sek69

so SRS is reporting that pretty much no one is buying the "budget cuts" excuse in WWE, and that long time stars don't feel their jobs are safe regardless of their position on the card. Sounds like it's a fun place to work at right now for sure.

Well in the context of WWE pulling the same bullshit they did with JCP and WCW, it makes a little more sense but yeah it was very Dave.

Daniels and Nakazawa are agents, QT and Dustin are involved in training and I think are also agents too.

Most people who work for AEW generally can work indie dates as long as it doesn't conflict with any AEW ones.

I'm not going to pretend Bray was some sort of secret superworker or anything, but a ton of the Fiend stuff that people hated was due to how the character was booked more than any failing on his part. Like someone who was a horror movie character come to life in the land of 50/50 booking is going to come off lame no matter who's doing it.

It's a statement on WWE that I had to look up who the last two Universal Champions before Roman even were, since I had no memory of it. Also it's been kind of weird to see a lot of causal WWE fans I follow who I wouldn't expect to have much opinion on this that are upset about Bray.

Nick Khan is 100% installing the corporate "we don't want just some of the money, we want all of the money" mindset and things like salaries are just inconvenient speedbumps. Like when you see video game devs laying off hundreds of people after announcing they had a record profit year. It's gross and completely dehumanizing to anyone who works there.

Of course the book on Vince forever has been that if you want him to go along with something you want to do, make him think it was his idea.

Another downside of the cult mentality WWE is fostering, they don't seem to realize/care that it creates toxicity for their own performers as well.

Speaking of, Alexa seems pretty shook about him getting released and made her Twitter private.

Also they were advertising him to return soon, so another dagger to the "plans change is just an excuse for when they lying dirt sheets are wrong" community.

I suppose it's possible, but that would require WWE to give a shit about talent beyond the money that can be made from them. After all, there are multiple instances of WWF/F looking to let people go because they were afraid they would die on their watch, so I would hope something has been improved.

The odd thing is why someone who is a major merch seller would get released in a budget cut. Like, yeah you're gonna save a few bucks emptying the 205 Live cupboard a bit, but cutting a guy who made money for the company seems like the opposite of that.

So the new WON has two interesting items that appear to be linked: One was mentioning Vince talking about not seeing AEW as a threat while at the same time trying to "take advantage" of them having a bloodbath match on TV, the other one was that there was a concerted campaign to contact AEW's sponsors (only Domino's replied publicly due to the unintentional humor of their ad popping up after the pizza cutter spot) due to that match. It pretty heavily implied WWE was trying to get AEW in trouble with their sponsors, which is both hilariously petty and entirely in line with their MO in situations like this.

Also it looks like the UK is about to get 'Cocked, as Peacock is set to roll out to Sky TV.

Plus this gives them the chance to have Hangman finally accept what the Dark Order was trying to teach him and be able to face his fears. Plus they've been low key building up the Dark Order winning a title to honor their fallen leader, which if done right could be the 1b level pop to Hangman's 1a.

Well part of why it was drawn out this far was they didn't want to give Hangman his big win in front of little to no fans, which was completely understandable, but yes they need to pull the trigger sooner than later for sure,.

Hangman losing and the crowd not having a "Roman Reigns winning the Rumble" freakout over it shows how much the fans are willing to give the company the benefit of the doubt, and they are willing to do that because the company as largely respected the fans and tries to deliver what they want to see. Funny how differently things play out when you aren't constantly at war with your own fans.

To fair, what is Vince (or anyone on the call) supposed to say there? He's not going to go on an investor call and be all "AEW is totally kicking our ass and using talent better than we are, my dudes". It's been their MO for 20+ years to minimize any other potential competitors (remember the "pissant company" line?) and the only difference now is he's saying about a company that actually has competent leadership and financial backing rather than TNA bumblefucking their way through most of the 2000s.

I actually would laugh if he came in as W. Danielson Bryan, Serious Pro Wrestler.

On one hand I get it since AEW is still at the stage where they can't risk losing any money streams (pretty sure they still get an ad split unless that changed in their new deal), but on the other hand the company that clearly wants to be seen as the spiritual successor to JCP and all the wild bloody brawls that took place there can't get too wrapped up in "won't someone think of the children" thinking. That only leads to sanitized WWE style PG rasslin; and the whole point of AEW existing was to provide an alternative to that.

So NJPW announced the Lance Archer/Tanahashi US title match will take place at their Resurgence show on 8/14, so Tana is in fact coming to the US. With all the effort it takes to go back and forth these days, it would make sense for him to make an appearance just for "he went through everything to travel here so why not" reasons. Also I agree that after they blow off this MJF angle, it's probably time for Jericho to work his way down the card. He did the work to put AEW on the map as the veteran name/presence/recognizable name to give the young guys something to work with, but now especially with all the rumored/assumed talent coming in there's really not going to be any place for him very soon. Maybe he can go do a run in NJPW since lord knows they need someone new in the mix over there and he did good business the last time he was there.

I think it started out health related, pretty sure he had to quarantine when Mia Yim ended up getting covid. After that it seems like a combo of Vince not getting why he doesn't work like Big Show and the usual loss of interest he tends to have for most people after a couple of weeks.

I've been going on an early ECW bender since most of it is up on the 'Cock now, and I just watched Rey and Juvi have a match from like 94 or 95 and now in 2021 both will be on opposing national promotions. I still am wondering if 2021 is just a mass hallucination from everyone being cooped up for most of 2020.

Dave was very clear that this is the kind of match to expect when the forbidden door was open, the only thing preventing it was the travel restrictions to and from Japan.