Thread: All Elite Wrestling
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Old 05-26-2022, 11:53 AM   #9660
Mr. Nerfect
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil Vito View Post
The "Four Pillars" as they were known (MJF/Jungle Boy/Darby/Sammy) definitely held water across AEW's first 3 years.

But AEW and the wrestling landscape as a whole 3 years in is vastly different than when they started. I think many people expected that once AEW started they would gradually make some inspired indy signings, which they did (Kingston, Starks, Hobbs, Ethan Page etc) but I don't think anybody thought they'd actually get Punk to come back, or have a Danielson available to them. Plus tons of the WWE guys, I know future endeavors has been a meme for a while but when AEW started, WWE was signing everyone under the sun....I don't think anyone expected the caliber of guys available to be what it was.

So really, with this in mind I can't get behind the notion that the Four Pillars have to be a focal part of programming just because they are originals.

Of the Four, MJF obviously has the highest ceiling and is the one worth keeping at the top of the card. He's outstanding and he should always be featured. Jungle Boy is also only 24 and hasn't had a singles run yet, I think this eventual feud with Christian will give him a great veteran to work with and a story to really sink his teeth into and we'll get a better sense of what he can be as a featured singles performer.

I like Darby but him being 29 doesn't matter much when he's liable to be crippled any day now. He's exciting but one note, and he's absolutely dreadful on a live mic. And Sammy has shown he only works as a smarmy heel, he doesn't have the range for anything else and there are others on the roster who could do it better.

I think it's time to focus on letting the roster breathe a bit. Sending some guys to ROH will help a bit but I don't think they need to feel compelled to be loyal to the pillars when they've got a small army of guys who are better options than at least 2 of them.
These are the apologetics AEW is becoming known for.

A LOT of people thought Punk would sign with the company back in 2019. It made total sense. He was doing nothing, they had money, he “hated” WWE. They approached him in an insulting way (possibly insecure talent’s prerogative to sabotage) and he tried to go back to the WWE.

AEW’s fumbling of the ball at the start was not what people expected. There were a lot of possible big signings that people could foresee. Randy Orton being one of them. The talk was that almost everybody was interested in AEW. This is why the WWE buckled down on talent like Mike Kanellis with $500k per year deals.

AEW provided a weak product, WWE relaxed, top talent chose to stick with Vince and WWE basically tore up those $500k per year deals.

That AEW eventually ended up with a Bryan Danielson or that they eventually got a CM Punk is not that weird. It should have been the condition they had to navigate from the start. The story isn’t “golly gosh wow, AEW just has so many talented people that they can’t use a lot of their talent properly.” They mismanage themselves. Call it what it is.
Last edited by Mr. Nerfect; 05-26-2022 at 11:58 AM.
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