AEW NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2025

[HarryArchieGus]

I noticed @NikoBaltimore mention in his excellent Road Report a DVDVR shirt was being sold at the Arena. Late to the party here and curious what that looks like? Any links? 

[Casey]

3 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

I noticed @NikoBaltimore mention in his excellent Road Report a DVDVR shirt was being sold at the Arena. Late to the party here and curious what that looks like? Any links? 

the front of the Danielson quote was DEAN~!!! in the upper right hand corner of the shirt I guess?

I believe Niko got me the Ken the Box one 

[Go2Sleep]

On 9/8/2025 at 7:19 PM, Niners Fan in CT said:

I might catch hell for this and people can call me a fanboy or whatever but I think after these past twelve months, Mercedes Mone' has made a case for the best North American women's wrestler of all time.  

I don't think this is even remotely up for debate, and I would question the perspective of anyone who suggested otherwise. Like seriously, who is her competition? Her WWE counterparts started in the hole given that they all made their names thanks to Mercedes giving them their best matches (never forget crowds mainly chanted "we want Sasha" in 2015) and her international work has since left them all in the dust. Anyone working prior to 2015 never had the opportunity to do 1% of what Mercedes has done. I'll always make sure to shout Mickie, Trish, Victoria, Kong, Gail, etc for keeping the door cracked open in dire circumstances, but realistically, they don't have the body of work Mercedes has combined. Asuka is a smoother operator in the ring (and that's not a knock on Mercedes), but still has only managed a fraction of the memorable matches. The same could possibly be said for Shayna, although she lacks the general charisma as well despite her intimidating presence. US women's wrestling grew more from 2015-2016 than it did in the previous 100 years and the common denominator in every significant match in that time frame is Mercedes Mone. Whether you love her or hate her now, put some god damn respect on her name for that.

The only person who I think will have a case one day is Toni Storm. Right now she's about 3 years into being a mega star, while Mercedes is in year 10. Women being able to get over on their ability to wrestle is a wonderful, but Toni has cracked that next frontier of a woman getting over based on her character work which I think is a first in the US, certainly at the top level. It certainly helps that Toni was already a good wrestler and continues to impress at every big opportunity, but she is marking the next evolutionary step in women's wrestling where (much like the men for decades before) being a great wrestler in a sea of great wrestlers isn't everything, you have to find a way to make that genuine connection to get to legend status. She took the chance on something that could've risked her career getting pigeon-holed as a midcard comedy act and made herself the face of a company.

[The Natural]

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/bryan-danielson-aew-commentary-role-roh/

[The Natural]

1 hour ago, Go2Sleep said:

I don't think this is even remotely up for debate, and I would question the perspective of anyone who suggested otherwise. Like seriously, who is her competition? Her WWE counterparts started in the hole given that they all made their names thanks to Mercedes giving them their best matches (never forget crowds mainly chanted "we want Sasha" in 2015) and her international work has since left them all in the dust. Anyone working prior to 2015 never had the opportunity to do 1% of what Mercedes has done. I'll always make sure to shout Mickie, Trish, Victoria, Kong, Gail, etc for keeping the door cracked open in dire circumstances, but realistically, they don't have the body of work Mercedes has combined. Asuka is a smoother operator in the ring (and that's not a knock on Mercedes), but still has only managed a fraction of the memorable matches. The same could possibly be said for Shayna, although she lacks the general charisma as well despite her intimidating presence. US women's wrestling grew more from 2015-2016 than it did in the previous 100 years and the common denominator in every significant match in that time frame is Mercedes Mone. Whether you love her or hate her now, put some god damn respect on her name for that.

The only person who I think will have a case one day is Toni Storm. Right now she's about 3 years into being a mega star, while Mercedes is in year 10. Women being able to get over on their ability to wrestle is a wonderful, but Toni has cracked that next frontier of a woman getting over based on her character work which I think is a first in the US, certainly at the top level. It certainly helps that Toni was already a good wrestler and continues to impress at every big opportunity, but she is marking the next evolutionary step in women's wrestling where (much like the men for decades before) being a great wrestler in a sea of great wrestlers isn't everything, you have to find a way to make that genuine connection to get to legend status. She took the chance on something that could've risked her career getting pigeon-holed as a midcard comedy act and made herself the face of a company.

I might have a stab at doing a top ten North American women at some point.

[HarryArchieGus]

Love seeing Bryan Danielson doing media and questioning WWEs counter programming. Glad AEW has his voice and support… 

Quote

I’m just curious, like, what the people who are making these decisions, what they’re thinking, right? In the sense of like, ‘Oh okay, this AEW thing, it’s a real danger to our billion-dollar business.’ That can’t be it. AEW existing and being this challenger brand, and being as successful as we’ve been, has changed the landscape for wrestling, for the wrestlers themselves. Wrestlers are being paid more now than ever from a sports rights perspective. So, for example, in most major sports in the United States, the players get anywhere between 40 to 50% of the revenue. WWE was paying their wrestlers nowhere close to that. Now, keep in mind, they’re still not paying anywhere close to that, but they do have to pay more, because if they don’t, the talent is going to leave and go to AEW. AEW does pay that 40 to 50% of their revenue to their wrestlers, you know, despite making much less money. I mean we still, our TV rights deal was incredible, but we’re still the challenger brand catching up on however many years WWE has.”   

On AEW’s value as a challenger brand to WWE: “It’s interesting because we’re, we’re not at the point of being a threat. It’s one of the things that people who really crave power and a lot of money play these weird games that I don’t understand,” he said. “I don’t understand, it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna run all the competitors that might be competitive with us out of this business.’ Why? It’s good. It’s good for the wrestlers. It’s good for the wrestlers, both in AEW and in WWE, it’s good for them. If AEW wouldn’t have started, would Cody Rhodes be where he is right now? No, they have a megastar because AEW exists. Would CM Punk ever have come back? Probably not.

Edited September 10 by HarryArchieGus

[Log]

Danielson hit the nail on the head there. No AEW = WWE gets to pay wrestlers less. That's why they do that shit.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

On 9/6/2025 at 6:17 PM, Niners Fan in CT said:

The online nerds love to discuss the numbers to death...

If you enjoy comparing business metrics and financials for the wrestling companies you enjoy, youre an online nerd. But if you want to fantasy book or debate what female performer is the GOAT, not an online nerd?

Why oh why does the news keep reporting on the news I dont care about! Tailor it to what I want! Im the only person that matters! Less sports more weather!

Dawg we're all online nerds. Just because there's an aspect you dont get down with that doesnt make that aspect meritless to discuss for others. If your greater point is those reports are twisted into hacky tribalism shit on twitter, I agree with you. But that reason alone isn't a good reason to stop discussing one of the most fascinating parts of the business.

 

Edited to add: As far as female GOAT Mercedes is up in the top two or three of that discussion and is one of my favorite parts of AEW. I actually look forward to her stuff more than Toni's stuff these days. For me she has that RVD TV Title run going right now, where the mid card title is more compelling than the world title.

Just wanted to add that in to show we're on the same page about something and my post wasn't intended to be hostile lol.

Edited September 10 by NoFistsJustFlips
Mercedes props

[Craig H]

5 hours ago, Casey said:

the front of the Danielson quote was DEAN~!!! in the upper right hand corner of the shirt I guess?

I believe Niko got me the Ken the Box one 

That is so fucking rad. I don't have the words to really express how cool this is. I thought DVDVR sponsoring Gil Melendez where he had the web address on his shorts was cool as shit. This is 1000x better.

And without a doubt, TK is lurking on here. If not, then Mookie is and then probably tells TK what to check out. BTW, I'm kinda surprised that Rob Naylor doesn't work for AEW. Or anywhere for that matter that I know of, but I also don't use Twitter so I have no idea if he posts shit on there or what. It made me wonder who else from here would make a good hire and out of pure need for work, I'll just say me and that I certainly couldn't hurt things. I wouldn't even ask for much. I've already bumped the pay I'm looking for down from $80k to $100k to $40k just to get my foot in the door somewhere. So TK, if you're lurking, I'll be a remote writer, on call 24/7 and my baseline pay is, oh, say, $55k. That's a bargain! You'd be losing money to not hire me!

[Craig H]

Re Mercedes Mone, someone on one the PPV threads, I forget which, pointed out that Mone seems to have adopted this ZSJ style of wrestling and while I think it's ZSJ-lite, I do really like it. Her relentlessly going for hold after hold after hold is pretty cool.

Mortos better watch out. She may be shacked up with Hechicero behind Mortos' back.

[Casey]

There was a moment in time when Nicole Matthews, Madison Eagles and Sara Del Rey were probably the best female wrestlers in North America. If we're talking about purely in-ring, I'd put those three up against any combo of Sasha, Charlotte, Becky & Bayley. By virtue of being on the indies, there's not too much of a gimmick/character there, so none are the most well rounded to make #1 of all-time or whatever, but IMO - they're on the list.

All this to say, HIRE NICOLE MATTHEWS. I know you're here TK, Chris Hero and/or Mookie.

[SovietShooter]

Gail Kim, and maybe even Kong need to be in any kind of discussion about a modern day GOAT.  If the ladies like Trish & Lita "kept the door open" a bit, then Kim & Kong they kicked it open. 

Also, the luchadoras do not get enough credit. Lady Apache, Cinthia Moreno, Faby , Amapola, and some others were regularly putting in good solid matches at a time when few outside of Mexico were watching lucha. 

 

Shout out to Sara Stock too.  

Edited September 10 by SovietShooter
spelling

[RazorbladeKiss87]

5 hours ago, The Natural said:

I might have a stab at doing a top ten North American women at some point.

I'm interested to see where Riot and Becky the Farmer's Daughter fall in your rankings. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

3 hours ago, Craig H said:

That is so fucking rad. I don't have the words to really express how cool this is. I thought DVDVR sponsoring Gil Melendez where he had the web address on his shorts was cool as shit. This is 1000x better.

And without a doubt, TK is lurking on here. If not, then Mookie is and then probably tells TK what to check out. BTW, I'm kinda surprised that Rob Naylor doesn't work for AEW. Or anywhere for that matter that I know of, but I also don't use Twitter so I have no idea if he posts shit on there or what. It made me wonder who else from here would make a good hire and out of pure need for work, I'll just say me and that I certainly couldn't hurt things. I wouldn't even ask for much. I've already bumped the pay I'm looking for down from $80k to $100k to $40k just to get my foot in the door somewhere. So TK, if you're lurking, I'll be a remote writer, on call 24/7 and my baseline pay is, oh, say, $55k. That's a bargain! You'd be losing money to not hire me!

I keep offering but TK hasn't taken any of my pitches. Maybe my idea to recreate the Muta/Akebono/Erotic Terrorist story from Hustle will get my foot in the door. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

3 hours ago, Craig H said:

Re Mercedes Mone, someone on one the PPV threads, I forget which, pointed out that Mone seems to have adopted this ZSJ style of wrestling and while I think it's ZSJ-lite, I do really like it. Her relentlessly going for hold after hold after hold is pretty cool.

Mortos better watch out. She may be shacked up with Hechicero behind Mortos' back.

Sorry for triple posting and double quoting ya but I like her style shift too. I always thought she was more ambitious than her athleticism allowed for (I am not athletic either so I am not trying to be mean, just saying) and her strikes were not great but being in the attack, trying to snatch limbs fits her well. She can be a little sloppy in that mode of attack and it won't look awkward.  

[Niners Fan in CT]

5 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

If you enjoy comparing business metrics and financials for the wrestling companies you enjoy, youre an online nerd. But if you want to fantasy book or debate what female performer is the GOAT, not an online nerd?

I felt like I made it clear in that post why I believe it's nerdy bullshit.  You can't even have an actual debate about ratings because we don't know what the HBO numbers are and we don't know what the Netflix numbers are (and the ones that are released cannot be compared to live same day viewing).  So yes, I think it's pretty dumb and nerdy to debate something where you are missing a significant piece of the information.  I don't think you were being hostile but even if you were, I'm a grown man, I'm willing to debate my point with you if you want to.  And yes, the reason why the ratings are a part of the discourse is to feed tribalism which to me is the fucking worst.

[Go2Sleep]

4 hours ago, Casey said:

There was a moment in time when Nicole Matthews, Madison Eagles and Sara Del Rey were probably the best female wrestlers in North America. If we're talking about purely in-ring, I'd put those three up against any combo of Sasha, Charlotte, Becky & Bayley. By virtue of being on the indies, there's not too much of a gimmick/character there, so none are the most well rounded to make #1 of all-time or whatever, but IMO - they're on the list.

All this to say, HIRE NICOLE MATTHEWS. I know you're here TK, Chris Hero and/or Mookie.

Nicole should've gotten her break 8-10 years ago. She was a regular highlight on any indy show I was able to see her on. No way she wouldn't have been a solid vet presence in peak NXT if nothing else. 

1 hour ago, SovietShooter said:

Gail Kim, and maybe even Kong need to be in any kind of discussion about a modern day GOAT.  If the ladies like Trish & Lita "kept the door open" a bit, then Kim & Kong they kicked it open. 

 

Gail was a solid ace for the early "knockout" era, but Kong was an absolute force who should've been born 12 years later. TNA missed the boat by not putting the X Division title on her. I remember they were doing a tag team tournament of some kind and Road Dogg was the last to find out who his partner was, then Kong's music hit and he sold it like he just got prime Vader. They were matched up against AJ and somebody and I was so hyped... Then the match happened with Kong not getting much ring time with the guys, AJ barely selling her KO backfist, and they went out in the first round. Relatively small on the scale of TNA disappointments, but one that always stuck with me.

[Niners Fan in CT]

1 hour ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

Sorry for triple posting and double quoting ya but I like her style shift too. I always thought she was more ambitious than her athleticism allowed for (I am not athletic either so I am not trying to be mean, just saying) and her strikes were not great but being in the attack, trying to snatch limbs fits her well. She can be a little sloppy in that mode of attack and it won't look awkward.  

She always did submission based wrestling and limb targeting all the way back in NXT.  She just does it more often now.  Also, I wouldn't say she's unathletic. You can't do some of the moves she performs or the bumps she takes or wrestle for 30 minutes without getting tired and not be an athlete.  It'd be more accurate to say she's not a high flyer and shouldn't attempt to be. 

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

9 minutes ago, Go2Sleep said:

Nicole should've gotten her break 8-10 years ago. She was a regular highlight on any indy show I was able to see her on. No way she wouldn't have been a solid vet presence in peak NXT if nothing else. 

I had a feeling she was on the verge of getting signed when she got popped in 2018 for working in the States on a travel visa and got banned for five years. She was great in the second Mae Young Classic and WWE seemed really interested in bringing her in.

[username]

I think limiting it to North America Mercedes is a very comfortable choice for the best women's wrestler of all time, in-ring. That said I've felt that as much as leaving WWE and working elsewhere has elevated her actual matches she's taken as big a step back with all the other outside of matches stuff, promos and segments and what have you. Given she still works in a place where those probably make up at least half of the stuff she does I personally can't hand-wave it away, but yeah her matches are more likely to deliver than just about any other ladies are.

FWIW I do kinda want to see what things look like after she drops the TNT title (and I assume goes on a worldwide losing streak), I wouldn't be shocked if all those other aspects of her game rebound once she's past this current deal.

[Infinit]

Back from my summer vacation lol.

Anyone else going to Dynamite next week or All Out???

[Zimbra]

Yessssssss

[RazorbladeKiss87]

21 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

She always did submission based wrestling and limb targeting all the way back in NXT.  She just does it more often now.  Also, I wouldn't say she's unathletic. You can't do some of the moves she pPerforms or the bumps she takes or wrestle for 30 minutes without getting tired and not be an athlete.  It'd be more accurate to say she's not a high flyer and shouldn't attempt to be. 

I'm not saying she's unathletic. That much is obvious.  She just tries things that are a little outside her range. Punk does the same. It's not bad to try stuff and sometimes a sloppily executed move fits the story of the match. The limb work is definitely ramped up from what I've seen previously.  I'm glad she's on this run because I would never have sought out her stuff and would be missing some great work.  

[Casey]

Fightful is saying that Wardlow was slotted to be in an upcoming World title match with Hangman, but the injury changed that obviously. Fletcher was always supposed to be facing Hangman at All Out.

That guy couldn't have worse luck if he tried, holy shit.

[username]

I'm just stunned he seemingly got through two seasons of American Gladiators healthy.