The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

Russo says dumb things sometimes, and there's some stuff he says in this video I don't necessarily agree with. HOWEVER, he sums up PERFECTLY why Cody feels more like a heel than a babyface and this also sums up why AEW fans turned on him. He brings up things I've thought about myself and it's so nice to hear another person verbalize them. He brings up all the reasons why it makes no sense that there are WWE fans cheering for Cody and rooting for him:

[Raging Justice]

I just watched Will Ospreay's final match, a 10-man, Wargames style cage match between the United Empire and the Bullet Club's War Dogs at The New Beginning in Osaka. I was watching this on AXS TV, which means parts were probably edited out for commercial breaks. Even so, what I saw was a wild, violent, crazy, absolutely bonkers match. This felt like a final battle at the end of a TV show series finale, with Ospreay being the main protagonist. This was a fun watch.

This show also featured the final match between Okada and Tanahashi and an awesome Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr. match that I mentioned in a previous post

[Raging Justice]

This feels prophetic now:

[Raging Justice]

WOW! The Rock is really showing the world that Cody isn't even in his league. This is so much better than that shit Cody/Heyman segment from Raw. The Rock is the only good thing about the road to Mania so far







EDIT: Seeing this pop up on random youtube channels, might be going viral

[Raging Justice]

Guess I'm posting again, this thread gets as little action as most threads on this site.

Anyway, interesting dirt sheet info about who AEW will be pushing as their big stars going forward:



I'd like to think Okada will be in the mix as well, and this obviously doesn't cover the women's side of things. Mercedes will hopefully get the company some positive buzz and maybe some ratings if they're lucky.

I should note that, like we've seen with a lot of dirt sheet info lately, take this with a grain of salt. It does track with much of what we've seen on AEW television recently though. Swerve is on the rise, Cassidy is the best booked guy on the roster, Hangman was supposed to be the face of the company at one time, Takeshita is the biggest Japanese star they have until Okada arrives, Garcia is outshining some of the "four pillars", and Will Ospreay is Will fucking Ospreay.

Feels like AEW is entering "A New Era" as Tony Kahn likes to say. The crazy thing is, there's a bunch of guys not on this list that are absolutely main event level talent. AEW's roster is amazing. That is one thing that I don't think has EVER been a problem in this company, except maybe in the women's division.

[Reprise]

It's because forums are dying. Everyone uses Discord, Reddit and Facebook groups instead, for some reason. I wish forums were still popular. There's a greater feeling of community spirit in forums.

Plus there's just so much immaturity in those other places. It's all just "LoL AeW sUcKs, It'S lIkE 2001 wCw, CoDy Is TeH bEsT1! [Insert something about ratings here]"

They need to build their next generation of stars and I think they have been doing that. It does seem like those 6 guys are the ones being pushed. Garcia and Swerve are definitely the two biggest breakthrough stars of the last year.

It's an exciting few months ahead of us. I think there are hints that MJF might be returning to television soon (maybe even as soon as tomorrow night...), Okada is rumoured to be debuting the Dynamite after Revolution and we know Mercedes is debuting at that Big Business special.

And we have Sting's retirement tomorrow. One of the first wrestlers I ever saw on television and who I instantly felt drawn to. I absolutely loved him in 1997 and was so compelled by his feud with Hogan and the nWo.

[Reprise]

They need to give Jay White a singles push too! The guy was phenomenal in New Japan.

[Raging Justice]

It's because forums are dying. Everyone uses Discord, Reddit and Facebook groups instead, for some reason. I wish forums were still popular. There's a greater feeling of community spirit in forums.

Plus there's just so much immaturity in those other places. It's all just "LoL AeW sUcKs, It'S lIkE 2001 wCw, CoDy Is TeH bEsT1! [Insert something about ratings here]"

They need to build their next generation of stars and I think they have been doing that. It does seem like those 6 guys are the ones being pushed. Garcia and Swerve are definitely the two biggest breakthrough stars of the last year.

It's an exciting few months ahead of us. I think there are hints that MJF might be returning to television soon (maybe even as soon as tomorrow night...), Okada is rumoured to be debuting the Dynamite after Revolution and we know Mercedes is debuting at that Big Business special.

And we have Sting's retirement tomorrow. One of the first wrestlers I ever saw on television and who I instantly felt drawn to. I absolutely loved him in 1997 and was so compelled by his feud with Hogan and the nWo.

Small update to my previous post, the guy reporting this did mention Okada as well. Though he said that one should be obvious. Okada is also technically not on the roster yet.

There is potential for things to get interesting in AEW's women's division too in the coming months, but that's all up to Tony Kahn. The Stardom shake up is interesting, there is talk that Mina Shirakawa and AZM are looking to get out of Stardom and maybe come work in the US. They are going to be in an upcoming Ring of Honor show, as well as an upcoming NJPW show in Chicago. Mina has sex appeal and is decent in the ring. Her wrestling ability levelled up last year as she got put into some big matches. She also would be quite comfortable working with Mariah May again. Putting those two together would be a good excuse to have a women's tag title. AZM is one of the fastest wrestlers in Stardom and is just 21 years old. She's literally been wrestling since she was like 11 years old. I wouldn't mind seeing "high speed" wrestling become a thing in AEW's Women's Division like it is in Stardom, though I don't know if there are many ladies on AEW's roster who could work that style. Stephanie Vaquer is going to be at the Chicago show as well. AEW seems really invested in this CMLL deal, as evidenced by this week's Dynamite, so I'm going to be mad if we don't see her at some point in AEW.




Supposedly, Mayu Iwatani is not happy being stuck in Stardom. Would be pretty cool if she got booked for Forbidden Door as the IWGP Women's champion, would be a chance to get used to working in the US. Kahn could maybe lure her to AEW when her Stardom contract runs out. If WWE is gonna get Giulia, AEW should grab Mayu. Tam Nakano would be awesome too, don't know her contract status or whether or not she wants to continue in Stardom long term. Would love to see her do a run in the US before she retires, especially considering she got stripped of the Red Belt in Stardom, so what does she really have going on at the moment? Would be cool to see Giulia at a Forbidden Door too since she also holds a New Japan women's title, that would certainly be interesting to get her on an AEW show before she ends up in WWE. Would also be interesting given how Tony Kahn has disrespected her friend Rossy Ogawa.

I imagine Mercedes wouldn't mind having some joshi talent in AEW to work with. Just throwing that out there. Afterall, Tony has already hired an AEW writer for her Imagine Mercedes working with some joshis, doing the majority of the promo work for the feuds, than having 4 to 5 star matches with them

This is seriously a good time for Kahn to start eyeing some Joshi talent and give AEW some nice counterparts to Iyo, Asuka, and Kairi who are getting heavily featured in WWE right now with Giulia on the horizon.

They need to give Jay White a singles push too! The guy was phenomenal in New Japan.

Yeah, I can't see him doing this Bang, Bang, Scissor, Gang stuff forever, but the fans seem to like it. AEW has a lot of major talent right now. They can't really give everyone a big singles push. So right now, those 7 guys I mentioned seem to be at the top of the pecking order.

[Raging Justice]

The Rock segment on Smackdown last night was awesome, and Roman made the most of what he was given in that segment. It kind of ticks me off to see all this awesome stuff being wasted on Cody. They are using guys more talented than him to prop him up right now and it's so obvious.



The Rock hasn't missed a step over all these years. I'm not a huge fan of the guy nowadays like I was back when he was an active wrestler, but you can't deny what a good promo he is and the star power he possesses. It's star power so few guys on WWE's roster have today. The only one that comes to mind is LA Knight and much of that is because he is a throwback to The Rock's era of wrestling. He was awesome last night too:



Shame he's being wasted in a nothing feud with AJ Styles, but they could potentially put on a banger of a match at Mania. AJ Styles is one of the best in ring wrestlers of all time. If Knight follows his lead, they could put on one hell of a match.

Oh, and this happened, to no one's surprise:

[prfsnl_gmr]

Anyway, interesting dirt sheet info about who AEW will be pushing as their big stars going forward:

All of AEW’s wrestlers look the same. They need to mix up the body types by hiring some dudes who like Earthquake and Yokozuna. Basically, they just need some giant dudes who are t all that great at wrestling to make the matches more interesting. Right now, all of their wrestlers, except some of the aging WWE stars, are guys between 5’10” and 6’1” and about 185-215 lbs who are awesome at wrestling. They need some guys who are 6’8”+ and 300+ lbs.