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

[BigLbo]

The funniest aspect is....the WWE didn't want Low-ki to win season 2 of NXT. The entire deal was they needed someone not seen on tv and had this dude in developmental that no one liked because he had a weird ring style.

They didn't even tell him he was in it from what he claimed. They just said watch tonight and he was surprised.

The whole idea was the company was high on Brian Henning. He was in this and they wanted Henning to win and get the big push from fans online. The WWE thought the internet fans would go....ooh myyy its Mr. Perfect son. So we gotta vote him.

They didn't realize Low-Ki had more of a name and fans just kept voting him to win. Even with lots of losses and Lay Cool deal. The idea was to make him lame and fail. And it backfired til the end.

Once he won they were PIIIISSED backstage. This guy ruined the plan push they had. So in sure crazy...they buried Low-Ki after letting him win NXT. Guy had to be punished because he was over.

Its beyond silly and stupid. If this was HHH mid 2010s era of NXT...maybe he isn't buried by a petty group there.

and like true geniuses they changed his name to michael mcgillicutty. his real name is joe not brian btw.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

and like true geniuses they changed his name to michael mcgillicutty. his real name is joe not brian btw.

A year after this the company decided to do the Tough Enough concept contest and again ignore what everyone wanted with it too. Because they wanted that contest to push a developmental guy named Andy Levine from FCW I believe. Anyhow Levine was....well here he is and he was f'n boring as hell. Judging from heel/face reaction its clear....Luke should have won this.





Andy Levine never did anything after this. Luke was an indie worker who again the company didn't see anything from and well...blew that.


Its likely a big reason they stopped this contest because the company couldn't control the ones fans wanted to watch and get over.

[JBatmanFan05]

The funniest aspect is....the WWE didn't want Low-ki to win season 2 of NXT.

....So in sure crazy...they buried Low-Ki after letting him win NXT. Guy had to be punished because he was over.

I was and still am a big Low Ki fan, ROH made me love him (TNA did too). It took me many years of wondering why he wasn't pushed more to learn that at least part (or even a big part of it) is that Low Ki genuinely does have personality issues, he's difficult backstage. He basically burned every promotion that he worked for.

A lot of wrestlers big and small are difficult. And the employer isn't always right. But I've just constantly heard his struggle with authority has seriously hurt his career, even other wrestlers say or hint at it. The story of him wearing the Hitman suit in NJPW in that triple threat is like a microcosm of his struggles with promotions.

I think the best Low Ki match I've ever seen was against Kenta in ROH, still an ROH classic. Kenta produced a number of them in his brief ROH stint.

[Immortal Weapon]

Remember guys, Gargano has a baby on the way. Refusing a big offer may not be on the cards for him

[godisawesome]

Remember guys, Gargano has a baby on the way. Refusing a big offer may not be on the cards for him

Plus, to point this out, if he has any doubts he’ll last that long on the main roster, but he’ll still get *some* paycheck before they grow bored and release him, his profile is famous enough that being on the shelf for a while afterwards won’t impact his ability to find a new one.

To me, for someone like Gargano, the only thing to be wary of is whether or not WWE might still consider someone like him a “keep from the competition with a contract” candidate, as they did Adam Cole. The vast bulk of their roster are people who, now, they don’t mind going somewhere else, and if Gargon discovers he’s regarded like one of them, then that means he might be able to get the kind of “smart for my family and not too threatening to my career” deal he might want. But if he *is* still someone they don’t want to go elsewhere, and might consider keeping on the books just to avoid a Cole/Bryan situation of immediately becoming a major asset to AEW.

It really shouldn’t be that risky now, as Vince clearly thinks he’s succeeded in making his company the kind of micro-managed, bigger-than-the-stars production he wants and shouldn’t have any desire to hoard any remaining talent… but Vince is still mercurial and still the type of want to sabotage an opponent rather than outperform them.

[JBatmanFan05]

I figure Johnny has made a good amount so far (VKM pays so well that the implicit/explicit tradeoff is that you have little/no control). But Tony Khan (and family) has a lot of money too. So, it seems like it's gonna be about: just how greedy is Johnny at this point?

All wrestlers do it for the money, so I don't want to seem like I'm judging too much or begrudging the money aspect too much. But Johnny has to know, to feel all the talent is in AEW now. And so...I don't know, I can't see how NXT"s hollowing out doesn't send some message to Johnny.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I was and still am a big Low Ki fan, ROH made me love him (TNA did too). It took me many years of wondering why he wasn't pushed more to learn that at least part (or even a big part of it) is that Low Ki genuinely does have personality issues, he's difficult backstage. He basically burned every promotion that he worked for.

A lot of wrestlers big and small are difficult. And the employer isn't always right. But I've just constantly heard his struggle with authority has seriously hurt his career, even other wrestlers say or hint at it. The story of him wearing the Hitman suit in NJPW in that triple threat is like a microcosm of his struggles with promotions.

I think the best Low Ki match I've ever seen was against Kenta in ROH, still an ROH classic. Kenta produced a number of them in his brief ROH stint.

Yeah Low-Ki has that reputation as a guy who wants a push and then gets irked if the push starts to end at times. With this he seemed...really ready to accept whatever came his way since it was WWE. And well...the entire run was bad.

Remember guys, Gargano has a baby on the way. Refusing a big offer may not be on the cards for him

Yeah I said this for years on guys who pick the best money offer for themselves (back when TNA was paying great money by Dixie) ...you pick the best $$. People would demand Joe leave and go work the indies because of how he was booked. I was like...maybe Joe wants to get paid and this is his best money.

[steve2275]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Suzuki
ive been enjoying tour of america

[SpiderTBliss]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. While it might suck for the individuals who were released, the vast majority of them were just people taking up spots on a roster, no one was ever paying money to watch them and they werent drawing money. WWE had, and probably still has, a bloated roster, so getting rid of them is just business. And business is not warm and cuddly and "lets keep him/her and pay them a wage because they're nice people", it's harsh and all about the bottom line.

[godisawesome]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. While it might suck for the individuals who were released, the vast majority of them were just people taking up spots on a roster, no one was ever paying money to watch them and they werent drawing money. WWE had, and probably still has, a bloated roster, so getting rid of them is just business. And business is not warm and cuddly and "lets keep him/her and pay them a wage because they're nice people", it's harsh and all about the bottom line.

Which is why it’s also about keeping what goodwill you can with your customers, and avoiding having your company’s reputation become a liability when it can be avoided.

That’s part of the bottom-line too, and just another part of why WWE’s inability to conduct its roster management in a professional manner is a liability that helps other companies gather greater support and market share. Firing people, releasing them, etc., is a natural part of business and an inevitable consequence of WWE’s decision-making process and inability to manage the multi-show roster it wants, but how you handle that is still it’s own aspect of the industry.

Business decisions *can* be ruthless, crude, and and blunt, but if the only business decisions made are always ruthless, crude, and blunt, and build into a liability, than it ain’t a decision made for business reasons but because of incompetence.

[Gryphon]

Remember guys, Gargano has a baby on the way. Refusing a big offer may not be on the cards for him

Plus vince has seen him wrestle...and he worked a dark match recently. Its likely vince sees him as a replacement for daniel bryan

[BigLbo]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. While it might suck for the individuals who were released, the vast majority of them were just people taking up spots on a roster, no one was ever paying money to watch them and they werent drawing money. WWE had, and probably still has, a bloated roster, so getting rid of them is just business. And business is not warm and cuddly and "lets keep him/her and pay them a wage because they're nice people", it's harsh and all about the bottom line.

that was enlightening, thanks. now if you could xplain to us what's the point of moving people to the main roster and throwing them on tv before firing them??

Plus vince has seen him wrestle...and he worked a dark match recently. Its likely vince sees him as a replacement for daniel bryan

i really don't think vince wants another brianson.

did anybody watch impact?? couple of random thoughts
bert macklin is pretty good as the 3rd man in these x-division 3 ways. very happy to see jonah rock/bronson reed show up and start a program with josh alexander. too bad it's not for the title. really didn't care about the main event. does anybody miss the good brothers in aew?? i don't, at all.

speaking of aew i'd love to see a killer elite squad reunion in aew, though a name change might be necessary. archer doesn't see to be doing much anyways.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Jim Ross back so many years ago detailed that a roster needs refreshed at least once a decade. That the WWF had done this at least 3 times in his time there as they built upon new stars and phased older ones out. Then the company wasn't as big as it is now. The company right now has the roster of 3x/4x of what it once was and were seeing it on a more major scale.

[Immortal Weapon]

Jim Ross back so many years ago detailed that a roster needs refreshed at least once a decade. That the WWF had done this at least 3 times in his time there as they built upon new stars and phased older ones out. Then the company wasn't as big as it is now. The company right now has the roster of 3x/4x of what it once was and were seeing it on a more major scale.

But they ain't phasing anyone out in favor of new people. Hell, they are building guys up to be fed to the likes of Goldberg.

[godisawesome]

Plus, Vince grew the roster not *just* to horde talent, but because he was trying to do multiple shows with distinct rosters… which, while clearly more difficult than Vince wants to admit to himself each time he does it, is also something that could genuinely have been done and done well if he stopped micromanaging everything himself.

HHH *was* thinking ahead in a way Vince wasn’t because HHH was thinking of trying to basically absorb the “minor leagues” around the world… but maintain their fanbases and grow WWE’s international market share. The massive roster made perfect sense with that.

But Vince would much rather have everyone tell him he’s a creative genius who’s decades ahead of the competition through his micromanaging, and is able to hide reality from himself by leaning into how being a content creator with a stable fanbase let’s him argue the money he receives “proves” a greater “quality” to his creative product, when really it’s a separate proof of his immense business acumen.