All Elite Wrestling

[Blehschmidt]

The thing about Cassidy is that if you've ever seen his work under his other gimmick in Chikara, he is an excellent high flyer and has a pretty decent game all around. If they can somehow meld that into the Cassidy character without losing the appeal of the character, I think he can do big things.

[sek69]

11 hours ago, El-P said:

And Jake Roberts dealing the cards was a cool touch.

I popped for the "you want to play 21? well I have 22" line. Kudos to Jake for owning what was an all time Wrestlecrap moment.

[joeg]

With each signing this roster is looking more and more like the roster of a small time East Coast indy circa 2002 rather than a major national promotion. There's 6 to 8 big names on top and a bunch of guys who suck underneath. Its no different than ECWA or JAPW or MCW where you got Low Ki vs American Dragon vs Christopher Daniels and the Hass Brothers on top but Chetah Master, Prince Nana, Ring Crew Express, Japanese Pool Boy and Mr. Oolala on the undercard. 

There's going to be people here that defend Orange Cassidy, just as they defended every other terrible talent that AEW has signed and I cant wait to hear how Orange Cassidy belongs as a wrestler in a major national promotion.  

[C.S.]

I think Orange Cassidy has one of the best looks in wrestling. It just screams retro cool. But that Chikara slow-mo shit definitely doesn't have legs on a weekly TV show. 

[Stiva]

The obvious thing to do with Cassidy seems to be him doing his shtick and jobbing for a while until he, somehow, finds himself in a big TV main event and then shows that he can go. Similar to the match he had with David Starr a while back. Where you go from there, I don’t know but I actually have some faith that these guys are thinking long-term, to a degree.

[Migs]

These guys turned Flip f'n Gordon into a giant star by telling a long-term story in BTE over the course of a year. I would assume they have a plan for Cassidy, and I'm intrigued to see it. Cassidy is a great worker, who has a lot of gears beyond the basic version of his schtick (see his match with Gresham from WM weekend, or any of the matches where a more aggressive opponent forces him to fight). 

[FMKK]

Yeah, it seems like an obvious enough story. He does the slacker bit for a while and gets his ass beat, one of the Elite tell him he needs to get his act together or get cut, it lights a fire under him and then he shows some fight against a bigger star.

[Log]

2 hours ago, FMKK said:

Yeah, it seems like an obvious enough story. He does the slacker bit for a while and gets his ass beat, one of the Elite tell him he needs to get his act together or get cut, it lights a fire under him and then he shows some fight against a bigger star.

I was thinking about Zach Galifianakis' "Between to Ferns" as a template on how to book Cassidy.  The first few episodes, the guests seemed to thing he was going to ask them normal talk show questions and were surprised by him insulting them.  Then, Ben Stiller came on, and he had seen how Galifianakis treated guests, and he went after him right away.

Have Cassidy leave a couple opponents dumbfounded for a few weeks to introduce him.  Then, have someone face him, but they're ready for his schtick.  They jump him to start and don't let him fuck around with them.  Then you go from there with the stuff FMKK suggested.  

[Laz]

On 8/13/2019 at 11:50 PM, joeg said:

With each signing this roster is looking more and more like the roster of a small time East Coast indy circa 2002 rather than a major national promotion. There's 6 to 8 big names on top and a bunch of guys who suck underneath. Its no different than ECWA or JAPW or MCW where you got Low Ki vs American Dragon vs Christopher Daniels and the Hass Brothers on top but Chetah Master, Prince Nana, Ring Crew Express, Japanese Pool Boy and Mr. Oolala on the undercard. 

There's going to be people here that defend Orange Cassidy, just as they defended every other terrible talent that AEW has signed and I cant wait to hear how Orange Cassidy belongs as a wrestler in a major national promotion.  

You're not making too compelling an argument when you're referencing an era that was one of the last truly exciting times in American indies.

[El-P]

The issue for AEW is, who is available and got hype on the indie circuit. With WWE signing everyone and the rest being under contracts to either ROH, IMPACT or MLW, it's not like there's a lot of "big" indy names from the last few years who are up to grab. I'm sure AEW would love to have PCO, Brody King, Marty Scurll, Willie Mack, Killer Kross, Shane Strickland, Brian Pillman Jr., DBS Jr., Tessa Blanchard and Matt Riddle in their roster. The reality is, they have to seek out where some lesser known talent is available and also who got some hype on the current indy scene. Orange Cassidy sure got some, for better of worse. He's a really tricky case but :

On 8/14/2019 at 2:59 PM, FMKK said:

Yeah, it seems like an obvious enough story. He does the slacker bit for a while and gets his ass beat, one of the Elite tell him he needs to get his act together or get cut, it lights a fire under him and then he shows some fight against a bigger star.

Yeah, that could work.

Hopefully though, LAX are coming to town.

[Migs]

And those ECWA shows were actually among the best because they made the top workers feel special. The guys who were comedy weren't treated as serious threats, and it created a diversity in the show that a lot of other companies struggled with. (And from a talent level perspective, AEW's comedy guys blow away the ECWA ones.)

[Log]

Fuck.  Now I really want them to sign Prince Nana.

[El-P]

Is Reckless Youth available ?

[rovert]

On 7/20/2019 at 1:07 PM, rovert said:

That's a lot of moving parts on the Tony situation. But expect Tony to be signed by WWE once everything shakes out. 

On Tony's podcast with Conrad this week, they said Tony won't be doing live shows past September. 

Same announcement for Bruce was made when he went to WWE.....

[sek69]

11 hours ago, El-P said:

The issue for AEW is, who is available and got hype on the indie circuit. With WWE signing everyone and the rest being under contracts to either ROH, IMPACT or MLW, it's not like there's a lot of "big" indy names from the last few years who are up to grab. I'm sure AEW would love to have PCO, Brody King, Marty Scurll, Willie Mack, Killer Kross, Shane Strickland, Brian Pillman Jr., DBS Jr., Tessa Blanchard and Matt Riddle in their roster. The reality is, they have to seek out where some lesser known talent is available and also who got some hype on the current indy scene.

I would assume Marty, Tessa, Pillman, and DBS will all get serious looks. Brody King should seriously consider it too (WWE already has a tattoo'd guy in Alistar Black and you know they wouldn't do anything with "another one"). 

Of course WWE is playing with Fox/Saudi money, but I think the tide's turned enough where just tossing cash at folks to sit in NXT collecting dust are nearing an end. Guys who want to actually show what they can do know they have an alternative.

[rovert]

30 minutes ago, sek69 said:

I would assume Marty, Tessa, Pillman, and DBS will all get serious looks. Brody King should seriously consider it too (WWE already has a tattoo'd guy in Alistar Black and you know they wouldn't do anything with "another one"). 

Of course WWE is playing with Fox/Saudi money, but I think the tide's turned enough where just tossing cash at folks to sit in NXT collecting dust are nearing an end. Guys who want to actually show what they can do know they have an alternative.

Marty is a lock for AEW.

Tessa still has a year to go with IMPACT contractually. IMPACT and AEW will have to agree to work with each other.

Pillman and DBS are probably likely as AEW and MLW indirect/directly working together on MJF.

Brody King's ROH contract is due soon enough.

[sek69]

Impact works with AAA, which is a partner with AEW. Maybe they can work something out that way. 

[joeg]

13 hours ago, Laz said:

You're not making too compelling an argument when you're referencing an era that was one of the last truly exciting times in American indies.

It really was, the thing is with all those shows you knew when you went that you were going to sit through an hour or two of absolute drizzling shits before you got to see some of the best workers in the world pulling out 4 and 5 star matches. Its the same with AEW, every show has an hour or two of unwatchable, absolute drizzling shits followed by some absolutely great stuff. I think its a fair comparison. 

[GSR]

6 hours ago, rovert said:

Marty is a lock for AEW.

[El-P]

7 hours ago, sek69 said:

Of course WWE is playing with Fox/Saudi money, but I think the tide's turned enough where just tossing cash at folks to sit in NXT collecting dust are nearing an end. 

Speaking of which, I said it before but, ain't KUSHIDA glad he signed with WWE ? I mean, he's so hot right now. Whatever happened to that Ideo Hitami guy BTW ?

7 hours ago, sek69 said:

Impact works with AAA, which is a partner with AEW. Maybe they can work something out that way. 

Yeah, I thought about that too watching Triplemania. Tessa, Killer Kross & Scarlett are the three AEW wants to get eventually.

[KawadaSmile]

4 hours ago, El-P said:

Whatever happened to that Ideo Hitami guy BTW ?

Two horrible injuries in a row, both in the worst of times, was in bad shape, and was overall dull in the ring even when given the chance to shine. Wonder what he's up to now.

[Migs]

I feel like Impact is likely to be protective with Tessa given how hard they're pushing her, similar to what they've done with Cage. On the other hand, AEW is far more likely to push her as a star than they would Cage.

[Jmare007]

5 hours ago, El-P said:

Speaking of which, I said it before but, ain't KUSHIDA glad he signed with WWE ? I mean, he's so hot right now. Whatever happened to that Ideo Hitami guy BTW ?

 

He got good money and exposure and now he's back in Japan in a position he wouldn't be if he didn't go to WWE.

I've said it before, KUSHIDA will be back to Japan eventually and will be able to profit immensely from doing whatever in NXT/WWE. Even if he was 20 TV matches in total were he's a jobber, he'll get a good position wherever en Japan.

[El-P]

11 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

He got good money and exposure and now he's back in Japan in a position he wouldn't be if he didn't go to WWE.

He was a star in NOAH. Assuming he would not have got injured while unlearning to work in NXT, there's no way KENTA would not have got in the G1 earlier (and probably healthier) this decade like Marufuji did. To say that KENTA benefited from his WWE stint in any way shape of form is a huge stretch.

11 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

I've said it before, KUSHIDA will be back to Japan eventually and will be able to profit immensely from doing whatever in NXT/WWE. Even if he was 20 TV matches in total were he's a jobber, he'll get a good position wherever en Japan.

KUSHIDA was a star in NJ already. Having done everything in the junior division, he could very well have been pushed to the heavies anyway like Ospreay & Shingo in the G1. Again, saying KUSHIDA doing jobs in 205 Live will increase is position in Japan seems like a huge, huge stretch to me (apart from resting his body, assuming he won't get hurt).

[FMKK]

So it looks like TV for week two and three has sold out quickly as well. They're on a hell of a run here and if they pick the right markets, there's no reason it's shouldn't continue.