*Official* Pro-Wrestling Thread II

[Athlai]

Yeah, I don't have a bad word to say about it really tbh.

Pretty good card on the whole actually. They really need to get the belt on Swerve soon though (great as Joe is/has been). Bloke is so ready for it.

Make babyface Swerve win at All In/Out whatever it's called this year

 

[sledger]

Make babyface Swerve win at All In/Out whatever it's called this year

Yeah defo. Would be foolish not to given how hot he is atm. Just hope they don't Wardlow him once he's got the bloody thing.

 

[Athlai]

Might even be a time to get the belt to Hangman on a Dynamite as full blown crazy heel and there's your main event.

No slight to Joe at all but Swerve's star is so ascendant he just needs to be the guy, and Hangman is the right foil for that.

 

[sledger]

Might even be a time to get the belt to Hangman on a Dynamite as full blown crazy heel and there's your main event.

No slight to Joe at all but Swerve's star is so ascendant he just needs to be the guy, and Hangman is the right foil for that.

Yeah agree. Joe is gun and has done a great job following MJF getting wrecked, but he's not the Joe of old (though the fact he's only 44 still is kind of wild to me) and clearly isn't a long term "face of the company" (to use that hateful term). And yeah, heel Hangman is defo the way to go. He's not good as a face at all imo (not as a singles guy anyway, maybe as part of a team/group).

 

[Athlai]

Yeah defo. Would be foolish not to given how hot he is atm. Just hope they don't Wardlow him once he's got the bloody thing.

Wardlow is dull imo. Cool look, cool moveset, had a cool story one time and MJFs charisma made everyone think Wardlow was a bigger deal than he was.

Don't think hes much more than a maybe slightly better version of Brian Cage / Ryback.

Swerve oozes charisma though. I reckon half the roster would have a great feud with him

 

[sledger]

Wardlow is dull imo. Cool look, cool moveset, had a cool story one time and MJFs charisma made everyone think Wardlow was a bigger deal than he was.

Don't think hes much more than a maybe slightly better version of Brian Cage / Ryback.

Swerve oozes charisma though. I reckon half the roster would have a great feud with him

The truth is somewhere in the middle imo. He's not as great as a lot of the hype would lead you to believe, and I have never been that convinced by him personally either. But there was a period where he was undeniably hot af, and TK completely **** the bed with the booking, leading to a rapid and drastic cool off. As I say, not my cup of tea personally, but they could have done far better with him than they have.

AEW's booking of big guys on the whole has always been pretty questionable tbh. Cage, Hobbs, and Archer are all guys who they've had to try and rehab several times now due to repeated failed attempts to get them over.

 

[Athlai]

Yeah agree. Joe is gun and has done a great job following MJF getting wrecked, but he's not the Joe of old (though the fact he's only 44 still is kind of wild to me) and clearly isn't a long term "face of the company" (to use that hateful term). And yeah, heel Hangman is defo the way to go. He's not good as a face at all imo (not as a singles guy anyway, maybe as part of a team/group).

I think Hangman is a great storyteller and actor and there is a surprising amount of nuance to his character, but without an actual arc he treads water.

His feud with Kenny and when he won the title and then his first couple feuds after were great, but otherwise his last few years have been nothing really. Then Swerve comes along and it's just stellar stuff from the two.

This heel Hangman that they seem to be moving towards is a great next step for the character. Will be interesting to see him feud with people not named Swerve too

 

[Spikey]

FMD the Hangman Swerve feud is an all timer

there was a scary moment when hangman started talking/yelling at swerve during his match. keep that roman reigns/HHH nxt **** away from us innocents.

 

[Athlai]

The truth is somewhere in the middle imo. He's not as great as a lot of the hype would lead you to believe, and I have never been that convinced by him personally either. But there was a period where he was undeniably hot af, and TK completely **** the bed with the booking, leading to a rapid and drastic cool off. As I say, not my cup of tea personally, but they could have done far better with him than they have.

AEW's booking of big guys on the whole has always been pretty questionable tbh. Cage, Hobbs, and Archer are all guys who they've had to try and rehab several times now due to repeated failed attempts to get them over.

Yeah I definitely think Wardlow and the other AEW hosses haven't been booked around the secondary title pictures.

Seems a bit of a waste that Mox ended the OC long title reign when he could've done anything and it'd still likely been great. They could've used it

 

[sledger]

I think Hangman is a great storyteller and actor and there is a surprising amount of nuance to his character, but without an actual arc he treads water.

His feud with Kenny and when he won the title and then his first couple feuds after were great, but otherwise his last few years have been nothing really. Then Swerve comes along and it's just stellar stuff from the two.

This heel Hangman that they seem to be moving towards is a great next step for the character. Will be interesting to see him feud with people not named Swerve too

He just lacks a little charisma to carry off a full-blown main event babyface character for me. Like, thinking back to the (now infamous) feud with CM Punk (because tbf to him I have not really followed regularly since) if someone challenged me to say anything about his character without referring to his moves/ring work and/or "Cowboy ****" I think I would really have struggled to come up with anything.

 

[Spikey]

reality is, samoa joe keeps on eating the other two alive during segments. it's like the clips I see of Rock making Roman look small except AEW at least hasn't spent 1000 days on making swerve the main guy. joe's just the man.

after the horrible MJF ****, joe needs to hold onto the belt until his tv show commitments start again so that he can contiune to bring some legitimacy back to the belt and the main event spot, which he's done a steller job so far. with AEW's greatly expanded PPV calander, and joe likely having to start filming sometime soon, I'm not too worried about a classic ROH missing-the-moment time. swerve beats hangman in a number one contenders match, probably with a stip so that it's not a draw, and then beats joe. easy peasy. double or nothing in May is probably the time. Wembley in August could be pushing it. let's keep in mind Swerve is now having to wrestle as a face and who knows how that will go.

wardlow getting a title shot is a unfortunate reminder of the mjf **** though and isn't good for anyone.

 

[Jarquis]

Lol, as if Ospreay isnt winning at Wembley. Needed to pull the trigger on Swerve now as every week they hold off is one less he holds it for before then.

also, where the **** are Miro and Keith Lee?

 

[Spikey]

the beauty about Ospreay is, like the Young Bucks, he has absolutely no problem losing. the ****er is the most selfless amazing wrestler out there. This isn't like a Punk thing where, no matter what got leaked out, he clearly wanted the title. They can take their sweet sweet time with Ospreay and they really should take advantage of it. They can rush it and have him win at Wembley...but they could just have him win at Wembley in 2025 after suffering a little bit instead. Ospreay has plenty of matches he can do at Wembley this year. He's gotta wrestle Bryan at some point. He's had one singles match against PAC which had to have a protected finish coz PAC had the big Dragon Gate belt at the time. Today was only the first step in what will likely be a long feud with Takeshita and co. I reckon Ospreay will probably link up with Okada when he comes in too. There's plenty of time for Ospreay.

Yeah I definitely think Wardlow and the other AEW hosses haven't been booked around the secondary title pictures.

Seems a bit of a waste that Mox ended the OC long title reign when he could've done anything and it'd still likely been great. They could've used it

I'm pretty sure this just got caught up in the shifting winds in AEW. When OC dropped the belt to Moxley, I don't think the Continental Classic had even been formed as an idea, which very much felt like it was a reaction to the valid and growing criticism around the AEW product from AEW fans. (keep in mind that around this time, they announced Omega/MJF on incredibly short notice once they realised MJF was about to break the title record, so big things were sometimes happening very quickly). Then Mox got injured and OC had to win the title back from Felix (who also got injured at some point)

Once the C2 was formed, Moxley obviously should have been in that instead of going back to the International belt, which is why Mox lost to OC at the PPV the week after the CC was announced to put an end to that whole thing and re-establish OC as the legit champ. But that meant that yes Moxley ended up beating OC for no real reason. And then the MJF **** finally ended at the end of December, and almost straight away Roddy was positioned for OC's title, and so we had a 2 month holding pattern which did some damage to OC and was a mistake, but now that it seems linked to KOR's return and likely a match in Vancouver in May it makes sense.

the other thing is because MJF was barely ****ing doing anything except terrible comedy skits, OC and the international title ended up having outsized importance for AEW and probably influenced the decision to just keep him as the champion. Remember, OC won the title back at the Title Tuesday show against NXT, in which MJF didn't defend his title, in what must have been MJF's tribute to Hulk Hogan disappearing act during football season. In hindsight, absolutely OC never should have lost to Mox, but that April to December period is filled with many many things that in hindsight......

 

[Baldrick]

Lol, as if Ospreay isnt winning at Wembley. Needed to pull the trigger on Swerve now as every week they hold off is one less he holds it for before then.

also, where the **** are Miro and Keith Lee?

If you believe what Miro has to say he's not fit to wrestle yet...but who knows.

As for the Ospreay point, I agree, there's no need to hotshot the title to him, especially when it seems the best route at the moment is Swerve or Kingston being the next in line to hold that belt. Outside of the obvious matches we'd all love to see Oz in, I think it would be great to see him take the TNT Title off Christian then have a decent run with that title, whilst being allowed to build up others at the same time.

 

[Jarquis]

I don’t think they should get the belt on to him because of politicking or anything. I just don’t know how you watch last night and come to a decision other than him needing to be in the main event asap.

 

[Athlai]

Ospreay is probably winning next year though they may have him hold a secondary title this time round.

And I agree with Spikey - he will go Takeshita and then Okada probably.

Might be different if Omega was fit but he isnt

 

[Heboric]

Revolution was my favourite AEW ppv.
Liked all the matches except maybe the ladies title match (but that was still okay)
Granted I am not a connoisseur/ Jim Cornette of wrestling, but I also think Swerve must be made champ soon.

 

[sledger]

also, where the **** are Miro and Keith Lee?

I think Lee had several quite serious surgeries around the beginning of the year, so I guess he is probably at home for the time being. Miro just seems to be his own worst enemy if reports are to be believed though. Spends loads of time moaning about not being booked, but apparently that's because the last few times TK has come up with stuff for him to do he's turned around and said nah.

 

[Heboric]

I think Lee had several quite serious surgeries around the beginning of the year, so I guess he is probably at home for the time being. Miro just seems to be his own worst enemy if reports are to be believed though. Spends loads of time moaning about not being booked, but apparently that's because the last few times TK has come up with stuff for him to do he's turned around and said nah.

I have also heard that Miro had turned down story ideas as well in the past, a few times to boot

 

[Athlai]

Classy move from WWE to acknowledge Stings retirement match on Raw.

A bold new age