The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

WWE needs to re-hire Ryback now and feud him with Punk



and bring back Stardust!



If I was Triple H I'd be trolling these guys so hard.

[Raging Justice]

You know if Jade Cargill was as big of a deal as WWE initially led us to believe, she could have been in that Wargames match at Survivor Series. She could have easily taken Shotzi's spot on Charlotte's team since Shotzi is a nobody who has never done anything of note in WWE. That would have been a nice big spot for Cargill and a real Dream Team. Two of the four Horsewomen who are considered the cream of the crop in "The Queen" Charlotte Flair and "The Man" Becky Lynch, super saiyan Bianca Belair, a.k.a. "The E.S.T.", who rarely loses to anyone and is a multi time champion, and the big, new, hyped up signee "That Bitch" Jade Cargill.

Makes you wonder, maybe they're now realizing how green Cargill is.

[Reprise]

Yeah, the way Triple H answered the question on why she hasn't debuted yet was amusing.

On the one hand, it was quite brutal and revealing. Basically, she hasn't debuted because they realise she sucks and is still green (I mean he was more diplomatic than that, but reading between the lines, you know it's what they mean). And then Hunter is essentially taking a shot at AEW by saying "it's through no fault of her own".

WWE seem to be taking this "non-existent" war pretty seriously considering they don't view AEW as competition. They only signed her for the sake of it, because it's one more star they have acquired from AEW.

And let's be honest, if AEW didn't exist, they wouldn't have just rehired CM Punk. They might have rehired Cody, but they wouldn't have pushed him to the moon and made him one of the top guys in the company.

[Markies]

Jade needs to learn to wrestle WWE's style. That style is very different from everybody else's.

Bryan Danielson had been training her for two years while in AEW. If she couldn't wrestle after that, then that is on her.

[Reprise]

QT Marshall has resigned from AEW. I didn't see that coming. He says the company has changed a lot since 2019 and is heading in a different direction, so I guess there have been creative differences there.

Edit: And in other news, Dixie Carter is backstage at Raw

Edit again: Also we should probably talk about MJF's injury. Damn, that sucks. He could be out for months, I would guess. He said he will be wrestling his match with Joe at World's End. So I guess Joe will win the belt...? Unless they let him go over, so they can vacate the title so Tony can do another one of his tournaments he loves so much to crown a new Interim champion.

[Raging Justice]

WWE seem to be taking this "non-existent" war pretty seriously considering they don't view AEW as competition. They only signed her for the sake of it, because it's one more star they have acquired from AEW.

And let's be honest, if AEW didn't exist, they wouldn't have just rehired CM Punk. They might have rehired Cody, but they wouldn't have pushed him to the moon and made him one of the top guys in the company.

It was obvious the moment AEW was created that we would get to this point, but a lot of people stubbornly refused to see it. WWE wants the monopoly, they want to crush ALL competition and AEW is enemy number 1. The war is real. I remember a few years ago someone higher up in New Japan Pro Wrestling said that WWE wants to destroy every other wrestling company. I think the success of AEW has also been a blow to the ego of some people in WWE.

I wish Tony Kahn would be a bit more aggressive with his business practices. He should try and snatch some people away from WWE. I mean AEW definitely has some pull to get the likes of Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Rhonda Rousey (though technically she's ROH), Edge, Mox, Jericho. Send some feelers out, see who would consider jumping ship. Charlotte Flair would be on my radar (you better make Ric and Andrade happy Tony Kahn). She'd likely want to be booked as top dog in AEW's women's division, but maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing. Try and sign Mercedes Monet (she can still work NJPW if she wants), that'd be even more incentive for someone like Charlotte.

If WWE starts fumbling LA Knight, make a play for him in AEW.

Becky Lynch and Drew Mcintyre's contracts don't have much time left. Make an AGGRESSIVE push for them i.e. pony up some serious dough to get them, time to start seriously using your dad's money Tony Kahn.

Unfortunately, I could see some people not wanting to leave WWE for AEW simply due to the fact that AEW doesn't exactly have its house in order right now if you know what I mean. Their product and their company still has some issues. Plus, Tony himself doesn't come across as a strong leader that you'd want to work for. I wish Tony would step back and let someone else run certain things and also let someone else represent the authority figure in AEW. Tony Kahn has ZERO screen presence. Compare all of his TV appearances to any time we've seen Triple H or a McMahon on TV. Even Nick Aldis, Smackdown's current general manager, comes across as more of a real leader (and a real MAN quite frankly) than Tony Kahn does.

I think Tony's main strength is making deals with business people like TV execs, sponsors, etc., but not actually handling creative or being a backstage leader (or being on TV)

[Reprise]

[Raging Justice]

You know it's very ironic. Some people feel like WWE's product is better than it has been in years, and there are signs that business is going very well for them right now. Some of those people will say that AEW is a mess right now. The irony though, is that without AEW, would WWE have gotten better? It's almost like WWE got some real competition and suddenly stepped their game up. They even made some MASSIVE business decisions (like the TKO deal). The behind the scenes shake ups, the business merger, would those things still have happened? Maybe. Maybe not.

AEW came into existence and pretty much shook up the pro wrestling landscape. Would Punk and Cody even be in WWE right now were it not for AEW? And would Cody have EVER gotten this massive push? It's very possible that Punk would have NEVER returned to wrestling at all. AEW lured him out

AEW changed the game, but WWE fanboys won't admit that. The only problem is, in the grand scheme of things, has AEW's existence only further solidified WWE's position as top dog. It forced WWE to make big moves and get better, but now how does AEW respond to that? They had their big moment with a PPV with the highest attendance in pro wrestling history, but where do they go from there? One could argue that AEW has only helped WWE in the grand scheme of things.

Although, the Bucks and other people there used to say that the point of AEW was to give wresters more opportunities and more ways to make money. Did they succeed? Sure assholes like Cody and Punk benefitted but did anyone else? I guess time will tell. It does seem like WWE is definitely keeping an eye out for anybody that they can scoop up from AEW and will probably offer them a lot of money.

I'm just typing out my random thoughts right now. The pro wrestling landscape has gotten pretty interesting (Dixie Carter at Raw? WTF!?) and you can credit AEW for that. To be fair though, AEW's existence also owes some credit to New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor. They helped give birth to this thing. And of course, the Elite themselves. Omega and the Bucks got popular enough to make this thing happen, Jericho and Mox also helped to get more people's attention (drawing in some of the WWE crowd), I also have to begrudgingly acknowledge Cody Rhodes for deciding to do that big All In show which ended up being proof that AEW could succeed.

I have noticed now some pro wrestling journalists are finally commenting on the docile nature of current WWE crowds. As I've said before, I really do think AEW stole away a certain portion of WWE's fanbase. The more opiniated, vocal, fans left WWE. I have to imagine they are with AEW now. You want proof? Look at how they turned on Cody. That sort of thing wouldn't happen in WWE right now because the current WWE fans basically like whoever WWE tells them to like. Those same AEW fans who turned on Cody would be loudly letting WWE know what they think of the "Greatest of all time" John Cena bullshit if they were still attending WWE shows, but they moved on. They're going to AEW shows now.

I was reading about Survivor Series on some site and they mentioned a botch during one match and then said how patient the WWE crowd was in not even reacting to it. Wasn't this show in Chicago? Even over there they are pretty docile now. What happened to WWE crowds? It's also interesting to note that when I read show recaps on these sites, they frequently mention how WWE crowds are often very quiet during matches, but pop for entrances and promo segments. I've noticed this myself when I would watch WWE shows. WWE finally has the fanbase that Vince McMahon always wanted, people who don't care about matches. They only care about "sports entertainment" and WWE "Superstars".

That is also the result of AEW's existence. AEW changed everything

[Reprise]

Yeah, that's pretty much all spot on.

[Reprise]

Dynamite got higher ratings than Smackdown last week.