Pro Wrestling Contract Season

[BomberPat]

Santos Escobar is fantastic, and I don't think it's a coincidence that he's chosen not to re-sign around the same time as Andrade leaving - when WWE first purchased AAA, and remembered that they had Los Garzas under contract, they were teasing Escobar as a challenger to El Hijo del Vikingo for the AAA belt, and it never happened. As far as I can tell, he's never shown up in the WWE-owned AAA (he worked one of the Worlds Collide shows, but not a full-blown AAA show).

There's always been a ceiling on how successful a luchadore can get in WWE. They've been trying for years to find their "New Rey Mysterio", and the best they've managed is to keep going back to the old Rey Mysterio. Santos did everything a heavyweight luchadore is supposed to do to break that ceiling - he unmasked, he worked his way up through NXT, he cuts promos in English - and it wasn't enough, and now all WWE have done is create a new ceiling, because now if you're a Mexican wrestler in WWE, there's a solid chance that they're going to try and farm you out to AAA. Which means you're not regularly working main roster shows, you're not making main roster money on things like merch, you're ghettoed away from the real stars, and you've seen guys like Mr. Iguana come in and leapfrog over you. And for a lot of these wrestlers, they've already had bad experiences in AAA anyway, and they probably don't want to end up working there again, when even with WWE involved, a lot of the same management are still around.

I wouldn't be surprised if other luchadores start leaving too, for similar reasons. It's very telling that Escobar was apparently offered big money to stay, so that's not the motivation. He knows he's not going to be short of work elsewhere - he's a great wrestler, he now has years of US TV experience, he's part of a Lucha dynasty, his dad is the commissioner for Mexico City, and he's hosted narrative podcasts on the history of Lucha Libre in two languages for MyCultura/iHeartRadio, there's a lot to work with there! I can see a lot of luchadores looking at how AEW allows them to also work CMLL and NJPW, and the same in other combinations - that working CMLL would allow them to work AEW), on more favourable terms than WWE's version of AAA. It's going to be an interesting time for luchadores in the US, for sure. To say nothing of the political landscape in the US in general.

Some idle speculation, too, given how connected Escobar is - I wonder if he knows something we don't, about how lucha commissions and CMLL might view those who chose to work for WWE's version of AAA. If he was able to get out of doing it, could it be because he knows there's going to be some stigma there? It's not like CMLL are averse to holding grudges.

[tiger_rick]

Don't think I've heard of Santos Escobar but did google and he's King Cueno from Lucha Underground so @mim731 post makes sense to me now. That guy was great, but it's been a long time.

He'd be a hard pass for AEW if it was up to me. 40-somethings coming off the back of a miserable WWE run offer nothing. They've already got a load of lads in masks doing nothing. If CMLL pick him up and he works occasional AEW shows, I think that would be sensible but, throwing a contract at him wouldn't be on my agenda.

As usual though, I'd not be confident in my opinion matching Tony's. He'll have had his Lucha Underground boxset playing on loop for days. A bit of background telly while he scours FM24 for potential Fulham signings while ignore texts from a bloke called Marco that all start "Dear Cunt".

[BomberPat]

I don't see Escobar going back under a mask, and I wouldn't be adverse to seeing him come in to whip LFI into shape and make them mean something as their new leader. Though first port of call would be to fuck off Sammy Guevara from that group if it were up to me.

[Statto]

I bloody love Santos Escobar, was sold on him the moment he unmasked, revealed he spoke English and turned heel immediately upon winning the Cruiserweight title tournament, which was a fantastic piece of work. I'd be well up for an AEW run. 

An LFI line-up of him, Andrade, Rush & Mortos (Dralistico can stick around to take the L's I guess, fuck Sammy Guevara) would be a fun little upper midcard group, heel or face. 

[Supremo]

I know it’s a cliche at this point whenever a wrestler departs a company, but Santos Escobar truly is one of those lads where they never capitalised on his potential.

He was fucking great in NXT, did everything asked of him, ticked all of the boxes, looked set to be a huge star, and then just wasn’t. As soon as he arrived on the main roster he got Hunter’s, “one of those Mexican fellas,” stamp and the entirety of his run revolved around either being in or out of the LWO.

It was one of the first signs of things falling apart, when it seemed inevitable they’d do a big Mysterio vs. Escobar match, maybe at Wrestlemania, and now I can’t even remember if they ever did it. I think they just split them up in a Draft. Great story telling, lads.

Nowadays, I almost never want someone leaving WWE to jump to AEW, especially with this weird Miro/Malakai/Lashley pattern where they all come in thinking they’re above it all and refusing to do jobs, but I’ll take Escobar all day long. Put him in LFI after Andrade chins Guervara back to ROH.

[Callum1993]

3 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I know it’s a cliche at this point whenever a wrestler departs a company, but Santos Escobar truly is one of those lads where they never capitalised on his potential.

He was fucking great in NXT, did everything asked of him, ticked all of the boxes, looked set to be a huge star, and then just wasn’t. As soon as he arrived on the main roster he got Hunter’s, “one of those Mexican fellas,” stamp and the entirety of his run revolved around either being in or out of the LWO.

It was one of the first signs of things falling apart, when it seemed inevitable they’d do a big Mysterio vs. Escobar match, maybe at Wrestlemania, and now I can’t even remember if they ever did it. I think they just split them up in a Draft. Great story telling, lads.

Nowadays, I almost never want someone leaving WWE to jump to AEW, especially with this weird Miro/Malakai/Lashley pattern where they all come in thinking they’re above it all and refusing to do jobs, but I’ll take Escobar all day long. Put him in LFI after Andrade chins Guervara back to ROH.

Yeah they didn’t really pay it off fully. They did a tag match at Mania that year with Escobar and Dom against Rey and Andrade with Rey and Andrade winning. 
 

Fundamentally WWE always has a problem when they pair anyone with Rey to get them over as inevitably Rey always outshines them see Sin Cara, Santos, Dragon Lee and even Dom when he first came in. 

[LaGoosh]

59 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

They've been trying for years to find their "New Rey Mysterio",

It's the WWE booking template. They're always looking for the new Rey Mysterio/John Cena/Stone Cold etc. so they book everyone like they are them and it never works because you can't book everyone the same. Every now and again they realise this and something gets through but for the most part they don't and you end up with another underutilised midcarder.

[tiger_rick]

12 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

It's the WWE booking template. They're always looking for the new Rey Mysterio/John Cena/Stone Cold etc. so they book everyone like they are them and it never works because you can't book everyone the same. Every now and again they realise this and something gets through but for the most part they don't and you end up with another underutilised midcarder.

Only been like that for the last few years. Since 1993. Sure it'll change soon.

[LaGoosh]

4 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Only been like that for the last few years. Since 1993. Sure it'll change soon.

The business is cyclical...apparently. 

[WyattSheepMask]

6 hours ago, Callum1993 said:

Yeah they didn’t really pay it off fully. They did a tag match at Mania that year with Escobar and Dom against Rey and Andrade with Rey and Andrade winning. 
 

Had to go and look this up as I thought you were making it up. I’ve seen every Wrestlemania and have literally no memory of this even happening.

[LaGoosh]

SHIDA has signed a new multi-year contract with AEW. Pleased about that, I have always had a soft spot for her.

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

SHIDA has signed a new multi-year contract with AEW. Pleased about that, I have always had a soft spot for her.

What's it for? 7 dates a year? 

[Infinity Land]

32 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

What's it for? 7 dates a year? 

Just matches, not interviews & random run-ins:

• 2020: 29
• 2021: 29
• 2022: 28
• 2023: 27
• 2024: 17
• 2025: 0 

Without knowing the ins and outs of visa issues, injuries, or other reasons spending more time in Japan. Shida has been a bit of workhorse by the AEW's women's division standards and it's only the past year and chunks of last that's see has been missed for any length of time. 

New visa and contract with the 3 AEW titles to go for now i'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of her again.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

2 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

Just matches, not interviews & random run-ins:

• 2020: 29
• 2021: 29
• 2022: 28
• 2023: 27
• 2024: 17
• 2025: 0 

Without knowing the ins and outs of visa issues, injuries, or other reasons spending more time in Japan. Shida has been a bit of workhorse by the AEW's women's division standards and it's only the past year and chunks of last that's see has been missed for any length of time. 

New visa and contract with the 3 AEW titles to go for now i'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of her again.

Define workhorse a little for me Landers. According to some very basic googling there have been 1085 matches on Dynamite since it started. 340 of which have been Women's matches. Shida has been in 39 of them, a little over 10%. There have been 229 PPV matches since 2020, 89 of of which have been Women's matches. She has been in 11 which is a slightly better percentage I think. Apart from how bad it is that there have only been 340 Women's matches on 313 episodes of Dynamite, Shida is hardly tearing it up is she, even if visa issues and injury keeps her out half the time. 

Honestly I think she's OK, but I have never missed her when she isn't on and I can't say I'm overly excited when she comes back. She's just there. If she hadn't been re-signed I wouldn't have cared. It's not all her fault, TK's booking of the women's division in general doesn't help her, or many of them actually. 

[Infinity Land]

6 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Define workhorse a little for me Landers. According to some very basic googling there have been 1085 matches on Dynamite since it started. 340 of which have been Women's matches. Shida has been in 39 of them, a little over 10%. There have been 229 PPV matches since 2020, 89 of of which have been Women's matches. She has been in 11 which is a slightly better percentage I think. Apart from how bad it is that there have only been 340 Women's matches on 313 episodes of Dynamite, Shida is hardly tearing it up is she, even if visa issues and injury keeps her out half the time. 

Honestly I think she's OK, but I have never missed her when she isn't on and I can't say I'm overly excited when she comes back. She's just there. If she hadn't been re-signed I wouldn't have cared. It's not all her fault, TK's booking of the women's division in general doesn't help her, or many of them actually. 

Well I don't know since I have no idea where your basic googling comes from. I'm also not sure what the total number of matches matters unless you're having people wrestle more than once a show. 

Cagematch has her in 52 Dynamite matches with just one of those a Dark Match. Which would have been clocked up by Dynamite #268. 

http://www.profightdb.com/wrestlers-with-most-aew-dynamite-appearances.html

Also has 52 but doesn't note that one was a dark match. 

Dynamite starts October 2nd 2019-November 20th 2024 of her final match is 268 weeks. During that time AEW 133 matches and a couple for ROH. Never worked the Orlando Dark tapings. Had to deal with injuries and working around travel restrictions when travelling to Japan during lockdown protocols.