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

[Celgress]

My friend's take on AEW Blood & Guts -

[chachi]

Agree with Emerald Gladiator, AEW is going towards NWO territory when the entire roster was a member of NWO. They desperately need a big time main event face or two to be the face of the company. Way too many heels and heel factions. I really want to see AEW thrive and succeed, but the longer they go the more they are beginning to remind me of the end of WCW.

[titanfan]

Agree with Emerald Gladiator, AEW is going towards NWO territory when the entire roster was a member of NWO. They desperately need a big time main event face or two to be the face of the company. Way too many heels and heel factions. I really want to see AEW thrive and succeed, but the longer they go the more they are beginning to remind me of the end of WCW.

I feel like it's part of a bloated roster problem. They are trying to use too many people in every show.

Keep the roster just rotate people in and out like a soap opera does.

[BeastieRunner]

Agree with Emerald Gladiator, AEW is going towards NWO territory when the entire roster was a member of NWO. They desperately need a big time main event face or two to be the face of the company. Way too many heels and heel factions. I really want to see AEW thrive and succeed, but the longer they go the more they are beginning to remind me of the end of WCW.

I take it you don't like puro then.

[Noodle]

I love when people use "the end of WCW" as some measuring stick for "bad."

The last days of WCW pulled in higher ratings than Raw currently does.

The final days of WCW had fresh stuff like the Cruiserweight Tag Titles. It had new or underutilized wrestlers getting pushes.

There was a lot wrong with it, but there was also a lot of good stuff there.

[Kal-El Summers]

Comparing ratings now to the Boom Period is dumb.

[Username taken]

Enzo has bigger star potential than OC. The man can work a stick , and has charisma oozing out his pores. A guy like Enzo would make a more money for a company than OC who is at best a meme.

Quoted for truth.

OC being in the WORLD TITLE picture is a bad, bad call.

[Username taken]

real world wrestling talks bums me out so I am going back into Kayfabe land
I can't believe the bookers are going to go Omega vs Pockets, I know Orange is "over" but so was Enzo and they didn't put him in the main title picture (Omega vs Pac could be epic, Omega vs Orange is the kind of thing I don't like about AEW)
The two most powerful factions in AEW right now are heel factions, and they don't have a face star over enough to beat down an entire faction alone (ala Sting or Stone Cold) and the face factions Dark Order, Knightmare family and IC don't seem to be up to the task. One of my favorite what if's in wrestling was the Blanchard and Anderson vs Midnight Express feud we were robbed of because of contractual stuff. A Pinnacle vs the Elite feud could be good but I don't trust these bookers to pull off something as intricate as a heel vs heel war. As much as AEW proclaimed itself as something new it is feeling like something old. It feels like WCW when the NWO guys controlled the booking and made decisions to stroke their egos and not for the good of storylines, the company or the business. Omega vs Orange feels a little like Nash squashing a mid carders win streak because he can. Who are the world and tag team champs? The guys that own the company, how surprising. I remember as a kid wondering why is Greg Gagne so big in AWA when Bockwinkle and Henning were the bigger stars? Why can't the Freebirds ever really destroy the Von Erichs. Then when the Kayfabe glasses were pulled from my eyes and I found out who owned ran the divisions it made sense. Then I understood why the Horsemen couldn't truly eliminate Dusty, but as much as I lamented how much Dusty got over the Horsemen, he at least let the Horsemen shine. AEW is getting very close to NWO territory in the absolute worst way possible, and that is far from too sweet.

Agreed.

AEW’s booking lately has really started to deteriorate into nonsense.

It’s very apparent now that the shows are being booked by guys that aren’t very good at it. And the proliferation of factions means that a lot of guys aren’t getting over as solo stars outside of the Elite who are booking the shows. It’s become rather boring and I for one have been very disappointed.

[Jcogginsa]

Yeah, OC can talk, but that still doesn't mean he'd be a bigger star than Enzo if you gave both the same push.

Right, the fact that he's better than Enzo at wrestling is the reason he'd still be bigger even if Enzo got the same push

Agree with Emerald Gladiator, AEW is going towards NWO territory when the entire roster was a member of NWO. They desperately need a big time main event face or two to be the face of the company. Way too many heels and heel factions. I really want to see AEW thrive and succeed, but the longer they go the more they are beginning to remind me of the end of WCW.

They have a Big Time Main Event Face. His name is Jon Moxley, and he just had a very long Title Reign

[Noodle]

Comparing ratings now to the Boom Period is dumb.

Not accepting that the product being garbage is why we aren't in another boom period is dumb.

[BigLbo]

Enzo has bigger star potential than OC. The man can work a stick , and has charisma oozing out his pores. A guy like Enzo would make a more money for a company than OC who is at best a meme.

i call bs on that. if enzo was that charismatic he wouldn't have flopped so hard as a rapper.
enzo=road dogg but slightly worse in the ring and at rapping.

I love when people use "the end of WCW" as some measuring stick for "bad."

The last days of WCW pulled in higher ratings than Raw currently does.

The final days of WCW had fresh stuff like the Cruiserweight Tag Titles. It had new or underutilized wrestlers getting pushes.

There was a lot wrong with it, but there was also a lot of good stuff there.

agreed, hogan was out, there was the 2nd coming of the CW division, team canada, jersey boys, the thrillers, steiner, and booker were all fun to watch.

Comparing ratings now to the Boom Period is dumb.

lots of dumb comparisons being made of late.

Not accepting that the product being garbage is why we aren't in another boom period is dumb.

disagree, the wwe putting out a garbage product is what's lead to the closest thing to a boom period we've seen in years. there's wrestling shows on 5 days a week, 6 days on a ppv week. right now there's something for every type of fan imaginable.

[Immortal Weapon]

Wrestling is full of tropes that it has over-used and abused. And some which never really made much sense in the first place, but they still keep doing.

I'm still wondering about Sandman's entrance. Did their contract with Metallica stipulate they had to play the entire 'Enter Sandman' song, and not just portions? Is that why Sandman's entrances (including, nonsensically, run-ins) were always so long?

ECW never got permission for the licensed music they used. Being a small company they were able to get away with it as they weren't on the mainstream radar.

I take it you don't like puro then.

Puro has a healthier balance of face and heel factions. Also the factions mainly exist to make alliances make sense for tag matches.

Right, the fact that he's better than Enzo at wrestling is the reason he'd still be bigger even if Enzo got the same push

I disagree. Some of the biggest draws in wrestling have not been the best wrestlers. They were able to draw because they can solicit an emotional response from the audience. It didn't matter what they did it will get a response because the fans were heavily invested. Enzo being the type of guy he is has a better chance of doing that than OC.

[BigLbo]

heel factions
elite
pinochle
hardy crew
taz team
night factory


face groups
mox/kingston
best friends
dark order
inner circle
nightmare fam
jurassics

in between
death triangulo

doesn't seem that off balance to me.

[BeastieRunner]

New Japan USA needs to work on their marketing.



That logo placing, sheesh ...

[BeastieRunner]

Rewatching some AEW over lunch and saw that Cody got juiced after applying a Figure Four. Ric would be proud!

On OC being #1 contender ... I think that is a by product of the "ranking" system with records.

AEW started weighting wins I think to avoid these type of feuds. But it feels a bit more organic than your random filler feud. IMHO.

OC will probably have a strong match and with Omega, it might help the OC detectors see him actually work.

I don't see OC as a MAIN EVENT talent but it does remind of the Zack Ryder days when he never got a break.

This feels a bit like a "bone" being thrown to the OC fans rather than strapping a rocket to the back of OC.

Kayfabe, OC has the record and he's over (the most watched AEW segments are his on YouTube, OC segments are the most shared via social media, etc).

Non-kayfabe, Kenny is holding the belt(s) for a while. Gonna need some sacrificial lambs sooner or later.