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Also it looks like the ROH announcer/wrestler formerly known as Quinn McKay debuted as an announcer for whatever they are turning 205 Live into.

You never heard the jokes? The family trees don't always fork.

I figured it wasn't gonna be popular with the bubba, but Pete Dunne shouldn't be losing to Tony Baggadonuts right now. Also MSK/Creeds is gonna bang.

I don't see any of the top people going to WWE except Jericho, since he's a guy who can probably avoid most of the usual toxic bullshit. I could maybe see Mox leaving AEW one day, but I don't think there's a check large enough in the world to get him to go back to WWE. This all seems to come down to Cody and TK realizing their philosophies were at odds and deciding to part ways as amicable as possible.

It should be remembered that AEW will most likely get a huge increase in TV money by the time MJF's deal comes up. I don't see them letting any of their young talent go without a fight.

This all reads like Cody just wanted to leave and made a stupidly high money request to TK knowing he would say no (or if he said yes he'd get stupid money). The writing has been on the wall for a while, his programs seem bolted on to AEW TV and clearly there has been a change in the relationship between him and the other VPs. From comments all of them have made, it seems like they are personally getting along but clearly had different business visions for the future.

Well to be fair to WWE, Cody's like 10-15 years younger than the other established stars they bring back because they can't get any of the current talent other than Roman over so it's progress.

Jokes aside, as serious as Hunter's heart issue seems to have been, I don't see WWE clearing him to compete anytime soon if ever. Also I'm not sure if Cody coming back after it became clear the company he helped create has moved on without him is the victory lap WWE and their stans think it is. Having said that, having Cody present the Dusty Cup sure would be something.

Having said that, I do recall after Dusty died people were commenting about folks wearing polka dots in honor of him that Dusty hated the gimmick and wouldn't want to be remembered for that.

The polka dots were 100% meant to be a purposely embarrassing gimmick for the guy who was booking the competition. The fact Dusty got it over was a testament to his abilities more than any understanding on Vince's part. Dusty knew what the deal was and him getting the gimmick over was his way of saying FU. I don't think Dusty had any bad feelings about it though. He knew the game.

One thing Cody would have going for him is that for one Vince usually protects people he pays big money to, and also that he might be motivated by spite against AEW. Of course that can go both ways and it might be one of those "WCW guys have to job for years after the purchase so Vince can prove WWE was better all along" deals.

The only part that's surprising to me is that someone with a Rhodes ego would go back to WWE after he went so hard taking shots at them. He has to know Vince has an elephant's memory for that kind of shit, so there's a very good chance that after the "we got one of their guys" victory lap, he could be Stardust 2.0 or worse.

It seems clear Cody was no longer on the same page as....well everyone really. He was on his own island storyline wise, the last thing he did of substance was establishing the TNT title with the weekly defenses. After that it was increasingly going off the rails culminating with the Cody Solved Racism By Having A Biracial Child promo that seemed to torpedo him with the AEW fanbase. This actually seems like a win for everyone. WWE gets the chance to stem the "everyone is choosing AEW over us" narrative, Cody presumably gets a fat contract, and AEW can do addition by subtraction by removing the Codyverse from their shows.

Speaking of, Brock's interview on Pat McAfee's radio show was awesome. He's at a place in his life where he's happier than he's been and he's having the most fun. Also the story of how his ponytail came to be was that basically his kids were like "bet you won't wear your hair in a ponytail" and he was like "bet you I will".

It's odd that Vince apparently thinks enough of Austin Theory to do skits with him, yet throws him out there for Brock to use him as a coat rack before laying him out.

I suppose them contacting Stone Cold for a possible WM match is a response to them having to do 2 for 1 deals on tickets.

Man, I just don't get how one wouldn't see MJF as a star. A heel who tries to be despised (well outside of Long Island anyway) and not be the cool heel is fairly rare thing these days. For him to be able to put over folks, he has to be established as someone who would be a feather in the cap to beat. Now I can see the argument that he shouldn't have beat someone like Darby, but it's not like his wins were all clean either. As far as Tessa goes, in theory her vs Britt would be huge but there's a reason she's burned pretty much every bridge.

It probably was, but then she was the same moody and surly person she was in UFC and was shocked and hurt that wrestling fans reacted the same way MMA fans did.

Yeah a lot of it seems to be wrestling fans figuring out what MMA fans have known for a while: Ronda's not exactly the most likable person in the world. WWE would have been better suited to push her as a monster heel who tears off people's arms while mean mugging the backstage announcers... y'know, like how she was in UFC. Having her be a babyface seems to be beyond her skill set since her personality seems to be more like a shoot version of MJF.

In theory, there's no way they shouldn't. In reality, companies push for it so they don't have to pay benefits/unemployment.

There's been several cases through the years of lawyers who've read over WWF/E contracts and would laugh at how unenforceable most of it was. WWE gets away with it because they have the greater financial means to bury anyone who challenges them in court (which is why they backed off when Brock challenged their world wide non compete, they didn't want it on record that a court called any of the terms of their contracts bullshit). After all, Vince has shown many times (mostly re: how he responds to competitors) that he defaults to the same playbook he's used since the 70s/80s so their recent financial success wouldn't do anything to change that.

Yeah all the banter about the Bucks and how they can't resist trolling the Cornette types really buries how good those guys are at what they do. Dave got a little bit of teasing for saying he can't remember the Bucks having any bad matches last year, which.....I mean I can't either.

Honestly he should challenge the legality of that in court and make WWE either give him his release or defend their illegal-ass contracts in a courtroom. Especially since they set a precedent of granting some people's request for a release and not his, I'm sure they don't want to answer how they decide who gets it and who doesn't.

At this point he might as well go full napalm, both sides seem to be pretty entrenched in their stance so it's not like the bridge can be burned any more.

I love that the reaction to Rok-C being offered a WWE contract has been "well she's young enough that after they waste her time for 3 years she'll still be in her prime".