Built up Hit Row and draft them to the main show. Immediately release a big part of the group. Spend months doing stupid shit with Kross that even the Rock wouldn’t be able to get over. Release him. Bankz come carry this water.
Make millions of dollars last week in blood money. Release multiple wrestlers the next week citing budget cuts. Just an awful fucking company from top to bottom.
Kross sucks, especially when he doesn't have Scarlett with him. Not too surprised with any of these names tbh.
But he is a prototype WWE guy that could have made money for the company. They fucked him up from the start with their god awful creative and realized there was not any saving him at this point. Also, not a Kross fan either but he should have never been put in the situations he was in.
Eva Marie and Harry Smith also released. They signed the fucking British Bulldogs son, put him in a dark match and released him 3 or 4 months later. Eva is not a wrestler but she could have been a damn good men’s manager.
When he was allowed to be Himself he was one of the most unique guys in the ring. Vince tried to make him just another monster on the main roster.
Vince is trying to kill the company before he dies himself. It’s just ridiculous of the time spent building some of these workers up in NXT then just release them on the main roster. I know Kross was a little meh but his presentation on the main roster had to be some kind of inside joke. Are we sure that he really likes HHH at this point? I just can’t get into their product at all anymore which is a shame because the Takeovers from 3 to 4 years ago were excellent from top to bottom. Most of those same wrestlers should be in at least intermediate RAW or Smackdown stories today. Maybe I’m just a little biased because I had front row seats monthly for NXT house shows for years and watched almost everyone develop in real time.
GCW is about to blow up even more when all these guys are able to start making appearances. AEW almost has to sign Lee and Moon. They kind of have a lack of diversity issue with their main event stars
didn't see any of his main show run so in my mind he's still the incredibly athletic monster of a man who also has the presence and charisma to be a star that I watched in nxt
This is actually what has me the most shocked. Seems like Vince would do something like dump everyone else but keep Nia and give her a push
It wasn’t that he was bad in the ring, he was good. His face though was too innocent and he reminded me of a thick LeVar Burton and even when he was showing angry emotion I couldn’t buy it.
The guy that covers wrestling for the Post said Nia Jax was released for being unvaccinated. I saw someone else on Twitter say there might have been a few more unvaccinated workers let go as well.
Unfucking believable to fire Keith Lee after all that bullshit. He's maybe THE classic case of what WWE did wrong with NXT 1.0. There's a guy that was oozing charisma and talent and was showing a real connection with the fans. He should have been a pillar of NXT, honing his skill and improving his deficiencies. Instead, Vince took one look at him, heard the cheers, and thought "new toy!" then called him up too quickly, with fuckall for him to do. When he naturally struggled, Vince lost interest and let him flounder. When he finally came back from his health scare, he did so to a company that, once more, had no idea what to do with him. So they released him and, as ever, they did so thinking "no big loss." It's Malakai Black all over again. Fucking idiots run that company.
CM Punk was more right than anything ever with his another cog in the wheel line. They take talented wrestlers and because of th shortcomings of the creative and everything the wrestler can’t control it fails. They get rid of them, rinse repeat. Never mind the fact that there was a reason they signed these guys to begin with, it was because they were over and connected with WRESTLING fans. WWE has lost sight of that, it’s the last thing they want to identify as is a wrestling company. They literally do everything they can to escape the fact that is what they are. That is there problem.
Never forget Big E, maybe the most charismatic man in all of wrestling was given the gimmick of brooding bodyguard when he was on the main roster before new day
HHH focused too hard on producing a good wrestling show. Vince is entertainment with a small sprinkle of wrestling. I mean how many Raws and Smackdowns have less than 60 minutes of wrestling?
Been out of the thread for a while to avoid spoilers. Finally caught up on a months+ worth of AEW over the past week. 1) sad to hear Mox is struggling but glad he's getting help. He definitely looked like shit at All Out if we're being honest. 2) WWE cuts stay crazy. They bought up all the indie talent in the world and then had nothing to do with them. Vince is a kid with shiny new toys and thr attention span to match. 3) Danielson/Kingston was a surprising banger for me. Great match. Sidenote - How did Archer not break his neck? 4) Cowboy Shit 5) Still waiting to see what Windham ends up doing. Surely he's going to end up debuting in epic fashion at Full Gear or something, right? 6) I don't know where Dan Lambert came from but that fat faced dipshit has serious heat Anyway good to be back up to speed.
I think I saw not long ago that a three hour Raw had like 27 minutes of in ring action or something like that.
In a perfect world, AEW would buy ROH to operate as a developmental system. Use the Dark tapings to produce an ROH show, and run a couple times a month to get some of their underused talents ring work. Plus, AEW gets the ROH library. Between that and airing an ROH show, they could totally develop a streaming service. I just think it’s not realistic at this time.
I’m in the minority but not interested in windham or Lee. I would kick the tires on Kevin Owens and see if he’s willing to move when his contract is up
I wouldn't be surprised to see AEW at the very least attempt to buy ROH library. Reports are they want their own streaming service by the end of 2022 and they don't have enough of their own content to support it at this point.
AEW would be better off getting their stuff on HBO Max than launching their own service. I don't see how they carry their own service unless they partner up with a bunch of other indie promotions or something.
Not surprising. Raw is such a drag to get through anymore. I've thought the same but I would guess that most performers are paid based on appearing and I wouldn't be surprised if they expand the amount of live TV time in the next year or so.
Yeah I tend to agree. Everyone wants to see these WWE cuts end up in AEW but there's only so much room with 3 hours of TV and a couple of dark shows no one really watches. AEW has seemed to show some restraint in that department. It doesn't behoove them to become the WWE cast off company. But they've still been developing a lot of their own wrestlers. And to be totally fair, who are the actual WWE guys they've taken? Mox, Miro, and? I guess you could say Jericho/Henry/Wight but there all legends and Jericho is really the only one that's done heavy lifting on the actual performance side. Other than that, I think just about every "WWE cast off" they've gotten had a pretty extensive indy run and then was scooped up by the HHH NXT mafia. So I don't see a lot of it as taking WWE's scraps. With the amount of WWE releases, and the fact that ROH has shut it down and there's questions as to whether they return, we should be looking for a 3rd promotion to really start to form or make a move. I guess TNA has taken some of those folks? I know the IIconics are there but no clue who else. Seems like GCW or some other promotion will actually benefit most from the latest round of WWE cuts. I think I saw that WWE has cut over a hundred wrestlers this year and something like 70 in the past couple months. That's a massive amount of talent influx for the indies. I think it should help the overall health of pro wrestling. But AEW needs to be very selective and not get caught in the same trap of just acquiring talent.
I don’t think AEW needs to cut fat, because they do a good job of cycling people through stories and then getting them off TV. As long as they are making money, they are good. And more importantly, as long as they let the workers do independent dates, I think it’s great for everyone.
I don't think it's fair to call someone like Keith Lee a WWE cast-off. Someone who never got a chance after a short stint isn't a cast-off. If WWE suddenly releases Dolph Ziggler and he goes to AEW for an immediate main event run...now THATS vintage TNA
i love how AEW actually has independent contractors. Want to go work in AAA, go for it. Impact champion on AEW, great. NJPW wants to swing by sure we’ll put you in the main event. I love some of the match ups we’re getting
I’m probably not the first person to think of this but put Ember Moon with Malaki Black. First Lady of the house of black. That division needs more top heels. Basically has Deeb and Nyla Rose. Britt is supposed to be a heel but everyone loves her.
Britt's henchmen are bigger heels than her. Jade is a heel. But yeah more women's division help would be good That said, I was never an Ember Moon fan. I'm totally willing to accept that maybe that's due to WWE booking though.
Now if AEW got Charlotte that'd be big heel help. From catching up in this thread I learned about all the drama surrounding her currently. If not booked solely to try and catch up to her father's title record, I could see her coming in and being a great heel. She'd be a better wrestler than 98% of the women they have and has decent mic skills. Not sure if you'd work her in with Andrade or not, but could go either way.