The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

Well as a Cosmic Angel fan, it's nice that I have at least one thing to be happy about in Stardom as we close out the year

https://monthlypuroresu.com/features/sa ... 20defences.



If Meltzer is to be believed, WWE now has its eyes on working with Stardom and on hiring Guilia

Tony Kahn is really dropping the ball if he lets WWE start making inroads in Japan when he already had those doors open for AEW.

[Reprise]

Yeah, WWE wanting to work with Stardom and AJPW is certainly eye opening. You have to respect the changes WWE have been making over the last couple of years.

A new report came out about WWE and Mercedes Mone. Allegedly all talks have broken down and they are no longer in negotiation with one another. Of course, this could just be another CM Punk situation all over again. Personally, I think it is and we'll see her return at the Rumble. She'll probably be #30 and then HHH will be like "yeah, we started talks as the #29 entrant was making their way to the ring, flew her out here and signed the deal 10 seconds before making her entrance. No one else in the company knew about it, but by coincidence here's some brand new merch that we have made up and ready to order from shop.wwe.com"

Also, apparently a former WWE champion is going to return on next week's Raw.

AEW is so mediocre right now, but I am quite looking forward to World's End tonight. I saw some meme roasting AEW, because of its obsession with putting on "banger" "5 star" matches and not realising the point of the business is to grow, gain new viewers and make money blah blah, but look, I am a simple man. Sometimes I like watching random bangers I watched some old NXT Takeovers and ROH PPVs over Christmas and I loved it. I had no idea what the stories or booking were like. I just liked watching some awesome Cagematch/Meltzer approved bangers lol.

[Reprise]

Allegations of potential sexual misconduct have been made against Chris Jericho.

I will keep it brief and stick to the facts, because there's already way too much gossip, conjecture, speculation and hyperbole out there. And I also don't think it's right, considering how serious the subject matter is, to then start inserting my opinions or whatever.

This is what happened:

- On Christmas Day, Jericho decided to go on a Twitter rant against CM Punk and Ace Steel's lawyer, claiming he never signed an NDA, was a witness to 'brawl out' and that it was the most disgusting thing he ever saw. Nick Hausman responded with "what about the NDAs you made others sign" and was blocked by Jericho.

- Nick Hausman then said the following on a podcast released last night:

"One of the things that is so disconcerting to me about the universal praise that Chris Jericho receives, and I’m not going to deny the points that MJF made about the impact Chris had in the early days of AEW, but when you have that kind of clout, and you have that kind of power, it’s very important to use that responsibly.”

“There are issues with Chris behind the scenes, where I know a lot of people who were hurt by Chris and his actions. You know, it’s very uncomfortable to me to see him lauded like he is and only having the focus on that, because I do think there are a lot of questionable stories about Chris that will find their way out over time when people are ready to tell those stories, that will cast him in a very different light.”

“I mean, Harvey Weinstein won a lot of Oscars, Harvey Weinstein produced a lot of very popular films. Harvey Weinstein is now in jail … I’m not saying that is happening to Chris, but the narrative can quickly turn if you’re hiding a lot of skeletons in your closet."

- An old post, that was already in the public domain (it's from 2019), then resurfaced following Hausman's comments, and the alleged victim did respond with a heart emoji and 'liked' various posts. I am not naming her, because it doesn't seem right.

“So here’s the deal, you don’t quit the hottest fed going today (AEW) without reason. I have it from people in the know that [redacted] was asked to go to Chris Jericho’s room. With the understanding that others would be there. When she got there it was just him. He made a pass at her (no other details are given) and she freaked out.”

- Another old post, from an original accuser of David Star, also resurfaced. The post was “Sometimes I stop to wonder how many young women out there are wondering if it’s safe to post about Chris Jericho yet.”

[Reprise]

And more news. Andrade is expected to have his final AEW match tonight at World's End and will be done with AEW. It is being reported he is returning to WWE and it could be as soon as Raw Day 1 on Monday.

Wow. I am kinda confused. I know he has had some issues with AEW, has complained before about his booking and even purposely got into a fight with Sammy Guevara to try and get out of his contract (I swear that's what Punk did with Perry and his "lunge" at Tony), but there was a report a couple of days ago saying he still had a few months left and was still weighing up his options and that he was interested in doing some stuff for NJPW, which meant he was possibly open to re-signing with AEW. There was also another report though that claimed he sees himself as a main event talent and is frustrated he hasn't been treated as one by AEW.

So I guess his contract is actually up this month? But surely there would be a non-compete clause for the usual 3 months? It seems kind of odd to waste a match on a PPV card for a guy who's going to be gone within two days.

Ah well, we'll find out soon enough.

Edit: Jesus Christ, AEW can't catch a break. I am not going to quadruple post, so here's an edit. Keith Lee is inured and out. He revealed earlier that he has been working through an injury since 2022 (I guess that, I hope, kinda explains his absenteeism and poor booking), which has intensified again since his match at Final Battle. His replacement for tonight's match against Swerve is Dustin Rhodes, which is an odd replacement to say the least. Damn, I was looking forward to that match

Edit again: More info on Andrade. He had a big disagreement with management and made it clear on Wednesday he was done with the company. The situation surrounding him leaving was apparently "less than pleasant".

[Reprise]

Ok, last post from me. AJ Lee just teased a return to wrestling. Could she return at the Rumble perhaps?

[Raging Justice]

I'm not commenting on the Jericho thing, because we never know all of the facts in these situations and everyone will just choose to believe whatever they want to believe. Frankly, I'm tired of this stuff. It happens so often these days that I'm getting kind of numb to it. Like I said, the truth never really comes out anyway and these things usually get settled one way or another behind the scenes and eventually everyone just forgets about it. No one is talking about Ric Flair and stewardesses anymore and no one even remembers that Vince McMahon was being investigated for stuff. Jericho seems to be getting some crowd heat though from what I'm hearing so AEW will have to figure out how they want to deal with that.

I'll just comment on the PPV. I read the results online and it sounds like your typical boring modern pro wrestling PPV that I'm getting so accustomed to from AEW, WWE, and sometimes even some other companies. The Adam Cole/Roderick Strong reveal is just meh. It's not like that's shocking, this was what we all thought might happen ever since the Adam Cole/MJF story line started. Cole is good at playing the nice guy, but I never forgot the scumbag he was in NXT and the scumbag he was when he first arrived in AEW. The biggest surprise of this entire storyline was honestly just the fact that MJF legitimately turned baby face.

Toni Storm's lame championship run continues. Mariah May continues to be wasted as Storm's lame sidekick despite having the potential, in my opinion, to be a far bigger star within AEW than any of the women on their roster (unless Mercedes signs with AEW).

Julia continues carrying the belt with her silly goth girl act



Eddie Kingston continues to embarrass the entire pro wrestling industry

Bryan Danielson continues to be wasted in a pointless 8 man match. God, I miss WWE Daniel Bryan. Remember this guy?









2013-2014 to me was the closest WWE has gotten to Attitude Era pops and it was all because of Daniel Bryan. I know there are old school, hardcore ROH fans who might disagree but that was the greatest run of Bryan's entire pro wrestling career. He got so over he even eclipsed 2011 CM Punk

Andrade keeps getting booking that he no doubt hates and I don't entirely blame him

Miro is basically Rusev again and paired up with Lana once again.

The Christian/Copeland match sounds like it was fun at least, though Christian keeping the belt was never in question. He's the best heel in AEW.

Samoa Joe being champion is pretty cool, though again, the Devil thing gets a big meh from me.

AEW and WWE are really boring right now.

[Reprise]

I'm not commenting on the Jericho thing, because we never know all of the facts in these situations and everyone will just choose to believe whatever they want to believe. Frankly, I'm tired of this stuff. It happens so often these days that I'm getting kind of numb to it. Like I said, the truth never really comes out anyway and these things usually get settled one way or another behind the scenes and eventually everyone just forgets about it. No one is talking about Ric Flair and stewardesses anymore and no one even remembers that Vince McMahon was being investigated for stuff. Jericho seems to be getting some crowd heat though from what I'm hearing so AEW will have to figure out how they want to deal with that.

What frustrates me is often with these cases is nothing is actually said, nothing is clear, it is all just implied and then online it all just spirals out of control and the narrative takes on a life of its own.

I am not defending Jericho and if he did what people seem to be acting like he did, then screw him, but all that has happened is: Nick Hausman decided to call Jericho out as having skeletons in his cupboard, because he doesn't give a shit about potential victims or the information that he has sat on for God knows how many years, but he just wants to win some ridiculous Twitter beef. And then people dig out some old post that is already in the public domain that claimed Jericho made a pass at a female talent, she felt uncomfortable and then asked for her release. People should wait for actual concrete clear accusations before jumping to conclusions in my opinion.

They have to investigate and address it because it did affect Jericho's match last night. He looked very off and nervous coming out to the ring and even in the ring. The crowd response was very mixed and almost sombre. There were a couple of signs caught on camera and multiple instances of people trying to show signs on camera and the camera would cut away. It cast a shadow over the match and, to be honest,

The PPV was fine, but nothing particularly great. The highlights were the Copeland and Christian match, which was fantastic. The ending was predictable though. Everything about this PPV was predictable. Sometimes that's ok, but most of the time it just makes everything feel like filler. As soon as "Killswitch" won the Battle Royal TNT title shot (something in itself I had already predicted), it became obvious that Copeland was going to win, that Killswitch would then come to cash in, but Christian would convince Killswitch to surrender his title shot to him and he'd get the title straight back. It was fine though and plays into Edge formally being the "ultimate opportunist".

None of the matches were bad. I enjoyed Toni Storm and Julia Hart's matches to be honest. Both are over and the crowd really got into Julia and Abadon's match in particular.

Mox and Kingston was meh, the Jericho 8 way tag was pretty meh, the Continental Classic rejects one was good, but pointless.

The main event was very solid, but the ending was a bit strange. I am fine with Joe going over though. Good for him. The stuff with Cole being revealed as the Devil was predictable as hell and they made it even more predictable by having him in MJF's corner for the match. That said, it was the best outcome. Anyone else would have felt like a massive flop.

[Raging Justice]

Really nice of Julia to point out in the media scrum that she doesn't care about the opinions of fans. My recent dislike of her continues to be justified

[marurun]

I think it may be time to stop talking about the Jericho situation in broader terms. I don’t want us to veer anny more into making statements about abusers or victims or “who do we believe???!!!”

[Reprise]

It's kinda depressing that the best women's match was on the pre-show. Willow vs Statlander was pretty awesome, although they botched the finish. Speaking of botches, this PPV was full of them. The Jericho match had a ton of botches, probably because half the crowd had turned on Jericho and no one in the ring could quite focus since they're all in a ring with a guy in a middle of a scandal. Julia botched her finish off the top ropes. The flaming table didn't break in the Copeland and Cage match. MJF and Joe seemed to have a couple of awkward bits, not sure if they were botches per se though.

Overall I'd give the PPV 6/10

Pre-show:
KRIS STATLANDER VS WILLOW NIGHTINGALE: ***
20-MAN BATTLE ROYALE FOR SHOT AT AEW TNT CHAMPIONSHIP: **
[FTW CHAMPIONSHIP – FTW RULES] HOOK VS WHEELER YUTA: **1/2

Main show:
[8-MAN TAG TEAM CONTEST] BRODY KING, JAY LETHAL, JAY WHITE & RUSH VS BRYAN DANIELSON, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI, DANIEL GARCIA & MARK BRISCOE: ***1/2
ANDRADE EL IDOLO VS MIRO: ***
[AEW WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP] TONI STORM (C) (W/ LUTHER) VS RIHO: **3/4
SWERVE STRICKLAND VS ‘THE NATURAL’ DUSTIN RHODES: ***
CHRIS JERICHO, SAMMY GUEVARA, STING & DARBY ALLIN VS RICKY STARKS, BIG BILL, POWERHOUSE HOBBS & KONOSUKE TAKESHITA: **1/4
[AEW TBS CHAMPIONSHIP – HOUSE RULES] JULIA HART (C) VS ABADON: **1/2
[AEW TNT CHAMPIONSHIP – NO DISQUALIFICATION] CHRISTIAN CAGE VS ADAM COPELAND: ****1/4
[CONTINENTAL CLASSIC FINALS – TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP] JON MOXLEY VS EDDIE KINGSTON: ***
[AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP] MJF (C) VS SAMOA JOE: ****