Pro Wrestling! (For Everything WWE, Impact, Indies, AEW, & Japan !) 2021

[JBatmanFan05]

Eric Bischoff on the prospect of VKM ever selling WWE:

“One of the reasons I was so steadfast in my opinion that WWE under Vince McMahon will never sell is because of the strong impression that I had over many, many years and even working with Vince very closely for a short time, it’s so obvious to me that Vince holds the legacy of his father and grandfather so highly,” Bischoff said. “It’s evident when you walk into Vince’s office, right? It’s not a mystery, you can figure it out pretty quickly. I’ve just always believed because of that legacy and how highly apparent to me that Vince holds that legacy, and that he’s got Stephanie and Shane and by virtue of marriage Triple H, and he’s got grandchildren. I just would believe that, I’ve always believed that Vince would be far more predisposed to allowing his family to carry on that legacy that means so much to Vince.”

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/20...-not-sell-wwe/

[BigLbo]

I don't think Daniels has been seen in AEW since he was forced to retire in his match against the Young Bucks. He's popped up in Impact and will make in appearance in NJPW Strong. I thought he was gone already

PAC is one of the biggest names of AEW and is usually involved with feuds with other big name talent. Tony is definitely not letting him go

Billy Gunn & Sons have finally made it to the main shows starting a feud with Darby Allen. Remember that Billy Gunn is the head producer for the company so he's not going anywhere.

Agreed with Janela. The guy is terrible and finally has nothing to offer the promotion. Even as a job guy AEW has Bardon Cutler and Peter Avalon that do that role far better.

Penelope Ford had a big push in the women's division before the signing of Ruby Soho and Jaime Hayter was able to come back. Introduction of the TBS title pushed her further into the background. She's worth having around if the company where gets around to having women's tag titles

Bea Priestly and Jimmy Havoc have already been released.

Agreed with Kip Sabian

I'll keep Shawn Spears around as an utility player. Have him be a midcard gatekeeper for your Daniel Gracias, Dante Martians and whatever hot young prospects the company wants to push.

I'll throw in Dr. Luthor. The guy only has a job because he's Jericho's buddy and being a deathmatch guy he can't really strive in AEW.

it would make no sense to get rid of pac.

i think you have a hard time separating your personal distaste for janela from an honest evaluation of him as a talent. i think both avalon and cutler are very underrated but neither are better or more valuable than janela. janela gets over everywhere whenever he gets a chance and i think right now especially with the addition of kayla rossi to his act he has the potential to get over big. the guy can work in pretty much any role they want to use him in.

Daniel's Kong priestly and havock are already gone I agree kip sapian and janeka need to go disagree on the rest pac and Spears are really good.

i'd keep janela over spears. he's been more impressive in his few opportunities than spears in his. matter of fact they might want to consider replacing spears with janela in the pinochle. would add some personality to the group and having a female in the crew could come in handy.

[Immortal Weapon]

Big Swole left AEW.

[wjowski]

Big Swole left AEW.

Crohn's sucks

[titanfan]

Crohn's sucks

I've seen the havoc it's wreaked on people's bodies and it's unfathomable to me how someone can wrestle with it, even if in remission. It sucked she never got to finish her last feud/storyline. Hope she can get back to some point of normalcy at some point.

[JBatmanFan05]

I do think sometimes I wish AEW used more established or "WWE" formulas in booking sometimes. I'm all for avoiding being too predictable, but sometimes AEW's booking does seem too random, which hurts the lead up to some (TV) matches.

Like Danielson vs the Dark Order is a good example of AEW smartly avoiding the "picking out of the hat" thing.

A fan on Twitter expressed his disappointment at Punk wrestling “a random opponent” [Lee Moriarty] a week after his war of words with MJF. The fan pointed out how AEW regularly books matches that lack “story or rivalry buildups” and “pulls names from hats” for top stars to wrestle.

Punk noticed the tweet and seemingly took a subtle shot at WWE’s booking. He tweeted: Oh maybe we should tag to see if we can coexist.

Punk was likely referring to WWE’s booking formula where two foes are forced to pair up against established tag teams. Punk teamed up with rivals such as Triple H and John Cena in several matches during his WWE career.

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/20...-aew-dynamite/

[BeastieRunner]

I do think sometimes I wish AEW used more established or "WWE" formulas in booking sometimes. I'm all for avoiding being too predictable, but sometimes AEW's booking does seem too random, which hurts the lead up to some (TV) matches.

Like Danielson vs the Dark Order is a good example of AEW smartly avoiding the "picking out the hat" thing.

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/20...-aew-dynamite/

AEW uses 90s puro match building, 2010s "finisher party" finishes, and 80s NWA/WWF feuds as their booking strategies.

Which is more logical. And this is a first I've heard about random AEW booking. Their most common critique has been to be TOO predictable with their undercard and non-event shows.

I kind of think you mean the late 80s/early 90s WCW/WWF type feuds, not WWE.

But maybe I am wrong?

[godisawesome]

Cody Rhodes just pinned Andrade while on fire.

Holy **** does that man want to remain a face.

[Gryphon]

The biggest knock on Khan is he is always signing people and not letting talent go. Its clear...Jim Ross needs kept. Or if your letting Ross go you need that heir to step in and get Joey Styles. But that is unlikely so Khan needs to keep Ross around in booth. (He controls the flow)


Talent needed to be cut :

Christopher Daniels : Was retired a year or 2 ago on TV. Really in his 50's there isn't much for Daniels to do in AEW
Pac : Seems to be a mid-card heel and AEW has too many of them
Billy Gunn & Sons : Haven't really done much at all and even a heel turn hasn't made them interesting
Joey Janela : Nothing much I have seen.
Penelope Ford : Nothing much I have seen.
Bea Priestly
Jimmy Havoc
Awesome Kong : According to link below she has a contract. But she announced her retirement months ago. Could Khan have forgotten he signed her given all talent ?
Kip Sabian
Shawn Spears


https://www.ewrestlingnews.com/artic...nings-releases


I think Khan has to cut some dead weight clearly. A lot like Pac and the Gunn family haven't really worked out. So release them and free up money for the coming Bray Wyatt and Kevin Steen signings in 2022. Also AJ's deal according to reports expires in Fall 2022. So...that one has to have a date circled for Tony Khan right now.

Bea Priestly is in WWE now

[Gryphon]

McIntyre is the only one at this point. If he falls to Roman then only a part timer will take the belt from him

It feels like they are going to build to Drew vs Roman at Mania

I think the Acclaimed are the better workers. Private Party work a spot monkey heavy style that only work with other teams that work that style. Acclaimed are far more versatile.

Private Party always came off as second rate Street Profits to me

[BigLbo]

I do think sometimes I wish AEW used more established or "WWE" formulas in booking sometimes. I'm all for avoiding being too predictable, but sometimes AEW's booking does seem too random, which hurts the lead up to some (TV) matches.

Like Danielson vs the Dark Order is a good example of AEW smartly avoiding the "picking out the hat" thing.

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/20...-aew-dynamite/

i don't see it. the booking imo for the most part is pretty simple/basic even predictable at times but xecuted very well. thus far i'd say not trying to reinvent the wheel has served them well. i wish impact wrestling would use their formulas.

[titanfan]

AEW's booking does seem too random, which hurts the lead up to some (TV) matches.

I say this as a WWE-mark, I love AEW's match booking--it feels more like an actual sports league. In WWE, you rarely get matches across divisions, and they've conditioned you to accept a random match set up before every match.

But we absolutely should get random matches between people who don't normally interact. Things would be fresher and we wouldn't have the same match 4 weeks in a row....

[JBatmanFan05]

I think it's becoming harder to know when Danielson is in-character vs not (or does Danielson even know anymore?):

"I don't know what people are talking about [regarding the alleged heel turn]. I thought the people of Virginia were giving me a really tough time. So, I gave them a little bit of a tough time back," Danielson said on Busted Open Radio. "I don't think anything I said was wrong or even mean. To say, 'hey, congratulations Hangman Page, you are the World Champion. I am a little disappointed it's not Kenny Omega because that's who I wanted to beat for the AEW Championship. I am a little bit disappointed that you're not wrestling tonight, and you haven't been wrestling that much and I have been wrestling every single week since I've come to AEW.' I don't think any of that is overtly mean."

"I'm not going to lie, I do enjoy being booed," he added. "There's something so fun about it. So I might lean into that a little bit more. But there's nothing I said that was wrong or mean or anything like that. Now because of that, I think I am probably going to kick all of his friends' heads in. But I think I would be doing that anyway. I don't consider it a heel turn, I am just being me."

https://comicbook.com/wwe/news/aew-b...lemania-match/

[wjowski]

I mean, IMO but occasional random matches make sense. They're a wrestling federation. In baseball the Yankees and the Red Sox may be rivals but they still have scheduled matches with other teams as well.

[JBatmanFan05]

I mean, IMO but occasional random matches make sense. They're a wrestling federation. In baseball the Yankees and the Red Sox may be rivals but they still have scheduled matches with other teams as well.

Right. I'm not against all random matches. I'm not for all non-random matches. I think it's about a good balance. And AEW does have its own balance of both. I don't know, sometimes maybe I just feel like AEW relies on random too much, but I could be wrong or I could be just kneejerking frustration on the booking of certain wrestlers.

As much as I haven't watched WWE regularly in years and don't know much how they book matches now, I just hope AEW doesn't look at 1984-2000s WWF/E booking practices and deliberately ignore all them too much (as a matter of degree) just because they're current rivals to VKM. Same with WCW booking practices. AEW will thrive best if it continues to be itself (whatever that exactly means), but also always consider what worked about WWE and WCW and what didn't. AEW shouldn't settle with its status quo or assume other promotions did in the past can't continue to help or inform AEW now. And AEW to its credit does indeed harken back to certain things WWF and WCW did (that WWE doesn't do anymore), so I'm not saying AEW doesn't hasn't learned from WWF/WCW booking. I don't want to come off as too harsh to how AEW is doing booking-wise, they're doing some great stuff.

My bottom line: I think sometimes I just wonder a little if Khan works too hard to be different from WWE and WCW and risks missing out on taking all that fans liked about WWE/WCW and outdoing them even more. AEW is winning big in the in-ring action, not always in the entertainment dept (which is tied a bit to booking) (thankfully for them WWE isn't really winning there much either, nobody is winning in that aspect enough, so there's a lot of opportunity left in the entertainment aspect that could really up AEW's game and profit).