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Counter arguments: Two of the biggest stars in AEW are Swerve and Toni Storm, who were hired directly from WWE runs. Somehow Billy Fucking Gunn has been one of the most over dudes in the entirety of AEW's run. Claudio had a longer run in WWE than Moxley and no one calls him thinks of him as an old WWE guy. It's funny tribalism. If you can remember them or saw them on the indies, they're not ex WWE guys. If you like them, they're not an old WWE guy. AEW's usage of former WWE talent is not like WCW in 1994/1995 filling the cards up with Hogan's buddies from 1988. That said I really wish Jericho would have gone away 20 fucking years ago.

Oh I thought she already was some kind of semi signed to AEW. She rules. Full time is a great shot in the arm.

There is no "to be fair" with Kamala's gimmick. One of the single most insane gimmicks in US wrestling history. The only pass for WWE is that it wasn't them that came up with it.

Oh wow the suplex onto the nail board was some C level late 90s Japan deathmatch shit

I really thought they'd go with Cena's turn being on some "Cody wouldn't do what's best for business, and I give my life to this business" deal, but instead it's him crashing out for 20 minutes on the fans having been mean to him for his whole career :dead Fair enough heel justification, really. Then made more and more clear as Cody comes out and they give him the hero treatment as Cena stands there seething. Last couple of years really shows they should have been doing international TV a long ass time ago.

No he's not

I'd rather Yuta get taken off TV. More than anyone in AEW, he's the one that I just can not figure out why he has gotten so much TV time for 5 years. The most non descript dude they have. Literally nothing sets him apart. I have to assume he's a nice guy that people really like being around backstage or something.

I guess I did. Those movies are blurred together in my brain.

Oh the storymode goes some places every bit as silly as the magical powers if you make the right choice and the wilder and goofier it gets is much better than the straight line story. On the topic of JR, all those years of JR saying "it ain't ballet, folks" as an insult to ballet when actually, wrestling IS ballet, down to the same existence of you can show people who think both or either are fucking dumb some high level ballet or pro wrestling and they get it with no knowledge of the history of either art.

Petition to rename the Muta Scale to the Toni Scale. Also lmao this storyline with all the references to 30s 40s classics including Ben Mankiewicz doing multiple appearances during it ending up in a Bloodsport reference.

Lol that 2K25's story mode frequently makes references to AEW. Examples: If you chose to be from a "rival company", they'll show you in the 2Kverse NJPW, but the first wrestler you meet is catching up with Jade from where you worked together, the next wrestler you meet is Punk saying similar things about having worked together before you got to WWE, and a whole lot of the story is talking about Punk as brittle and locker room cancer everywhere he goes.

I think it's going to be hard for crowds to turn on Cody with all these kind of videos they put out even if it is mostly or only online where he connects to all the 70s/80s/90s guys everyone his age and younger grew up with but has that direct connection with Dusty and it feels authentic even if shmaltzy.

It wasn't fresh. Only in the context of pro wrestling. In all other forms of entertainment, it was not even B movie (which many of my favorite movies are B movies), but like Neil Breen tier movies. But combined it's the worst of pro wrestling corn and bad C movies into one very bad package.

With distance from the pandemic and original Hardys stuff, surely we can all agree that the cinematic matches are the worst versions of entertainment from both pro wrestling and b movie shit

It's probably not that deep, just the same idea as westerns and super hero movies being the top genre for decades at a time. Easy and familiar and most mass appeal.

It's hilarious that these exact arguments have been made in fan mags and Usenet for 60 years.

Imagine watching that segment and thinking it means nothing. What world are you guys in?

Yeah men's match sucked, non stop worst punches you've ever seen from 6 men who are supposed to be professionals at making stuff not look super phony.

That was certainly an unexpected twist. I wish there was a way to get Austin involved and some kind of Cena/Rock vs Cody/Austin segment.

Women's chamber ruled. Not sure what the discussion was before hand that all agreed to just beat the shit out of each other. I don't think I've ever seen a womens match that stiff in WWE before.

They've done multiple shows there for the past couple of years and all were insane crowds, I'm sure it won't be much of an issue, especially when they get the Sami/KO match that will almost assuredly be the closest version to 2010 Generico/Steen match they can get at 40.

Surely Ricky Starks debuting in NXT to feud with another former AEW guy where they can frequently allude to AEW but not actually mention AEW, and then his actual debut being a tag match with two low card guys is not what he was expecting getting out of his AEW contract. Just debuting someone like that on NXT now already feels like the ceiling is visible. Compare to MCMG or Penta, although even for them, Penta is already doing Main Event and feuding with not even IC/US title guys so who knows. Grass is greener and all that. I'm sure he's going to get more money at least but who knows how long he'll be happy with his position and how that will go for his career. Just looking at how NXT treats things, it might be a bigger deal if he went to TNA and then was part of the TNA/NXT crossover than just popping into NXT.

Fascinating that both Steen and Generico have had a 10+ year WWE run and both are some how able to capture the absolute best of Mick Foley promo/character/bumps but also still do the 10s/20s indie style. Bunch of the early ROH guys got big pushes over the years, but those two specifically have such a direct analog despite being very different not only from Foley but also each other. These two are going to be much more beloved over the years than Seth Rollins for sure.

Not interested in WWE TV or even PPVs mostly, but the decades of context between actual corporate Rock trying to get Cody Rhodes to be the Corporate Champ is a very intriguing situation. Even before this segment, my thought since the Rumble was they have to have Cena beat Cody at WM and set off a just as big heel run for him, and after this, if they don't do something like that water we dune here.

Most of that is correct. Tonga Kid is also known as Tama of the Islanders, also known as the Samoan Savage in WCW with the Samoan Swat Team of Samu and Fatu, who would go on WWE as the Headshrinkers. Tama is also Fatu's twin. Fatu ends up as Rikishi and in the HOF and father of the Usos. Tama is the father of Jacob Fatu. Only Rikishi is in the HOF I'm pretty sure. Samu had some low card solo runs under a couple of names in just about everywhere in the territory era in the early to mid 80s before RIkishi Fatu joined him as next gen Wild Samoans. Cagematch says actually the first run of Samu/Fatu was in 1986 NJ where both were under legacy names (Tonga Kid and Wild Samoan).