General

Uh oh, on this night of all nights, it looks like multiple AEW releases are expected. Stu Grayson has already been released with more to come, per Fightful.

This is notable because Khan, up until this point, has only released wrestlers based on behavior. Otherwise he just lets contracts expire and doesn't pitch new ones.

It's reported it has nothing to do with CM Punk.

Not happy about that tbh. Could be cost-cutting, could be a simple case of releasing wrestlers who aren't used. We need to see the names first to figure that out. Hope all the grapplers land on their feet regardless.

EDIT: Looks to be a fat cutting scenario.

RELEASED so far:

-Stu Grayson
-Backstage interviewer Dasha Kuret
-The Boys (Dalton Castle's boys -_-)
-Anthony Henry
-Slim J
-Parker Boudreaux
-Jose The Assistant
-Jora Johl
-Gravity

theJaw wrote:


Damn I forgot it even was today. Did Bill do anything special? I haven't noticed anything.

I also missed Raw, gonna have to read a recap before making any guesses in the WM thread. I usually try not to miss the go home shows before a big event.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Naw doesn't look like there was any GTZ April Fool's joke this year. That's what prompted me to acknowledge it here lol (that was a mistake).

Raw was alright. As usual, the main event-related stuff was cool and the mid-card stuff was sorta just there. Sami/Gunther/Gable stuff is cool.

Also, unrelated, this Bray doc is fudgein great. And fudgein heartbreaking.

Yup. That Bray doc fudging annihilated me. Life's too gosh darn short, fellas.

Haven’t seen Wyatt doc plan on doing

Looks like aew falling into the wwe trap hiring too many talent though with three shows you th No they have room for all of them

theJaw wrote:

Oh man, I'm going to miss seeing those guys on TV....wait....

Realistically, he could release a whole lot more and not affect the show. WWE could release a bunch and not affect the show.

The show goes on.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to bash Tony Khan. The worst things anyone said about him is that he's a nice guy, but not a boss, and doesn't know how to run a wrestling company. These things are probably mostly true. They aren't necessarily bad things, though.

Maintaining being a nice guy while surrounded by egomaniacs wouldn't be easy. 5 years in and he's still a nice guy? Worst thing he's done is had a few little meltdowns on X? I think he's doing pretty good.

Not being a boss? Is this a bad thing? Sometimes. Vince wasn't the best boss on the planet, either....and I can't recall anyone calling him a nice guy.

Doesn't know how to run a wrestling company? Obviously, he's learning on the fly. It's not like there's a university course for running a wrestling company. Every time won't be better than the last, but if he continues to learn and doesn't toss his personal principles away, then I'd say he's doing ok after only 5 years. He's attained a few of the really good wrestling minds out there to help, but isn't giving the reins to someone else to do. Good on him.

His stance from before the start was that AEW would be an alternative with more sports-based wrestling. He's stumbled a few times. He probably lets talent get away with too much sometimes. He also probably doesn't crap on people (literally) or use Zoom to harass everyone during the show.

AEW stories suck? Well....yeah, they mostly have. I haven't seen anything to compare to the cinematic gold of The Undertaker sacrificing people in the middle of the ring or HHH marrying an unconscious woman or........the Boogyman.....but the AEW stories suck. They've made some strides here a bit. The MJF/Adam Cole thing was looking good til they both got buggered. The EVP Bucks have been entertaining and far more interesting than the previous versions of them.

I'm happy AEW exists so the talent has a place to be and do their stuff on a (smaller) global scale. I'm happy it gives people like Ospreay, Mercedes, Omega, Cole, and many, many more a place to showcase.

Is it perfect? Hardly. Sometimes, it's painful to watch. Is WWE perfect? Ha no.

What does Tony need to do? Keep learning, keep hiring better minds that aren't trapped in the Attitude Era, and make long term plans for some of the crazy signees he's gotten without forgetting about everyone who got him there.

Should fans criticize AEW? Absolutely. Should they hate it? Only if they hate professional wrestling, too. WWE was mostly unwatchable for much of the past 10 years. Sometimes it's easy to forget several months ago when every time something on WWE sucked, it was 'because Vince phoned it in and changed the show'.  Now it's "OMG! HHH is a genius!!!" There are still all sorts of things dropped on WWE.

As for Punk's interview, I agree with a lot of what he said. He's not wrong about a lot in there. It's one-sided, but it makes sense. Choking Jack Perry is something everyone should do and shouldn't be held accountable. It's not like he's a real person or anything.

I’m not bashing Khan

Aew and wwe are two different breeds of wrestling show styles. In my honest opinion they draw different type of fans.

wow wtf
https://twitter.com/ImChelseaGreen/status/17755817...

GCW Bloodsport X on now. Already saw Nic Nemeth vs Speedball Mike Bailey among other matches. Watching Charlie fudgein Dempsey (Regal’s kid) put on a clinic. And still got Shayna Baszler vs Masha Slamovich coming up. Mania weekend rules.

It's a bit suspicious that WrestleCon is going on in.......Sunny Philadelphia this weekend. Awful lot of the recentishly released WWE folks and rumored show crashers showing up for that so they'll be lurking around town. Names such as Mandy Rose, The Hardy's, D-Von Dudley, Dustin Rhodes, Elias, Arn Anderson, Fred Ottman (Cody's uncle), The IInspiration (I thought they were both preggers again?), Riddick Moss, Emma, Miro, Dolph Ziggler (yeah yeah....signed to NJPW and TNA...like that means anything, Ricky Starks, Rikishi, Serena Deeb, Summer Rae, Hornswoggle, Trish Stratus, and a bunch of old school legends.

Not sure if any will show up for Wrestlemania...possibly Dustin Rhodes and the Hardy's. Idk....but Raw after Wrestlemania might have some new faces. I wouldn't hate for Serena Deeb to go back to WWE. She started back hot in AEW then disappeared again doing indie bookings and signings. Kinda dumb.

WWE have a meeting planned with execs from TNA and with Rossy during WrestleMania weekend. Rossy was former president of Stardom, now is starting up his own company and a bunch of Stardom talent will be leaving there as their contracts are up to join with Rossy's new promotion (Gulia and several others already have let their contracts run out). This could potentially lead to a partnership that will help WWE getting a foot in the door for the NXT Japan project they wanted to do several years ago before the pandemic screwed everything up.

There are a million and a half wrestling shows/events happening in Philly this weekend, par the course for Mania weekend.

Bloodsport was just okay, but not incredible.

This is mostly a video game parody news site, but I see they are branching out today. Whoever wrote the article is clearly a wrestling fan because he nailed it.
https://hard-drive.net/hd/entertainment/tony-khan-...

The Boys calling out Tony on their release.
https://twitter.com/TateTwinBrandon/status/1776330...

Yah saw that… but then they sorta bury their argument in the screenshots they posted. They didn’t want to drive 3 hours to the airport out of Nashville that would have saved money on airfare (via rentals they’d be reimbursed for), so brought it up and were apparently told by the the travel department that they’d try to get new flights and send them over. They then failed to reach out to anybody from management to let them know they wouldn’t make it, later suggesting that lack of follow up from the travel department made them think they weren’t booked — despite knowing they were obviously booked considering they had the Nashville flights.

I can see their frustration and it all seems like a big miscommunication, but I can also understand AEW’s side considering at the end of the day, dates were missed when they didn’t have to be primarily because the Boys didn’t want to drive, and then didn’t reach out to let anyone know that they for sure weren’t going to make it.

Either way, they gotta tighten up that sorta crap. I can easily see a lack of communication between Khan and whoever runs the travel department being the main issue, and if he wasn’t told anything other than the Boys didn’t show up, I can’t blame him for thinking they no-showed. Whoever spoke to them from the travel department and whoever was trying to soften the blows by telling them their release was over “budget cuts” failed with their responsibilities just as bad as the Boys failed at theirs. Khan needs to make sure he has people he can depend on in these spots, not folks looking for shortcuts.

My guess is Khan is able to apologize and iron all this out to bring them back in. He’s historically been pretty diplomatic in these sorts of situations and rarely burns bridges - just look at what Gresham said about him a while back. Either way, get the fudgein Boys back.

I'm finally listening to that CM Punk interview from earlier this week. Early on he mentions having heat in AEW from when he showed up backstage at WWE last year. What gives? WWE was in NC last month and Matt Hardy was backstage, I can say with full certainty he left the building with zero heat on him from either company.

I think the situation between Punk and Hardy are very different. Punk was apparently openly upset working in AEW, so him visiting WWE - a company be was still claiming almost killed him and that he didn’t respect - probably came off fairly bad to those in AEW. Seems in hindsight like it was probably justifiable heat - ya gotta believe that’s when they started stirring the “get Punk back in WWE” pot.

Anyhow, ROH Zero Hour pre-show is live on YouTube. Pretty fun card for Supercard of Honor tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKXBlbUYt6U&pp=ygU...

Paul Heyman just gave one of my all-time favorite HOF speeches tonight. I admit that even though I grew up watching so many of the HOF inductees over the years and then when a lot of them give their speech it bores me, but Heyman didn't allow that to happen tonight.

Bull Nakano's was good too, though I wish it was longer, I'm sure she has many stories to tell.
Honestly not interested in the rest of the inductees so I'll be turning off here.

Apparently I passed out shortly into the HoF thing. It was sometime shortly after Keith Lee wandered into the CM Punk interview.....not sure if it's related. Looks like the next replay is Monday so I'll try to catch that.

Fun interview with HHH on the McAfee show. I'm sure he made a few comments that ruffled some feathers. I'm not sure if it was a direct dig against Ospreay or just talent in general, but the comment about picking the light schedule over the grind is interesting. On the one side, I absolutely see his point. If someone is only in it for some quick cash and showing up for work once a week, they aren't going to make it in the big leagues. They aren't going to be a part of what WWE has going on globally. They aren't going to be performing in front of tens of thousands of people or showcasing to millions around the planet. They aren't going to become a household name and any opportunities to move into something more prominent towards the end of their career will be greatly diminished. The old saying, "Success only comes before Work in the dictionary" rings here.

On the other hand, looking at it from, say, a Will Ospreay point of view. AEW clearly offered a LOT more money and super light schedule. This allows him not to have to pack up and move to the US where I'm sure he doesn't want to raise his family. Instead, he can fly back home Wednesday after the show and hang out for 5 days before heading back. He's still fairly early into his career but he's had some issues and his style doesn't lend to longevity...like many of the older gen stars. I understand he's already toned down some things after an incident awhile ago. AEW's light schedule allows him to keep going at his pace and having time to recover more between matches. He chose that life over being a 'WWE Superstar'. He's still Will Ospreay and he still puts on most of the best matches on the planet. THIS is the guy that needs to be pushed because he brings his A game every time he shows up. Everyone will know soon enough that he doesn't 'call it in'.

Looking at Mercedes, it's a bit different. While she's still young, as well, she already has a bunch of other things going on professionally. Telling her to show up once a week, wiggle her ass a bit and talk about having matches seems like a good deal for the reported $10 million a year she's getting for showing up maybe 60 times. This allows AEW to be a side hobby while she does her other stuff while thinking about heading back to WWE.

Okada...I dunno. My feels tell me he's only there for the cheque. I thought his match last year with Danielson was great. I haven't seen anywhere near that level from him since actually signing with AEW. I haven't heard him say a peep about being excited to be there and for the new challenges. He's honestly looked disinterested. For anyone not familiar with him, he's just another guy that shows up every few weeks, stands behind the EVPs, says 1 line, and heads back to Japan. It's not easy getting behind someone like that.

I suppose it depends what's important to these people. If being super famous and being in front of huge crowds is important, AEW isn't the place to be. If making killer money and still having at least 6 days a week for other things works better, then it certainly can be. I'm sure most common/normal people would gladly work 1 day a week for 6x the money than grinding it out. You make a living, you live well, and you're able to build a life. On the flip side, that's why they'll remain common and normal people. It's not a bad thing. For some it's the best they'll ever get. For others, it's a choice.

Ospreay has been grinding the past several years harder than Triple H ever did in his life. H just doesn’t want to acknowledge that because it wasn’t in pursuit of a WWE contract.

theJaw wrote:

1) Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Arn and Ole
2) Harlem Heat
3) Steiner Brothers
4) Mega Powers
5) Hart Foundation -Bret and Jim
6) Road Warriors
7) Edge & Christian
8) Brain Busters
9) Midnight Express
10) Rock n Roll Express

Perhaps that was somewhat accurate sometimes. Japan liked the days long tournaments, but that wasn't the statement. Will chose to work 1 day a week with higher pay over working a few days a week for less pay. To hourly normal people, that seems like a no brainer.

Will has shown up every week since signing. He's had a handful of matches along the way. There is zero beef with what he's done in AEW...but it's maybe 1 match a week. Zero house shows. The very occasional PLE that may or may not add a match sometimes. Diehard wrestling fans know him. Casual fans have heard his name and he's only recently starting to get some North American exposure.

Nobody suggested Will 'couldn't' do a tougher schedule with more matches, appearances, etc....but he absolutely chose not to. As I said before, there's nothing wrong with that. He feels it's better for him right now or for good....but AEW isn't currently capable of providing near the same exposure, so, by default, he won't become a household name. That's simply the trade off. Does he care? Probably to some degree but I'm sure those fat cheques help take the pain away. Still better than moving furniture 6 days a week 8-10 hours a day.

I can't comment on what kind of houses he drew in NJPW but I imagine it wouldn't change much there since the fans are so quiet no matter what happens. Different culture. He's seen the 70,000ish stadiums and said he was completely blown away. He'll see that again to some degree at Wembley later this year. I have to think it messes with a performer's mind when they go from that to wrestling in 1/4 full arenas with areas tarped off and talking to empty seats. That has to be a big adjustment for any former WWE folks that go there.

Is that AEW's fault? Somewhat, for sure. They are still new and still growing and learning.

WWF wasn't pulling those numbers 5 years after starting, either. Compare AEW to WWE/F at that stage and AEW is absolute leagues ahead...though WWE wasn't paying people millions of dollars to sit in catering all the time and occasionally come out. Vince saw this and revolutionized the industry.

Simply, the choice was this:

AEW: Light schedule (much lighter than NJPW), a ton more money out of the gate, lots of time to go home and be with his family, Tony is a nice guy, he has some familiarity with the talent and backstage people, and a few PLE's a year. Apparently the company is doing financially well, but you'd never know it looking at their small audiences.

WWE: Heavier schedule, including house shows, less money out of the gate, less time to go back home, HHH seems decent compared Vince but much more business-minded than Tony, doesn't know too many of the talent or backstage people there, a LOT more PLE's...but he'd be on 'The Grandest Stage of them All' and be in front of massive crowds all the time.

Trade off and decision. Maybe he feels AEW can become a juggernaut and his help would get it there. Maybe it will someday, but that day isn't this weekend. He's not the first guy to make that decision. Many others also chose not to go there. If it doesn't align with what he wants then it doesn't. I don't know if he looks at things like Wrestlemania weekend and thinks, "Man, I should be there" while he's being body slammed onto the steel steps by a Hobbes.

Enjoy Mania fellas

Pretty great so far other than the Mysterio match with the absolute crap finish.

Didn't think they'd drop the belt from Gunther but after that pre match family stuff with zayn it was a given

My thoughts on Night 1:

Rhea vs Becky - 4.5/5 - Both were great.

6 Pack Ladder match - 3.5/5 ...pretty solid as far as multi-person ladder matches go

Rey and Andrade vs Dom and Santos - 1.5/5 ..had potential to be a solid 4 until those idiot football guys wrecked it

Jey vs Jimmy - 2/5. I'd give it a 3 but I hate Lil Wayne. He absolutely sucks

Damage CTRL vs Jade, Bianca, and Naomi - 3.5/5. Decent multi-tag and did its job showcasing Jade.

Gunther vs Zayn - 4.5/5 ...didn't love Gunther dropping the belt to that nimrod but couldn't deny it happening after Gable said he'd owe him a favor. Where does Gunther go from here??

Rock and Reigns vs Cody and Seth - 5/5 - You could see a lot of effort went into this one. Rock was moving good for a 50+ year old. It's also the only match I recall Reigns winning that didn't have outside interference.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Y2k wrote:



I will not deny Will Ospreay's talent, because that'd be dumb. But when you have the amount of talent he does, why wouldn't you want to showcase it for the world to see? The fact is you will get more worldwide exposure from even just curtain jerking at WrestleMania than you ever will from headlining a Wrestle Kingdom, which in turn can give you reason to up your asking price even more. If not wanting to relocate to the US was the deal-breaker though, I understand.

Ospreay made the right choice.

Also Mania Night 1 was fudging oof.

Welp, looks like "the Bucks" are going to air the Punk/Perry security footage from All In on Dynamite this week -- according to reputable outlets, it's not a bait and switch. We're going to see what happened. They're apparently going legitimately air the footage.

I still have to believe it's a work, which is a little goofy. But if it's legit... good. Sorta look more forward to that than Mania Night 2 lmao... except of course for Rhodes/Roman 2. That's gonna be edge of your seat crap.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I dunno. He didn't go into detail other than saying that WWE's offer 'wasn't even close'.

I totally get what you're saying. It's not like it's two bricklaying companies vying for a guy to mix cement and carry tools. The entertainment industry is a bit different. Maybe he doesn't really want 'the fame'. Throughout a few interviews, he talked enough about his girlfriend and kid. Maybe they don't want to live in the US. Maybe he doesn't want to be on Dark Side of the Ring in 20 years having everyone say what a deadbeat dad he was because he chose his career and fame over his family. I don't know if they went with him to Japan. Based on his schedule there, he wouldn't have had much time to go back home. Maybe they don't want to raise a family in the US. It's not like that country has the strongest reputation for safety in schools. I don't know. People could speculate all day and still not know.

Personally, with the bit he said, I agree that AEW was the best choice for him. It's familiar and he knows a lot of people there. A lot of people on this side of the pond don't know who he is. They're finding out. I'd love to see him go up against guys like Rollins, Rhodes, etc, too....but it's not like AEW is full of scrubs. In-ring talent wise, I'd still say AEW has more top tier performers than WWE does that would fit his style a bit better.

theJaw wrote:


I just saw something about that this morning. I'm not sure that Meltzer is a reputable outlet. All I see that the EVPs posted was 'Roll. The. Tape." I hope it's legit footage. There are always 3 sides to every story. His side, their side, and what really happened. I'm sure it'll get a lot of viewers Wednesday...at least until that airs and people will talk about it.

What's the fallout if it's legit?

It shows Punk lied and was wrong? Egg on his face, WWE marks won't care and will forget about it before Smackdown airs. Punk detractors will be, "See, I told you he's a cancer". WWE won't care. Punk won't care. He'll simply say it didn't show what lead to that. They have bigger issues with Vince and the rest of his former execs.

If it's inconclusive? Then why waste TV time on a show? Nobody on the other side said a word about it during TV. It was done through podcasts and crap like that.

.,..and if it's a parody or a work?

Look out. Years ago, after the Montreal screw job, WWE did a parody of Bret Hart returning and had a midget come in to be humiliated. A LOT of people boycotted WWE between the two things and it took a real long time to get that back. Casual AEW fans won't be impressed or entertained. It may raise viewership for a few minutes and murder it going forward.

I feel it would make more business sense to have it posted onto social media platforms. Here's the footage. Make up your mind about what the facts are. We have a show to do. Make sure to tune into Rampage this Friday where you can see some typically dull matches on our C show that you already know the results of since it happened 2 days prior and a recap of Mercedes wiggling to her amazing theme song.

I confess, a part of me enjoys this part of the business - people taking shots at the competition. Most of both rosters and management are guilty of it. It's a fun distraction between shows.

Gut feeling reigns keeps the damn belt why else make the title matched booked for bloodline rules.

lazarro wrote:

It's gonna end with an "Avengers assemble" moment where all the folks who the Bloodline wronged over the past few years come out to back up Cody -- Jey, KO, Sami, Seth, Knight, Rey, maybe even Drew in a sorta "for the greater good" moment.

Would rather Cody just "finish the story" on his own but it could make for a satisfying moment (assuming that is what actually happens obv).

The Young Bucks are going to clobber Cody in the back of the head with Mercedes Mone then Will Ospreay is going to pound Reigns with an Oscutter while Tony Khan suplexes HHH across the stadium and gives him the stinkface.

lmao would watch that

Bucks and Cody are still good friends tbh. That's the main reason I find the internet tribalism so silly. Just wait -- Cody wins tonight, we're gonna see the "too sweet" gesture, maybe even followed by the "smoking gun" gesture. The good ol' Cody is Bullet Club through and through lol

Meh. It seems to be a thing for a lot of people that they can only like one thing, one team, one company, one political party, blah blah blah.

I hate everything and everyone so it's easier and don't get lumped in with as many people.

In unrelated news, if Tony wants to arrange to beat someone with Mercedes, I'm calling dibs.

I love everything, that's my fault.

Y2k wrote:


I have mixed feelings on it. I don't hate it, but it has to make sense. Paul Heyman knew what he was doing when trying to rally up the core ECW fanbase to hate WWF/WCW (especially WCW). Not one of those fans knew Paul was accepting a little bit of financial support from Vince, or else Paul would've looked like a moron to those same fans.

Another example (but in the opposite way), a random scrub on Twitter was mocking WWE's Performance Center for not producing any stars, so MJF chimes in with a list of names that came from the PC with no experience before signing with WWE and are definitely stars now. That one I liked because the fan was hating for the sake of hating and had clearly done zero research before he decided to Tweet that.

Of course DX invasion on Nitro, f'n classic and will never be topped.

But there are times where it falls flat too, like those "Billionaire Ted" skits with "Nacho Man and The Huckster", which was just Vince being butt-hurt that his stars had moved on. I did think the skits were funny, but that was mostly because by the time they aired I was well beyond the "Hulkamania" phase and couldn't stand the guy anymore. I had no opinion on Ted Turner personally though. In retrospect if they wanted to attack Savage, leave his age out of it and talk about what a paranoid freak he is about whoever he's dating. In either case, I think both of them were 43-ish at the time, which is standard age of most people in the main event scene of either company these days. It means nothing, because you can either still go at 40 or you can't. R-Truth is 52 and moves around that ring just as easily as people 20 years younger than him. He can pop a crowd easier than most of them too.

God, Philly crowd blows...

Would love if preist cashes in on Rhodes/reigns match.. then it'd judgment day vs. Bloodline for a while