*This blog post was start on September 8, 2021.

FMK: Texas, WWE Talent, Tony Khan's Booking

I wish I could call it a slow news day, and maybe it is. The news is the same everywhere. Too bad it is all bad.

What is the appeal of Texas? The coastal regions may be appealing, but it really seems to be desolate otherwise. I am sure the irrigation has made the farming worthwhile, but who wants to do all that crop picking? Or I should say, which citizens want to pick all those crops?

I guess they have recently become the Delaware of the West, but is the public relations nightmares worth it for the penny-pinching liberals? Does Joe Rogan and Elon Musk want to keep having to answer these questions? A libertarian attitude cannot get you out of them. "It does not affect me" as a response leaves you coming across as racist and sexist. Fame does not afford you the typical white attitude.

NinetyForChill: The Podcast really needs those five-star reviews and subscriptions on Apple Podcasts. Podbean would be nicer for my visualization, but I get convenience for the audience is more important. You can see that I can rant up a storm. If that is my best quality, may as well get paid for it. I suppose Joe Rogan have more in common than a Tae Kwon Do skill set.

Obviously, as a pro-wrestling fan, it was a big weekend. Was it the best pay-per-view since WrestleMania 17? There are some excellent Royal Rumbles and a few Summer Slams. WrestleMania 30 worked out pretty well. The only thing that was lacking was CM Punk and a coherent women's match. And when it comes to AEW, aside from failing to blow up Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston, they have not missed. Lets not forget "All In".

The focus after the event was on how WWE will respond to all of their talent leaving for greener pastures. Mick Foley has sounded off about how he would hope for AEW's attention if he wore a younger man's clothes. Eric Bischoff states there is not much of a qualitative gap between both wrestling products. Tempest the Wrestler's review of NXT on WrestleTalk implies that it is primarily the land of the cruiserweight. Here is to hoping Biff Busick and Danny Burch are not receiving their walking papers after being booted out of a faction.

That leads me to understand why WWE puts on a facade that AEW it is much of a big deal. If they stick to not hiring indie talent, they are going to have an entirely different product. They are going to protect themselves by being apples compared to oranges. As long as AEW does not beat them in the ratings, Vince McMahon and Bruce Pritchard can stick to doing their own thing while AEW does theirs.

If that is the case, televised wrestling might get stale. I say that because the two different products creates a situation where no one is jumping to WWE. The women's division in AEW is the only thing similar to WWE, at least in terms of talent. Booking favors Tony Khan. When it comes to the men's roster, where is the crossover opportunity? Who would WWE hire from AEW?

If WWE were to sign Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, or CM Punk once their contracts ran up, they could say that they end up making all the decisions in the business. Cole is the only one in his thirties, so aside from initial crowd pops, how much use are you going to get from Danielson and Punk. Then you have casual WWE fans who know nothing of NXT. Cole is not a draw for them.

Malakai Black, Shawn Spears, and FTR were ruined by their main roster call ups, so it will take very big bags to get them to comeback. Chris Jericho, Paul Wight, and Dustin Rhodes are all over 50. Jake Hager and Wardlow maybe able to be sold as legit bad asses and MJF and Adam Page maybe too talented to deny. You can thrown in the Men of the Year but otherwise, there is no one I see WWE wanting to sign.

With WWE's aspirations to be like Disney IP, I think they are not worried about Sammy Zayn and Kevin Owens eventually leaving. This comes from everybody in the MCU having a pretty face, even if it is under make up. You can have some ugly heels and the Viking Raiders could serve as sidekicks, but it is going to be a solely cosmetic promotion moving forward.

And it is not like that cannot work. This was the WWF in the 1980s. If you wanted 60-minute broadways, go to the NWA. I wonder how things would have turned out if Bret Hart could have gotten to Georgia in that decade.

Of course, in the United States, all of the wrestlers were larger. Almost all of them would be considered heavyweights, so when a booker ran out of things for you to do, you could just go to New York until Atlanta could cycle you back through. With AEW not having many true heavyweights, and WWE not wanting cruiserweights, what happens when Tony Khan runs out of space on the card? Would he deny the pop of guys like Ricochet or Rey Mysterio would give his product?

I think Tony Khan has thought about that. This explains the occasional two plus hour editions of Dark and Elevation. These shows, talent that are not needed on Dynamite or Rampage can build up their records. When you have enough wins, why would anyone question you being placed on television? It is a great temporary fix, but as fans call on AEW to sign indie talents, you eventually have to let underused talent go. How do you avoid the inevitability?

Khan has not made many mistakes as a wrestling promoter. I cannot say that for his other sports endeavors (A Newcastle United FC supporter has to find clubs to pick on.), but perhaps his experience with Fulham FC and, to a greater degree, UEFA allows him the knowledge of the importance of partners and transfers. Hence why he is the Forbidden Door. If he keeps his relationships strong with Impact and NJPW, he has a place to put talent where they can be elevated or even elevate the promotions they are moved to.

But this is sporting business where there is not a union for the athletes, so I doubt this will always be the case. So guys will be thrown back to the indies. Will promoters be paying them what they are worth? Without the WWE level of exposure, will the performers get that brief period of four-figure shows? Are the indies still going to be strong?

I guess what I am worried about is that having two distinct products instead of competing products, we are going to end up with a scene that is not good for the wrestlers. Competition raises everyone's value. This leads me to think that Vince McMahon and Nick Khan realize that, so they are just trying to correct course. No competition, affordable talents (and Saudi blood money). It is the ultimate evil move which you would expect nothing less from the two involved. But on the bright side, at least it shows that they are still fans of wrestling. Too bad it is not all kinds.

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