Originally Posted by Lock Jaw (Post 5473679)

AEW would be wise to NOT sign Adam Cole. They already have too many people, he isn't that good anyways, and would probably be even worse given creative freedom.

Originally Posted by Slik (Post 5473129)

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Listening to the Nick Khan interview...it is extremely clear as to what the future of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWE</a> will look like from a talent standpoint.<br><br>They want people who don't have much wrestling experience prior, and to be able to mold them into the WWE-style. Imminent with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWENXT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWENXT</a> rebrand.</p>&mdash; Jon Alba (@JonAlba) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonAlba/status/1429512712648892417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Originally Posted by Slik (Post 5473130)

They'll lose some of the current NXT fanbase but might get some new eyeballs in return. Sounds like they want more Omos types and less AJ Styles types.

Originally Posted by Tom Guycott (Post 5470123)

The biggest problem there, though, is that WWE themselves created this problem to begin with by codifying this. Trying to populate the entire roster with bodybuilders and swimsuit magazine models with a tertiary emphasis on getting them to work well in the ring or on the mic (or both) is a stupid way to approach the endeavor, coupled with consistently telling people through words and deeds that anyone they consider "small" is worthless (and even that is relative - some of the guys who are considered GOAT historically aren't really people who strictly pass that eye test).

Then, they'll do shit like have a guy the size of Braun Strowman and try to make him work like he's Ricochet. Or not realize the reason why there was so much groaning and eye rolling at the rehire of Eva Marie was because nearly every match she had, she nearly Droz'd her opponent, herself, or both, but she was getting fast tracked to rule the Divas Division because she's "pretty" and was a bitch on an auxillary reality show that most wrestling fans weren't watching and that was supposed to be a 1:1 translation on her being the hottest female heel WWE had ever seen. It didn't.

Instead of looking at the issue of start-stop pushes and not properly building or presenting guys (colloquial - men and women) in ways that will eventually work them up the card, they do shit like bank all their money on a handful of talent (look how long it took for them to finally get Roman in the position they wanted him in from day one) and let everyone else languish. They script bullshit and write dumbass tripe angles and sometimes try super hard with the shittiest gimmicks possible neverminding what it might do detrimentally to th
folks on the roster saddled with this shit. They panic and call people back who were over 10 years plus ago; often at the detriment of people they could be focusing on now. And if anyone outside of their pet projects fail, it's their own fault for not being backed by the machine that quite honestly likely promised them the moon and then cuts them a month later.

But no... they failed because they're not 6'6 and 285lbs of weightlifter muscle. If only they willed themselves to grow taller, they might make it in the business.

There was more to this, but I don't have time to write it now, and I know I'm going to lose the tangent I was on if I try to come back to it later. Point is, there's too much stock put into this "midgets" mentality or the "needs to look like a star walking through the airport"... and by "star" they actually mean giant and jacked up. If the machine got behind some of these folks like they got behind others, there's no way the world wouldn't know who Shinsuke Nakamura was at this point if they treated him more like a guy who has the intangible charisma he has and less like generic foreign guy #582. There are plenty of others who could have been or currently be stars if the company would allow them to be stars instead of stunting them because THEY don't believe they are stars.

Originally Posted by Damian Rey 2.0 (Post 5473535)

Man I remember when asuka was a fucking wrecking machine

Originally Posted by Skeletor (Post 5473536)

Asuka is someone they rely on when they don't have the golden girls. Asuka is over and a fucking machine. It sucks to see what they've done to her on the main roster...even with her success.

Originally Posted by drave (Post 5473577)

Let's talk about Bianca Belair and how she'll be irrelevant within 6 months. Shameful how they did what they did.

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat (Post 5473753)

Hopefully Suzuki finds some spare time during his trip to America to squeeze in a beating to [insert AEW name here].

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat (Post 5473687)

Staying in WWE would be even worse since regardless of him staying in NXT or getting called up, his future doesn't really bode well there.

Staying in NXT does him no good in terms of career direction since he has been just spinning his wheels there for the past 3 years or so while making way less than main roster money.

Getting called up to the main roster would be a big boost to his pay since he'd be going from around $130k per year to around $400k per year if Riddle recent call-up deal is any indication. The big tradeoff is the chances of him having any real lasting success on the main roster is really bleak due to his small size and WWE's mostly awful track record with call-ups from the men's side of NXT.

If he were to go to AEW, Fightful recently teased a modern day Radicalz-like effect or group AEW will be getting with all the guys coming in to the company. Punk as the start of it and Cole as one of those potential guys. Plus his wrestling style would fit better in AEW than WWE's main roster.

Originally Posted by Slik (Post 5473718)

I would prefer to not see Adam Cole in either WWE or AEW

Originally Posted by Damian Rey 2.0 (Post 5473768)

Saw a clip nxt and good God is Kyle O’Reily awful on the mic. I mean just all time bad. Idk maybe he’s supposed to a weird awkward dork, but it wasn’t endearing or funny was just awkward and dumb.

Originally Posted by Tom Guycott (Post 5473756)

This is another one of those bad habits WWE has instilled to their own fans. Asuka was killing bitches in NXT. She was beating two jobbers in handicap matches with cocky heel swagger. She was running circles around the nearly the whole female roster. She had a Goldberg run. Commentary was talking her up as this tough badass and the "most feared striker in women's wrestling" which got corrected to "In ALL of pro-wrestling" consistently, and she was delivering those goods.

Then, on the main roster call up debut, she had a competitive match that she barely won with a girl they already treated like comedic jobber trash for forever and obviously already planned to release that week. On her big stage debut, they just told their own main audience that Asuka wasn't that good by their own booking. "Perception is reality, pal!"

I don't understand Bianca. She is someone TAILOR MADE for WWE. She's tall (for women), super athletic, muscular enough, can talk, has charisma for days, and has picked up this shit super quick from 100% from scratch green when the WWE got a hold of her... how do you fuck up your own homegrown gift?!?

I know it's kind of a bad example to point to considering "dumbing himself out of position", but I can never not think of Patrick Clark's "Call Me Up, Vince" tights... because before he fucked up his own career trajectory he clawed his way up to being white hot, that still remains a microcosm of the fear that for as big of a star it looked like he was guaranteed to be. I pretty much had this pang of worry that he would have his advice taken and, to paraphrase Samoa Joe, "trip over some bad booking".

I almost want to make some sort of a meme of that Takeover entrance, but paste [random relevant wrestler] face over VD of someone who was called up and subsequently mishandled and/or fucked over.

Originally Posted by Tom Guycott (Post 5473779)

Everybody's gotta start somewhere. I still remember that Roman Reigns "I'm the man" speech from his NXT appearance, and that sucked copious ass. To be portraying himself as this heir-apparent confident badass, he seemed really insecure and cringy. Fast foward, and look at him now... worlds better with reps and time. Kyle is already at least better than that one. Nowhere to go but up.

Originally Posted by drave (Post 5473788)

Instantly think of Kyle O'Reilly and Aleister Black on NXT.


It was my mother-in-law's first time seeing Aleister Black, and I had never heard of Kyle. Told her that Black was going to beat the shit outta this "jobber" and then was given one of the best, stiffest matches in NXT I've ever watched.


Never heard the dude talk, don't care. He kicks, he kicks hard.

Originally Posted by Lord Gertner of TPWW (Post 5473789)

No more small boring dudes who can't talk.

Originally Posted by drave (Post 5473825)

What even was Adam Cole's draw? In no way being a dick, but he is comically small to be taken with any seriousness whatsoever.

Originally Posted by drave (Post 5473825)

What even was Adam Cole's draw? In no way being a dick, but he is comically small to be taken with any seriousness whatsoever.


Maybe if I see him outside of WWE?? I dunno man. Feel like he should fight Marko Stunt in a "participants leave wrestling forever" match.

Originally Posted by drave (Post 5473825)

What even was Adam Cole's draw? In no way being a dick, but he is comically small to be taken with any seriousness whatsoever.


Maybe if I see him outside of WWE?? I dunno man. Feel like he should fight Marko Stunt in a "participants leave wrestling forever" match.

Originally Posted by drave (Post 5473866)

I dunno man. People don't have to be absolutely jacked or anything, but he is just..... beyond small. Like, I wouldn't even buy him shoulder checking Spike Dudley.

Originally Posted by Damian Rey 2.0 (Post 5473768)

Saw a clip nxt and good God is Kyle O’Reily awful on the mic. I mean just all time bad. Idk maybe he’s supposed to a weird awkward dork, but it wasn’t endearing or funny was just awkward and dumb.

Originally Posted by drave (Post 5473782)

This was spurred from a convo elsewhere and me stating that Belair was a "placeholder champ", as they had no one else at the time who really fit the role.


She had "the machine" behind her for a few months, but that's it. Given what they just did to her, she will be all but forgotten about in 6 months or less.

Originally Posted by Seph (Post 5473784)

in regards to Bianca I am still wondering if maybe there was more going on behind the scenes with her and Banks or something and maybe Bianca getting squashed is punishment for something.

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 5473787)

Start? Kyle O'Reilly has been wrestling since 2005. If he hasn't figured it out by now, he never will.

Originally Posted by Tom Guycott (Post 5474079)

But really, what's a few months? It smacks of "Vince is bored with this now" and, once again, feeds into the problem of their own invention where they have forgotten how to build stars for the future. If you tell people through words and deeds that X is not worth watching, why would people care to watch? The women's division(s) can't be "All Charlotte all the time", and there's only so long Becky can last until they wring her completely dry from overexposure.

Beating the drum on the women right now, but pretty much anything can be swapped out here. Tag teams. Cruiserweights. Perpetual midcard talent. Fresh new NXT call ups. Instead of leaving the audience with the impression that there is someone new waiting in the wings to be some sort of credible threat to being a future star, they just latch onto the hottest thing they back into (most of the time) and ride that wagon until the wheels come off.

Going back to a thing I said about Roman years back - them being so dead set on him being the literal face of the company through hell or high water (I even remember mentioning there was a goddamn PSA billboard with him on it a couple blocks from my house) - by now, he could have been a heel, had a redemption to be the babyface they wanted all along, had plenty of time to cash in on his popularity, and at this point, could have been using him to make other stars. But because they were being stubborn with him, they're still stuck on the heel step. And by the time they might get to a face turn, it'll either be too late, they won't have anyone else to push that is actually ready to step up from their own ineptitude, or he'll fuck off to Hollywood as they try to scramble to fill his shoes from the ground up again, only more instantaneously.

His type of support shouldn't be a rarity.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5474116)

Adam Cole has grown on me. The best thing about him as an acquisition is that they actually built around him in NXT, and he’s a good worker and talker. A good get objectively, but he furthers the “rats from a sinking ship” aesthetic. Except WWE hasn’t started to sink yet. But that bubble could burst if they stumble into bad PR or talent start signing with anybody else because there is no creative incentive to sign with them.

I think it would actually be smart to build around Cole. He’s good, he’s young, he’s professional, he’s got good connections there. It’s a little bit about improving the quality of the product. But it’s also about sending the message that AEW can provide a vision that WWE can’t.

But he’ll probably feud with The Young Bucks because they won’t let him back on BTE or some shit. Ugh.