SteveJRogers

Thinking he wants in the WON Hall, and this is the way to do it!

Glancing at his Wiki page, looks like Darren Matthews has been using “Regal” since before joining WCW. Why he isn’t reverting back to “Steven” after all these years, as “William” was just the WWF/WWE gimmick first name (probably to ward of the stench of the MAN’S MAN gimmick) is a question to ask though. OE: AHHH! Never mind, looks like William was a gimmick middle name and for some reason it got reversed for Regal’s return back in 2000.

ITS TIME! ITS TIME! ITS VADER IN THE WWE HALL TIME! https://comicbook.com/wwe/amp/news/wwe-vader-2022-hall-of-fame/

Oh, I didn’t mean have him do Sandman/Austin style beer bashes every time on TV, my question was more about the whole “is he an alcoholic” part of the angle where teaming with Dark Order allowed him to be himself, not “fit in” with what the Bucks and Omega wanted him to be. More Cowboy Shit, less Elite Shit.

Watched YouTube video's of the epic storyline with The Elite, and it never seemed they were doing the functioning alcoholic/showing up in no condition to perform angle with him. It seemed more trying to conform to their lifestyle than “give up booze, be a better person/performer” angle that I can see being put on a main event level babyface.

I asked before, no one answered, but has the drinking aspect returned to Page’s gimmick?

I know there is a separate thread for all things Cody Rhodes, but it seems he’s not WWE bound after all. https://www.bodyslam.net/2022/03/03/exclusive-cody-rhodes-talks-with-wwe-have-fizzled-out/ I guess this could mean he’d bring the Codyverse to ROH and continue his vision of reimagining Watts era WCW, while AEW can continue its way of being more the spiritual successor to ECW and the vintage ROH without this jarring thing one of the EVPs was doing off on his own.

Good point with the whole “What’s a Babyface!?” line in the epic face-to-face promo.

I know I’m quoting myself, but this seems more like the actual reality than a return to the WWE. Plus this would mean he’d bring the Codyverse to ROH and continue his vision of reimagining Watts era WCW, while AEW can continue its way of being more the spiritual successor to ECW and the vintage ROH without this jarring thing one of the EVPs was doing off on his own.

I’m wondering if plans are in place to get him to be a more heelish character, or at least hand the kayfabe/public appearances duties off to someone. I don’t know why…well I can imagine why… but his promo seemed way too overly excited for what was being announced, but in a “should be a turn seed planting” way. I’m not saying he needs to be like Vince’s maniacal scene chewing performance on that Raw following the WCW purchase, but the promo did seem like the type of promo that had “sinister” machinations behind it.

BTW, re-read the post I quoted about “Tony Khan” not “AEW” being the owner, and saw it was about the press release and not Tony’s promo. So the analogy of Vince and Shane, not “WWF” kayfabe-ing “buying WCW” as essentially their mid-life crisis major splurge purchase doesn’t quite match, unless you can say AEW often blends kayfabe and shoot in their releases. But I’m sure that is all semantics for corporation liability/branding/taxation etc issues. It may even just be a PR thing where they don’t want to been seen as slimy as promotions purchasing dead or about to be dead assets of other promotions in the past, so they put the owner’s name as the purchaser instead of the corporation name.

FWIW Neither Vince, nor Shane ever stated that WWF bought WCW. Granted Vince was a mega heel and was to fight Shane at WrestleMania, but still, it was never said in kayfabe that WCW was owned by the WWF.

Which is kind of funny with speculation that Cody is going to run NXT 2.0 which I really doubt considering why turf Trips, his protégés and lieutenants, just to replace him with another “one of the boys who thinks he can run an empire.”

So the Prince Devitt era, and post start of AEW are the only times Bullet Club wasn’t involved in ROH?

I also forgot TYLER FREAKIN’ BLACK’S run as well, at least in terms to currently active WWE wrestlers that ROH nostalgia would spotlight. I think Corino is still with NXT even with how they did Alison Danger.

Except Steen & Generico. Wasn’t AJ there as part of Bullet Club, or was that after he was turfed?

I’ve seen speculation about HBO Max. No idea if that is a WWE Network/Peacock type deal where PPVs are streamed and Dynamite/Rampage go up after a brief period, but that does seem like an eventuality.

It tracks with him being an ECW mark and it was the home of the best of Punk, Danielson, US appearances of Bullet Club, etc. Cody may have envisioned late ‘80s-early ‘90s WCW, but the true through line for what AEW has cultivated, both their promotional style and even their fanbase screams vintage ECW/ROH.

Oh in complete hindsight of course. But after Survivor Series, you’d get laughed off whatever board or chat room if you declared within 5 years WCW would be dead and the WWF emerging bigger than it had been a decade earlier.

Still not sure which is a more inane troll job, any pro-WWE troll that sees this on the level of Flair 1991, or Hogan 1993, or Bret in 1997 in terms of a hard hit to AEW, despite not knowing what’s been happening with Cody in recent months. Or AEW fanboy trolls still expecting this to be a massive work towards an invasion angle (perhaps ROH) The latter could be closer to the truth than his leaving being a mortal wound that would cause major changes for AEW to recover from, but I doubt the WWE wouldn’t allow the “hints” to drop just to troll fans into thinking Cody was coming when he wasn’t.

Slow march to Dallas continues…

Wait, I thought it was more about stuff away from the arena and being social with fellow co-workers in bars and such! Yeah, that’s a bit too “old man yells at cloud” when everyone’s pre and post TV time routines vary over the decades based on the individual themselves.

Very true, my point was more that you can slot him like 7th, through maybe 10th-11th if you were listing the most important members of the group over the years. Bischoff for sure, Steiner, Giant, Savage…a case can be made for Jarrett as the “focus” of that 2000 joke.

Which makes him as a member of the nWo group even more laughable! I mean I enjoyed what he did as Syxx, but it was way too short and he’s closer to the 10th-15th most important member of the classic nWo than the top 5/a “Mount Rushmore”! So if that impedes a potential “Sean Waltman overall performer” induction, that makes it all the more ridiculous of a selection.

Reading someone on FB joke about Brutus Beefcake being an IRL barber made me wonder a couple of things about occupation gimmicks Aside from “modern athlete” gimmicks (MVP, Rock) and “Hollywood” gimmicks (Rock, Miz, Batista) was Paul Bearer the lone mainstream occupational gimmick where the performer was legitimately from that profession? On the flip side of that, any stories of someone, most likely an indie performer, going all method acting on the gimmick and literally study up on the profession, or even do it as a “learning tricks of the trade” despite it just being something for his or her wrestling persona, and the audiences really aren’t expecting authenticity?