All Elite Wrestling

[strobogo]

Joey Janela is probably the first guy I'd cut because god he fucking sucks at everything. Shitty in the ring, shitty at promos, shitty look, shitty body, shitty everything. The only thing of value he offers is he'll do crazy bumps, but so will 90% of the roster who are also athletic and better at wrestling and/or promos.

 I'd then cut Billy Gunn's sons because they're annoying as fuck and it's like a nightmare team of Mr. Ass and Rockabilly eras. After that there's a 50 guys I've never even seen in action because they're only on Dark so I'd have to actually see them before I could make judgements on their value and quality.

[PeteF3]

Janela has value as a promoter, I guess. But yes, he's godawful at anything performance-related.

[strobogo]

Does he do actual booking and promoting for GCW besides the Spring Break shows? Because those are pure ass meme fantasy booking that are EWR cards come to life. Shit those might be closer to TNM7 come to life. 

[Ryan Faulconer]

The fact that there are few fans or none at all really confuses who is over and who is struggling.  
 

Everything would be slingshotted into fast forward mode once they cut a chunk off the roster.  I don’t need multiple segments pushing the Johnny Hungy-gimmicks.  Smaller roster would require more WWE shenanigans in the back or locker room.  Every booker can’t resist pushing the most over guys in the most TV segments.  There would be too many shots of stars arriving or leaving, Darby in the rafters, Sting in more interviews, lots’o’ Jericho hijinx, more recaps, more shots at the desk and those videos from The Acclaimed would eat up time on Dynamite.
 

 I know that at the time everyone just loved when Konnan, Three Count or 3MB did similar crap, right?  Max’s songs on Dark are ten times wittier than his usual ring intros.  We don’t need them clogging up Dynamite just to beat us over the head with it in the name of character building.
 

Who knows - I might be out of touch with modern audiences.  I’m enjoying most of AEW right now.  I don’t want the good stuff to be sacrificed in the name of chasing fans who don’t have the attention span to follow different feuds colliding or two feuds between four stables.  

[strobogo]

I don't know what you're talking about because they already only use a small few on TV every week and they already repeat the same angles and segments for weeks and months at a time even with the huge roster of talent. That's actually the main issue, they don't utilize their roster well at all and are highly repetitive with storyline angles.

[Ryan Faulconer]

4 hours ago, strobogo said:

I don't know what you're talking about because they already only use a small few on TV every week and they already repeat the same angles and segments for weeks and months at a time even with the huge roster of talent. That's actually the main issue, they don't utilize their roster well at all and are highly repetitive with storyline angles.

It felt like the argument was whether AEW should use as many wrestlers per Dynamite episode.  The problem with the booking is the repetitive angle types and some posters see too many new names that they don’t know.  Then there is the Meltzer theory that AEW is losing women - with some pretty weak field reporting to back that up.  Anyway, the Dynamite episodes just fly by most of the time.  They only need to keep a closer eye on matches with the same layout going out too closely to one another.  Tony K should keep an eye on the move or gimmick repetition during matches while he is at it as well.

For all the talk of there being too much blood it doesn’t feel like they have used the blade (not Mr. Bunny) all that often, have they?  Disappointingly Cody blades for every big PPV match along with the dog collar match on Dynamite.  

Cody was a favourite of mine in AEW before I ordered the five PPV events during the Black Friday sale.  The shows were all good or better and Cody’s matches were usually one of the best every event I watched.  Watching a year or more in time captured in five shows makes Cody’s style of match even more repetitive.  He changes it up on Dynamite excluding the dog collar match.  That match fit his PPV formula though. I don’t care about the pregnancy announcement, gender reveal or their reality show.  All his matches getting the bells and whistles that a Triple H...and Dusty too actually, is problematic after all Cody said he wanted to change in wrestling. 

[strobogo]

In regards to Cody, he absolutely should be a heel. Even as a face, he's often a real dickhead and unlikeable shit who outright buries his opponents on promos even though they're his own talents, always dressed to the nines, has his own entrance set and pyro, the most self indulgent entrances and promos, etc. If you see that promo he cut for the house show they were weirdly promoting very hard, he talks about being self aware and he knows people talk about all that stuff because he's Dusty's kid so he's always had to be aware of himself and his actions and blah blah. And I'm thinking, this dude really should have turned this into a heel gimmick a year ago. Where he's the complete antithesis of Dusty. He's never had hard times. He is Dusty's Kid. He's royalty. Everyone knows he's the boss, that's why he gets all this extra shit. 

I find Cody in general to be somewhat unlikable even at times he was being a good face. I think he excels at being a heel anyway, and he's in a position where this heel gimmick is an absolute lay up, is very small tweaks to what he's already doing as a face, and would work especially well for his particular audience. 

[Enforcer]

Being the Elite was tremendous fun this week. Hangman Page taking a selfie with Alan Angel’s crotch had me rolling on the floor and Alex Abrahantes was amazing with Uno/Grayson. Ryzin was funny as well. 

[Ryan Faulconer]

Could the Cody & Brandi reality show be part of an elaborate work?  If Cody really is aware of his less likeable qualities perhaps the show could be used to push a new Cody heel persona.  There is potential in this being like a Nick Lachey & Jessica Simpson The Newlyweds, only more (or is it less?) scripting of scenes.  They could go totally megalomaniacal and place Factory or Dustin’s students as wacky neighbours.  Before the turn I always thought QT could be Cody’s friend/frenemy next door.  This show would need to be written at a level far surpassing most wrestling storylines in history of this...genre.  Then again Cody could become more popular with the show’s exposure.  That would derail a potential heel turn though because wrestling fans have goldfish memories far too often.

My reality TV watching is pretty outdated. Do people still know about Nick & Jessica?  Maybe Britney & K-Fed is more relatable.  That is about as current as I get, sadly or thankfully, I’ll leave the choice up to you.

[C.S.]

On 4/12/2021 at 6:58 PM, Ryan Faulconer said:

Could the Cody & Brandi reality show be part of an elaborate work?  If Cody really is aware of his less likeable qualities perhaps the show could be used to push a new Cody heel persona.

Doubtful. Miz is a super babyface on Miz and Mrs., no matter what his alignment on WWE TV is.

[joeg]

I think Jalena could have value as a job guy or a heel manager. He's willing to take insane bumps and has a good mind for promotion. But that's it.

[Memphis Mark]

On 1/17/2019 at 7:17 PM, NintendoLogic said:

Temporary roadblocks can be incredibly expensive to litigate, especially when the other side has unlimited resources and is willing to drag things out as long as possible. I'm certain WWE will try to make examples out of any talent that tries to leave.

 Well contracts end and people can move on with their lifes.  The WWE is not that powerful to hold people hostage after their contracts end. The WWE is not Apple or Microsoft , they are a small company in the grand  scheme of things . Plus the game has changed.   Sinclair  Broadcasting has  already sent their legal department after the WWE on at least two different times .  Last time I checked ROH/ NJPW are running MSG . Also , I sure Shad Khan has some of the best legal minds available to fight the WWE .  Maybe Shad Khan will make an example of the WWE if they cross him.

 

 Plus the WWE is going to have trouble signing  top talent if they continue to treat talent badly .  Look at how PAC was treated . Those type of  bullying  tactics  will backfire on the WWE in this labor market 

[KawadaSmile]

While I do agree that other companies won't just roll over and die, I'm not sure the Fed will ever have huge problems signing people, no. I mean, they are known for their shady practices for how many years now? And yet they are still capable of hoarding talent.

[MoS]

So all the reports about her being difficult to work with were clearly true and not baseless rumours. Becoming the only wrestler AEW has ever fired (apart from Jimmy Jacobs I guess) must feel special

[sek69]

I tend to give women wrestlers the benefit of the doubt since women always get tagged as hard to work with if they act too much like their male counterparts, but she's had issues in every place she's worked at so there as to be some fire to all the smoke. 

 

[C.S.]

8 minutes ago, MoS said:

Becoming the only wrestler AEW has ever fired (apart from Jimmy Jacobs I guess) must feel special

Was confused and wondering when Jimmy Jacobs ever worked there. Then I realized you meant Jimmy Havoc.

Shame about Ivelisse, but being the female Low-Ki/Austin Aries is not a sustainable career path.

[MoS]

Oh yeah sorry, my bad

[sek69]

47 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Was confused and wondering when Jimmy Jacobs ever worked there. Then I realized you meant Jimmy Havoc.

Shame about Ivelisse, but being the female Low-Ki/Austin Aries is not a sustainable career path.

They should team up with Tessa and Joey Ryan to start Unemployable Championship Wrestling. 

[C.S.]

3 minutes ago, sek69 said:

They should team up with Tessa and Joey Ryan to start Unemployable Championship Wrestling. 

First champion: David Starr

[sek69]

Ivelisse is already tweeting about her release, saying it was because she had an issue with the coaches and her speaking about it was why she was let go. 

[MoS]

 

[NintendoLogic]

Nobody could have predicted that someone who burned her bridges with every single promotion she's worked for would end up burning her bridges with AEW.

For those who like to read the tea leaves, AEW ref Frank Gastineau tweeted "My character would never take that finish." He deleted the tweet shortly afterward, but not before Thunder Rosa liked it.

Speaking of Rosa, Ivelisse gave the following statement to Fightful Select:

I spoke up about mistreatment from a Coach, even to other women too, there were witnesses and I was the one suspended and left in limbo and just now let go, and nothing has been done at all the entire time about (Thunder Rosa) slandering my name the entire time in AEW and doing everything to sabotage my position there, I kept quiet, (Thunder Rosa) also has a history of getting involved with officials in order to get ahead which there was a lawsuit and everything in (Lucha Underground).

Given her track record, "mistreatment" likely refers to being asked to sell and put people over. And accusing another wrestler of sleeping her way to the top is the kind of thing that gets you kicked out of locker rooms. Whatever locker rooms she hasn't already been kicked out of, I mean.

[sek69]

Dynamite pulled in 1.2 million viewers last night. 

[Loss]

Happy for AEW drawing such an impressive number last night, even though Dynamite has left me cold lately. I still think there's room to grow that number and improve the show, and I hope they do so.

[Strummer]

Wow that's a damn good number. Actually shocked by that. Thought they'd obviously have an increase but not that much