Is history repeating?

[The Pixel]

Im not here to dump on AEW I think they are doing great, and have so much potential as far as an alternative product goes. But the big question is...Is history repeating itself? We had it first with WCW then again with TNA, whenever WWE lets a contract expire, or releases someone their name suddenly starts being thrown around as potential new signings for AEW, just as before with TNA and WCW. In moderation this could be great, but with Cole, Bryan and Ruby in one night it could be easy to assume they wanna get these new signings out and on tv as quick as possible to build on the hype. So soon after Punk too. We all saw what happened when the previously mentioned companies started to heavily dilute their rosters with WWE releases. I'm not saying there is no value in these guys and they definitely can bring something to the company, but so did all the people that the other companies brought in to. Are they gonna start slowly overshadowing the already established talent, and start pushing them off TV.

[clifford]

Here's the thing; I don't think AEW will snap up every WWE release, but if you look at the list of names who have become available in the last few months, they'd have been crazy not to sign them;
-Andrade and Malakai Black, two outsatnding talents that have proven how popular they can be in NXT and absolutely wasted on the main roster of WWE
-Adam Cole, probably the biggest name/most over of the NXT roster the last few years, and genuinely one of the EVPs best friends
-Bryan Danielson- BRYAN f***ING DANIELSON
-Ruby Soho- one of the most honest and hard working wrestlers that never got a fair shake in WWE. As others have pointed out, Ruby is the first wrestler that made in to Raw or Smackdown to actually sign for AEW.

I don't think I have to justify CM Punk's signing.

Yeah it seems like a lot in a short space of time, cause it is, but you look at the absolute wealth of talent that have been let go by the WWE in the last year.

AEW have proven that they can fit everyone in and use everyone well, so far. Look at every wrestler in AEW that was previosuly in WWE- from the abosolute top of the main event in Jon Moxley to JTTS level talent like Cezar Bononi, EVERY single one of them have been used better and have gotten more over in AEW than in the WWE.

Maybe AEW will become victims of their own success, and take on just that little too much talent in a short space of time, but I think they've earned the right to give it a go. The extra hour of tv a week and the upcoming specials on TNT give them more time to work with as well.

The wrestling landscape is a lot different today than it was when TNA was snapping up every single WWE release too. Nowadays AEW isn't the only major option for talent to get a good pay day and exposure. Impact, ROH, NWA and New Japan of America can all be places for a released talent to land.

[pippen94]

Sept 7, 2021 3:56:30 GMT -5 The Pixel said:

Im not here to dump on AEW I think they are doing great, and have so much potential as far as an alternative product goes. But the big question is...Is history repeating itself? We had it first with WCW then again with TNA, whenever WWE lets a contract expire, or releases someone their name suddenly starts being thrown around as potential new signings for AEW, just as before with TNA and WCW. In moderation this could be great, but with Cole, Bryan and Ruby in one night it could be easy to assume they wanna get these new signings out and on tv as quick as possible to build on the hype. So soon after Punk too. We all saw what happened when the previously mentioned companies started to heavily dilute their rosters with WWE releases. I'm not saying there is no value in these guys and they definitely can bring something to the company, but so did all the people that the other companies brought in to. Are they gonna start slowly overshadowing the already established talent, and start pushing them off TV.

Thought you were going to mention wcw letting Austin, Foley, Jericho & HHH go to Stamford...

[cornettesracket]

I hope not but that’s one of my main worries with AEW is that they get too overconfident and have a “that won’t happen to us” attitude about making WCW like mistakes. Tony Khan has said he’s a massive long time wrestling fan which is great, but I hope that with that long time fandom comes the ability to recognise the mistake WCW made and to not repeat them. He doesn’t have to look that far to find people who have first experience of how awful WCW got towards the end. All he has to do is ask sting, Arn Anderson, and Tony Schiavone how the dying days of WCW were to learn from those mistakes.

I hope AEW keeps up the good work but I also hope that through some miracle WWE gets out of its own way and remembers how to do this thing like they used to do it. My favourite time as a wrestling fan was during the Monday night wars when you had two national companies forcing each other to improve.

[eJm]

I’ll put it simply with a quote from someone on Twitter who does a TNA podcast pretty much to correct the perceptions people have about the company and why it failed for so long;

The problem with TNA wasn’t that Kurt Angle beat AJ Styles.

The problem with TNA was that Sean Morley beat Christopher Daniels.

[Glitch]

Yes, Vince is Verne Gagne.

[Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast]

Biggest difference is that there's no Vince Russo or Vince Russo-like booking the show, nor are there the likes of a Hulk Hogan holding people down.

[The Pixel]

Sept 7, 2021 4:46:49 GMT -5 Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast said:

Biggest difference is that there's no Vince Russo or Vince Russo-like booking the show, nor are there the likes of a Hulk Hogan holding people down.

Lets hope it stays that way.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

No.

Although I do agree that their title lineages have too many ex WWE guys, this is not like TNA whatsoever.

TNA signed castoffs who had no interest in working hard or collaborating. They also were often past their prime.

WWE has cut dozens of prime talents, and AEW isn't jobbing home grown guys out to them.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Tony Khan isn't an idiot. He knows why TNA failed. He knows why ECW failed. He knows why WCW Failed. He's brought in legends like Sting or Paul Wight and maximized their limitations. Punk and Bryan can still go and are here to maximize star power and put young talent on the map. Adam Cole's 32... dude's also had a storied Indie Career so... he's just here to be one of the stars and succeed at it. Ruby was never pushed in WWE so she's basically just getting a career restart in a stacked women's division. At 30. She is also the future of the company and the present.

TNA's big issue was they let the old guys kill the Young Talent who then began to become afterthoughts. They did not maximize their star recruits like Angle and they absolutely brought in washed up has-beens (Morley and The Nasty Boys) and let them kill their top talent before f***ing off. Among other horrible booking decisions and ESPECIALLY backstage managerial decisions that are not present in AEW and I along with everyone hope it stays that way

AEW has a knack for making so many stars look good and featured. They have stock for the future. They have a bunch of huge mainstay stars both homegrown and not for the present. And they use the past with respect that it deserves. What I'm saying is it makes sense to be wary of something happening... but AEW looks like it has set itself up for some major things to be sustainable and grow into the future. Better than many previous wrestling companies before it.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

The WWE have released hundreds of people during a pandemic, a small fraction of them have resurfaced in AEW full time. When AEW are snapping up washed up Jim Duggans and injury ravaged Brutus Beefcakes and pushing them over the future of the company, then the comparison will be fair, but they're picking up guys any company would want, guys they would have signed without a WWE run and legends with something to prove who can contribute in backstage roles like Wight and Henry.

[Garyspivey]

Sept 7, 2021 3:56:30 GMT -5 The Pixel said:

Im not here to dump on AEW I think they are doing great, and have so much potential as far as an alternative product goes. But the big question is...Is history repeating itself? We had it first with WCW then again with TNA, whenever WWE lets a contract expire, or releases someone their name suddenly starts being thrown around as potential new signings for AEW, just as before with TNA and WCW. In moderation this could be great, but with Cole, Bryan and Ruby in one night it could be easy to assume they wanna get these new signings out and on tv as quick as possible to build on the hype. So soon after Punk too. We all saw what happened when the previously mentioned companies started to heavily dilute their rosters with WWE releases. I'm not saying there is no value in these guys and they definitely can bring something to the company, but so did all the people that the other companies brought in to. Are they gonna start slowly overshadowing the already established talent, and start pushing them off TV.

Damn I thought this was going to be about guys like Hulk hogan, the iron sheik, wendi richter, Jesse Ventura, the road warriors, etc all showing up in the wwf and going over already established talent

[Deleted]

A) As people previously said, AEW signing talent in their prime and/or legends with a lot left in the tank is much, much different than TNA signing cast-offs and has-beens. Malakai Black, FTR, and Bryan Danielson are sliiiiightly better than Sean Morley, Test, and the Nasty Boys.

B) WCW didn't go under because they signed too many ex-WWE talent; I'm not even sure that's an angle WWE has pushed with all their revisionist history. WCW went under because they were obsessed with swerves and heat rather than logical, satisfying storytelling, they repeatedly told their audience "these new guys don't matter compared to the older stars," and eventually their seemingly unlimited monetary funds ran out. That all sounds a lot more like...some other company...rather than AEW.

[Push R Truth]

The only fear I honestly have as far as history goes is Cody/Bucks pulling the HHH/Hogan type booking bullshit.

I haven't seen enough to be convinced it will happen, but I haven't seen enough to be convinced it won't either.

[eJm]

Sept 7, 2021 6:33:54 GMT -5 @tacticalsneakman said:

B) WCW didn't go under because they signed too many ex-WWE talent; I'm not even sure that's an angle WWE has pushed with all their revisionist history. WCW went under because they were obsessed with swerves and heat rather than logical, satisfying storytelling, they repeatedly told their audience "these new guys don't matter compared to the older stars," and eventually their seemingly unlimited monetary funds ran out. That all sounds a lot more like...some other company...rather than AEW.

Kevin Nash did try to claim on an nWo documentary that the fact the Outsiders were so dominant and over from the offset lead to people thinking that the WWF was better which...I mean, no? For one thing, if WWF was better at the time, people would be watching the WWF and as Bryan Alverez rightfully pointed out, people love when one or two dudes beat up a bunch of dudes which is true when you look at how over Sting got for a whole year beating the crap out of the whole nWo whilst wrestling zero matches before Starrcade 97.

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2021 6:41:21 GMT -5 eJm said:

Kevin Nash did try to claim on an nWo documentary that the fact the Outsiders were so dominant and over from the offset lead to people thinking that the WWF was better which...I mean, no? For one thing, if WWF was better at the time, people would be watching the WWF and as Bryan Alverez rightfully pointed out, people love when one or two dudes beat up a bunch of dudes which is true when you look at how over Sting got for a whole year beating the crap out of the whole nWo whilst wrestling zero matches before Starrcade 97.

That's...certainly a take from Big Kev.

[Bo Rida]

AJ Styles won everything in TNA. Twice. He was the main reason to watch TNA. Flair & co came in and called him the future, said he'd be a big star someday...

AEW have been great about the likes of Darby being the present, a long as they keep that outlook it won't be the same.

[sfvega]

That is such a shallow, tired take. WWE/NXT can hire anyone who has been anywhere (Sting, Samoa Joe, Itami, Styles, Cole, WALTER, etc) with impunity and gets nothing but praise for signing guys who are talented. They've gotten flack mostly for the guys they've sent away; seasoned, proven talent who "fail" at tryouts. Then AEW signs guys like Bryan or Cole who are top 1% talents in the entire industry, which is common practice in legitimately ANY line of work, and they get boiled down to being labeled merely an ex-WWE guy.

It's never a two-way street, mainly because so many people in the US only think of North American wrestling in the scope of how it relates to WWE. Well, with moves like these and momentum like this, you won't have to for very much longer.

[ASYLUMHAUSEN]

Here’s the thing I think that separates the two and prevents history from repeating itself…

AEW puts a lot of shine on quote un quote “former WWE” people because the people they have signed are massive talents who, with a couple of obvious exceptions, never got the exposure or push to get over with a wider audience that their talents truly deserved.

But they don’t push them over in house talent, regardless of what non-AEW fan scream online.

3 of their 4 current title holders are Day 1 AEW talent…and the next tier down folk pushed the hardest - people like Darby, MJF, Orange, Sammy, Jungle Boy? They’re the same.

Yeah….at some point one of these newer signings will hold a belt I’m sure. But the point remains.

And, besides, the 2 biggest name recent signings? Punk and Danielson? Well hell Punk just put over Darby HUGE both in the build up to their match and in their match. Text book definition of putting a guy over even if he ends up looking at the lights. And Danielson? Shit. How over is a guy like Garcia (as other have speculated since the rumors started and Garcia got the rocket strap push with 2.0) gonna be by the time he’s done working with AmDrag?

Bottom line…I have absolute faith in Tony Khan and the behind the scenes structure to continue to make this work and continue to make this grow. This ain’t Billionaire Ted and Dixie running things.

[sushiburrito]

Sept 7, 2021 4:07:05 GMT -5 clifford said:

-Ruby Soho- one of the most honest and hard working wrestlers that never got a fair shake in WWE. As others have pointed out, Ruby is the first wrestler that made in to Raw or Smackdown to actually sign for AEW.

I read this several times but I'm not understanding the second sentence. Any help?