WWE Releases: Pandemic to Now - Last Updated 29/04/22

[nisidhe]

Jan 7, 2022 5:24:21 GMT -5 Jedi-El of Tomorrow said:

Jan 7, 2022 1:21:26 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Alvarez apparently said that WWE's going to overhaul NXT's roster every few months to cull everyone they don't think could headline Mania one day. Assuming that's the actual plan and not just him speculating, that sounds like it'd rapidly completely destroy the show being even vaguely coherent or fans bothering to care about anyone there.

Cull everybody they don't think could headline a Mania?

That's a terrible approach to take. Even avoiding the ethics, it doesn't work in sports and won't work in wrestling. You can't have the philosophy that you only want top stars, because you won't succeed. You've gotta have role players/mid carders and job guys, those are the guys who you win with. In wrestling you gotta have people who excel at making their opponents look great. Koko B Ware and Tito Santana were JTTS, but Vince needed them, they were over and could make their opponents look great.

I agree, but the problem since the Attitude Era has been the total absense of "enhancement talent" who could lose consistently on TV without it impacting on things like merch sales or PR value. Koko B Ware and Tito Santana remained big, popular stars because they were seen to _win_ on TV. Wanna keep them winning? You keep feeding them enhancement talent on TV and during the house shows where they're the first or second match on the card.

WWE doesn't have enhancement talent anymore to make the JTTS look good enough for title challenges or a decent standing in the Rumble, for example. The minute they're perceived as having to put someone else over, the JTTS are schlubs whose merch is a waste of resources to make and who can't draw flies to a house show because of 50/50 booking. If the changes Vince made were to bring back the enhancement talent and begin selling _everyone_ on TV again, there might be fewer complaints. However, as things currently stand, nobody without a title matters and even some titles aren't "good enough".

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Jan 7, 2022 1:21:26 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Alvarez apparently said that WWE's going to overhaul NXT's roster every few months to cull everyone they don't think could headline Mania one day. Assuming that's the actual plan and not just him speculating, that sounds like it'd rapidly completely destroy the show being even vaguely coherent or fans bothering to care about anyone there.

'Could headline Mania one day.' They know they're the ones that decide who headlines, right? The ultimate deciding factor being how much Vince likes you. Randy Orton has headlined multiple times despite his questionable appeal and drawing power, with the WWE blaming the other guys when his programs don't draw. Roman has main evented as a face over and over against the will of the fanbase and to mainstream apathy. Hunter headlined Mania over and over when business was in the toilet because of his booking and lack of appeal.


If you don't think a guy is going to make you money, why the hell would you hire them to begin with?

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2022 1:21:26 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Alvarez apparently said that WWE's going to overhaul NXT's roster every few months to cull everyone they don't think could headline Mania one day. Assuming that's the actual plan and not just him speculating, that sounds like it'd rapidly completely destroy the show being even vaguely coherent or fans bothering to care about anyone there.

That's like...they're really doing every bad thing possible.

Like, they're really doing absolutely nothing right here. That. Is. Dumb. Not everybody grows at the same level. Some people just click later on.

[Feargus McReddit]

The whole weird thing about it is, like, if true, they do realize that most of their biggest stars that headlined WrestleMania weren’t homegrown, right?

Hogan was an AWA guy, Austin was a WCW guy, HHH was a WCW guy, Savage was a GCW/ICW guy, Undertaker, Mick Foley, Andre The Giant, I can keep going. For every Brock, Roman, Rock, Charlotte and Bianca, there’s dozens of Pipers, Orndorffs, Beckys, Sashas, Dibiases, Michaelses etc who were grown and honed for WWE to go from. Even the midcards were full of territorial or reliable hands from other companies.

Like, if you want to improve the facilities and train people your way, go ahead and do that. But this idea of chopping and changing only makes your developmental look unreliable, doesn’t exactly make the NCAA graduates who you want going there confident in improving there and as a potential viewer, doesn’t really make people want to watch NXT the show.

[mistery]

Kinda sorta related to all of these releases, but also not really at the same time:

Dave reported in the latest newsletter that Kairi Sane is still under contract with WWE until February, and that they are still trying to get her to sign a new deal. They want her to come back to the US full time, although she has already alluded to not being interested in moving back to the US, especially with her opening a new gym. They also wanted to get her under a new deal to have her return to the ring for them.

There are some rumors among Japanese wrestling fans/news people that Nick Khan is leading the effort to get her to sign a new deal.

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2022 9:06:54 GMT -5 mistery said:

Kinda sorta related to all of these releases, but also not really at the same time:

Dave reported in the latest newsletter that Kairi Sane is still under contract with WWE until February, and that they are still trying to get her to sign a new deal. They want her to come back to the US full time, although she has already alluded to not being interested in moving back to the US, especially with her opening a new gym. They also wanted to get her under a new deal to have her return to the ring for them.

That insistence on full time is always to be a deal breaker and they wont concede and they will lose another monster talent.

If they could find a way to use her on an occasional basis maybe but again they are too stupid to give in...like fly her in let her work a month or even 2 month long program and then she gets to go back home and then bring her back for Rumbles and SVS.

Any smart company would work around the fact she does not want to move back to the US full time to retain Kairi as a talent , but we are working with the most moronic of companies so.

[mistery]

Jan 7, 2022 9:13:53 GMT -5 @sigmax said:

Jan 7, 2022 9:06:54 GMT -5 mistery said:

Kinda sorta related to all of these releases, but also not really at the same time:

Dave reported in the latest newsletter that Kairi Sane is still under contract with WWE until February, and that they are still trying to get her to sign a new deal. They want her to come back to the US full time, although she has already alluded to not being interested in moving back to the US, especially with her opening a new gym. They also wanted to get her under a new deal to have her return to the ring for them.

That insistence on full time is always to be a deal breaker and they wont concede and they will lose another monster talent.

If they could find a way to use her on an occasional basis maybe but again they are too stupid to give in...like fly her in let her work a month or even 2 month long program and then she gets to go back home and then bring her back for Rumbles and SVS.

Any smart company would work around the fact she does not want to move back to the US full time to retain Kairi as a talent , but we are working with the most moronic of companies so.

I think the only way she would sign a new deal is if WWE would let her wrestle in STARDOM whenever she isn't needed in the US. But that isn't likely. People are speculating she might sign an AEW deal, but that isn't happening if she ends up working with STARDOM, considering the AEW/STARDOM relationship is super strained right now due to Tony being...kind of an idiot.

[Bo Rida]

Jan 7, 2022 4:09:26 GMT -5 Ryushinku said:

I'd like to congratulate Samoa Joe for re-signing with the WWE next week, then being let go the week after that.

They should never have made you doink Marty.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Jan 7, 2022 9:06:54 GMT -5 mistery said:

Kinda sorta related to all of these releases, but also not really at the same time:

Dave reported in the latest newsletter that Kairi Sane is still under contract with WWE until February, and that they are still trying to get her to sign a new deal. They want her to come back to the US full time, although she has already alluded to not being interested in moving back to the US, especially with her opening a new gym. They also wanted to get her under a new deal to have her return to the ring for them.

There are some rumors among Japanese wrestling fans/news people that Nick Khan is leading the effort to get her to sign a new deal.

On the one hand, the woman they put her with multiple times who almost ended her in ring career is gone

On the other hand, stay the f*** away and let it run out Kairi, they don't actually care about you, much less Joshi

[mistery]

Jan 7, 2022 9:24:00 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

Jan 7, 2022 9:06:54 GMT -5 mistery said:

Kinda sorta related to all of these releases, but also not really at the same time:

Dave reported in the latest newsletter that Kairi Sane is still under contract with WWE until February, and that they are still trying to get her to sign a new deal. They want her to come back to the US full time, although she has already alluded to not being interested in moving back to the US, especially with her opening a new gym. They also wanted to get her under a new deal to have her return to the ring for them.

There are some rumors among Japanese wrestling fans/news people that Nick Khan is leading the effort to get her to sign a new deal.

On the one hand, the woman they put her with multiple times who almost ended her in ring career is gone

On the other hand, stay the f*** away and let it run out Kairi, they don't actually care about you, much less Joshi

I think they care about joshi as long as it increases their marketing influence in other countries. Kairi is one of the most popular women's wrestlers in Japan right now. So it's incredibly obvious that WWE still wants her.  Io is very popular as well, but not quite as popular as Kairi. There's a reason why WWE is in talks with a top STARDOM star right now, and it's because she's insanely popular in Japan (even more than Kairi), and one of the biggest reasons why STARDOM had such explosive growth. And with STARDOM alluding to wanting to start servicing the US more (without partnering with another promotion) once things start to get back even remotely to normal, that could be real bad for both AEW and WWE. Especially if Kairi spearheads the movement.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Jan 7, 2022 9:31:52 GMT -5 mistery said:

Jan 7, 2022 9:24:00 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

On the one hand, the woman they put her with multiple times who almost ended her in ring career is gone

On the other hand, stay the f*** away and let it run out Kairi, they don't actually care about you, much less Joshi

I think they care about joshi as long as it increases their marketing influence in other countries. Kairi is one of the most popular women's wrestlers in Japan right now. So it's incredibly obvious that WWE still wants her.  Io is very popular as well, but not quite as popular as Kairi. There's a reason why WWE is in talks with a top STARDOM star right now, and it's because she's insanely popular in Japan (even more than Kairi), and one of the biggest reasons why STARDOM had such explosive growth. And with STARDOM alluding to wanting to start servicing the US more (without partnering with another promotion) once things start to get back even remotely to normal, that could be real bad for both AEW and WWE. Especially if Kairi spearheads the movement.

If STARDOM wants to service the US more without a partnership then WWE is going to be a no go, they CANT partner, it's proven time and again they can't help themselves

Im pretty confident Kairi ain't budging, especially if she's content with things

[Totorob101]

Kairi needs to get away from WWE for good,she was so badly misused and they couldn't wait to turn her heel on the main roster when she was the biggest most natural babyface you could ever wish for since Ricky Steambot.She only needs to look at Sarray whos career is being ruined by them and the deputy and use of Io to see what Vince and Co think of Joshi. Kairi is meant for AEW and I hope she does go there even for a short while.

[mistery]

Jan 7, 2022 9:34:01 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

Jan 7, 2022 9:31:52 GMT -5 mistery said:

I think they care about joshi as long as it increases their marketing influence in other countries. Kairi is one of the most popular women's wrestlers in Japan right now. So it's incredibly obvious that WWE still wants her.  Io is very popular as well, but not quite as popular as Kairi. There's a reason why WWE is in talks with a top STARDOM star right now, and it's because she's insanely popular in Japan (even more than Kairi), and one of the biggest reasons why STARDOM had such explosive growth. And with STARDOM alluding to wanting to start servicing the US more (without partnering with another promotion) once things start to get back even remotely to normal, that could be real bad for both AEW and WWE. Especially if Kairi spearheads the movement.

If STARDOM wants to service the US more without a partnership then WWE is going to be a no go, they CANT partner, it's proven time and again they can't help themselves

Im pretty confident Kairi ain't budging, especially if she's content with things

Yeah. You are correct on the WWE part, but neglected to mention that AEW will be in the same boat. But while AEW will probably try make a partnership happen if STARDOM expands to the west, it won't unless its on STARDOM's terms. Because last time they had a "partnership", Tony had the final say in everything and it was a complete mess. And considering Tony has massive ego problems of his own, I don't think he's going to apologize or own up to his mistakes for what ended up breaking the partnership.

Jan 7, 2022 9:35:27 GMT -5 Totorob101 said:

Kairi needs to get away from WWE for good,she was so badly misused and they couldn't wait to turn her heel on the main roster when she was the biggest most natural babyface you could ever wish for since Ricky Steambot.She only needs to look at Sarray whos career is being ruined by them and the deputy and use of Io to see what Vince and Co think of Joshi. Kairi is meant for AEW and I hope she does go there even for a short while.

Kairi isn't going to AEW. If she refuses to even go to WWE to work, she isn't going to work in AEW. It's pretty clear if she wrestles again, it'll be for STARDOM. And it's incredibly likely they'll bar her from wrestling for AEW, considering Tony's behavior in regards to how they handled the partnership previously. Rossy's heavily alluded to the fact that he doesn't like Tony, and is still very pissed at him over the whole Riho stuff. Also doesn't help that AEW is already partnered with STARDOM's biggest rival in TJPW either.

Also while I wish Io would be used more, she's still the most protected woman in all of NXT right now (if not all of WWE), even after the changeover. She's been pinned/submitted only like 7 times since joining WWE. MYC2, Worlds Collide, her first match against Shayna, a tag match against Charlotte (where Charlotte had to heavily cheat in order to beat her), War Games, and then losing the title to Raquel.

[Deleted]

If Stardom tries to make a foothold stateside there is going to be every single company at their f***ing door and STARDOM should turn them all down because all the women stateside will be clammoring to work for them so they wont have to really do anything.

But what this also could do is basically increase every single womans value exponentially since unless a company works directly with Stardom they likely will go into overdrive in hiring and locking down female talents to keep them away from Stardom.

But all of that of course hinges on things like what kind of TV deal could they get here etc.

[The Captain]

Stardom and AEW never had a partnership beyond Riho starting to work for Stardom after she had signed with AEW. And Bea Priestley also worked in both at the same time, though I dunno if she was ever a full-time talent with AEW.

[mistery]

Jan 7, 2022 9:53:37 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Stardom and AEW never had a partnership beyond Riho starting to work for Stardom after she had signed with AEW.

They sent some talent over like Bea and a couple of others a few times. Also the whole thing ended up imploding because Tony absolutely refused to let Riho eat a pin or submission while she was in STARDOM, which made booking her a nightmare. And this was even after she lost the AEW Women's title. Which put STARDOM in a bad spot, because Riho held one of their titles at the time, and ended up having to take it off of her through a triple threat match, which is something they very rarely do.

[HMARK Center]

Sapp is reporting that all the Performance Center sources he's spoken to fully expect Samoa Joe to return to in-ring action outside of WWE.

There's suddenly some speculation going around that Joe's been pretty healthy of late and WWE simply took him out of the ring back when they had him give up the NXT belt. No clue if that's even remotely accurate, Joe's injury history is well documented, but there's at least a trend of late of WWE not wanting to clear a lot of people to wrestle who then go on to show they're pretty much fine, albeit on reduced schedules (e.g. Edge doing fine in WWE, Christian doing fine in AEW, how long Bryan's comeback took, etc.). Seems they'll only end up letting them back in the ring if they hear they're getting offers from elsewhere (e.g. AEW making Edge an offer when he was coming back), or just let them go/cut them.

If that's indeed the case, I have years and years of matches I've been dying to see Joe have with people all around the current scene that I hope he's at least able to do a few of, from the obvious Joe vs. Punk IV potential to Joe working with some of the talent that's exploded around the Japanese scene in the last decade.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Jan 7, 2022 9:55:57 GMT -5 mistery said:

Jan 7, 2022 9:53:37 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Stardom and AEW never had a partnership beyond Riho starting to work for Stardom after she had signed with AEW.

They sent some talent over like Bea and a couple of others a few times. Also the whole thing ended up imploding because Tony absolutely refused to let Riho eat a pin or submission while she was in STARDOM, which made booking her a nightmare. And this was even after she lost the AEW Women's title. Which put STARDOM in a bad spot, because Riho held one of their titles at the time, and ended up having to take it off of her through a triple threat match, which is something they very rarely do.

What's the source on this? Were there ever confirmed reports of this backstage tension or Riho being overprotected? Or is this just the assumption because Riho was booked strong and didn't lose the belt in the triple threat? 

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Jan 7, 2022 10:02:36 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

Sapp is reporting that all the Performance Center sources he's spoken to fully expect Samoa Joe to return to in-ring action outside of WWE.

There's suddenly some speculation going around that Joe's been pretty healthy of late and WWE simply took him out of the ring back when they had him give up the NXT belt. No clue if that's even remotely accurate, Joe's injury history is well documented, but there's at least a trend of late of WWE not wanting to clear a lot of people to wrestle who then go on to show they're pretty much fine, albeit on reduced schedules (e.g. Edge doing fine in WWE, Christian doing fine in AEW, how long Bryan's comeback took, etc.). Seems they'll only end up letting them back in the ring if they hear they're getting offers from elsewhere (e.g. AEW making Edge an offer when he was coming back), or just let them go/cut them.

If that's indeed the case, I have years and years of matches I've been dying to see Joe have with people all around the current scene that I hope he's at least able to do a few of, from the obvious Joe vs. Punk IV potential to Joe working with some of the talent that's exploded around the Japanese scene in the last decade.

I fully believe Joe is healthy, and I believe he was never truly injured especially since not even Joe elaborated on it. The old NXT was simply falling down then and they used it as a way to cover it up so fans didn't speculate the inevitable, which they are now seeing anyway, he's gone again.

I think Joe's gonna show up in AEW, and he's gonna show up hungry. He went back to NXT because he was promised to wrestle again, he got their main title, and then it all fell apart. Joe deserves a last great run, and imo he's gonna get it 

I predict right here and now, Double or Nothing has it's shocking debut penned down right here lol 

[Eunös ✈]

I'm honestly starting to wonder if we could see Triple H gone from WWE soon.

I know the idea of this happening for the longest time was laughable, but now it almost feels like it is something that could happen.