Infinity Land

I think it might be a new American Triple Crown situation until it all falls apart by defending individual championships.

With these occasional World v secondary title match ups. If someone ever wins do they also get the Unified Title?

1+2 World Singles 3+4+5 World Tags/Trios 6+7 TBS & TNT 8+9+10 International/Continental/National Still room on an AEW PPV for a few more

1) World - 2) International - 3) National Follows a basic understanding used in other sports. I'm fine with that. TNT Exists because it's a business and wanting something for big names to do that have fallen out of World Title contention but seen above the developmental track of the lower titles. Continental can just be reduced to the Owen Hart Cup belt. The tournament win is the triumph it doesn't need to be something that's defended. We've seen AEW's booking for years now that titles are a crutch. The Women's Tag Titles in the past year may not have led to a tag team boom but helped to round out the division as a whole. Most of the titles end up having some moments in any given year. The National title has done alright for Ricochet who was becoming a bit of a joke, Mark Davis and Andrade. Could have done without Jack Perry.

Talent cuts and residencies. We've seen some of the things that can happen when the booking spreadsheet gets put to the side for accounting. That's why the media deal does matter because it will be felt even if you're just watching from home.

Skydance does need to cut the debt. It does also need to feed the beast of constant new content. One of the good things is that the WWE international rights are wrapped up in the Netflix deal. Skydance might see the bargain in "here's the same money but for the global rights" (Paramount+, potentially things like the UK market moving to TNT sports or 5 channel when the ITV deal is up).

Who says anyone has to change their minds? Chances are both could have above average ratings because the passive AEW audience turn up for Blood & Guts and the passive WWE Raw/Smackdown crowd turn up for NXT.

US Elections the day before pushing NXT head-to-head with Dynamite in the Wednesday time slot. Cena and Cody turning up already confirmed for NXT appearances. Blood & Guts is a proven ratings winner at this point and being overshadowed by the WWE C show isn't going to be a good look with all the Skydance changes going on. There's already plenty of fear mongering going on.

Grew up with Next Generation. So he was my Captain. Loved everything he was in. He was amazing as the villain in Green Room. I'm not sure I can watch that anytime soon knowing Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin are no longer around.

If they bring back the Continental Cup without it being held at Wembley. They should just do a one night tournament or in one week where Dynamite/Collision are Wednesday/Thursday.

Dynasty is pretty much sold out. The first count for the o2 Dynamite is sitting at under 4,000.

The cynical take on the timing this year is that it is the US midterm elections are the day before. NXT is likely to be moved to a head-to-head with Dynamite and regardless news channels will be pulling in more people than usual talking about the results. As its two weeks before Full Gear, the matches becomes a placeholder to keep the PPV feuds ticking over.

I am surprised AEW haven't done before now. Chikara helped popularise the cibernetico format to those that follow American indie wrestling as they held an annual tournament.

In terms of departure it might spoil it as an example, Stu Grayson's return to AEW. Pops up again when they are in Canada if I remember right, gets the #AllElite graphic. Almost immediately dropped down to ROH for some shows where he turned on the Dark Order to join The Righteous. Then presumably sat out whatever was left on his contract.

Frankie "I'm not getting a haircut" Kazarian's summer of 2005 that was exclusive to Velocity.

She had been done for a while. During GLOW i believe there were some Andre the Giant Princess Bride smoke and mirrors used to work around her back issues.

Between Tough Enough, Diva Search, and the early NXT before it became developmental there's bound to be a few "I forgot all about them". One that those at the time might remember is eventual Tough Enough winner: Daniel Puder. Caught the eye in a shoot segment with Kurt Angle. Where he outperformed expectations which as a rookie in that era you're not supposed to do. Would have a PPV match against fellow contestant The Miz at Armageddon. Wins Tough Enough. Competes in the Royal Rumble. Then it's off to developmental and eventually out the door. Does some MMA fights. Has a short stint in ROH. Then works a tour with NJPW that's him basically done with wrestling.

There's a lot of wishful thinking around Rush in AEW. I thought Rush had been in a couple of C2s. Turns out it is just the one, back in 2023. It's never worked out. Both sides can be blamed for that at times. Once a real working relationship with CMLL was developed and Rush & Dralistico never turned up it felt like things would finally end. WWEAAA would love to have LFI and they would love that schedule.

Ahmed Johnson gets a mention. I try to forget his time in WCW 2000. Booker T going on to feud over a shampoo ad was actually an improvement. _______________________ Also Brian Lee's stint as the fake Undertaker. Works some TV and house shows a couple months before the SummerSlam '94 match. Then it was back to SMW.

This is a bit of a cheat. Road Warrior Animal's run in WCW 2001. Comes out of nowhere. Technically MAIN EVENTS a PPV. As he's the mystery man in a 4 Corners World Title match where he turns up towards the end of the match. Yes, WCW was trying to reheat the 96 third man mystery vibe with Animal. It wa a horrible plan at the time, made that much worse by the unfortunate circumstance of Sid snapping his leg like a twig. Animal strolls to the ring for a 3 on 1 beatdown on Sid. Sid having spent the better part of 5 minutes in the middle of the ring with his foot flopping about in agony while this angle is forced to play out. Animal's then part of the Magnificent 7 angle until the company dies. His last match for WCW: teaming with Kanyon in a loss on Thunder to...MI Smooth & The Cat?!?!

If there had to be a singles match finale for Adam Copeland, for me the two possibilities would be Omega or Okada. Those are two guys the crowd would absolutely respect and also have that experience of the pageantry required while working with physical limitations to send people home happy.

Went to see what he is upto. Found it funny that his only social media suggested is a LinkedIN profile. Then I noticed his website. https://www.grandengalengoetzman.com/ I don't think i've seen anything like it before

Had a quick look back and don't see this mentioned. Apologies if I've missed something but the thread has expanded quite quickly. News broke of Awesome Kong/Kharma signing with WWE at the end of 2010. After getting the post-WM 2011 vignette treatment to hype her debut. Eventually attacking some Divas. It would become a wrestling What If... moment as it never went beyond that as she discovered she was pregnant. There would a single in-ring appearance in the 2012 Royal Rumble. Note this is before there are two gendered versions. At this point I think only Chyna had competed in the Rumble. She was released in the summer of 2012.

Headhunters reminded me of the Head Bangers being brought back at some point. I thought it might have been during the WWECW era, but no even more recent than that. Came back in 2016 and had 3 matches over a few months. Then in terms of embarassing exits. Antonio Inoki comes out to end a match between Sylvester Terkay (brief WWE stint with Elijah Burke) and Doc Gallows. This would be Terkay's last match in the IGF having wrestled there for a few years. Gallows would have his third and final match for the company soon after to end his short stint there.

Vic Grimes as Key in 90s WWF. He was renamed but as a gimmick 'Hirohito' I think ended after one vignette. Went on to become Kenzo Suzuki. Konnan as Max Moon.