Rosa was questionable in the ring and the girls were reporting she was hurting them. Lots of ugly spots in her matches. Hard to say what is and is not true with her backstage, but could see there were problems in the ring before and after her injury.

Hard to say what Britt will do, as her back was said to be in real bad shape. She can return, but shit like that normally just gets worse, not better.

Looks like the reason Skye turned and is now a focus is Julia is hurt too and needs time to recover, so they turned Skye completely dark and paired them to cover.

Once again too the best women's stuff is in RoH, as Nyla and Athena are in one hell of a feud doing a 2/3 tables match next week.  Athena was smart as hell to go there, as she is on a run to be remembered.  The whole forever champ stuff is amazing and will be a huge deal when someone finally beats her.

Just to be clear, if Skye Blue and Julia Hart went to the WWE, I don't think they'd drastically improve. I think what they do over there is that they slow everything down, put more stock into things like look, entrances, promos etc. and have a more consistent schedule.

That's not going to be the best environment for everyone but in general just because they have a better support system, you're going to be a better well-rounded performer.

Where as in AEW, you're going to have the freedom to get over, but it's largely all or nothing and it can be a real struggle to find your groove.

Had it been mentioned here?

---

The deal between AEW and CMLL means that for any shows CMLL talent appears on, NO other Mexican wrestlers can appear.

This even incudes AEW's own Mexican talent like the Lucha Bros, which led to an "incident" recently:

"As noted before, the deal with CMLL is that on any television show that their talent appears on, no other Mexican wrestlers can appear. It doesn’t matter if they work for AAA or not, or did in the past, it’s no other Mexican wrestlers can appear.

"Some of the prior Mexican talent is mad that Tony Khan agreed to those terms, noting that AAA never made a demand like that for AEW to not feature CMLL talent even though they were warring in Mexico.

"We do know at the start that Tony Khan’s vision was to work with everyone and in the early days CMLL didn’t allow its talent to go there because they were working with AAA and New Japan didn’t work with them under Harold Meij.

"It was noted that Penta and Fenix were in AEW from day one in particular and the feeling it’s disrespectful to them that there would be shows including perhaps multiple PPVs this year, including any PPV anyone from CMLL is booked on, that they couldn’t even be allowed on the show. Previously it was just Forbidden Door. There was an incident with Penta coming off the Jericho Cruise where he stayed for Dynamite as he was under the belief he was booked on, and was there, only to find out that he couldn’t appear on the show because they had booked CMLL guys for both Dynamite and Rampage"

(WON)

Already proved to be bullshit as Kommander worked a show with CMLL talent.

Big Pete, I think Willow is turning on Stat.

I think the opposite, I think Stat turns on Willow. Need Willow as a face to work with the big heels, most who already worked with Stat. Heel Stat can then mix it up with the new faces, like Deannia they brought it. I assume Britt returns as a face soon too, and Ruby finishes her face turn.

itrwrestling.com/news/aew-frustrations-escalate-stars-rebel-tony-khans-creative-plans/

AEW roster members are reportedly feeling “very frustrated” with management, leading to some of them refusing to comply with the written directives.

During the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez disclosed the growing discontent among the roster. He likened the situation to the chaotic environment in WWE‘s past, stating that many individuals are profoundly frustrated with the lack of timely information and communication regarding their roles in the shows.

Moreover, Alvarez revealed that some AEW stars outright refuse to adhere to the given directions, and Tony Khan, the company’s president, often yields to their demands, resulting in last-minute changes to the plans. He emphasised that this issue is a daily occurrence, with a constant struggle to align everyone’s preferences with the show’s requirements.

He forgets who signs the checks?

Mar 1, 2024 20:24:51 GMT NATH45 said:

itrwrestling.com/news/aew-frustrations-escalate-stars-rebel-tony-khans-creative-plans/

AEW roster members are reportedly feeling “very frustrated” with management, leading to some of them refusing to comply with the written directives.

During the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez disclosed the growing discontent among the roster. He likened the situation to the chaotic environment in WWE‘s past, stating that many individuals are profoundly frustrated with the lack of timely information and communication regarding their roles in the shows.

Moreover, Alvarez revealed that some AEW stars outright refuse to adhere to the given directions, and Tony Khan, the company’s president, often yields to their demands, resulting in last-minute changes to the plans. He emphasised that this issue is a daily occurrence, with a constant struggle to align everyone’s preferences with the show’s requirements.

Maybe he's making shitty decisions and the talent knows better and is righting the ship to prevent disaster beforehand and it's a good thing? There's a reason former wrestlers control NJPW booking.

" Hey guys, I didn't spend the summer playing Raw v Smackdown GM Mode every day for you guys to make fun of me! "

Narratives are fun. I don't wanna be that guy.

“It would be change. It would be culture. It’s impact, and it’s history,

For AEW to get their first African American champion only five years into its existence would be big.

Other companies took years to pull this off.”

- Swerve Strickland via The Athletic

---

Truth won the NWA World Heavyweight Title 50 days into TNA's existence.

168 days into NXT's life, Big E was Champion.

Ron Simmons also won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship 18 months after it was established.

Lashley won the ECW World Championship 6 months after it was reactivated in WWE.

The first 3 ROH Champions were POC.

Swerve was also the first guy to win the revived MLW World Heavyweight Championship in 2018 after it was deactived in 2004....

The biggest problem in AEW by far is definitively Tony Schiavone. I'm not even kidding. I just started watching AEW again a few days ago after years and it is the largest factor bringing down the entire product the most for me. Here's an excerpt from last night's commentary.

Excalibur: Look at that! Christian attacking Garcia as he is trying to get back in the ring! How despicable!
Nigel: What do you want him to do, open up the ropes for him!? This is a competition!
Schiavone: W-we’re not criticizing him for doing what he’s doing, Nigel! We’re just…just calling what we are…seeing!

He is such a massive fucking idiot that he can’t hold a two-sentence conversation and make logical sense. There is something wrong with the guy. It's like Excalibur and Nigel are up there with a 12-year old. It is incredibly disruptive to my viewing experience. You're trying to watch a brutal match with the American fucking Dragon and every 30 seconds you have a 12-year old whining in your ear or screaming "do you hear the faaaaaaaaaans!" in a lucid tone like he's on ecstasy.

Fuck. The fact that he is STILL THERE as the MAIN COMMENTATOR all these years is INSANE. What is wrong with this company? The fact that such a moron is up there means that Tony Khan and every single person with somewhat of a say as to who sits on commentary is either a fool themself to not notice what an abnormally low level of intelligence Schiavone has and how ill-equipped he is for this job, or not doing their job properly because they don't care.

What is so hard about having, as a bare minimum corporate policy, "no morons that used to work at Starbucks that can't even respond to a simple comment on commentary". This is not a nitpick situation - almost every single thing that comes out of his mouth is this level of stupid. I haven't been this mad about anything in wrestling in a long time.

The commentary in general isn't great.

Excalibur is one of the boys, hence why he has a job. But as average as he is, and it looks ridiculous having a middle aged man in a mask. He's not a luchadore.

Taz was at best, barely average in WWE, average in TNA and is average now. He's a mumbler and a rambler and it still feels like he's still a wrestler filling in on commentary between injuries as opposed to someone whose being doing it for over 20 years.

Put Renee on colour and drop Tony and Taz.

Taz and Excalibur seem like GODS compared to Schiavone, but very middling in reality. In an ideal world, they probably wouldn’t be on main commentary. Maybe Taz on the B show. I really like Nigel though - he seems to be legit good.

Excalibur has a job because he could do play by play for the roster from day 1. He wears a mask, because he wore a mask for 20 years dating back when he was a luchador. As far as I know he never wrestled without the mask. I got into him really early and he always wrestled in it.  He wears it for the same reason lucha guys wears it, so when he takes it off he can be a normal person.

But a commentator is a normal person…

He is not there as a normal person, he is there as Excalibur, a luchador.  No one had issues with Lawyer doing commentary in his regal attire with the crown.

That’s because Lawler was not a normal person. He was a king. Excalibur the luchador is not famous enough to need to hide his identity.

Not sure why this is even an issue since he is on camera for less than a minute for shows.

SHOW YO FACE STOP HIDING!!!

Mar 6, 2024 3:25:50 GMT Lionheart said:

That’s because Lawler was not a normal person. He was a king. 

This popped me. Straightforward. Accurate. No lies detected.

I don't think Tony brings a lot to the role, but three man commentary booths rarely work. Just look at the WWE's recent attempts and how often they'd shaft people like Byron Saxton, David Otunga, Renee Young etc. The only time it really worked was when WCW would bring in Mike Tenay to give the background on the international wrestlers.

I think Tony works better as the lead play by play. His work on Collision is better than Dynamite and he's an improvement over Kevin Kelly if only because he's familiar with the product and is aware of how Tony Khan wants certain things presented.

AEW is not a commentary friendly show. They push the most absurd gimmicks, feature a bunch of one-off indie/international talent and the tone of the show is all over the place. You can understand why somebody like JR would bury certain things because it became too ridiculous. It's why they've ultimately gone with Taz as Excalibur's partner because they used to call Dark like it was MXC. You could get prime JR, prime Gordon Solie, prime Lance Russell anyone and they wouldn't be able to cover the show seriously.

Watching the last Dynamite caused an epiphany about how I feel about wrestling. What I'm about to say has already been said in this thread, probably quite recently, but I'm going to say it anyway.

AEW oversaturates its wrestlers. Will Ospreay has had precisely two matches in AEW and I'm already done. The debut was a balls-to-the-wall affair, on a big event, against a very talented opponent. No problem with that. Debut a new wrestler by showcasing what he's best at. Great match. Three nights later, Ospreay faces Kyle Fletcher who, let's face it, is not as important as Takeshita. Somehow it was even more balls-to-the-wall than the Takeshita match. Tired of Ospreay.

I never felt that way about Will Ospreay in NJPW. Why? NJPW has a deep roster and they don't oversaturate their wrestlers. One big event will feature Naito and LIJ in prominent matches while Ospreay and The United Empire sit back in tag matches. The next big event, Ospreay will be in the main event while LIJ have a 10-minute multi-tag undercard match. Even the intense tournaments like the G1, while they are fatiguing, they don't exhaust me on any specific wrestler.

Getting back to AEW, I realise this is nowhere near the first time I've felt this way. I loved Moxley when he first came in, but when he won the world title and started having 20 minute matches on every Dynamite, I quickly got sick of him, and that feeling never truly left. Same with Orange Cassidy. For a period of time I was even fed up of Brian Danielson - fortunately not anymore.

That's why MJF worked so well. He was always a special attraction. Even when he was World Champion and appearing on every show, he didn't wrestle all that much compared to most other talent. Didn't get bored of the guy, at least not between the ropes.

It makes me wonder: do I prefer Will Ospreay booking, he debuts in a series of "dream matches" with the thinnest glimmer of a story to justify their existence. Or do I prefer Jay White booking, a once big star largely existing in goofy comedy segments with a goofy group of court jesters? Neither is great. But I am at least excited to see Jay White wrestle Darby Allin. If you told me Ospreay was wrestling Darby Allin on the next Dynamite, I'd give it a miss.

I do feel optimistic about the way Okada has been debuted, let's see where they take it.

It's ok, in 6 months times, he'll be missing in action and TK will have forgotten he even signed him.

Eric Bischoff said Kingston looks like he just left Jiffy lube 😂😂😂😂like him or not that was slick funny, he likes him but he says Aew wrestlers need to up their game on ring gear which is a fact. Not knocking the company but the presentation is a big part of business.

Says one of the people behind Shockmaster, the 3 Faces of Fear and Dungeon of Doom.

Mar 15, 2024 17:34:57 GMT spladle125 said:

Eric Bischoff said Kingston looks like he just left Jiffy lube 😂😂😂😂like him or not that was slick funny, he likes him but he says Aew wrestlers need to up their game on ring gear which is a fact. Not knocking the company but the presentation is a big part of business.

Isn’t that Kingston’s entire gimmick? To be an “average Joe relatable guy” that looks like he just left a Jiffy Lube? Isn’t that why people like him? He’s from THE STREETS. He’s ONE OF THEM.

All I know is he’s mediocre in the ring and nothing he wears will change that. Good match with Danielson at Revolution though.

Mar 15, 2024 20:12:20 GMT Lionheart said:

Mar 15, 2024 17:34:57 GMT spladle125 said:

Eric Bischoff said Kingston looks like he just left Jiffy lube 😂😂😂😂like him or not that was slick funny, he likes him but he says Aew wrestlers need to up their game on ring gear which is a fact. Not knocking the company but the presentation is a big part of business.

Isn’t that Kingston’s entire gimmick? To be an “average Joe relatable guy” that looks like he just left a Jiffy Lube? Isn’t that why people like him? He’s from THE STREETS. He’s ONE OF THEM.

All I know is he’s mediocre in the ring and nothing he wears will change that. Good match with Danielson at Revolution though.

Guess he gives some of the little people hope. He is not larger than life by any means. Who could take the man seriously.

Make sure you get your Final Boss shirt.

www.shopaew.com/roster/samoajoe/samoa-joe-the-final-boss.html

They're clearly setting up a Final Boss Triple Threat at Mania.

The Rock vs Samoa Joe vs Kazuchika Okada.