SturmCRF Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Hobbs and Dante Martin at least do seem like they're seen as future stars of the promotion, alhough it's fair to question why that translates to losing records on TV for them, and undefeated streaks for Hook and Wardlow. Let's see what happens with Keith Lee though, if they sign him and he isn't Goldberging his way through the roster for the rest of the year, they have a problem. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 (edited) Looked up everyone because I couldn't believe Lee Johnson had a whole eight TV singles matches, but that checks out. Went quick, so I may have missed something: Can't find anything for Darius Can only find one Quen singles match Starks is actually 3-3 on TV, I think they forgot to count BotB On the whole, that's actually fewer total singles matches Got to be more careful because knives are always out whenever anyone casts a critical eye on AEW, but the larger point still stands. Edited January 23, 2022 by John from Cincinnati Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 20 minutes ago, EVA said: Those numbers seem sus to me. Like, I’m not sure when Darius Martin had 2 singles matches on Dynamite. Darius lost a four-way on Dark on 12/30/2020 (Frankie Kazarian over Darius, Angelico, and Griff Garrison). Aside from that, I'm not sure of any other matches where he wrestled without Dante, since Cagematch doesn't list them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Powerhouse Hobbs' record is accurate. - 8/13/20 (Dynamite): Darby Allin over Will Hobbs (0-1) - 10/7/20 (Dynamite): Brian Cage over Will Hobbs (0-2) - 11/19/20 (Dynamite): Powerhouse Hobbs over Lee Johnson (1-2) - 4/21/21 (Dynamite): Christian Cage over Powerhouse Hobbs (1-3) - 6/26/21 (Dynamite): Adam Page over Powerhouse Hobbs (1-4) - 9/1/21 (Dynamite): Powerhouse Hobbs over Brian Cage (2-4) - 9/8/21 (Dynamite): Powerhouse Hobbs over Dante Martin (3-4) - 9/22/21 (Rampage taping): CM Punk over Powerhouse Hobbs (3-5) - 10/16/21 (Rampage taping): Orange Cassidy over Powerhouse Hobbs (3-6) - 1/12/22 (Dynamite): Dante Martin over Powerhouse Hobbs (3-7) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steventon Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Did AEW put Quinn/Kassidy and Caster/Bowen together? I was under the impression they were tag teams pre-AEW. Dante and Darius Martin obviously came in as a tag team. Which would mean the only black wrestlers AEW 'put together' are the Team Taz guys unless I'm missing something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 6 minutes ago, killsteve said: Did AEW put Quinn/Kassidy and Caster/Bowen together? I was under the impression they were tag teams pre-AEW. Dante and Darius Martin obviously came in as a tag team. Which would mean the only black wrestlers AEW 'put together' are the Team Taz guys unless I'm missing something. Bowens was mostly a singles guy on the indies and Caster was part of the Shook Crew. AEW put them together as part of the Acclaimed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 8 minutes ago, killsteve said: Did AEW put Quinn/Kassidy and Caster/Bowen together? I was under the impression they were tag teams pre-AEW. Dante and Darius Martin obviously came in as a tag team. Which would mean the only black wrestlers AEW 'put together' are the Team Taz guys unless I'm missing something. Darius Martin/Lio Rush? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinit Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 RE: Hobbs The losses he didn't get a win back were against Punk, Hangman, Christian and OC. For a young talent of any color, those are some pretty high profile TV matches. I do agree though, that as a whole they can do a much better job creating and pushing single African American stars and I hope it is something that happens as the company grows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 1 minute ago, Infinit said: RE: Hobbs The losses he didn't get a win back were against Punk, Hangman, Christian and OC. For a young talent of any color, those are some pretty high profile TV matches. I do agree though, that as a whole they can do a much better job creating and pushing single African American stars and I hope it is something that happens as the company grows. Right now I'm really, really happy with Jade Cargill's presence/push in that regard (plus she's getting a lot better in the ring for only having had 25 matches). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinit Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 5 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: Right now I'm really, really happy with Jade Cargill's presence/push in that regard (plus she's getting a lot better in the ring for only having had 25 matches). 100%. Jade really has shown so much growth in such little time. The sky's the limit with her. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarheel Moneghetti Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 (edited) On 1/22/2022 at 11:54 AM, S.K.o.S. said: Lio Rush tweeted that his AEW contract will expire on February 14th and he'll be a free agent again. Seemed like things had been smoothed over, but apparently not. Meltzer's comment was "he didn't seem to be happy there and they weren't happy (he was there)". I sort of liked his team with Martin, but it's not any sort of loss. Dave says a number of contracts are expiring during the first half of the year and won't be renewed. Dave claimed they are definitely looking to trim the roster. Only names he mentioned are somewhat obvious suspects: Avalon, Rush, Brian Cage, Janela, and Sonny Kiss. He just mentioned Sonny Kiss in passing and he mostly talked about Janela feuding with someone from MLW on social media. Cage hasn't been used at all for a while and probably won't be used again before his contract is up. The Janela dustup is interesting. Janela claimed he knows someone in MLW who signed a three-year deal that only guaranteed him $14.000 for three years. I'm really curious why you would sign a deal that awful? Also, the other guy taunted Janela by claiming Janela had nowhere to go because he was planning to leave AEW and jump to WWE. Gabe Sapolsky was supposedly going to get him in, but now Gabe's gone. Hilarious. I in no way, shape, or form believe Gabe has ever had the clout to get Joey into WWE. Edited January 23, 2022 by Tarheel Moneghetti 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinit Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 The Janela/MSL Twitter slapfight has been equally sad and hilarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_K Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 (edited) Lee Johnson is 0-8 because he absolutely sucks. They tried pushing him during that crickets QT/Cody angle. It was crickets for a reason - because it and the talent absolutely sucked. I was the first one on here to call out Hook’s hire as pure nepotism and ‘Team Tazz’ have had plenty of angles that have pure sucked too, but he undeniably gets way more of a reaction than any in that graph and he’s manufactured that almost purely by himself. The Acclaimed are great but cancel culture getting hysterical over a fictional scripted speech on a fictional live-drama Television program put paid to the push they were enjoying at the time - the tv show merely responded appropriate to its audience feedback. Edited January 23, 2022 by A_K 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonidas Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Any word on if Keith Lee is AEW bound? Vs Miro/Archer/Kingston/Bryan/Hangman/Hobbs/Hook/Pac and a million others? Yes, please and thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryArchieGus Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 3 hours ago, Jiji said: I love HOOK with everything I've got but this made me sick. Pathetic. Team Taz guys having fewer wins is criminal. My question would be who is the most buzzed about wrestler on that list? The answer to that question should be the guy that is 4-0. AEW is developing a lot of great and diverse young talent. To seriously present this as a fact of injustice is a miserable attempt at click-bait. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Z Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 3 hours ago, Jiji said: I love HOOK with everything I've got but this made me sick. Pathetic. Team Taz guys having fewer wins is criminal. Hook is also far more over then all of the black guys on the roster, with only Dante Martin in the same stratopshere of popularity as Hook. Also, the reality is that most of the best/most popular black wrestlers are currently in WWE (though hopefully Ricochet gets out of there ASAP, and eventually the New Day guys come to AEW in a few years). I think that AEW has a good number of the best overall wrestlers in the world (Danielson, Omega, Young Bucks, Hangman, Mox, Malakai Black), and has been done a good of promoting the best talent and putting them in the top spots, and therein lies the whole chicked and egg dilemma (that list is all white). If say Ricochet had been in AEW at its formation, I think that he would have been pushed as a top level star, but unfortunately he was a free agent a year before AEW formed and made the natural move at that time (NXT was super hot, and the path from NXT to the main roster had not been permanently poisoned yet). Now, they should sign Keith Lee and push him hard because he's a top level talent and is a great way to organically diversify the men's main event level scene. And hopefully, Dante Martin continues his ascent towards the top of the card. Also, while he's a bit stick in neutral now, I still think that Ricky Starks has a ton of upside as long as his body holds up. With the combination of a core of its fanbase and just in general in 2022 corporate America, AEW will need to need to keep working at this (and deep down, TK probably knows this). However, it needs to happen as naturally as possible as well, as the overall draw for many of AEW (myself included) is that is really is the best wrestling in the world and most everyone at the top of the card has earned their position. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coletti Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 2 hours ago, Stefanie the Human said: Bowens was mostly a singles guy on the indies and Caster was part of the Shook Crew. AEW put them together as part of the Acclaimed. It came out eventually that Drew @ Beyond Wrestling was intending to put Caster and Bowens together, interestingly enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Anthony Ogogo appeared on the PROGRESS show today which PROGRESS announced as the first time contracted AEW talent appeared in the UK Can't image that match is gonna end up on the WWE Network version Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_K Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 They do have a few too many faceless (sometimes chinless) white dudes especially in the mid and low card. The upper card, as alluded to a few posts above, is merely victim of circumstance; Danielson, Punk, Moxley etc. were the only A-class level talent available at a given time, and they also happen to be white. No doubt had they been able to get Reigns or Rey Mysterio or such they would have, and they would be in that position. Hobbs then in particular becomes a victim to circumstance, because if they are going to put him in a program with someone like Punk (who they have no doubt invested relatively enormous funds into, who also has a ticking-clock on his usefulness as an in-ring talent) then no one should realistically expect him to go over. That would be unnecessary and, at this stage, frankly stupid given the investment. So they are in the bind of needing to maximise the well-established talent they could get their hands on, with until recently very little TV time to juggle all of these acts, and so that yields a slanted W/L ratio. But there is certainly more room for 'characters' in the mid and low card: when WCW had its luchas / Japanese talent in the 90s they generally felt like a pretty big deal who carried themselves with a lot of pride and seriousness. AEW paints too much of its low/mid card with that slapstick paint brush - there is, as above, room for more lucha & asian performers who have a little more seriousness about them and their presentation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 (edited) How different would Hobbs be if he got to straight up mangle opponents every week or every other week? If Dante was able to beat opponents in fun 5-7 minute sprints consistently? AEW uses a pretty strict hierarchy with few exceptions. HOOK is one of the very few. Jade another*. That they can point to one Black man on the roster with a winning singles record on TV is pretty deplorable. *Women's roster has way less proven talent and depth compared to the men's so it's easier to rocket somebody like Jade to the top on the women's side than it is with somebody on the men's side. Edited January 24, 2022 by Jiji 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Octopus Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 Replace Hook matches with Hobbs smashing dorks. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 Seems like the Wardlow push is the Hobbs comparison. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 7 hours ago, Jiji said: I love HOOK with everything I've got but this made me sick. Pathetic. Team Taz guys having fewer wins is criminal. Why only the males? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 I feel like it’s worth pointing out that, prior to this past November, Wardlow and Hobbs WERE booked similarly—squashing people on Dark and losing to top-tier guys on TV (in Wardlow’s case, the likes of Cody, Jericho, Hangman; he went 50/50 on TV with JAKE HAGER). He didn’t start getting TV squashes until it was time to queue him up for his turn on MJF, which is imminent. Right now, it’s Wardlow’s turn. Hobbs will get his when it’s his turn. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo2653 Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 Is there any demo information on who watches the Youtube shows? It doesn't seem like anyone is building a following by working those YT matches when they get on the cable shows. As a kid I watched mostly the syndicated WWF/WCW shows because we didn't have cable so I always had love for the undercard/midcard folks. I can't imagine kids are watching those YT shows like that when they could be watching something else. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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