Back by popular demand! It’s Steamy’s rants bitches! First off, I want to thank all my Steamboats for the love, the praise and the constant support. I love y’all. Every time I post, I get flooded with emails, DMs, tweets and comments just telling me how great I am, how amazing my writing is and how it literally saves people’s lives. I talked to one man who was on the brink of ending it all because the ratings for his favourite show weren’t good and once he read my No Country For Old Men (Part 2), he understood how ratings are fantasy and immediately felt better. Ya boy is literally curing the world one column at a time.

And to my haters? I love y’all too. I love the fact that I’m so under your skin you’re pouring all these bottles of Hate-a-rade at me and I’m sending it back to you Golden Shower style, like Shawn Michaels in a hotel room full of more rats than the NYC subway. I know you are all reading this, already down in the comments section with your little half-assed attempts at flaming. The minute my name appears on your screen, your finger clicks. You have to read, because you know I’m right. You know you love me; your obsession is just so repressed that you can’t admit that Steamy makes your day. So, keep on commenting, keep up the lame insults, you’re just giving me more attention, more clicks and keeping Aaron in furs and jewels. He showed me his latest Pimp cup recently, 24K gold with conflict-free diamonds all around (because Aaron cares about the world). He’s sipping that Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Grand Cru from 1945 sitting poolside in his mansion (it’s an indoor pool, what do you take him for a Nouveau Riche slob who can only enjoy his pool in the summer?) thanks to Uncle Steamy’s popularity. Hey Aaron, help a fella out?

I was thinking on what to write next after the smash runaway success of my last column, the critically acclaimed, Pulitzer-nominated “No Country For Old Men”. I know you all expect the best and I do not intend to disappoint, so I take my role as your wrestling sherpa, guiding you through the peaks and valleys of history, very seriously. I had started a new Steamy Files about The Death of WCW. I was about a quarter of the way through when I lost interest in it. I was going to do this whole shtick of a trial for the most commonly blamed suspects in the death of WCW (which was 23 years ago this week) but it felt like rehashing the past. What new light is there to shine on a story this old? People have posted columns, podcasts, YouTube videos and even books on the subject. While I had a twist ending in mind (Spoiler alert: it was Ted Turner in his office with a check book), I wasn’t feeling it.

Thank God for Twitter. While Elon may be many things such as a vapourware salesman, a liar, a conman, a bigot, a nepo baby and a low-key cult leader, but his stupidity led to him burning 44 billion dollars worth of cash to buy a toxic social media platform and somehow making it worse, and yet also better. Thanks to Twitter Blue and the priority placement, a lot of those marks paying 8$ a month for the “privilege” of having a blue check (never mind the fact that the reason the blue check was special is because it was reserved to only publicly known figures) are projectile vomiting their stupid takes and it lands right on my timeline. Writer’s block? Oh no you don’t, not when a revelation lands in my lap like so.

My last column talked in depth about ratings and why it’s bullshit. I knew it would probably fly over people’s heads, I even mentioned it in the column itself, but it fit into this idea I had of an obsession with arbitrary numbers. What I didn’t realize, is how selective Fed fetishists are with numbers. You see ratings=good number. Rating big? Good! Rating low? Bad! And if rating bad then show bad, rabble, rabble, rabble. If you try to bring an actual number to the table, though, such as the amount of time dedicated to in-ring action on a supposed pro wrestling show, oh then you’re a mark. Now it’s no secret that there’s a lot of dummies online, this comment section will probably feature a lot of them who didn’t even make it this far in the column (hi dummies!) and will go straight to hate in order to feed their little rage boners.

It got me thinking, however. Has wrestling itself become taboo? By wrestling of course I’m talking about the physical sport of professional wrestling. While wrestling is scripted and it’s not a competition, make no bones about it, it’s still a sport. Reading some takes online though, you’d swear some of these drones care about everything BUT wrestling. I asked myself why. When did it become taboo to like professional wrestling? Why is it that pointing out when a show that has “wrestling” in its name dedicates more time to everything but the wrestling, and it gets pointed out, all of a sudden it triggers an entire section of so-called fans? Well, I’m about to drop another truth bomb on your asses. I’ve dropped so many of those recently I should be on the FBI’s Most Wanted list at this point. It’s because of the Attitude Era.

The Attitude Era ruined wrestling. This might seem like a hot take, but hear me out. Some people will point out that the Attitude Era saw peaks wrestling never reached before and most likely never will again. That’s undeniable, but that’s exactly the problem. In order to reach that big of an audience, the WWF had to basically fill the air with non-stop segments, promos, angles and the likes, and the actual wrestling took a back seat. Go watch some episodes of RAW circa 97-98 and you’ll see that the in-ring action mostly sucks. The shows usually open up with a long promo segment and culminate in an angle to close the show. That’s why it reached the peaks that it did. It was a live-action soap opera that men could watch without having their manhood challenged. It had enough action and was edgy enough to seem cool and the larger-than-life characters drew people’s attention. When it came down to having these same characters actually fight and try to win matches? Nah, that was the phony stuff, they didn’t want that. Vince Russo pioneered crash-TV because it appealed to the lowest common denominator. People will watch anything that doesn’t require their full concentration or for them to use their brains. Just sit down with a beer, paint “Just bleed” on your chest and let the chaos ensue like you’re at a Monster Truck rally or Demolition Derby.

If you look at the most popular restaurants in the world, it’s fast food. Why? It’s not because McDonald’s produces the highest quality food with only the best ingredients. It’s cheap, it tastes good and it can be mass-produced. It’s also fast and since you don’t have to plan ahead, make a reservation or even think about the menu, the service or the atmosphere; it’s extremely convenient. You don’t even need to have friends, just get in your car, shout into the drive-through speaker for your Big Mac and fries (supersized!) and within minutes you can stuff your hole full of grease and salt and be on your merry way. The Attitude Era was exactly the same. Another issue with the Attitude Era programming is that it spooked WCW real bad. Eric Bischoff started Nitro with a philosophy of being different, I’ve mentioned that many times in the past. The very first match on the very first episode of Monday Nitro was Brian Pillman vs. Justin Liger. In the transition period before the WWF ended up taking the lead in the dreaded “ratings war”, WCW was putting on some of the best wrestling ever seen on American television with the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Psicosis and Rey Mysterio Jr. amongst others. The main event scene was very hoaky and relied heavily on nostalgia but given that at the time the cruiserweights were mostly unknown to anyone who had never popped in an ECW tape, it made sense to lean on the stars of the past to hopefully showcase the bright stars of the future.

Then WWF adapted, took the ECW formula, sprinkled in a heavy dose of Jerry Springer and reality TV and boom, off they went, skyrocketing to better and better business until WCW was caught with its pants down and tried to copy that formula in the hopes of getting back to the glory days of those 83 weeks of paper dominance. WCW even brought in one of the architects of the Attitude Era in Vince Russo, but left to his own devices and with no one to filter his ADHD riddled booking, it became too much too fast and WCW imploded. Then, wrestling fans were fed a steady diet of shit for 23 years and learned to like it. Y’all fetishists are so full of it, your entire eyes are brown. Not just the iris, but the entire thing, just two big brown spots right in the middle of your face.

That’s why y’all hate AEW. You complain that “there are no stories” or “I don’t know who that guy is”, but what you’re really saying is “get this wrestling stuff off my TV and gimme some angles, promos and video packages”. You’ve grown so accustomed to everything being spelled out for you, pre-chewed and spoon-fed that you don’t know what pro wrestling is even about. I’ll give you a hint, it’s in the name…wrestling. The true art of professional wrestling is making people care about who wins or loses a match, it’s about suspending your disbelief and buying into the concept that this is a “real fight”. We all know it isn’t, but when it’s good, you just don’t care, you’re sucked into that moment and when the bell rings, you know you just watched something special.

Does that mean that angles and promos have no place in the show? Of course not. Wrestling is part sports, part show business. You need time to catch your breath, time to cool down before the action continues. UFC is a legitimate competition, but even they don’t just shove the next match in the Octagon seconds after the last one is over. They’ll interview the winner, sometimes the loser, show highlights and you’ll even have cage-side commentary. A great storyline between two characters can take a good match and make it great because you’re more emotionally invested in the outcome. However, the goal of a promo, the goal of an angle should always be to lead to a match. You can try to tell whatever story you want, shoot tons of cinematic-looking angles and put together these slick video packages, if the match sucks, then it didn’t matter.

Would you watch a Marvel movie just to see how good the costumes look on screen? Listen to a song just because the Auto-Tune reverb is just the way you like? Eat anything put in front of you as long as it’s plated nicely and you can take a picture for the Gram? OK that last one is true for a lot of folks, but that’s not the point. If you care only about camera shots, TV ratings or anything other than the in-ring action, then you’re not a fan of pro wrestling. Meanwhile, those of us who actually enjoy pro wrestling will rightfully point out that it seems you care more about everything but the actual in-ring product. Unlike your fake Nielsen ratings, percentage of in-ring time is a fact. Wrestling doesn’t need to be complicated; you take the best wrestlers and you have them fight to prove who is superior. When you ask “where’s the story”, what you’re really saying is that you can’t just enjoy the art form on its own, you need a bunch of bells and whistles on top to grab your attention like a toddler watching its parents jiggle their keys in front of its face. The men and women who compete and risk their health and well-being for your enjoyment are not actors, they’re wrestlers. They don’t go to Juilliard; they go to wrestling school to learn how to work. They go wrestle for 20$ and a hot dog not because of the way the camera shot is set up, not because they want their names on a chart for their quarter-hour segment ratings, but because they want to get in the ring and wrestle.

If you can’t appreciate that, then you know what to do,

Steamy Out!

The post Steamy’s Rants: Is Wrestling a Taboo word? appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

In Part 2, we’re moving away from these old men and I’m addressing the obsession with numbers by both young and old, as well as what I’ll call “outrage culture”. Without any further delays, let’s jump right into it.

2-Crunching the numbers  

Imagine this: Michael and Jermaine are sitting down and having a beer, talking about different topics when suddenly they move to hockey. Michael is a Philadelphia Flyers fan, but Jermaine is a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. Both teams played last night and won against their respective opponents. They’re debating which team is better when Jermaine suddenly says “Hey, did you see the TV ratings? The Penguins got more viewers than the Flyers, so clearly, they’re the better team.”

You can’t, can you? That’s because it never happens. Yet, amongst wrestling fans, we have an obsession with this metric.

2.1.-Ratings, ugh, good God y’all, what is it good for?

Absolutely nothing, say it again!…sorry, I got carried away there. Now this isn’t true, ratings aren’t “good for nothing”, rather the way they’re presented and especially interpreted by the IWC is pure baloney. Myself and many others have explained this before so I don’t think this is new information, but given that the message can’t seem to land, let’s try it one more time.

What you see reported as “TV ratings” by various online sources are published by a company called Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen selects a small pool of volunteers in the USA based on different criteria and track their viewing habits.

Unless you are a Nielsen family, your viewership habits do not count towards establishing ratings. That makes sense, right? Can you imagine tracking the habits of hundreds of millions of people in 15-minute increments and being able to accurately collect the data and publish it in less than 24 hours? Not to mention the privacy concerns. I don’t think most people would like the idea of their viewing habits being tracked without their consent.

2.2-How do they come up with the ratings then?

Glad you asked. I mentioned a pool. Now how many people are actually part of that pool? We don’t know. Nielsen does not release this information to the public, but I’ve seen estimates that it’s somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 people. 

Now how can it be so few and yet we get a number that’s in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of viewers? That’s the second part of the mystery of Nielsen. Not only does Nielsen not disclose their volunteer count, they don’t publish their raw numbers either. By raw numbers, I mean the actual number of people in the focus group that watched the show. 

This causes an issue that is really at the root of the entire futility of the debate, why are the numbers presented this way if they only are calculating it from a small volunteer pool (and yes tens of thousands in a country that has hundreds of millions of people is small)? What is the equation that is used by Nielsen to come up with the number? That’s not public information either.

2.3-The demos

Now the demo ratings are different. The reason there has been a focus in recent years geared towards “demo ratings” instead of the “number of viewers” is because as with any good focus group, Nielsen has data regarding who its volunteers are. They know what sex they are, what age they are, they also probably know their ethnicity and probably their income range. Given that Nielsen uses physical equipment that is installed in the participants’ home, they have access to all this information that is coveted by networks and advertisers.

Notice how demo ratings, unlike the viewership numbers, are not presented as a number but a share? This allows networks to know what percentage of a certain demographic is watching a show, and when it comes to discussions with advertisers, which helps to determine where money is spent.

2.4-Advertisers and networks

I know exactly what some people will say to the above sections. They will argue that it doesn’t matter what I say or how ratings are calculated because networks use ratings to determine which shows to renew and advertisers use them to determine which show their ads should run on. While there is some truth to that, it’s not that black and white.

Nielsen is the one of the only known sources of viewership data available. The entertainment industry is looking for an alternative and given the change in how people consume media it’s becoming less relevant by the day, but for now, Nielsen is pretty much all they have. 

What the ratings are for these companies is more of a comparison. Let’s say you launch a new TV show on your network, prime time on a weeknight. The debut episode gets an estimated 10 million viewers. Week 2, however, you’re down to 7 million. Well, debuts usually get higher numbers, especially if there was a lot of marketing prior to air time, it’s quite common to see a dip. Week 3, you’re down to 5 million and eventually you dip down to 150K-200K every week.

While your show had the biggest estimated viewership for the night when it launched, it ends up dead last by weeks 6-7. That is a problem. If the show I mentioned in my hypothetical features A-list stars, well-known directors and producers and costs a lot of money to produce, the expectations are much higher. Also keep in mind that scripted television will feature about 10-22 episodes per season, will go on a mid-season hiatus and eventually will end. That means the cost to air per episode is much higher than if you say, pay a flat fee to a wrestling company, get 52 weeks of content every single year while never having to worry about dealing with the WGA, DGA or SAG. 

As for advertisers, unless you have a smash-hit runaway show like a Seinfeld, large companies do not have the time to look at individual shows and pick which specific ones they wish for their ads to run on. They will look at overall network performance and they may also want to stay away from a show that’s controversial or risks bringing bad PR, but those are now mostly featured on premium channels which don’t rely on advertising revenue.

2.5-Fan discourse

Why do wrestling fans put so much stock into this number given everything I’ve pointed out above? While I can’t reach into everyone’s mind and see what their true reasons might be, I can guess.

The main reason, I believe, is bad faith. I think a lot of people know very well that ratings are not scientific numbers. While you may be wrestling fans, you have other interests. Are you looking at the TV ratings for each and every show you watch on TV? Will you use the numbers for a show you dislike as a way to trash it or vice versa? Didn’t think so.

What these people are doing is just using this as an excuse to attack others. They will ignore any number they see as “good” and just take any opportunity to parrot a number they see as “bad”. It’s another form of tribalism. They use this number as a shield, to turn the conversation not from “I don’t like the show” to “The show is objectively bad because this metric proves it”. I go back to my imaginary scenario at the beginning with Michael and Jermaine. Sports fans will chirp each other, they’ll have allegiances to certain teams and hate others. They might make fun of a team’s bad loss against an inferior opponent; they may point out how so-and-so is overpaid for his production or anything else basically.

The difference is that competitive sports have actual statistics to back up their arguments. If your team loses, they fall down the standings, have a lesser chance of making the playoffs and if they don’t make the playoffs, you can’t win the championship. That’s not the case in wrestling. Wins and losses may matter in storyline, but we know they’re predetermined and so we have to find another number to hang our hats on. 

2.6-The origins of the debate

Ratings were not really a topic that wrestling fans cared about until the launch of Monday Nitro in 1995. Before WCW, there had only ever been one major wrestling company with a global reach and that was the WWF. 

Once the battle was on, there needed to be a way to proclaim a victor every week. While fans could always debate about which show was better, that wasn’t a tangible metric. Ratings, however? Well, they’re numbers, so if one number is higher than the other, then you’ve technically won, right? That’s how it goes in sports. The team that wins the game is the one that has scored the most points.

My recollection at the time was that while fans were interested in the ratings, it always seemed more of a curiosity than a way to declare superiority. Eric Bischoff, however, really cared about the ratings. While the WWF was a privately owned business who was worried about ticket sales, merchandise sales and PPV buys, it’s clear that Eric Bischoff had a singular focus. The WWF cared about the ratings too, but for WCW and Eric Bischoff it was an obsession.

From the get-go, Bischoff did everything he could to get people to watch his show and not Monday Night RAW. Even when WCW was at its hottest, it was a mess, and they rode the nWo horse into the ground because they weren’t worried about long-term financial stability. WCW was a line item on a major corporation’s balance sheet. Ted Turned had a soft spot for the company and didn’t care how much money they lost. WCW never had to worry about getting rights fees, they were owned by the very network they were airing on. This obsession would eventually catch up to WCW and cause its demise. WCW set the rules of engagement in place, WWF agreed to them and the IWC has been obsessed ever since.

2.7-Letting go of the past

In the late 90s, if you didn’t watch a show while it was airing, you had to either tape it on a blank VHS (which meant the TV was off-limits during that time) or catch the replay. Fans would switch back and forth between Nitro and RAW constantly because (unless they had two TVs), they couldn’t watch both. This meant that the difference between a win or a loss was being able to give the people a reason to stay tuned in longer to your show and not the competition. Remember, no DVR so if you switched during a commercial break, you had to constantly switch back to see if the other show was back on, or you risked missing something.

There also weren’t as many options as there are today and you couldn’t just catch highlights on social media since it didn’t exist. While Nielsen was still using the same model, they had a larger pool of volunteers and there were fewer TVs and no such thing as smartphones or tablet for people to view live content on.

It’s time to let go of that passé mentality. If you’re a wrestling fan, the Nielsen numbers should be of no importance to you. Either you enjoy a product or you don’t. Make your arguments based on what is actually on the screen and come up with your own reasoning why you like/don’t like something. If you’re a bad faith actor, get a life. No one is forcing you to watch a product, there are so many other options, just do or watch something else, don’t try to justify your opinion by trotting out “ratings” as an attempt to prove your point. 

3-History and outrage (mini-rant)

I had originally planned to separate this into two sections with the same format as above, but after writing half of it, it didn’t feel right so I am scrapping it and starting over. Instead, I’m just going to go a mini rant.

Young bloods, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about half the time and it’s irritating me. Y’all need to learn your history before posting idiotic takes. Let’s start with Roman Reigns. It’s a fact that RR’s title reign is not in the same league as Bruno, Backlund and even Hogan. Sure, he’s held some version of the belt for nearly 4 years, but that’s because he’s only defended it about 54 times. Compare that to the previously named champions who would work and grind, defending on average once every 2-4 days. 

It’s true, the business was very different back then. TV was just a loss leader to get people to buy a ticket for a live event, which is exactly why you don’t see 4-year-long world title reigns anymore. You can’t just put on the same match day after day in another town, people will lose interest quickly. Is that Roman’s fault? No, of course not. He’s not the one who chose to keep the belt on him for so long, that was WWE. The obsession with numbers makes them want to trout out that “Oh he’s been champion for 20,052 days” or whatever, but that doesn’t mean he’s on the same level as the OGs.

If you asked Joe Anoa’i if he thought his title reign was on the same level as Backlund and Sammartino (even Hogan), he would probably say no. He comes from a wrestling family and he knows how important the World Championship is. That used to be the biggest prize in your promotion. Everyone in kayfabe was gunning for a shot at that title and winning it was not only a recognition of your talent, but it was also a way to earn more money. Wrestlers did not have guaranteed contracts back then. You didn’t work, you didn’t get paid. The better the champion drew, the more money for everyone down the card, so not having your champion wrestle for months was unheard of. 

WWE has pegged Roman as their golden boy and that’s their decision. But don’t try and tell me that it’s an all-time epic championship run. If you like RR and the Bloodline story and don’t mind that his titles never get defended, that’s totally fine, but don’t be disrespecting the legends by trying to put them in the same boat as a paper champion.

While we’re on the topic of defending dumb takes, what is with your obsession with being the white knight to all women wrestlers? I like women’s wrestling just as much as the next guy, but there is this new breed of fan who just wants to shield them from any criticism. When Maxxine Dupree got booed at a house show, not only fans but even wrestlers themselves jumped on Twitter to call out the fan. The fan mind you. Not the company that hired a girl with no wrestling experience and is putting her in a difficult position. Kudos to Maxxine for doing the work, and for staying out of this mess. She did the smart thing and didn’t comment on the video of her getting slightly booed or about the massive fake outrage that followed.

Are there lines you don’t cross as a fan? Of course. You shouldn’t harass the talent either IRL or when they’re performing by trying to make yourself the centre of attention. You should never jump the barricade and go into the ringside area or the ring itself unless invited and you should follow whatever rules are in place by the promotion in regards to your conduct. However, boo and cheer whomever you like for whatever reason you like. You paid your ticket, it’s your god-given right to express yourself. It speaks to how sheltered some of these fans have been given their reasoning that you can’t boo Maxxine because “she tries hard”. She’s a professional athlete and entertainer, it’s part of the gig. I also noticed that a lot of the people who were commenting negatively on the fan were performers who were either trained by WWE or who had very little experience before and were signed at a very young age.

It’s great that y’all want to support each other and that you love your friend and are encouraging her to succeed. Send her a text, give her a call, send a DM, but don’t try and gatekeep how fans should react to her character when she’s in a wrestling ring. That’s the problem when you don’t have to get yourself over and grind before being allowed to join the biggest sports entertainment company in the world, you become entitled and feel that you deserve your spot and that no one can criticize you because they haven’t been in your shoes, but you are dead wrong.

I went back to edit this column after seeing Trish Stratus’ comments on social media. She called the fans talking about Maxxine having a bad match as “keyboard warriors” and went with the old “You try it then”. I was not expecting someone who came up during an era where women’s wrestling was a sideshow and who really started as eye candy to have this dumb take. Trish, the public and the keyboard warriors are your paying customers. We can and will criticize when we feel someone has a bad match. Can you imagine Johnny Depp or some other actor coming out and blasting the audience for not liking a movie. Saying something like “Make your own movies if you’re so great”. The men are not above being critiqued for a bad match and yet you don’t see this kind of reaction to them from the rest of the IWC. So what if she’s learning? She chose to take the job knowing what came along with it. You think no men have ever been booed after a bad showing? Being a public figure means that you will face criticism. Even I, who is by no means of any relevance to anyone, get criticism. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don’t, but I will not say someone can’t criticize me unless they also write columns. Keep in mind that what I do is free, but I choose to post columns and I understand that doing so may result in backlash, I don’t have to always like it but I have to accept it.

Again, harassment, insults or slurs are not the same as just being booed. The fan didn’t like Maxxine’s performance that night and he used his voice to boo as a way to let it be known. She’s a grown woman and she chose to take this route; it’s par for the course. Even in competitive sports leagues like the NHL, the NBA or the NFL, you’ll see athletes getting booed. Watch videos of how Eric Lindros was welcomed at the Quebec Coliseum after he refused to play for the Nordiques and forced them to trade him. These aren’t entertainers, they’re being paid to help the team win and perform in an athletic competition, yet you don’t see players jumping on social media criticizing the fans just because their teammate got heckled. The best will use it as fuel and will play even better just to shut the fans up. Get thicker skin.

This also applies to the people getting outraged over wrestlers doing dangerous spots. You have the old heads with their clickbait about how “someone will die” in the ring or whatever over stunts like Darby Allin falling through tempered glass at Revolution. I do believe some people are expressing genuine concern and are afraid of a wrestler getting a career-ending injury on a big stunt. That’s admirable of you, but death match wrestling has existed for decades. Mick Foley was falling off ladders through barbed wire, jumping on beds of nails and getting hip tossed into barbed wired boards with C4 for years before he got to WWE. You know what caused his biggest injuries, though? Years of doing elbows from the ring apron to the concrete and landing on his hip and knee. That plus all the head trauma he suffered through things like unprotected chair shots to the head. He lost his ear on a move he did hundreds of times, but on this one night, the ropes were too tight and after all the scar tissue he had amassed, his ear got cut off.

It’s not the big stunts and the big dives that usually cause severe injuries, it’s the most mundane, run-of-the-mill moves that you do hundreds of times. Multiple wrestlers have broken their legs/ankles doing baseball slides. Seth Rollins blew out his knee doing a sunset flip powerbomb because his foot landed awkwardly. The reason is that when you’re doing a big move or stunt, you’ll plan it out and focus on what you’re doing. You don’t do that when you’re in the moment just going through routine moves. Darby got 12 stitches from falling through the glass; he broke his foot 10 days later just doing a normal dive to the outside on Jay White. Nothing went wrong, his foot just landed wrong and it broke. Wrestling is a dangerous sport for sure, and I don’t think AEW or WWE should just embrace the Death match style on the regular. With that being said, if a wrestler chooses to do a big stunt here and there as a way to accentuate a match, that’s their choice. Adrenaline’s a hell of a drug, and it’s free. 

Steamy Out!

4-Conclusion:

I’m going to wrap this up given how long this entire piece has been. I know some people may feel this week’s Part 2 has nothing to do with Part 1 and may criticize me for not just writing two separate columns. What really brings it back together for me is how both young and old have these ideas that seem to match yet the reasoning behind it is so different and they end up on different islands. When you’ve grown up and only been exposed to one type of wrestling and been told that this is the way it’s supposed to be, it can be jarring to be exposed to something that looks like what you know yet differs greatly. 

For the kids, if you feel like educating yourselves, go watch ECW Heatwave 1999 and see the Dudleys nearly start a riot in the crowd. Find the Taipei Death match between Axl and Ian Rotten. Go to Cagematch and enter Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund and look at all the dates they made defending their titles. But also, get off the damn TikTok and do some research once in a while before posting stupid takes that can be easily refuted. Don’t listen to the old bitter fossils who want to hang on to an era that’s passed them by. Wrestling evolves and it waits for no one, you are the gatekeepers for the future, you’ll pass your love to your kids (hopefully) and then they might pass it on to their kids. Remember that getting outraged over the simplest stuff is not worth it. Wrestlers are professional athletes and you are the consumer. It’s great that women’s wrestling has evolved so much but equality also means equal criticism. You have to take the bad with the good.

For the old folks like me, stop caring about the damn ratings. The dirt sheets publish and treat these numbers like facts because they know you gobble them up. If you don’t like a segment, a wrestler, a match or a show, just be honest and say you don’t like it, stop trying to shield yourself by constantly bringing up ratings. And also, Vince McMahon can go to hell. Stop trying to defend him or justify his actions. Former wrestlers and wrestling talent, your life and careers were not defined by him. He gave you a platform but you’re the ones who made the best of it. In the modern age, there are no secrets anymore. It’s time to face facts and accept reality, the man who helped make wrestling as big as it is today was a monster and a predator. Let’s make sure that nothing like what he did ever happens again and let’s leave his “legacy” in the past where it belongs.

This has been the Steamy Files, until next time, I’m not gay, but if I was, I would want Equal Rights

Follow me on Twitter @steamyrv

The post The Steamy Files: No Country For Old Men (Part 2) appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Hello one and all and welcome back to the most fetching column in all of the IWC, it’s the Steamy Files bay-bay! Now this intro is going to be a bit longer than normal because what I want to talk about today is a bit more scattered than my usual subjects. I try to focus on one particular topic when I’m writing a new column so as to have a coherent train of thought and present my opinion based on the selected subject.

But today, I want to talk about something that I feel has some loose threads of connection that are not directly related but, in my mind at least, share a lot of common ground. You see folks, I’m getting old. I mentioned in my debut column that I was a child of the 80s, and I am right on the cusp on 2 generations. I fall right in between the end of Gen X and the beginning of millennials (also known as gen Y). This gives me a particular viewpoint when it comes to the world as I saw it change and evolve in real time.

The reason I’m telling you all of this is to contextualize that I’m not one of those “get off my lawn” types of people. I respect the past but I don’t dwell in it. I think, for the most part, the world has moved forward towards the best. There are unfortunately still those that refuse to follow and stick their feet in the mud not wanting to move even an inch forward for whatever reasons. I’m not one to judge what someone enjoys or how they want to live their lives, as long as they remain respectful of others. I don’t need to understand or agree with everything that happens as long as either myself or others are not being targeted or disrespected.

You’re probably reading this asking yourself, Steamy, what does this have to do with wrestling? I’m getting there, patience young grasshoppers. As someone who spends a lot of time working at a computer, I also spend a lot of time on social media and various discussion boards. I don’t like to isolate myself and I try to see content I may not agree with. What I’ve noticed are that most of the IWC seems to fall into 2 camps: older wrestling fans/old wrestlers who want the product to go back to what it was in the past and younger wrestling fans who overanalyze and over critique everything and yet here I am stuck in the middle.

Younger fans have this entitlement that their opinion is right and that the old people should shut up and go back to Country Kitchen Buffet before the Early Bird Special runs out. On the other hand, old wrestling personalities and older fans seem to want to tell everyone what they believe wrestling should be and seem to be incapable of letting go of their past fame or experiences to join us in the current day. There are a couple of recent events and comments that really sparked this idea in my head. I will be going back and forth and this won’t be in chronological order and it may not all make sense until the last word of the last part, so I hope you stick with me as I try to unravel this thread. Given how much there is to cover, I will be splitting this column into at least 2 parts.

With all that being said, I think we should start with the elephant in the room.

1-Vince McMahon

1.1.-The accusations

If I’m going to talk about Vince, I’m not going to bury the lead. I was disgusted and appalled to read the accusations by Janel Grant in her sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon. What she alleges happened to her is beyond sick and twisted; it’s damn near evil. While these are still allegations, the details provided, along with times, dates, places and especially those text messages make me believe that she is telling the truth.

I think we all knew Vince was shady. I mean we’ve seen the man make out with his employees on screen and book himself in storylines with some of the hottest women in the wrestling business. We knew he was probably a bit of a pervert and definitely a weirdo. There are the stories about him hating sneezing, about his unpredictable temper and so many more stories that make you think this is a strange man.

I was reading Brian Gewirtz excellent book and a story he said came to mind. I’m going to paraphrase as I strongly suggest that you read his book if you haven’t already, but basically there are some wild stories about Vince McMahon in there. The one that stuck in my head was Vince honking the horn on his car loudly and proudly in the middle of the night while in a residential neighbourhood. Why did he do it? Because he thought it was funny.

When I pictured Vince, I always thought of a teenager stuck in an old man’s body. Like everyone else, I had heard stories that made me believe he could be heartless at times, but I always chalked it up to his favourite saying, “Best for business”. For all his flaws (I thought), the man truly cares about his company and will do everything to protect it. He’s employing hundreds of people, he’s the only major promoter left in pro wrestling (until our saviour TK) and basically is the de facto guardian of wrestling history thanks to all the footage of dead territories and promotions that the WWE owns.

I had always been able to brush aside some of my discomfort with Vince McMahon because even though I strongly disagreed with a lot of his actions and felt he was in the wrong on many occasions, I was always able to tell myself that it was in the interest of his company. When I read that court filing, I was sick to my stomach.

What possible business justification could there be in abusing a woman like that? I’m not a prude by any sense of the imagination. What two consenting adults do behind closed doors is none of my business. However, the key word here is consent. While the IWC rarely agrees on anything, it seems most people understand that Janel Grant didn’t consent, she couldn’t. If you’re in the minority that still doesn’t get why, we’ll go into that later on. Just know that it’s not as black and white as Yes or No.

Suddenly, everything else started clicking into place. What I thought was just childish antics or the machinations of a man who, for better or worse, always put his company above everything, now conveyed a much deeper, darker and sadistic meaning.

1.2-The scandals

There are so many scandals that one could go into when thinking of the WWE/WWF. If I were to try and break every single one of them down and look at it through the lens of what we now know about Vince McMahon today, I could write multiple novels, and I already spent a lot of words on that intro. I want to talk more about the way McMahon addressed 3 scandals in particular: The Ring Boys scandal, the Rita Chatterton rape allegations and the death of Owen Hart.

I laid out these scandals specifically because they all have something in common, and that is the way Vince McMahon responded to them. While it would be untrue to say the responses were exactly the same, he did use similar tactics. Before I talk about his responses, let’s talk about an acronym that will be very relevant to the story: DARVO.

DARVO stands for: deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender. It’s a reaction that is often used by people trying to deflect responsibility for their actions. First, they deny that the incident happened or that they were responsible for it. Then, they will go on the attack and accuse the people trying to hold them accountable, or the victims themselves, of trying to defame them, ruin them or their reputation. Instead of acknowledging wrongdoing and trying to make amends, they aim to reframe it as a debate. Reverse victim and offender is pretty self-explanatory. Basically, the culprit presents themselves as the victim. They’re the ones under attack, they’re the ones being unfairly treated. The victim is lying, the victim is wrong about the events, it’s not the culprit’s fault. Even before DARVO became an acronym to describe a tactic to escape accountability, Vince McMahon was a master at it.

Let’s start with the ring boys and Chatterton scandals since those came to light around the same time and were discussed by Vince in an interview on the Donahue show in 1992. The entire episode is available on YouTube and in light of recent events, it is a chilling watch to see how manipulative McMahon was. McMahon is actually confronted head-on by some of his accusers at that very show and still, he is unable to mutter up a single sympathetic comment, a single acknowledgement of wrongdoing and when he isn’t denying that anything happened, he attacks the accusers’ credibility. They were bad at their jobs, he says, they’re trying to frame Pat Patterson because he’s gay, they didn’t report the incident to him, it’s just excuse after excuse. While he didn’t scream or get noticeably angry at the time, this pattern of behaviour that he showed here would continue and get worse as time went on.

The very night that Owen Hart fell to his death, Vince McMahon held a press conference after the event. His first statement was dismissive, saying that this type of stunt was performed around the world all the time and that it was supposed to be a “superhero-like fashion” entrance (deny). When reporters started asking questions about why there was no back-up line and basically questioning if more precautions could have been taken, Vince answered, “I’m not an expert on rigging, I guess you are”. When the (female I should point out) reporter asked a follow-up question, the first words out of Vince’s mouth in response were “First of all , I resent your tone”. He would then say that it was a tragic accident and accused the reporter of trying to put herself in the spotlight (attack). He would later go on to try and claim the WWF were under attack for what was really not their fault that “as far as they knew ”every safety measure was taken,” which was false as the first rigging company they contacted not only told them their initial request was unsafe, but when they learned who the WWF had hired for the stunt, they contacted them back because they knew the coordinator WWF had hired was not competent to perform this safely. WWF told them the stunt was cancelled.

When asked why he didn’t stop the show after Owen died, Vince claimed that “no one knew what to do” and that “Owen would have wanted it this way” (reverse offender and victim). When asked why he didn’t tell the live audience in the arena about Owen’s death, he claimed that he was afraid of starting a panic.

1.3-“The Narcissist” Vince McMahon:

I firmly believe that Vince McMahon is a narcissist. According to the Mayo Clinic, Narcissistic personality disorder is “A disorder in which a person has an inflated sense of self-importance. Symptoms include an excessive need for admiration, disregard for others’ feelings, an inability to handle any criticism, and a sense of entitlement.”

Whenever blame comes, whenever someone tried to hold Vince accountable for his negligence or his crimes, he had been able in the past to use his position and his money to skirt any real accountability. This gave him a sense on entitlement, a sense of power. Even when the federal government tried to go after him for steroid distribution, he beat the case.

As time went on, Vince grew more powerful and richer. He started seeing everyone around him as either a plus or a minus. Either you were useful and could help him make more money, or you were not and hence you didn’t matter. This attitude also seems to have been present when it comes to dealing with women.

There’s a difference between having affairs and being an abuser. One is being a bad partner while the other is being a terrible person and a criminal. What Janel Grant went through is sick. The fact is that if this was just about sex and getting his rocks off, Vince had enough money to hire high-class escorts. The type of escorts that service the rich and famous and will cost more but know how to be discreet. If it had come out that Vince paid for hookers, it would be a little embarrassing for sure, he’d have some egg on his face but it wouldn’t have caused this severe of a backlash. It would also have been way cheaper than the settlement he paid under the original terms of the NDA. It’s kind of ironic how his belief of being bulletproof led him to violate the terms of the NDA and opened the door for Janel Grant to come forward.

Vince didn’t want a mistress; he wanted a toy. He wanted to control a woman, to have her at his beck and call, to humiliate and degrade her for his own twisted pleasure. There’s been some questioning the “grooming” accusations, saying that Janel Grant could have walked away, that she was an adult and had free will to simply quit. Hence, they argue, she must have consented? This is wrong on so many levels.

While it’s true we often associate grooming with underage individuals being “buttered up” by an abuser for sexual abuse when they eventually come of age, it can also apply to any form of coercive control. In this case, Vince met a young woman who lost both her parents, was unemployed, most likely in debt and in desperate need of help.

He started slow, interviewing her while in his underwear, stealing kisses, fondling, escalating to giving her oral sex and eventually passed her around to his subordinates as a reward, hence why sex trafficking is amongst the accusations. He gave her gifts, made her feel special, the classic cycle of abuse. Once she was in the claws of Vince, once he pushed her boundaries slowly but surely, she became more and more under his control. Quitting? What was she going to say to potential employers? “Why did you leave your last job?” “Oh, because my boss took a shit in my hair while I was having a threesome with him and another employee.” Even if she didn’t say that, any future employer would want a reference from the previous company she worked for, what do you think the mandate from Vince would be? Tear this woman’s reputation apart. She knew too much; she had seen too much.

She was Vince’s toy, and he wasn’t going to let her go until he got tired of her or until her presence became too big of a risk for his bottom line. This is consistent with past behaviour. Why did he not work with law enforcement to truly get to the bottom of the ring boy scandal? Because it would have made the company look bad. We are blessed nowadays in the digital age that a story can spread in minutes, and nothing is ever truly gone, but that wasn’t the case back in the 80’s and early 90’s. The same thing happened to Rita Chatterton, but Vince hadn’t grown as emboldened by his ability to deflect consequences for his actions just yet. It was 1986, he wanted to have sex with that woman and he knew that even if she told, it would be her word against his. It’s no coincidence that he had her fired later that year, he had his fun already, she was of no use to him.

When Owen Hart fell to his death, who would have blamed the WWF for stopping the show? It’s one thing if someone suffers an injury in the course of a match and has to be stretchered out. That’s bad, but at least it’s understandable. Owen had fell from the ceiling and died in the middle of the ring, in front of a packed audience. A riot? Why would there be a riot? Unless Vince means he anticipated a riot because he would not be offering refunds. Even then, when a man just died in front of your eyes, are you really concerned about getting your money back? At worse, you stop the show and you offer refunds to the fans who want one or you tell everyone that already bought a ticket that if they keep it, it’ll be honoured next time the company comes to town. Or you know, just figure it out later, a man lost his life, you most likely have insurance and you’re a millionaire on his way to becoming a billionaire, maybe just don’t worry about the fucking money?

But no, to Vince this was just a minor hiccup. He was the victim, because Owen’s death looked bad for his company and cancelling the show meant taking a financial loss. Not to mention that the extra time before surrendering the scene over to the police and extra time to get their story straight was an added bonus. Vince loves money, like so many other billionaires, he’s obsessed with it. However, despite this rich history of underhanded and cruel tactics, it hasn’t stopped some old men from deluding themselves in response to this lawsuit.

1.4- Old men say the dumbest things

1.4.1-The sound of silence

What really drove this column wasn’t specifically Vince’s actions. I wish I could say I had never heard or read anything worse in my life but that would be a lie. This story is far too common in our society and thankfully the Internet and social media, for all its flaws, has allowed people to have a voice. Unfortunately, some old men didn’t get the memo that times have changed. The actions of Vince McMahon were never acceptable. But nowadays especially, there is even more focus on the actions of powerful rich men, but more importantly, people are starting to question the system that is in place to protect these men.

Make no mistake about it, there is no doubt in my mind that people knew that something was going on, either before Janel Grant ever joined WWE, during the time she was employed or when Vince initially left the board when it became public knowledge that he had made multiple women sign NDAs. I’m not going to start accusing anyone of any specific crimes because at this point, I don’t know. There has been news that Janel Grant has accused Stephanie McMahon, Nick Khan and Brad Blum of helping to cover up what happened to her. They had originally been included in the lawsuit but their identities were not public knowledge at the time of the initial filing.

At some point, someone could have stepped in and ended this poor woman’s nightmare. Even if all they knew was that she was having sex with Vince, that is enough to step in and say “That’s not OK”. One of the things we understand now that was glossed over back in the day was the role that power plays in relationships. Gone are the days where bosses can just hire any attractive woman to be their secretary/mistress. This is especially true in a public company that has to worry about reporting to shareholders. Even if they believed that Janel Grant was a consenting participant, they should have never allowed it to continue given that if it became public, it could damage the company’s stock. Keep in mind, this is the best-case scenario of an inappropriate workplace affair, but that wasn’t what was actually going on. At this point, until there is a full criminal investigation into WWE and details come out, this is all speculation. What is not speculation, however, is how certain former and current wrestling personalities responded to this news.

1.4.2-Those who don’t learn from history

I want to take a moment to highlight the two men who had, in my opinion, the best responses of any wrestling-related personalities to this news: Bret Hart and Lance Storm. Not a surprise to see 2 Canadians who were born and still live here to have the sanest takes, but basically both expressed utter disgust at Vince’s actions, truly condemned him and expressed sympathy for the victim without ever trying to romanticize Vince McMahon and their relationships with him. I won’t go over everyone’s responses as they seem to fall into the category of being emotional not at the treatment that Janel Grant suffered, but rather at the impact Vince McMahon had on their lives and the wrestling business and how it affects his “legacy”.

I will, however, highlight two people: Kevin Nash and John Cena. I’m assuming everyone (or most everyone) has read or heard their terrible responses at this point so I won’t quote them word for word, I simply don’t want to read, hear or type what they said ever again, especially Nash.

To paraphrase Big Daddy Dumbass, Janel Grant was an adult who could have walked away and she couldn’t possibly be groomed because she wasn’t a minor and she just wants money. John Cena’s comments were less inflammatory but basically, he painted Vince McMahon in this heavenly light, like this great guy who was going through troubles, but that John, like the good friend that he is, would be there to support him and show him love. Nash can go suck a rock. There’s nothing to say to something so wrong, so dumb and so unbelievably cold-hearted. Get a soul Kevin. If cancel culture was a real thing, your ass would be grass and we’d all collectively smoke you back to the shadows.

John Cena hits a bit different. Nash is an idiot with a podcast, there are thousands of those, he’s not special. Cena is a mainstream star, who works in Hollywood and has an agent, a publicist and went on the Howard Stern show to promote a new project. Howard isn’t known for softballs, it was a guarantee that Cena was going to be asked about Vince and yet, this is the best he could do. You’re defending your friend John? Really?

When was the last time you went on a double date with Vince and Linda John? When was the last time Vince came to your house and had a BBQ? If you had children and you chose to baptize them, would you expect Vince to come? How often do you two hang out and just have fun, not talking any business? Do you exchange Christmas gifts? Invite him to holiday/birthday parties? Ever just go somewhere and chill? Maybe a few times and I’m sure you guys talk on the phone and text, but how much do you know about each other as people?

That’s what friends do. What John Cena and Vince McMahon have is a business relationship. Cena seems to believe that he owes Vince for what he has gotten in life, the money, the fame, the success, but that’s false. Vince McMahon paid John Cena a fraction of what he himself earned off the back of John Cena. It’s not like Vince just gave Cena money out of the goodness of his heart, he was an employee. Vince marketed Cena, but if Cena had not had the It factor, if he had not been able to deliver, then he would not have made the money he made nor would he have become famous. Vince McMahon is a good marketer, but every good marketer needs a good product. When Vince tried to push Giant Gonzalez, no matter what he did, it failed, because GG was a terrible wrestler with no charisma. He was big, but that was it. It was you John who made Vince money. You were out there on the road, wrestling in different towns, getting slammed on the mat and connecting with the fans.

Vince McMahon was never your friend, to borrow a quote from Dana White. He likes you because you make him money. He paid you because he was making tons of money off your name and he wanted to keep you around. Would you still consider Vince a friend if he had fired you right before you got over as the Doctor of Thuganomics? I understand that you may feel a sense of loyalty to the man, that you can appreciate the opportunity you got and are thankful for your career, but at some point, where’s your sense of right and wrong? You played your part, you were the good corporate boy with the squeaky-clean image, you sold a metric ton of merch in different colours, you were out there being a good person, doing Make-A-Wish and through your humanity and your efforts, you made WWE look good and when WWE looks good, Vince McMahon makes more money. That’s what you were to him. I wonder what sex toy he named after you? Perhaps the butt plug?

What that tone-deaf statement shows is that Cena is more concerned about a sexual predator who Cena himself help make the billionaire he became, which in turn allowed him to satisfy his sadistic urges, than the women that man went on to abuse. Where is your sympathy for the victim John? If Janel Grant was named Shay Shariatzadeh (his wife for those who don’t know), would you feel the same way? What if it had been one of your brothers who were part of the ring crew during that scandal and Vince covered it up, would you still want to show him love and support then?

The fact of the matter is, Vince McMahon’s legacy is dead. His entire history is gone because he doesn’t deserve to be remembered as anything other than a monster, a rapist and a narcissist who profited off the hard work of others, who exploited his wrestlers even after their deaths and who refused to take any accountability for his actions. As I said, he is a great marketer, but that’s it. The wrestlers had to buy into his idea, the fans had to pay money to go see it, the production crew had to make it look good and an entire team of people had to work hard for very little money and recognition for their contribution in order for everything to happen the way it did.

This is my message to all the old men who worked for Vince and feel the need to justify their positive thoughts on him: don’t. I’m not denying you the right to be shocked or to be hurt by finding out what this man truly is, but now that the truth is out there, it’s time to come to terms with the fact that you helped. Stop defending him, or trying to justify why he should still be remembered. I am by no means blaming people who worked for WWE or those who were close to McMahon. Just ask yourselves this, if the shoe was on the other foot, would Vince do the same for you now that you’re no longer useful to him?

I will end Part 1 here as I have a lot more to say. Join me next week as we move away from Vince and into a more general look at old vs. young and where the middle ground lies. Follow me on Twitter @steamyrv

The post The Steamy Files: No Country For Old Men (Part One) appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Before we get started, if you want to talk about this column, share your opinions or talk about wrestling, I’ll be more focused on engaging via Twitter from now on. My handle is @steamyrv, my profile is public and my DMs are open.

I’m guessing a lot of people read the title of the column and thought this was going to be about Cody, but sorry to disappoint, that’s not what I’m here to talk about. No, I’m here to discuss the true never-ending story of pro wrestling for the last 6 months. It seems we’ve all been experiencing Groundhog Day over and over again like Bill Murray because no matter how much time passes, the same arguments and talking points pop up over and over again.

Yes, I’m talking about CM Punk’s exit from AEW. Trust me, I wish this story would die too, you’d think that after all this time and no new information coming out that it would be fading away from our collective consciousness but it never does. You’ve all heard these arguments by now, it’s always centered around one of the following:

1. The Elite were leaking stories to Meltzer about Colt Cabana and that’s what caused Punk to get mad
2. The Elite and Tony Khan should have sat down with Punk and talked it out after the Brawl Out
3. Worker’s rights

There are also the ones lamenting that this was never turned into an on-screen angle, saying how AEW threw away lots of money by not turning real-life into a work. I previously addressed CM Punk’s AEW tenure in broad strokes when I wrote my Toxic Wrestling Fandom column, but at that time I focused mainly on the Gripe Bomb, the brawl and the All In incident. While it’s impossible to make a column speaking specifically on Punk’s tumultuous tenure in AEW without mentioning those, they will not be the focus of my column. I want to look at what went down between September 2022 and August 2023 and debunk some of the rumours. To do so, we’ll start our journey on September 4^, 2022.

1-Gripe Bomb and Brawl Out

1.1- Leaks and dirtsheets

While I try to keep dirt sheet rumours and innuendo out of my columns for the most part, it’s impossible to talk about what allegedly led to the September 4^th incident without acknowledging them. Based on Punk’s comments, it seems that the reason for his anger was his belief that someone from the Elite was leaking stories to Dave Meltzer about how Colt Cabana wasn’t allowed in an AEW locker room because of Punk. Some rumours had it that Colt was fired as well, but the jest is that Punk and Cabana could not be allowed in the same building at the same time, according to the rumours.

I’ve spoken at length that I don’t believe there is such a thing as a wrestling journalist, I’m not going to go into detail again. However, let’s think about this logically. It’s a fact that after Punk’s initial signing with AEW in 2021, until after the All Out 2022 PPV, Colt Cabana was never seen on screen in any form of AEW programming. He would wrestle a match on Dynamite against Chris Jericho after Punk’s injury but is now working in the ROH brand.

Anyone who is mildly familiar with the history of Punk and Cabana will know these two had a nuclear falling out. Their friendship was irrevocably damaged as a result of the lawsuit filed against both men by Dr. Chris Amann of WWE. The rift was so bad that it led to a lawsuit between the two former friends over legal fees incurred during the original trial. This was public information that was available to all, way before CM Punk ever signed an AEW contract. If you’re signing CM Punk to your company and Colt Cabana is also under contract with you and you try to have both men co-exist under the same umbrella, you’re risking the possibility of a blow-up or an incident. Tony Khan clearly knew this and felt (rightfully so) that the best thing to do was bench Colt and keep paying him per the terms of his contract and bring Punk in, given the public interest in seeing him back in pro wrestling at the time.

There’s no need for anyone to leak that to Meltzer. If I, one man with an Internet connection, and most of the IWC already knows of the bad blood between Colt and Punk, Meltzer, who makes a living selling newsletters about the backstage happenings of the pro-wrestling industry, knew that as well. Cabana wasn’t exactly a featured star on Dynamite back in 2021, but Punk showed up and Cabana disappeared completely. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. My theory, and what is also the most plausible scenario, is that Meltzer came to that conclusion all by himself and he reported it. Meltzer is a terrible communicator, and so it’s hard to understand when he is talking about what is “news” and what is “opinion” as he tends to ramble and go on word salads that don’t amount to a hill of beans.

What would potentially be the upside for The Elite to tell Meltzer something like that? First of all, it’s not exactly new information, perhaps it would be a confirmation of what most people already assumed, but why would the Executive Vice-Presidents and the men who helped found the company want to go to Meltzer to express their alleged displeasure with the situation when they can go knock on the owner’s door? As EVPs, they would also be aware of the contractual status of Colt Cabana and would therefore know that he’s still signed to the company. While it’s unclear what exactly the responsibilities of the EVPs consist of, I would be surprised if they were not consulted at all before CM Punk was signed. Yes, at the end of the day, its TK’s money, but it would be weird to not, at the very least, ask the Elite’s opinions before making a decision.

1.2-The Brawl Out:

Now that we’ve talked about what supposedly led to the Gripe Bomb, let’s address the brawl out. We will never know for a fact what actually went down that night. Given that there were no video cameras and that emotions were running high, I doubt we’ll ever get a clear and definitive picture of who did what and how everything unfolded.

What we do know for a fact is this: Punk went back to his locker room after his bitch fit and The Elite went to confront him. Punches were thrown, Omega was bitten (the scars on his arm were very visible) and everyone got stripped of their championships and suspended as a result.

I think going to confront Punk was a terrible idea by The Elite. He was hurt, angry and clearly not in a right state of mind. I have no doubt they were angry too and didn’t appreciate being called out the way that they were during that scrum. Was their intention to get in a physical fight? I don’t know. I have no doubt voices were raised and tempers were hot and then someone threw a punch or threw a chair and shit hit the fan.

While the events of the night remain unclear, resorting to violence is never the solution. It doesn’t solve anything; in fact, it just tends to make people angrier and further the bad blood. I can understand sometimes tempers flare and people might get in a tussle but for a full-blown fight to go down? That’s bad.

2-The Aftermath

This is where the story usually skips ahead 9 months to CM Punk’s return to Collision in June of 2023, but the question that I’ve never found the answer to and still wonder to this day is what happened next? CM Punk had also suffered a torn triceps during his match with Jon Moxley that night so this further complicates things.

When a worker gets injured under your watch, it’s usually illegal to outright fire them. I don’t know the full details of Punk’s contract but one thing is for certain, if the decision had been made to fire Punk right there unilaterally, a lawsuit would have been Punk’s next move and rightfully so. He got injured working for AEW and his guarantee should be honoured during the time he is on the shelf until he can get back to work.

The Elite were suspended and basically healthy scratches for a few months. The Trios titles were vacated and the names of Omega and The Young Bucks were not spoken on AEW TV until their eventual return. Given that they suffered no serious physical injury in the fight, they were able to get back to TV much faster than Punk. Some will ask: if I am OK with the idea of firing Punk for his part in the incident (injury not withstanding) why do I not call for the same for The Elite? That’s because they were provoked. I still say that going to face Punk right then was a major mistake. I don’t know what their state of mind was but the best course of action would have been to let cooler heads prevail and address the issue at a later date.

However, you can’t just go public with such disrespectful comments directed at your coworkers and especially company executives. It’s unprofessional and speaks of a lack of control over your own emotions. Did Punk really believe that The Elite were talking about him behind his back? Or was there more to the story? The reason I chose to the line from the song ISIS to begin my column is that I do feel that if that is the true reason for CM Punk flying off the handle, it speaks to a deep paranoia. I’m hoping that he at least asked The Elite if this was true before he went off during that media scrum and that they denied it. It would speak to Punk being distrustful of Omega and the Bucks, but if he didn’t even bring up the situation to them and refused to even consider the very real possibility that the Elite didn’t talk to Meltzer, then that is a clear sign that Punk wasn’t in a good mental space.

The question I don’t see asked and the one I can’t find an answer to is what happened once the suspensions were handed out and everyone went home to cool off? If we go off the rumours that came up after Punk’s 2023 return (which I will talk about later), then it would seem there was no communication between the parties. Let me remind you that CM Punk was out of action for 9 months. Yes, he was injured and yes, he was rehabbing his injury but did he ever try to call either The Young Bucks or Kenny Omega? Did he ever send them a text message asking if they could talk? Did he ever propose to fly himself to a Dynamite event so all of them could meet and bury the hatchet?

We know he made a visit to WWE Raw when they were in Chicago and he apparently met and talked with several people at that time. Was Punk waiting for The Elite to contact him? If so, why? As I’ve stated above, this entire scenario only happens because Punk decides to air out his grievances publicly and unprompted. No one asked him about any of the members of The Elite, no one asked him about Colt Cabana. There was no storyline reason to mention any of these men. Punk had just beaten Jon Moxley and was going to feud with MJF again over his newly won World Title (before it was found out he had suffered a serious injury). What possible reason could he have had to decide this was the time and the place? This isn’t a 20-year-old with a chip on his shoulder who thinks he’s the king of the world. CM Punk was a veteran, in his mid-forties and was the AEW Champion. While the belt is kayfabe, the trust that the company puts in you by giving it to you is not. When you are the World Champion, you are representing the company every time you are out in public. As such, you have a duty to lead by example and show others how to behave and how to act like you belong.

While it’s true The Elite could have reached out to Punk first anyways, be the bigger men, I have a feeling that their trust towards the man was broken and they worried that any contact could just set him off again and cause an even worse fallout. Maybe they were also angry at being called out in such a public fashion, humiliated to have been dragged down into the mud and embarrassed. The point is, it seems that no one reached out to one another to try and talk things out. Some may ask, why didn’t TK just get everyone together? Because they’re adults and when you run a large company, you have to count on your people to figure some things out for themselves. If such an attempt was made by anyone, it clearly didn’t materialize and as such we skip ahead to the return.

3-The return

I personally believe that bringing Punk back to AEW was a mistake. Yes, TK couldn’t just fire him right after the All Out incidents, but judging by what happened next, waiting until Punk was cleared and then buying out his contract to allow everyone to move on would probably have been the right move. I won’t even address the WB rumours; those never made any sense. The WBD CEO doesn’t care about the individual wrestlers that appear on AEW TV, they care about selling ads for the shows. It was rumoured that Punk was going to help WWE move RAW over to the WBD, but that turned out to be false and WWE signed with Netflix (which not one single wrestling journalist predicted before it was announced).

Tony Khan decided to give Punk a second chance. He most likely hoped that with time and distance that Punk would reflect on his actions and come back refreshed and ready to clear the dark clouds that had built up over his head at that time. This is where I pick up the trail I left off in the last section about a supposed sit down that Punk wanted to have with The Elite. I don’t know if this happened but let’s look at this objectively for a second.

You come back to work after 9 months away. Before your absence, you got into a fight with your coworkers. You spend 9 months in, alleged, radio silence and all of a sudden you want to meet? Where was this energy before? You had all this time to talk and try and work things out but you instead just wait until you come back? When you break someone’s trust, it’s up to you to try and repair the relationship if you so wish.

I mentioned that one option was reaching out during all that time away, but let’s say you don’t do that for a number of reasons. You’re coming back into an environment where you’ll be put under a microscope by not only everyone around you but all the fans watching, most of whom were confused and shocked by your behaviour the last time they saw you. Somehow you are granted a second chance, it just so happens that AEW is getting another show, 2 hours live on Saturday nights. While I don’t have any evidence to prove this, my guess is that it was agreed to do a split between you and the people you had issues with.

This would seem like being on probation to me. You’re given some space and now show us that you’re ready to leave it all behind. You’ve got an island all to yourself and your friends, all you have to do is show that you’re not the hotheaded and untrustworthy man you’re being perceived as. Go on Collision, steal the show, show that you’re here to work with us, not against us. If everything goes well and you’ve shown us that you’re worthy of us trusting you with our bodies and that if we do work with you, you won’t turn around and go on another rant which would make everyone look bad then we can talk about it. But why risk further turmoil if we don’t know how you will react and can’t be sure you won’t blow another public gasket in the middle of our feud?

It seems based on reports that Punk was eager to put everything behind him. Perhaps he did have remorse for his actions and he thought the best thing would be to do an angle together and draw money. In Punk’s mind, he probably figured that money heals all wounds and that turning a negative into a positive would be the way to go. The Elite felt differently. I can understand both points. It’s true, a feud certainly would have drawn attention, but on the other hand, how do you know you can trust Punk to be professional? We saw what happened with the “Worker’s rights” line by Hangman. If that’s all it takes to set Punk off and have him mad for months, how do you make an angle about a real-life situation without bringing real-life into it? Would they need to write down every single promo word for word out before, get everyone to sign off on it to ensure no one gets mad about a line?

And what about in the ring? Accidents happen. Sometimes things go wrong, even something as simple as a stray kick or a punch that’s a bit too hard for your liking. Wrestling is about trust. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels didn’t like each other, but they at least trusted each other to do business. They had a long history before things went south between the two men, but even then, things went over the line a few times and it led to them fighting backstage. It took decades before the two would bury the hatchet. Trust once broken is very hard to win back.

Now as for what happened with Jack Perry, that’s more nebulous. If we believe the reports from the time, it seems that Punk vetoed a spot Jack wanted to do on Collision (which ended up happening at the All In PPV) in a very dismissive and rude manner. I mentioned before about being a veteran and what comes with it. I can’t be certain of what exactly was said, but clearly Perry didn’t appreciate it. Making that comment to the camera on live TV was a mistake. But that doesn’t excuse a man in his mid-forties coming to blows with a 26-year-old over it.

4-Conclusion:

I’m well aware that no matter what I or anyone else says, there is no changing some people’s minds. For some, they’ve already chosen to scapegoat The Elite and TK for the way things ended with Punk’s AEW run. Maybe a very small number of people will read this and will think critically about this and come to the same conclusion I did, that while there were mistakes made on all sides, if Punk doesn’t go off and give The Gripe Bomb, none of this would have happened. Maybe Punk wanted more power in AEW and was not happy to report to people he felt were beneath him (just speculating). Maybe their visions didn’t align and maybe the entire experience was doomed from the start.

I’m just sick of hearing these arguments over and over again, always to defend Punk. No one is blameless in this situation, there are steps that could have been taken at any time to try and defuse the situation. But it has to be acknowledged what the root cause of all this was, and it was CM Punk. I don’t think the man is evil, but I do believe he has issues with anger and trouble dealing with his emotions. He seems to me to be a very black and white kind of guy, no shades of gray.

Those jumping to point out how great he’s been in WWE so far, just wait. I hope for everyone’s sakes that he truly has learned his lesson and that he will keep putting his best foot forward. He knows this is his last chance and he’s burned every other bridge behind him at this point. However, history has shown us that Punk is unpredictable. He’s out with another injury which will buy him some time, maybe more time to reflect on what went wrong with AEW, given how quick he went back to WWE after his firing.

Why did I write all this? Because now if someone keeps bringing up the same arguments, you can link him this column, given the character limits on Twitter and the chaos of comment sections, it’s hard to get a whole point across in one go. I am not foolish enough to believe I can change anyone’s minds, but I hope that eventually people realize that CM Punk in AEW was on life support the minute Punk chomped down on that muffin. We will never know exactly what went on in his head before that, what led him to that moment and why he did what he did, we just know that he did it. I’ll leave you with this quote from Stephanie McMahon, that isn’t about Punk, but sums up my thoughts perfectly:

“It just was a distrustful situation. If you can’t trust someone, you can’t be in business with them. It just doesn’t work.”

This has been The Steamy Files, until next time, enjoy yourselves!

Follow on Twitter to discuss this or any other topics: @steamyrv

The post The Steamy Files: The Neverending Story appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

I came across a promo by Eddie Guerrero on Twitter in the lead-up to his WWE Title match with Brock Lesnar at No Way Out, and after some back and forth with people in the replies, I found my next topic for the Steamy Files. Given this is a serious subject, I’ll skip the intro and get right into the column. Today we’re talking about Eddie Guerrero, and how his death helped save wrestling and save lives.

1- The history of young Eddie

1.1-The Guerrero Clan

Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes was born on October 9^, 1967. The youngest of four brothers. Eddie was the son of Gory Guerrero, a legendary grappler in Mexico. Eddie’s brothers were Chavo (also known as Chavo Sr. or Chavo Classic), Mando and Héctor, all of whom became wrestlers, though none of them would reach the heights that Eddie would.

1.2-Breaking into the business:

Eddie Guerrero would make his wrestling debut in 1986. He would start off wrestling in CMLL, then in AAA and New Japan, as well as touring in New Japan. In 1995, Eddie would have his first big break wrestling in ECW. He would have classic matches with 2 Cold Scorpion and Dean Malenko that would catch the eye of Eric Bischoff, who was recruiting talent for the launch of Monday Nitro.

2- World Championship Wrestling:

This is where a lot of people first became familiar with Eddie Guerrero. Eddie was one of the many international stars that were signed to be in the cruiserweight division, showing a faster and more athletic style of wrestling that would go on to influence many of today’s stars. Through most of his WCW career, Eddie would be primarily confined to the cruiserweight division, apart from a short US title reign in late 1996, early 1997. Eddie would also be paired on and off with his nephew Chavo Jr. as rivals or allies, depending on the situation.

It was as a cocky heel that Guerrero put in some of the best performances of his career. His Starrcade 1997 title vs. mask match against Rey Mysterio Jr. is a classic that is still fondly remembered more than 26 years later. Eddie was never a bodybuilder, but no one could accuse him of not being in great shape. 1997–1998 Eddie Guerrero was lean but muscular. Unfortunately, the wrestling business was still dominated by big men like Hulk Hogan, The Giant/Big Show, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Goldberg and more who looked down on the “smaller” talent and had no interest in working with them.

On New Year’s Day 1999, Eddie Guerrero would be in a car accident that would take him out of action for nearly 6 months. While he walked away from the accident, the damage he suffered in the crash would come back to haunt him, as it would cause a drug addiction that nearly cost him his career, his family and even his life.

In January 2000, Eddie would join CB, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn in demanding their release from WCW and would jump to the then red-hot WWF as a quartet dubbed The Radicalz.

3- The World Wrestling Federation

3.1-The debut

If Eddie Guerrero didn’t have rotten luck, he’d have no luck at all. After coming in with massive fanfare in a move that shocked the wrestling world, Eddie would suffer an elbow injury in his first match in the company, teaming with Perry Saturn against the New Age Outlaws. This was only Eddie’s second day on the roster, the incident happening during the SmackDown taping, the night after his RAW on-screen debut.

The storyline that night was that The Radicalz were to compete in a series of 3 matches and needed to win 2 out of the 3 to gain WWF contracts. The matches were X-Pac vs. Dean Malenko, Eddie/Saturn vs. NAO and finally CB vs. Triple H. The plan was for Dean to lose, followed by Eddie/Saturn winning to tie everything up at 1-1 for the final match between CB and Triple H.

Guerrero’s injury was so bad that he immediately told Road Dogg to pin him as he couldn’t continue. Eddie would be out of action for a couple of months, appearing alongside the rest of the group on TV with his arm in a sling. I’m not going to recap Eddie’s entire career here, as I’m just trying to hit on the major events in Eddie’s life.

3.2-The release and comeback

Eddie had been dealing with substance abuse issues for a couple of years when he was arrested for a DUI in November of 2001, and was subsequently released by the WWF a few days later. Guerrero admits that he went through a dark period, which caused a bad rift in his marriage, with his wife Vickie even leaving him (although they never divorced) with their 3 children. Out of work, addicted to alcohol and pain killers, thankfully Eddie managed to turn his life around.

After attending rehab and getting sober, Eddie got back on the proverbial horse and went and paid his dues all over again. He went around and competed for many smaller promotions, such as a ROH (which was in its infancy at the time), IWA Mid-South, WWA and New Japan. In April of 2002, Eddie returned to the soon-to-be rebranded WWE on the RAW brand where he would feud with the likes of Steve Austin, RVD and Jeff Hardy amongst others. However, his breakout moment was still to come

3.3- The Smackdown Six:

After moving to SmackDown in August of 2002, Eddie would become one of the centrepieces of the brand from then on until his untimely passing. Eddie was a part of “The Smackdown Six” which were Edge, CB, Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, Chavo Guerrero Jr. and of course Eddie. The six men would mostly be paired up into teams, with Eddie teaming with his nephew Chavo. It’s during this run that Eddie seemed to get larger and larger. While Eddie had always had a good physique, he started to show signs of steroid abuse. He gained an extremely large amount of muscle mass with a massive chest, arms and bulging veins. While we don’t know how much he weighed, it seemed he was as least twice as big as he was in his previous physical peak. Even with the added weight, Guerrero was still able to compete at the highest level.

Initially a heel, Eddie would become a top babyface with his very popular “Lie, cheat and steal” persona, a style he had started back in WCW with The Filthy Animals but came to perfect over time with the WWE. He had a heel run against Rey Mysterio which led to the infamous “Custody of Dominik” ladder match.

On February 15 2004, Eddie Guerrero would defeat Brock Lesnar (with help from Goldberg) to become the WWE champion. Eddie was now a cemented main eventer. He went on to defend the title successfully at WM 20 and had that now bittersweet moment with CB to end the show. Both men hugging in the middle of the ring, holding the WWE’s two world titles high above their heads as confetti flew down. A testament to their hard work and dedication, of overcoming the odds and achieving what they were repeatedly told wasn’t in the card for them … being the top guys in a major company.

4- Gone too soon

4.1-A dark day:

Unfortunately, as we all know, Eddie Guerrero was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a hotel room on November 13^th 2005 (just 1 day removed after the 4-year anniversary of his release) in Minneapolis and was later pronounced dead of a heart attack.

While Eddie had beaten his demons of drugs and alcohol, it was ultimately his dreams of making it big in the wrestling business that expedited his death.

4.2-Steroids and HGH:

When Vince McMahon and the WWF hit the mainstream in the early 1980s, a massive change took place in the wrestling business. While there have always been “body guys”, meaning men who were known for their incredible chiselled and very muscular physique, this wasn’t the norm until the peak of Hulkamania, The Ultimate Warrior and other giant men carved out of granite that seemed to jump straight out of the pages of a comic book.

I mentioned a few times in this column that Eddie’s physique began to change over the years. While a changing physique isn’t necessarily signs of drug abuse, it’s often said that when addicts get clean, they find a new addiction. An addict’s brain is always searching for that endorphin high and will chase it, wherever it might come from. Removing drugs and alcohol is great and it’s a fact that if Eddie hadn’t gotten clean in 2001, he would have most likely died much earlier.

But if you look at pictures of Eddie Guerrero pre-WWF release to pictures of him at the end of his life, you’ll see a massive transformation that starts to really be noticeable during that time. To me, 1997–1998 Eddie Guerrero was in fantastic shape. He had a very athletic build but at the time, he was considered small for the wrestling business.

Eddie isn’t the first to suffer from “small man’s syndrome” as some would call it. While for a typical average man, Eddie wasn’t small by any means, he didn’t stand out in the land of giants that is the WWF. Even in WCW, where they were desperately lacking in new stars and where he would put out great performances time after time, he never could quite break through the glass ceiling. His first run with the WWF, while it was short, allowed him to show personality and be involved in storylines, but based on what we know of Eddie’s ambitions and drive, I don’t believe he was satisfied with mid to upper-midcard. Eddie wanted to be at the tippy top of the card, but he was working for noted bodybuilding enthusiast Vince McMahon, and so he was still hitting his head against that glass ceiling.

It’s important to note that steroids on their own do have legitimate medical uses. This column isn’t meant to demonize all steroid use or to say, “Drug are bad, m’kay”. I think if a pro wrestler chooses to take steroids, under a doctor’s supervision, that’s their decision and as long as they are careful, it’s not necessarily the end of the world. Steroids also aren’t magic, you still have to put in the work. What they will do is allow you to recover faster and allow you to pack on more muscle mass than you could naturally. However, the use of steroids (and most likely Human growth hormone) caused Eddie’s organs to enlarge, with his heart having to pump more and more blood to feed those organs, which meant less blood for itself, and the damage to his arteries from the drug abuse contributed to his heart no longer able to keep up and he tragically passed away at the age of 38.

5- The Aftermath

Before someone in the comments stop here and goes “IT’S NOT WWE’S FAULT, EDDIE CHOSE TO TAKE ROIDS, WHY ARE YOU BLAMING VINCE?” you’re right. I am in no means trying to diminish Eddie’s responsibility towards his health and safety. Eddie didn’t have to use steroids to live or even make a living. He was extremely talented, very charismatic, and while he probably wouldn’t have gotten the main event spot he did after his transformation, he would have likely still made decent money. The fact of the matter is, however, the bigger Eddie got, the more he got rewarded. It’s been noted by many former wrestlers that Vince had a preferred look, and while he never outright pushed steroids, he also didn’t discourage them. We look at the death toll amongst former wrestlers from the 80’s and early 90’s and we can see a pattern.

Eddie Guerrero’s death was a cold shower to the entire wrestling industry. While wrestlers dying young wasn’t new, it had never happened in such a way on such a national stage. Brian Pillman’s death in 1997 was tragic, but Pillman’s case was linked to painkiller use as a result of him trying to return to wrestling after his horrific crash that shattered his ankle. Owen Hart’s death was an accident from a stunt that was poorly planned and executed. Eddie’s though? Eddie was clean and sober, he had no traces of any drugs in his system and was a reformed man, born-again Christian. Dying in the way he did, at just 38 years old, not far removed from a run as the WWE Champion sent shockwaves everywhere. It was also the first time a WWE Superstar who was under contract and active at the time of his death had passed since the WWE first became public in October of 1999.

I’m not going to go into the creative decisions made after Eddie’s death, this isn’t what the column is about. I want to talk about how through his death, Eddie saved lives and maybe saved the business as a whole.

As many of you know, Eddie’s death was the catalyst for what would become the WWE wellness policy. While it would take another tragic incident to fully force WWE to clean up its act completely, this was the first step in that direction. We noticed soon after Eddie’s death that wrestlers started to shrink. WWE started testing for steroids and other drugs and, for a time, forced its wrestlers to clean up their act. While we can debate on the scope of the wellness policy and whether or not it’s applied evenly to everyone, the fact that it exists is already a step in the right direction.

While Vince’s federal indictment over steroid distribution in the ’90s did mean that wrestlers like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels who were once considered “too small” got a bigger spotlight to showcase their skills, the steroid culture never truly went away. Do I believe that every single pro-wrestler in a major company right now (be it AEW, WWE, NJPW or even TNA) is 100% steroid-free? Of course not. But at the very least now it’s no longer as required. You have guys like Bryan Danielson, Darby Allin, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk and so many others, some of whom would never have even been invited to the dance, and others who wouldn’t have reached the heights and success they have if it weren’t for the changing of the minds that was started after Eddie Guerrero’s death.

With that being said, I don’t want to reduce Eddie Guerrero’s contribution to only a martyr whose death shocked the wrestling world into action in a way that perhaps no other death before it ever did. While the wellness policy and the increased consciousness over steroid use and concussions (that would be amplified even further after Nancy and Daniel Benoit’s murders), Eddie’s contributions inside the ring can’t go unmentioned.

Eddie Guerrero was the first Hispanic WWE Champions since Pedro Morales (all the way back in 1973) and only the 2^nd overall. Eddie won the title on February 15^, 2004, exactly 20 years to the day of me publishing this column. Eddie was amongst a handful of trailblazers who showed you didn’t need to be 6′8″ and 400 pounds to get over with the audience. He’s one of the most influential luchadores in pro wrestling history, helping to open doors for others that would come after him.

We can thank men like Eddie for the faster, more athletic style of wrestling we see today and for helping open the doors for Mexican luchadores to make it unto the big stage and be treated as stars. Many stars of today will say they were influenced by Eddie to become wrestlers and he’s still remembered fondly. Eddie’s peers who were active at the time of his death and those that followed seem to be doing better overall than their older counterparts, many of whom died before the age of 50 after years of drug/steroid abuse. While we lost Eddie too soon and if he were around today, he’d be an amazing influence over the young talent, in a twisted way in death he perhaps helped save the wrestling business, but especially the wrestlers themselves from dying way too young. RIP Eddie and Viva La Raza!

Until next time, this has been The Steamy Files, and ain’t no rule that says a dog can’t play basketball

Follow me on Twitter @SteamyRV

The post The Steamy Files: How Eddie Guerrero Saved Wrestling appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Dear WWE fans,

I want to apologize….for absolutely F’N nothing. Oh, you thought this was going to be a heartfelt column musing on my mistakes and acknowledging you? Hell nah. This is Steamy’s Rants bitches; this is the column where Uncle Steamy goes off his meds and lets it all fly. Yes, WWE fans, I drink your milkshake, I lick your tears and I inhale all the copium y’all been huffing. You remember the acronym ROTFLMFAO? That’s the most accurate description of my mood this morning. For the first time in a long time, I watched a full segment of a WWE show and I’m about to take a dump on your heads faster than Vince McMahon in a threesome.

Where to begin? How about we start by rewinding to last Saturday. Pro wrestling’s kryptonite struck again when RC Cola Phil showed why he was scared of real glass, because it seems his body is 90% glass at this point. OK, that was mean, I’m not laughing at Phil Brooks. I hated how he handled himself in his last year in AEW but I don’t wish physical harm on the man. I would have rather he be healthy and squashed by Jinder Mahal in 5 minutes on the main event of WrestleMania (pre-show of course). It sucks for him that he has to endure another physical injury, and I’m genuinely sad that his quality of life will be affected by his declining physical health.

I’m not laughing at Brooks, I’m laughing at Triple H. WWE fans, we AEW stans told you that Punk was a liability. We told you his body was failing him; that he suffered two major injuries in the span of a couple of months. We told you that if it wasn’t attitude issues that would do him in, it would be injuries. None of us expected it to happen so fast, but your lord and saviour H had to take another shot at AEW. The minute the ink was dry on that contract, the clock was ticking until the bomb blew up in WWE’s face. Yet, WWE still wanted to stick it to AEW so badly by signing away the problem child to try to prove their superiority. “He’ll be used so much better in WWE,” they said; “He’ll be in a locker room with veterans who’ll make sure he stays on his best behaviour,” they said; “He’ll be on a part-time schedule to avoid injuries,” they said; well, that last one sure bit you in the ass, didn’t it?

Now Punk’s injury wouldn’t have been as big of an issue if another bad decision in a long line of bad decisions hadn’t caught up to WWE.  First off, insisting on having 2 WWE “World” champions. I know Triple H fondly remembers his reign of terror on top of Monday Night RAW where he was defeating everyone and holding onto a replica of Ric Flair’s belt in the hopes of being recognized for the legend he was in his own mind, but it never worked. Y’all might not remember this, but Triple H was the first “undisputed champion” of the brand split era. Back then, the WWE Undisputed title (which was the unified WCW and WWF championships that Chris Jericho won) wasn’t brand exclusive. The idea was that the champion would travel to both brands and defend against all comers. This was a good idea, but it didn’t stick. Maybe Paul Heyman was right when he said “Triple H didn’t want to work Tuesdays”, even though the belt didn’t become SmackDown exclusive until Brock Lesnar won it off The Rock (who had won if off The Undertaker, who had beaten Hulk Hogan, who had himself dethroned Triple H). Then Eric Bischoff handed Triple H the World Heavyweight Title and it all went to hell in a handbasket.

Whichever title was on RAW was always recognized as the main belt. You just can’t have two World champions for a single company. Even in boxing which has boxers wearing 300 different belts, they’re all technically separate organizations. If they had renamed the belts the “RAW” and “SmackDown” championships instead, maybe that would have been a little better, but it still would have led to fans asking, “Who’s the top guy in the company?” WWE also (wisely I might add) didn’t want to abandon the lineage of the WWF title that traces its history to Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Bob Backlund, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and many others. Whenever the WHC wasn’t around Triple H’s waist, the WWE title was always the most prestigious one.

Eventually WWE came to their senses and unified the belts when Randy Orton beat John Cena. All was well, only one champ, as it should be. They say those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and that statement came true when WWE decided to go ahead and repeat the brand split. What came as a result of the split? The introduction of a new “world” title: the Universal title. It never helped that belts changed shows on a regular basis and that the Universal was always seen as the “lesser” of the two titles, they carried on. Eventually, the golden child won the Universal title in 2020; then in 2022 he beat Brock Lesnar to reunify the Universal and WWE Title. We’re back to one championship, Roman Reigns has it, he’s pegged as the top heel, all is well.

You’d think that would have been it. You’ve crowned your guy, you’ve given him a massive title reign that, in terms of length, eclipses almost all other champions in history. Roman Reigns is working part-time now. Not that big of an issue, Brock did the same when he was undisputed champion, maybe you can use that absence to make the IC and/or US titles mean more and so when the main title is defended, it’s a special occasion, right? Wrong! Triple H decides screw it, let’s reintroduce the World Heavyweight title even though Roman Reigns has two belts and has held them both for about a year and a half. That won’t make things more complicated, right? I mean it worked before?

Now why did I take this long detour through history when I’m trying to drink your milkshakes? Because make no mistake WWE fans, I drink your milkshake! I DRINK IT UP! Having 2 world titles means you need 2 world title contenders for WrestleMania. Hence, now the Royal Rumble winner has to choose which champion he wants to face at Mania. If say, for example, one of your top storylines and the guy you tagged as the challenger for one title gets a freak injury, you’re in Barney Rubble.

Let’s take another trip down memory lane to last year’s WrestleMania. Cody Rhodes is back from a torn pec and wins the Royal Rumble. Cody is at this time the clear #1 babyface in the company and it makes sense to have him face your “unbeatable” champion. But what’s that I hear in the background? It sounds like someone’s saying “olé”? Wait a minute, that’s gotta be, that’s gotta be Zayn, that’s gotta be Sami Zayn.

While Cody was away rehabbing from injury, the sneaky Canadian comes in and steals the whole show. Sami Zayn uses his veteran skills and knowledge to get himself mega-over and inject life into The Bloodline. The people are waiting on pins and needles to see him face, and hopefully beat, the big bad Tribal Chief. To top it all off, you have a PLE scheduled in his hometown of Montreal a month before the granddaddy of them all. Perfect timing! Sami wins, goes to WrestleMania, the people are happy and all is well that ends well.

About that…Cody is back and he wins the Rumble. WWE hasn’t closed out a WrestleMania with a real face vs. face match in a while. Plus, Roman’s legendary reign ending a month before the big show? That’s not good.  Now this is what happens when you handpick someone instead of taking your audience’s pulse. You’ve put all your chips into Roman Reigns, you’ve already put a story in place and you’ve got your plans all laid out. This has never happened before. How could you ever foresee that a super over babyface would come out of nowhere, that the fans would get behind the underdog and suddenly you’re stuck between either going along with the plan or making a change? If only there was ever say a guy with a beard who is this awesome technical wrestler and fans just love him. Maybe he points his fingers to the sky and fans chant some kind of agreement? I don’t know, maybe the word “Yes”? No, that doesn’t make any sense; of course, they couldn’t have foreseen this, it’s unprecedented.

Thankfully, the worst is avoided. Fans don’t turn on your other babyface (Cody) and Sami Zayn loses in Montreal. Some people are a little disappointed but there isn’t much backlash. It’s OK after all, Cody Rhodes will “finish the story” and win the belt that eluded both his father and his brother at WrestleMania 39. Except…you’ve already decided that you haven’t quite pushed Roman Reigns hard enough. He’s only been nearly unstoppable for close to 10 years. He’s held the Universal Championship for 2 years and now he’s been the Undisputed champ for a year. Let’s make it a record-setting reign. People love numbers, right? All the kids are doing math challenges in the schoolyard. Your announcers keep reminding everyone how many days the same guy’s been champion. Never mind that Mick Foley only held the title for a combined 29 days over 3 reigns and they’re fondly remembered, no it’s all about quantity, baby; screw quality. Defending the belt? Are you nuts! We can’t do that. We have to get to 1000 days by hook or by crook. If the dominant champion beats everyone, we’ll have to end his reign prematurely.

Here we are, WrestleMania 39, it’s time for a changing of the guard. Let’s give the guy who helped found our biggest rival in the last 20 years; the guy who destroyed a symbolic throne of the man who is now the head of creative in that company’s debut event; the man who we poached away by offering money and a chance to get the one accolade that he can say he’s the only Rhodes to ever do so, the big rub and defeat the unbeatable champion and make a WrestleMania moment to remember. PSYCH! Roman wins; lol.

No time to panic they say. Let’s get ourselves a good puff of copium. Ah! That feels better, sweet, sweet copium. See it’s all about long-term storytelling duh. What are you AEW marks stupid? This was the plan all along. It wasn’t enough to come back from a fantastic performance in a high stakes match with a torn pec and returning triumphantly to win the Royal Rumble. No, that’s not adversity. The character of Cody Rhodes must suffer, he must fail before he can succeed. Triple H is a genius! He’s making us wait an entire year before we run it back and now Cody wins the belt, it will mean ever more. It’s in Philadelphia too! The birthplace of our country and he’s The American Nightmare. It’s written in the stardust.

Wait a minute, I spy something with my little eye that starts with an R. The Rock you say? The most electrifying man in sports entertainment? Roman Reign’s cousin? The big Hollywood star? He’s back in WWE! That’s tits!

After hindering the Jinder and causing WWE to panic book a match with its World Heavyweight Champion due to being goaded on Twitter by the Evil Lord TK (a match in which your champion gets injured), The Rock mentions sitting at “The Head of the table”. That’s settled then. Rock vs. RR at Mania. That’s the plan. After all, you don’t bring in The Rock, especially at 51 years old, and tease something like this and not deliver. Where’s that copium at? We suddenly need a good puff.

Inhale; exhale; Inhale; exhale. There, all better. Of course, they’re not going to do The Rock vs. Roman Reigns for the belt and not have Cody beat Roman. It’s all a ruse you see. Ah yes, our genius booker of the year strikes again. The Elimination Chamber is in Australia, in a stadium, 70 000 people are going to be there. That’s what they’re going to do. Rock will face Reigns at the Chamber, Reigns will retain and Cody will finish the story, it’s perfect, it’s great, awesome.

Reports start coming out; yeah, that Elimination chamber match? It’s not happening. Roman’s not going to be on the show at all. Well damn, it’s OK, though, that was just a theory. What they’re actually going to do is they’re going to have Roman vs. Rock on Night 1 of WrestleMania. Then Reigns will win and somehow Cody will challenge Roman for the belt and beat him on Night 2. Problem solved, best of both worlds.

I mean Roman Reigns who only wrestles once every trimester or so is going to wrestle two matches in two nights in that scenario but that’s not a problem. It’s not like anything could go wrong. Injuries? What’s that? They’re pros, they’re not going to get injured. Damn that copium is running low, we need a new tank fast. I get it now! It’s a triple threat. Yes, that’s what it is, a triple threat match for the title. Perfect, all is well, we get Rock vs. Reigns next year. Rock is getting older? Pish posh, that’s not important. He’ll be fine, they can wait until next year, this is Cody’s time.

January passes without a peep from The Great One and the Royal Rumble goes down, Cody wins and immediately proclaims he wants to face Reigns. It looks like that’s settled then. We had some fun speculating; we got a little worried but everything’s fine. Punk got injured, that sucks for Seth Rollins but hey it’s the secondary title, who cares? They’ll find someone else to fill that spot.

Looks like we’re all caught up. Everything’s lined up, it all makes sense, now it’s February 2^nd. This is the night we make it official. Cody is going to be on SmackDown and he’ll officially say he’s choosing Roman. Cody vs. Roman 2, we love it, give us more Papa H, he’s finishing the story. Thank God that McMahon guy is gone, he was a tool (and it turns out a potential predator) but we have our lord and saviour at the helm, he will never let us down.

Y’all know what happens next, I don’t need to recap it. Cody steps aside and says he won’t challenge Reigns at WrestleMania and now there’s no more copium in the tank. The store’s closed, out of stock online, reality just hit you with a sledgehammer to the face. This is WWE; it doesn’t matter who’s in charge, they will always put business first.

Now I said in a previous column, I don’t have any issues with The Rock facing Roman Reigns. It makes business sense. That’s bigger marquee matchup and it’ll draw mainstream media attention. The reason I wrote this entire piece and recapped all the decisions that led us to today is to lick your tears. I’m Cartman when he fed Scott Tenorman’s parents to him in a chili. I’m Art the Clown pouring salt on an open wound. I’m here to bask in the glory of your anger.

I watched the entire segment on YouTube and I want to share a few thoughts. First of all, that’s your guy? Roman Reigns is supposed to be this near-mystical figure. What I saw was the Suffering Succotash guy with better lines. In the span of a few minutes, it looked like he was acting in a B-movie and reading from a teleprompter. This is your monster heel? Still taking a million pauses in between every word? The guy pussyfooting around the ring like a ballerina? You think that guy can be a movie star? How strong is that copium?

The contents of the promo weren’t better. He’s a heel, I get it, but he starts off by crapping on the World Heavyweight Championship, basically treating it as a consolation prize (which to be fair, it kind of is) and dares Cody Rhodes to challenge him. That wasn’t good and I did laugh at how awkward and stunted RR’s delivery was but I knew what was coming next.

Cody comes out and man, please tell me that’s not how he’s been cutting promos these last 2 years? This isn’t the Cody I remember from AEW. He went over the top with emotion sometimes and tried too hard to draw on your heartstrings but he had passion, he had fire. That looked like a shell of a man who has been handed a shit sandwich and has to eat it with a smile on his face. After Reigns basically buries Rollins, buries the entire RAW roster and dares Cody to “be a man” (RIP Macho Man), Cody just…steps aside for The Rock to come in.

Oh, how I laughed. I laughed so hard and smiled so broad my jaw hurts from the smile on my face. Ear-to-ear baby. For the last year, y’all was screaming at us AEW fans about how Triple H is so great, Triple H is so smart, WWE is on fire and everything’s clicking on all cylinders. Sorry WWE fans, I told you that copium bottle is empty. The one new star WWE has had in a long time was just buried deep down in the rubble under a mountain of garbage. Cody’s face tells it all. He’s been trying his hardest to promote this storyline, he was sure this was his time, and the rug just got pulled on him, because that’s what WWE does.

You see folks, Triple H is Vince McMahon, just much less extreme and erratic. Who do you think taught Triple H how to do this job? Who do you think mentored him and instilled his philosophy in him? It was Vince, people, it was Vince all along. NXT Black and Gold was a different story. This was basically a little sandbox for Triple H to play in. It was Vince’s gift to his son-in-law. Here boy, have this studio and bring in your little toys and play with them. Like a little child running after an absentee father who might leave to go buy cigarettes at any moment, Triple H runs around Vince showing him how awesome his toys are. “Look Daddy, look at this one, isn’t it the coolest? Isn’t it the best? Won’t you play with me Daddy?” Eventually tired of being forced to interact with his progeny, Daddy Vince picks up the toys and starts breaking them. That’ll show the boy, these aren’t good toys, Daddy will show you what a real toy looks like. See these slightly used 45- and 50-year-old toys sitting on that shelf? THAT’s a real toy.

Vince McMahon the person may be gone from WWE, he may face legal consequences for his actions, but his presence will never truly be gone from WWE. The WWE is Vince McMahon. He moulded it to what it is today, he dictated every single detail that went into how the show looks, how it sounds and what a pro wrestler is supposed to be. Triple H may have more appreciation for the history of pro wrestling outside of the WWE Universe, but he’s still a McMahon guy. When it comes down to it, WWE will always be about doing what they want. They don’t really care about the fans; you’ll still watch. They just signed a 500M$/year deal with Netflix, they’re getting 200M+ for SmackDown; 200M$+ for the rights to the WWE Network in the USA, add in 20M$ a year for NXT. All in all, they could go back to the Thunderdome and still make bank. They don’t have to sell you PPVs, they don’t need to sell you a ticket. Most of y’all are sheep and you’ll line up to buy a ticket just because of the 3 letters of the marquee…WWE.

Don’t worry your pretty little heads my dear WWE fans; Doctor Steamy is here to make it all better. First of all, go ahead and flame me in the comments sections, call me a mark, call me an AEW shill, say that I’m stupid, tell me how wrong my opinions are and how much I suck. Call me names, raise your pitchforks in anger and come at me with all you got. I’m even going to clear out my Disqus block list for the entire weekend just to let you vent all you want.

You know why? Because I’m going to enjoy drinking your tears. I’m going to enjoy breathing in all the copium that’s leaving your bodies. I’m Shang Tsung and I’m taking everything and making myself stronger for it. You can’t wipe the smile off my face, because no matter what you say, what you post or what shiny new insult you come up with…you know I’m right.

Bryan Danielson vs. Hechicero; FTR and Garcia vs. The Patriarchy. 8 PM live on TNT tonight. Go see what real pro wrestling is all about, it’s going to be a good show,

Steamy out!

The post Steamy’s Rants: Dear WWE fans, I want to apologize… appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Welcome back to The Steamy Files, your #1 resource for Tween Wave-related opinions here on NoDQ. Last episode, we discussed why I believe the WWE Performance Center has been a failure. If you missed it, catch it right here. One name I didn’t bring up in the column due to the fact he isn’t currently sports entertaining on either RAW or SmackDown was Baron Corbin. My good friend and fellow bird aficionado Joe Cirillo (shoutout to Bobby and Monsoon) brought up that BC won the US title and the KOTR.

This is true. With that being said, I still stand by my point. I did mention title wins in my column, but it doesn’t mean that winning a title is the only metric for being an attraction. The Great Khali was World Champion for TK’s sake. I’m willing to be proved wrong and maybe the need for stars that will come once the current FCW generation retires will force someone to step up.

I’ve been a little stuck lately about what topic I want to cover. There’s been so much news, both good and extremely bad, but I always try to cover subjects that are different. I had been scratching my head about what I wanted to talk about in this edition of the Steamy Files, then it came to me.

We have collectively been under a dark cloud for the past week, so let’s try to entertain ourselves and have a little fun. I’ve really been into tier lists for a while, so I thought, let’s rate the entire AEW roster.

I will be using the roster as it currently stands on https://www.allelitewrestling.com. I will only be rating wrestlers who are either active, injured or who are on the roster but not on TV. Only the people listed on the roster page will be considered. I will be diving them into 6 tiers: S, A, B, C, D and F. S is the highest tier and F the lowest. I will explain what those letters mean in the introduction of each section and will explain my reasoning for each ranking.

Given that there are a lot of contracted wrestlers and that I’ll be commenting on each one, if you just want to see the list, you can find it here. You can read the entries you’re interested in below, or not. I won’t judge you; this is a beast of a column.

If you would like to participate and make your own tier list. Feel free to use the template I created on Tiermaker and share your lists with me on Twitter or in a comment under this column. I will also be linking both the graphic and the template again at the end for convenience.

Let’s get started

1- S Tier

S tier stands for superstar. These are the people who I feel are doing the best work on AEW TV right now. This is an elite (no pun intended) tier and so it’s rarified air to breathe.

Honourable mention: MJF isn’t on the roster page at this time so I can’t include him officially in the rankings. Safe to say if he was on the roster, he’d be in the S tier. Get well soon MJF, you’re already missed.

1.1-Eddie Kingston:

Eddie is perhaps the most genuine pro wrestler there is. Whenever the man grabs a mic, you feel like you’re peering into his soul and getting a look at the human being behind the gimmick. His style is also unique in that he’s a wild brawler but not a hardcore wrestler per se. The winner of the Continental Classic, I think Eddie is often overlooked because he doesn’t fit the typical “body builder” look that some have long been associated with pro wrestling. To those critics I say, go back and see how wrestlers used to look before the widespread use of steroids. Eddie Kingston is that dude in the bar who is sitting on his stool, drinking his domestic draft beer and eating some wings, minding his own business. If you mess with him, he’ll kick your ass and come back in time to play the next round of pool.

1.2-Hangman Page:

An AEW original, member of The Elite, former World Champion, there’s a lot to love about Hangman. His character arc between 2020 and 2022 was remarkable. From his team with Kenny Omega, to losing his first World title shot against the Best Bout Machine and finally finishing the story by winning the belt one year later, Hangman is a testament to hard work paying off. He’s had classics with Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Swerve Strickland. The ultimate babyface who keeps pushing on no matter what obstacles come his way. His first World Championship reign was marred with controversy due to You Know Who, but I believe he will reach the top of the mountain again. He deserves it.

1.3-Samoa Joe:

Samoa Joe is a great AEW World champion already. He’s menacing, he’s a fantastic worker and an even better promo. Despite being in his forties, Joe hasn’t slowed down one bit. He’s proof you don’t need to be 6′ 10 and 400 pounds to be a monster heel. It’s great to finally see Joe get his flowers on a major platform. I know he was in TNA for a long time but I don’t think they ever truly tagged him as the one in the same way that he is currently. Joe is giving that mob boss energy and I’m here for it.

1.4-FTR:

I’m putting both Dax and Cash here as they’re both incredible wrestlers and the best tag team in pro wrestling right now. Anytime FTR is on the screen, you can’t afford to miss it. These men are incapable of having a bad match. I think the feud with the House of Black has been great, but I’d like to see them move on and start working with younger teams in long programs such as Top Flight or Private Party.

1.5-Toni Storm:

Was there any doubt that Timeless Toni Storm was going to be on this tier? We always knew Toni had the in-ring talent but the knock on her was character and promo work. She’s proving to us that we were wrong to ever doubt her. There’s the old saying that funny doesn’t equal money. I disagree. I think the important thing is to not be a joke. If you’re doing comedy but still delivering high-impact matches and believable promos, you’re more than fine. Everything about her presentation is on point. The black and white, the innuendos, Luther as her butler and Mariah May as her apprentice, it all works.

1.6-Claudio Castagnoli:

I hesitated in putting Claudio either here or in A tier. I decided to go with the top tier because he’s such a valuable asset to the BCC stable. Claudio isn’t being used as a main event guy, but he’s putting on main event performances every time he’s out there. Whenever he has promo time, he nails it and he’s the kind of guy you need on your roster. If there’s a void to be filled at the top of the card, you can slide Claudio in with no issues. If you need someone to work with younger talent, Claudio is your guy. Claudio is championship material, and I think he would make a great World champion if he ever gets the opportunity (and not the ROH title doesn’t count in my book).

1.7-Brody King:

Brody was the standout of the CC to me. Intimidating, great promo and a great mix of power and agility in the ring, he has it all. Some big men want to show off their agility so much they wrestle a cruiserweight style, not Brody. He knows when and how to use big spots to get the moment over and so that it means more when he does it. His presence also helps Julia Hart whenever he’s at ringside with her. Although Malakai Black is technically the leader of the HOB, if the stable were to ever break up, Brody would be the guy I’d strap the metaphorical rocket to.

1.8-Christian Cage:

Christian was always the “other guy”. He was the Marty Jannetty to Adam Copeland’s Shawn Michaels. When he joined AEW, most people were underwhelmed. He had been out of action for years at that point and had only just returned for a spot in the Royal Rumble. While he had fantastic matches with Kenny Omega, most of us assumed that he’d be a veteran hand there to do the honours for the young guys. Little did anyone know; Christian was about to go on the best run of his career. He’s eclipsed Luchasaurus (sorry Killswitch) and he’s made Nick Wayne interesting as more than just a guy who gets beaten up when people want to piss off Darby Allin. Even his old tag team partner’s arrival in AEW didn’t dim the spotlight Christian has on himself at the moment. The TNT title was being treated more as a prop than a prestigious championship before he got it. Even when Luchasaurus was the champion, Christian pretending to have won the belt himself (before he actually did so) was so fun. He’s cutting amazing promos, having great matches and he’s possibly more over than he ever has been in his entire singles career.

1.9-Deonna Purrazzo:

Before she officially joined AEW, all I had seen of Deonna was the match she had on Dynamite to unify the ROH women’s titles with Mercedes Martinez. I haven’t really kept up with IMPACT/TNA as the brand has never really piqued my interest. I watched a few shows and PPVs in the early days but nothing much in the last decade. When Deonna debuted, I knew who she was by name but had no strong feelings either way to her signing. In just a few weeks, Deonna has come across as a major star. She’s a fantastic wrestler, she cuts great promos and most importantly, she carries herself like a star. She captures your attention and feels like a big deal. She’s going toe-to-toe on the mic with the best woman in AEW and unless she somehow falls off a cliff, I think she could be a cornerstone of the women’s division for years to come.

1.10-Athena:

I understand that TK wants to promote the ROH brand and elevate it so that it eventually gathers enough interest to land a TV deal, but damn Athena needs to be featured on Dynamite and Collision more. Every segment and match I’ve seen of hers in ROH has been fantastic. Her Minion Overlord gimmick and her bossing around Lexi Nair and Billie Starks is hilarious and extremely entertaining. When this version of Athena is finally unleashed on the AEW women’s division, she will go on a tear. We already know she’s a fantastic wrestler, but now we know she’s the total package.

1.11-Ricky Starks:

Ricky is a young man AEW clearly have high hopes for. He has tons of charisma; he’s a great wrestler and he makes everything and everyone around him better. It’s not a coincidence that Big Bill is shining the way he is now by being associated with Ricky. A great smarmy heel, he was the one good thing to come out of You Know Who’s Collision era.

1.12-Sting:

When I first heard rumours of Sting joining AEW back in 2020, I didn’t understand why they’d want him. The man was supposedly retired, in his sixties and coming off a terrible WWE run where he got hurt in his second match. I didn’t see what he could possibly bring to AEW that would warrant him signing. I was very wrong. Sting is a guy I always liked. In his prime, he could have been a major player in WWE. Sting will retire in just a few weeks and he deserves all the praise in the world for his contributions to AEW. Teaming with Darby Allin was the best possible way to use him. He’s shown that he can still go and he will get to end his career on his terms. Darby Allin has been elevated tremendously thanks to Sting. There’s a reason they call him The Icon folks.

1.13-Swerve Strickland:

I don’t think I need to say anything about Swerve all of you don’t already know. He’s proved himself time and time again. It took a little while for him to finally find his niche in AEW, but now that he has, he’s cemented himself as one of the core members of the roster. The future is extremely bright for Swerve. Oh, and without Swerve, there wouldn’t be the Nana dance, so props for that.

1.14-Bryan Danielson:

I could write pages upon pages of praise for The American Dragon. In my opinion, Danielson is the best free agent signing in AEW’s history. Ever since his debut at All Out 2021, he’s put on performances that will go down in the history books. Bryan doesn’t miss. The most special thing about the dragon is how he’s able to switch from babyface to heel in an instant. He can get the crowd to go along with whatever role he’s playing and then switch back without ever needing to do a full turn. He can wrestle Yuji Nagata as a face, right after acting like a heel to Eddie Kingston. His promos are amazing and he represents everything I love about AEW. As good as he was in WWE as Daniel Bryan, I’d argue he’s been even better in AEW. The man has wrestled hour-long matches three times, two of which ended in a draw and still left us wanting more. There will never be another Bryan Danielson.

1.15-Jon Moxley:

Mox is the guy you call when you’re in a pinch. Mox got dealt a raw hand in his first World title reign, with the pandemic happening very soon after he beat Chris Jericho to become the second ever AEW champion. Despite everything, Mox was a great champion who represented the brand well during a difficult era. Mox’s style can be divisive, but I love it. I personally love seeing different styles, different move sets and different types of characters. When he was in The Shield, I think we all knew that Mox was special. Unfortunately, the limitations placed upon him by a PG rating watered down his more sadistic and violent tendencies and, in turn, had him relying on his comedic talents. There’s a line for me between garbage wrestling and hardcore wrestling. Garbage wrestling is using weapons, blood and sick bumps as a way to cover up for a lack of storytelling, lack of emotion and lack of talent. Good hardcore wrestling uses all these elements to make the story better, to build up suspense. Moxley isn’t taking light tubes to the head on a weekly basis. He’s not going through flaming barbed wire every match. In a way, I think his style might be one of the safest. Sure, he gets cuts, bruises and scars, but in 4 years, the man has suffered only one major injury which was the return of a staff infection he contracted while recovering from a triceps tear in WWE. He got a concussion against Fenix, but he’s stayed very healthy despite wrestling a very physical style.

1.16-Orange Cassidy:

Remember what I said about funny but not a joke? OC is the very definition of that. When you first see him, you think that the “Sloth Style” thing is dumb, that it makes everything look fake and that it’s just comedy, but then when he hits that second gear, everything clicks into place. The genius of the gimmick of Orange Cassidy is that he lures his opponents in with a false sense of security. His lazy kicks, hands in his pockets and general nonchalant attitude works because the opponents never sell it like it hurts. It’s always more about frustrating them into underestimating him. It’s a gimmick no one else could do and that wouldn’t work unless you give him the freedom he needs. He’s one of the most active wrestlers on the roster for a reason. This will maybe shock some of you, but if you were to ask me who should be the next AEW World champion, Orange Cassidy would be my choice. I think he and Joe would have a great storyline and great matches. The intensity and menacing aura of Samoan Joseph against the cool, calm and collected Orange Cassidy would make for a very good dynamic.

2- A tier:

A tier is the one below S (duh), these are the people who are great at what they do but are missing that little something extra to make them truly great. Some of the people on this list will eventually become great, some might slide down to a lower level and some will just stay here.

2.1-Will Ospreay:

I’m putting Will here because, as of the writing of this column, he hasn’t officially been involved in a storyline in AEW. The matches he’s had while not officially under contract have been phenomenal. His matches with Orange Cassidy and Kenny Omega at Forbidden Door have been MOTY candidates two years in a row. When he joins the roster in a few weeks and starts being a regular part of the show, I have no doubt he will reach S tier.

2.2-The Young Bucks:

I like the Bucks, but sometimes I just get tired of them. I think they work best in small doses and while their matches are enjoyable, I don’t find them entertaining on the mic. They also tend to over rely on big spots sometimes. What I can’t deny is that they’re a great team bell-to-bell. When there’s a big match such as with FTR or Hangman/Omega; the Bucks deliver. There’s a reason Sting chose them for his last match. Nicholas and Matthew also deserve a lot of credit for helping found AEW.

2.3-Mariah May:

I’m putting Mariah here because I feel like there’s more to her that we haven’t seen yet. She hasn’t been able to show as much of her charisma and mic skills on TV, but her online promos have been excellent. She’s hard-hitting and very talented in the ring. Again, like Will, I think she will be in the S tier sooner rather than later.

2.4-Kris Statlander:

Streaks are tough. When you build someone up by having them win match after match, whomever is tasked to defeat them will have the eyes of the world on them to see what they do next. Kris has grown a ton since her debut. She’s overcome two knee injuries; she’s ditched the alien gimmick and has constantly improved on the mic and in the ring. The TBS title was seemingly just an extension of Jade Cargill from its inception, but Stat’s reign was better. She took the rub from Jade’s streak and went on to make the TBS belt seem more important. No shade to Jade, but let’s be honest, her in-ring skills were very limited and as such her matches were somewhat formulaic. We knew what to expect when she had a match. Stat had to step in and redefine the belt before passing it along to Julia Hart.

2.5-Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black:

I put the rest of the House of Black one notch under Brody because while they’re both excellent wrestlers, I don’t get the same killer vibe from them that I get from Big Bad Brody. Malakai is the better talker of the two, but Buddy is a great worker. Perhaps Malakai’s previous back issues are preventing him from taking too many bumps? That would explain why he’s in tag or trios most of the time. When it’s just Buddy and Malakai and no Brody, it doesn’t feel as interesting for some reason.

2.6-The Acclaimed:

Talk about a rag-to-riches story. Two unknowns who were teamed up for some Dark tapings during the pandemic era end up becoming one of the most popular teams in AEW. They’ve reached heights that no one could have predicted. Even more, they’ve helped Billy Gunn reach levels of popularity he hasn’t gotten since the Attitude Era. Scissor me timbers.

2.7-Big Bill:

Big Bill is a success story any way you slice it. The man overcame serious problems with alcohol and got in the best shape of his life. After some time in Impact to get his feet under him and a few false starts in AEW, his pairing with Ricky Starks has worked out extremely well. He has charisma, a great look and he can wrestle a good match. It also helps that he’s seven feet tall, because you can’t teach that.

2.8-Willow Nightingale:

She’s a fantastic babyface. The right mix of happy-go-lucky but with that fire and intensity that makes her feel like a big deal. Future champion for sure.

2.9-Skye Blue:

Skye has grown leaps and bounds in recent months. Her alliance with Julia Hart is really interesting and allows her to showcase a new aspect of her character. No longer just the girl with the backward hat. I see big things in her future.

2.10-Vincent (from The Righteous):

This guy has something. I wouldn’t say he has blown me away as a worker, but his promos are mesmerizing and he has a great look and vibe. I’m ranking him higher than his partner because Dutch isn’t as interesting to me. I think Vincent would shine as a singles wrestler and he has tons of charisma.

2.11-Serena Deeb:

There aren’t many women like Deeb around. A true veteran and a great technical wrestler. I was really happy to see her make her comeback after a long time off. She can still go and any young woman who gets in the ring with her will come out better for it.

2.12-Julia Hart:

Who would have thought the cheerleader for the Varsity Blonds would be the one to achieve stardom first? And so quickly too. Ever since she joined HOB, Julia has been red-hot. The girl is only 22! And she’s already grown leaps and bounds from her first matches on Dark. I have no doubt she will be in the S tier sooner rather than later.

2.13-Adam Copeland:

A lot of people criticized AEW for signing Adam, citing his age and his injury history. Some felt it was just a “WCW” move of signing an older talent who had massive success in WWE just because of that history. Well, AC is proving the doubters wrong. The feud with Christian is great, but what really put him up to A tier is the Cope-open. There’s only been a few matches so far, but they’ve all been really good. What’s most important, is that he’s wrestling young talent in these open challenges and helping them get the spotlight. It’s not just about doing the job; sometimes a wrestler can look great even in defeat. If everyone starts pinning Adam left and right, then he isn’t special anymore. Adam is doing exactly what he’s meant to be doing and looks to be having the time of his life.

2.14-Dante Martin:

Dante is perhaps the smoothest high flyer I’ve ever seen. His movements are so fluid, he can just jump from rope to rope, get back on the ground and land on his feet like a damn cat. When Top Flight debuted in AEW, people expected them to be a great tag team. When Darius got injured, Dante was given a chance to shine as a singles wrestler and he took it. One thing I like about AEW is that wrestlers can be in a tag team but also still compete in singles. One doesn’t prevent the other. Dante’s ceiling is extremely high. Even a bad ankle injury didn’t slow him down. Watch that young man closely, he’s going places.

2.15-Wheeler Yuta:

The “young boy” of the BCC has been helped a lot from hanging out with some of the GOATs of the wrestling industry. It’s clear that AEW, and especially Danielson, Claudio and Mox, see something special in him. He’s a very good technical wrestler and his promos are getting better. Iron sharpens iron, and Wheeler is getting sharper by the day.

2.16-Jay White:

Jay White has all the tools, but he needs to put them together in a solo run. I’m not really digging Bullet Club Gold as a faction. I like all the members individually, but together? Not so much. He doesn’t need to be aligned with anyone, he’s fantastic on his own. He proved as much in the CC.

2.17-Kenny Omega:

I love Kenny Omega as a wrestler, but I have him down on A tier because, like the Bucks, his promos need work. As a heel with Don Callis, he was great, but now that he’s a babyface again, it doesn’t feel right. I especially hate his catchphrase, it’s too long and it’s not good. His last promo with Jericho before it was revealed how sick he was really stunk up the joint.

2.18-Roderick Strong:

AAADDAMMM! Roddy really showed a different side after the “injury” angle with Samoa Joe. Who could have predicted that the guy who would shine the most in the Adam Cole-MJF feud would be Roderick Strong? Great veteran who is again showing that when you give someone the ball, they can surprise you. Put the International Championship on him at Revolution, the Undisputed Kingdom needs a big win in order to keep gaining steam.

2.19-PAC:

Injuries have slowed PAC’s momentum. The Bastard is a fantastic pro wrestler with tons of charisma but he’s unable to gain enough steam to truly become a factor. He had a great run as the first All-Atlantic champion and the Lucha Bros have suffered without him around to lead Death Triangle.

2.20-Hikaru Shida:

Shida could honestly be considered borderline S tier. I chose to put her in A because her promos still need work. It can be hard for non-native English speakers to truly be comfortable cutting promos. Shida’s English is great but she isn’t yet able to convey emotions very well when speaking. Bell-to-bell though? Shida’s untouchable.

2.21-Daniel Garcia:

Another young lion on the prowl. DG is getting to show more personality with his dancing and it’s connecting with the audience. It was clear from day one that he could go in the ring and he had amazing bouts with Bryan Danielson, but the character work was the missing piece. Being in the JAS really helped him come out of his shell.

2.22-Darby Allin:

Darby is on A and not S because I think there’s still another level he will reach. I love Darby’s offensive style. He uses what should be a detriment (his size) and makes it work by using speed and momentum. Take a baseball and drop it on your foot from your hand. It may hurt a little but not much. Now take that same baseball and put it in a pitching machine. That’s Darby.

2.23-Powerhouse Hobbs:

If you look up “mean mug” in the dictionary, you’ll see a picture of Hobbs next to it. Hobbs is a star. His time will come for sure. I think using him as a heater at this stage of his career isn’t doing him any favours. He needs to be wrecking people on his own, not being the muscle to a larger stable.

3- B Tier

B tier is about the good hands. Those that are solid but not exceptional. They either are good veterans that can be relied on but not main-event stars, or green guys and gals who need to take that next step. I think some of them just haven’t had the chance to show what they can do and some are victims of bad timing.

3.1-Daddy Ass

If it weren’t for The Acclaimed, Daddy Ass would fall down to C or possibly D. He’s still in great shape for his age, and still has that charisma that helped him survive this long.

3.2-Abadon:

Abadon has a very interesting gimmick. They are being used more frequently but there’s a ceiling to what they are doing right now. There’s not much to say about them. They are getting better and have a very unique look. I like them but they are someone who would benefit from being paired with someone who can talk. If you haven’t seen their Hey (EW) episode yet, do yourself a favour and go see it after you’re done here.

3.3-Keith Lee:

On paper, Keith Lee should be a bigger deal. There’s just something that’s not clicking for me. I can’t quite put my finger on it. He’s a very talented worker so that’s why I’m putting him at B.

3.4-Luchasaurus/Killswitch:

I had bigger expectations for this man when he split up from JB. He hasn’t met them yet. His storyline with Christian is interesting and I think he will be better off as a singles face. He’s a big guy but not a giant. Adam Copeland, who is tall but never has been considered “big”, is about the same height. I think the silly Dinosaur works better than the scary dinosaur.

3.5-Dutch:

Vincent’s tag partner ranks just one notch below. He gels well with Vincent and has charisma. I just think Vincent is the star of that team.

3.6-Kota Ibushi:

Whoa there, put your pitchforks away. I’m ranking Ibushi based on what he’s done in AEW so far, which isn’t a lot. Honestly if he weren’t Kota Ibushi, he’d be ranked much lower, but I’ve seen what the man can do.

3.7-Hook:

Hook is one of those green young guys I mentioned. Great potential, held his own against Samoa Joe but slow and steady wins the race.

3.8-Aussie Open:

Even though Mark Davis is injured and Kyle Fletcher is currently ROH TV champ, I’m ranking them together because I assume that’s the long-term plan. They are extremely talented and can steal the show. When they’re both healthy and together again, they will be a fantastic piece of the AEW tag team division (or even trios).

3.9-Jack Perry:

I like Jack Perry a lot. I don’t hold the “You Know Who” incident against him, but he definitely deserved his suspension. Before that, his heel run was underwhelming. He’s still very young and learning. I’m not worried about him.

3.10-The Gunns:

2 years ago, The Gunns would have been D or F level. They’ve grown on me. While I’m not the biggest fan of Bullet Club Gold, I think having them with Jay White is only going to be beneficial to them once that stable goes their separate ways.

3.11-Britt Baker:

Speaking of 2 years ago, this is a case of someone going in the opposite direction. 2020–2021 was the year of the Doctor. As a heel, she was on fire and was cutting some of the best promos on Dynamite every week. Her association with Rebel and Jamie Hayter made for a fun dynamic. Britt isn’t the best bell-to-bell wrestler, but she’s good enough to get the job done. Unfortunately, turning face and going on her own revealed that she has major holes in her game. I don’t know if it’s a lack of drive or complacency, but I sometimes forget Britt is on the roster. She complained about not getting any promo time, but girl, you have a phone in your hands. Turn on that camera and cut a promo to remind people you’re the F’N DMD. Give her back an entourage. What about pairing her with Tony Schiavone? Hire Veda Scott to take his place on Dynamite commentary and have Tony be Britt’s manager. They are friends IRL and dumping on Tony is what got Britt over in the first place. It’s an idea. But yeah, Britt is sliding down to the bottom and she needs to pick herself back up.

3.12-Dustin Rhodes:

They call him The Natural and he’s showing us why. At this point in his career, Dustin knows his role and he’s playing it to perfection. It’s hard to believe this man almost retired after DON 2019. His match with Cody put AEW on the map. Give the man one last title run before he hangs them up, he deserves it.

3.13-2.0

Daddy Magic and Cool Hand Ang will always be 2.0 to me. As a Quebecer, it’s always great to see “des petits gars de chez nous” make it to the big stage. They’re still solid in the ring and have loads of charisma. However, I don’t think they’re a top tag team. I wouldn’t be opposed to see them have a reign with the belts, but I don’t think they need it.

3.14-Anna Jay:

That girl could be anything she wants. She could be an Instagram influencer, a model, an actress, but she chose to wrestle. On top of having the looks and the charisma, Anna has some of the best foot work I’ve ever seen for a woman her age. Look at her in the ring, not a step out of place, never late for a spot, fluid in between moves. She’s growing and getting better by the day but has yet to reach the levels of the other pillars (Statlander, Julia and Skye) just yet. I have no doubt she’ll get there.

3.15-Jamie Hayter:

Jamie’s long absence from injury has pushed her down this list. I have no doubt she’ll rise up the rankings once she returns.

3.16-Danhausen:

Danhausen is one of my favourites. He has a great sense of humour and comedic timing and if you don’t follow him on social media, you’re missing out. However, he reminds me a bit of Santino Marella. Although Danhausen is a much better worker, his matches are secondary to his character work. Extremely creative guy but I think his ceiling is right where he is right now.

3.17-Rush:

Rush really showed up in the CC. I’m putting him in B tier because, like others, he needs to work on promos. Being injured so soon after coming back is a damn shame. I’ll be on the lookout for him when he returns.

3.18-Konosuke Takeshita:

Fantastic in-ring worker, not a ton of personality that I can see. He hasn’t been in North America long and is only 28. Pairing him with Callis is a good move but he still needs to work on his facial expressions and body language.

4- C Tier:

This tier is basically good not great, midcard talent right now that have a place on the roster but just have zero momentum. They’re all decent and I think most are good, but they aren’t special right now.

4.1-Ruby Soho:

The storyline with Saraya and Cool Hand Ang isn’t bad, but there’s a reason it’s mainly on Rampage. Ruby’s a fine professional wrestler and she can be helpful to the young talent but I see her as a gatekeeper.

4.2-Gates of Agony:

Really not much to say about those two. Great look, decent wrestlers, but they’re held back by their association with Brian Cage IMO.

4.3-Kiera Hogan:

Good wrestler, but she hasn’t really been given much of an opportunity to shine. She was at her best as one of Jade Cargill’s baddies along with Red Velvet.

4.4-Nick Wayne:

I haven’t seen him enough to form a clear opinion of him. He seems to have the tools to succeed and working with Christian will help him greatly in the future.

4.5-Lucha Brothers:

Full disclosure, I’ve tried to write a column on Penta but haven’t been able to get past the first section. I loved Pentagon Jr. in Lucha Underground. I actually like Penta more than Fenix, but right now this isn’t the Penta I remember and loved. He’s a very watered-down version and seems directionless. Fenix is a very good high flyer but he’s never really been that interesting to me. Turn Penta heel and split them up.

4.6-Wardlow:

I’m starting to think it was all MJF. Since splitting from Max, Wardlow has never been the same. They’ve tried to make him a face, a heel, tried to put him with Arn Anderson but he’s never really clicked. He reminds me very much of a CAW that you assign moves to and just mash buttons randomly. I’ve never been invested in seeing him wrestle.

4.7-The Kingdom:

Mike Bennett and Matt Taven are fine. I really haven’t noticed them much. I’m hoping to see more of them now that they’re in the Undisputed Kingdom.

4.8-Private Party:

With Marq Quen’s return, hopefully they can fulfill on that promise they showed when they beat The Young Bucks in the original tag team title tournament. Isiah was stuck with the Hardys for a long time and suffered for it. I’m intrigued on what the future will look like for them.

4.9-Ethan Page:

Good look; good promo, just never really connected with me. He’s Canadian though so I got to put him slightly higher. I miss Dan Lambert.

4.10-Sammy Guevara:

I’ve never bought into the hype for Sammy. He’s charismatic and he can pull off cool moves but I feel he’s bland. There’s a reason they keep putting him back with Jericho. Every time he breaks away from The Ocho, he gets worse. He’s also a terrible babyface.

4.11-Silver and Reynolds:

I hesitated putting Silver ahead of Reynolds but he hasn’t been doing much on TV by himself. They’re a fine tag team in a stable that’s run its course. I would honestly like to see John Silver have more singles opportunity. If he could bring that BTE energy to his TV work, the man could be a much bigger deal.

4.12-Riho:

She’s never there so where do I put her? She’s the ultimate underdog, small but fiery and a skilled wrestler. However, seeing her on TV for a few weeks every year makes it impossible for her to get any momentum. I guess she’s comfortable in Japan, and that’s OK.

4.13-Mercedes Martinez:

Her matches with Willow and Stat on Collision were very good, but I don’t find her very memorable or think that she does anything unique that makes me want to pay more attention to her.

4.14-Chris Jericho:

Father time is catching up to Chris Jericho. I loved Jericho as the first World champion and he has done great things in AEW. His name helped draw viewers and attention in when AEW was in its infancy. Now though? I think his talents would be better used as TK’s side than in the ring. He’s not terrible by any means, but he’s clearly showing his age. My biggest issue with current day Jericho is that his storylines are repetitive, boring and are actively hurting all his rivals. Don Callis was super over after turning on Omega. The Don Callis family could work as a stable, but they are unfortunately stuck working with Jericho and it’s killing their heat.

4.15-Miro:

O Miro where art thou? Seriously, dude where’s Miro? I know right now he’s with his wife CJ as she recovered from a serious infection, but even before that, Miro has barely been seen on AEW TV for a long time. He was red-hot as The Redeemer before he ran into Sammy Guevara which cut his legs off. It seems all we get is some short backstage promo every now and then. Hopefully when CJ is recovered, they both come back to TV and help reenergize Miro.

4.16-Preston Vance:

Thank God that man broke away from Dark Order. Unfortunately, since then, he’s not done much. He did well in limited showings when Dynamite returned to Daily’s Place and then against Orange Cassidy at BOTB, but we haven’t seen him since. I like the kid, but he needs more TV time to get over. Rush being injured doesn’t help.

4.17-Juice Robinson:

I like his energy and his promos, haven’t been impressed by his in-ring work yet. The jury is still out.

4.18-Darius Martin:

I think Darius is good but his brother is the star. I like Top Flight as a team but it became clear that he isn’t nearly as over as his brother when Dante got injured and Darius was stuck in limbo.

4.19-Thunder Rosa:

Thunder Rosa ranks lower because of her long road back from injury. I like her but apart from her feud with Britt Baker, she’s never really wowed me. Happy to see her back, hopefully now that the division has a lot more experienced workers, she can show us more of what she can do.

4.20-Bandido:

The few matches he wrestled before getting injured were great, but he didn’t get a chance to really make an impact. I look forward to seeing him back at 100%.

4.21-Mark Briscoe:

I have no bad words to say against Mark. The fact that he’s able to continue on and try to be a singles wrestler after the tragic loss of his brother and tag partner show amazing strength and resilience. He’s not a young kid anymore though so at this point, I think he’s a good guy to have around but not someone for whom I would devote tons of TV time.

4.22-Scorpio Sky:

See Ethan Page.

4.23-Nyla Rose:

It seems that Nyla’s finally letting her personality shine on ROH. It’s about time. The woman is a riot on social media but her “native beast” gimmick is clichéd and played out at this point. Just because she’s a larger woman than most of the roster shouldn’t automatically make her a heel. Let her be herself. In-ring? She’s never really had a memorable match but I can’t recall a truly terrible one either.

4.24-Lee Moriarty:

A work in progress; did well against AC.

4.25-Jeff Jarrett:

He’s perfect where he’s at. He’s still in great shape and knows how to work a simple, good match. You need guys like that on your roster. No complaints; keep as-is.

4.26-Adam Cole:

Injuries have cost him a lot of momentum so we’ll see if he can finally show something as The Devil in the Undisputed Kingdom. He needs to get rid of the Panama Sunrise stat, that move looks bad. The flat-footed Canadian Destroyer is bad enough; jumping off the second, stopping and then flipping is even worse.

4.27-Tay Conti:

Being here is already huge for a woman who no one really thought much about prior to her signing with AEW. Tay has grown leaps and bounds already. She’s off on maternity leave right now, but I look forward to seeing what she can do in the future.

5- D Tier:

I’ll make D tier brief; these are mostly the people who could be on the roster or not on the roster and it wouldn’t really make much of a difference to me. Some of them are better than others and while I think they don’t hurt the product; their contributions are minimal.

5.1-Leyla Grey:

See Kiera Hogan

5.2-Harley Cameron:

She has charisma, I’ll give her that. What I’ve seen of her in the ring hasn’t impressed me.

5.3-Dralistico:

He’s a guy on the roster? I often get him confused with other luchadores.

5.4-Johnny TV:

John Morrison, Johnny Impact, Johnny Mundo, whatever you want to call him, he’s still the same guy with a different name. Give me something new please.

5.5-Red Velvet:

I think Red Velvet has potential to be a strong C or a B. She has charisma, she’s a good enough worker but she hasn’t made much of an impact overall. All the momentum she’s had in the past was derailed by injuries. I hope she can stay healthy.

5.6-Saraya:

I love Saraya, and I totally understand that AEW is trying to keep her safe by not working too many matches, but at this point she’s not really doing anything interesting. I know going heel was her call, but it was the wrong move. She’s a very likeable person who has fought through so much adversity, fans would love to cheer for her. I’d like to see her do more as an active wrestler. Tags and trios are fine, just have her wrestle a bit more.

5.7-Best Friends:

They got overshadowed by Orange Cassidy and the other new teams that joined AEW. Both men have been injured and that hasn’t helped, but I’m just not that interested in them anymore.

5.8-Katsuyori Shibata:

I like the little bit I’ve seen from him but he hasn’t been around enough for me to rank him higher.

5.9-Butcher and The Blade:

Pretty much the same as Best Friends, but they were just never going to be more than a set of decent hands that be used to put other teams over.

5.10-Matt Sydal:

Good veteran and he can have a good match. He’s past his prime but not so much that he’s unwatchable.

5.11-Lee Johnson:

He recently married Julia Hart, so good for him.

5.12-Action Andretti:

I don’t really get it. Is the water thing supposed to be cool? Eh.

5.13-Diamante:

Ivelisse really hurt Diamante’s momentum after the Thunder Rosa incident. She’s decent enough from what I’ve seen, but nothing stands out.

5.14-Lance Archer:

Victim #1 of the Codyverse. Please get Jake Roberts away from him; it’s such a waste of a legend.

5.15-Matt Hardy:

I’ve always liked Matt better than Jeff and I feel hiring Jeff was a mistake on TK’s part. The only reason Matt ranks higher is because of his creativity as all the bumps he took in those ladder matches are catching up to him.

5.16-Kyle O’Reilly:

He’s been injured so long I’ve forgotten about him, and now without Bobby Fish, I’m not sure how he will be used.

5.17-Angelico:

That insane dive from the top of Dario’s office in Lucha Underground was insane. As an AEW talent, he’s not very interesting.

5.18-Yuka Sakazaki:

I don’t know when’s the last time she was even on AEW TV. I remember her being talented in the ring but in this stacked women’s division she would have a hard time standing out.

5.19-Leyla Hirsch:

She showed great potential on AEW TV before getting injured.

5.20-Tony Nese:

Great worker, not much personality

5.21-Marina Shafir:

She isn’t bad from what I’ve seen, her MMA background makes her unique in AEW. She will mostly be remembered for her “You don’t know me” promo.

5.22-Penelope Ford:

Very agile but not very good in the ring. Where is she anyways?

5.23-Emi Sakura:

I’ve never really been that interested in her. I think at this point she’s more of an in-ring teacher than anything.

5.24-Kommander:

Cool moves, not much psychology and he doesn’t have any personality. If you’re going to give him a manager, then why do I know absolutely nothing about him?

5.25-Madison Rayne:

See above

5.26-Christopher Daniels:

He had a good run with SCU and he can still go in the very limited role he has right now.

5.27-Kip Sabian:

Honestly Kip to me is a guy that’s just there. When he’s on TV I don’t mind, but I rarely think about him otherwise.

5.28-Jake Hager:

He needs to be with Jericho permanently; a tag team would be the best way to use both. The hat gimmick was funny.

6- F Tier:

We finally get to the end, the F tier. These are the people I honestly don’t think should be in AEW. Some of them are bad, some aren’t interesting and others are just wastes of money. I’m not advocating for all of them to be fired, but if they were, I don’t think AEW would suffer one bit.

6.1-Brian Cage:

This one’s going to be controversial. I don’t care for Brian Cage. He hasn’t changed anything about his presentation since Lucha Underground. At least in LU they could work around his flaws, but he’s a black hole of charisma. The man sucks all the energy out of the room whenever he speaks or appears on-screen. While at first, it’s impressive to see a big man doing so much high-flying, I think he overdoes it. He looks like an overstuff pillow with a mohawk. He’s a guy who is tailor-made for WWE but probably can’t pass a drug test. Of all the people on this list, he’s the one I would absolutely advise TK to cut ties with as he’s just not interesting. Who better than Cage? Anybody.

6.2-Taya Valkyrie:

She’s never recovered from losing to Jade before Statlander showed up. She hasn’t done anything to catch my attention.

6.3-Satham Singh:

AEW isn’t the place to learn how to wrestle, especially when you’re a big uncoordinated guy like him. Even as a manager, he isn’t bringing anything to the table.

6.4-Nick Comoro:

Be honest, can you even remember one of his matches?

6.5-Griff Garrison:

Lexis King called, he said he needs a partner. I’m being harsh here, but I just don’t see anything in Griff.

6.6-Parker Boudreaux:

Seriously Tony? You’re still paying this guy? He was signed way too quickly after his WWE release. I get that he has a fantastic look and an athletic background but he’s just not good. I don’t think he’s even wrestled a single match in a year or more. I can’t be bothered to check it out.

6.7-Colt Cabana:

I don’t have much to say about Cabana, he just doesn’t feel like he belongs in the majors.

6.8-Jeff Hardy:

Matt is better. Jeff, you’re an old man now, start acting and dressing your age.

6.9-Ari Daivari:

He’s still under contract?

6.10-Serpentico:

If Nyla wasn’t roasting him constantly on Twitter, I would never remember he even existed.

6.11-Paige Van Zant:

Can TK sue her for breach of contract or something? I mean she’s had ONE match and hasn’t even been on TV since then. I thought she did well in her only match, but she’s making OnlyFans money and doesn’t seem to care about pro wrestling anymore. That’s too bad but such is life.

6.12-Josh Woods:

I had to look up his name to match his picture. I think he was in a team with Tony Nese?

6.13-Jay Lethal:

He was good in the Continental Classic as the guy who lost every match, although that spot could have gone to someone more deserving. Not a big fan.

6.14-Shawn Dean:

All I remember about Shawn Dean is Cody Rhodes saluting him on a BTE skit.

6.15-Aaron Solo:

Dude, how did you lose Bayley? That girl is a smoke show and a fantastic worker. AJ Lee was right.

6.16-Peter Avalon:

I thought the Librarian was funny and his feud with Brandon Cuttler on Dark about who could win their first match was entertaining. That was then, this is now.

6.17-Evil Uno & Stu Grayson:

Sorry to my fellow Quebecers but you guys haven’t been relevant in over 3 years. They aren’t bad workers by any means, but if they’re not even tagging anymore, what’s the point of keeping them?

6.18-Santana & Ortiz:

Just like the Dark Order OGs, I have no interest in these two as singles wrestlers. Their personal differences got in the way of what could have been a special run. Clearly, they’re never getting back together given the animosity between the two, so perhaps it’s best to cut bait.

6.19-Anthony Ogogo:

I heard him say on AEW Unrestricted that he got signed to an extension. Why? What has he done to deserve a spot? It’s time to clean out some of the broken toys Cody Rhodes left behind when he went to WWE.

6.20-Brandon Cutler:

I know he’s the Young Bucks’ best friend, I’m fine with him having a job. Not one iota of interest in seeing him wrestle.

6.21-AR Fox:

Talented wrestler but not much else going on. Him aligning and then being kicked out of Mogul Embassy didn’t help.

And that’s it. Wow, this was a marathon column. I hope you liked it and make your own tier lists using the following template. You can also see my tier list in a visual format here if you prefer.

Until next time, this has been The Steamy Files, and he had it coming,

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This is going to be different from my normal content. I’ve been trying to write a new episode of The Steamy Files for about 2 weeks now but I am stuck with writer’s block. I wanted to address a specific subject but it didn’t feel right for the voice I use in that series.

After thinking about it for some time, I’ve decided to introduce a new series. The Steamy Files is where I will try to look at things through a fair lens and give a more detailed and structured opinion based on certain facts. This is not that. This is Steamy’s Rants. This will be more free-form and much more subjective. I’m not going to sugarcoat my takes or hold myself back, this is me unleashed, no holds barred, anything goes. If you choose to continue reading, do so at your own risk. The Steamy Files will return soon.

I want to talk about the Chris Jericho situation that’s been making the rounds online in the last few weeks. I don’t feel like going back and re-explaining everything that led up to this but in broad strokes: Jericho got in a Twitter feud with some people from Cornette’s entourage that were, for some reason, still talking about CM Punk and his departure from AEW. The Corney gallery raised accusations that AEW had made a lot of people sign nondisclosure agreements and even that AEW’s employee handbook contained an NDA clause as well.

First off, AEW wrestlers are not employees. They are independent contractors, same as WWE superstars. I know it’s a trivial observation at this point but it does need to be said. I know Corny’s sidekick posted what is supposed to be a copy of an AEW handbook on Twitter but honestly, it’s so generic that it could have easily been faked and it most likely was. Corny’s sidekick has always had beef with Jericho, going as far back as when Jericho was still in WWE. I remember Lance Storm having to come to Jericho’s defense against the sidekick because he was making fun of Jericho’s chest. Storm explained that Jericho has a torn pectoral muscle that resulted in nerve damage and that’s why one side is a bit more caved in.

Then some basement dweller named Nate Horse Manure (I know that’s not his name but I’m not uttering his name and giving him any credence) made a cryptic comment on a podcast:

“I mean, Harvey Weinstein won a lot of Oscars, Harvey Weinstein produced a lot of very popular films. Harvey Weinstein is now in jail… I’m not saying that is happening to Chris, but the narrative can quickly turn if you’re hiding a lot of skeletons in your closet.”

The IWC being the toxic place that it is, and Jericho who is the literal devil due to having the gall to wrestle for AEW, the worst thing to ever happen to wrestling and the 9^th dimension of hell, someone else on Twitter dug up a 4-year-old Reddit post and mindless drones latched onto this narrative.

When I say drone, I’m not talking about WWE fans. I know the term E drone is popular, but that’s not what I’m using it for. A drone to me is someone who mindlessly follows any rumor, any dirt or stupid gossip that they hear and latch onto it. Like a pilotless plane, they go in the direction they’re pointed at, they accept whatever command their operators give them. No critical thinking, no logical reasoning, they just believe whatever fits the narrative they have in their heads. That narrative, of course, is that AEW is bad and must be destroyed at all costs.

The “accusations” are that sometime in 2019, a female wrestler by the name of Kylie Rae (who only wrestled one match in AEW at the inaugural DON) was approached by Jericho and he invited her to come to his hotel room. I’ve heard versions which say that he told her it was for a party with multiple people but that when she got there, they were all alone but that last part isn’t consistent. That’s it. It’s alleged that as a result, Kylie was released from AEW and made to sign an NDA to agree not to talk about whatever happened with Jericho.

Horse Manure didn’t post this himself by the way. Some anonymous account dug up this screenshot and insinuated that this is what this piece of possum excrement was referring to. The post went viral on Twitter after Kylie Rae responded with a heart emoji. Now some may try to defend Horse Manure saying he never talked about sexual misconduct allegations. My answer to that is “get real”; he knew exactly what he was saying. You don’t bring up the name Harvey Weinstein to talk about anything but his sex crimes. He knew to say just enough to not directly make any accusations and open himself up to a defamation lawsuit.

If you dig into the story, you’ll notice several issues. First of all, the original post attached to this rumor contained three theories as to why KR left AEW. The first theory alleged that Brandi Rhodes got her fired as KR was getting too chummy and flirty with Cody for her liking. The second is the Jericho story and the third is that KR refused to work with Nyla Rose since Nyla is a transwoman.

Do you want to know what kind of attention the Jericho theory drew back then? Almost none. It wasn’t widely reported, it wasn’t discussed ad nauseam on Twitter, wrestling forums and whatnot. It came and it went without much fanfare, people didn’t immediately jump to conclusions and say that any of these must be true. In fact, the Brandi rumor got much more traction and Brandi herself had to come out and deny it. In a November 2019 statement on her Instagram, KR said the following:

“I don’t know how to start this and I can’t speak on other’s behalves. I can only speak for myself and what’s in my heart. I don’t know many rumors and honestly try to stay away from everything, obviously .

But here: nobody made me leave. AEW took my career to new levels and I’m beyond grateful for every opportunity and experience that has come along the way and wish nothing but the best. It’s a great group of people who truly love wrestling and just want everyone to succeed.

I’ve always tried to be a good person but I make many mistakes along the way. I needed to get my mind, body, and soul right with God. I wish I had the answers but the truth I don’t. We all go through obstacles in life and we may want all the answers but we don’t need them.

It’s God’s plan and he has shown me what’s truly important in life and to find a blessing in every moment because in the blink of an eye, everything can be gone. So instead of bashing, let’s just love one another and appreciate what we have, or something like that lol sorry I’m awkward.”

Does that sound like someone who was forced out to you? Someone who was so frightened by the actions of her coworker that she felt unsafe and had to leave? Not to me. But you see, this doesn’t matter, because in 2024 it’s fetch to bash AEW. If you praise anything AEW on this site, you’ll get downvoted and called a mark. If you talk negatively, you’ll get loads of praise and upvoted, be told you’re telling it like it is and that this is the truth.

Sometimes I think the IWC can’t get any worse, yet I am proven wrong time and time again. At World’s End, instead of celebrating the end of Continental Classic, talking about the changing of the guards with Samoa Joe as the new AEW World Champion or the reveal of Adam Cole as the devil along with Roderick Strong, Wardlow, Mike Bennett and Matt Taven as the Undisputed Kingdom, people wanted to know about NDAs.

Then came the media scrum. The goal of these scrums by the way is to discuss the PPV and put the spotlight on the talent that just competed in the ring. As my good friend TKW pointed out, there are no real journalists in professional wrestling. Tony Khan could just as easily enroll RJ City and Renée Paquette to do a post-event show with Tony and some of the talent. Scripted questions, in-character interviews, all in a controlled environment that achieves the same goal. Instead, this billionaire takes the time to give the fans some access and let them ask questions to the talent or to him directly. Again, these are not journalists. They are podcasters, YouTubers, newsletter writers and basically Internet personalities that produce wrestling related content.

There sits Julia Hart, who is becoming a star in the AEW women’s division at the young age of 22 and instead of putting the focus on her and asking questions about what’s next for her, some ass clown decides this is the time to bring up gossip and asks a question about what AEW is doing both present and past to ensure the safety of the women’s wrestlers and to prevent sexual harassment, framing his question around “discussions” within the fandom online. Here is what TK responded verbatim:

“It’s a great question, Kevin, and I think it applies to everybody in our company, women and men, and it’s something we’re very serious about, and we’ve had a policy in place, and certainly, I think any time there is anything like that, we would make sure we do everything to prevent it. AEW has the best safety record, I believe, of any pro wrestling company in the world. I believe we have the most safe environment. I think we have the best safety record of any pro wrestling company, and I would hold the record of AEW on safety against any wrestling company in the world. I think AEW is the safest place for pro wrestling. ‘If any of our wrestlers ever have a concern, they always have an open line to talk to me, and you know, I believe anybody would sit here and tell you they can always talk to me at any time if they are concerned about anything.”

That should have been the end of it. This wasn’t related to anything that happened on-screen, and didn’t involve Julia Hart. Tony Khan was wearing a goofy hat and sunglasses at this moment, which I’m sure wasn’t an accident in regards to the timing of the question, but this should have been the answer and case closed, but of course not, because someone else wanted to get famous.

Pill Scum (again not his real name), a “sports reporter” for a local paper who hosts a small wrestling podcast with fewer than 600 subscribers on YouTube, and whose biggest video has 16,000 views as of 10 months ago, decides to try and make a name for himself. While the previous ass hat tried to be respectful and his question was broad enough to be somewhat justified, this “journalist” asks directly about Chris Jericho and if he has ever been investigated for misconduct. After all, his loyal listeners who left him all of 13 reviews on Apple Podcasts have to know the truth. The man needs a Blue Chew sponsorship. If you don’t have one, are you even a real wrestling podcaster? Never mind this isn’t for the newspaper he writes for as there is no article on the website about this “incident.”

Tony doesn’t have a hat or glasses on at this point by the way, but he basically repeats what he said. But what was the response from the IWC? Did people rightfully call out this question as inappropriate for this setting? Did people ignore an obviously loaded question and praise TK for keeping his cool and answering as politely as possible without giving any fuel to this raging inferno? Of course not. He’s Tony Khan, he’s the worst person in the history of mankind, his tweets are blasphemous and so he must be stoned for his sins of daring to offer a pro wrestling program that is different from God-tier WWE and the glorious prophet Triple H.

People blast Tony for not saying ‘No’ and how that’s all he had to say and they would have dropped it. The thing is, he answered you. Do you expect Tony to go into detail on every single rumor? I heard the Dippin’ Dots vendor steals from handicapped orphans and splits the money with TK. The orphans are under an NDA, of course, so that’s why we never heard about it. Should someone ask a question about that at the Revolution media scrum? And if TK doesn’t deny it, should we start accusing him of hiding the truth and start chanting “Dippin’ Dots” at AEW shows? Better yet, let’s reply to every TK Tweet (which are the most important pieces of media in the world, despite him being a literal demon) asking him to tell the truth about Dippin’ Dots?

The truth is, for a lot of people, the only acceptable answer would have been “Yes, it’s true, Chris Jericho is a sex pervert and we are firing him and launching him straight into the sun. Furthermore, I am officially closing down AEW and will go straight to Stamford to join Triple H’s new kiss my ass club. All hail the one true god, Triple H, first of his name.”

The fact of the matter is very simple, this isn’t a story. Horse Manure laid out a hint, someone took the ball and now everyone and their mothers (at least those who are not under NDAs by Chris) are up in arms and asking for an investigation. Investigate what exactly? What is alleged in the Kylie Rae story? The story never outright says that she went up to his room and that, if she did, anything specific happened. Maybe she went up there to play a few rounds of Boggle? Jericho is the 1985 Alberta Boggle provincial champion after all.

To be clear, I am not diminishing survivors and victims of sexual assault. Sexual assault and sexual harassment are disgusting and there is no place for it in our society. However, while this story implies wrongdoing, it never actually comes out and states that something nefarious took place. Look for example at the types of stories that were shared during both the MeToo and SpeakingOut movements. Those are stories from actual victims that describe exactly what allegedly happened to them. They are detailed, they are personal and they are emotionally raw.

This is important to repeat, there are no details provided. Do you want to know why? Libel. Libel is basically the equivalent of defamation but in written form. In the United States, free speech is protected by the 1^st amendment, but libel/defamation occurs when you knowingly lie to damage a person’s reputation. In order to be found liable (which is the civil equivalent of guilty in the criminal system), the evidence needs to show that the person who made the statement more likely than not acted with “actual malice,” which in layman’s terms means that this person knew what they were saying was false or grossly disregarded the truth. Hence, if you were to directly accuse Chris Jericho of sexual assault with a detailed allegation, you would open yourself up for a lawsuit.

Now some people are saying, “Why can’t Jericho just deny the allegations?” What good does that ever do? Have you ever heard of a case where someone denied allegations and then everyone believed them and moved on? I haven’t. Most of the time this just makes people dig in more, they assume that if they deny it, then they must be hiding something. This isn’t a far-fetched assumption given how many times we’ve seen people deny doing something only for it to be proven true later on.

These are not serious “accusations.” There is no statement from the victim, there are no details of the alleged incident, only a vague rumor that was started in 2019. Commenting on specifics will do nothing but bring even further attention to this trash gossip, that wouldn’t be fit to be published in the most sensational tabloid that you would find buried under the porno mags of your local convenience store manned by a chain-smoking clerk who looks to be in his sixties and can’t be bothered to say anything but to tell you what your total is before sending you out on your merry way.

It’s not even a question of innocent until proven guilty. No grand jury in the world would indict based on this flimsy shit, so there wouldn’t even be enough for a trial to begin with. If Chris Jericho or Tony Khan started addressing every vague rumor or giving any credence to these moronic conspiracy theories of widespread nondisclosure agreements that came as a result of bad faith actors with a personal bone to pick, they’d never stop. When audio of Sammy Guevara talking about wanting to “rape” Sasha Banks (recorded prior to his signing with AEW) surfaced what did TK do? Did he sweep it under the rug? No, he suspended Sammy, sent him to sensitivity training and Sammy posted a public apology. Mercedes herself confirmed that Sammy even contacted her privately to apologize for his insensitive remarks. If Tony is willing to do that for just comments, why in the world would he participate in covering up actual crimes?

This is the man who suspended his own executive vice-presidents for months after they got into a brawl with CM Punk at All Out 2022. He stripped them of their newly won Trios titles just days after the incident and they were not even mentioned on TV until their suspension ended. When something actually happens, Tony Khan has not tried to hide that there was an incident and actions were taken without going into specific details. Do you know the impact a scandal like covering up sexual misconduct would have on his other business ventures? It’s not just AEW that would suffer. The fact of the matter is, TK handled the question respectfully, calmly and reiterated that he takes the safety of talent very seriously. That’s all he needed to say.

Instead, people want to jump on this narrative and use some whataboutisms to justify why this story needs to be investigated. As for Kylie Rae, I don’t know why she replied what she did. Did she see a picture of Shotzi and a blue check and think it was a tweet from Shotzi? Did she respond to the wrong post in her timeline? Was she trying to get publicity without going over the line? I don’t know. Only she knows why she posted what she did and she hasn’t said a word since. There was a livestream recently she did with another guy and they talked about AEW and how everyone there was so nice to them and how they wonder how Kylie is doing given how open she has been about her mental health struggles, but never mentioned the tweet.

Now if Kylie wants to come out and make a statement, I will be glad to read it and I am absolutely open-minded enough to believe her if such an encounter occurred. Until then, to the fans who are giving this oxygen, to the blog and podcast writers who are repeating this and reporting on this as facts, go suck a rock.

You are the reason being a wrestling fan is so hard. Our beloved business already gets a dirty look from the outside world, yet you want to jump on trashy rumors to excuse your tribalism? Using one of the most heinous crimes out there, minimizing the pain and suffering of victims to get yourself over to the IWC or just to bash a company whose product you don’t enjoy is sick. Haven’t we learned yet the power of fake news? Haven’t we seen the effects of cognitive dissonance? Of people believing something because it fits into their narrative? There’s an old saying that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. There’s no smoke here. There are wet wood chips on the ground and people throwing matches hoping to start a fire. I stand with the victims of sexual predators; I believe that women should be allowed to live in this world without being constantly harassed or fear for their safety. I also believe that it’s important to use your brain and be logical. This isn’t a silly rumor about who refused to lose to whom, which free agent will debut where, this is a very serious topic. It’s not up to Chris Jericho, Tony Khan or AEW to shoot down every vague rumor that’s put up by no-name jabronis for clout, it’s up to those who spread rumors like these to prove that what they’re saying is true or at the very least, provide a detailed account of what they are “reporting” on.

If you choose to blindly follow these grifters, want to believe nonsense about NDAs to cover up crimes then you’re being an idiot. I know that’s harsh but at this point, what else can be said? I’m not going to hold your hand and validate your feelings. It’s up to you to be better, do some research, get some evidence and then you can publish your findings. Otherwise, do us all a favor and please shut the hell up.

Steamy out!

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In 2013, WWE opened its Performance Center (henceforth referred to as PC) as a replacement for FCW. The idea was to have a state-of-the-art facility operated by WWE where they could train their future “superstars”. More than 10 years later, I believe the time has come to declare this venture a failure.

The reason this column came to mind was seeing The Rock return to WWE. Dwayne Johnson is 51 years old, and while he’s still in great shape, the need to bring him back to (potentially) headline WrestleMania against Roman Reigns shows that WWE lacks faith in its’ current talent roster. If we are to believe the rumors about what plans are in place for WrestleMania nights 1 and 2, we are looking at CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. The Rock.

There are some whispers that maybe The Rock vs. Reigns will go down at Elimination Chamber given that it will be taking place in a large stadium in Perth, Australia. I doubt that. I am sure Rock will appear on the show, but given the time difference and the fact that WWE likes to go all out for WrestleMania, the most likely scenario is Rock vs. Reigns.

I admittedly don’t follow WWE, but I am not blind to what’s going on over there. I see the news, I see the Tweets, I can have a good feel for the pulse of the WWE Universe. I’ve heard about Cody Rhodes and “Finish the story”, but it would make very little sense to have Roman lose his belt and his long undefeated streak before a major match-up with The Rock. WWE decided not to pull the trigger on Cody last year, would they really suddenly decide to do it this year when they forked over what I’m assuming is a Brink’s Truck full of cash at DJ’s door? Doubtful.

This raises the following question “Where are the stars”? To be clear, I am not talking about a mainstream crossover star the way Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock and John Cena were. Those are lightning in a bottle, impossible to predict and extremely rare. I don’t believe there is this mass audience of casual fans who don’t watch wrestling but will come back when the right person grabs their attention. When I say “star” I mean someone who captures the hearts and minds of wrestling fans, who makes them put the phone down and watch what’s going on. The people who get constant loud reactions from fans wherever they go. The only way to bring about mainstream attention right now, is to rely on nostalgia.

I get why bringing The Rock would make business sense. He’s still got a big name, he is still in good physical shape, hasn’t wrestled a match in a long time and unlike Austin and others, he has not suffered any catastrophic injuries that would make having a competitive match difficult. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

The problem I foresee is not today but in 10 years, 15 years when The Rock and the stalwarts of the Attitude Era can no longer be relied on for a big match. There is also the danger of going to the well too many times and draining it dry. Nostalgia will always be a big part of our lives; we like to relive fond memories of our past and so bringing back something or someone that was once popular will get a reaction and will draw attention. However, ask yourselves this, who will be that guy in the future? Seth Rollins has had a very respectable career, but would fans of tomorrow really be excited at the prospect of him coming back? Would his name on the marquee draw a vast upswing in interest (and therefore money)? What about Roman? Will you tell your kids about Roman Reigns and his long title reign?

Will you recall famous matches he had and still want to see them again in 15-20 years? I’m not trying to dump on either man by the way, but would they generate the same interest a Sting, a Ric Flair, a Shawn Michaels, an Undertaker or even a Ricky Steamboat would get today? And who is coming up the ranks as a young hotshot destined to be “The next one”? Who is the next Brock Lesnar? The next Randy Orton? The next AJ Styles? Is there someone right now on either RAW or Smackdown that you can point to and say “That’s the guy” who will eventually get the torch passed down from this generation’s main eventers? Maybe you do, but as far I can tell, no one under the age of 35 has any major buzz going in WWE right now (at least on the male side).

While I personally don’t think the idea of hiring people with 0 experience in pro wrestling and trying to train them from scratch is a good idea, I do understand the idea behind it. Let’s start with a journey down memory road, how did things used to work? How did you get signed and eventually debut on WWE TV before the PC was a thing?

1-The territory days

It was the 1980’s

We begin our journey at Vince McMahon’s national expansion of the then WWF. Before Vince, the wrestling world was separated into distinct territories. Promoters would establish shop in a certain region and would only tour in a select few cities. There were international territories as well, such as Stu Hart in Calgary, New Japan and All Japan, CMLL in Mexico, Puerto Rico and many more.

If you wanted to become a professional wrestler, you usually had to find someone in the know who could refer you to a competent trainer. You also had to deal with crooks who would steal your money (see Undertaker’s story about Buzz Sawyer) or worse yet, you could be put through pain and suffering in order to “protect the business” and see if you were worthy of joining the secret society of pro wrestlers.

Once you found a competent trainer and were shown the ropes, you had to get booked. You would hit the road and go to different promotions, touring the territories and applying your craft. If your first attempt at a character sucked, well no big deal, you can try something else in another territory. The old concept of trial & error. If you were unhappy with your booking or your payoffs, you could just leave and go somewhere else.

Eventually, if you were good enough and got yourself over enough, you might land a gig in one of the major territories such as Georgia Championship Wrestling, the WWWF, Jim Crockett Promotions or even in Japan. This system had the advantage of making sure that only the cream rises to the top. If you were not serious about pro wrestling, if you did not work to improve and learn how to get yourself over, you’d either starve or leave.

The drawback was that by the time a major territory saw you, your body had already endured a ton of punishment by wrestling night after night, travelling the road in your car or taking long flights overseas. Most of the big stars of the initial 80’s boom were already past their athletic primes by the time Vince launched the WWF. They did however know how to work an audience, how to get a reaction and how to promote themselves. This experience combined with the PR machine that was the WWF meant that you could get by on less.

Then came the 90’s

The territory system took a massive blow with the advent of WWF’s mainstream push, but they did not die. There remained some smaller promotions all over the US and in parts of the world that still allowed a young pro wrestler to cut their teeth in the business. WCW, a company created out of the former JCP, became a decent option. While you were not going to make the same amount of money you could in the WWF (at least before the advent of Nitro), it was a chance for steady work. Names like Mick Foley, Undertaker, Ron Simmons, Triple H, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and more worked for WCW in their early careers. There was also ECW, which was on a much smaller scale but had a lot of buzz and was popular amongst tape traders.

Video killed the radio star

Then the wrestling bubble happened in the late 90’s. Monday Nitro’s debut on TNT followed by WWF reshaping its’ image into a more raunchy, violent and less family-oriented product brought loads of attention to pro wrestling. The days of pro wrestling TV featuring mostly squash matches were gone. Both companies needed TV stars, and they needed them now. They could not afford to wait 5-10 years for someone to make a name for themselves and then risk getting into a bidding war with their competitor for their services. WWF (and to some extent WCW) needed to find fresh talent and get them ready for TV ASAP.

2- In-house training

The Funkin’ Dojo

The first iteration of what is now the PC was the Funkin’ Dojo. A training school led by Dory Funk Jr. founded in 1998. Unlike today, there were no modern facilities, no large group of trainers, no video rooms. It was a small ring located in the back of a warehouse in Titan Towers. Dory Funk Jr. and Tom Pritchard led the school. There was no application process, and only a very select few were admitted through the ropes.

The school featured such names as: Mark Henry, Adam Copeland, Sean Morley, Darren Drozdov, the Hardy Boys and Kurt Angle. It was both a finishing school for young wrestlers and a training camp for a select few chosen ones. The concept didn’t last long, only about a year and change. What it represented though was a shift in the mindset of WWF. They would soon expand on that system.

OVW

In 1999, Jim Cornette bought a stake in a small promotion called Ohio Valley Wrestling from Danny Davis and entered into an agreement with the WWF (which would become WWE a few years later) to become the official developmental territory. We all know the major names that came through OVW, I don’t need to list them all for you. The idea of OVW was much different from the Funkin’ Dojo. This was a fully functional wrestling promotion which toured in Indiana and Kentucky as well as broadcast a TV show that was available in select local markets. Young wrestlers had the opportunity to train and develop in front of real fans, recreating the feel of the territories and getting to grow outside the spotlight. OVW was a massive success for WWE.

OVW’s success paved the way for WWE to expand its developmental system, making agreements with HWA and DSW, until 2008 when WWE officially switched its’ entire minor league ecosystem to FCW.

FCW

In 2007, Steve Keirn launched FCW to basically be a replacement for Deep South Wrestling and be another option for where to send wrestlers to train before being brought over to the bright lights of WWE. In 2008, WWE ended it’s nine years relationship with OVW and switched their entire operation to FCW.

FCW operated very similarly to OVW. FCW is where most of the modern stars got their first start in WWE. Names like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Big E, Bray Wyatt, Drew McIntyre, Jake Hager, The Usos, Kofi Kingston, Natalya, Sheamus and others were either trained or polished in FCW. Technically, FCW went on to become NXT. However, the biggest change wasn’t the name rebrand, but rather the introduction of a new facility: the Performance Center.

3- The PC

Now that we’re caught up, we can start discussing the Performance Center. Unlike FCW and OVW, the PC is fully owned and operated by WWE. Yes, WWE had financial stakes in the previous territories but there wasn’t the same level of oversight and control that there is today. If you look at the people who came through OVW and FCW, you’ll notice that when talents are recruited and trained from scratch, they are usually either exceptional athletes (like Mark Henry), former decorated amateur wrestlers or legacy recruits with strong familial ties to pro wrestling.

There is no denying that both OVW and FCW were successful which begs the question: Why the need to sink millions of dollars into creating a new facility? After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Well, the reason is mainly that WWE wants to recruit and train people from scratch. They want to standardize the process and make wrestlers in their image without the need to re-train them in the WWE style. You can go right now on the PC’s official website and submit an application to become a PC trainee. Clearly most people would be rejected, but the fact that it’s technically open to the public lets you know that WWE is not just scouting potential talent, they want talent to come to them. Let’s look at how well the process has been going 10 years in. I will be separating this into 2 sections: men and women

3.1- The dudes

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s ignore Indy wrestlers. Johnny Gargano, Sammy Zayn, Kevin Owens, Tomasso Ciampa, Finn Balor are examples of what I mean by that. If you love wrestling and pursued it on your own outside of the WWE system, then I’m not counting you because there isn’t a need for a PC to find these kinds of talents. FCW and OVW were a way to polish young wrestlers who had picked up “bad habits” on the independent scene and show them how WWE wants them to wrestle. We are only focusing on what appears to be WWE’s main goal: brand-new talent with no wresting experience

The first problem with men is that the top athletes, the ones who could potentially make fantastic pro wrestlers, can make a lot more money in professional sports. Why go to WWE when you can be a millionaire by getting drafted into the NFL? Even if you play only two seasons of pro football, you can earn about 1.5M$. The minimum salary for an NFL rookie in 2023 is 750K$. For the NBA, it’s 1,119,563M$ and in the NHL it’s 750K$ (although you will earn significantly less if you get sent down to the AHL). Men’s athletics are big business. Keep in mind, those who get drafted spent years grinding it out before putting pen to paper. Playing high level contact sports for years with the best of the best of you age range will take a toll on your body.

There are of course hundreds of these men that just don’t make the cut. They’re good, just not good enough to play with the elite. Even the utility players who only see a few minutes of action a night are extremely skilled, they have to be.

From those that don’t end up being drafted, a lot just end up working regular jobs, or will go play in a lower league to hopefully grab the attention of a team somewhere down the line. Then there are those who do get drafted but whose career doesn’t pan out. Whether it be to injuries or just not being able to play the game at the highest level, a lot of young men wash out early and end up looking for something to do.

My point is, there are talented athletes in this group and these are the men that WWE wants to recruit, but if your dream is to play in the NFL, pro wrestling becomes a fall-back. There is also MMA. Many amateur wrestlers go on to become great MMA fighters, given that wrestling plays such a big role in that sport. The average MMA fighters earns much less than the typical WWE wrestler, but the potential is in your hands. WWE can offer you no guarantee of success. Even if you do everything right, you’re still subject to the whims of a large creative machine, backstage politics and in the hands of your opponents. Hence, the potential pool of talent shrinks considerably.

According to Wikipedia, 52 wrestlers have graduated from the PC and competed either in NXT or the main roster between 2013 and 2022. Of those 52, 19 are still with the company. Of those 19, only 9 are on the main roster. They are:

• Braun Strowman
• Chad Gable
• Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford
• Otis
• Veer Mahaan
• Omos
• Solo Sikoa
• Xyon Quinn

Of those 9, only Braun Strownman has ever won a World Championship. Strowman is also the only one to win the IC title. Solo Sikoa wrestled for 3 years before joining WWE and is the son of Rikishi, brother to the Usos and cousin to Roman Reigns. He would have fit right in to the FCW.

This is a very bad track record for 10 years of time invested. We have Chad Gable who is an extremely talented performer but hasn’t been pushed like a star. We have some tag teams and some big dudes but do any of these men seriously move the needle? If most of them retired tomorrow, would it hurt the business? Would they be able to come back in 5-10 years to a hero’s return? The answer is No. For the other 10 who are currently in NXT, it’s too soon to tell for most. Maybe one of them will break through, but let’s move on.

3.2- The dudettes:

This is where things get much more interesting. Everything I said about men’s athletics? Forget it. For women, the landscape if very different. Even the best female athletes don’t earn a fraction of the worst player on a men’s team. The highest paid player in the WNBA made less than 250K. There’s no NFL for women and all previous attempts at a women’s professional hockey league have failed (the PWHL is still very recent).

On top of that, let’s be very honest, the world is often unsafe for young women. If you are a woman and a wrestling fan who wants to become a pro wrestler, you can technically follow the same path as the men, but you’re at risk of being sexually harassed or even assaulted by your trainer, by your fellow trainees or the male wrestlers. Travelling alone as a woman can also be dangerous. Steph De Lander who is currently working on the indies had a story a few months back about a hotel employee who tried to come into her room at night while she was sleeping. She expressed how scared she was at that moment and who can blame her? Sure, men are not 100% safe from violence, but to pretend that the same rate of risk is present for both men and women in the pro wrestling industry (and I daresay anywhere) is wishful thinking. There are also not as many spots on the card for women as there are for men. Japan has all-female promotions but if it’s not easy to break in to those as a Gaijin woman. You have to really want it.

This means WWE has a massive advantage when it comes to recruiting women. Beth Phoenix, Trish Stratus, Victoria, Natalya, The Bella Twins, AJ Lee, Mandy Rose, Lacey Evans, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Liv Morgan, Bianca Belair, Carmella, CJ Perry, Nia Jax, Sonya Deville, Xia Lee are some of the women that WWE trained over the years and who either are or have had success. Add in names like Rhea Ripley, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Shayna Bayszler, Ronda Rousey, Indi Hartwell and others who had limited experience but turned out great for WWE.

The first WrestleMania main event to feature women had 2 women who never wrestled before joining WWE and one who had basically all but given up the business before emerging as a top star in WWE. Offering a safe, professional environment for women to train in a large company gives WWE a leg up in recruiting female talents. There are loads of talented female athletes out there who may not be wrestling fans at first, but who could turn out to be diamonds in the rough, it makes sense to try to find them. While not all of them go on to have long careers and some might see the WWE as a payday, there is something to be said about the much highest success rate for women in the PC versus men in the PC.

The downside is that even with the higher focus on women’s wrestling in mainstream American pro wrestling, it still dwarfs in comparison to men. Ronda Rousey is the closest thing to a mainstream cross-over female star WWE has ever had, but her fame predated her wrestling career. Becky comes a close second, but she’s not on the same level as an Austin, Hogan, Rock or Cena as it pertains to the world outside of pro wrestling.

4- What’s the conclusion?

I get why WWE wants a system in place to train its’ wrestlers. I am personally of the opinion that you should not take your first steps in professional wrestling in the biggest sports entertainment company in the world. This would be the equivalent of signing with the New York Yankees without ever picking up a bat. It’s clear that there is no shortage of great male talent on the independent scene.  Paying your dues and working your way up will give you an advantage. You’re no longer a slave to a creative team or to the whims of a boss who you may favor others over you. Learning how to get yourself over is a skill that can’t be taught. There are always special cases like Lesnar, Angle, Orton and even Rock who may be able to skip the line and go right to the big leagues, but do you really need a massive training facility for that?

If you’re just running a small territory in a warehouse, paying a few guys to train, have the trainees set up the ring and help clean up the place, then you can afford to be picky. Your financial investment and exposure are minimal. However, with an investment as large as the PC, you need to keep it full at all times. You’re not only paying the trainees and the trainers, you’re paying property taxes, building maintenance, cleaning crews, office personnel, utilities, security and medical. Larger class sizes don’t allow individual attention and interaction, it also forces constant cuts to get new people in when the current roster isn’t progressing at the rate you envisioned, which is a waste of time and money.

But really it comes down to the simple fact that the old system worked. To go back to the beginning, if the main events for WrestleMania Liberty Bell are indeed what I said, you have what is essentially the spiritual predecessor to the Funkin’ Dojo (Rock) vs. an FCW graduate (Reigns) and another FCW graduate (Rollins) vs. an OVW one (Punk). Yes, I know I’m ignoring Punk and Rollins ROH career, but that’s kind of the point. All these men had ties to wrestling before ever stepping foot in a WWE ring.

For the ladies, you can downsize to a smaller training facility, have Sara D’Amato and Fit Finlay run a women-only camp and get the same benefits that you might get from a multi-million-dollar facility. Let those who want to wrestle make their own way in. There are hundreds of schools out there, a lot of them with good trainers. Revive FCW; sign young talent who are on the Indy scene right now and put them on NXT TV. You can use the women’s camp to be the first step for talented ladies to dip their toe in the wrestling pool and the ones who make the cut can go on to your new FCW.

In 14 years, OVW and FCW produced most of the talent we see on WWE TV today and all of the major stars, so go back to what was working in the past because while things are good now, the real problem will come down the line when you have no one to take the place of those top talents once they retire.

Until next time, this has been the Steamy Files, and I just believe in kicking a man when he’s down

Follow me on Twitter @SteamyRV

The post The Steamy Files: Mr. Levesque, Tear Down This Center appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

On September 7^th of 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was riding in the passenger seat of a rented car when he was shot in a drive-by incident after leaving a Mike Tyson fight. He was taken to the hospital, but died 6 days later at the age of 25. A few months later, on March 9^th 1997, Christopher Wallace (better known as The Notorious BIG) was also killed in another drive-by incident after leaving the after-party of The Soul Train awards in Los Angeles. He was only 24 years old and a father of two young children: a 3-year-old daughter and a 4-month-old baby boy.

These two men’s careers and lives are now intertwined due to their feud and their deaths, that many speculate were a direct result of the East Coast vs. West Coast hip-hop beef that was going on at the time. While there has been progress in Tupac’s case and the murder seems to be gang-related, there are still questions as to whether Wallace or his producer Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs were in any way involved in the shooting. While Wallce’s killers have never been caught, it is widely accepted that the murder was most likely a “retaliation hit” for the previous murder of Shakur.

Two great artists were snuffed out of this world while still in the prime of their lives, due in part to events that came from “tribalism” of which style of hip-hop was better. This isn’t the only reason, as gang violence, drugs and the criminal lifestyle were absolutely factors in the two men’s deaths, but they are mostly remembered not for their songs, or their talent, but for their tragic deaths.

I’ve taken a long time to get to this conclusion, and while there hasn’t been this level of violence as it relates to these wrestling rivalries, I thought rap beefs would be a good way to introduce what can happen in extreme cases. In the last two parts, I explored what events led us here and talked about some of the players that stoked the flames for their own monetary benefit. Now it’s time for me to say my piece.

Click here for Part 1**

Click here for Part 2**

5- What now?

Now that I’ve laid out what I feel are the reasons this divide is growing, I want to look at what we can do to try and bring the heat down. I’ve spent a lot of time talking about WWE and their actions, I’ve talked about WWE fans putting down AEW but that’s not to say AEW fans don’t have to shoulder some of the blame.

Toxic Gossip Train?

I’m an AEW fan. To me the WWE product is not enjoyable, hence I don’t watch it (outside of a few clips on Twitter) but I recognize that some AEW fans take their love of the company to the extreme. While some people are thriving off negativity, we also have fans who go to the other end, with toxic positivity. For those people, everything in AEW is perfect, nothing ever goes wrong and any criticism is seen as an attack. I don’t think AEW is perfect. I love the product, but I think the women don’t get enough time on TV; I dislike the ROH integration into AEW, especially with them using the term “World Title” for the ROH belt, and I feel like they overuse 4 way matches to have a reason for a title to be defended. I can also accept that some people might disagree with me, and I accept that the AEW product is not for everyone.

I defend AEW a lot, I can’t help it, because I love the overall product. I always end up enjoying myself after watching an AEW show. I’ve never wanted to turn off my TV at something. Some stuff I love, some stuff I like, some I don’t care for but overall, AEW has earned my fandom.

It’s important to acknowledge that opinions differ. There are the trolls who just like to make fun of AEW because it’s fun to join the dogpile, but that’s not who I’m referring to. Take for example the recent Texas Death Match between Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland. I absolutely loved it; I was on the Copeland of my seat the entire match and it was awesome. Some people felt the blood drinking spot was disgusting and that the match was too violent. Those people have the right to say “I didn’t like it” or “It wasn’t for me” and not be called an “E drone” or be told to go back to watching WWE.

When we do this, we are no better than the same people who call TK a cokehead, say AEW is a backyard wrestling company, that TK doesn’t know what he’s doing and any other disingenuous comment meant to attack the concept of AEW as a whole. It’s great that you’re passionate about the product but you should try and engage respectfully with others, even when they are trying to goad a reaction out of you. If your response to a constructive criticism is to try and demean the person, then you’re engaging in toxic behavior. I’m not saying you can’t reply and state that you feel differently, you should absolutely do so, debating can be fun. Just try to keep the topics at hand and be reasonable. It’s perfectly fine to agree to disagree.

The last word on Mistah Cody

At this point, Cody Rhodes has been gone from AEW for almost 2 years. He’s doing very well for himself in WWE and there doesn’t appear to be any animosity between Cody and AEW. He was a big part of the company when it first started, but I do think he is more at home in the WWE environment. I hope he gets his big win at WrestleMania to capture the belt that eluded his father and brother. Nothing but love for Cody. Fans need to let this one go; this is a case of two parties outgrowing each other. AEW’s has acquired lots of world-class talent since 2020 and Cody’s babyface character hit his ceiling around that same time. In my opinion, Cody’s plan was always to go back to WWE. I think he had fun with All In, he liked being an Indy wrestler for a while and was most likely sincere in his desire to help launch AEW. This is also my theory as to why he disqualified himself from ever challenging for the World title after Full Gear 2019.

Dusty Rhodes never held the WWE World title, neither did Dustin. Both these men had (and in Dustin’s case still do) amazing careers and success, but they never could get that one accomplishment. Cody has had to spend his career in the large shadows of two legends, and this is the one thing that he can do that neither has. This was also most likely why he didn’t want to win the AEW World title. He wanted his first major World title win to be in WWE. I think the desire to go back also got reignited once he reached a deal with WWE to reuse the Cody Rhodes name. Remember that for a while, he was only Cody, no last name due to trademark issues. He told fans he didn’t mind and in fact liked being just Cody better, but it wasn’t true. Cody is a smart man; he knew coming in hot at WWE would not help get him his name back.

He took the diplomatic approach and the seeds were laid for an eventual return to WWE. Add this with becoming a father for the first time, seeing AEW grow from an idea to a national promotion which attracted top talent and, for the first time in decades, provides a true alternative to WWE. However, being stuck in limbo with a gimmick that wasn’t working with responsibilities he didn’t enjoy and the possibility for a big return with a large raise; it makes a lot of sense to take the deal. No one should blame Cody for doing what was best for him. He had no ownership in AEW, he was an employee and he got an opportunity to be the first big name to jump.

Oh my god, is that RC Cola Phil?

Punk is a hot-button issue. From the official stories I’ve heard from reading wrestler’s books, hearing shoot interviews (including Punk’s) and simply from observation, I gather that Punk has a very short fuse and holds grudges. He’s an intense guy and that’s been a big reason for his success. He’s been very open about his belief that “Luck is for losers” and he doesn’t seem to be great at communicating his frustrations before they boil over. I don’t know the man personally, but this seems to be an accurate description based on available information.

If you like Piña Cabana

I wish we knew more about the resentment Punk feels for Colt Cabana. I read the petition Cabana filed when he sued Punk to cover his legal expenses stemming from the defamation trial, but legal petitions are not statements of pure fact. They’re made to present your case in the best possible light. According to this document, Cabana believes Punk’s legal team were worried about Cabana settling with the WWE Doctor and testifying against Punk, hence why (allegedly) Punk told Cabana to use the same attorney and that Punk would cover the legal fees.

They both agree that sometime during the trial, Cabana sought to get his own legal representation and that’s where the dispute comes in. From the information I’ve been able to gather, there’s no clear event that’s publicly been described as to why the dispute happened. All we know is that Punk initially said he would be billed for all legal fees and eventually as costs spiraled, a dispute over money occurred. The biggest culprit here is the legal system in my opinion. I still don’t get how a suit against Cabana was able to proceed past a motion to dismiss. Cabana wasn’t the one accusing the Doctor, he simply provided a platform for Punk to vent; I am not a lawyer but it never seemed right to me.

He who must not be named

It’s really sad that a long-time friendship ended this way but it’s clear that for Punk, Colt Cabana is a very sensitive subject. I believe Punk when he says he never demanded Cabana be fired or removed from the AEW roster before singing with the company. That being said, there was no way they could share a locker room and so TK made the call to sideline Cabana. It was smart business; Cabana was already being used sporadically and so he continued paying Colt’s salary and eventually began using him in the relaunched ROH. Everyone wins right?

This is the best explanation I can come up with as to why Punk was so offended by that “worker’s rights” line from Hangman. To me and most of the audience, that line didn’t hit until Punk sent a direct shot at Hangman once Punk returned from foot surgery. Looking back on Punk’s AEW run, both Eddie Kingston and MJF said way worse, but for some reason, that subliminal line from Hangman really got under Punk’s skin. Maybe the fact he got injured so soon after winning the title, coupled with the fact that he was pissed about the line made it worse. He had no outlet to channel his anger into, so it stewed up inside him and he just had to let it out.

Won’t someone please think of the money

Right here, this should have been nipped in the bud. I always try when writing these columns to stick to publicly confirmed facts, as well as my best guess based what’s the most logical explanation. Whatever happened after that Punk promo, it didn’t solve anything. If Punk hadn’t torn his triceps at All Out 2022, would he have done the same thing at the media scrum? I can see how two major injuries so close together right after a big moment could have just sent him over the Copeland. I maintain that after that, even if there hadn’t been a locker room brawl, Punk and AEW should have parted ways. I think most of the wrestling fandom would have understood and probably respected Tony Khan’s decision if that had been the case.

Saturday Night Fever

There’s been rumors that the Collision deal happened because WBD wanted Punk back. I find that highly unlikely. WBD is such a massive company, they’re still dealing with the aftermath of their merger and are restructuring their whole content catalogue, I don’t think they would have time to pay attention to the inner workings of their wrestling programming. I’ve said it before, live sports are the most desirable content to cable providers right now. It’s one of the last types of programming that consistently attracts viewership and where streaming doesn’t dominate the genre. The “One Bill Phil” line was TK’s; he said it himself not long after Punk’s Collision debut. What I believe is most likely is that WBD wanted more AEW programming (discussions were probably ongoing for some time) and that TK saw an opportunity to bring Punk back and separate him from the people he had issues with. It was a bad idea and a massive mistake. This isn’t a case of hindsight being 20/20; if you’re CM Punk, this is basically a golden ticket to do whatever you want. You trashed the company in public, sitting right next to the owner and got rewarded by being the centerpiece of his own show.

It’s all about The Elite bay-bay

As for The Elite, their silence on the issue means that I have nothing to go on to make an educated guess about what they did after “Brawl Out”. I’ve heard the same rumors as you, but again, they’ve said absolutely nothing publicly so I don’t know what they did or didn’t do. The one thing I will say is I believe that AEW should publicly explain what the EVP roles entail. It seemed at first that they would be in charge of creative and would have a major say in hiring talent, but we know that changed. Is it a ceremonial role only? Meaning a cherry on top of their current contracts as a Thank you for helping start AEW? That would make sense. If they do have official responsibilities, then we’d need confirmation as to what those are to judge their potential actions as it relates to the CM Punk situation.

At the end of the day though, what’s done is done. We can rehash the issue all we want, try to find a culprit but I believe blame goes all around. Mistakes were made and it ended up blowing up in people’s faces. As someone who loved Punk, this turn of events disappoints me immensely. I lost all respect for him after All Out 2022’s Gripe Bomb. Airing your dirty laundry so openly in public unprompted is unacceptable. It shouldn’t have happened; but it did. The best thing for all parties was to move on.

Who do we pin the blame on then?

There’s been lots of talk as to why they never tried to bury the hatchet after the incident and the truth is we don’t know. Did Punk try to communicate with Omega and The Bucks after the brawl? Did he try to give them a call? Did he try to fly himself to a Dynamite show after The Elite returned and talk it out? Some might ask “Well why didn’t The Elite do that?”, it’s true, they could have. In the same vein, Punk is an adult, a very rich man and the instigator of this entire debacle. Did Punk have legitimate criticisms about The Elite? Were there preceding incidents we are not aware of? Maybe. However, the entire situation became public because of Punk’s actions.

My point is simply that there’s blame on all sides. Punk should have handled his emotions better; The Elite shouldn’t have gone to confront Punk right when he was this angry. Tony Khan should have cut off CM Punk’s mic when he was going off the rails at the press scrum or simply have him escorted out of the building immediately after it was over. It doesn’t matter anymore, what’s done is done.

In the end, it doesn’t even matter

Punk is back in WWE and hopefully this run goes better. AEW will continue on just fine without him. Throughout history, stars have come and gone; and it’s an opportunity for someone else to fill the gap. I understand that recency bias is a thing, and that people are taking Punk’s return to send jabs at AEW, but honestly, why bother? Human beings make mistakes, whether they’re a CEO, an EVP or a talent. If you’re a fan of WWE and a fan of Punk, then I’m happy for you that he is back. If you’re a fan of Punk and AEW, I understand that you’re disappointed and conflicted. This is not what anyone was hoping for or thinking would happen when Punk first appeared on Rampage, but that’s unfortunately the way life goes sometimes. If AEW without Punk is no longer interesting to you, that’s fine too. If you still enjoy the product though, it’s time to move on. As I said, no one is irreplaceable, big stars have come and gone, yet the business is still here.

6-Steamy’s Final Thoughts

Are we done yet?

Before I end this novel, I want you to close your eyes and think back to one of the first times you told someone that you liked pro wrestling or that someone found out that you liked pro wrestling. What did they answer? Did they tell you that “It’s fake”? Did they make you feel stupid for liking wrestling? And what was your reaction? I’m willing to bet it wasn’t “Yeah you’re right, it’s fake but I think it’s cool”. If it was, you’re a saint and someone with a control over their emotions so great you should run humanity. I’m guessing most of you either ignored it or you tried to defend it. We always feel the need to justify our fandom to outsiders.

We will answer that yes, it’s predetermined but it’s a physical sport and the athletes get hurt, that the bumps themselves aren’t fake even though they protect themselves. Thankfully, the veil has been lifted for a while; pro wrestling is more accepted as part of the mainstream now. The old “it’s fake” argument doesn’t really make much sense when no one is pretending that this is an actual competition nowadays. There are a million podcasts, wrestlers do out of character interviews, you can interact with your favorites on social media and see into their real lives. I’m not sure the conversation I laid out above is something Gen Z fans can relate to? Or that if it does, it’s as common as it was for us who grew up during the 80’s. Yet, now it seems we are turning amongst ourselves. The loudest voices call for us to pick a side, they want our outrage, they want us to be their soldiers and attack the enemy. Resist.

It seems a lot of people like to attack Tony Khan or Triple H directly. For TK, while I do agree that he should be more careful about what he posts on social media, I can sympathize. Remember, this is his family’s money and if AEW closes tomorrow, the Khan family take a big financial hit. They wouldn’t go bankrupt, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt. As for WWE, the McMahon family is set for life, especially with the sale to Endeavor. For them, it’s a matter of pride. Vince McMahon has always wanted to stand alone at the top of the mountain, and he has passed on his life’s goals to his son-in-law. Vince may not be physically present at every show, his direct influence may be significantly decreased, but he will never truly be gone as long as his loyal soldiers are there.

What brings us together?

We all love pro wrestling, that’s what we have in common, we can be different races, ages, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, but we love professional wrestling. Don’t listen to the promoters, on either side, trying to rile you up. Don’t listen to those who point a finger of shame at a company to draw you in, whether it’s for money or just attention. Talk to each other about what you like and what you don’t like, but don’t resort to attacking each other.

And finally, if a product doesn’t entertain you, if you hate a certain wrestler or if you hate certain forms of wrestling, don’t watch it. Turn off the TV, don’t click on the YouTube clips, don’t start flame wars with people that enjoy that product to tell them how wrong they are. Why waste your precious time on this earth on something that brings you negative emotions? There’s enough content out there to last you until the end of times. Don’t let the carnies draw you in for their own personal gain. Remember why you like wrestling in the first place and focus on that. In the immortal words of Brian Zane, like what you like, just don’t be a dick.

Until next time, this has been the Steamy Files, fans ain’t dumb but extremists are

Follow me on Twitter @steamyrv

**If you wish to read the entire piece in one place, I have created a PDF which you can download right here

The post The Steamy Files: Toxic Wrestling Fandom (Part Three) appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.