C.S.

I'll laugh if Gallows and Anderson re-signed for more money than The Usos and The Revival.

Corbin and Lacey are winning, y'all.

Andrade > Seth

Hopefully AEW will learn from all of these early growing pains - most involving Spears, ironically - and not repeat them.

I really like Silas Young, but holy shit, this is a bad look for him and ROH. He's lucky he's in what has quickly become an obscure indie fed. If a WWE or even AEW wrestler posted anything like this, they'd be fired within the hour. Because it's ROH, it won't gain any traction and the few ROH fans left who do see it will be sycophantic apologists (as you can already see by the gross Twitter replies). Plus, ROH has a bad history of looking the other way - RF, Bully Ray fan incident, homophobic comments by Briscoe, and I know I'm forgetting others.

AEW reportedly pulled Spears from an indie booking. Wonder what happened there?

Was the "comedy" from the last pre-show anywhere near the level of BTE though? (I've never watched more than a few minutes of BTE, so genuine question.)

Well, part of it, too, is that the world has changed. You could get '80s Hogan now, booked the same way against the same opponents, and the reaction would still be very different. It's probably not that Vince doesn't know how to manage that fine anymore. It's more likely that Vince doesn't know how to change the way he manages it and update it for the times we're living in now.

Because that's honestly the least of the reasons as to why Roman isn't seen as "the guy." Sure, it doesn't help, but it's far from the only issue.

I'm assuming WWE Reimagined is just a tease for a WWE 2K20 video game announcement and new mode.

Exactly. And let's say Spears does somehow "break out" and become super popular in AEW, the company will be in a position to capitalize on that because the audience was never, ever conditioned to believe that he's a geek who doesn't matter. The opposite of WWE's approach, basically. We're already seeing that pay off with someone like MJF, who is making himself a major star right before our very eyes.

To me, it's refreshing that a guy like Spears is being used, has a storyline, etc. How often have we been able to say that about any WWE midcarder since the Attitude Era? Like Spears or not, AEW is getting the most out of its investment. That doesn't mean he's an automatic main eventer - he obviously has not been positioned as that - but based on the responses in this thread, people are so used to midcarders meaning absolutely nothing that the idea of one getting a storyline has everyone reading more into it than they should because it's such a foreign concept in 2019. Well, this is the way wrestling should be - the way it used to be - where even a Gangrel type meant something and could contribute positively to the show while still never being the next Stone Cold, Rock, etc.

The latter IMO. From another thread: The unprotected chairshot obviously cannot be defended and should not be - no matter where this match/feud is on the card.

Does it matter if they have? Spears knocking the shit out of Cody with a chair is reason enough for a feud. If they introduce the backstory later, great. If not, it doesn't matter because all of that happened in another company anyway. Sometimes people like to over-complicate pro wrestling for no reason (I'm not saying you - just in general). Yes, I like layered complex angles as much as the next guy, but simple also works too. With that said, I fully expect them to delve into the whys and hows. They've already started that with the "good hand" stuff. Maybe 2004 Carlito was better than 2019 Shawn Spears. Unfortunately for Carlos, Carlito, Primo, Epico, and Coffey Colon, we're no longer in 2004.

Coffey = PWO's biggest Carlito fan? I mean, I didn't mind him or anything, but he is hardly the kind of "surprise" AEW should be aiming for IMO.

If he really does call himself The Great Miro, he deserves to be a jobber.

In one breath, you shit-talk and dismiss Shawn Spears, sarcastically referring to him by his WWE name. In the other breath, you want an appearance by fucking Carlito.

I doubt he will be around another 10-15 years. He has expressed a desire to transition to a backstage role. IMO, Todd Phillips is being groomed to take his place - or maybe Renee Young, since the "Women's Evolution" is in full swing and all of that.

To be fair, all of that shit has kept him far more over, far more relevant, and has given his career far more longevity than a "Monster of the Month" push would. We've seen how that goes. Just ask Rusev.

Wasn't he aping an Arn Anderson promo?

Not really.

No one here is a blind follower, and your opinion on Shawn Spears does not make it gospel. I don't like Samoa Joe (I think he's slow and boring), but I'd still hire him and push him because he's obviously someone a lot of people do like and someone who can be an asset to any fed.

I know your message board gimmick is to be miserable and negative, so I'm not even sure why I'm responding, but listen to the massive pop he got for his first Royal Rumble or the rabid "TEN" chants he got in NXT and then tell me with a straight face that the fans didn't think about him.

I think Spears is the perfect ex-WWE signing for AEW. You take a guy the fans generally liked and felt was underutilized, actually was underutilized regardless of what the fans thought, and you give him a new lease on life without overpushing him. If AEW was around when Damien Sandow was released, he would have been signed IMO. (Not sure why his TNA run went south so fast. A case of #LOLTNA? I don't know - I didn't watch it. I will say he was DOA the minute he came up with that terrible Aron Rex name and did a typical anti-WWE "shoot" promo. I hope Tony, Cody, and The Bucks insist on some degree of quality control with terrible-sounding indie names.)