AEW - SEPTEMBER 2023

[AxB]

2 hours ago, Coletti said:

The other company is releasing a bunch of people today, so far just off screen folks but Drew Gulak just vague-tweeted and my fingers are crossed to see the latest member of BCC *HawkeyeHopeMeme*

Apparently WWE is only releasing employees, not Independent Contractors. Today.

[Cobra Commander]

hopefully somebody is able to tell us that they're having the best day of their life during the Memphis Collison

[Gorman]

3 hours ago, zendragon said:

Hope spring eternal that @Gorman can get an appearance in ROH

Thanks - I pitched the idea of being a Pure Rules judge on the Cleveland show, but there wasn't a Pure Rules match that night. Maybe next year, so I can return after a 20-year absence.

[zendragon]

5 hours ago, AxB said:

Apparently WWE is only releasing employees, not Independent Contractors. Today.

I wonder if there's anyone who would be a good pick up on the business, tv production, ect side of things

[The Idiot King]

Jade (potentially? definitely?) leaving is a huge loss to AEW but makes perfect sense for Jade, so I hope it suits her well and I can't imagine her being anything less than a huge star wherever she is. There are lots of fresh and exciting match-ups for her in WWE and I cannot imagine they could somehow fuck this up, but you never know. AEW is big and established enough now that I don't think losing any one wrestler to WWE is going to tank the company, but I do worry that over time if enough people start to see AEW as simply a stepping stone to WWE fame, it will take its toll.  It would suck to lose MJF (who would do great in WWE) or Starks (who would 100% end up in sub-midcard-hell), but the roster is so stacked that you have a lot of great pieces to play with even if there were a fairly large exodus. WWE is just starting to really get back on track with making stars again (Rhea and Bianca are the only two who immediately come to mind) and having AEW suddenly function as a star-making feeder system would be a huge boon to them. It's fun to be in a period of shake-ups and people jumping ship back and forth again, with all the attendant drama, so long as we don't end up in another decades-long period of monopoly. 

[zendragon]

Jade was fun to watch for the initial development , but the bloom kinda came off the rose (similar to Goldberg in WCW) and the Jadeverse stuff kinda petered out. She needs a restart

[Curt McGirt]

I'm not sure if it is a huge loss. Seems to be an "if a tree falls in the woods and nobody's there..." question. At least to Tony Khan, I bet. 

[Belgian_Waffle]

Getting ahead of the actual situation here but I gotta think that if they do decide to lay off talent at some point then Riddle might be one of the bigger names in immediate trouble given all the different shit he's been involved in. Is he somebody folks here think would be worth a shot in AEW? I don't watch much WWE but from what I've seen of his work (both in the ring and as a character) I could see him being a good hand/"something different" in AEW, assuming he's not more trouble than he's worth.

[TheVileOne]

IMHO the problem with Jade is they built her into a star, a wrecking machine, and a dominant champion and put her over everybody, and then they didn't do much with her after that. She didn't really have any meaningful feuds. They'd find a new opponent for her, they'd talk trash a little bit, and then she'd win every match about 6-7 minutes.

Had her lose for the first time, and I think that was fine, but then she disappeared from TV only to return and it's to write her off. IMHO that's a complete and utter waste. I'm starting to wonder if Tony Khan doesn't have any idea how to build big monsters into stars and doesn't know what to do with them once they accomplish their goal. Case in point, look at how badly they fumbled and floundered with Wardlow after he beat MJF and won the TNT Title. Where even is Wardlow right now?

No offense to Samoa Joe, I like Joe. But he kind of took a spot that either Wardlow or Hobbs could've been occupying when they were both ready for it. They failed to capitalize on both guys. 

The one outlier seems to be MJF, and they seemed to luck into the whole MJF/Adam Cole thing, but even that storyline may have peaked. We'll see.

[AxB]

6 hours ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

Getting ahead of the actual situation here but I gotta think that if they do decide to lay off talent at some point then Riddle might be one of the bigger names in immediate trouble given all the different shit he's been involved in. Is he somebody folks here think would be worth a shot in AEW? I don't watch much WWE but from what I've seen of his work (both in the ring and as a character) I could see him being a good hand/"something different" in AEW, assuming he's not more trouble than he's worth.

He's more trouble than he's worth.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

I didn't like the undefeated streak and the general positioning, it meant you couldn't get anything meaningful out of the Baddies feuding with her but more generally nobody gained anything from losing to her either. I felt Statlander should have beaten her in the tournament and Ruby should have won it. As is, you have somebody who basically merked everyone (doing a job bc you're on the way out just isn't the same) who will now go to WWE. Whereas if she'd taken meaningful losses then I feel the division would be left in a better state.

And the truth is Statlander still feels like a work in progress. I suspect that if Hayter had been around, Cargill would have put her over in a Champion vs Champion match first. Oh well.

It's no disaster, but I think undefeated streaks are generally a bad booking strategy - Gunther is probably the closest to an exception, but he has been pinned/submitted by a couple of people albeit primarily in NXT, has lost tag where he wasn't pinned, and will presumably do the honours for Gable or Ciampa which will elevate whichever one they go with. I don't think Jade Carter even lost tag matches.

[Belgian_Waffle]

I think the only other time they "beat" Jade or even made her look beat-able before Statlander was when she didn't win the casino battle royal at All Out 2021, and even in that instance I kind of got the impression Tony regretted having her eliminated and probably hoped nobody remembered it since her undefeated streak and the TBS title were introduced almost immediately after. 

[JLowe]

Y’all didn’t catch Britt’s little snide remark about how she never got a TBS title shot when Jade was champion? They were never going to sacrifice one of their top card women to Jade, so they ended up having to bring in jobbers, indie wrestlers, and hot-shotting feuds with low carders.

Most interesting thing with the Baddies was the Red Velvet turn, and I still maintain it would’ve been a nice twist to have Red’s turn involve her intentionally losing when she and Jade had that tag match, thus ending the streak. Instead, you get Jade squashing Red and Hogan to zero heat. Who was it who brought in Trina (Mercedes Martinez) only for her to immediately turn and join Jade? It was almost Poochie-esque at its low points.

[porksweats]

20 minutes ago, JLowe said:

Y’all didn’t catch Britt’s little snide remark about how she never got a TBS title shot when Jade was champion? They were never going to sacrifice one of their top card women to Jade, so they ended up having to bring in jobbers, indie wrestlers, and hot-shotting feuds with low carders.

Most interesting thing with the Baddies was the Red Velvet turn, and I still maintain it would’ve been a nice twist to have Red’s turn involve her intentionally losing when she and Jade had that tag match, thus ending the streak. Instead, you get Jade squashing Red and Hogan to zero heat. Who was it who brought in Trina (Mercedes Martinez) only for her to immediately turn and join Jade? It was almost Poochie-esque at its low points.

Diamante was who was Poochied.

[Curt McGirt]

6 hours ago, AxB said:

He's more trouble than he's worth.

Like Jade'll be, I think he's in the right place -- only for completely different reasons. 

[colonial]

The Mogul Embassy Answers Everything | Hey! (EW), 9/17/23 - YouTube

An above-average RJ City interview this weekend. 

Spoiler

Toa Liona staying in character throughout the interview was great, though I did catch trying not to crack up when Brian Cage did his white-boy dance. Also didn't know Cage and Aaron Rodgers were high-school classmates.

 

[AxB]

The UFC/WWE merger might turn out to be pretty bad news for Matt Riddle. Considering the only reason he’s even in Pro Wrestling is because Dana White really took against him.

Like Dana was very clear with Riddle that Marijuana is on the banned substance list and you can’t use it and be a UFC fighter. All of your wins will magically become No Contests as soon as you piss hot. And Riddle retorted that he has to smoke weed at least once a day, or he would

Spoiler

Murder his wife and all of his children.

 Now he’s divorced since then (his ex-wife made a very big deal of staying with him after his Speaking Out stories became public, then left him later on), and started a new family with his porn performer girlfriend. Because of course he has. 
 

He’s a disaster waiting to happen. And if you really wanted a guy to do a lovable stoner gimmick, why get this guy when the indies are teeming with them?

[(BP)]

Melt Man Donnie Ray could replace Matt Riddle tomorrow and do the exact same thing, probably better in some ways. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by (BP)

[Niners Fan in CT]

No, losing Jade is a huge loss.  I would say there's an 80% chance she becomes a huge star in WWE.  They misused the fuck out of her in AEW.  "But she was undefeated.."  Does not matter because they never mixed her up with the women in the world title scene and that was a huge mistake.  It made sense for her to operate in her own little corner of AEW for a while, she needed to improve in the ring and she has.  She's not spectacular but she's good enough now to where I can see WWE pushing her to the moon right away.  

[Just Dave]

5 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

No, losing Jade is a huge loss.  I would say there's an 80% chance she becomes a huge star in WWE.  They misused the fuck out of her in AEW.  "But she was undefeated.."  Does not matter because they never mixed her up with the women in the world title scene and that was a huge mistake.  It made sense for her to operate in her own little corner of AEW for a while, she needed to improve in the ring and she has.  She's not spectacular but she's good enough now to where I can see WWE pushing her to the moon right away.  

But how many Instagram followers does she have?

 

It’s a loss. Huge? We’ll see. But one thing I’ve learned is to never underestimate the wwe’s ability to ruin someone. 

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

4 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

No, losing Jade is a huge loss.  I would say there's an 80% chance she becomes a huge star in WWE.  They misused the fuck out of her in AEW.  "But she was undefeated.."  Does not matter because they never mixed her up with the women in the world title scene and that was a huge mistake.  It made sense for her to operate in her own little corner of AEW for a while, she needed to improve in the ring and she has.  She's not spectacular but she's good enough now to where I can see WWE pushing her to the moon right away.  

Who the heck was she gonna mix it up with that she didn’t? They didn’t want her losing to Storm or Hayter so moving her into that division wouldn’t have made sense.

Also I think you’re being a bit generous with your WWE assessment. Over time she might get that push, but not right away unless it’s on NXT. She’s not getting pushed over Iyo, Asuka, Bayley, Charlotte, and Bianca on Friday nights, and she definitely isn’t ending Rhea’s reign on Monday nights. So if they bring her in and feed her to Rhea then what? She’s just another woman on the roster at that point. Plus if her attitude doesn’t improve any she really won’t get a push. It’s easy to think you’re hot stuff in AEW when Britt is your only real competition as far as backstage politics goes, try that in WWE especially when you’re dealing with either Becky or Charlotte and you’ll find out quickly how good you had it in AEW.

[BrianS81177]

2 hours ago, colonial said:

The Mogul Embassy Answers Everything | Hey! (EW), 9/17/23 - YouTube

An above-average RJ City interview this weekend. 

  Hide contents

Toa Liona staying in character throughout the interview was great, though I did catch trying not to crack up when Brian Cage did his white-boy dance. Also didn't know Cage and Aaron Rodgers were high-school classmates.

 

Rj constantly making Tea Leoni references made me giggle every time.

[TheVileOne]

20 minutes ago, just drew said:

But how many Instagram followers does she have?

 

It’s a loss. Huge? We’ll see. But one thing I’ve learned is to never underestimate the wwe’s ability to ruin someone. 

She's got 910K Instagram followers. Way less than the likes of Bayley, Becky Lynch, Asuka, et al, but more than say, Chelsea Green and Raquel Rodriguez.

[Niners Fan in CT]

31 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

She's got 910K Instagram followers. Way less than the likes of Bayley, Becky Lynch, Asuka, et al, but more than say, Chelsea Green and Raquel Rodriguez.

He doesn't believe instagram is a useful metric in determining someone's popularity.  I believe it is a useful metric.  

Regardless,  Jade has way more star potential than Dr. Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter.  I stand by my position that Jade will end up being a way bigger star out of the three of them. 

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

7 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

He doesn't believe instagram is a useful metric in determining someone's popularity.  I believe it is a useful metric.  

Regardless,  Jade has way more star potential than Dr. Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter.  I stand by my position that Jade will end up being a way bigger star out of the three of them. 

If WWE were to get Hayter she’d be the biggest star of the group. Look at how long they pushed Paige for, and Hayter is miles better than Paige. What does Jade bring that they don’t already have in Rhea or Bianca? Both of them are also muscular women with great physiques, and unlike Jade they can cut promos without every other word being bitch. 

I do think Jade will get a solid run, but people expecting she’s going to be one of the top four women while all of the following are still employed is ridiculous: Rhea, Bianca, Becky, Charlotte, Asuka, Bayley, and Tiffany Stratton (I personally don’t get her as much as some but she’s their next mega star as far as females go)