The Wrestling Thread

[Reprise]

So Gisele Shaw was recently granted her release from TNA and (I guess unsurprisingly) she will be wrestling for Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, which Scott D'Amore recently launched.

It's just been announced she will be having a match against ROH's Athena for her title, so there must be some sort of partnership with ROH and AEW. Not sure if that's news or something that was already known. Actually, I just remembered Takeshita is having a match against Mike Bailey as well, so that's cool. They're no doubt going to have an incredible match.

Maple Leaf's debut is going to be something to watch.

[Reprise]

[Raging Justice]

And AEW gives us yet another match we never thought we'd see.

Now that WWE is working with other companies, when do THEY start giving people dream matches?

[Raging Justice]

AEW and Stardom both have unpredictable world title situations right now, unlike bland, boring, predictable WWE.

Now that they've clarified that Christian essentially has a money in the bank briefcase, he's a legit threat to whoever holds the title.

[Reprise]

Motor City Machine Guns have signed with WWE and will be on NXT.

Also, apparently Triple H himself REALLY wants Daniel Garcia and WWE are allegedly making a big play for him. That might explain why AEW brought him back to continue his feud with MJF after he indicated he is likely to stay, only for them then to change the ending of their match at All Out after fresh concerns came in that he is stalling on re-signing a new deal. He might still stay with AEW, but it seems his future with the company is up in their air again.

With the Lucha Bros also reportedly leaving to join WWE, along with Ricky Starks, I feel AEW might really has a problem on their hands. With attendance and ratings declining it is only going to get harder to keep any decent names on board if WWE decides they want them.

Plus WWE is clearly grooming TNA talent to join them when their deals are up.

Oh well, it will be interesting to see what AEW's new deal is like once it finally gets announced. It must be happening soon.

[Raging Justice]

It is a bit concerning.

Well, look on the bright side, a smaller roster can be a good thing. More focused booking and story telling. Plus, having a roster of people who really want to be there is a good thing.

What Tony Kahn can do to counteract this is start signing more people from outside WWE.

I really like Garcia, but he's not a game changer. AEW can afford to lose him. Starks was always overrated and he's gonna hit his ceiling in WWE and realize how much he overestimated himself quickly. He's only gonna make it big over there if he keeps kissing Cody's ass.

Losing the Lucha Bros sucks, but AEW hasn't done anything with them in quite some time. Also, they have TONS of luchadors on the roster now that honestly are as good as Fenyx, if not better. I really wish AEW would heat up its tag division again. I look at a team like the Outrunners along with some other teams that get relegated to Collision and Rampage and they could really do some cool things. I think they need to do an international tag team tournament and bring in some teams from other companies. That could generate some excitement, at least from me anyway.

I really don't like how well things are going for WWE given that their product is still largely crap despite the bullshit online gaslighting from all of the paid off saps along with the WWE fanboy, diehard, sheep who will defend the company til the day they die.

AEW's product has some good stuff happening at the moment, but it almost feels like that lost momentum over the past two years along with the fucking WWE gaslighting may be too much for them to overcome. I want to be hopeful though, because a pro wrestling world that just consists of WWE is not a good thing. WWE is literally the worst thing in professional wrestling. They are trash aimed at the lowest common denominator. They are the McDonalds of pro wrestling and they have the worst fanbase in wrestling as well, except for the NXT fans. I actually dig the crowds on their NXT shows.

[Reprise]

Yeah, it's a minor concern. I don't think any of the guys they are potentially losing to WWE are necessarily huge blows in isolation. With Starks it has been obvious that he has wanted to go to WWE for a long time and it feels like he borderline resents AEW anyways (he's been off AEW tv for most of the year and if the rumours are true it's because he shot down all creative plans). He's a Cody and Punk guy so he will go suck up to them when he goes over and they can do a lame little segment where Punk and Cody can give a little metaphorical wink and say "seems like you're in a good place now" The Lucha Bros have also seemingly been playing games. As you said, there's no point people being there if they don't really want to be and a smaller roster can bring more focus to the booking.

I am interested to see where all this stuff with Moxley, Bryan and Darby is going. According to Wrestling Observer AEW has pivoted and the original plan was for Darby to win and beat Bryan at Grand Slam. I don't know how I feel if they are building instead to Moxley retiring Bryan now instead. I don't think Moxley needs it and it could benefit other guys in the company more.

I think whoever does beat Bryan will be champion for all of two minutes and Christian will cash in and finally get his run as champion

[Reprise]

I just read rumours/fan speculation that Mercedes could hold the title until All In next year in Texas where she could drop the title to Athena.

Now that I would like to see.

That said, I hope they manage to turn things around with Mercedes in the meantime. She's had two PPV "duds" in a row now with her matches against Britt and then Shida in the eyes of the IWC. I don't think her time with AEW so far has overall been terrible, but it's certainly mixed at the best and that's not what you want from a supposed top star who is being paid VERY highly.

Speaking of Britt, there are rumours her and Cole have split up and she is being very difficult to work with, hence her *alleged* sandbagging against Mercedes, shit talking against MJF, his girlfriend and Ospreay and (again allegedly) why you hasn't been paired with Jamie Hayter since she returned.

Not sure why I pay any attention to gossip, but yeah, my main reason for posting is just to reinforce how great Athena is and how much I would love to see her move to AEW and win Mercedes' championship. Especially now she beat the record in ROH for longest held title. Time for her to make the jump permanently.

[Raging Justice]

I don't know, the fact that she has spent ZERO time in AEW makes me not hyped about Athena taking the title off of Mercedes.

I'm honestly sick of ROH and wish it would just go away. It has literally no reason to continue existing. To the average AEW viewer, Athena is a nobody.

I'm actually more interested in Ann Jay now since that video package of her after returning from Japan. They should have her join The Elite (because of Perry) and have HER win the TBS title. The Elite turning on Mercedes could actually be a way to flip her babyface, and maybe even turn Okada against them since he's obsessed with her for some reason. I'm just trying to come up with story ideas, cause Athena vs Mercedes without a story behind it just doesn't interest me, especially since Athena has been a non entity in AEW. I'm tired of matches in AEW with no heat or story lines. Swerve/Hangman needs to be an example to the rest of the roster. It's the best thing AEW has done this whole year.

AEW continues to completely fumble the women's division. Now they are wasting an IWGP Women's title match on Toni Storm

Seriously, fuck this company and its obnoxious obsession with this no talent woman. She is the ONLY person they've used with Stardom so far, and I'm not counting that one Willow/Tam match that feels like it never even happened. Storm has appeared at multiple events involving Stardom talent and I'm fucking sick of it.

I completely give up on AEW's women's division. Five fucking years and it continues to be the weakest part of the company. They got a fucking WWE horsewoman and a partnership with the best women's wrestling company in the world (though Marigold could take that spot some day I guess) and it still amounted to nothing in the grand scheme of things. Willow Nightingale has been the only real success story this year and that's literally it.

I'm more interested in Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Bayley, Tiffany Stratton, Iyo Sky, Kairi Sane, Nia Jax, Giulia, Roxanne Perez, Maxine, and Ivy Nile than I am in any of the women in AEW right now. They've even got Nikki Cross involved in something with the Wyatt 6, though I do have some issues with the Wyatt 6 that I'm not gonna get into in this post. I haven't even mentioned the fifty thousand other women that seem to exist on the NXT roster, or Jordon Grace for that matter. WWE kills AEW when it comes to using women and always has. I don't think this will ever change.

[Raging Justice]

I don't know, the fact that she has spent ZERO time in AEW makes me not hyped about Athena taking the title off of Mercedes.

I'm honestly sick of ROH and wish it would just go away. It has literally no reason to continue existing. To the average AEW viewer, Athena is a nobody.

I'm actually more interested in Ann Jay now since that video package of her after returning from Japan. They should have her join The Elite (because of Perry) and have HER win the TBS title. The Elite turning on Mercedes could actually be a way to flip her babyface, and maybe even turn Okada against them since he's obsessed with her for some reason. I'm just trying to come up with story ideas, cause Athena vs Mercedes without a story behind it just doesn't interest me, especially since Athena has been a non entity in AEW. I'm tired of matches in AEW with no heat or story lines. Swerve/Hangman needs to be an example to the rest of the roster. It's the best thing AEW has done this whole year.

AEW continues to completely fumble the women's division. Now they are wasting an IWGP Women's title match on Toni Storm

Seriously, fuck this company and its obnoxious obsession with this no talent woman. She is the ONLY person they've used with Stardom so far, and I'm not counting that one Willow/Tam match that feels like it never even happened. Storm has appeared at multiple events involving Stardom talent and I'm fucking sick of it.

I completely give up on AEW's women's division. Five fucking years and it continues to be the weakest part of the company. They got a fucking WWE horsewoman and a partnership with the best women's wrestling company in the world (though Marigold could take that spot some day I guess) and it still amounted to nothing in the grand scheme of things. Willow Nightingale has been the only real success story this year and that's literally it.

I'm more interested in Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Bayley, Tiffany Stratton, Iyo Sky, Kairi Sane, Nia Jax, Giulia, Roxanne Perez, Maxxine, and Ivy Nile than I am in any of the women in AEW right now. They've even got Nikki Cross involved in something with the Wyatt 6, though I do have some issues with the Wyatt 6 that I'm not gonna get into in this post. I haven't even mentioned the fifty thousand other women that seem to exist on the NXT roster, or Jordynne Grace for that matter. WWE kills AEW when it comes to using women and always has. I don't think this will ever change.