It seems weird Omega would get into trouble when The Bucks wouldn’t. Matt Jackson seemed to be the lead instigator in the locker-room. They’re known worms. Omega does have a bite mark on the underside of his left arm, like he went to grab someone around the neck from behind, but The Bucks would have to get in shit for this for acting inappropriately as EVPs, surely?

Omega’s trouble seems to be from something else and or maybe being the behind-the-scenes aggravator.

I’d like to know more about the whole story with the video game. There are loose reports that Omega was terrible to work for and the game is severely over-budget. The head of the Yukes Nordic development team left to jump to 2k, which seems…odd. It seems weird a guy’s contract would come up during a development cycle, let alone them feeling the need to take a lower position with a rival company. There’s more to that story and how Fight Forever has been handled.

It reminds me of Homer Simpson being in charge of designing a car for Herb lol.

Holy Shit this is so bad

I can't believe they tweeted it out

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“When the violins play, violence is always on the way” <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheProblem?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TheProblem</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MarinaShafir?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarinaShafir</a> has a message for her hometown of Albany, NY here on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEWDarkElevation?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEWDarkElevation</a>! ▶️ <a href="https://t.co/l25mhLUdoa">https://t.co/l25mhLUdoa</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZgZgXoSdFz">pic.twitter.com/ZgZgXoSdFz</a></p>&mdash; All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) <a href="https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1572001339206504454?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Bless her. I think she really wants to be in wrestling. But wow. Vickie Guerrero should not be trying to save your segments.

I actually lol’d after “You don’t know me!” though.

oh yeah, I don't know if the fight stuff will be a huge problem for Kenny. Just sounds like there's other stuff he's done that's working against him. Could be about the video game and it could be some question behaviour backstage.

MJF was on the MMAhour with Ariel Helwani. I made sure to tune in, I usually watch most episodes anyway because the MMA world is 10x more exciting than Pro Wrestling these days, at least in the actual watching of it at least, plus gambling.

Anyway, MJF came in and here are my thoughts.

You don't really need to see this interview, MJF is mostly in character and nothing is really said that you need to hear. MJF basically said that he came to a financial deal with Tony and is getting paid a lot more money and a better spot on the card but no time added to his deal. He said he got the deal he wanted and he will be the champion when his contract is up and spark the biggest bidding war ever in wrestling.

He said he'd be interested in any wrestling company that would pay him the most money except for NJPW (lol).

He said he thinks that WWE is "really good" right now but wouldn't say it's "much better" than it was with Vince in charge. But he watches as much of it as possible and enjoys it. He also only watches wrestling, he watches everything current and old. He's obsessed with wrestling.

He showed love for Bruce Prichard and his MLW tenure, and that promotion as a feeder league where he cut his teeth.

He didn't comment on the Punk/Elite drama in detail.

He was happy for Cody to do what was right for him in leaving AEW and that it opened up a big spot on the roster which is a good thing. And that if The Elite or Punk leave AEW their spots are ready to be taken by a multitude of viable talent.

He sold AEW hard as "doing very well despite the rumors", sold that he was the reason for the ratings going up after a summer of down numbers with his absence. Lot's of big company man talk, numbers and a bunch of typical bullshit you'd hear from a company man. That stuff surprised me but I guess he needed to walk back some of the company shit talk and try to get the "cool kids" back on board with AEW.

Said most underrated talent is Ethan Page and Stokely Hathway. Said most overrated is my favorite Jon Moxley, that his bravado is bullshit but he's a good wrestler.

He said he and Tony are getting along much better now that he's being paid his worth.

Put over a lot of talent like Darby, Brody King, Ethan Page and cited Terry Funk as an idol of his.

wow that Marina Shafir promo was horrendous

like even AEW Twitter, notorious marks for everything the company puts on, didn't like it

Without listening, that sounds like a good interview. That’s how you stay in character but also divulge things while putting everything over. Including WWE, lol.

What a gem. You know, he might have more to do with ratings going up than zero. The man is just great pro-wrestling. I just hope TK isn’t being too on-the-nose with this MJF/Mox stuff and we do get Danielson as champion.

I don’t want to be mean to her, because she is clearly trying, but it’s just not for her. This role, maybe wrestling. NXT cut her for a reason. Maybe she can hover about, be a referee, do crossover stuff with Ronda and/or Shayna. I just don’t see this…getting good. And the whole gimmick is just wrestling recruit and no one has gotten in there to tell her to not try and be a million things that aren’t her.

She might even be worse that Aliyah.

Shafir was a completely pointless addition. Terrible wrestler, terrible promo.

Oh yeah, it just seems weird that the hints are Omega is getting it worse.

Regardless of who gets hammered hardest, you’d think that someone in their position would be given the option to leave. It could be perceived as really embarrassing for a former executive to walk into a locker-room as “mere talent” and held to a contract on that.

If Omega is done — whether they fire him or just pull his January deal and make it as quiet and “mutual” as possible, I could see that being the cue for The Bucks to exit too. This is all probably playing into the politics of this thing.

Same thing on the Punk side. I’m more sympathetic to it, but even if you aren’t — losing Punk isn’t just about losing a 40-something dude who isn’t guaranteed to be healthy. You’re going to get offside with a lot of his political allies, some of whom are young guys with lots of potential to draw actual money from you. I’m obviously reading into things a lot, but Powerhouse Hobbs has been pretty open about Punk helping him out. Assuming he and Starks close (Starks a former Cody guy) then it could extend to that. Obviously there’s FTR. They seem to get along with Brian Pillman, Jr., Griff Garrison and Brock Anderson. Then there’s Wardlow and even Danhausen.

You suddenly start to have a roster of guys that looks pretty impressive on its own who might want to get out of a company that is chained to The Elite. And the same thing goes back the other way, to a different degree with different guys.

I’ll say this again: If you’ve got obvious built-in assets and the WWE cuts you from developmental, then it might just be because you didn’t show the right stuff. AEW has been pretty peachy keen to pick up people from NXT that common sense should have indicated probably needed A LOT of work and may not have shown any signs of getting there.

Dave is hinting that AEW might be abandoning their rankings moving forward. Apparently their website hasn’t been updated since August.

It’s kind of a “no shit” scenario for me. Rankings and the displayed record was always going to create unnecessary corners for the booking to deal with. The great thing about wrestling is that you get to do a bit of creative accounting with people. You can heat someone with a terrible record up and you can bring forward stats you want to be known, leaving things you don’t care about behind you.

You were always going to get mid-carders with insane records and main eventers who are 50/50. You were also going to get ridiculous career statistics. It was a bad idea idea in conception and no one is going to convince me it was just their execution, lol. Look, you can have that the execution was terrible, but it was just a bad idea, ok?

Now you’re also haunted by the ghost of that shit. Yeah, a company is always going to make some sort of mistakes and there are things that are going to come down to growing pains, but “remember the rankings?” is something that they arguably don’t deserve to just shrug. It was 3 years of banging their heads against a wall with something that was never going to work, only for them to eventually admit it was a failure.

And look, better late than never. But late isn’t early.

It’s also potentially alienating for fans who see someone a couple of times and their record just keeps jumping. In wrestling, in order to get people out in front of the live crowds, they’ll be facing way more tin-cans than a professional fighter would. But a record like 20-1 when you’ve been in the company for mere months and the viewer realizes they only cared about maybe 3 of those matches isn’t a good thing.

Demanding completionism from fans is a risk too. It’s a big ask for a large subset of people who might only be interested in Dynamite and maybe Rampage, with these records really blowing open the “lore.”

It’d be like if you’re watching Star Wars and suddenly the screen froze and you had to read all these background lore on Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. It’s cool that it’s there for nerds for that shit, but it is not important to the laser sword fight.

By this I mean I hope they don’t force an MJF/Mox main event for Full Gear just because that’s what’s been teased right now. Danielson/MJF would be fine. Even leave Mox off the card/have him waiting in the bays. I guess you could also do Ethan Page vs. Mox lower on the card too. I’d entertain the idea of a Danielson/Mox/MJF three-way too, but maybe not right now.

MJF can talk shit about Moxley while feuding with Danielson over the belt. If they want to get cute, Mox could even get between Danielson and victory over MJF.

Roddy could have done better.

Tiny out here trying to win the Jamal Khashogg of the Year award :-\

Damn Vickie Guerrero for sandbagging that promo!

It’s weird that Vickie Guerrero is still around.

Maria Shafir sucks and I’m baffled as to why she’s employed

Because she used to work for WWE. Pretty much all that is needed to get a contract from Tiny :lol:

That’s it. They thought they were really nabbing one from WWE.

If Marina Shafir HAD to stay in AEW the only way forward with her should be to turn her and Nyla Rose into an Al Snow and Steve Blackman-esquire tag team with Nyla being a huge dork and Shafir playing everything straight.

Nyla’s an adorable cheeseball on Twitter and letting her show some of that personality off vs being a generic monster would be better for her. Shafir on the other hand needs to never open her mouth again.

Nyla Rose is going to be in the video game and FTR aren’t.

Nyla Rose was one of the first AEW stars man! FTR is gonna be a HUGE post release PAYABLE download. You'll have to pay more to play more my man.

Let’s see how many people do that. :lol:

If it does indeed harken back to the feel of no mercy, I think a lot of people will.

Since people havent been able to shut up about it for 2 decades.

There ya go farkwad.


There will be DLC packs, just like other pro wrasslin games of the past decade. It'll be just fine.

So much went into No Mercy. It was a different time. Technological limitations were different. Wrestling has more people invested in it. Friends were interested in playing it.

An emulation of that is going to miss out on those contextual things that made it great. Least of all picking up the game and having 30% of the roster available to you.

I mean not having FTR in the game reflects 100% how they've been treated in AEW thus far.

That is true.

Looks like they might be outdated on CM Punk too. Wade Keller is reporting that it looks like he is getting his contract bought out by AEW. I don’t personally believe this yet, but I’m sure there are stories going about for reasons.

Keller seems to reason that Punk not being mentioned on the air by Ian Riccaboni is a sign that he’s on his way out. That could just be because he’s still suspended. But a contract buyout is a specific outcome to mention out of the blue. I’d guess he’s heard something and is looking for signs for it on the air.

Will be so shit to have Young Bucks on TV and not Punk. Oh well. At least they one of them got the shit beaten out of him.

My favorite part of Meltzer's reporting is him making sure it was 100% known that Punk through a sucker punch because heaven forbid the Bucks lose a shoot fight cleanly on Uncle Dave's watch.

I missed that one lol. You’d think you’d hold back details like that when it comes to one side of the story and you know which side you’re getting. I think I most like the turnaround on Punk as an overall influence in order to make the negative stories about him fit.

If Punk leaving is true, it’s possible that The Bucks still won’t get off, especially if there are potential legal ramifications to keeping them on.

Even with a sucker punch, nobody is losing a fight to Phil :lol:

I mean I know you have a hard-on for him, but we're talking the Jackson brothers lol Tito and Jermaine have a better chance in a shoot fight than Matt and Nick.

They’re literally the only two Jacksons on the planet that couldn’t take Punk.

I can understand why Dave really wanted to lie to help them save face though.

Some AEW gossip:

- Tony Khan has been talking to different media platforms about airing AEW. DAZN is a name that has been thrown out there by Brandon Thurston. This could be for international rights to AEW or could eventually be a replacement for Warner Bros Discovery.

- Bobby Fish apparently tried to get Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly to leave AEW with him. They said no. It is believed Tony Khan found out and that has been it for Bobby Fish. Swerve Stickland’s name has been brought up, for whatever reason, as being someone that might have tipped TK off about Fish trying to lead an exodus.

Meltzer saying Saraya not medically cleared...

Adam Cole seems to care more about his streaming career than his wrestling career, so not surprising he's comfortable where he is.

hold up hold up let me give this a shot...

that's funny because britt baker cares more about christian cage streaming cum all over her face because they are having SEX

Christian novacame all over her face.

Not bad.

You know who else isn’t bad? Christian Cage at having sex with Britt Baker.

- Malakai Black, FTR and Swerve Strickland are all on the list of talent people believe WWE has sent feelers to. There is also mumbling about someone who has been with AEW from the start that would surprise people.

Serious guess: Britt Baker. That would be a pretty big blow to AEW. Without her their women’s div only really has Jade.

Apparently they contacted Swerve, he went and snitched to TK that WWE was contacting people, and TK had legal send WWE a cease and desist in regards to tampering.

There’s that rumor. I dunno, I guess someone snitched. He’s new enough at a high level to probably do it.

There was mumblings that it was Jericho, but Jericho has a working relationship with WWE still. He did the Austin podcast and he, Bryan and Big Show did the Cena Raw thing. They have to talk to WWE for that to be put together. It doesn’t really make sense for Jericho to go “WWE is talking to me!”

I guess someone like Swerve might do it because he sees it getting him points. Bit of a rookie move though. Makes sense WWE would reach out to him if they were going to bring back Hit Row though.

I definitely see the WWE reaching out to MJF, but I don’t think that would be stooged off. If they contacted Britt re: her availability that would probably be pillow talk between her and Christian.

Wardlow would be a guess for obvious reason. Would not be surprised if Trips has been blowing up PAC and Lance Archer, either.

No one really surprises me though. I guess Excalibur and Orange Cassidy would.

Oh and I wouldn't be super shocked if they called Hangman up, either. They might be willing to give him a go in NXT and see if they can mold him a little bit before moving him up. I dunno how they feel about his comments re: taking advice though.

i'd love to see h book butcher and blade

Wardlow should really consider going. Hell, his contract could be up before MJF, especially if he hasn’t signed a new one since debuting in 2019.

PAC was a Triple H guy. I wonder if Tony has any tells? Swerve was just a tag champ for no reason. PAC is a double champion. Does that come about because he knows Triple H wants them?

They can keep Blade. Repackage Butcher and use him in WWE. He can be Bray Wyatt’s cleaver.

You can get that out of him. He goes to NXT and is a good boy and they can say he learnt from his mistakes.

Id like to see Kenny there honestly. Theres some matchups with WWE guys that could be incredible. Rollins, Richochet, Riddle, AJ, etc. And he would have absolutely no pull there which would be better for everyone involved. It could work.

If the goal is to stick is to AEW though there is only really one name I think would really make an impact. If WWE somehow got Mox back at this point that would spell doom for AEW I think.

If The Elite camp loses out in this investigation, I can see Tony offering them all ways out. Page probably gets an option to leave then too.

I honestly think a stint in WWE for Hangman would do wonder for him. He gets the right people around him and there is some definite star power there for a few years. Maybe not top guy potential, but definitely on the top end of things. Imagine WWE picking up the redemption of Hangman Page angle that AEW dropped the ball on and did it right. That could be a huge angle and get him over the moon.

Mox probably still has nightmares from the stupid shit they made him say/do. Vince or no Vince. Pretty sure he's happy where he's at.

Some familiar faces in WWE that aren't just call backs would be refreshing for WWE's product, tho.

I get what you’re saying, but he’s also a liability too. Triple H has kind of weaponized his garbage wrestling as something to be embarrassed by. It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t take him if he became available, but he’s a torpedo you kind of want them to fire off in their own ship.

Honestly, I feel the same way about a lot of guys there. Jericho is old and embarrassing now. Punk causes trouble because he won’t suffer the politics. Danielson diminishes himself because he doesn’t give a fuck. Samoa Joe looks disinterested and feels like a waste. Keith Lee sucks and reminds audiences that they will take everyone and it sucks. The optics of them having too many guys works for them, and it’s not like anyone is being maximized.

You want MJF, Britt Baker and Jade Cargill. That cripples them BIG TIME.

Honestly, even a guy like Wardlow being in AEW helps WWE because AEW has no clue what to do with him. It makes them look like clowns. There’s definitely benefits to signing him and using him better, but it doesn’t hurt if AEW keeps tripping over their own shoelaces.

Take the hot talent that actually somewhat find a way to get used half-way correctly there. MJF overcomes his bad booking and Jade has been booked pretty solidly for her experience level. I’m even iffy on Britt Baker, because she’s also kind of lost in limbo there. But you take her and they’ve got such a horrid women’s div. Good luck appealing to networks in these times without having a cast of women. That division isn’t going anywhere, so you do your best to make sure it sucks.

I definitely think he’s in the wrong promotion. He’s pretty green and needs a place where he can work up to the level of other guys.

I thought WWE had a decent chance of getting Kenny, but I’m also wondering if he’s someone that’s a bit too toxic, so you leave him in AEW to make a mess there. Plus if you don’t want it to be a wrestler’s market, don’t offer him much and see what that does to what Tony Khan starts paying the guys.

I would love to see Archer and The Butcher in WWE just to see how H could book them.

Archer was one of those first "big guys" AEW managed to get but they really haven't done dick with him for a while.

The Butcher started out late in wrestling, kinda like DDP but hasn't had the chance to really shine. I'd like to see him get a chance at a decent run. His band broke up so he might have the time to invest in a full WWE schedule (if he can stay healthy).

Young Bucks were fun for a while (I don't mind a lil flippy flip...a little). They can go back to Impact.

Omega should come back but on a short leash. I want the video game to succeed....

Spank bank material right here.

I've never really thought about it before but yeah, Archer would be a way better tag partner for Butcher.

I was just thinking about more talent I would poach. I think I would go after the Team Taz guys. Starks, Hobbs and Hook.

Starks, with a little more muscle, could be a top guy.

Hobbs, with a mouthpiece, could be much more.

Hook needs a bit of both.

Yeah, I’d program Starks with Cody, maybe doing a gimmick where his idolization of Cody has warped into a mission to destroy him. Give Starks “Smoke & Mirrors” as a theme song.

Hobbs has got so much potential. Just tell his story. There’s a top babyface.

Hook I’d use in NXT. Maybe have him debut in a similar fashion to his dad, he can choke out Damon Kemp on his first night in or something. Maybe have Kurt Angle introduce him. He’ll need some development, but he could be an interesting player down there.

I don’t think that’s a signing you make if you don’t have something in mind for her as a contingency for if she isn’t cleared. She could be the voice of reason that convinces Jamie Hayter to stand up for herself and leave Britt, while behind-the-scenes could help them with expanding operations in the UK

She's got 2.7 million followers on Twitter, which is more than twice as many as AEW itself, so in terms of leveraging exposure and gaining potential viewers, it's not a terrible signing even if she can't wrestle, so long as there's something in mind for her.

I’ll be pretty bummed if she came in, given the reaction she got, just to be an ambassador and a coach.

Paige in the future

https://i.imgflip.com/6ul6gu.gif

Paige wasn’t very good guys.

This signing is about:

* Snatching someone from WWE.

* The politics of signing a female star and someone with connections to a Rock movie.

* TK living out some fantasies.

There is no plan.

She was hyped because she was better than most of the shitty divas at the time, but she doesn't hold a candle to what the division would become.

True. She was presented very well in NXT. She got exposed on the main roster and lost a lot of that carefully managed appeal.

Paige was amazing, pale skin, black hair, played up down, up down with Xavier Woods.

But totally agree, Paige was well ahead of the division at the time but was years behind Banks, Lynch and Bayley.

I was heaps into her around 2013/2014, don’t get me wrong.

I think Tony was too. I’m very interested to see how this goes.

I liked Paige's Cradle DDT finisher

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/A8Du...1.46.51_PM.png

According to her win-loss record she is yet to see trios action. I beg to differ.

What the fuck are some of those numbers? Does career include matches before they joined aew? Cause no way has Tay wrestled 71 matches since joining aew. But at the same time, Serena probaly has hundreds of matches under her belt

Easy to boost up numbers when you have a bunch of YouTube shows that no one actually watches/cares about.

Yeah, looks like she’s been there over 2 years. Dark matches included, 71 seems about right. Means there’s about 40 tapings where she didn’t wrestle.

Buddy Matthews interaction with Muta is believed to have been his last appearance for the company and he is now gone as well.

Rats off a sinking ship.

Someone start playing a violin.

It’s funny to see some fans go from “Buddy Matthews is so good in the ring and was terribly misused in WWE” to “no big loss, he isn’t anything special anyway.”

Matthews was hardly on TV, in ring or otherwise. It’s not a bad thing that Tony starts trimming down the roster. A lot. Too many people, not enough hours of TV.

How long was Page actually avenue on the roster with Sasha, Bailey, Charlotte and Becky? She injured her neck in 2016 and she was finished the following year after surgery. Her return lasted like two months.

Idk how much they worked together in nxt, admittedly. I do know Paige had the fucking total divas cast to work with for the majority of her run, and I’m not going to judge her in ring abilities against that class of ring talent.

Also, just because AEW isn't the happy enchanted mystical magical land, doesn't mean that it isn't good for the wrestling industry or firmly entrenched.

Feel like Paige left NXT just before the women's division really "heated up" with the "4 Horsewomen" and then was only on the active main roster with them for a handful of months.

As mentioned, I really enjoyed her feud with AJ Lee, though....