Pro Wrestling Contract Season

[Joe Blog]

9 hours ago, Supremo said:

Goodwin Riddance.

I hope he has the time of his life

[Infinity Land]

From the Redemption media call. Anna Jay has signed a new deal. Tay Melo has asked for her release and it is being granted but that was in the last few weeks, not last year. From what's been indicated it's to step away from wrestling.

[RedTwoster]

15 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

From the Redemption media call. Anna Jay has signed a new deal. Tay Melo has asked for her release and it is being granted but that was in the last few weeks, not last year. From what's been indicated it's to step away from wrestling.

And to add to that, Khan’s confirmed that Sammy Guevara is still under contract and it certainly sounds like he’s staying put. There’s a full recap of the presser on prowrestling.net here, if anyone is interested. He mentions the free agents who are available without, understandably, saying anything of substance about them.

[FTR2020]

2 hours ago, Ralphy said:

Bayley is out of contract soon. I see her staying unless the contract is a pisstake, seems like a WWE lifer to me that in years to come can go part time and focus on her wrestling school or work as a trainer for WWE

I would personally love to see her in AEW as it's clear to see she still loves wrestling and the possibility of facing new, and familiar wrestlers very appealing and Mercedes Mone may sway things verbally to get her a can't turn down contract

AEW may let her train talent at her school too, as I guess unless it's the pc then WWE talent can't train anywhere else

You have seen so called WWE lifers leave WWE lately with New Day, Sheamus etc. 

Bayley is best friends with Mercedes Mone. She will go there just to hang out with her again and have a fued with Mercedes.

Bayley going to AEW would be a great coup for them and instantly upgrade their Women's division.

Bayley vs Thekla, Willow Nightengale, Toni Storm etc will be great.

 

[DavidB6937]

Probably down to her booking as she seems like a great person but I'm genuinely not that fussed about seeing Bayley anywhere. Just hope she finds whatever she needs to be happy and fulfilled somewhere.

[thatvinylgeek]

3 hours ago, Ralphy said:

Bayley is out of contract soon. I see her staying unless the contract is a pisstake, seems like a WWE lifer to me that in years to come can go part time and focus on her wrestling school or work as a trainer for WWE

I would personally love to see her in AEW as it's clear to see she still loves wrestling and the possibility of facing new, and familiar wrestlers very appealing and Mercedes Mone may sway things verbally to get her a can't turn down contract

AEW may let her train talent at her school too, as I guess unless it's the pc then WWE talent can't train anywhere else

Hard disagree, I think it's pretty obvious she feels done with WWE (for now) and them with her, and it's inevitable she is heading to AEW. 

[Merzbow]

The last time I saw Bayley she was in CTRL ALT DELETE or whatever and never really heard anyone mention here since, until the contact was coming up. An obvious talent though, I just feel like AEW has enough women it's not put the deserved time into already, personally don't want to see another WWE act jump the queue.

[FTR2020]

14 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

The last time I saw Bayley she was in CTRL ALT DELETE or whatever and never really heard anyone mention here since, until the contact was coming up. An obvious talent though, I just feel like AEW has enough women it's not put the deserved time into already, personally don't want to see another WWE act jump the queue.

I agree that AEW shouldn't be signing all the former WWE stars but Bayley would be a great signing for lots of reasons. She would be a great addition to the women's roster. Her and Mercedes could have matches against each other or team up again and win the women's tag titles.

Bayley would also be a great mentor to the women they have there. Maya World for example would learn a lot from working with Bayley etc.

 

[RedTwoster]

13 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

The last time I saw Bayley she was in CTRL ALT DELETE or whatever and never really heard anyone mention here since, until the contact was coming up. An obvious talent though, I just feel like AEW has enough women it's not put the deserved time into already, personally don't want to see another WWE act jump the queue.

Honestly, I don’t see much downside to bringing her in. She’s another highly paid top level wrestler that you can’t imagine won’t be getting prominent screen time each week. That in itself would likely create more opportunities for the women’s roster to feature. Plus there are plenty of dream matches for her in AEW versus the likes of Thekla, Toni Storm, Willow Nightingale, Statlander and Shida. Her experience would surely benefit some of the greener female wrestlers too.

Personally, I’d like to see her and Mercedes team up to take on Divine Dominion. It’s mad that a women’s match is yet to close an AEW PPV, and for me, signings like Bayley would make Khan’s apparent stance on this unsustainable.

I’m hoping he’ll close with Thekla/Willow tonight, but I’m expecting to be disappointed. 

[BomberPat]

The only reason I can see Bayley sticking with WWE is she's intent on keeping access to top WWE names at her training seminars; Punk, Cena and Rey have all shown up to them in the past, and while she would likely maintain some of that as a free agent, I imagine if she signed with AEW, WWE would be actively working to prevent that happening.

I think she sees Lodestone - her series of women's wrestling seminars and training camps - as the next stage in her career, and I suspect she will want to run shows under the Lodestone banner at some point. There's a chance that she sees her presence in WWE as the major selling point of those camps, but I also see a lot from her putting women over and talking about wanting to wrestle women who, with all the will in the world, are unlikely to ever compete in WWE. I think she has a long list of opponents she wants to wrestle outside of WWE, and AEW will be better placed to facilitate that, as well as likely supporting her in running Lodestone events - knock-on benefit for AEW is that it could effectively give them a de facto women's training school.

On top of that, there's the obvious Mercedes Moné angle. There's money in revisiting that rivalry, and once that's out of the way, they could come back together as a tag team, which would give them both something to do while keeping them away from either of the women's singles belts. 

I get trepidation about more WWE names coming into AEW, but I think there's a big difference between picking up the dregs after they're released (which is something AEW have seemingly learned to be a little smarter and warier about doing), and signing the wrestlers who actively opt not to re-sign with WWE and choose to come work for AEW because they have something to prove. I don't see Bayley coming in as necessarily taking a spot away from other women in AEW as it is raising the standard and raising the credibility levels for the division as a whole, as well as - assuming Lodestone becomes AEW-aligned too - investing in the future. Like the New Day, it's a signing that's as much about optics and what they offer outside of the ring as it is about dream matches and feuds.

[I Bent My Wookie]

Regarding Bayley news from over the weekend

Spoiler

She appeared at a WWE Live event on Saturday attacking Lyra so she does appear to still be with the company in some aspects for the time being. I'm unsure as to when her contract is completely up but I do think she'll work SummerSlam as a final swan song if she is on the off. Though the part about her training school Pat mentions has some pay off in her sticking around. 

 

[BomberPat]

I believe October is when her contract is due? It's towards the end of the year, in any case.

[d-d-d-dAz]

If Phil has the sway to get his mate Danhausen booked as one of the faces of the company,  I reckon he can get Bayley a decent contract. 

If she wants to escape his pull-up energy, though, that's a different matter.

[I Bent My Wookie]

4 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I believe October is when her contract is due? It's towards the end of the year, in any case.

The way it's been spoke about recently I genuinely thought it was this week or next. Definitely some time left to have another Lyra match or six. 

[Supremo]

New Day’s contracts are up. They’ve posted their obligatory, “escaping prison,” video to social media. It was nice enough. A cute new take on an old trope.

And then the Big E thing happens just past the one minute mark and I’m left crying at a cartoon unicorn.

Fucking hell! Phenomenal. They should air this on Dynamite.