Coffey

I feel like Freddie Prinze, Jr. did a decent job at WWE - at least had the right ideas - for the short time that he was there. His name doesn't come up too often & I'm not sure if WWE soured him on the idea of pro-wrestling as a whole or not. I think it's not necessarily a bad idea to had the mind of some non wrestling people to help come up with new ideas, so long as there are wrestling people around them, you know?

There was a lot of good on the show tonight. Love that Tay got the win over Nyla - I like Tay & think the sky is the limit for her. Really dig Darby Allin. That backstage promo from Mox/Kingston was gold. I dig the new Pinnacle stable. Feels like they're building up The Rhodes family to be mega heels.

I think it kind of goes hand-in-hand with a few others posts I've seen on PWO lately: when you try to build everything around the "great matches" stuff it kind of makes the overall show feel less important. People aren't talking about winning & losing, they're talking about match ratings & Match of the Year awards. The average person is not going to get sucked in with that, nor care. They can't relate to that. They can relate to something like you jumped me, beat up my friend & took my girl so I want revenge. If the match is good on top of that, it's just a bonus. But when the titles are meaningless, the crowd is chanting the promotion letters instead of the wrestlers' name & the champions are talking about Dave Meltzer, who are we trying to appeal to? Also, if EVERY match is trying to be Match of the Night & standout, after awhile, no match stands out & it all starts to blend together. Or as I call it, the ROH-effect.

So they mispronounce it in the game as well?

Is it not pronounced winged and not wing-ed? Pretty sure wing-ed is not a word. Like this.

I forgot about Allysin Kay. AEW getting her would be nice, too.

Of course it is because, pro-wrestling is still just story-telling. Regardless of the medium, storytelling is pretty much always the same, even if cliché. It doesn't matter if it is in written or video form. Good person or people against bad person or people (or things) with the good person finding success in the end. Build the good person up as virtuous or with high morals or whatever & make the bad person sinister because of evil deeds or nefarious tactics. It doesn't matter if it's The Bible, War of the Worlds, Stephen King's IT, Bruno Vs. Ivan, whatever. In wrestling it usually just means the bad guy cheats or says bad shit & the good guy doesn't. It's why I'm still of the mindset that in-ring work should take a backseat to everything else. I know that's not exactly a popular opinion online but really, it's true. The match might be the drizzling shits but if you have a good guy that people like & a bad guy that people hate, they'll want to see the match to see what happens, especially if it can mean the bad guy getting their comeuppance. Works in UFC. Works in boxing. Pretty much works universally.

Wait, Ivan Koloff is really not in the Hall of Fame? How in the fuck?

Raven Vs. Kaz Hayashi on a random episode of WCW Worldwide on a Sunday was one of the better sprints I ever watched. A show that most people didn't bother with, so I'm all for random matches that have a chance to exceed expectations!

I will be watching live tonight. I got caught up on Dark & Elevation. Trying to have my finger more closely on the pulse as it pertains to AEW. Looking forward to when they can have big crowds again because I miss the rabid atmosphere. Selfishly also because that hopefully means at least some semblance of return to normalcy from this pandemic & the hideousness that has been the last year plus. Where I live, I'm still not eligible for the vaccine because I'm under 40. Even if I were vaccinated & masked up with distance between myself & others though, I would not go to any sort of indoor (or outdoor for that matter) gathering of mass people. I know that UFC is planning it soon & that Wrestlemania is apparently going to have a crowd? That just sounds like asking for trouble with another outbreak to me. I don't even think it's so much of a political thing as much as it's a greed thing at this point. This pandemic to me has shown how much more corporations value money over public health. Anyway, John Silver Vs. Darby Allin could be fun!

For what it's worth, I would have been 100% against The Big Show coming in had it leaked before it happened. That being said, at least thus far, he's been great on commentary. Now, if he gets in the ring & starts taking up TV time from others, my stance might change, but I like him on commentary so far. Your point stands about the difference between the talents though. Same reason I'm against Jeff Hardy.

It won't be long now! Miro is gonna fucking feast on this jobber.

I'm just catching up on Dark now. Red Velvet seemed to have a lot more upside than Big Swole. Also, Jade Cargill has an incredible look but no idea if she's any good. I assume she's green/a rookie. I love the Varsity Blonds. They're a lot of fun. Powerhouse Hobbs seemed to have potential as well (although he reminded me of Ice Train) & Ricky Starks' finish was nice. Kamille would be a huge get. Abadon to me just comes off as a worse version of Su-Yung. Interesting look for that Ryzin' preacher dude. Looks like someone that The Sinister Minister would manage.

I'm gonna talk about the roster a bit. I've been getting into AEW more lately & have pretty much abandoned WWE entirely at this point. I saw Matt Hardy making a tweet yesterday that he misses wrestling with his brother. My first thought is that AEW should not only not bring in Jeff Hardy but if given the chance, let Matt Hardy go too. He can go back to WWE or whatever if he wants to wrestle with Jeff again. The last thing AEW needs is someone like Jeff Hardy. Jeff was one of the "big" names along with Angle, Sting & Christian that "jumped" to TNA. AEW have already brought in Christian & Sting... Speaking of Sting, I think his in-ring days should pretty much be over. If they want to use him as an on-screen authority figure or something, sure, I guess. He still has name value - it's freakin' Sting - but he's not a main eventer anymore. He would be better in a role like that than giving Tony Khan an on-air character. Seems like right now they're using him to elevate Darby Allin some but it was at the expense of Starks & Brian Cage. Still feel like along with Jake Hager that Matt Hardy was probably the signing I disagreed with the most for AEW. Thankfully they didn't try to bring in Zack Ryder full-time. I was listening to a Jim Ross podcast, that was about a year old, maybe longer now & he said the big name he would want to bring in the most was Jack Swagger/Jake Hager. Oof. Jim Ross, Jake Hager & Matt Hardy would probably free up a bit of money! Money which could be better used on people like La Sombra & Thea. Honestly, Jim Ross has been around pro-wrestling for so long he has to be an asset but it should be in a backstage role. On-air, he feels dated. I know about his wife's unfortunate passing & his comments about commentary giving him something to do but he's just not even on par anymore, let alone above average. I'm sure he wouldn't want the stress of a job like talent relations again & honestly, I'm not sure I would want his mentality in charge of it at this point anyway but he has to be doing something other than commentary, imho. I know TNT wanted him to start but the shit isn't working. He's the worst of all of them & was even surpassed by Paul Wight honestly. Justin Roberts & Excalibur still come off as memes to me. Excalibur works pretty good with Taz my issue is they do a lot of comedy on commentary & then Taz tries to play a hardass serious guy with the Team Taz shit. It's like shooting himself in the foot. Also while I'm fantasizing, get the Best Friends, Gunn family, Colt Cabana, Matt Sydal, Joey Janella, Luther, & Kip Sabian out of there. My goodness. I haven't seen Nakazawa in awhile but he's still listed on the roster. It might be time to abandon the Shawn Spears experiment if he fails to get any reaction whatsoever again in this new faction as well. Unless there's someway they can get Peyton Royce to give his ass some charisma. Orange Cassidy is at least over even if I don't get it. Christian is fine. He's a good hand & can have good matches but he's not a top guy & shouldn't be. Same way I feel about PAC. AEW has a ton of talent, even guys like Angelico whom don't get talked about a lot I'm a fan of. They have fresh stars in the likes of Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, MJF, Ricky Starks, Wardlow, & Sammy Guevara. They have a few solid tag teams with Santana & Ortiz, FTR, & Young Bucks. For like the mid-card/TV title area the likes of Adam Page, Cody, Lance Archer & probably Miro for now. They have some great talkers in a guy like Eddie Kingston or some of the manager vets like Arn, Jake & Tully. Some pretty good women with Thunder Rosa & the likes of Riho, Shida & Britt Baker getting good reactions/over. Nyla Rose is improving & actually comes off as a threat. Tay Conti seems to have a ton of potential. Still have Fenix whom is one of the better high flying babyfaces in the world right now. Jericho is still a big name & looks to be winding down some, which is good. He should take a backseat & not be the focus now. Moxley is a big get for them & I like how Omega has been going lately. Scorpio Sky should probably go solo & AEW could ditch Daniels & Kazarian. Pentagon can be a good, dangerous heel if he would stop half-assing it & just trying to get his shit in. He was great in Lucha Underground but ever since he's been coasting on Superkicks & hand signs to the point that he's now just annoying. I don't know what's going on there. Think he got the impression he could just do the bare minimum & stay over but he's getting passed by... almost the whole damn roster at this point. The Good Brothers are the shits. I know they're technically Impact wrestlers but they're eating up way too much time on AEW TV. The Dark Order still stinks but they have had some funny moments lately & John Silver is getting over in the comedy role to be honest. I think Luchasaurus has a lot of talent but that gimmick is the shits. I don't really know enough about people like Ethan Page or Private Party. I don't know who The Acclaimed or Top Flight are. If someone like Tommy End or Jeff Cobb is available, they would be good gets for AEW but I don't think they need to be thinking about people just because they're available especially if they worked in WWE. Like bringing in Erik Rowan for the Brodie special was great but it was the right decision to not sign him. I would focus more on people that haven't been overexposed on WWE TV. Like try to get people from Mexico, ROH, MLW or that. Specially people under 35. I have no idea what contracts are like elsewhere but getting someone like a Deonna Purrazzo or Jordynne Grace could help the women's division a lot. It's also for the best if AEW specifically steer clear of any... social media liabilities. You can't use guys like Marty Scurll or Jay Briscoe. Maybe they could get an Alex Hammerstone or Salina de la Renta. @El-P mentioned Alicia Atout in the MLW thread today, how has no one signed her? Maybe I underestimate the contract status of places like Impact, ROH & MLW but I just assume you get them with more money, like MJF. I think they need some top of the card help so they need to elevate a couple names up & honestly, they could use more solid tag teams. I feel Fenix should just be solo all the time at this point & not bother tagging with Pentagon anymore. The roster is getting there & is shaping up nicely but they have a lot of dead weight right now. I get they need to have people to work Dark & Elevation now but I don't think it's a top priority to have a b-team at this point. There's nothing wrong with letting your talent like MJF, Wardlow, Britt & Darby get more reps in on those shows to get better. I turn forty this year. I've been watching wrestling for over thirty years. My tastes are pretty well defined at this point. I know that the in-ring style in AEW is not going to be like the Harley Race or Terry Funk days of NWA or like Stan Hansen in Japan & I understand that & get that. I wouldn't ask for that with 2021 eyes anyway. But I do feel like they've been trying new things lately & seeing what works & what doesn't. One thing that I hope going forward is that they start to make gimmick matches more rare. Every card doesn't need multiple gimmick matches & they will seem like a bigger deal if they're built to & made more special. Anyway, just wanted to provide some content to get a discussion going & more people talking. Need some more activity around here! A few potential questions. Who do you think AEW should part with? Which talent from my post do you agree or disagree with? Who do you think AEW should try to acquire? Who would you build the titles around? What changes would you make to the commentary, if any? How do you feel about Dark & Elevation & the people that are currently working those shows?

Well, apparently WWE granted him his release & Dave is saying he doesn't even have the standard 90-day no compete clause. Which, La Sombra would be a huge get for AEW but it begs the question: is it time for AEW to consider releasing some talent? Do they really need 40 jobbers for filling up AEW Dark duty? There's just not enough TV time to go around.

It could be something as simple as Batista's schedule is already busy on the day of the Hall of Fame so he can't make the ceremony, or it could be something like Batista turning it down because of CoVid-19 protocol & too many positive tests in WWE. It could be anything, really.

Yeah, they have some Indy stuff on there now. Evolve, Progress, ICW, wXw, etc.

Denzel's friend.

How much longer do we have to pretend that Edge is a top guy in the league with people like Austin or Rock? This shit is painful. He surprise return at the Royal Rumble was great but if I knew it was leading to all of this shit, I could have done without that moment. Best things the dude ever did involved a ladder & he's had neck fusion surgery. Can we stop it?

When she hurt Kairi & then in the same match, people saw Becky go out of her way & damn near break character/gimmick/kayfabe to help her, I think that's when a lot of people turned on Charlotte. That was not a good look for Charlotte, for sure.

Who knew NXT having multiple Co-Vid outbreaks & news reports of Vince McMahon being furious about how the talent isn't taking it seriously wasn't pro-wrestling related. It is very relevant to pro-wrestling. It's literally impacting Wrestlemania the biggest wrestling show in the world. Maybe we shouldn't try to brush it aside, like many do with the pandemic.

Bobby Lashley Vs. Drew McIntyre & Braun Strowman Vs. Shane McMahon is certainly not how you get me to give a fuck about Wrestlemania. Let alone a 2-day fucking sixty hour sumbitch or however long that shit is supposed to be now. Jesus. It legit feels like WWE only has one star right now, that being Roman. That's not to say there's not people all up and down the roster that I enjoy but it's going to be hard to sell a show with no top guys. Especially when they already had Edge of all people win the Royal Rumble.

Put Kacy Catanzaro's name on that list too.

I think of Jungle Boy in AEW like I did Mikey Whipwreck in ECW. If they ever do an angle with the underdog overachieving, he's the guy to do it with. The Giant has been more than solid on commentary thus far as well.

Will the new AEW Dark Elevation also just be a part of the AEW Dark Megathread, or should it receive its own thread? It premieres tonight.