I do think Jericho will get a face run in AEW before he hangs 'em up, and MJF would be a logical foil for him in that case. But yeah, if he doesn't get in shape for that run it'll be underwhelming.

Problem is, once vaccines are out and we're more or less back to live crowds and live entertainment getting to go back to normal...I'm sure he wants to get back on the road with Fozzy ASAP too. He might take the break to tour with them that he was supposed to take this year...but no way he won't be partying and drinking on tour. He might come back even fatter.

Where would that have been, pray tell? I'd like my assumptions to be validated by a third party on this.

Lemme do some digging. I might be 100% wrong but you mentioning it is not the first time I've heard of it.

I thought it was suspicious when it formed, especially considering how it seemed like they were... you know... trying to make a star with the first big angle being him against Cody and getting Tully on board. Then, the aforementioned interview. Not to mention how not only are Cody and Shawn friends, but Spears was purported to have been one of "Dusty's kids" in NXT, and that Dusty supposedly said of him: "Why is he still here?"; as in, "why hasn't he been called up to the main roster because there ain't shit else he can be taught down here in developmental?"

But the biggest indictment to me came way later, with a listen to one of the Cornette podcasts where Brian had some pretty scathing opinions on Chris's career trajectory, and how he "latches on to whatever is hot that he thinks might further himself and his career", like a feud with Orange Cassidy (because OC was hot-right-now at that moment). That kinda aligned with all my amateur sleuthing. Chris might have not outright bogarted it, but there may have been a sabotaging suggestion that he would be better suited for the role than Shawn.

Spears could benefit from being in a group for sure.

Not sure I can buy him leading one (though I'm a fan) but him being in a thing would probably be good.

Spears could be a decent babyface trying to avenge himself but falling short. I've been saying that should Tully add a few more members to his group, ideally another singles competitor and female wrestler, that they could oust Spears, get him some sympathy and use him to further Tully's new group.

I largely understand most of AEW's signings from WWE. Dustin was always going to go in to work his brother and become a veteran presence, Brodie/Hardy/Miro all had varying levels of buzz about them.

Spears was the one signing that felt like a move we'd have laughed at vintage TNA for back in the day. Cardona would have felt that way too but he only had a temporary deal.

I don't have anything against Spears, it's just clear the dude got signed because he's one of the first friends Cody made in the business. They held the OVW Tag Titles together way back in the day.

He's also turning 40 in a couple months. He's a nice low/mid card piece but I wouldn't put much resources behind him

There is something I like about Spears but also plenty that I don't. I feel like he has the look and tools but has never been able to be "himself". His character attempts always seem to fall flat to me, even in NXT with the 10 gimmick, what was that? He's never been able to come up with something uniquely him. His shining moment was when he cracked Cody with the chair but quickly afterwards the heat was lost when he ended up dropping down the card for half a year. Now he has a loaded glove gimmick, it's just not unique or original in any way. I think he needs to go on a meditation retreat and find himself and magnify that discovery as his Wrestling character.

Ted DiBiase was awesome with his loaded gloves gimmick in Mid South. The added heat was that he would use it even though he didn't need it because he was so good.

Spears should have one upped the loaded glove gimmick and had his right arm surgically replaced with a gattling gun. Got to believe this was pitched to TK but they couldn't reach a deal with Square Enix to figure out all the details before launch day.

Someone needs to bring back the D Lo Brown chest protector.

D'Lo Brown getting another run isn't out of line with their current hiring practices.

Chris Jericho was trending on Twitter last night for being a fat fuck haha.

I hope he turns into a gimmick. Like, MJF leads an intervention and initiates it as Chris is about to destroy a pound of french fries.

I don't understand why people think this is good

Jericho will turn this into a bit, the same 800,000 viewers will tune in and think it's the greatest thing ever and then get ultra defensive when people point out it's stuff like this that's causing your audience not to grow

It's terrible optics. Former fans are LAUGHING at your face of the company.

And I say this as a lifelong Jericho fan. He was my favourite wrestler for years.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Damn Chris Jericho is starting to look familiar lol <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StayPuft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StayPuft</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LardAss?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LardAss</a> and what the fuck is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEW</a> Ass Eating Wrestlers? lmao <a href="https://t.co/VEHQDrXZIi">pic.twitter.com/VEHQDrXZIi</a></p>&mdash; BakeThePie (@BakeThePie) <a href="https://twitter.com/BakeThePie/status/1342004229695791105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Damn it. I can’t figure out how to embed a god damn tweet like a useless boomer.

Over/under on the amount of weeks before this happens?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2020 as seen through Chris Jericho. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEW</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEWDynamite?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEWDynamite</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Y2J?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Y2J</a> <a href="https://t.co/0KPTtIoCp2">pic.twitter.com/0KPTtIoCp2</a></p>&mdash; Preston Feiler (@phfeiler) <a href="https://twitter.com/phfeiler/status/1341974257610448898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The lone thing I'll say in Jericho's defense is that I hope to only be as fat as him when I'm 50 years old and have not even a fraction of wear and tear on my body as he does.

Doesn't mean he should still be wrassling if he's not even going to attempt to make it look like he cares about his presentation.

Shouldn't be the first thing people see off of an NBA lead in.

I think that each week he looks 5 pounds heavier, which doesn’t make matters any better in terms of optics. It’s also having a huge impact on his performance, he can barely kick out half the time it’s a school boy or smack package, roll up etc. He’s can’t feed a comeback at all pretty much, it’s just sad.

Next week for sure

I love how offended you are lol. I truly appreciate it.

Are the next couple shows taped already?

Haha you're asking the wrong person

Lol I've been arguing this point with people on 411mania and it just completely baffles me. "He'll turn it into an amazing bit" that's not the damn point!

I mean, maybe we should at least wait and see what he comes up with though.... :lol:

lol him being a fat fuck for a bit is a terrible idea. Do people really think that'd be a good thing?

YES!!!!!!!!

Go look at more "smarky" forums than TPWW

It's why I more or less only post here and why I like posting here. It's not full of "ride or die" smarky dickbags.

lol those places sound terrible

That sounds ludicrous, but still, they could be right...

It's pretty much every place besides here lol. I know that's what has kept a few long term Rasslin Forum posters here.

I feel like those types of posters wouldn’t really be welcome here and would just be ridiculed and trolled incessantly, can’t see them lasting long.

Ok so I was going outside to smoke and came back in to post this because your comment reminded me of this clip lol. Ive always thought the TPWW Wrestling Forum is like it's own universe, unaware of the outside smark world

I remember first thinking that when I made a post asking if you like or dislike Battle Royals and it was almost a unanimous "yes". I remember people being shocked that someone would say no

It would be much more divided anywhere else

I think performance and match wise Jericho has been mostly fine. But he's been fat since the start of AEW it's clearly affecting what he is capable of doing. He gets by because he's been around forever and knows how to smoke and mirrors his way to a decent to good match.

However, he looks fucking awful. If he turns it into a bit, great. I'm sure it'll be entertaining. Ideally he turns it into a bit with the intention of losing some (a lot of) weight.

I would have agreed with you before the summer that it wasn’t effecting Jericho’s performance in the ring, but over the last few weeks it very clearly is. When he did a lionsault on the last episode of Dynamite, I thought he was going to land on his hand, and in the same match he did a top rope spot, teasing a superplex and looks terrible trying to balance on the ropes. He needs to limit his move set or lose 40 pounds.

One of these days he's gonna crap himself in the ring.

Apparently Jericho shared a few of the positive tweets from the NBA slam session on him. Which means the guy waded through tweet after tweet making fun of him to find the few that weren’t to prop up his ego.

I don’t care what anyone says, the guy cannot be in a good place right now.