WWE never officially amalgamated the WWE and Universal Championships. They’ve got the hardware to go to a “fourth brand.”

Raw and Main Event can go to wherever they go. Let’s say…Amazon Prime.

NXT and Lvl Up can be on the CW Network. Tuesdays can be NXT Prime, Lvl Up can be a Saturday morning show.

SmackDown can stay on Friday nights on USA with the specials on NBC. They can have the Universal Title.

WCW or a new show can go Wednesdays and maybe Thursdays with the Rampage slot on Fridays. WCW/World Heavyweight Championship.

Punk being the devil would be fucking hilarious

I'm thinking Adam Cole and it will be the most interesting thing hes done if it is. But its nice to see so much conjecture and no ones seems to be fully sure which is a nice change of pace.

Why are they concealing their identity?

My prediction is Don Callis. I think Ric Flair and Britt Baker will tempt them. If it has to be an active wrestler, Juice Robinson is really the only option that makes sense.

It was me, Noid, it was me all along!!

Can you interrupt all future Tony Khan announcements and get Tony Schiavone to make an announcement during the announcement pls?

The Bunny has left AEW for OnlyFans.

I'm meh on Adam Cole but I could get behind this, I think.

Why would Adam Cole be concealing his identity to attack his rivals?

Adam Cole is also injured. Which means he’d be kayfabe lying. But he had surgery, presumably on the company’s dime. So he’s magic. So he’s a magically healed/time-travelling Adam Cole who attacks the bad guys under a mask so…people don’t know it’s him?

Why is he eventually going to unveil himself to the world and be like “It was me, Austin!” Like, what reason does he have to go from being Mystery Magic Adam Cole back to Black, Gold & Old Adam Cole?

Tony Khan is the devil!

Stephanie McMahon is the devil. She’s here to kickstart a Women’s Revolution.

The Bunny is no longer All Elite and I'm no longer watching!

Gran Metalik allegedly refused to job to Komander on Rampage, cutting the show down in terms of number of matches.

Big mistake by AEW. She's super hot despite the fetal alcohol syndrome, and she out drew Roman on Friday when they went head to head

Addition by subtraction. The less flippy shitters, the better

In theory you’re correct, but it seems like they’ve lost Metalik and kept Komander. :lol:

Wait, so apparently the devil’s group are dressed like ninjas and are attacking anyone who helps MJF?

Please, please, PLEASE don’t miss the chance to have Samoa Joe team with MJF so we can have ninjas attack Joe and toss him in the back of a van.

I mean, it isn't like Tony Khan hasn't brought someone back way too early before (CM Punk, Danielson) It isn't like Tont Khan has folks on his roster who can't get cleared to wrestle anywhere else (Saraya, Shibata). It isn't like Tony Khan hasn't endorsed the bullying of someone who wouldn't or couldn't work injured (Rosa).

That said, I think it's gonna be someone stupid. Either Jack Perry (as a thank you for Punk), Ric Flair (a throwback to the Black Scorpion), or MJF himself (because who said this should make sense? This is AEWTF!)

Oh, I’m not saying it won’t be Cole. I just don’t think it makes any sense as to why he’d conceal his identity to perpetrate these things and then reveal himself. What’s the difference between being Adam Cole in a few months and Adam Cole doing it now? It’s just got MAJOR plot holes. Doesn’t mean that won’t be the route they go.

MJF I thought about. I’ve kind of dropped that now, just because he’s watching the attacks on video and they’re not just going after his enemies. But it wouldn’t be shocking.

Definitely agree with Ric Flair and Jack Perry as possibilities. Perry’s replaced Britt Baker on my list. I’ve got Don Callis, Jack Perry & Ric Flair.

Butcher and Blade gone from AEW. Butcher seems to be someone peoole liked. Off to TNA they go, I guess.

They just won a dark match apparently. People are finding it weird talent with expiring contracts on their way out are getting that treatment. It could be TK being incompetent or it could indicate that there’s more to the story. But we’re entering that period where a lot of contracts are coming up, so look for people to leave one way or another.

The more I think about it... the more I think this is a real possibility. Making himself the #1 heel in AEW. it's Austin/McMahon!

Santana wants out of AEW. Jericho beat Takeshita in DDT Pro and a bunch of nerds are so angry. Santana is retweeting their outrage at Jericho’s politics.

Punk already provided the guide on how to do that with ease. Just make Tony fear for his life at a wrestling event.

Turning down one of his hugs should accomplish that.

:lol:

Lol, AEW is doing its own G1 tournament. Just what they need to do — take 12 of their guys, pull them out of feuds and put them into heatless matches for the sake of it, only to get a singles match that could have been achieved in a more direct way.

Look for a portion of the field to end up injured too.

I've always liked tournaments.

I'm excited at the possible belters for this tournament but have to give it some pause until I see the field. The whole thing with a Round Robin tourney is that pretty much everyone has to lose at some point or another, and TK is extremely protective of certain guys. That gives me pause that he's actually gonna involve 12 top guys in this.

At the same time, TK also knows people are gonna be pissed off if he throws some obvious dreck in there. Like I fucking love John Silver and know he'd probably give you 5 fun in-ring performances but it would also be super obvious that he's only in there to eat pins and go 0-5 because TK was afraid of letting anyone important lose.

There’s no context to this tournament to have it make sense. This isn’t in a time where Wrestler A vs. Wrestler B is rare. The blocking of this thing is going to leave obvious names out (by necessity). Stories are going to be sacrificed in lieu of mindless action.

It’s going to be another example of how AEW puts an idea on paper that some fans are going to excuse, but when it comes time to execute it all the problems are going to become immediately apparent.

Here's my best guess on how Tony might structure this thing:

A BLOCK
Bryan Danielson
Buddy Matthews
Claudio Castagnoli
Keith Lee
Kyle Fletcher
Penta El Zero Miedo

B BLOCK
Andrade El Idolo
Brian Cage
Daniel Garcia
Kenny Omega
Konosuke Takeshita
Wheeler Yuta

That feels like the kind of field I could see Khan running out there. There's enough opportunity for the big names to lose a match in here believably, but at the same time everyone can find a win somewhere too. The closest things to pin eater in the whole thing is Fletcher but he feels like someone Khan would love to get some shine in this tourney. Maybe he finds his win over his countryman Buddy or over Penta or soemthing.

A Block would come down to Danielson vs. Claudio in an all-BCC clash. Stable mates fighting is part of the fun of a Round Robin and when else would they get to do this match? I know Danielson loves putting guys over but let's be real, this tourney is for him so he'd have to go to the finals.

B Block naturally should conclude with Omega vs. Takeshita part 2. Takeshita I'd think being 4-0 going into that would make sense. Maybe Omega is 3-1 (Callis screws him over against Brian Cage or something) but in a spot where he could advance if he finally can beat Takeshita. I mean you're getting either Danielson/Omega or Danielson/Takeshita out of this at Worlds End so I'd guess the fans will be happy regardless.

It will basically be something that NXT just did recently.


But for once, I am going to give Tony Khan the benefit of the doubt and see what he can produce here.

I find that when I go in with no preconceived ideas about what will happen, I will enjoy it more. Going to give him a chance here.

See I would rather he do something like this.

6 man blocks with the top 4 in each division making it out of their group. Have a points system where a submission is 4 points, a pin is 3 points and a time limit draw is 1 point.

Once you get out of the round play, re-seed the tournament into a single elimination 8 wrestler bracket where the highest point total is the 1 seed and the lowest point total is the 8 seed.


1
8

3
6

2
7

4
5

Then just let the wrestlers complete the bracket and it ends with whoever wins the elimination bracket.

I would have the #1 seed advance and face the 7 seed, even if the 7 seed is someone like Bryan Danielson. You could run it like the 7 seed is this fantastic wrestler who had a string of bad luck early, rallied to make the bracket, and then turned it up to make it to the final.

Going in with no preconceived ideas sounds like a lot of work on your end though. It’d be better if he just made his programming consistently good.

Just give two wrestlers are reason to fight that isn’t an arbitrary tournament. And no, in theory, a tournament doesn’t have to be arbitrary, but this one is going to be.

Staying away from "dirtsheets" altogether, or the IWC, can increase the enjoyment of what you see on-screen.

Ideally I think the round robin tournament idea should be used for exclusively low-card guys. Then instead of having random matches on Heat/Velocity, they are having random matches with a semblance of "purpose", and can push the winner beyond the low-card if they want.

Every match in this block would be 5 stars or better. I'm going to be disappointed now when it's not set up like this. :lol:

That’s a better idea.

Here is the best way I think you can set up this thing using main talent. It’s not perfect, but it can’t be.

I guess you can just not have Edge and Christian in it and let them wrestle for the TNT Title. Takes out two top guys so you don’t need to make room for that. But then what’s the point?

What is the purpose of the tournament? Does the winner get anything? Is it going to be like Owen where somebody wins and they mention it like 3 times over the next year and literally nothing else?

Isn't every single AEW show just random matchups already? Do they really need a tournament to come up with randomly paired matches?

Also, they should ripoff Impact and do a shoot Feast or Fired tournament, where Tiny fires half the roster.

He should just fire himself.

Wait that would make the Elite in charge...


Fire the Elite then himself.

They’ll probably get a title shot or something, but I’m not sure why a wrestler needs to go to those extremes to earn a title shot. Like, why not just ask?

And last point is exactly the problem. Nothing from this tournament is actually novel. Lock Jaw’s idea of using underneath guys is actually a good one, because then at least there’s the promise of on-screen commitment.

Bring back the six-sided ring

If his recent tweets are anything to go off of you can add Danhausen to the list of people who seem unhappy(hausen). Granted he always tweets in character so it's easy to construe his tweets as joking around but he does sometimes pepper in stuff that even in character is clearly venting/passive aggressive (his friendship with Punk, the perception that he's injury prone etc). Most recently though he's been strongly hinting that his return to television has gotten bumped multiple weeks in a row and he's taken pretty clear swipes at TK.

First and foremost - if the dude actually has been getting bumped then that's just shit in general. That'll piss off anyone. But I actually think he might've been given a disservice by being off-screen the entire time. The Danhausen character feels like the kind of one that would arguably be better when he has an excuse to not wrestle.

I've actually never seen a "normal" Danhausen match. His AEW matches on TV have been 2 minutes or less and pretty much every ROH/indy match I'd seen since he got popular was short and gimmicky. I have no idea if he's capable of going the Orange Cassidy route of "evolving" beyond wrestling strictly a comedy style. If he can do that more power to him but his body's betrayed him quite a bit and maybe the company should've found a workaround to keep him involved somehow.

I don't think the injury prone accusations for him are too off base. He first got popular online when he started his YouTube show at a time he was injured in ROH. He was injured when he signed with AEW. He's been injured twice more since he got there. But his character is one that could've been used without wrestling. Even if it was just him popping up once or twice an episode from his "lair" to riff on whoever was in the ring at the time, kinda like those old Shane Helms pop-ups from 2008 SmackDown.

You also have to keep in mind what Tony and his team are telling talent to encourage them to sign. Broken promises can very quickly make talent miserable. Malakai Black has references those. If Danhausen was brought in under the impression he would be able to appear on television injured, because he is such a goofy character, or if he keeps being told “yes” when the reality is no, that can really fry someone.

Tony Khan seems like the sort of person who has all these positive opinions and ideas until it comes time to put them into practice.

MJF’s mystery partner at Full Gear vs Ass Boys?

Blessing in disguise. Keeping Reddithausen off TV is a win in my books

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bryan Alvarez says that the last thing AEW needs right now is for their fans to say everything is alright <a href="https://t.co/lLiWbCiuYl">pic.twitter.com/lLiWbCiuYl</a></p>&mdash; Vick (@Vick_8122) <a href="https://twitter.com/Vick_8122/status/1724811156374585353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

So I don't disagree with his point but I do find it funny that Bryan, Vinny, and Meltzer all being lock-step in calling things like this out seems to directly line up with them getting a bit flustered with Tony's booking. And clearly they see a lot of their readers are getting annoyed with Tony's worst booking tendencies as well.

If they were enjoying the show as much as they did a couple years ago they probably would've been singing a different tune. No different than a lot of the fanbase. Even the AEW subreddit is FAR more critical of the show now than it ever was before. Any booking critiques circa 2021 would get you downvoted.

Anyway it's been long-clear that the "new car smell" wore off and really it did sometime in summer/fall 2022 or so.

If anything, COVID helped stretch the new car smell out longer because most people view the pandemic era as being its own weird kind of bubble and the re-opening in summer 2021 was still the first time a lot of audiences ever got to go out and see AEW. They're clearly having a tough time drawing gates for repeat markets and are only in the green for these shows because they've had to raise ticket prices to make up for it.

It's been said amongst the AEW subreddit that AEW feels a lot more like WWE Lite than ever before. In terms of how they book the fed, the number of hours on TV etc - it certainly doesn't feel like some new and exciting project anymore, it's just another wrestling company. Tony's booking alternates from scatterbrained to incredibly repetitive and his worst booking tendencies are an obvious turnoff when there's little signs of it getting better.

The lapsed fans who started watching AEW because they had given up/grown tired of WWE are lapsing back out. And there are others who are like "OK well this feels like WWE Lite now so I may as well go back to WWE". Not that you have to pick and choose a promotion BUT we only have so much free time and there's only so much we can watch in a week.

If the whole business were on a downturn it would be one thing. But WWE is obejctively churning out the best numbers they ever have and they're drawing the most fans they have since the Attitude Era. AEW's probably doing fine with their TV deals and shit so it's not like they'll go under, but they're getting largely bitch slapped right now and have done little to combat this perception.

Praising AEW was always a marketing decision. It wasn’t helpful to AEW to pretend it was good then. But now subscribers to the dirt sheets are like “This is pretty bad isn’t it?” and now the dirt sheets are better served being honest and saying “Yeah it’s kinda trash.”

Quote:

BUY OUR PPV IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE CONTRACT SIGNING OF THIS WORLD FAMOUS WRESTLER THAT AEW FANS ARE FAMILIAR WITH!!!!!!!!

That is how you are hyping the PPV, to see the official signing of probably Will Asspray, because it is really historic that they are finally signing a guy who has already been on AEW TV a bunch of times!

lol watch it be someone like Mace or Elias

My money is on Ziggles

There is legit nobody available to sign that will mean anything, especially not anybody who has already been on their shows. That Forbidden Door shit means there is no shock when somebody who has already been there signs.

I suppose it could be Sasha Banks, but it is not like she can do anything to help their horrible division.

They should just say fuck it, sign Enzo, and let him verbally eviscerate everybody. Consequences be damned!

Kevin Nash will watch if they sign Enzo so they just might.

I will preface this comment by saying Kevin Nash is my favorite rassler ever. However he is one of the worst bookers ever and I can admit that. So here goes: I just realized that Kevin Nash was probably better with the book than TK is and that's fucking sad.

Andrew Zarian posted a picture of a bird in reference to the signing. Tony said it was an elephant in the room or something. That made me think of Marty Scurll, but there’s no way it’d be him. Then I remembered there is a wrestler named Robbie Eagles.

If the signing was going to be someone people cared about, they’d have told you who it was.

The way Tony Khan worded his statement and the show being in LA makes me think Ronda Rousey. I’d have guessed she’d be under some sort of no-compete with WWE though, but maybe they just don’t give a fuck.

She made her "in-ring" return at some tag match a couple weeks ago. It was an indy fed I think? I just remember seeing a "headline" about it.

She’s worked a couple of indy dates in the California scene. The more I think about it, the more I’m pretty sure WWE would have her contract frozen/be approving who she works for. Unless they REALLY wanted her off the books. But hey, maybe they let Tony buy out her contract or something, knowing the groans it will get from AEW faithful.

The front-runner for me now is Matt Cardona. Something about TK’s wording is just pitiful enough that I could imagine it being Cardona as a “troll.” Sure, he’s respected, right?

It’s not going to be Sasha Banks or Will Ospreay. TK will be pretty desperate to bring in Goldberg, but if that was official then we’d know about it. It can’t be any of the WWE releases because the no-competes aren’t up.

Someone like Chris Hero, Timothy Thatcher or Sami Callihan are too small time to be given the PPV treatment, even if TK is a moron. Matt Cardona kind of ticks every box with it not hurting him to get the heat for being disappointing.

I cant see it being Ronda now that WWE and UFC merged. The UFC side would likely be more pissed about it than WWE.

It would make sense for there to be some sort of licensing agreement there too.

Christian is coming up to 3 years in AEW. I wonder when his deal is up.

Talking the other day about Danhausen seemingly venting about his return being delayed. The more I think of it the more I think he'd be a perfect choice for MJF's partner in the ROH Tag Title match at Full Gear.

They obviously are wanting you to think MJF is gonna pick Samoa Joe, finally caving to his offer for help. But if it was gonna be Joe there's really no need to book a mystery partner around it. Also, Joe's offer comes with the contingency that he'd get another AEW World Title match. Yes most expect MJF to retain the belt in the main event but setting up another program like this kinda makes the main event more of a foregone conclusion.

MJF should be smart enough to not pick Joe because he doesn't trust him, and knows his ass is gonna get choked out the second they win. At the same time, Adam Cole and The Acclaimed are hurt and most of the rest of the locker room probably told MJF to fuck himself as they're still mad about the times he wronged them in the past. So Danhausen would be a choice that signifies that MJF had to really scrape the barrel.

As for Danhausen himself, this finally gets him back after a month of vignettes. He's popular and would probably get a good reception. It's OK for MJF to have a goofy partner because The Gunns themselves are goofy. And there's actual history there - Danhausen is the reason the "Ass Boys" chant started in the first place, so him showing up would have the Gunns on tilt.

They can have a fun little tag match to open the card. Post-match you can either get Samoa Joe some easy heat by having him come after MJF anyway or just have him choke out Danhausen. Alternatively you can have Danhausen get laid out by a Devil goon backstage to carry on the idea that MJF's associates are being targeted.

Oh man. The bird reference to the signing makes me think it really is Goldberg lol. He was an Atlanta Falcon after all.

Isnt the bird the journo posted an Osprey?

Goldberg in an AEW ring would probably pop me but I dont see who he works with in any longterm way with his limited style and probably looking much bigger than so many members of the roster.

If they hinted at Goldberg by using a bird because he played for the Atlanta Falcons 30 years ago, well that would be on par with every other stupid thing Tiny Khan books :rofl:

Doubt it. The only opinion that matters in the UFC is Dana's and Dana is very close with Ronda.

Well, the big surprise signing isn’t Ronda, BUT…

They really debuted Ronda Rousey at a ROH taping??? Wow, just wow lol. I cannot even think of a good comparison to a similar waste.

Im now wondering why Ronda left WWE.

Lol, oh man.

Christian returning to WWE…in the ECW brand?

Yeah that was kind of weird. Still though, while Christian is far more liked and respected in the wrestling world, Ronda is "famous" famous. Showing up on some random web series that maybe 15,000 people watch is something else lol.

Yeah, the fame level of Ronda is really where the appeal is. I guess they’re trying to use her to make ROH a thing, but if people scoff then what is she really?

I guess she will be the one who shows up at Full Gear. How the crowd responds to her is going to be interesting. Will they pretend she’s the greatest thing ever?

I wonder if Britt Baker will try to bully her?

I have genuinely enjoyed some of Ronda’s work, but if she’s able to do what she wants, and what she wants are matches involving Marina Shafir…

This could be hilariously bad.

Imagine if, when Mike Tyson came into WWF, they had him referee a strap match on superstars between Sávio Vega and Chainz

Bret Hart, freshly off the back of one of the biggest moments in wrestling history. The most talked about man in the business at that stage, debuting as a ref for Bischoff/Zbyszko.

And Bischoff, to this day, gets so angry when you accuse him or any role in WCW’s failure. Khan is like Bischoff if he just skipped the genius part and went to the overpaying chaos section of his career.

Feel like ron the rousey's stock dropped a whole lot with the more hardcore rassling fans/IWC... and since that is what AEW markets to, perhaps it was her idea to debut on ROH and try to build her stock up as this "hard worker" who is going to indies and ROH, etc.... before trying to hang in front of an even more "markish" crowd of AEW

I don't understand why Ronda has been booked in the way that she has. She should have been female Goldberg. That's now she got over/became main stream. There were debates about her beating Mayweather in a fight.

Everything after her debut match was handled poorly.

So allegedly, Danhausen has been selling bootleg merchandisehausen. Which is really weirdhausen, as the allegations only seemed to show uphausen because Danhausen is good friends with Pepsi Phil.

Anyone who actually discussed Ronda beating Mayweather is an absolute moron and should never be listened to about anything ever.

Being handed Bret Hart and doing what they did is a hilarious example.

Tony Khan might be about to get Brian Pillman’d too, which will be amazing.

Ego.

The Young Bucks are taking some time away from wrestling. They’ve asked for privacy during this time. You usually attach a reason to do that to avoid unnecessary check-ins. Leading with it kind of provokes more questions.

It was literally Brandon Cutler posting it and framing it as "sources close to" even though it's obviously just him. He posted a similar message on them being done with BTE as well.

Pretty sure this is tied to the "temper tantrum" they had after their loss on Saturday. Given how rarely they've wrestled on TV this year my guess is they've negotiated less dates in this new deal so they can get more family time. Also maybe they saw The Hardys hobbling through their matches and realized scaling back might be a good thing.

Per Haus of Wrestling, WWE are under the belief that MJF's off the table and has quietly re-signed and committed to AEW into 2027.

MJF since he's been face, his post-show promos he always talks of AEW and himself in the long-term but does always throw in that qualifier of "I don't know what will happen in the bidding war of 2024, but...". After his match with Omega he said he thought it was the most talented locker room on the planet and that was going to weigh heavily on his decision.

And then, at Saturday's scrum he didn't even bring up the bidding war at all, instead he flat out said he plans on staying with AEW "as long as Tony pays up".

There were whispers after his summer 2022 "hiatus" that he'd quietly inked a new deal and that the bidding war of 2024 thing was just gonna be an angle they built up to once he became the heel champ.

But even if he didn't sign back then I probably would guess he signed sometime this summer, pretty much right as his face turn was being solidified. To me that's when it shifted from "OK, let's get our money's worth out of him as a top heel champ while we can" to "OK, let's turn him face and make him the main focus of the show with no real signs of slowing down"

Just feels like he wouldn't have gotten this much without the long-term commitment in-hand, but guess we'll see.

If he has signed I imagine he'll cut a promo after the World's End main event and announce in front of Long Island that he's sticking around.

Could also be that they've wrapped the last of BTE.

Could also be a running gag of Snoop Dogg saying the exact same thing about smoking late last week, same words and all. Just substitute "wrestling" for "smoke".

If AEW had re-signed AEW, we’d know. Other promotions wouldn’t be able to talk to him. Right now it sounds like speculation he’s re-signed because it would be fucking stupid to have not.