No big loss here but HOB is nothing but Julia and Brody now... Spoiler Buddy Matthews may be done with AEW for a while, or at least on his way out, sources familiar with the situation tell Fightful. After this week's AEW Rampage Grand Slam, Fightful was informed that the Great Muta spot was a way to write Buddy Matthews off television for the time being. We weren't given context as to whether or not Matthews was being released, but had heard numerous times over the previous couple of months that he'd expressed dissatisfaction regarding his situation. Specifics of that aren't yet known. One source contacted Fightful after the New York City tapings and said they believed it was Buddy's "last night," but that hasn't been confirmed. This weekend at Fight Life Pro Wrestling, Buddy told the audience “Unfortunately, tonight, I’m going to be the bearer of some unfortunate news. As everyone knows, the House of Black has had some issues lately. As all the members of the house, I speak beyond the wall, we want to thank you all for being members of the house. Unfortunately, I, like some of the other members, need to go away for a while. I need to recalibrate. I need to figure out some things. As my brother Malakai once said, this isn’t goodbye, this is see you later.” House of Black's Malakai Black is also effectively done with AEW, with sources indicating that he's unable to wrestle for WWE for "quite some time." Fightful has reached out to Buddy Matthews several times over the last couple of months to follow up on the rumors.
put him in a program with Wardlow for the belt and give each the substantial feud/story they've been lacking for months
That would be good. I wonder if we keep seeing Brody get a bit of a singles push? He had that short singles program with Darby and was the catalyst behind the HOB vs. Darby/Sting feud.
Since the AEW roster is starting to thin out very slowly now. Here is my roster breakdown of where everyone should be on the card now and within the next 1-2 years. People who primarily/exclusively work as a tag team listed as part of the tag team and not a singles competitor First three levels along with an occassional squash/jobber appearance from level 4-5 should be your Dyanmiote, Rampage, special shows, and PPV talent. Those top three levels account for about 40 people, and with three hours of TV in a normal week, that should be more than enough men's talent Someone from Level 2-3 could be down in ROH, once they get a weekly show, for a program at or near the top of the card. Level 1 - PPV Main Event - no tag teams here since AEW never puts the tag championship as a main event Adam Cole Bryan Danielson Hangman John Moxley Kenny Omega Miro MJF Powerhouse Hobbs Ricky Starks Swerve Wardlow Level 2 - Tweener between High Mid-Card able to main event Dynamite/Rampage to PPV Main Event in the right situation Spoiler [*]The Acclaimed [*]Brody King [*]FTR [*]Chris Jericho - at his age and with the rest of the talent on the roster I don't think he should be in that top level anymore [*]Christian [*]Claudio [*]Daniel Garcia [*]Darby Allin [*]Eddie Kingston [*]Keith Lee [*]Young Bucks [*]Orange Cassidy [*]Pac [*]Rey Fenix [*]Lucha Bros - they got listed as a team and singles because they do a heavy bit of both [*]Rush [*]Samoa Joe - but I could be convinved to have him be the veteran franchise talent of ROH [*]Jay Lethal - See comment for Samoa Joe [*]Dax Harwood - since he's been getting a decent amount of singles action this year Level 3 - Low/Mid Card Spoiler [*]Dark Order - Alex Reynolds/John Silver [*]Gunn Club [*]Dante Martin [*]Ethan Page [*]HOOK [*]Jungle Boy [*]Kyle O'Reilly [*]Luchasaurus [*]Penta [*]Sammy Guevara [*]Scorpio Sky [*]Wheeler Yuta [*]Darius Martin [*]Josh Woods Level 4 - Either release them or don't renew their contracts Spoiler [*]Anthony Ogogo [*]Iron Savages (formerly known as Bear Country) [*]The Factory - everyone other other than QT Marshall [*]Cole Karter [*]Frankie Kazarian [*]Matt and Jeff Hardy [*]Lance Archer - he's better than how he has been treated but he just seems more like an Impact or NJPW guy to me [*]Michael Nakazawa [*]Proud & Powerful - they are plenty good enough but don't think they'll ever get any traction [*]Private Party - See comments for Proud & Powerful [*]Peter Avalon [*]Andrade - let him go back to WWE to be with his wife [*]Sonny Kiss [*]Butcher and the Blade [*]Griff Garrison [*]Jake Hager [*]Angelico Everyone else not listed above is your Dark/ROH roster, enhancement talent, and/or people you keep around to work backstage roles. These people never or rarely show up on Dynamite or Rampage. Sting not ranked since he is a part-timer Morrissey not ranked because the only none WWE match I have seen him in was that match against Wardlow. I'm operating under the assumption CM Punk will never wrestle again for AEW
I think you've undergraded Jericho and some of the Mid Card guys (Sammy, Jungle Boy, maybe Scorpio) but I agreed with a lot of that.
He’s rumored to be one of a half dozen AEW wrestlers who have asked for a release. Time will tell how accurate those reports are…
Brody King needs a new gimmick if they’re going to keep him because all he was until Malakai left was a poor man’s Luke Harper to Malakai’s poor man’s Bray Wyatt in a self-important and over-serious rip-off of the early Wyatt family stuff. In this essay I will…
that's a great point. If you wouldn't mind I'd like to see you break down the entire AEW roster in detail of where you'd slot them on the card
I admire Brody King's approach distracting from his beer belly by just getting his entire torso tatted up. He should pass along his artist's info to Eddie Kingston. Khan loves stables so the Butcher and Blade being Brody's new henchmen seems like a natural fit
I’m team stable. Would have been a nice chance for Brodie to bury sting last Friday and take the alter
Looks like got 4 of 5 members of a War Games team being formed... Maybe Alexa is ummmm moved to the dark side leaving two slots to be filled by you know who.
Bray is an amazing dude... the amount of detail he/wwe are putting into this thing is off the charts...
TNT has updated their programming listings for Friday 10/7. AEW Rampage will air that evening at 9 PM EST, one hour earlier than its usual 10 PM EST timeslot. AEW Battle of the Belts IV is now slated for 10 PM EST on Friday 10/7. Traditionally, that special has aired on Saturday evenings. AEW has a live Rampage taping that evening from Washington, DC, so one would think both hours would be live. AEW had a two hour Rampage broadcast last week, filmed in NYC at the Grand Slam 2 event.
Tuned into Raw for a few minutes last night. This Honorary Uce thing is pretty damn good. Sami putting on good matches and the comedy angle of it is nice.