Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[Embrodak]

If Kenny really got up at the talent meeting and told them he wouldn’t have hired 8/10 of them, after the Bucks got up and put on a face of being congenial and open, and after he just got back from a long hiatus, then lol.

[strobogo]

The 80% was just The Firm

[sek69]

The 8/10 thing sounds so out of character as something Kenny would say I wonder if it is somehow being taken out of context or misconstrued, but if he said it it's absolutely a dick thing to say. 

It's weird since the initial reports that came out after the meeting is everyone was positive and feeling great (along with Danielson and Jericho coming off as true locker room leaders), and now the rumor is Kenny took a giant shit on everyone. Which was it?

[Jimmy Redman]

The benefit of the doubt version would be something like, "I wouldn't have hired 80% of you [on paper], but you have all proven me wrong with your work blah blah blah.."

[Jmare007]

34 minutes ago, sek69 said:

The 8/10 thing sounds so out of character as something Kenny would say I wonder if it is somehow being taken out of context or misconstrued, but if he said it it's absolutely a dick thing to say. 

It's weird since the initial reports that came out after the meeting is everyone was positive and feeling great (along with Danielson and Jericho coming off as true locker room leaders), and now the rumor is Kenny took a giant shit on everyone. Which was it?

That's two different meetings. The first one was 10 days before All Out were Tony talked about the new people in charge of talents relations and there was stuff like this
 

Quote

 

Tony Schiavone spoke about his time in WCW and his experience to let everyone know why he’s in the position he is. He was said to have come off like an “Uncle who wanted all the kids in his family to succeed.”

Chris Jericho basically gave a ‘rah-rah’ speech and his own thoughts on how far AEW has come.

The Young Bucks, mainly Matt Jackson, said they were available to help anyone who wanted to be helped and they were easy to find.

Kenny Omega also spoke and was said to be “harsh” towards the locker room, which some said was “tough love” but others said was “heavy-handed.” Those in the former category felt he was trying to light a fire under the roster.

 

Who knows what was the exact wording used by Omega but him being tough on the locker room was reported so we can't act like it's out of nowhere.

 

The meeting that had supposedly everyone happy was the one before last week's Dynamite that was called by Jericho, Danielson and Mox. The fact there  hasn't been any details about that one tells us that it was probably a successful one (Jericho complained at the All Out scrum that details of locker room meetings shouldn't be getting leaked). It was still funny reading Dave talking about "one person said it was the best meeting they've ever been a part of" because it read like Jericho was the one that told him that

[Embrodak]

1 hour ago, strobogo said:

The 80% was just The Firm

W Morrissey is 80% of the height in AEW, it makes sense.

[Embrodak]

Also Omega stood in the middle of the ring after his return and said “We’re not a tribute act” as a total non-sequitur, this whole thing may just be that The Elite and CMFTR don’t like each other.

[KawadaSmile]

3 hours ago, Embrodak said:

Also Omega stood in the middle of the ring after his return and said “We’re not a tribute act” as a total non-sequitur, this whole thing may just be that The Elite and CMFTR don’t like each other.

It's this type of passive aggressive shit that goes under so many people's radars. 

[Rah]

8 hours ago, Jimmy Redman said:

The benefit of the doubt version would be something like, "I wouldn't have hired 80% of you [on paper], but you have all proven me wrong with your work blah blah blah.."

or "I wouldn't have hired 80% of you with your current output but I know you've got much better in you!"

[The Thread Killer]

You know Kenny really must have said it when even Meltzer is confirming he said it. He actually stood up in front of the entire roster and said that he wouldn’t have hired 80% of them.

The current spin on the comment is that it was intended to be a joke (perhaps aimed at Will Osprey) but obviously a lot of people didn’t think it was funny, and it certainly didn’t go along with the overall intention of the meeting, which was to smooth out backstage tension and improve roster morale.

Way to read the room, you dork.

[Timbo Slice]

Kenny still hangs out with guys like Chasyn Rance and Marty Scurll on the regular so I don’t think his judgment has ever really been “good.”

[The Thread Killer]

26 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

Kenny still hangs out with guys like Chasyn Rance and Marty Scurll on the regular so I don’t think his judgment has ever really been “good.”

And Don Callis. And he was good buddies with Joey Ryan. It’s like the sex pest HOF.

[Flyin' Brian]

Omega seems to come off as the most level headed of the Elite, but hopefully the attitude isn’t that 80% of the company isn’t part of the Elite so therefore he wouldn’t have hired them. If they take the name of the company that literally then I don’t see AEW ever becoming anything more than what they are now. OEW Only Elite Wrestling at that point. 

[NintendoLogic]

Mentioning Callis in the same breath as Rance/Scurll/Ryan seems like a stretch since the evidence of him being a sex pest is nowhere near as strong as for the other three. We do know (and the Observer did report) that Anthem brought in a third-party investigator in response to allegations of inappropriate behavior by an Impact executive, but I'm not aware of any reputable source specifically fingering Callis as the culprit. In fact, Bix explicitly said he had never accused Callis of anything.

[The Thread Killer]

Oh, well if Bix said it, then it must be right.

[Embrodak]

11 minutes ago, Flyin' Brian said:

Omega seems to come off as the most level headed of the Elite, but hopefully the attitude isn’t that 80% of the company isn’t part of the Elite so therefore he wouldn’t have hired them. If they take the name of the company that literally then I don’t see AEW ever becoming anything more than what they are now. OEW Only Elite Wrestling at that point. 

Omega also comes off as the oddest and most in his own head, too, though. The existence of someone in a wrestling locker room that has been in a Guy Maddin movie is somewhat bizarre to me.

[Flyin' Brian]

26 minutes ago, Embrodak said:

Omega also comes off as the oddest and most in his own head, too, though. The existence of someone in a wrestling locker room that has been in a Guy Maddin movie is somewhat bizarre to me.

I remember Stone Cold Steve Austin mentioning several times on his podcast how good Kenny Omega was and how big of a star he could be and that WWE should sign him back before AEW started. Sometimes I get glimpses of that guy that Austin talked about like when Omega and Ospreay interact. I’m excited for that match. Other times I wonder what happened to that guy. Maybe he is too focused on other things or has different interests.

[MoS]

He needs focused booking. Left to his own devices he would probably just fuck around with Nakazawa doing random nonsense. 

For all the talk of how Punk's position is untenable and how there is nuclear heat on him, it's ben nearly two weeks and the Elite have not had their suspensions revoked, unlike Nakazawa, Christopher Daniels, Pat Buck, etc. It makes me think that Punk and Steel's version has at least a modicum of truth to it. These things take time, but not THAT much time. 

Whether he realises or not, I think Meltz has also been played a bit. He first denied the reports of the Bucks talking to someone in WWE, then later said that this happened, but a few months back, and it was just a conversation and not them asking to speak to management. He also did not report the "8 out of 10" dig that Omega took at the meeting, but when it got reported by others, he says Omega said that as a joke while taking a shot at Ospereay, and most of the locker room took it in that spirit, except a few who did not find it funny. The only thing funny about this so-called "joke" is that the two he would actually hire are, like, Nakazawa and Cutler. Of course it was not appreciated by his peers, and I think Dave's version is someone attempting to spin it as a minor thing. Meltzer also reported that Punk would get frustrated when the rookies would not take his advice, but there is clearly more to that as well, since a recent interview had multiple young AEW talent like Hobbs praise Punk for his attitude and for how generous he is with his time and advice. Meanwhile, I have never heard of the Elite being praised for their locker room behaviour. 

I get a feeling small details like this will keep percolating for months. 

[Timbo Slice]

Again, it goes back to my original point of Punk being very upfront at calling the Elite out for chirping to the sheets and the more time that passes, the more it rings true. They’ve been trying to get the narrative on their side from moment one on this thing while Punk has stayed quiet. And Punk’s version is becoming more right by the day. 

[sek69]

17 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

And Punk’s version is becoming more right by the day. 

Is it though? His main beef was shot down by Dave and SRS, so unless you think all of wrestling media is conspiring against him it doesn't seem like he's becoming more right at all. 

You can make the case that the idea that Punk is 100% a villain has changed, but he's still the guy that came into the press conference with the goal of going on a rant and shit all over the company he works for. 

[strobogo]

It makes sense that the people who tried to break up the fight would get less of a suspension than the ones actually fighting. I wouldn't read too much into that particular aspect of the story. I do have to wonder how the fuck Ace wasn't immediately fired and charged after using a weapon on a co-worker/superior and biting another. Perhaps it's some corporate deal to have to go through the entire investigation process before any of that,  but that shit is fucking wild.

[The Thread Killer]

12 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Is it though? His main beef was shot down by Dave and SRS, so unless you think all of wrestling media is conspiring against him it doesn't seem like he's becoming more right at all. 

I don’t get how his beef was shot down. Everybody knows The Elite talks to Meltzer all the time. That’s a fact, not even Meltzer denies it.

The Observer reported that Cabana was going to ROH basically at the behest of The Young Bucks and because of heat between Punk and Cabana. It’s literally right here for all to see.

I don’t see where it takes a massive leap of reasoning to see where Punk is coming from.

[KawadaSmile]

I dunno about Punk being right each passing day, but Cody does seem like the smartest of the EVPs by a super wide margin. 

[C.S.]

3 hours ago, Embrodak said:

The existence of someone in a wrestling locker room that has been in a Guy Maddin movie is somewhat bizarre to me.

I has to look this up, and holy shit, you're right!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234740/

 

[sek69]

32 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

I don’t get how his beef was shot down. Everybody knows The Elite talks to Meltzer all the time. That’s a fact, not even Meltzer denies it.

The Observer reported that Cabana was going to ROH basically at the behest of The Young Bucks and because of heat between Punk and Cabana. It’s literally right here for all to see.

I don’t see where it takes a massive leap of reasoning to see where Punk is coming from.

Yeah, it's common knowledge the Elite talks Dave, but the moment Punk signed everyone's  immediate reaction (well the one after "holy shit") was "what is AEW going to do about having Colt on the roster".  Everyone knew it was going to be a potential issue, and Punk having a preplanned rant about it that didn't even get sidetracked by the reporter he called on not playing ball stopped it from happening.  Even if the Elite was telling tales to Dave, does anyone think it wouldn't have still ended up an issue having those two in the same company?