Paid Members LaGoosh Posted August 8 Paid Members Share Posted August 8 I feel like AEW gave Wardlow plenty of chances as a singles guy and he was just kind of meh each time. They gave him THREE high profile singles matches with Samoa Joe, one of the best wrestlers ever, and Joe couldn't get much out of him. At some point you have to cut your losses and move on. I still think my idea of a Wardlow/Hobbs tag team called WARPOWER is a winner though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted August 8 Share Posted August 8 (edited) It's a little bit of column A and column B with Wardlow, sure he didn't grasp the chances given to him well enough but AEW derailed him a tad too. The whole beating MJF thing and then having all that go down with Max and the "shoot" promo etc while they did *nothing* with the Wardog, felt like they lost the biggest shot right there. Edited August 8 by Merzbow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted August 8 Share Posted August 8 Wardlow's going to be fine. Ethan Page's is getting a run with the NXT title. Karrion Kross is on the main roster leading a faction. He's the type of wrestler that WWE traditionally get behind, but AEW struggle with due to the focus on "work-rate". What happened with MJF might not have been ideal, but they'd already been replicating some of the steps of the MJF v Cody feud (lashings/cage match). Then during the 3x TNT reigns he was outshone by Samoa Joe's King of Television blip and Darby's sprint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatvinylgeek Posted August 8 Share Posted August 8 I don't see Wardlow fitting in HHHs vision at the moment, I think he'd end up with Punk somehow and it would be Ryback take 2. I think he'd be better heading down to TNA and going down the Nick Nemeth route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted August 8 Paid Members Share Posted August 8 7 hours ago, BomberPat said:  And just for my nitpicking "make it make sense" wrestling brain, I get annoyed how often these matches are Roderick Strong teaming with The Don Callis Family, or with other heels. In kayfabe, Don Callis as a manager should want his guys teaming together far more than teaming with other people - if only because that way he takes home more money than when it's just one of his guys booked. But also, what's the point of a faction if you're not getting booked together? Why is Roderick Strong tagging with two other guys while Taven and Bennett stand around at ringside? On Dynamite, Strong has teamed with the Don Callis Family more often than with his own faction in the last few weeks. What's the benefit of being in a faction, then, if you're not tagging with your team-mates?  I feel like this has been an AEW issue for absolutely ages now. It's like they've forgotten how factions work, which is mad considering they did such great work with Inner Circle, Pinnacle, The Elite etc in their early years. But like you say, they seem to love mashing two factions together into a team in an effort to get as many faces on TV as possible and for me it makes everything a bit of a convoluted mess. When Wheeler Yuta returned they did an 8-man tag with BCC vs someone (may have been some CMLL lads) and it was only the second time that the Blackpool Combat Club had all teamed together, which, for a stable that's been together years, is shocking. The booking of their mid-card needs a massive overhaul and, as fun as the matches are, they need to stop relying on '3 random people team up' when they've got so many factions on their books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedTwoster Posted August 8 Share Posted August 8 35 minutes ago, thatvinylgeek said: I don't see Wardlow fitting in HHHs vision at the moment, I think he'd end up with Punk somehow and it would be Ryback take 2. I think he'd be better heading down to TNA and going down the Nick Nemeth route. And what about Triple H’s vision is incompatible with Wardlow? You only go to TNA, realistically, if WWE or AEW don’t want you - aside from anything else, they pay much less. And WWE would absolutely sign Wardlow. AEW would probably resign him if he wanted to stay, but at this stage I think they’re better off cutting their losses with the guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MachoLibre Posted August 8 Share Posted August 8 There was talk a while back that Wardlow and Hook might be on their way out and heading to WWE. No idea how true any of that was, but made me realise if they were I wouldn't mind them coming in together as the worlds most handsome big man/little man tag team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted August 9 Paid Members Share Posted August 9 Worth noting that Wardlow was big in AEW but definitely wouldn't be big in WWE. It always made me chuckle how he was booked as the muscle in The Pinnacle but Shawn Spears was actually bigger than him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Duke Posted August 9 Paid Members Share Posted August 9 (edited) 10 hours ago, RedTwoster said: Wardlow is someone who is probably better off jumping to WWE at this point. I’m not certain he’d succeed there, but it seems clear that he isn’t a great fit in AEW; outside of in the initial set of circumstances he found himself in, in his relationship with MJF. I just don’t know what AEW would do with him at this point, or what value he adds to their roster. Cole would definitely be better off returning as a babyface. He worked fairly well as a face in AEW, and his heel runs have been nothing short of disastrous. He just doesn’t seem capable of portraying a compelling heel character, it’s all very generic. I think Cole is probably better off as a heel, because he fits that more naturally, but he needs to drop the undisputed schtick and do something different. As for Wardlow, yeah if I were him I'd jump straight away. For whatever reason, he's had too many aborted pushes that it'd take a significant sea change for him to get anywhere. We all tried, there were some unfortunate injuries and other circumstances and it didn't work. I don't know how much of a success he'll be in WWE, as he's not a great worker and, more crucially, not much of a promo. But I'd still give it a go if I were him. He also suffers in AEW from being worse than Hobbs at basically everything (and it's not like he's well used), not being that young and getting injured a lot. Edited August 9 by Duke P-p-p-p-powerhouse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitsky's back acne Posted August 9 Share Posted August 9 1 hour ago, LaGoosh said: Worth noting that Wardlow was big in AEW but definitely wouldn't be big in WWE. It always made me chuckle how he was booked as the muscle in The Pinnacle but Shawn Spears was actually bigger than him. I call that the Burchill syndrome. Burchill looked like a giant on the UK scene and with his agility I thought he would be a big, agile guy that Vince would love. He gets to WWE, in the bigger rings with the bigger wrestlers, and I realised he was just 'big for the UK' and was actually just a regular sized guy in comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted August 9 Paid Members Share Posted August 9 Fundamentally, I think there's a lot of good wrestlers but it's rare and difficult to find a role someone is great. Wardlow was great in the role of bodyguard/heater for MJF. Genuinely superb at it. And he should be proud of his work as MJF's second. But unfortunately, sometimes when someone is a great fit in one role doesn't mean they will be great at anything else. And that's where Wardlow is. He's great at that one thing and nothing else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted August 9 Share Posted August 9 Wardlow was absolutely fantastic up until he smashed MJF with 10 powerbombs, he probably had a few decent TV matches after that but I recall they were very silly and had him pissing about against Security Guards in handicap matches that felt very WWE pre 2020 guff about it. He never really got a footing after that even if the Joe/Hobbs matches weren't bad. And they/he cut his hair, what on earth were they thinking. Proper Samson moment that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted August 9 Author Share Posted August 9 13 minutes ago, LaGoosh said: Wardlow was great in the role of bodyguard/heater for MJF. Genuinely superb at it. And he should be proud of his work as MJF's second. But unfortunately, sometimes when someone is a great fit in one role doesn't mean they will be great at anything else. And that's where Wardlow is. He's great at that one thing and nothing else. And that's actually okay. All companies need wrestlers up and down the card. Not just main eventers. There always needs to be solid supporting players, some of which will show greater potential and move up, and others that just find a place for themselves - say R Truth for example. There was definitely glimmers of hope for Wardlow that he'd be able to step up and go further. Whether that's down to him or the inconsistent booking, I think perhaps we'll only know once he goes somewhere like WWE and it'll be a sink or swim situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted August 9 Paid Members Share Posted August 9 Is there actual talk of Wardlow going to WWE, or just speculation given he's not being used in AEW? They were clearly trying to hit the reset button on him and re-do the "heater turns on their boss" story with Adam Cole later down the line, but Cole's return from injury has been slower than expected, and Wardlow's dropped off the face of the earth. I'm not sure what else they can do with him, and maybe a tag team or a trio is a better solution than trying to build him as a singles threat again. In terms of NXT - Wardlow's been wrestling for at least ten years, and he's 36 years old. Is he going to improve much more in a developmental setting? And is he notable enough to give a push there as a "gotcha" signing to AEW? It's not a great look to have someone you groomed as a future star away by the competition, but I think most would see him as a failed experiment rather than AEW missing a can't miss prospect. Every promotion that's been around more than a minute has had their big muscular guy that they thought would be a star but turned out to be a flop, or there hot prospect that turned out to be a flash in the pan. Nothing different here. He's someone I would rather see land somewhere like TNA than WWE, to be in a bit of a lower pressure environment and have opportunities to try new ideas and reinvent themselves. But given the TNA/NXT relationship, I guess that doesn't preclude him getting an NXT run to have him hang out with Pillman Jr. and Shawn Spears and joke about how much better their careers are going now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted August 9 Paid Members Share Posted August 9 5 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: And that's actually okay. All companies need wrestlers up and down the card. Not just main eventers. There always needs to be solid supporting players, some of which will show greater potential and move up, and others that just find a place for themselves - say R Truth for example. For sure, but there often seems to be this perception from fans and the wrestlers themselves that talent should always be progressing upwards otherwise they are failing - which is just not realistic. Wrestlers are like actors. You need your solid and dependable character actors to fill out the cast and hold up the big stars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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