Migs

He has! He's been doing some shows for Outlaw Wrestling in NY. He also popped up managing a job team on AEW Dark when they were on Long Island.

Meltzer very generally pointed out that when we're talking option years... there was an option on Brandi too. So, reading between the lines - TK may not have had a problem paying Cody, but paying the Cody + Brandi package was getting absurd and he wanted Brandi to take a different (smaller) role.

There's likely something more at play, because Meltz seems to think Khan would have had an option year like he did with the Bucks, and chose not to exercise it. Unless there's some weird shenanigans (i.e. TK let the option expire because they were negotiating a longer deal, thought it was done, Cody goes back on it at the last minute, etc.) - that might explain the cryptic references to lawyers getting involved at the end.

Without trying to predict how things turn out, this is the first move that at least has a plausible chance to change the narrative for them and make people talk about something other than how bad the product is in a very long time.

It took almost 100 pages of this thread for WWE to do something that might suggest the empire isn't crumbling.

Not a boomer but an old millennial, but yeah... this is like that. Reminds me a little of Bret, in the sense that it's the potential of a guy leaving who was very associated with the company.

The only plausible thing I've seen so far is a wild amount of money from Vince to get an AEW person to jump.

I find this deeply confusing, unless it turns out Vince offered him some absurd amount of money.

Only Cody can save them?

Hot take: I think ROH is using this hiatus pretty well! They certainly have more buzz with the hall of fame and guys appearing on Impact/GCW than they did last year. Whether that will translate into me actually caring when they run a show again is an open question, but props to them for getting a little momentum when they seemed basically dead.

Has anyone confirmed that White is a signing with AEW and not him working with them through New Japan?

Joe as a manager/heater for a Danielson faction could absolutely work.

Interesting! Makes me wonder what the AEW situation is at the moment... is ROH just so far down the ladder that Tony's fine to let a guy show up to be inducted? Is it possible they want to use ROH as a bit of a farm system to get guys more matches?

Chicago is a strong indy wrestling town. More interested to see how he does in, say, Raleigh.

Pretty sure @Loss made the exact same pitch for Danielson last week!

I meant more that Riddle would be someone new in a Wrestlemania main event. Had no idea they feuded last year, I'm sure Vince has forgotten.

Was anyone at BOLA? From what I've heard about PWG crowds, this sounds surprising. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/other-wrestling/llio-rush-fans-used-racial-slurs-hate-speech-at-pwg-bola

Doing Riddle vs Lashley at Wrestlemania... actually isn't a terrible idea? At least it's someone new? A Riddle win sets up at least a few new matches for the rest of the year and they can do a feud with Orton for Summerslam or something?

I really don't think it was that much of a difference outside the lack of a proper death match. If you compare it to the Chicago show the prior weekend, the violence level was pretty much the same all the way through (again, excluding the death match).

Having not watched WWE in months, I thought the show was real thumbs in the middle stuff, with little that was excruciating but also little to recommend it. They went in so hard on Brock-Roman that I think I'm mildly interested to see it, but I have literally no clue how they'd follow it up at this point. No one was treated with sufficient gravitas to be a transition challenger. They really might need to call up Breakker in April or something.

I'd argue the Bryan Rumbles were way more depressing in the sense the company was telling the fans to fuck off more forcefully. This was just dull.

I also like the fluidity there - AEW maybe had too many guys debuting to bring him in a few months ago, but he can go to Impact for a few months, freshen up, and come in when there's a bit more space to feature him.

Yeah, ultimately it seems like it was something of a success business-wise (most FITE buys ever at a higher price, obviously a sold out live show). Now, whether it was enough of a success to justify the costs, I don't know. And it certainly wasn't a blow away show, although I enjoyed myself and thought it was a good effort. I'd certainly line up for tickets if they did the Hammerstein again. Even it wasn't their best effort, I'd think they exposed a lot of people to a product they were unaware of (not all that different from Barely Legal in a lot of ways).

Most of 1989 NWA is fairly good. Apart from the main events, the first couple of months under George Scott are pretty weak, but then it's mostly gold until Ole gets the book in 1990.

Yeah, the obvious issue was that the Bucks were in the middle of turning heel, to the point where it hurt the build to that match. By the next PPV, the alignment wasn't right. My guess is they get back to it when the Bucks turn again (seemingly soon).