THE WRESTLING REPORT

The Wrestling Report: Survivor Series is this weekend and everyone seems unprepared

Cory De La Guardia
Nov 20, 2019, 5:27 am
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Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

Coming out of their first pay per view in their new weekly format, AEW came out resetting the stage. After the big betrayal of Cody Rhodes by MJF during the Jericho championship match there was still some great sizzle between all of these guys in the middle of the show as Jericho and MJF cut a great promo and then Cody Rhodes tried to run out there and get revenge but suffered the wrath of the Inner Circle and the numbers game overwhelmed. The crowd is in it with these guys and they have done a great job of signing talent that really grabs the energy and uses it. Moxley, the guy WWE had no business letting go, continues just burning up all the tape he gets recorded on and there is no doubt he is the guy that is a superstar regardless of who has belts and who doesn't. All you need is a ring and a microphone and Moxley is going to win over crowds and steal shows. I honestly have been massively impressed with the formula All Elite Wrestling has put together and while they are doing subtle differences like posting win/loss records and things of that nature they are really staying more true to wrestling than WWE feels in a lot of ways these days.

Survivor Series is already this weekend, making that Crown Jewel event seem even more poorly planned in the WWE calendar. Survivor Series has long been one of the iconic WWE events, alongside Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania and Summer Slam. These have long been the main four and nowadays with all the crazy scheduling and over booking, Survivor Series got almost zero buildup coming out of Crown Jewel. There have only been three RAWs since the Saudi Arabia event and one of those continued the NXT takeover event, which at least did lend to the Survivor Series matches, and four Smackdowns but one of those is the NXT invasion episode because a contingent of the Fox roster had trouble getting out of Saudi Arabia on time. So with little fanfare and troubled writing, Survivor Series is here and honestly I'm struggling to muster the energy to care. There hasn't been consistent rhythm or momentum since the brand split and subsequent draft and perhaps their biggest splash was Fox bringing back CM Punk to the WWE Backstage show, where oddly enough he has no relationship with WWE. I'm curious if WWE is starting to think they have too many masters now.

Feel free to check out my brand-new comic book Another Day at the Office email me for details or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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THE WRESTLING REPORT

The Wrestling Report: Potential dissension in the ranks of AEW?

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

The first cracks are starting to appear in AEW's seemingly unified front against the WWE natural monopoly in the world of wrestling. Joey Janela, the bad boy of Indy wrestling, has since deleted a tweet that announced he wasn't getting on his flight to make his next booking with All Elite Wrestling because they weren't explaining to his satisfaction his elimination from a match the previous week and that he felt that he was losing his momentum that comes from fourteen years of independent wrestling. This was always going to be the issue, every match isn't marquee and every competitor can't be a winner and so you have to have great performers that are OK with losing. That's a hard thing to find among a bunch of guys who have always been me first, like traditional Indy wrestlers are seen as. So what exactly is the solution? Tough to say but it's a good sign that he deleted the tweet, hinting that maybe he got the conversations he was looking for or maybe AEW flexed a little contract muscle, it's hard to say.

AEW is also very obviously in the head of WWE as Britt Baker, one of the top female wrestlers of AEW is the girlfriend of current NXT champion Adam Cole and she was in attendance for his match during Takeover and they put the camera on her during the match. There's nothing like a little free publicity.

Survivor Series is over thankfully and apparently the rumor mill is saying Vince McMahon wasn't even happy with the main event. The triple threat women's match, Becky Lynch, Bayley and NXT's Baszler was just not the end of the show pop they were looking for and most odd was all of these triple threats had a lot of NXT winners, they actually won a majority of the matches, I suppose trying to make them look equal to their counterparts. That's dumb though, we know they aren't. This is one of those mistakes that comes from having a third show and especially having it be the "minor league" of your talent development, the fans know what it is, so when these guys are beating Smackdown and Raw guys, if you're Fox or USA the question should be, well why aren't they on the main roster then? Overall I think this attempt at elevating the NXT brand may further hurt WWE's credibility and leave people looking across the street on Wednesday's to AEW's Dynamite on TNT.

Feel free to check out my brand-new comic book Another Day at the Office email me for details or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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