It’s a Sunday show this week after Medieval Busters held NorCal hostage. We’re talking about AEW and some of the rumored WWE departures of the week. Also we hit the mailbag.
Make sure to keep sending in your questions so we can fill said bag again. If we don’t get to them, I’ll answer a few of them in the comments.
It has been like a week since this was rumored.
Since we can’t go a day or two without something like this blowing up, it’s time to look at even more names who might be leaving WWE, though AEW isn’t the obvious destination for all of them.
Usos
https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/go-big-names-might-not-re-sign-wwe/
I’m a big fan of this team and there’s a chance that they’ll be leaving WWE when their contracts expire at some point in April. Really….could you blame them? Since WWE seems obsessed with not allowing anyone to ever switch shows outside of the Superstar Shakeup or Wrestlemania season, they’ve been stuck on Smackdown where they could only fight the Bar and the New Day over and over again.
Move them to Raw (Usos vs. Revival…..anyone?) and give them some fresh opponents. Or let them go to AEW and fight the Young Bucks, which would be an instant classic. Either way, let them do ANYTHING new because they’ve been stuck doing the same things for years now.
Randy Orton
https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/rumor-randy-orton-willing-talk-aew/
Now this one has a BIG caveat as the story says that he’s “willing to talk” to AEW. There’s a big difference between he’s signing the contract tomorrow and he’s willing to talk to someone whenever he’s allowed to. I’m not sure when Orton’s contract is expiring but even if it’s tomorrow, it’s not like he’ll be debuting for AEW tomorrow. You know, because they’re not debuting for nearly four months.
That being said…..yeah this isn’t happening. Orton is 38 and can be in WWE until he’s ready to leave so there’s no point in moving somewhere else for the sake of….I’m not sure what the point would be actually. How big of a contract is he going to be able to get there? If he wants a lighter schedule he’s better off in the upper midcard of WWE, as he would become the top star in AEW just due to name recognition and star power. Orton would be somewhat insane to leave WWE and I can’t imagine this happening.
Undertaker
https://wrestlingrumors.net/tomclark/undertaker-removes-wwe-social-media-deadman-done/
So this is something that came up today, with Undertaker removing all WWE references from his social media accounts. Now if you can ignore THE UNDERTAKER HAVING SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS, you can imagine people freaking out over the idea of the Undertaker leaving WWE and going….I guess to the wrestling convention circuit like so many others do over the years. Or AEW because that’s the required response anymore.
I don’t think Undertaker is going anywhere as far as wrestling goes, but for some reason people seem to be overlooking one idea: maybe he’s just retiring. He’s 54 years old next month and he’s wrestled ten times in three and a half years (twenty in nearly seven years). Undertaker should have retired YEARS ago and we were all but convinced that he retired after Wrestlemania XXXIII. I have no idea if he’s retiring for good or going somewhere else (Imagine him going to an indy company. Just try to do it.) but there’s every chance that he’s going to be at Wrestlemania or the next Saudi show or Summerslam and this will all be nothing.
Or maybe I’ll go to AEW because everyone else is. I mean, I would if they had a show near me and I could actually get a ticket.
In case you miss this part, this was written BEFORE the rally.
I kind of have to say something longer about this right?
What exactly am I supposed to say? We know five wrestlers and the name of a show at the moment. I have no idea if this is going to work or not and other than a lot of speculation about big names who might show up, we don’t know much of anything about the promotion. They’ve certainly made a splash to start, but there’s a fine line between something being talked about and the people coming to all of the shows.
It’s way too early to say where AEW is going, but I like what I’ve seen so far. It might wind up being a big indy or something like that and there’s nothing wrong with occupying that spot. If it turns into a bidding war and talent makes more money, that’s an awesome situation. I’m just trying to not get overly excited yet though, as the second show is likely to be a success. That’s not where the issue is going to be. The issue is going to be in the fifteenth or so show. How many people are going to come to that?
And better yet: how many of their lower level talents can WWE pick off? They might not be able to get Cody and the Bucks, but what about a few marginal people? If WWE starts picking them off, in the words of Road Dogg when the rest of the promotion walked out and DX was all that’s left, “Are we supposed to wrestle ourselves every week?”.
I’m firmly in a wait and see mode, because there isn’t much to see at the moment.
https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/comes-kenny-omega-reportedly-leaving-new-japan/
Now isn’t this interesting.Omega lost the IWGP World Title at Wrestle Kingdom earlier today to Hiroshi Tanahashi and is allegedly wrapping up there. That means there is a chance he could be coming to WWE (which seems to be the more likely option if he’s leaving) or AEW (which would be a major coup for them, though not the biggest surprise). I’m firmly in a wait and see mode, but Omega at #29 in the Rumble (because remember, R-Truth has to be #30 because Mixed Match Challenge was important) wouldn’t shock me.
I know it sounds hard to buy, but remember that AJ Styles left around this time three years ago and was #3 in the Rumble that year. It’s certainly a possibility, though I’ll believe it when I see it.
Where do you want him to go?