This women's division seems like in dire straits and the Lufisto stuff that came out today is basically igniting the fire on it all. Really feel like Tony put too much stock & eggs in Britt Baker's basket and fed her enough where she has enough ego & pull to do no wrong.

There's too much smoke now in the fire that goes against Baker. Big Swole, Thunder Rosa now this. Tony is going to have to pick a side and roll with it. Baker or Thunder Rosa. Until that gets decided fully, there is just going to be tension amongst the ladies with tons of bystanders caught in the crosshair. 

I been following LuFisto since 2006 and she has always been one to speak her mind. She is also pretty much universally loved. Almost always she would let people beat the living hell out of her to get them over. The beatings she let Gage put on her in CZW were so brutal they were hard to watch.

Also LuFisto always has been painfully honest. When she got the back injury she was honest about it likely being her retirement and she dropped all her belts. When she put on the weight she was honest about that too, that she just could not look like she used to as she got older. I have really no reason to believe this is the one time she decides to make shit up. And we heard this story before from Rosa, who has no real ties to LuFisto. I suspect if you asked Mercedes she would tell you a similar story since she signed then almost never appeared. She is not someone who puts up with drama.

And the response to this was to punish the people who had a problem with the current system.

Also I assume Taya is effectively done with AEW already.

" I work with children " - CM Punk, 2022.

That might be the most honest reflection ever made by an AEW talent.

I cannot believe Tony STILL has not gotten the women under control. It has been over a year since Lucy was used and people are still calling her to talk about being frustrated with AEW backstage.

Reported Hayter is out until Feb at least. Brutal.

Aug 4, 2023 11:39:20 GMT c said:

Reported Hayter is out until Feb at least. Brutal.

A damn shame.

Especially since she is one of my faves in AEW.

Where to start on the Lufisto interview...

Firstly, I believe her story and while it was scatterbrained it is consistent with all the information that's already out there.

With that said, it's not news. We know that AEW had become an absolute toxic work-place in 2022 and that all boiled over at Brawl Out. Since then it seems like things have improved, albeit certain acts are walking on egg-shells and are avoiding confrontation when really they should hash things out for the future of the company.

I do think certain elements of Lufisto's story are open to interpretation. Her interaction with Sky Blue has been discussed, but even the Dustin Rhodes bit sounds like Dustin was making light of Ruby talking behind her back, it didn't get over with Lufisto and it made things awkward between her and Dustin. At least that's what I got out of the story, otherwise, why would Dustin poll Evil Uno over French Canadian being assholes?

The online reaction at least on my timeline has been insane and it seems like a lot of pro-AEW accounts are trying to character assassinate and silence Lufisto instead of simply acknowledging that her experience could have easily been avoided. The amount of fans rushing to Ruby's defence to me lacks all sorts of self-awareness. Ruby can be an awesome person, but can have her petty moments as well - she's human. Lufisto could be right about Sky Blue and going off of other interviews, yeah she doesn't exactly come across as the most ambitious extroverted person which in show business is an issue. Maybe point to how much Sky has improved since then, or just take ownership that she's well liked by influential people behind the scenes.

While I believe the reality show was fake, it's so weird they'd put this perception out there of Britt bullying Rosa and be fine with it. Especially with Britt making that transition to babyface. I don't get it beyond them acknowledging the drama and trying to make money out of it.

I do think the diva comment was lazy from Lufisto. They're obviously not Khan's biggest priority and that's been obvious since day dot, but he's not taking women's wrestling back to the stone ages either. There's a happy medium there and I think the Knockouts would be a better comparison where they're talented but they clearly weren't a priority at a certain point and TNA wasn't as keen to give new talent better opportunities, instead just signing ex-WWE talent, pushing them and calling it a day.

Bit of a storm in a teacup but you kind of hope we see more Shida/Storm and less Baker/Taya segments.

A lot of people attack Lucy claiming she is a nobody and what not, but Lucy is a very well respected 20+ year vet. She does not need an AEW spot to make her career, as with her back she is wrapping it up now. And she was always known to be extremely unselfish, letting people beat the living shit out of her to get over.

The diva comment makes more sense in that Tony treats them basically like a side act, and not as equals. They get the same exact time slot each week and some girls can go months without leaving catering. They get almost no character development time, and their PPV matches are also piss break spots. It is clear he does not put the same stock in his division as Vince or HHH does, as both will use women to sell PPVs. While the wrestling quality is not divas era, the booking sure is.

Normally I would back Ruby, but we seen in the reality show, the same sort of shit that Lucy was talking about with Ruby and Tay. Also Ruby rarely stayed in once place long for her entire career. Makes me wonder if she is a problem backstage, as that certainly would explain why everyone ditches her in the end and she ends up bad talking them. Particularly WWE who ditched her but kept Liv, a decision that made no sense at the time as Liv was far from ready to go to solo.

I do find people believing it was just Ruby bullying weird, as it was said it was Britt and her girls bullying. And we seen Britt and her girls on the show. Ruby was one of those girls. But the bullying rumors started before Ruby debuted.

All in all, it circles back to what Lucy was saying, there are serious fucking problems backstage that need to be addressed. And this is not about her, but the girls complaining to her that are afraid to speak out themselves and become another Rosa. Lucy started in an era where she was not allowed to bleed or fight men, she can take insults from people. Clearly she is speaking out because she thinks this all fucked up, and as the changes to wrestling laws in Canada showed, Lucy also will not stand and watch what she sees as injustice happen silently.

Frankly, she also did not say really anything AEW fans were not saying already.  The drama is clearly bad enough to make dirtsheets, and Tony needs to man up and deal with it.  This is bingo hall level bullshit.  It does not get fixed, every single girl in the out group will be hearing from WWE sooner or later, offering them a place to wrestle without the drama.

Why are they all on Twitter defending the company at the same time. 😂 My timeline is filled with AEW employees discrediting this person. Did they get a memo?

Girls all close rank now but in two weeks there will be another story about them.

Thinking of shit for a bit, Lucy would not have worked in AEW either way as she had serious heat with Sweet Sayara.  She called out Sayara no showing matches to promote Fighting with my Family instead.

Lufisto deactivated her twitter account god damn. I thought AEW fans would have smartened up after Daffney & Kimura to not try and belittle someone but alas.

Bunch of of the women like Saraya/Ruby/Taya V./Tay/Britt/Renee/Nyla went at Lufisto's claim and said this locker room is strong & has brilliant individuals who care for one another. It's to be expected. MJF went after Lufisto and her career though, whew.

MJF did his best Roman Reigns "Protect the locker room as the leader" thing here.

Big Swole and Kimber Lee(Who has seemingly retired from pro wrestling and does OnlyFans now to get away from the "Hellhole") are backing Lufisto or at least her claims though.

(Not sure if having Kimber Lee on your corner is a good thing though :lol:)

Good to see the AEW women prove they are not bullies by bullying someone off Twitter.

They are dogpiling Kimber Lee for supporting LuFisto now.

What is interesting is how much LuFisto's story matches Victoria's story about being backstage.

LuFisto is not a happy camper and posted on her instagram. Not be shocked to see all this drama speed up her exit from wrestling.

Think my favorite take on all this is she only did this to try to get people to notice her in WWE or Impact, as if they did not already know. Like she feuded with Rebecca Knox before her career ending injury and Courtney Rush before she debuted on Impact. I am fairly sure these feds know who she is.

What's behind the tension between Sky Bule & LuFisto?

Literally nothing, she was concerned that Skye was not talking to her in the match. Sometimes young wrestlers are told to just shut up and do what they are told.

I don't know who is right or wrong. However, I wish such topics as bullying were handled behind closed doors.

Well here is where we are at.

1. AEW has a bullying problem in the women's division.

2. Lufisto is lying. Victoria was lying. Rosa was lying. Tay was lying. Rosa and Tay on the show was staged to appear like they were bullied. Reports of various girls having problems with each other were made up by wrestling journalists.  

Feels like a whole lot of people need to have lied over a long duration for AEW to have a big happy family backstage.  Also would be moving into brawl out was a work land.

Tony is a weak leader. If you have these problems and let them continue to happen you deserve the backlash. It is why no matter how big of female star they sign their momentum is quickly reduced to nothing. It could also be why their crossover shows never usually include female talent, Either the AEW alpha females don't want other female taking there air time. Or women from other promotions don't want to work with after seeing what there division is all about.

It is absolutely insane that the AEW diehards believe there never was a problem with the girls in AEW.

So far Lucy keeping her dates, but think she goes the way of Kimber Lee really soon. This was a real lose your smile moment.

Was cool to see Kimber, Havok and a few others publicly support her though, with no care really what the issue was. We seriously do not need to lose anymore girls to bullying shit. Sick to see people try to dogpile another girl to suicide.

" Off with his head! Off with his head! "

Wait, you said Tony Khan.. I thought you said Vince McMahon.

Ok nothing to see here. Tony is good, Tony is great.

You would think people would learn some life lessons due to the me too scandal. I don't see how villainizing 1 of the most respected ladies in the history of the game is helpful & inclusive.

People seem to think it is ok in this case because they think LuFisto is a no one that no one knows because they do not know her. Most have no idea she started in the 90's and worked pretty much everyone. And I mean everyone, Kingston, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Nick Gage, Team 3D, Adam Cole, Alex Reynolds, Scorpio, John Silver and more fought her. The list of girls she has not fought in every major fed is shorter than the list of people she has fought.

That entire locker room is toxic and anyone still defending the leadership there is drunk on the kool aid.

Maybe that's what happens when you embedd into a company spite and bitterness and let that become the culture.

WWE didn't give you what you wanted? Sure, sign here. You've worked the independents for 20 years and achieved nothing? Sure, sign here? You're awful, but it's actually your personality that has gotten you this far? Sure, here's a microphone...

Aug 6, 2023 20:03:57 GMT NATH45 said:

That entire locker room is toxic and anyone still defending the leadership there is drunk on the Kool-Aid.

Maybe that's what happens when you embedded into a company spite and bitterness and let that become the culture.

WWE didn't give you what you wanted? Sure, sign here. You've worked the independents for 20 years and achieved nothing? Sure, sign here? You're awful, but it's actually your personality that has gotten you this far. Sure, here's a microphone...

I'm not saying you're wrong but I'm curious if you or anyone you knew were to become a wrestler & wanted to pursue the dream on the biggest stages, who would you want to work for? because there are only 2 men with the power right now Vince & TK. 1 guy can be a control freak & the other is a rich kid. There will always be toxic behavior & people making excuses for such behavior. That is the nature of the business. It's not the owner's responsibility to police the talent. People have to hold themselves accountable for their behavior.

So my friend has the skill, look and contacts to have made it to AEW or WWE. He made the decision to stay local. More guys are doing this too, being perfectly happy to be the local heroes, than risk their bodies through a mix of insane travel and working excessively. The chance of making enough money to justify life on the road is not really worth it to a lot of people. They would rather remain the hometown heroes.

And frankly, doing this allowed my friend to face his heroes. He was in the ring with Flair, Piper, Jimmy Hart, the Hardyz, Slaughter, Hacksaw, Lawler, Arquette and others. AEW or WWE very unlikely he would have got this chance.

Ah here is the interview where my friend kind of talks about this.

13:06 he starts to talk about it. Gets into some of the guys he worked before that.

As you know c, Holliwicked fits with what you're saying, My guy was well off. So he was happy being a weekend warrior.

Yup. A lot of Chikara was happy being weekend warriors.

Wrestling is a real risk for many, and not everyone wants to give up normal lives entirely on a CHANCE. Figure there are tens of thousands that wrestle and maybe a couple hundred that make it.

In that interview my buddy covers it, but he really should not have had the career he had. He shared a locker room with Hogan, worked with Flair, Steamboat, Foley, Piper and Bret all while never working for AEW, Impact or WWE. It is unreal. He had a long standing feud with Lawyer including a clean win. He has done cage matches, a TLC match with Matt Hardy, a casket match, beat Hangman and Dreamer in a ladder match, and whatnot. History may not remember him, but what more could you ask for in a wrestling career?  Sure he could have made money and been on PPV, but if he did, he would have never worked the people he did.