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January 2022 Discussion of Wrestling


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3 hours ago, The Natural said:

Here's the tweet:

 

I wonder if he thinks he could've been in the spot Kofi had a few years ago. I know Kofi was his replacement in that EC but I don't think they would have planned to go all the way like they did with Kofi. 

As indecisive as Vince is nowadays its kinda wrong to say if a certain hypothetical situation would happen because how ADHD minded he is. 

Ali is one of those guys I've felt should have left a few years ago 

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3 hours ago, just drew said:

Uncle Tony absolutely should move heaven and earth to bring Mustafa Ali to his show. Dude could be an absolute star. If that means less tv time for guys like Tony Nese and Bobby Fish... so much the better.

What does Ali bring to the table that, say, Buddy Murphy or Swerve Scott don't?  Or Bandido or Jonathan Gresham, for that matter.   I'm neutral on Ali, but I can't think of a reason to sign him when there are so many free agents out there now with his skill set and then some.  If AEW is looking for a cruiserweight for the Youtube shows, Murphy, Scott, Gresham and a couple others can fill that slot at least as well.  If he wants a bigger name (and salary), well, Jeff Hardy and John Morrison are out there.  If Jeff pulls his act together, I would expect he and Matt will at least try to get him into AEW.  

Honestly, if AEW is tempted to pick up Ali when he's free, they should sign Samoa Joe even if it's just to be a talker.   Or go after Braun or Kross if they really want a big man.

I don't really think AEW needs to sign another cruiserweight from WWE.  I didn't think they needed Neese.  They've already got more agile cruiserweights than then need.  Push six of them.  Push Dante Martin, Jungle Boy, Darby, Sammy, etc. Give Lio Rush a solid chance to prove he has something yet.  If you really need more guys for your Youtube shows, see what the ROH castoffs have to offer before you chase WWE guys who didn't get over.

I think Vince will keep Ali under contract and just let him sit home till the deal expires.  Calling out your boss on social media never ends well.

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It’s a gutsy move from Ali.  I think if I’m a midcarder under WWE contract that has survived the recent cuts, then I’m looking at the landscape outside of WWE and probably just hanging around until either my contract expires or I get cut. In the meantime I get to keep wrestling (or sit at home).  

All the other promotions are jammed with talent at the moment, added to that there are a ton of guys and girls out there who haven’t even found a home. 

Is it worth giving up being lost in the mix under contract to potentially get lost in the mix without a contract?  I think you have to have absolute belief in yourself to make that jump.

 

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Quote

What does Ali bring to the table that, say, Buddy Murphy or Swerve Scott don't?  

Ali is a much better sympathetic babyface than all the guys you mentioned, save maybe Darby. Thank you for your question.

Edited by RunningFromAmerica
what happened to manual quote tags anyway?
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33 minutes ago, RunningFromAmerica said:

Ali is a much better sympathetic babyface than all the guys you mentioned, save maybe Darby. Thank you for your question.

Give him the opportunity and he's probably the best pure babyface in the world. He's that good.

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@Tarheel Moneghettifwiw, I've been vocal about TK shitting the bed by passing on Murphy to sign Tony Nese. He'll sign Swerve Scott. Of this I have no doubt, especially given recent events. There are going to be some spots opening up as contracts start to expire. A lot of AEW "OG's" who were signed to fill a roster are gonna fall by the wayside. Mustafa Ali makes your team better. You sign him, regardless of who's in the spot he's gonna take. Also, if AEW wants bigger guys, they should sign Keith Lee, not the fucking biggest dorks in the land. Kross is a tryhard idiot and Strowman doesn't give a shit. 

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I'm sure if Mox has any say, Killer Kross will at least get a look. He thought Kross could be a main event foil for Roman Reigns and gave him Triple H's number. If nothing else, AEW is definitely one of those "it's all in who you know" type places, where your chances of getting signed goes up if people vouch for you (or in Tony Nese's case, is looked up to by a lot of the younger New York area talent).

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Touching back on the "gory self-mutilation" thing (which I am generally for in this particular wrestling sense) I think what is overlooked slightly is that this isn't a statement aimed at wrestling fans, I can't see it turning a single person off of AEW and the type who'd be bothered by it likely already don't care for WWE so in that arena it is basically a net neutral. This is aimed squarely at advertisers and WWE in general (and Vince in particular) likely knows exactly how much stuff like this can affect those relationships given their experiences from their more attitude-esque days. One can argue it is a bit of dirty pool but everything considered it's probably not an awful tactic from a purely competitive POV.

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7 hours ago, Ziggy said:

I wonder if he thinks he could've been in the spot Kofi had a few years ago. I know Kofi was his replacement in that EC but I don't think they would have planned to go all the way like they did with Kofi. 

As indecisive as Vince is nowadays its kinda wrong to say if a certain hypothetical situation would happen because how ADHD minded he is. 

Ali is one of those guys I've felt should have left a few years ago 

Honestly, I don't think so. I think it worked for Kofi Kingston because he already had that decade+ year in WWE at that point and times where he got close to tasting the main event level, but never broke through the glass ceiling. It was just one of those weird perfect storms that worked out in his favor somehow, despite WWE. Also, Ali was put in a WWE title match the following month anyway. I think Kofi-Mania happened because it was Kofi. 

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7 hours ago, Ziggy said:

I wonder if he thinks he could've been in the spot Kofi had a few years ago. I know Kofi was his replacement in that EC but I don't think they would have planned to go all the way like they did with Kofi. 

As indecisive as Vince is nowadays its kinda wrong to say if a certain hypothetical situation would happen because how ADHD minded he is. 

Ali is one of those guys I've felt should have left a few years ago 

The way Ali handled that as well, missing out on opportunity and still supporting Kofi Kingston. The way he gives his salary from Blood Money to charity as well. Ali's a good man.

Edited by The Natural
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32 minutes ago, username said:

Touching back on the "gory self-mutilation" thing (which I am generally for in this particular wrestling sense) I think what is overlooked slightly is that this isn't a statement aimed at wrestling fans, I can't see it turning a single person off of AEW and the type who'd be bothered by it likely already don't care for WWE so in that arena it is basically a net neutral. This is aimed squarely at advertisers and WWE in general (and Vince in particular) likely knows exactly how much stuff like this can affect those relationships given their experiences from their more attitude-esque days. One can argue it is a bit of dirty pool but everything considered it's probably not an awful tactic from a purely competitive POV.

It's 1996 all over again.

 
Also, Brock Lesnar intentionally bladed at WrestleMania 31 in 2015 and you can't convince me otherwise.
 
Brock-Lesnar-busted-open-at-WrestleMania
Edited by TheVileOne
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16 hours ago, ReiseReise said:

I don't like the modern plunder street fight matches. I don't think blood/blading hurts matches, but sucky apronside table bumps, kendo sticks and hours of setting up shit just sucks imo. 

So much this.

Gimme me something like Bret vs. Austin at WM 13 or even the recent Punk vs. Kingston match as a modern day street fight instead of the random trashcan and kendo stick shots.

Intensity > Plunder.

Edited by eikerir
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10 hours ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

What does Ali bring to the table that, say, Buddy Murphy or Swerve Scott don't?  Or Bandido or Jonathan Gresham, for that matter.

I think AEW should 100% sign Buddy and Swerve, I love watching both of them and the potential matches make me drool.

Never been convinced by Bandido as a top tier talent, but he's good and I wouldn't be unhappy to see him there. Gresham is excellent but incredibly short, I know his style makes up for that but I think it limits his main event potential in a company of AEW's size. Again though, would be happy to see him there.

Having said Gresham is too short, I don't think any of these guys, or AEW's current roster, should be pigeonholed as cruiserweights. I don't even like the idea of a junior division in Japan, where they're treated with relative respect. Darby Allin shows how a small guy can be a believable main eventer if they work to their strengths, and in a company where an Alan Angels can get 10 minutes with the champion, someone with Ali's level of talent and presence can be presented as capable of beating the champion.

As far as what Ali brings that separates him, apart from the superb wrestling and promo abilities, he's been hinting/outright saying for years now that he wants to present an heroic Muslim babyface character, which pro wrestling is definitely ready for and would firmly put a stamp on what separates AEW from WWE. But probably getting ahead of myself, as they could yet stick him in Pac exile for years for not being satisfied with being an ineffective Antifa ringleader or whatever the fuck he was meant to be until they settled on him as Mansoor's unsupportive friend.

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2 hours ago, SturmCRF said:

I think AEW should 100% sign Buddy and Swerve, I love watching both of them and the potential matches make me drool.

 

If the pandemic wasn't happening and Murphy got to wrestling New Japan proper, like as a Gaijin touring regular, He'd be killing it on Mid-South Tony would be wishing he'd brought him in. Strickland was killing it in WWE for a long time before HitRow and Even HitRow was an entertaining act. It's more of a WWE type act but I think HitRow would get over big in AEW. Strickland has more than enough workrate to even it out for the rest of the act. Top Dolla probably won't never get an offer though. I selfishly want to see that faction on someone's TV. I could see them I'm on MLW

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6 hours ago, eikerir said:

So much this.

Gimme me something like Bret vs. Austin at WM 13 or even the recent Punk vs. Kingston match as a modern day street fight instead of the random trashcan and kendo stick shots.

Intensity > Plunder.

Give me Magnum vs. Tully as well. I think I counted 4 actual wrestling moves max in that match and the only plunder they used was the microphone and the wooden chair at the finish.

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9 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Honestly, I don't think so. I think it worked for Kofi Kingston because he already had that decade+ year in WWE at that point and times where he got close to tasting the main event level, but never broke through the glass ceiling. It was just one of those weird perfect storms that worked out in his favor somehow, despite WWE. Also, Ali was put in a WWE title match the following month anyway. I think Kofi-Mania happened because it was Kofi. 

And Kofi became so hot for a bit there that people who were cheering Ali on before his injury, were actually booing him a bit when he was added to that one title match before Mania. He was being booed, because he wasn't Kofi on that particular night.

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4 hours ago, zendragon said:

I thought the word was Buddy got a better offer from NJPW.

 

Also with Tony Khan signing all these 200lbsish workrate guys (I like Jake Atlas but he checks the same boxes as several other guys) if he's trying to make The Owen something like BOSJ

I’m pretty sure Buddy’s whole deal was that he wanted to be signed by New Japan or at least have Japan be his priority, not sign with AEW (or anywhere else) and just be allowed to work there when he could.

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I disagree, I think they need to keep signing as many wrestlers who can improve their roster as possible. The possibility of new people debuting is the thing that excites me most when I tune in. It doesn't even need to be a permanent signing every time, something like Samurai Del Sol or Matt Cardona or Jeff Cobb showing up for a one off, or a one month programme, keeps things fresh and unpredictable. Give me a bloated roster any day over an understaffed one, split in half and full of endless rematches. They need more TV time, but until then it won't hurt to upgrade the level of matches on the Youtube shows to something closer to last week's episode of Dark.

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1 hour ago, SturmCRF said:

They need more TV time...

Hard disagree. At least in my opinion. Adding Rampage has been subtraction by addition for me. Throw in The Battle of the Belts deal and AEW is actually producing too many first run hours for me to keep up with already. Wish they stayed at just 2 hours of Dynamite. But that's just me maybe. If they add any more it's gonna start to overwhelm people tho. They're already burning out the live audiences taping Rampage after Dynamite.

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