People will bring up Race, Gordy, and Regal as counterpoint. Thing is, Gordy at 15 was bigger than most of AEW's talent is now. Race never didn't look old. Regal was in carnivals, not mudshows.

Also, let's not bring up Riho's age when she started. Or Saraya's, and think about the folks she fell in with.

Interesting given the new sites all saying WWE and more importantly HHH was interested in him.

Never saw it myself given he’s on the shorter side but him and FTR re signing are good keeps for AEW.

AEW already has like 200 people they don't use, but yay, lets resign Brian Cage who at one point they paid for like 20 months without using him on TV. Now that he is locked up for another extended period, well Tiny can put him back in the drawer for another 2 years once he gets bored with him again.

Good signing though, now they can rebook him throwing Darby around again in 2026, long term storytelling!

Brian Cage is a shorter guy, artificially inflated, close to 40 spot monkey they’ve already cut before. The rumors WWE wanted him probably came from him or his wife.

Some of these guys are more valuable as Trojan horses for you. Especially since you know Melissa Santos gets on social media and complains about the company when he isn’t used. So either that happens or the company uses him and you get crappy television. Win-win.

I don't think Regal is averse to people training to wrestle early like he did, but one thing he's been consistent about is you should work in some different places before signing with WWE. His own son trained in NJPW first and then worked a bunch in England before moving to WWE, at least he had some exposure elsewhere.

Think the example I remember from a way back was DH Smith, Smith asked Regal for advice right after he got in and Regal told him he should quit and go see the world first.

Dunno to what extent that applies to AEW when even people like Starkz and Wayne have wrestled all over the place before signing, and AEW will probably allow them to keep taking bookings elsewhere.

Some of Regal's comments on this were pre-NXT as well, but at least the indy/well-traveled folks they bring in to NXT and eventually let go have experience to lean back on to get bookings. Not exactly an extensive nor great track record for the total "trueborns" of NXT where they were completely built within that system. Parker Bordreaux might be the worst wrestler I've ever seen and I don't know if a trip to any country will help him.

There are plenty of wrestlers who started young and didn’t turn out to be car wrecks. Regal and McIntyre have both had their rough patches, but overcame them. But I think it’s just objectively creepy for grown-ass adults to engage children in that manner. I find it weird when adults give children drugs too. Let them take responsibility for ruining their lives when they are adults themselves.

But yes, having an actual background in wrestling where you have been places and worked for a number of different places is useful. WWE could benefit by letting their talent do more of it. There’s an actual chance that Tony Khan will let these people do that under him. But the future isn’t too bright for anyone in AEW, so who cares?

As/If wrestling continues to be a bit more mainstream and less carny I dont see an issue with it. Sports and entertainment always work with younger people who are working towards the top of there proffessions. Unfortunately it attracts creeps and weirdos because of that but thats true of anywhere young people gather.

Throw it onto the spotlight, protect the young but I dont have an issue with people training young for what they want to do.

Why is Jericho talking about how Jay White is a 6'4" guy?? How liquored up does one man have to get to think Jay White is 6 feet 4 inches tall??? :rofl:

Lol wtf?

:rofl:

He must be busting chops. Since when do chicks dig the NZ accent?

So Punk wants to come back to AEW it seems. Cant say I'm super psyched for it but whatever. Elite vs. Him and FTR would be a watch but if Omega and the Bucks arent into it I dont particularly blame them.

Punks kinda the one who needs someone to work with him for relevance atm.

Love him or hate him, Punk leaving damaged the popularity and perception of the show. He’s easily their biggest star. This is TK’s mess for not controlling the situation and getting on top of The Elite (and likely Jericho).

It’s important to keep in mind none of these dirt sheets talk to Punk. This is more than likely from the Elite/Jericho camp. The closest thing we’ve got to confirmation is Dax saying Punk wants to return to wrestling. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s still Punk holding out on them and looking for a buyout.

25k have apparently lined up for the presale. I don’t know how impressive that number is/isn’t. It sounds like a lot, but when you consider that 59k were queued up for Clash at the Castle and there ended up being 64k tickets sold, it may not be the hottest start for a UK show.

Is there a history of AEW doing much higher attendance than their advance leads you to believe?

SRS claiming that plans have been set in motion for a Punk return.

Love that this is seemingly such an agonizing, fraught process that we're just going to continually get updates on as it incrementally gets closer to happening rather than it be a big surprise, holy shit type of moment it otherwise would've been.

Punk sucks, gets injured constantly, gets along with nobody but other crybabies, and is an old, beat up, no credibility having malcontent.

Tony Khan is an idiot playing with his daddy's money, so he probably doesn't care if any of the wrestlers get along with each other, just as long as they get along with/pretend to be his friend. Also based on what Saraya said, they also have to "FEDBAD TONYGOOD" to stroke his fragile ego.

Now there's a post i can get behind

The Elite and Chris Jericho are also massive crybabies who got jealous when it was exposed what can be achieved in terms of metrics when Punk came in. TK wanted this chaos, he got it.

It was very telling when Saraya put the “fedbad” line on Tony.

The twenty updates that really update nothing are getting old I agree. Neither the Elite or Punk are cared about outside the IWC and I could see the whole thing being a limp noodle if it happens because people are over hearing about it.

I loved the way FTR worked the IWC leading into the title win but by the time the match was announced I was more relived I could stop hearing about it than being super pumped. All these guys telling there own stories might be a bit too into themselves as artists and storytellers I think.Thats the creative addition AEW needs is someone telling these guys when the angle has gone on long enough. I include Jericho, Punk and the Bucks in that. Not sure about Kenny... some of his shits been so fire and well timed.

TK tweeted that he read the sheets and has an update to the update in that there is no update but he'll keep you updated through future HUGE ANNOUNCEMENTS ON DYNAMITE.

The fact that I didn't disbelieve this and went looking to see what the tweet said speaks volumes

Did FTR really work people, or did they just make up their minds recently?

They worked one person for sure, Tiny Khan. Just by teasing they weren't happy and would leave, FTR got a monster 4 year contract and the tag titles. Similar to Brian Cage, the idea of losing a friend is too much despair for Tiny to handle, and he gets his dad to write a new check. It is a Hell of a negotiation chip to play for the best deal possible.

AEW has been shit save for MJF since All Out for whatever reasons. Bring Punk back. It can only help.

Oh come on now! It’s really obvious what happened here. TK, being the super great guy he is, jumped on the grenade to take some heat of Saraya’s terrible, terrible return promo. Best. Boss. Ever.

The rumor is that Warner want AEW to facilitate a roster split when Collision starts, as they want Dynamite and Collision to each have a unique identity. As opposed to Rampage which feels exactly the same as Dynamite but far less important. Unknown if it would be a full blown roster split with everyone, or just a soft split for the bigger names the shows would be marketed around.

The talk of this comes right along with the reports yesterday about tentative Punk plans. Presumably, they'd use the split as a way to keep people with issues apart from each other.

Feels like it would inevitably become a mess if/when one show is viewed as more important than the other. No different than how in the mid-2000s they'd do the WWE Draft and keep their talent in the dark, and it was obvious people got pissed off when they were drafted to SmackDown because it felt like they'd been demoted on live TV.

Roster split is genius!!! Maybe then they could introduce more titles!!!

A true alternative to WWE.

IF they can coax CM Punk back, the obvious thing to do is run him against MJF in Wembley Stadium. It’s their biggest match, their best story, their best media publicity, etc. The idea that people give a flying fuck about the backstage drama is way overblown.

* MJF vs. CM Punk
* Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay
* Adam Page & The Young Bucks vs. Death Triangle

That’s way more on-point than wasting Punk in a program against The Elite, where the heat would be in Punk telling the truth and burying the company.

In fairness, if Warner are actually telling AEW they want a split there's not a whole lot the company can do about it. At least all of AEW's programming would still be under the Warner umbrella vs. WWE having to placate both FOX and NBC in case either of them get pissed off about someone being exclusive to a show.

But it just feels like an inevitable clusterfuck. A Saturday evening show is not gonna put up good numbers no matter who is on it, nevermind a 2-hour Saturday show. People who are "exclusive" to that show are gonna get miffed.

With The Elite in the process of working out contracts (Bucks contracts expire in January, Kenny's sometime in November-December depending on how long AEW extended it)...imagine if they left because AEW put them on the Collision "brand"/B show.

Would be a hilarious way for The Elite to leave All Elite Wrestling.

They could have gotten their ducks in a row so the overlords didn’t feel the need to intervene.

I can see the Wembley Stadium show being a disaster as to how it impacts talents’ egos. The number of folks that will need to be left off, thrown into meaningless matches and the jealousy that goes towards the talent who aren’t is going to be a clusterfuck.

AEW’s talent management is horrendous. And their booking sucks. So coupling the two together is leading to a lot of these nightmares.

They'd work the B show anywhere they didn't have a front office title, tbh. And yes, I mean Kenny too

If they do this other show they need to scrap rampage and elevation. Also hope the Saturday show is ROH and they aren't trying to operate a 3 way soft brand split.

If the Saturday show does turn out to be ROH you could probably keep Rampage.

Splitting the roster because so many people cant get along shows what a GREAT leader Shad's doofus son really is!

Tiny gave 39 year old Brian Cage, who he went 2 years without booking on TV, a 5 year guaranteed contract, with an option for a 6th year lol