C.S.

BTW, for whatever it's worth, Maria is denying all of this.

Because it's largely irrelevant. Those people aren't in those places anymore. Lighting ROH (or wherever) on fire is likely not going to change a damn thing about their current career trajectory. It's useful for, "Hey, here's some cool shit to check out on YouTube and Vimeo," but that's about it. The only exception is when contracts come up and we see if these people actually jump to AEW, NJPW, or whenever and attempt to recapture whatever they supposedly had before. I definitely think there's a lot of potential for that. BTW, I agree with everything you said about Maria. I'm kinda surprised people here are seemingly lukewarm on her. I get that she's kind of tainted by association because of Mediocre Mike, but that isn't necessarily fair.

The problem with Zigs is that his character is literally "I will steal the show. EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT!!!" What the fuck is that? That isn't a character. We know nothing about him, except that he comes across as the partially aborted baby of HBK and Mr. Perfect, with the wire-hanger taking out the best aspects of both and leaving us with what's left in Ziggler. (Too much? I get carried away sometimes.) To be honest, I don't even hate Ziggler. I just don't care about him. I would be curious to see what he'd do outside of the WWE system though. My guess is he'd be another Mr. Anderson or Damien Sandow type though - decent but nothing indicating that WWE exactly lost out on undiscovered potential.

Mike would probably be fine in a tag team or as part of a stable run by Maria, but I'm guessing WWE doesn't want to showcase Maria quite that much. Either way, giving Mike a henpecked husband gimmick killed him dead right off the bat. What was the point? Even if Mike isn't awesome, purposely sandbagging his chances seems like a waste of time and money to me. Unless this was one of those things Vince found funny (Red Rooster, polka dot Dusty, etc.) and thinks the talent should make the most of? To be fair, Mike seemed to try to make it work.

Granted, WWE "creative" is partly to blame there. The entire gimmick seems like a giant rib against Mike and how they never really wanted him in the first place, only Maria, so how was that ever supposed to be a success? As for Shockmaster, I'd call that more successful. At least it was amazing to watch live, memorable as hell (for all the wrong reasons), and they did get a brief run out of it with the clumsy "Uncle Fred" gimmick. Contrast that to the PPV debut segment of Mike and Maria Kannelis, which died on the vine, got zero reaction, was forgotten about ten minutes after it happened, and is only being discussed now because they supposedly asked for their releases. Obviously, in terms of big business, WCW probably lost a lot more by botching Shockmaster as badly as they did. He could have presumably been a decent upper-midcard or even main event player for them (well, maybe not main event). Mike's ceiling was probably never going to be that high. Impact did a great job of making him seem like a big deal with the "Miracle" tease, but wasn't everyone deflated when it was revealed to be, "oh, just Maria's bland ROH guy we've kind of heard of but not really."

To be fair, I'm pretty sure he has overcome his addictions. Doesn't seem like that should be held against him for the rest of his life. Plenty of legitimate reasons not to want to bring the guy in. Maria is a great personality IMO. I wouldn't break the bank for her or anything, but she's someone I'd gladly add to any roster in a non-wrestling role. Unfortunately, she and Bootleg Heath Slater come as a package deal. They were DOA the minute they joined the WWE. I've never seen a worse debut in my life.

More rumors: The Revival and Mike & Maria Kannellis asked for their releases. Makes me wonder if their recent Twitter "spat" was a work to try to start a storyline elsewhere. I can't imagine WWE letting any of them go, especially now with AEW. Mike has shown me less than zero (although I'm sure someone will come around shortly to tell me he's amazing and had bang-up matches in ROH and Impact), but I'd want to keep Maria. Good point. And I agree 100% that Cody's talk about not hiring writers and "letting wrestlers play to their own music" is exactly what I've been wanting to hear for years now.

He definitely shouldn't be challenging for the title day one, but at the same time, he does deserve the chance to show what he can do and prove that WWE missed the boat on him. If he's stuck in the same spot in AEW that he was in WWE, what's the point of jumping?

ACA is awful, lol, but actually preferable to either Andrade "Cien" Almas or just Andrade.

But not Andrade "Cien" Almas, which is what he was almost exclusively referred to as - until now, obviously. Every part of his name is terrible, so even shortening it doesn't help.

Yeah, they're criminally wasted in WWE. But watch The Revival get a title reign now just to keep them happy. BTW, interesting interview with Cody: Cody Says AEW Is Not Hiring Writers & Talent Won’t Be Micro-Managed https://www.sescoops.com/aew-not-hiring-writers-cody-interview/

WWE doesn't value tag team wrestling, so I doubt they'd ever "regret" it - even if The Revival becomes the top tag team in the world.

In today's "sounds like bullshit" news, WWE is reportedly "FEARFUL" that The Revival is planning to finish up with the company to jump to AEW. https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/exclusives/exclusive-wwe-fears-revival-are-finishing-company Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder have been used like dogshit since being called up, so I really doubt WWE would miss them if they left. It's a shame, because they are an amazing team that WWE should value.

They probably have better agents and contracts and/or are more valued by LU's Hollywood execs because they're men. Ivelisse probably signed her indentured servitude deal long before #GiveDivasAChance, #metoo, and the modern "women's movement."

Mil Mascaras at least has alliteration going for it.

As much as we all make fun of WWE for shortening names, Andrade "Cien" Almas was a pretty horrendous name and its shortening was inevitable. Not sure how much better just Andrade is though. Every part of the name sucks.

The fact that WWE can easily fill up the Mae every year, including alternates, tells me that AEW won't have a problem finding good women. Famous women? Maybe not. But if they're not in the business of building stars, they won't go far anyway. I think they'll be just fine in that regard though. Kia Stevens (Kong/Kharma) would be the first person I'd go after. She has legit fame and cred from GLOW, not to mention wrestling cred - especially with AEW's audience.

I've been saying the exact same thing for years. If there's a way to search for my posts within this thread + the word "beta," you'll see me mention that several times.

At no point did I ever judge Excalibur's commentary. What I did say was that the name is ridiculous for a commentator, which it is. Chris Hero has been completely and utterly useless in NXT to me as a viewer. He's a player-coach, fine, so why not do that in dark matches? Ditto for Lashley in WWE. He has been rancid. His baffling creative direction hasn't helped - I'll grant you that. Even I think they should've gone with Brock-Lashley when people wanted it, and I'm no fan of either. To be honest, most of the TNA "darlings" - outside of AJ and Drew - have left me completely cold once they jumped to the WWE. Roode, EY, EC3, etc. I'm not into any of them. As for Seth, if it makes you feel better to think I'm his biggest fan and cheerleader, go ahead. Never said that either. You must've missed the post where I completely shit on him for being an imbecile and liability to the company for his idiotic Twitter comments referring to Louis C.K.'s recent comedy set as "funny" (the horrible one about the Parkland kids, LGBTQ, etc.). I hope this causes him to lose his rumored WrestleMania main event spot and he ends up jobbing on the pre-show instead. "Inoffensive" is absolutely the wrong word to use regarding my feelings about Seth Rollins.

With the equal pay promise, it sounds like the women will have a major role. Who knows though.

This is heartbreaking. This is...something.

And working for NJPW isn't? Not like that's a 24-7 frat party. I just don't believe that J.R. would ever be unprofessional enough to get drunk on-air. This really feels like ridiculous "sleaze thread" overreacting to me. Agreed. That's some Rush Limbaugh-esque bullshit right there.

So, Heavy Machinery = Bushwackers 2.0? Not a knock, as the Bushwackers had years of success, probably made a shitload of money, and became actual stars, all without sacrificing their bodies as much as they did when they were the Sheepherders.

Not about NJPW, but J.R. has addressed and denied it in the past. “I got criticised on Twitter by some little gutless pissants that wanted to say, ‘JR looked either stoned or drunk.’ I can assure you that you don’t get stoned or drunk when you visit Saudi Arabia unless you’re really looking forward to meeting Omar at the prison. I ain’t interested in that.” https://www.ringsidenews.com/2018/05/05/jim-ross-addresses-gutless-pissants-thought-stoned-greatest-royal-rumble/ Call me crazy, but I believe him.

Lashley sucks, but people wanted Brock vs. Lashley for whatever bizarre reason, so I agree they screwed that up when it was still a viable option. I agree. IMO, this was always the plan. I don't see Balor winning. I suppose we could still get Brock vs. Braun without the title, but I doubt it.