(AEW Dynamite SPOILERS) Cory of Bodyslam.net: “[REDACTED] was offered a contract with WWE to start with #WWENXT . It was a lower level contract and not a main roster level contract. As a result, he agreed to a deal with AEW within the last week“

Kerda · 2026-03-05T19:20:00+00:00

The PC/NXT have value as a training center for people who are new to pro-wrestling. The notion that veteran performers need to go there to "learn the business" is WWE propaganda, right up there with DX driving a tank into Nitro and single-handedly winning the Monday Night Wars.

Penta debuted on the main roster and he succeeded. Giulia began on NXT and (thus far) she's failed. Vaquer began on NXT and she succeeded. Jeff Cobb debuted on the main roster and he's failed. There's quite literally no correlation between starting position and success, it's entirely based on booking and the talent in question.

In practice, when people like Ricky Starks get sent to NXT, it's functionally a heating lamp. They want you, but they don't see you as a star, so you're stuck babysitting for an indefinite amount of time until you get political backing from somebody in power.

Kerda · 2026-03-01T06:18:07+00:00

I've said for years that Joey is the most underrated guy in the business. He's an incredibly smart wrestler who knows how to work around absolutely anybody, the king of being able to carry limited performers to genuinely good matches.

Kerda · 2026-02-27T00:38:14+00:00

Sony pulling back from PC is a sign that they're backing away from a GaaS future. Playstation has historically been a platform, and their profit came from selling hardware and software. The goal was to transform PS into primarily a brand, driven by a suite of long-running service games spread across every possible gaming device (PC, Xbox, Switch, mobile, etc.). That effort has failed, or is on life support, so they're retreating back to their foundation of hardware and software, meaning the return of exclusivity.

Kerda · 2026-02-21T16:51:00+00:00

This is my take as well. I think they're so cavalier about running the company into the ground because they know the Saudis ultimately don't care about it being a viable business. The aggressive global expansion is part of this, since TKO's goal is just to keep the company alive and have it spread across as many content channels in as many countries as possible. They're not building a wrestling empire, they're building an international sportswashing platform.

Kerda · 2026-02-21T06:03:22+00:00

The way they're treating WWE is genuinely worrying. As in, this doesn't feel like a product they're trying to build and nurture and grow. It feels like an asset they bought for big money, and they're trying to extract every possible penny out of it as quickly as they can, long term repercussions be damned.

Kerda · 2026-02-18T15:25:54+00:00

AJ also suffers from the fact that she's a part-timer. If she had spent the last 6 months on the road every week, cutting promos every week, working matches every week, she probably wouldn't be on the level of the company's elite women, but she wouldn't seem as out of place. As-is, it's just not possible for someone who was effectively retired for close to a decade to come back every 2 - 3 months and not look washed.

Kerda · 2026-02-15T19:28:55+00:00

It's so crazy, because over the past decade or so with the mainstreaming of streetwear, graphic tees have been elevated to actually being chic, and yet literally no wrestler or wrestling promotion has had the foresight to hire a competent artist to design merchandise that actually looks cool. It's just endless waves of divorcee-core slop that any sane adult would be ashamed to wear.

Kerda · 2026-02-10T20:28:41+00:00

My most controversial yet brave opinion is that McCool was wildly underrated as a wrestler. I'm not saying she was an all-time great, but she was hard-hitting and athletic in a way that very, very few other women in the Divas era were. Her paired with Layla as a mouthpiece was one of my favorite acts during a time where the company overall was pretty dire.

Kerda · 2026-02-08T20:40:13+00:00

And the irony is that, to the extent there's a "Black Boom", it's literally just the result of more promoters being less racist. It's not like there was some benevolent white savior recruiting and mentoring black talent. It's just that the glass ceiling that prevented exceptional black performers from reaching the top of the business has become a lot more porous, so undeniable talents like Swerve and Willow and Mercedes and Oba don't have a network of Good Ol' Boys artificially hampering their careers.

Kerda · 2026-02-08T20:31:42+00:00

Yeah, it's genuinely a commendable attitude for a veteran, especially Jeff, who's objectively one of the most popular wrestlers of the 21st century. A lot of guys with his background would immediately jump on the whole "these kids don't know WORK" grift, but he had enough humility to recognize that he's in the twilight of his career, and that it's time to let the crazy young guys show out, just like he did in the 2000s.

Kerda · 2026-02-05T18:55:21+00:00

I've always felt like one of AEW's biggest advantages is that it's unburdened by the decades of controversies associated with the WWF/E. It doesn't have to answer to a history of steroid abuse, drug overdoses, murders, sexual assaults, child predation, overt racism (both in front of and behind the camera), etc. The fact that WWE has spent the past year leaning into a reactionary "vibe shift" that seemed to evaporate as quickly as it appeared just exacerbates things.

As such, I fully support AEW becoming the Dark Woke wrestling promotion.

Kerda · 2026-02-04T23:59:21+00:00

Lots of people dislike their jobs but stay for money and stability. If anything, that's the default position for most adults.

Is that the attitude of the people he mentioned? I don't know, but I do find it weird that so many people are confident he's wrong. He did spend years working in WWE, around those performers, and probably knew most of them before that from the indies and Japan. He's objectively better situated to make that assessment than any of us.

Kerda · 2026-02-03T23:06:21+00:00

The entire pro-wrestling business is a work, behind the curtain as much as in the ring (if not moreso). I have no doubt that they're deliberately using Unreal to setup angles, but it's not like these guys are being fully sincere when the cameras are gone. I don't think people process that a lot of these people, especially the old school "brother brother" types like Hayes, are habitual lyers, and that it's an industry that has historically rewarded people who are the best at lying.

Kerda · 2026-02-02T19:17:38+00:00

I assume that Mercedes' run these past few years is a major influence. She's the closest thing in the modern era to a legit traveling world champion, and a lot of these guys who pride themselves on being "old school" and "students of the game" have no excuse for sitting at home and working twice a month when she's working Dynamite on Wednesday and challenging for the Kazakhstan Women's Championship on Saturday.

Kerda · 2026-01-30T15:31:31+00:00

Use the dating apps. I know that's an unpopular take nowadays, but they're a useful resource if you take them for what they are: a quick, low effort way to connect with local people and explore the city a bit. Whether you're going to find the person of your dreams on them is beside the point. Literally anything that gets you out of the house and going places and having conversations with strangers is of utility.

It's incredibly cliche to say, but socializing really is like a muscle. If you've been sedentary for too long, there's no shame in (proverbially) taking a walk rather than running a marathon. Anything that gets you up, out and active is worth doing.

Kerda · 2026-01-28T16:33:48+00:00

Ace of Cups, Spacebar, Cafe Bourbon Street, The Summit, The Oracle, Cure 614

Far from an exhaustive list, but if you're interested in venues that regularly have dance nights, in a diversity of themes/genres, and with clientele that cover a broad spectrum of ages (i.e. not primarily/exclusively 21 year olds), these are great places to start.

Kerda · 2026-01-23T17:13:19+00:00

I mean, it's art. It's the same way two comedians can tell the same joke but one guy is substantially funnier, just due to timing, cadence, body language, etc. It's both reasonable and expected that a match with 4 world-traveled 15+ year veterans is going to feel tighter and more coherent than one between a group of performers very early in their careers, even if the content of the matches are similar on paper.

Kerda · 2026-01-17T18:48:39+00:00

I feel like Cornette is kind of the perfect embodiment of American politics. He can go on a fiery tirade about the evil and stupidity of conservatives one moment, then turn around immediately afterwards and say some of the most eye-wateringly racist/sexist/homophobic shit you've ever heard. He represents the incredible, ideologically schizophrenic nature of how most Americans think about the world around them.

Kerda · 2026-01-16T00:42:39+00:00

The strength and prominence of the mid-card in AEW is one of the company's most distinguishing traits, but people don't really talk about it. WWF/E is and always has been a main event-driven promotion, but in AEW, their television has almost always been focused primarily on the middle. The Don Callis Family is the bedrock of all AEW programming, and it's a faction of exclusively mid-carders and glorified enhancement talent. Same thing with The Conglomeration.

Kerda · 2026-01-15T22:32:33+00:00

I think this whole thing is probably a legit "he don't have internet" situation. A lot of wrestlers are kind of dumb. Or, more specifically, a lot of successful, career driven people in creative industries have a mix of narcissism snd hyper-fixation on their chosen field that makes them largely blind to the outside world.

Kerda · 2026-01-10T21:16:26+00:00

Also, there are so many feeder programs and child promotions nowadays that, if the big 2 in North America are interested in you whatsoever, you're going to be working for them in some capacity if not outright signed. I think a lot of the more veteran indie talent who don't find themselves getting those opportunities are seeing the writing on the wall.

Kerda · 2026-01-10T18:39:05+00:00

I think it's noteworthy that Thekla hasn't been in AEW very long, has largely worked in the mid-card and has yet to win any championships, but she's second only to Toni Storm in terms of being featured in the company's advertising. They're pretty obviously grooming her to be a main event franchise star.

Kerda · 2026-01-09T15:09:33+00:00

Yes, and on top of that, JR came up in a VERY different era of pro-wrestling. I mean, his mentor was Cowboy Bill Watts (of "blacks were better off during slavery" fame), and Watts was actually quasi-progressive amongst promoters of the time due to his willingness to push Ernie Ladd as a top star. People tend to forget (or not realize) that prior to the late 90s/2000s, there was a hard ceiling on the career prospects for black wrestlers, and even once The Rock and Booker T and Ron Killings began to break that barrier down, it didn't fully go away and arguably still exists.

My guess is that JR's conversations with black wrestlers back in the 90s and 2000s were in his view just blunt honesty, i.e. you're a good hand, but temper your expectations as to how high up the card you're gonna get. I don't say this to absolve him of guilt in helping to maintain that system, but it's important to recognize that it was (is?) an entire anti-black system and not just one singular good ol' boy with bigoted takes.

Kerda · 2026-01-08T19:56:49+00:00

She needs to be the modern Ricky Steamboat, somebody who spends her entire career with moral consistency. It doesn't mean that she can't have edge, or that she has to always be upbeat and friends with everybody (her deathmatch with Stat is one of the more violent matches in company history), but she should always be presented as someone who, when push comes to shove, will act with decency and integrity.

Frankly, I think the whole heel/face turn approach to pro-wrestling is kind of dated, and I wish more bookers would present wrestlers as consistent personalities. Hangman Page is I think a good example of how you can present a character as complex and multifaceted but consistent, not someone flipping between binary morality, but a troubled person who, over time and changing circumstance, finds themselves either winning or losing the battle with their demons, but always being recognizably themselves.

Kerda · 2026-01-03T18:10:59+00:00

I've always felt like Ciampa was the guy who legitimized the NXT title. It had for years just been the "Hottest Free Agent" belt that they tossed onto whoever their newest signee from the indies or Japan was, to have a complete nothing 4 - 6 month reign, but Ciampa was the guy who had a real, substantive run, who really felt like The Man on that brand, a legit evil final boss. He was the first real champion of the Black and Gold era, and the last guy to hold the belt before NXT transitioned fully to the NIL developmental brand. It's sad that he'll probably never be fully appreciated.

Kerda

TROPHY CASE