Nightmare Collective remembrance zone

[One-Armed Drummer of Defrebel]

👉🤪 PROTECT THE MOTHER 👉🤪



So like good lord this was a lifetime ago. Remember before COVID when AEW was a lil baby hopping along doing baby stuff and Brandi Rhodes was a witch that went around with Awesome Kong stealing ppl's hair?? But she wasn't gonna settle for just taking ppl's hair so she joined up with Luther (The Japanese Deathmatch Wrestling Legend) and her good friend Mel to take over the world??? And they terrorized everyone until one day they didn't?? Honestly feels like something out of a completely different company in retrospect. It's also really funny to remember that there were people nervous Brandi's wacky gang were gonna destroy their ratings forever cause it was that early on. 

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

So I have a specific thing to say about the Nightmare Collective that I feel gets glossed over in talking about all of the other ways it was awful, which I feel is why the Luther reveal was the final straw where I couldn't wait and see any further:

They had Kong, a big name wrestler who was unfortunately too broken down to really go. Could still act as a menacing heater on the outside.

They had Brandi, a terrible wrestler who could mostly act as a mouthpiece.

They added Mel, a terrible wrestler who could mostly act as a heater on the outside.

And then...they added Luther...who, due to the restriction on intergender violence, was assuredly going to mostly act as a mouthpiece and/or a heater on the outside.

THEY HAD FOUR PEOPLE SUITED TO BEING ON THE OUTSIDE.

WHO THE HELL WAS SUPPOSED TO ACTUALLY WRESTLE?!

You can see them struggling with this question the second the gimmick started. Kong only had one match that I can recall, against Leva Bates, due to the aforementioned physical state she was in. So, since she couldn't regularly wrestle people, she and Brandi were claiming their hair trophies via after-match beatdowns and other attacks. Which just drew attention to how much smoke show they were doing to minimize Kong or Brandi actually getting in the ring!

Maybe someone overestimated Mel's competence, but like, I can't imagine any reality where Mel did most of the wrestling. She seemed like a heater and nothing else. For that matter, why did they reduce her name down to just "Mel"? "Melanie Cruise" is a much better ring name with a nice ring to it, and "Mel" just sounds so...plain. Unintimidating. "Mel" is definitely not the name you give to someone who's supposed to carry the wrestling in a major heel stable, it's the name you give a mook, which I think just reinforces the issue that she wasn't really meant to be a major presence in the ring.

So again! Who! Was! Supposed! To! WRESTLE!

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

It's amazing how out of all of this, Luther ended up being the most successful, and frankly finding a great act with Serpentico as Chaos Project

Would not have guessed that going in, but the dude's become a cult favorite, especially with the DPW boys

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

I think Bolty is on the money in that there wasn't a person that would have made a good centerpiece to do the majority of matches. It was a stable made out of a mouthpiece and interference runners. I don't know if they didn't realise how broken down Kong was when they started the stable.

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

Jan 7, 2022 2:34:43 GMT -5 El Cokehead del Knife Fight said:

I don't know if they didn't realise how broken down Kong was when they started the stable.

I feel like they had to realize it, given how much nonsense they did to avoid her getting into the ring properly. I think they were just desperate to have A Woman With Name Value, because really, Kong was the only woman on the roster to begin with who had had any kind of television success in the US.

[Non Banjoble Tokens]

Who else could have been a member of this collective if they had kept going and been more integrated into AEW?

Kevin Sullivan?
Sinn Bodhi?
Papa Shango?
Mordecai?
Vipress?
Jazzy Gabert?
Holidead?
The Beast from Women of Wrestling?

[Psicofreak667]

I've looked up Melanie Cruise's stuff outside AEW and she mostly seems like a perfectly serviceable middle of the road talent. But, she doesn't seem to have done anything aside from US indies, she didn't play any particular gimmick, and her biggest role before AEW was probably SHIMMER. I wonder if her stinker against Shida had something to do with stage fright and/or cracking under pressure, unease with the new gimmick, having never worked a Joshi style match before in her life, or what, because a lot of people think she's one of the dirt-worst wrestlers to ever step into the ring and she's far from that.

That being said, LuFisto had the workrate chops required, had experience playing a dark gimmick, had name value, and really, REALLY deserved better in her pro wrestling career. I'm still disappointed AEW never reached out to her. (Also it's a shame MsChf retired because she could've fit in with the group too).

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

I remember being amused at how awkward it was.

We never did get that Awesome/Aja battle of the Kongs match they teased

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Jan 7, 2022 6:14:12 GMT -5 Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite said:

I remember being amused at how awkward it was.

We never did get that Awesome/Aja battle of the Kongs match they teased

That match would have blown tbf

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Jan 7, 2022 8:18:05 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Jan 7, 2022 6:14:12 GMT -5 Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite said:

I remember being amused at how awkward it was.

We never did get that Awesome/Aja battle of the Kongs match they teased

That match would have blown tbf

Aja can still surprisingly go in ring even now

Kong however? Yeah no, she couldn't really even squash a tomato can anymore...

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

Burn this thread.

[Cyno]

I think the original intention was for Kong and Mel to be the main wrestlers of the group, but I don't think they expected Kong to be as broken down as she was. Or Mel to be as horrible as she was.

Wouldn't be surprised if that whole thing was a big reason why Tony Khan decided to be more directly involved with the booking.

[Deleted]

Excalibur: THAT'S THE ORIGINAL DEATH DEALER, THE JAPANESE DEATHMATCH LEGEND DR. LUTHER

[Deleted]

Definitely one of the most prominent weird growing pains of early AEW. The worst part of its legacy, to me, is that everyone around here still seems to despise Luther because of it, even though he's become one of the best comedy jobbers I've ever seen in wrestling.

[Demented]

Jan 7, 2022 10:44:01 GMT -5 Fade is a CodyCryBaby said:

Burn this thread.

I think Brandi would like that

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

Haha, it was weird from the start, never improved, and went longer than it deserved.

[Cyno]

Jan 7, 2022 11:25:50 GMT -5 @mattyphatty said:

Definitely one of the most prominent weird growing pains of early AEW. The worst part of its legacy, to me, is that everyone around here still seems to despise Luther because of it, even though he's become one of the best comedy jobbers I've ever seen in wrestling.

People hate Luther? Because they're wrong.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

Wouldn't surprise me to see it as a future induction on WrestleCrap.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Jan 7, 2022 9:21:25 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

Jan 7, 2022 8:18:05 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

That match would have blown tbf

Aja can still surprisingly go in ring even now

Kong however? Yeah no, she couldn't really even squash a tomato can anymore...

Exactly. I have seen Aja work live a few years ago, she can do all she needs to - if her opponent can bump.

[Facetious]

The angle that should have put an end to any future Brandi ideas. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened.