AEW is off of Space.) They made reference to filming this (in a hotel room) just a few blocks away from Arena Mexico.

Andrade’s main point in doing this interview was to air his grievances with AAA, specifically Dorian Roldan. Andrade made sure to note he respected Konnan and had no problem with him. He also made sure to note he did not respect Roldan. Andrade feels Roldan owes him twice over. He’s owed first for bringing Ric Flair to last year’s Triplemania. Konnan had the idea to do it, but Flair only did it for Andrade, AAA benefited from it and Andrade seems to feel he was not properly thanked. Andrade also feels Roldan owes him for treating him and his fellow wrestlers poorly.

Andrade says he and Dorian Roldan talked about a 2022 contract back in November, but Roldan never got back to him. Andrade later went to Konnan, and they agreed on Andrade working the three TripleManias this year. The first one is Monerrety. Andrade got in at midnight before the show and was told he had to be at the arena at 11 AM. Andrade found this absurd – AEW & WWE never asked him to come that early, and they at least had some great food for the wrestlers to eat while they were waiting. Andrade said AAA had almost nothing to eat and he didn’t see the point in being there that early. Andrade instead went out to get himself food and arrived at 4 pm instead.

(Larry Dallas, also at the TripleMania Monterrey show, says AAA did have good catering.)

The most controversial part of the interview is Andrade saying his treatment at TripleMania was part of a pattern of how poorly AAA treats all their wrestlers, and they shouldn’t stand for it. He talks directly to Hijo de Vikingo, telling him to open his eyes and go to the US where they’re not going to pay him just 200 or 100 dollars a match. Andrade admits he doesn’t know exactly how much Vikingo is being paid and is throwing out numbers in a semi-joking fashion, but insists he’s heard amounts suggesting the CMLL prelim guys get paid better than some of the AAA main eventers. Andrade says he respected Paco Alonso when working for him and Vince McMahon for how they treated the wrestlers and doesn’t respect Dorian Roldan because he doesn’t believe he takes care of his wrestlers like a major promotion.

Andrade mentions he’s talked to CMLL about returning – once right after the left WWE, and again after last year’s TripleMania. He’s still open to going, but it comes off as they’re not coming close enough to the price he wants. He’d like to face Volador or Mistico again. (Andrade rejects the idea of facing Ultimo Guerrero, though he does give him credit for teaching him a lot.) He was to wrestle Vikingo in Tijuana at one point and would still like to wrestle Psycho Clown also, but doesn’t see it happening soon. He’s faced  Hijo del Santo since leaving WWE and would like to do it again. Volador, Psycho and Santo are his three dream apuesta matches.

Andrade’s been teasing unhappiness and leaving AEW on his Twitter, likely part of an angle. He seemed calmer about that situation on Twitter. He’s happy with the deal, and happy with not having to deal with the WWE schedule. Andrade just feels he could and would like to do more than he’s getting right now in AEW. Andrade felt the fans got to know him in the first year and now he wants to be competing for championships, which hasn’t really done. A downside to his current AEW deal is he and his wife have opposite schedules. She’s gone from Thursdays to Tuesdays, he’s gone from Tuesdays to Thursdays. They travel together sometimes just to have time together.

Andrade also is still frustrated with how the NJPW/Forbidden Door situation played out. He still wants that match to go back to Japan and feels Tony Khan should’ve been able to book whatever he wanted on the show Tony Khan was running, but he understood the situation and respected NJPW’s ethics in maintaining their relationship with CMLL. What he didn’t understand is how the Lucha Brothers & Pac were able to wrestle Ospreay and Aussie Open a month later, no problem. He hopes that means it still might work for him. Andrade carefully mentions he almost went to NOAH just to go back to Japan, but they didn’t come to terms.

Andrade praises Stuka Jr. for helping him get into CMLL and notes Stuka’s brothers helped train him. He’s complimentary as usual to Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja, noting they stayed with him when they first came to Mexico City. He likes that Soberano is getting more chances and would like more for his cousin Espanto Jr. as well. He’s happy Rush has gotten an AEW contract and thinks he’s done well in AEW so far. Andrade says being in Ric Flair’s retirement match was a cool honor but one that left him a little scared – who knows what’s going to happen with a 75 year old man wrestling – and all the legends in the front row made him a little nervous. It was an experience he’ll never forget.

This interview caught fire in English language places for Andrade’s comments about Guevera (and the two choosing to go back and forth over in public when it probably would’ve blown over in a day if they had kept it private.) There’s some sentiment that’s a work, which is fair because both have played games on social media recently. I tend to think it’s real because a Guevera/Andrade feud wouldn’t make much sense in AEW at the moment.

The negative comments about Dorian Roldan and AAA seemed to be Andrade’s actual point. Telling AAA’s champion and young hope to leave the promotion is a real thumb to the eye. I suspect Vikingo is dealing with a lot of people like Andrade right now, maybe less publically but just as forcefully telling him what he should or shouldn’t do right now. Which ones he ends up listening to will probably shape 2023 in a big fashion.

It shouldn’t be ignored that this specifically anti-AAA interview came on Mas Lucha’s platform. Jose Manuel Guillen is both the AAA play-by-play lead and also one of the people running Mas Lucha. It was likely not an accident Bernardo Guzman handled the interview. The Mexican wrestling world is small and with many strange relationships. Including this one; no matter what Andrade said about Dorian Roldan here, they’ll probably work together again someday.

 

[Unnatural]

Is he saying Punk has an office job? Or is that stream of consciousness rambling on his part

 

[Greggulator]

2 hours ago, For Great Justice said:

vs Emma in NXT is the big one. Though, like a movie that was groundbreaking for it’s time before the methods created were later mastered, the Bayley/Sasha/Charlotte/Becky stuff blows it away so I’m not sure how hindsight will treat it.

Exactly. 

The Paige/Emma feud was really important to NXT and women's wrestling. That was the first feud they treated seriously and something beyond "I'm hotter than you." It was a really good face versus face feud. Paige was the uber-serious traditionalist. Emma was your bubbly friend without a lot of self-awareness but really talented at her job. What was also great was Emma had a groundswell of support any was arguably more popular than Paige. 

I remember thinking it was a really good match. But, yeah, the Horsewomen started having random matches against each other on like the second match on a weekly NXT show without any real build-up that blew those out of the water. Let alone their big Takeover matches.

Paige is someone who comes off as a better wrestler than she actually is. That's not a slight on her at all. That's really great. But, also, there was not a lot of talent on Raw/Smackdown when she got called up. AJ Lee was probably the best performer and not bad in the ring. But AJ would be the 10th best woman on the roster right now, if that. And I was a huge fan of hers. 

It will be interesting to see. I'm not counting on any matches on par with what we're used to seeing with the WWE women's division. But I do think Paige and Britt will have a really great, heated feud. 

[A_K]

41 minutes ago, Hayabusa said:

Is he saying Punk has an office job? Or is that stream of consciousness rambling on his part

 

?

[Kevin Wilson]

2 hours ago, hammerva said:

I think Sammy is more Austin Aries frankly.  I don't get the vibe that Andrade wants the attention and wants to start shit.  Has no problem finishing it though.   It feels like Sammy wakes up every morning and thinks "so what kind of shit can I do today"

 

People keep forgetting that Andrade started this, not Sammy. Andrade just randomly insulted Sammy in an interview, bringing up an incident that may or may not have happened in the past to call him soft. Yea, Sammy responded in an immature manner, but it was Andrade that went out of his way to publicly start the drama he knew insulting Sammy would bring. He even RTed the person that tweeted out that part of the interview to make sure everyone saw it.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Well, that would certainly explain a lot.

[The Natural]

[Kang]

How AEW is booked in 2022

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1043647/backstage-news-on-who-tony-khan-is-bouncing-aew-creative-ideas-off-of/

[Dolphman 3000]

26 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Well, that would certainly explain a lot.

Punk quietly taking an office title so he can still appear as "one of the boys" while getting a benefits package

Don't want to give the other wrestlers any ideas that they should unionize!

[(BP)]

I don’t think TK was trying to indicate Punk had an official office job. There would be some parentheses or ellipses in that sentence if it were written down.

[zendragon]

4 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Meltzer is reporting that Saraya has been cleared to wrestle in AEW by Dr. Michael Sampson.

 

 

...

 

He does not appear to be a head and neck specialist, which I would think you would need for this

[A_K]

12 minutes ago, (BP) said:

I don’t think TK was trying to indicate Punk had an official office job. There would be some parentheses or ellipses in that sentence if it were written down.

Opposite. He seemed to hesitate on revealing something that may or may not be public knowledge then just said it.

[JLowe]

One thing the WWE tampering has been successful at is stirring up shit in the AEW locker rooM

[zendragon]

17 hours ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

https://images.app.goo.gl/QWWepD9PLJqXGQcFA

Turns out it was Unforgiven 2002, not the Rumble. Either way I have absolutely zero recall of watching this show beyond his cameo.

With all the stories about Vince having never heard of Pirates of the Caribbean or whatever the pop culture stuff that gets through is wild 

[Belgian_Waffle]

1 hour ago, Kevin Wilson said:

People keep forgetting that Andrade started this, not Sammy. Andrade just randomly insulted Sammy in an interview, bringing up an incident that may or may not have happened in the past to call him soft. Yea, Sammy responded in an immature manner, but it was Andrade that went out of his way to publicly start the drama he knew insulting Sammy would bring. He even RTed the person that tweeted out that part of the interview to make sure everyone saw it.

Exactly. I think for a certain demographic of the manly men who post here Sammy represents "obnoxious young guy" while some of the rest of us have much less trouble recognizing Andrade as "bully who picks a fight with the guy in the room he knows he can smack around". 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Belgian_Waffle

[odessasteps]

49 minutes ago, JLowe said:

One thing the WWE tampering has been successful at is stirring up shit in the AEW locker rooM

Cerebral Assassin 

[JLowe]

23 minutes ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

Exactly. I think for a certain demographic of the manly men who post here Sammy represents "obnoxious young guy" while some of the rest of us have much less trouble recognizing Andrade as "bully who picks a fight with the guy in the room he knows he can smack around". 

I don’t think these takes are mutually exclusive in this situation, especially since Sammy has a history as well.

[Shartnado]

37 minutes ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

Exactly. I think for a certain demographic of the manly men who post here Sammy represents "obnoxious young guy" while some of the rest of us have much less trouble recognizing Andrade as "bully who picks a fight with the guy in the room he knows he can smack around". 

It would have been nice if Eddie Kingston would have walked up to Andrade, hit him with an Uriken, said "I don't like bullies!", then said "Don't you give me that look!"  to Sammy and walked away.

[Sammo~!]

5 hours ago, zendragon said:

He does not appear to be a head and neck specialist, which I would think you would need for this

I really hope this is just a case of Meltzer playing telephone and that Sampson gave the final approval after a series of specialists took a look at Saraya and cleared her first.