Infinity Land Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 I wonder if we'll see another 1PW, 5* Wrestling, WhatCulture Pro come along in the new year to try and plug a hole in the BritWres market with so many American talents looking for bookings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironic Indie Lad Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 The dream of all young wrestlers now is to get signed by WWE, have a long/tedious run there where they barely do anything worthwhile and then get unceremoniously fired. It's a great opportunity to change your twitter back to your indie name while a few dozen fans support you with YES KING/QUEEN!!!!!! style tweets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 18 minutes ago, Ironic Indie Lad said: The dream of all young wrestlers now is to get signed by WWE I would imagine the more time goes by, and the more WWE behave like they do, the less the future young talent will have any interest at all in going there if there are viable alternatives like AEW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted November 19, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 19, 2021 (edited) 11 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: I would imagine the more time goes by, and the more WWE behave like they do, the less the future young talent will have any interest at all in going there if there are viable alternatives like AEW. My thoughts exactly. While AEW may not be holding shows at NFL stadiums yet, the list of reasons to sign with WWE is getting smaller every year. WWE has depended on those few generations of wrestlers who grew up as rabid fans during the Golden/Attitude era and were marks for getting their Wrestlemania moments, resulting in the gratitude era. The current lot are more than likely to have started watching post-2001 when the WWE's been in a state of creative terminal decline. But now, with AEW offering comparable salaries and the ability to work big arenas every week and on a strong TV network, is the same allure there now? Even Impact and New Japan USA will offer some six figure deals for very few dates and the ability to top up their income on the indies, there are options out there now. Edited November 19, 2021 by garynysmon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briefcase Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 (edited) I like Drake as much as the next person on here and I wish him well and he clearly has talent. But outside of the UK scene is he someone the fans will miss or even notice? In WWE's eyes in terms of value I don't see what he brings to the party, isn't going to move ratings, I doubt he will sell merchandise or certainly anymore than he has done already. I guess he has a short shelf life and I don't see there is an upside to him so I understand from a value point of view why they would move him on. But as already mentioned they probably measure these things by merchandise sales, google searches, YouTube hits and whatever else they have data on. Edit - Forgot to mention that as a casual fan these days who dips in and out of the product, apart from Drake and Johnny I don't really know who the others are so can't imagine the majority of the fans would miss them either. Edited November 19, 2021 by Briefcase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 7 minutes ago, Briefcase said: Forgot to mention that as a casual fan these days who dips in and out of the product, apart from Drake and Johnny I don't really know who the others are so can't imagine the majority of the fans would miss them either. Take a case like Hit Row though - shouldn't they be given an opportunity to make the fans miss them? They were called up recently to the main roster, so surely the idea is to get behind a group like that and make them into talent the fans care about? That kind of association and merchandise shifting etc comes with time and so many just aren't even getting that opportunity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted November 19, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 19, 2021 AJ Francis/Top Dolla, has worked the indy circuit, been recruited and trained by WWE, had an NXT run, been called up to the main roster, and finally released. AJ Francis/Top Dolla has had nine professional matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted November 19, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 19, 2021 Pretty solid wrestling career speed run. Shame he couldn't squeeze in a couple of title runs to optimise it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briefcase Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 30 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: Take a case like Hit Row though - shouldn't they be given an opportunity to make the fans miss them? They were called up recently to the main roster, so surely the idea is to get behind a group like that and make them into talent the fans care about? That kind of association and merchandise shifting etc comes with time and so many just aren't even getting that opportunity. Yeah I get that. Maybe there is something more sinister at play, release them now either before they are mainstream stars or to over flood the market (generally speaking) in some hope that AEW have too much talent if they sign them up.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westlondonmist Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 49 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: I would imagine the more time goes by, and the more WWE behave like they do, the less the future young talent will have any interest at all in going there if there are viable alternatives like AEW. I see future WWE training people from scratch who were either American footballers or fitness models; maybe a few recruited who are in the early stages of their career. I don't think they will try and raid a top star from AEWor the Indies. Obviously NXT still has some former indy stars, but I don't think that will last. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironic Indie Lad Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said: I would imagine the more time goes by, and the more WWE behave like they do, the less the future young talent will have any interest at all in going there if there are viable alternatives like AEW. I feel like you have quite massively taken what I said out of context Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 28 minutes ago, Briefcase said: Yeah I get that. Maybe there is something more sinister at play, release them now either before they are mainstream stars or to over flood the market (generally speaking) in some hope that AEW have too much talent if they sign them up.  I've seen this theory thrown about a lot, but I don't see the logic. Is the idea that it will bankrupt the billionaire Tony Khan? Clearly, that's not going to happen. Is it that AEW will have more good wrestlers than they know what to do with? Again, this doesn't make much sense. A deep, deep, deep roster allowing you to have a level of variety that feels never-ending is a fantastic problem to have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
69MeDon Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 5 minutes ago, RedRooster said: I've seen this theory thrown about a lot, but I don't see the logic. Is the idea that it will bankrupt the billionaire Tony Khan? Clearly, that's not going to happen. Is it that AEW will have more good wrestlers than they know what to do with? Again, this doesn't make much sense. A deep, deep, deep roster allowing you to have a level of variety that feels never-ending is a fantastic problem to have. We are already seeing the dividends of having a deep roster - and one that, importantly, isn't full of people just sat around for a year doing very little. With Mox, Omega and Archer all out at the moment, they've got people who can slip into the main event without them feeling like they shouldn't be there. In any case, yeah, this idea that WWE are releasing loads of people to somehow force AEW into getting in over their heads with contracts is really silly. It requires AEW to sign everyone that gets released and it requires AEW to not have a dragon's hoard of wealth behind them. It would never work, even if that's what WWE was doing, which it isn't because nobody could believe that would work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 Tony Khan is bargain hunting right now. Getting to sign people he would have been competing with WWE to sign, now only having the one multi-year offer with security coming from AEW. Their Turner deal expires before Raw and Smackdowns. Chances are when AEW's next deal comes up they'll at least be able to leverage the value against those RAW and Smackdown deals which would be a massive increase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Curious Orange Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 Following COVID and bubbles etc. WWE seems to be continuing down that path and cutting the roster down into small groups of the same 15-20 people on each brand that works the TV show every week in different combos - and anybody that isn't going to be TV regularly week to week gets cut. Going forward I wonder when they reach the point of deciding they get by with an even smaller roster and get rid of the brand splits altogether. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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