Send ‘em away

[RedTwoster]

In the AEW thread, @gmoney suggested AEW should have some kind of formal excursion system to loan some of their many wrestlers out to other companies - and that’s inspired this thread.

Which wrestlers in AEW (or WWE) would you loan out to other wrestling companies, and, if you like, which company? The one caveat has to be that any excursion has to benefit the wrestler, you can’t just jettison wrestlers you dislike to companies you know you’ll never watch. So as much as I’d like to do it, no sending Roderick Strong to Pro Wrestling Cyprus or anything like that

I’d go with…

Satnam Singh to New Japan - It’s got to be sink or swim for this guy at this point. He’s never looked particularly good but then, he’s never really been given the opportunity to do much (and possibly for good reason). I’m all for AEW using more big man wrestlers, so here’s Satnam’s chance to show that there’s more to him than it appears. Or not.

Anthony Bowens to New Japan - Bowen is an excellent wrestler, and his push screeched to a halt just as he was finding his footing as a heel. If he impressed in New Japan - and I suspect he would - Tony Khan may look at him through fresh eyes.

Kamille to Stardom - or to any all-women promotion. From what I’d seen of her pre-AEW, she seemed decent enough but Tony Khan quickly abandoned her after some admittedly abysmal showings. She’s pretty imposing and I can’t imagine you couldn’t find a way of utilising her with careful booking.

Harley Cameron to Stardom - bit of a risky one, but I think wrestling elsewhere could be the ingredient that helps lift Harley from a fun character to someone who could genuinely anchor a company. She has the character work nailed, and while her ring work is improving, she’s no Toni Storm…yet. The fact her ring work is improving suggests to me that there’s scope for her to develop even further, so parting ways with her for a bit might reap long term rewards.

 

 

[BomberPat]

There was a YouTube documentary recently about Jeff Jarrett promoting and wrestling a show in his hometown for the first time, and there's a bit where Jay Lethal is doing a heartfelt bit to camera about how much Jarrett and the Jarrett family mean to his career, and Satnam Singh is in the background just mugging at the camera and grimacing, presumably because he can't hear what Jay's saying and the big lug just thinks he's recording a promo and his job is to look scary in the background. Love him.

Angelico to CMLL - he probably wouldn't improve, I just want to see it.

The Hurt Syndicate to NJPW - they're an odd fit for AEW, and NJPW could use some big bastards

Lio Rush to the bin.

[LaGoosh]

It's a weird one because the general quality of wrestling from a (for lack of a better word) technical perspective is high these days. You can't move for wrestlers who can hit complex sequences absolutely perfectly. But there's a lack of promo skills, fleshed out character development, psychology and real crowd work/engagement. There's a huge list of wrestlers who need experience in that but I don't even know where you could send them these days to develop that.

[Carbomb]

11 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

It's a weird one because the general quality of wrestling from a (for lack of a better word) technical perspective is high these days. You can't move for wrestlers who can hit complex sequences absolutely perfectly. But there's a lack of promo skills, fleshed out character development, psychology and real crowd work/engagement. There's a huge list of wrestlers who need experience in that but I don't even know where you could send them these days to develop that.

I don't know if All Star are still going, and if they're anything like what they used to be, but I remember in the mid-2000s, after years of being slagged off as shonky and carny, the likes of Dean Allmark/2 Extreme and Robbie Dynamite suddenly doing bookings in indy promotions, and fans being blown away by their character work. A couple of years earlier, old-schooler Johnny Angell had had a little bit of a career resurgence doing something similar, IIRC. And, of course, Robbie Brookside had always been a popular mainstay of the scene.

And, of course, Bryan Danielson notably did tours with All Star for some years in the early 2000s. During my cup of coffee in wrestling, I remember quite a few blokes saying that's where you wanted to go if you wanted to get good at the selling, psychology, and character stuff, and with Orig Williams' lot too.

Edited March 31 by Carbomb
Oliver Bierhof

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

58 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Lio Rush to the bin.

Take him and a ring and throw it into a volcano. 

[BomberPat]

32 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I don't know if All Star are still going, and if they're anything like what they used to be, but I remember in the mid-2000s, after years of being slagged off as shonky and carny, the likes of Dean Allmark, Robbie Dynamite, and Dean 2 Extreme suddenly doing bookings in indy promotions, and fans being blown away by their character work. A couple of years earlier, old-schooler Johnny Angell had had a little bit of a career resurgence doing something similar, IIRC. And, of course, Robbie Brookside had always been a popular mainstay of the scene.

And, of course, Bryan Danielson notably did tours with All Star for some years in the early 2000s. During my cup of coffee in wrestling, I remember quite a few blokes saying that's where you wanted to go if you wanted to get good at the selling, psychology, and character stuff, and with Orig Williams' lot too.

I've been saying for years now that if you went out on a RevPro show, or PROGRESS at their peak, and just had a straightforward holiday camp match, it would get massively over just because there's no one else on the card doing it.

I never worked a full-blown holiday camp show, but I did hotel entertainment where guests got in free, and the majority of shows I worked where family shows rather than workrate super-indie stuff, and that style of wrestling will always have a large place in my heart. The old adage about camp shows was that nobody in the audience is paying to be there, nobody is in the venue specifically to see the wrestling, and there's five or six other things going on that they could be giving their time to instead - you're competing for their attention, not their money. If you can keep that audience entertained, you should be able to work anywhere.

The last high profile American wrestler I can remember being advised to work the camps to tune up was Cash Wheeler pre-NXT, though I'm sure there have been more. I don't know what the holiday camp circuit is like these days, and I've completely lost track of which promotions have which contracts with which establishments. 

[LaGoosh]

I think most the old hands who knew what they were doing and knew the art of getting maximum and genuine crowd reactions out of as little as possible have gone from the scene and weren't replaced by anyone. The amount of guys who were on the indies in the 2000s now in top positions in WWE and AEW who would regularly work guys with extensive territory, overseas or WWF house show loop experience from the 90s is pretty significant and they learnt a lot from them. And that's only going to have a negative long term effect on the following generations of wrestlers who will have less chance of getting that experience. 

Edited March 31 by LaGoosh

[Carbomb]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

I think most the old hands who knew what they were doing and knew the art of getting maximum and genuine crowd reactions out of as little as possible have gone from the scene and weren't replaced by anyone. The amount of guys who were on the indies in the 2000s now in top positions in WWE and AEW who would regularly work guys with extensive territory, overseas or WWF house show loop experience from the 90s is pretty significant and they learnt a lot from them. And that's only going to have a negative long term effect on the following generations of wrestlers who will have less chance of getting that experience. 

Oddly, one younger guy I saw who's good at this is Spud/Drake Maverick. He understandably started out as a high-spot flyer, as a guy his size would, but he got so good at character work and doing the most with the least, it's not surprising he got signed in the US. I know he's not necessarily young any more (he's probably nearing 40 now), but he's the next generation along.

[gmoney]

Not only is he 43, he's retired.

[SaitoRyo]

And working on the WWE Creative Team, if I remember correctly. 

[Gus Mears]

One of the younger guys on the British scene who really understands character work is Les Kellett. These flash yanks could do worse than a few matches with him.

[gmoney]

Whereas someone like Bert Assirati just doesn't get it. Yeah you can do flashy headlocks for 90 minutes, but maybe put one plain white stripe on your trunks, show a bit of personality. 

[Carbomb]

Said younger, not young, you bunch of nobs 

[Fog Dude]

14 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Said younger, not young, you bunch of nobs 

Fair, but your guess of "nearing 40" would've meant he was getting booked by the FWA while still in school. Which, knowing BritWres, I suppose isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Are there places which are that stylistically different someone would benefit now though? 

The benefit of excursions were always learning different styles - lucha, the old school European style, the different territories in the US - these were all vastly different in style and substance. 

Everything is much more of a hybrid style now.