Paid Members BomberPat Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 No way the signing is Shaq. AEW have been pretty good at managing expectations with this sort of thing, rather than doing a TNA "did we say former World Champion? We meant World Tag Team Champion" hype jobs, and no one is going to consider Shaq a "new signing" on the same night he just worked a match. I do think we'll get Shaq vs. Show at some point in the future, though. My first thoughts were Mick Foley - because he's been putting over AEW a lot on Facebook lately, and I could see him being brought in to referee the barbed wire match - and Mark Henry, just because he recently said that he would be looking to wrestle again within the next six months, though I wouldn't be remotely confident in that guess. I can't think of many current free agents that would be considered "Hall of Fame worthy", just because of how many people are already signed to one place or another, and I'm assuming that it won't be someone from overseas unless they're physically relocating, just because of the hassle of different border restrictions at the moment. I don't think it will be CM Punk. They'd be mad to not announce him ahead of time - he's pretty much the only unsigned wrestler that (you'd have thought) would guarantee an increase in pay-per-view buys, so they would have announced that it's him. Because if they didn't, and he comes in as surprise, that sets the bar extremely high for the next time they try this. I just don't see it happening. I'm pretty sure Christian is under contract with WWE, even if he hasn't shown up since the Rumble. I get the feeling that they want to get Edge's singles run out of the way for Wrestlemania first, then they could maybe do something with him and Christian, they just don't have anything for him in the interim. Both Edge and Christian have talked up how much they want to do a tag match again, and WWE are the only company currently in a position to offer them that - I think that will mean more to Christian than being able to jump ship to AEW. While I have no idea who it could be, I'm not expecting to be disappointed - AEW tend to know their audience well enough to deliver on this sort of thing - and I wonder if it's another Big Show situation where someone's contract has quietly expired without us knowing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members seph Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 2 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said: I mean, I think you might be. You've inferred yourself that Shaq was still unconscious when he went in the ambulance, that wasn't said explicitly. Appreciated. The door goof took away from Tony's "He's GONE!" reveal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum1993 Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 I can see it being Kurt Angle. Don’t think he’s employed by WWE now he’s a Hall of Famer and he’s just started the podcast with Conrad Thompson(Who also seems to have big links with AEW with him being on the show last night and already doing podcasts with JR, Tony, Arn and Bischoff). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members seph Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 (edited) (repeat - posting didn't refresh the feed) Edited March 4, 2021 by seph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsurutagun Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 38 minutes ago, RedRooster said: I wonder if they'll live to regret (presumably) allowing Max Caster's Lady Gaga line. In a country plagued by gun violence, threatening to "light you up like Lady Gaga's dog walker" doesn't sit particularly comfortably anyway, but the potential of that to go viral for all the wrong reasons is definitely there. This is one of my major dislikes of modern wrestling. Apparently we not allowed to get heat anymore 😞 Also the "Hall of fame" signing is Kurt Angle. It has to be. He just became a member of the Conrad Universe and Conrad and AEW are obviously friendly. It makes sense Talking of Conrad. The "Turkey Tits" line made my laugh, I don't know why but it did Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 1 minute ago, BomberPat said: My first thoughts were Mick Foley - because he's been putting over AEW a lot on Facebook lately, and I could see him being brought in to referee the barbed wire match - and Mark Henry, just because he recently said that he would be looking to wrestle again within the next six months, though I wouldn't be remotely confident in that guess. I can't think of many current free agents that would be considered "Hall of Fame worthy", just because of how many people are already signed to one place or another, and I'm assuming that it won't be someone from overseas unless they're physically relocating, just because of the hassle of different border restrictions at the moment. Definitely good shouts, but it's the wording that I find interesting - "Hall of Fame worthy", rather than "a hall-of-famer". He (often deservedly) gets a lot of shit on here, but Foley could be a decent addition to the announce desk for Elevation or the new TNT show. I'm not sure how Mark Henry would be received, particularly on the back of the Wight signing, but he could be a really solid addition to the AEW roster. While people do praise his promo work, I still think his mic skills are underrated. I honestly think he's one of the best talkers WWE has had over the past 15 years. He's really fucking good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 Before they announced Big Show I always kind of hoped they'd bring Foley in as a commentator. Always liked his work and he'd be perfect for the new TNT show. I love Excalibur and Tony Schiavone but feel like they need some fresh announcers on the different shows just so they feel different. Speaking of announcers, JR might be pretty naff these days but his clear genuine love and enjoyment of John Silver is pretty heartwarming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Tsurutagun said: This is one of my major dislikes of modern wrestling. Apparently we not allowed to get heat anymore 😞 There’s a difference between “getting heat” and using someone who isn’t connected to wrestling and their “real world and very real & traumatic held at gunpoint incident” though isn’t there. It’s not exploiting the Gulf War levels of crass but the logics the same Edited March 4, 2021 by WyattSheepMask Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 I don’t think it’ll be Angle, on his podcasts he can barely get through a sentence without getting lost in thought. He was also pretty honest on how fucked his body is. hall of fame worthy leads me two ways. If he just brings in another old talent, then it goes very TNA. Something aew have been god at so far is pairing old with young. My second line of thought is that it’s someone outside wrestling. But I don’t know American sports well enough to know who that might be, maybe even someone in music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members FLips Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 Stayed up to watch this and yet again AEW knocked it out of the park. What a fantastic go-home show for a stacked PPV. Shaq/Cargill vs Velvet/Cody massively exceeded expectations considering how unbalanced the teams were in terms of experience. Usually it's worker/celeb vs worker/celeb so to see Shaq and Cargill be a little green but absolutely give 100% was really good. Despite their posturing, Cody still came across as the biggest heel in the match until that brilliant table spot. Jade Cargill might be green but she has one of the most unique and impressive looks since the likes of Chyna and if she gets better in the ring, I can see a very bright future for her. Not sure why or how Shaq vanished from the ambulance and never appeared on the show again. I expected him to come back and do something but he never did. Really bizarre. Following up the celeb opening with two of your most impressive workers doing a quick flying squash match was a great move too. Anyone that stuck around and saw Fenix and Pac doing their shit would have been gobsmacked. The Jericho/MJF conference was a waste of time until The Bucks came out, but I did laugh at Conrad getting verbally smacked down. Bischoff looks knackered these days. Nick Jackson's hairline is running out of time. JJ Dillon coming out with Tully and FTR was a really cool touch, and the match was lots of fun. Tully got blown up getting into the ring, but what do you expect from a 67 year old man who hasn't wrestled in 20-odd years. Shawn Spears stood out like a sore thumb in that group though, and his gimmick being a crybaby jobber who leaves then comes back with dyed hair or contact lenses every few months is a real drag. For someone hyping up they're going to be a commentator, Paul Wight was a disaster. Stumbling all over, got the name of the PPV wrong and seemed to throw Tony off a little bit too. His "No More BS" is shite and I'm not a fan of him debuting to announce another debut. Just have him chokeslam Marko Stunt FFS. Nyla vs Ryo was ace. Nyla has really impressed me the last few matches of this tournament and it's genuinely exciting to see a woman her size actually be athletic and fully lean into power moves. When you compare Nyla doing a top rope knee drop and powerbombs to Nia Jax doing leg drops where she can't even move upwards, it's night and day. Ryo was fantastic too and I'm sure her vs Shida will be brilliant. The Sting bit was what it was but felt like this segment should have been swapped with last week's. A little underwhelming and while I'm excited for the PPV match, they've been dragging this out way too long. Max Caster vs 10 was fine. I did a laugh at the Lady Gaga's Dog Walker line because it was completely unexpected. On the whole I'm not a fan of hand picking people from tags to qualify for singles ladder matches. Ending made sense and for such a short build they've got me interested in Page vs Hardy. Miro is shite. He's feuding with Chuck Taylor and still comes off crap. Big mistake signing him. Hopefully once this fued is done he moves on from all this Twitch Gamer shite. Main event was OK. I certainly wouldn't have ended the show with it but I suppose they needed to for the big tag rumble at the end. Everyone on commentary mistaking Marc Quen for Isaah Cassidy wasn't great. And again, I've no interest in seeing halves of tag teams in other matches. Just use tag teams as tag teams. A few misses but mostly huge hits have me pumped for Sunday's PPV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 Kurt Angle or CM Punk were my first thoughts. I’d laugh if it was Christian. That’d be the biggest example yet that they book for the Twitter hardcore. I’ve never considered Christian to have had a Hall of Fame career but every year people go nuts on Twitter when he’s not announced an inductee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 13 minutes ago, Tsurutagun said: This is one of my major dislikes of modern wrestling. Apparently we not allowed to get heat anymore 😞 What's the point of getting heat on that character? He's genuinely appalling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members FLips Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 (edited) 7 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said: There’s a difference between “getting heat” and using someone who isn’t connected to wrestling and their “real world and very real & traumatic held at gunpoint incident” though isn’t there. It’s not exploiting the Gulf War levels of crass but the logics the same With all due respect I think you're grossly overestimating how much people care about Lady Gaga's Dog Walker. It was a funny jab and (for a change in wrestling) actually current reference. The guy's a heel, it's not like Hangman Page asked John Silver if he heard the news and did finger guns. Edited March 4, 2021 by FelatioLips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 1 minute ago, FelatioLips said: With all due respect I think you're grossly overestimating how much people care about Lady Gaga's Dog Walker. It was a funny jab and (for a change in wrestling) actually current reference. The guy's a heel, it's not like Hangman Page did asked John Silver if he heard the news and did finger guns. That's not so much the point though, it's the potential for it to blow up on social media. A comparable example is Taylor Swift criticising a Netflix show which included the line "you go through men faster than Taylor Swift". This went viral, and the show pulled a lot of criticism. It's not beyond the realms of possibility at all that Lady Gaga might pick up on the line, and say something critical - forcing AEW to apologise. It's not about whether or not it has an impact on fan perception (though I'd argue that a media-storm isn't exactly going to attract new fans, and may put some parents off letting their kids watch AEW), it's about the impact it has with advertisers. Lady Gaga criticism and/or a Twitter storm about a crass line like that could be extremely damaging in that respect. Why risk it, is my point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members TheBurningRed Posted March 4, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 4, 2021 24 minutes ago, RedRooster said: I'm not sure how Mark Henry would be received, particularly on the back of the Wight signing, but he could be a really solid addition to the AEW roster. Don’t see him leaving his producer role in WWE for anything in AEW tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts