Author: Mike Chin

Major stars in professional wrestling all have certain matches that define their legacies. Sometimes they\’re title matches or main events. Sometimes it comes down to match quality and two or more performers putting on a show that keeps fans talking for years to come.

In a lot of cases, fans can’t see these kinds of matches coming. After all, even with the most talented performers in the ring, questions of how much time they’re allotted, what kind of chemistry they’ll have with each other, or what the booking looks like can all color how the match comes across.

However, at AEW Revolution this weekend, the writing is on the wall. In their main event, world title Iron Man Match, Bryan Danielson may well have the most important bout of his AEW tenure. For MJF, this could be the most important match of his career.

MJF Must Prove Himself As An In-Ring Champion

It’s no secret that MJF rose to the top of AEW on personality and talking skills. Since before the company even launched, MJF cultivated his promos and a commitment to garnering heat, which included remaining a heel at every turn, never letting fans see him out of character.

MJF took his skills to new heights last year with a worked shoot angle fans still haven’t fully unraveled. That storyline saw him stay off television for a period of months only to come back and claim an AEW Championship shot, which he converted into his first world title reign at Full Gear.

MJF had some very good matches in 2022, including a brutal Dog Collar Match with CM Punk and his title fight with Jon Moxley. However, in the catalog of AEW Champions to date, there’s little doubt MJF remains the least proven commodity in the ring.

In facing Bryan Danielson, MJF clearly has a more than capable dance partner. Still, the pressure will be on for the champion to hold his own over a full hour, hanging with one of the best in the world for the longest match of his career.

Bryan Danielson Needs A Great Match To Solidify His AEW Legacy

Bryan Danielson garnered an electric response when he made his surprise first appearance for AEW at All Out 2021 and he followed it up with sensational time-limit draw match, going the distance with Kenny Omega.

A bit if the of the luster has worn off over the year and a half to follow, though. Danielson has yet to win a title nor a single PPV match since joining AEW. While many fans were excited for him to join the promotion to ride out his career putting on world-class matches with a fresh slate of opponents, he also hasn’t had many “all-timers” either—his run arguably peaking so far with that early Omega match.

Despite his less than sterling win-loss record, Danielson now finds himself in his first AEW main event and world title match. All the more notably, for a wrestler who has built a career on exceptional ring work and remarkable stamina, he has an ideal showcase in the sixty-minute Iron Man Match format.

So it is that—win, lose, or draw—Revolution marks an opportunity for The American Dragon to redefine his AEW legacy with a great, marathon match that helps further legitimize his younger opponent.

There Aren’t Many Great Iron Man Matches In Mainstream Wrestling

The Iron Man Match is an inherently epic gimmick. While lots of matches have the theoretical potential to go long, knowing that competitors will work for a full half hour or hour sets the stage for a number of twists and turns and the foreknowledge that the first person to pick up a pin, submission, disqualification, or count out fall won’t necessarily be the winner overall.

Despite the ways in which an Iron Man Match can be appealing, it also has its limitations. Particularly in the modern era, retaining fans’ attention for a full hour straight is no small feat. In addition, the gimmick requires heightened physical conditioning for both participants to ensure they can still deliver in the latter stages of the match—particularly for the kind of exciting conclusion fans will be waiting for to cap such a long match.

AEW has only hosted one Iron Man Match before—a free TV bout between Kenny Omega and PAC three years ago. Bryan Danielson and MJF are uniquely situated, then, to make the Iron Man Match work in AEW.

That\’s especially noteworthy given the uneven history of the match-type in WWE, where a number of fans suggest iterations like Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels and The Rock Vs. Triple H haven’t aged well. There’s an opportunity for AEW to one-up WWE, and further their status as the company that delivers at the highest level in the ring, especially on PPV.

There will be no telling how Bryan Danielson vs. MJF plays out until AEW Revolution this weekend. Nonetheless, the pieces are in place for both men and their company at large to make a major statement if the Iron Man main event delivers.

This weekend, all indications are that Montreal will be positively electric for WWE Elimination Chamber. The Road to WrestleMania and the staging of two eponymous Chamber matches are, in and of themselves cause for excitement. What really elevates this event, though, is the main event confrontation scheduled between Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns.

This match will be pay off months of captivating storytelling around The Bloodline faction, but no less importantly, positions Zayn as the number one contender when he’s one of the most over babyfaces WWE has had in years, and all the better in front of a hometown crowd that doesn’t play host to major WWE events all that often.

As the wrestling world casts its eyes on Montreal, there’s no better time to look back at some of the biggest moments WWE has staged in this very same city across the years.

5. Breaking Point 2009

WWE has only staged one PPV branded under the Breaking Point name. That’s understandable, as it was a niche concept to focus on submission matches. Nonetheless, the 2009 event was a compelling one. It featured an excellent Falls Count Anywhere Submission Match between DX and Legacy, in which Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr. made Shawn Michaels tap out to a tandem hold. That’s not to mention one of the better matches in the John Cena vs. Randy Orton omnibus, as they competed under I Quit rules.

Unfortunately, an otherwise solid PPV tends to get overshadowed by a poor main event. WWE booked itself into a corner with heel World Heavyweight Champion defending against The Undertaker. It seemed clear WWE both didn’t want to take the title off Punk less than a month after he’d won it from Jeff Hardy, but also wanted to protect The Dead Man—both on his own merits and because he would ultimately win the feud.

The powers that be opted for perhaps the least satisfying conclusion possible to the nine-minute match, with Punk scoring a phantom submission victory with the Anaconda Vice, in a finish that called back to the Montreal Screwjob. That ending might have been intended to read as poetic, but the consensus among fans was that it felt like lazy booking that rubbed salt in a wound WWE really should have left alone.

4. Shawn Michaels Trolls Montreal In 2005

Over the summer of 2005, the feud between Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels became one of the most fun storylines WWE had to offer. The two were set for a legitimate dream match at SummerSlam, and on the road there, HBK momentarily embraced his old heelish personality, much to the entertainment of the fans.

A climactic moment in the build came when Raw aired out of Montreal. The music for Bret Hart– who had been gone from the company for nearly eight years, last appearing in Montreal–rang out to the shock and exhilaration of the fans in attendance. The Hitman wasn’t coming, though. Instead, it was Michaels demonstrating an uncanny ability to draw nuclear heat, teasing Hart was there only to go on roasting the fans and Hogan alike.

3. Sami Zayn Challenges John Cena In 2015

John Cena spent a good chunk of 2015 in the United States Championship picture, highlighted by his fun weekly US Championship Open Challenge. This series of matches saw him take on a variety of fresh, often unlikely opponents. Moreover, it marked a high point for Cena’s career as he paid a decade of success forward. He made a number of less established talents look terrific when they held their own with, or even came close to beating the guy who had up until recently been the face of the company.

There may have been no greater moment in the US Championship Open Challenge series than when Sami Zayn—then, one of the most popular stars of NXT—made his surprise main roster debut and drew a huge pop from the Montreal faithful. Unfortunately, Zayn suffered a fluke injury on his entrance to the ring, but it’s a testament to his talent and composure that he toughed out the match just the same, putting on a star-making performance in defeat.

2. Brock Lesnar Debuts On The Raw After WrestleMania 18

The Raw after WrestleMania has a well-established history of being one of the wildest nights in wrestling on annual basis. With the biggest show of the year out of the way and a lot of eyes on the product, this is often an episode with big returns or debuts, or other momentous storyline developments.

In 2002, the Raw after WrestleMania went down in Montreal and featured a thread of The Rock and Hulk Hogan feuding with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. That’s not to mention the announcement of the original brand extension that would lead to Raw and SmackDown having totally separate rosters.

Perhaps most exciting of all, though, Montreal was witness to the main roster debut of Brock Lesnar. Now that The Beast is one of the biggest names in wrestling history, it’s hard to recall a tie when he was just a face in the crowd. That’s literally what Lesnar, was though, when he hopped the barricade and absolutely destroyed Spike Dudley, Maven, and Al Snow to make his presence felt. He’d spend that whole next year on a tear, culminating in main eventing the next WrestleMania.

1. The Montreal Screwjob

No list of major moments in WWE history in Montreal would be complete without a nod to The Montreal Screwjob. The events of Survivor Series 1997 have been discussed and dissected ad nauseam. The central takeaway that WWE, in real life, screwed Bret Hart out of the WWE Champoinship with a phantom submission loss to  Shawn Michaels.

That finish put an end to one of the most storied rivalries—on and off-screen—in WWE history and forever changed the course of The Hitman’s career. Moreover, the moment changed WCW history as Hart joining their roster fresh off Montreal caused chaos and contributed to a wildly over complicated main event to Starrcade 1997, blowing the climax of what was otherwise one of the best stories the company had ever told between Sting and Hollywood Hogan.

Perhaps most importantly, though, the Montreal Screwjob marked one of the starkest breakdowns of the kayfabe-reality spectrum ever. It was a key moment in ushering in WWE’s Attitude Era, as well as establishing Mr. McMahon as a heel character who’d define so much of the product for years to come, across one of WWE’s hottest periods.

While WWE hasn’t spent a lot of time in Montreal relative to other major markets in North America, there’s nonetheless significant history embedded there. Win, lose, or draw, it seems entirely possible Sami Zayn will add a very significant chapter to that story at Elimination Chamber 2023.

One of the more interesting elements of the creative process in professional wrestling is just how collaborative it can be. There’s typically either one person in charge of the creative direction of a promotion, or else a booking committee that works together. From there, though, fans can sway the direction of a character or storyline based on their reactions, like the times the WWE audience all but forced Vince McMahon’s hand by getting behind Daniel Bryan in 2013 and 2014, or the groundswell of support behind Kofi Kingston in 2019.

A wrestler has input, too, as a gimmick will only be as successful as the wrestler executing it. Often as not, that work doesn’t come in a vacuum as a wrestler’s peers inevitably offer their opinions or the chemistry between different performers as partners or opponents can be far greater than the sum of the parts at hand.

One of the more remarkable instances of one talent redefining another’s career trajectory came when Scott Hall offered a new perspective on Sting’s identity.

What Was Sting’s Crow Gimmick?

For the first leg of his career in mainstream wrestling, fans got to know Surfer Sting. The early version of the character was known for bleach blond hair, brightly colored face paint, and neon tights to go along with a loud personality on the mic and in-ring offense that included high-flying and high impact moves like The Stinger Splash. A seismic shift happened in 1996, though, when the New World Order ushered in a new era for WCW, defined by more realism and an edgier product.

Sting was a key rival for the nWo, standing up against them in their first official match at Bash at the Beach, and a part of a four-man team representing WCW for War Games at that year’s Fall Brawl. The heels planted seeds that Sting had actually joined their ranks, causing The Stinger’s teammates—including Lex Luger and Ric Flair, who had each betrayed Sting in the past—not to trust him. Sting hadn’t actually joined the nWo, but resented the implication enough that he abandoned his teammates for not only that fateful War Games match, but over a year to follow.

Sting retreated to the rafters, dressed in black with white face paint, no longer working televised matches or cutting promos. The eerie persona was a major hit with fans, elevating Sting to a new echelon of super stardom before he’d finally clash with Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade 1997.

Scott Hall’s Input On The Crow Version Of Sting

On a recent episode of Eric Bischoff’s 83 Weeks podcast, centered on the formation of the nWo Wolfpac, he took a detour to discuss the development of Sting’s Crow persona. The former WCW executive credited the concept to Scott Hall.

Bischoff explained that Hall laid out the idea to Bischoff himself and gave him goosebumps for how creative and off the beaten path it was. From there, Bischoff described Sting listening to the pitch and appearing pensive and engaged all the way through, excited about the new direction.

Bischoff’s account was consistent with what Hall had said when he visited 83 Weeks for a guest spot in 2021. He also talked about giving Sting advice on his new persona, including that he advised him, “I’m not saying to rip off Taker, but rip off Taker.” The idea was for The Icon to borrow from some of the more serious and cryptic elements that had made The Undertaker’s supernatural character so successful over the years in WWE.

Crow Sting’s Legacy In Wrestling

Sting’s efforts prior to his big character shift in 1996 had already made him an all-time great babyface and surefire Hall of Fame talent. The Crow persona elevated him, though, not only at the time in WCW, but for his work to follow.

Sting conspicuously worked much of his TNA run in black and white gear. It’s little wonder that he showed up in WWE as a variation on the Crow character as well, with his first appearances seeing him stalk Triple H and The Authority not so dissimilarly from how he’d gone after Hollywood Hogan and the nWo. Sting has maintained that look for his AEW run alongside Darby Allin, too.

Indeed, while memories of Sting as a colorful wild man live on for longtime fans, the Crow version of the man has become his defining gimmick that the wrestling world remembers best.

Sting has been open that his retirement is looming, though he hasn’t yet announced specifically when it will happen. Regardless, the work he did under his Crow persona in particular made him an absolutely unforgettable legend, not to mention a rare performer to work a starring role in Jim Crockett Promotions, WCW, WWE, TNA, and AEW alike.

When wrestling fans look back on the biggest icons from WWE’s Golden Era, there are a few usual suspects whose names tend to come up the most. People think of names like Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Ted Dibiase, and Roddy Piper. Another name on the short list is that of The Macho Man Randy Savage. Right alongside him, though, stands his too-often overlooked younger brother, Lanny Poffo. The world recently lost his underappreciated wrestling talent at the age of 68. It’s always sad to acknowledge a beloved wrestler of yesteryear’s passing, but the moment does offer an opportunity to look back at the legacy Poffo left behind.

Leaping Lanny Poffo Was Ahead Of His Time

WWE is notoriously a big man’s territory. The face of the company in most eras was a superhero of sorts, with guys like Hulk Hogan, The Rock, John Cena, and Roman Reigns each exceptionally muscular and strong. This preference was especially clear in the Golden Era as WWE staged a national expansion on the premise of appealing to as wide an audience as possible with visibly impressive stars, bolstered by an era when steroid use ran rampant behind the scenes.

Lanny Poffo didn’t fit the profile of a top guy in WWE. His brother, Randy Savage, was able to break through the glass ceiling despite a smaller frame, based on his intensity and charisma, but Poffo never quite could. Still, he earned his “Leaping” moniker based on his impressive athleticism. As a babyface, he regularly incorporated leap frogs and high dropkicks; perhaps most impressively of all, he was one of the earliest American wrestlers to adopt the moonsault into his offensive repertoire.

Lanny Poffo’s Genius Gimmick Was Inspired

There was a relatively low glass ceiling over a smaller-sized high flyer like Lanny Poffo, and it is to his and WWE’s credit that they ultimately pivoted his gimmick. As The Genius, Poffo enjoyed some success, culminating in a featured match against Hulk Hogan on a Saturday Night’s Main Event special.

Before too long, Poffo started to wrestle less on TV and lean more into managerial work under the persona. As The Genius, he used own original rhyming verses to anchor his promo work, much to the annoyance of the WWE audience.

The Genius gimmick pulled elements of Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and foretold gimmicks like Damien Sandow’s as an elitist villain who thought his superior intelligence made him better than the babyface wrestlers of the day as well as the fans. He memorably served as a cornerman to Mr. Perfect before settling into a bit less auspicious role managing The Beverly Brothers.

Lanny Poffo Was Squandered In WCW

As an example of WCW’s bloated roster and tendency to squander resources, there’s a famous story of the company signing Lanny Poffo, but never actually using him. Eric Bischoff has been open in discussing this choice on his 83 Weeks podcast, explicitly sharing that Poffo was signed as a favor to Randy Savage—paid out of money that otherwise would have gone to The Macho Man—to take care of his family.

The general consensus is that this story speaks highly of Savage’s selflessness and loyalty to his brother. Despite Bischoff’s concession that he never really wanted to use The Macho Man’s little brother, the situation does also bespeak a failure to take advantage of the resources WCW had at hand. With the former Genius on the payroll, WCW had a recognizable manager they might have put to work. Moreover, given Poffo’s level of experience, he might have, at minimum, served as a valuable role player—mentoring and putting over younger wrestlers in a budding Cruiserweight division that was so entertaining for WCW during the Monday Night War.

Lanny Poffo didn’t enjoy all that much tangible success—never winning titles or high profile matches on a truly national stage. Just the same, his acrobatic offense was well ahead of its time, particularly for mainstream American wrestling. Moreover, his promo work bespoke a special talent who should have been better appreciated in his day. Word of Poffo’s death arose on February 2—The Genius is now gone, but will certainly never be forgotten.

Though WWE’s retelling of wrestling history has not been too kind to the legacy of WCW, there are certain undeniable truths from that time. One of them is that 1997 was a white-hot year for the promotion.

The New World Order caught fire in 1996 and rode high into 1997 as WCW continued to tell a wide range of stories with one of the deepest rosters in pro wrestling history. Starrcade 1997 looked to be a crowning achievement with a star-studded PPV card that had enormous buzz around it.

Kevin Nash and The Giant would have a big man war. Larry Zbyszko and Eric Bischoff would blow off their heated non-wrestler feud in a novelty match. Most importantly, Sting was set to blow off a year and a half long angle with Hollywood Hogan.

The fact that WCW signed Bret Hart immediately before this PPV should have been a crowning achievement that added more momentum going into 1998. However, there’s a real argument that it instead sabotaged the biggest event in company history and foretold WCW’s demise.

Bret Hart’s Involvement Contributed To Sting Vs. Hollywood Hogan Unraveling

There’s no two ways about it—the Starrcade 1997 main event match between Sting and Hollywood Hogan was a mess. Fans had waited through the launch of the nWo, Sting’s transition to his Crow persona that haunted WCW from the rafters, and Hogan’s reign of terror over the company. By Starrcade, the stage was set to pay it all off with Sting as the prodigal son, returning to the ring to take the title.

A variety of factors contributed to the match’s failings. Eric Bischoff infamously claimed that Sting didn’t show up ready—claiming that his failure to get a tan was just one sign he wasn’t in the right mental or physical place to become “the guy.” Something went wrong on a re-planned finish, too. Whether Sting or referee Nick Patrick were more at fault, Hogan won clean and decisively only for Bret Hart to nonsensically demand the match be restarted and officiate the do-over ending.

The execution certainly got botched, but even if it hadn’t, the idea of an unjust finish before Hart had to restart things (on dubious authority) was a huge mistake to muddy the waters of Sting having his crowning moment. The match should have been kept simple and straightforward to give fans the most satisfying moment possible, after which they could’ve allowed Hogan to get his heat back one way or another in the weeks to follow.

Bret Hart\’s Involvement Hurt Larry Zbyszko Vs. Eric Bischoff Too

The story of Eric Bischoff vs. Larry Zbyszko at Starrcade 1997 should have been very simple and straightforward. This was a retired wrestler vs. non-wrestler match, which offered some intrigue and made reasonable sense in its creative context. It should’ve come down to Bischoff maybe getting in a shot or two, but mostly the Living Legend putting him in his place in a five-minute squash.

Instead, Bischoff mostly dominated with special referee Bret Hart seeming to help him at every turn. Finally, Bischoff went too far, using a steel plate to bolster a knockout kick at which point The Hitman nonsensically switched allegiances, beating up Bischoff and his corner man, Scott Hall. Finally, Hart proclaimed Zbyszko the winner by disqualification to put the confusing, ill-conceived farce of a match out of its misery.

How Bret Hart Should Have Been Used At WCW Starrcade 1997

There are two main ways in which Bret Hart may have been put to his best use at Starrcade. One would have been the delayed gratification of him simply having a presence, maybe cutting a short promo or coming out to celebrate with Sting to close the show to make his presence known without altering the course of the night.

Another option would’ve been to book Hart into a one-on-one match built to highlight his wrestling acumen and star power without distracting from the rest of the show. WCW had such a deep roster of fresh opponents for The Hitman who weren’t booked for the event like Booker T, Juventud Guerrera, or Chavo Guerrero.

Having Hart mix it up with one of these under-appreciated talents—making them look good before he submitted them with the Sharpshooter in a formula he’d used opposite mid-carders like Hakushi and Jean-Pierre Lafitte in WWE for years earlier —could’ve highlighted what Hart does best alongside the prestige of being able to say the event featured Hart’s debut match for WCW.

Signing Bret Hart should’ve marked a crowning Monday Night War moment for WCW as they welcomed a hot star who was arguably the most talented in ring performer in the world at that moment. Instead, he became a distraction, misused to the extreme in ways that neither he, nor WCW on the whole ever fully recovered from.

2022 was quite arguably the most tumultuous year in WWE history. Most notably, the unthinkable happened when Vince McMahon announced his retirement. While Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan took on shared responsibility as the co-CEOs at the tip-top of WWE, an even more immediate impact felt by fans saw Triple H take the reins of both creative and talent relations.

Helmsley’s presence was felt in a series of surprise returns from late summer through the fall. Moreover, Survivor Series saw the emergence of the first ever War Games matches on the WWE main roster after decades of the company owning that intellectual property. That’s not to mention the choice not to run a December PPV, not to mention canceling the Day 1 New Year’s show.

Between Triple H’s sensibilities as a wrestling traditionalist and the changes to the PPV calendar, the question arises—should WWE bring back Starrcade, the former flagship annual PPV of WCW?

The History Of Starrcade

Starrcade predates WrestleMania, with its first iteration going down in 1983, and immediately establishing itself as a truly top tier annual event. Over the years, the event saw main events like Harley Race vs. Ric Flair and Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes, as well as legendary undercard attractions like the Dog Collar Match between Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine and the I Quit Match between Magnum TA and Tully Blanchard. Later, Flair would represent tradition against monster heel Big Van Vader, and the year-and-a-half-plus Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan angle would come to a head at Starrcade 1997. Starrcade also infamously played host to the end of Goldberg’s streak at the hands of Kevin Nash, as well as the end of Bret Hart’s full-time wrestling career when Goldberg gave him a stiff kick to the head.

While Eric Bischoff has, on his podcast 83 Weeks, denied that he viewed Starrcade as the biggest show of the year (alternately putting more weight on Halloween Havoc and Bash at the Beach), the consensus among fans still placed Starrcade as The Grandaddy of Them All. As the longest continual running PPV under the NWA and WCW banner, it certainly earned its place in history.

WWE Has Revisited Starrcade

WWE actually has promoted its own Starrcade-branded events. Starrcade was a SmackDown house show in November 2017. The company did broadcast this show via the WWE Network in 2018 and 2019, but it was contextualized as more of a novelty show—largely inconsequential to ongoing storylines—than a proper PPV-style event.

Indeed, WWE seemed mostly concerned with tapping into nostalgia. In 2017, Goldust shed his garb and signature entrance music in favor of returning to his old school WCW gimmick as The Natural to callback to not only his own earlier WCW performances, but his family’s—and specifically his father’s—history with the event. Moreover, the 2017 edition emanated from WCW stronghold, Greensboro, North Carolina, and 2019’s happened in Duluth, Georgia, another area favored WCW and Jim Crockett Promotions.

A New Vision For Starrcade

Triple H finally bringing War Games to the WWE main roster seems to bespeak his commitment to wrestling history and his own past enjoyment of the traditional style Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, and others were historically known for. Reviving Starrcade would be a natural extension of representing that aesthetic.

More than a specially promoted house show or quietly marketed WWE Network special, though, the Starrcade brand deserves to be recognized with a proper PPV event. The PPV calendar is already crowded, and it seems The Game means to be more critical about promoting fewer events more soundly. Nonetheless, running Starrcade, particularly in its traditional spot around the holidays (it originally happened in November, then moved to December to not conflict with Survivor Series) would be a powerful way of tapping into old school wrestling nostalgia at a time of year when the general public is already predisposed to feeling nostalgic.

To offer Starrcade a distinctive identity, it would only make sense to focus on tapping into the past. WWE is no stranger to bringing back part-time legends to work matches here and there. Additionally, they could conceivably could tap into some of the ethos of another WCW PPV, Slamboree, by focusing its new vision of Starrcade on legends past returning to work matches with each other, or with current talents. There have been rumblings about WWE seeking to move its Hall of Fame proceedings away from WrestleMania weekend, given how crowded the two-night structure of the event has made the weekend. Starrcade’s history as a premium event and this focus on nostalgia could make it fitting new home for when inductions would happen.

The future of the Starrcade brand is unclear. The nostalgia-based smaller events WWE ran from 2017 to 2019 served a niche audience and casually took advantage of the intellectual property at WWE’s disposal. Like so many things, Starrcade’s continuity was disrupted by the pandemic in 2020. As the world continues to settle back into  sense of normalcy, there’s a real opportunity for WWE relaunch this event under a new vision.

Thanksgiving and the surrounding days have a long, storied history in pro wrestling. Jim Crockett Promotions wasn’t the first wrestling promotion to recognize the potential in family’s flocking to an arena or turning on the television together after a turkey dinner, but they did capitalize in a big way, promoting Starrcade on an annual basis, starting in 1983.

Before that, WWE promoted Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen in Madison Square Garden over the holiday, and a famed wrestler vs. boxer match pitting Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali was another Turkey Day draw. WWE changed the game in 1987, though, with Survivor Series. The PPV became the Thanksgiving standard, happening on the holiday itself or the night before, before settling into position on a weekend in close proximity to it, where it remains to this cay.

The implications of this choice included WCW shuffling Starrcade to December as WWE dominated the fledgling PPV market. There have remained no shortage of Thanksgiving themed matches in wrestling history, though, many of which have nothing to do with WWE’s signature event.

Samoa Joe Vs. AJ Styles Vs. Chris Sabin In A Turkey Bowl Match, 2007

In its early years, Impact Wrestling broadcasted on Thursday nights. Having to put on a TV show Thanksgiving night each year wasn’t necessarily enticing, given the volume of prospective viewers traveling or tied up with their families for the holiday. Nonetheless, they made the most of the situation by starting a tradition: The Turkey Bowl.

Turkey Bowl episodes were built around qualifying matches, culminating in the Turkey Bowl Match in the main event. The stakes were low and objectively silly, but there was nonetheless some holiday spirit emblematic in a match with the stipulation that the person who suffered the fall to lose the match would have to face the humiliation of donning a turkey suit afterward. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin is a pretty electrifying lineup for a three-way match, and the men delivered a fun bout. Joe picked up the victory, and it was Styles who wound up dressed like a turkey.

The Rock Vs. William Regal For Thanksgiving Pride, 2000

As one of WWE’s most famous British heels, it’s little wonder William Regal would take up against the Thanksgiving spirit in the heat of the Attitude Era. A Thanksgiving episode of SmackDown saw him rain on the parade of his roster mates as they enjoyed a turkey dinner backstage, bashing the US and the premise of why the Pilgrims left England to settle in America.

The Rock took up for American tradition, laying a verbal beatdown on Regal that set up a match between the two later on. Against a backdrop of the newly heel Rikishi haunting The Great One from the stage, Rock beat Regal soundly, ultimately submitting him with a Sharpshooter.

Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, And Melina Vs.LayCool And Jillian Hall In A Mayflower Melee Match, 2009

The year was 2009, and a combination of sensitivity to indigenous cultures and respect for women probably meant WWE should have known better than to have booked the Mayflower Melee. Despite these factors, the company saw fit to book a Pilgrims vs. “Indians” match, in which the six women involved wore sexy versions of costumes appropriate to the holiday.

At least WWE did have the sense to book the wrestlers representing indigenous people as the babyfaces and to have them pick up victory. Melina pinned hall to secure the win, and to have an altercation with The Gobbledy Gooker (Maryse was in the costume) post-match.

New Day Vs. The Big Show And The Bar In A Thanksgiving Feast Fight, 2018

At the height of tensions between New Day and the short-lived three-man group of The Big Show, Sheamus, and Cesaro, the two units squared off in a Thanksgiving Feast Fight. The match saw New Day clad in Pilgrim costumes and contrived spots in which Big Show went through a banquet table full of Thanksgiving food, and later Kofi Kingston used a turkey-assisted double axehandle to drive Sheamus through another. Big E ultimately hit The Celtic Warrior with a turkey to the face to secure the pin for his team.

The match was as silly as it sounds, though at least the men in volved were talented and New Day in particular was nothing if not equipped to deliver in a comedic situation.

Ivory Vs. Jacqueline In A Gravy Bowl Match, 1999

The most famous version of the Gravy Bowl Match occurred in 2001, with Trish Stratus and Stacy Keibler battling in the overtly sexualized equivalent to mud wrestling with the Women’s Championship on the line. The match actually originated two years earlier, though on a Thanksgiving SmackDown episode in which Jacqueline faced off with Ivory.

While this context was quite as overtly played for sexual content, the gimmick still was what it was, and certainly underserved the two tough, talented women involved. Nonetheless, it stayed mercifully short at just a little over a minute before Jacqueline picked up the pin with a DDT.

Titus O’Neil Vs. The Great Khali In A Food Eating Contest, 2013

In 2013, WWE let go of any pretense about staging a serious wrestling match in having heavyweights Titus O’Neil and The Great Khali simply compete in a food eating contest on SmackDown. Both men gorged themselves on Thanksgiving foods as other Superstars cheered them on. O’Neil was declared the victor after Khali fell asleep, presumably in a food coma.

O’Neil wasn’t exactly rewarded for this victory, instead given the task of facing Cesaro in the ring. Cesaro hit his signature Swing on O’Neil, after which Darren Young caused a disqualification. The match seemed mostly designed to get to its punchline—a food-stuffed and now dizzy O’Neil puking into color commentator JBL’s cowboy hat at ringside.

Thanksgiving themed matches in wrestling are rarely classics. However, they do have their place in providing some light-hearted entertainment in observance of the holiday, particularly for a smaller fans who probably aren’t looking for anything too serious after celebrating the holiday, and perhaps watching the shows with their families.

Triple H made major waves in September when he dropped the insight in an interview that WarGames would make its debut on the WWE main roster at Survivor Series this year with not just one, but two matches under that gimmick. It’s a controversial move, given the match type may be unfamiliar to WWE-only fans who didn’t keep an eye on NXT. By all indications, Vince McMahon, who has owned the WCW intellectual property since 2001, didn’t see value in promoting such a match himself.

Nonetheless, given the rumors Triple H always wanted to work a WarGames match in his heyday, and the way he promoted it when he was in charge of NXT, it only makes sense that he’d make it a reality for the main roster this November. But what do fans want to see out of WarGames?

WWE Should Stick To Conventional WarGames Rules

One of the tricky things about booking WarGames is that fans can be uncertain what to expect. WCW and its predecessors booked it in relatively straightforward fashion with four or five-person teams going against each other, alternating which team got to add new combatants at timed intervals before the match could only via submission or surrender.

WCW contorted these rules almost beyond recognition in its final years to the point the matches were only WarGames in name. From there, NXT itself started running WarGames matches with a three teams of three format. While the resulting match was well-received, it was nonetheless refreshing when the matches to follow were composed of two teams of four.

Keeping the rules simple and traditional to deliver on what old school fans expect is key to the success of the gimmick as WWE both serves nostalgia and rolls WarGames out to a segment audience members who may not have seen it before.

WWE Should Tell Very Different Stories Between The Men’s And Women’s WarGames Matches

There’s always a danger when WWE books two iterations of a major gimmick match in the same night, as they’ve come to do regularly for the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, Hell in a Cell, and others. Will fans still be excited for the second go-round? How can WWE avoid fans feeling like they’re seeing the same story play out twice?

NXT was mostly successful at differentiating WarGames matches on the occasions when they booked two in the same night, so there is hope. There\’s room for variation between which performers are booked into the match and what their storylines are, in addition to matters such as which team wins, what the key spots are, or if anyone turns on their team. Having one of the matches dedicated to male talent and the other to female talent will offer one step in that differentiation.

WWE Should Have The Bloodline Go To War

When WWE downgraded its Money in the Bank PPV from Allegiant Stadium to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, major names like Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar quickly disappeared from the marketing. Nothing suggests a “throwaway” PPV more than failing to feature the biggest stars.

While Money in the Bank generally had a good reception from fans, it also felt a bit underwhelming when it came to star power—reliant on the eponymous gimmick more so than the talents in the ring to sell the show.

One way to ensure WarGames does not feel like a crutch, but rather a vehicle for meaningful storytelling is to ensure big names and angles are in the mix. The Bloodline is the most obvious choice. Maybe it’s all five wrestlers, Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, The Usos, and Sami Zayn involved as the top pushed group in the company. Otherwise, it could be interesting if they promoted a four-man team with Reigns leading them to victory, or else sitting it out and setting up Zayn to cost them the match and jeopardize his tenuous standing in the faction.

WWE Should Not Feature WarGames At The Expense Of Traditional Elimination Tag Team Action

Survivor Series dates back to 1987, making it second only to WrestleMania as the longest running annual  PPV WWE has, and the original gimmick-match-based PPV. From the beginning and with very few exceptions, the show has featured elimination tag team matches, traditionally among four or five-person teams.

Having two WarGames matches both consumes a large portion of the roster and already sets up two team-based feuds going into the PPV. These dynamics may make booking big elimination tag team matches less practical, but it’s nonetheless a good idea for WWE to maintain some of its roots in this scenario with at least one traditionally formatted bout.

Feature A Surprise Team Member

Triple H has proven himself a master of booking surprise returns and debuts since taking control of WWE creative and talent relations. That includes Braun Strowman, Johnny Gargano, Damage Control, and the pair of Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bourdeaux among the most dramatic examples to date.

Having two matches likely to feature at least sixteen wrestlers invites at least one mystery team member or last-minute replacement to be in the mix. With no shortage of allusions to Bray Wyatt potentially returning soon and other part time talents and free agents conceivably in the mix, it both feels as though WarGames would be a great platform for a major surprise and such a surprise could be a good way of establishing WarGames on the WWE main roster landscape.

In the end, Triple H’s respect for the tradition of WarGames and drive to introduce it first to NXT and now to the main roster bode well for how the concept will be handled at Survivor Series. Time will tell how it all plays out, but it should, at least, offer a unique spectacle for the fans.

In a conversation of great years in professional wrestling history, 1992 has a tendency to go overlooked. The Golden Era in WWE was tapering off and business was slipping downward. Meanwhile, WCW went through its share of transitions, including Bill Watts taking over creative and instituting unpopular rules like making moves off the top rope illegal. Neither major promotion would really find its way the way they did again around 1996-1997 as the Monday Night War took off.

However, 1992 also featured a deceptive number of highlights and important shifts that set up the future of the business, making it arguably the greatest year in wrestling history, at least for the mainstream product in the US

1992 Had The Best Versions Of Important Matches

January 1992 saw the greatest Royal Rumble match of all time. Ric Flair put on the first iron man performance that culminated in a victory as he entered at number three and lasted an hour against a full catalog of WWE Superstars, including the Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, The Undertaker, Sid Justice, and Roddy Piper as legitimate contenders and a laundry list of iconic names in the supporting cast like Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, The Big Boss Man, and The Texas Tornado to name a few. The match culminated in an electric finish with Hogan and Justice falling out—handing Flair the win and setting each other up as WrestleMania opponents. Speaking of WrestleMania, the event itself would feature arguably the best WWE Championship match in event history up to that point, with Flair defending against Savage.

On the WCW side of the equation, 1992 was host to the greatest War Games match of all time as the babyface Sting’s Squadron not only won an epic battle, but effectively ended The Dangerous Alliance, a great faction that crumbled by degrees after their defeat. This match featured a perfect blend of current top stars like Sting, Ricky Steamboat, and Rick Rude, alongside up and coming top talent like Steve Austin and Dustin Rhodes, with a fine mix of highly skilled and over role players like Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko, Nikita Koloff, and Barry Windham rounding things out.

WWE SummerSlam drew a full stadium crowd in England for an event highlighted by arguably the best main event in the show’s history: Bret Hart vs. The British Bulldog for the Intercontinental Championship. This would prove to the be the first of many one-on-one PPV headliners for The Hitman as he rose up the ranks.

1992 Saw Major Stars Defined

1992 saw the evolution of Bret Hart. He started the year as Intercontinental Champion, stole the show beating Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 8, and went on to main event SummerSlam and Survivor Series alike. In between those events, he won his very first world championship, cementing him as a top guy.

January 1992 also saw Shawn Michaels famously superkick Marty Jannetty and throw him through the window of Brutus Beefcake’s Barbershop interview set. More than a simple heel turn or tag team split, this was the launch of one of the most important singles stars of the decade to follow.

Early 1992 was a critical point for The Undertaker as well. After a highly successful first year in WWE as a monster heel, there was a real risk of the character running its course. A babyface turn offered longevity and the rise of an unlikely favorite among the fan base. He’d defeat Jake Roberts at WrestleMania, and though he wouldn’t get back to the world title picture for some time, this run set him up to become an iconic character who spanned decades, as opposed to a monster with a couple-year shelf life.

On the WCW side of things, 1992 was the year when Ron Simmons realized his potential at the greatest level, becoming the first universally recognized black world champion after he defeated Big Van Vader.

1992 Was a Great Year For In Ring Performance

One of the biggest arguments in favor of 1992 comes down to in-ring quality. The world title picture in WWE tells its own story as the first year since 1983 when Hulk Hogan didn’t get his hands on the WWE Championship at all. In his place were a trio of all-time-great workers: Ric Flair, Randy Savage, and Bret Hart holding down the fort and elevating the quality of main event matches to a significant degree.

In WCW, Sting quite arguably reached his peak as an in-ring worker—an incredibly athletic and dynamic powerhouse who took well to being the franchise player. Meanwhile, Vader rose up not just an intimidating monster heel, but rare one who could work at an extremely high level. Add in Ricky Steamboat, Rick Rude, and Steve Austin all performing at the highest level and the company was quietly thriving when it came to big matches.

1992 may never get the full credit it deserves, but it was a historically important year, full of great wrestling as the business evolved and prepared for its next boom period. In addition the great signature matches, rise of top stars, and quality of performance on the whole, it was also the first year WWE staged a ladder match and the year WCW innovated Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal, all pointing the way toward even bigger things to come.

Renee Paquette is widely regarded as one of the most likeable non-wrestling personalities in the world of professional wrestling. She made headlines when she debuted for AEW in October, making good on longstanding rumors she may one day join her real life husband Jon Moxley as well as a host of friends from her WWE days on this stage.

Paquette talked over what led to her decision and what it was like to make her first appearance on an episode of her podcast immediately after her debut. Amidst the conversation, Mean Gene Okerlund came up, and she briefly joked about starting her own hotline in the tradition of what the broadcaster did first for WWE, then for WCW back in the 1990s. Whether it was intended purely as a joke or not, the idea has potential.

Renee Paquette Tends To Get Compared Gene Okerlund

No one would ever mistake Renee Paquette for Gene Okerlund based on their physical appearances. However, the two have drawn a high number of comparisons based on the respective roles they’ve played in the wrestling industry, primarily working as backstage interviewers and hosts, in additional to forays into the commentary booth. Most specifically, there’s a relatively frequent assessment that Paquette is “the best backstage interviewer since Mean Gene.”

Paquette, to her credit, doesn’t shy away from the comparison or dispute her standing, but rather expressed in the podcast that she was flattered to be mentioned in the same breath as Okerlund. She even went so far as to reference that the two were able to work together on some projects for WWE, and that she enjoyed grabbing a bite to eat with him after work, describing him as a class act.

An Actual Mean Gene-Style Hotline Could Be a Great Nostalgia Play In The Short Term

Mean Gene Okerlund famously facilitated a hotline first for WWE, then for WCW. The gist was that he would tease major news or rumors on TV, inviting the viewer to call a 1-900 number that charged an initial fee, plus extra money for every minute the caller stayed on the line. Typically, there was a conscious design to keep the customer listening for a while to get more money out of them.

As Eric Bischoff has discussed on his 83 Weeks podcast, it was Okerlund, personally, who brought this business over to WCW, suggesting it as a revenue stream he knew well and could facilitate.

The idea of a hotline itself is pretty outdated in 2022. Just the same, AEW could bring back this concept—be it following the traditional model on the phone as more of a novelty Internet or app-based utility. The nostalgia-factor alone would probably draw some old school fans to call Renee for an inside scoop—throwing few dollars or a download at it for their entertainment.

AEW Could Switch From A Hotline To Something More Modern For Renee Paquette

While Renee Paquette running a fee-based hotline might be able to create some revenue and good will in the short term, the idea probably wouldn’t have much of a shelf life. The Internet and social media are so robust in their coverage of wrestling news and rumors nowadays that it’s hard to image many fans calling an old school hotline nowadays more than a handful of times.

Either after or instead of the hotline model, though, AEW might use similar branding for a more modernized take on the concept. Perhaps it would be a news source with a paywall like Fightful Select or the way The Wrestling Observer offers some of its content. AEW would, after all, have unique access to share news on this kind of platform about upcoming events or matchups, or taking control of news reporting about backstage happenings.

Paquette has already established herself as a highly skilled interviewer via not only her on-air wrestling efforts, but her podcast. Offering conversations, for example, with Tony Khan himself or other major figures from AEW could offer an additional incentive for fans to pay a modest fee to listen.

While wrestling fans by and large enjoy free content, it only seems fair for a promotion to take advantage where there’s a potential revenue stream the fans might clamor for. Renee Paquette is that rare figure in wrestling hardly any fans have anything negative to say about, and no one could blame AEW for cashing in with some variation of a hotline concept, taking advantage of Paquette’s personality and Mean Gene Okerlund nostalgia.

After extended teases, Bray Wyatt at last made his return to WWE television at Extreme Rules. The comeback has sparked quite a bit of speculation. In particular, a great deal of reporting suggested that Vince McMahon was constantly at odds with Wyatt’s creative vision during his original run with WWE. The conventional wisdom is that Triple H will be a better creative partner. One way or another, there are quite a few fresh matchups and storylines available for The Eater of Worlds. There’s also some merit in looking backward, revisiting some concepts that could work better on a second run-through.

What Went Wrong For The Original Wyatt Family

The Wyatt Family originally launched on NXT, and got over enough that the faction was fast-tracked to the main roster. The core group consisted of Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan and got some immediate buzz with upper card feuds, culminating in Wyatt working his first WrestleMania match opposite no lesser opponent than John Cena.

The biggest challenge to the success of the Wyatt Family came down to inconsistency. The group more than once got together, went their separate ways, and reunited without much clear rhyme or reason. Moreover, there inconsistency in how Wyatt was pushed, getting built up only to job to Cena at WrestleMania 30, then encounter the same dynamic opposite The Undertaker at WrestleMania 31. Wyatt rose up so far as to win the WWE Championship heading into WrestleMania 33, only to drop it to Randy Orton there (despite the use of newfound magical powers to get in The Viper’s head).

Harper and Rowan faced a similar rollercoaster journey, pushed as monsters only to fail in their bids to take the tag titles off The Usos. They peaked as The Bludgeon Brothers—away from the faction—but when that run got cut short due to injury, WWE dropped it altogether. Braun Strowman experienced a similar story—brought into the group to dually play an impressive heater on screen and to sit under Wyatt’s learning tree backstage, but he enjoyed the greatest successes of his tumultuous run away from the group.

WWE Can Incorporate Firefly Funhouse Personalities

Whether WWE calls a new Bray Wyatt faction the Wyatt Family, The Wyatt 6, or something else altogether, there remains the possibility of leaning into Firefly Funhouse lore more so than the original swamp cult sensibility Wyatt put forth. Costumed figures, mirroring the Funhouse cast, appeared around the arena at Extreme Rules before Wyatt showed his face. Indeed, fans also picked up on hints—the fact that they were human beings rather than puppets, not to mention the women’s championship belts beside the Abbie the Witch figure—that these characters would become physical presences in the ring moving forward.

It\’s unclear how well received a wrestling rabbit or pig character would be. The fact that fans are discussing this very real possibility now, though, speaks to the unique aesthetic Wyatt brings to professional wrestling. These unconventional, presumably masked personas would also open the door to radically rebrand some talents whom fans have been conditioned not to take seriously, or who don’t have very well-defined characters out on their own.

A New Wyatt Family Could Offer A Home To Other Talents

One of the more promising elements of a new Wyatt faction is the idea of revisiting old connections and doing them justice, in contrast to the up-and-down booking The Eater of Worlds and his associates have faced in the past. Alexa Bliss has been directionless most of the year, and teaming up with Bray Wyatt again could reignite her career. Braun Strowman still has some buzz from his own return to WWE, but enough time has passed that fans may welcome seeing him team up with Wyatt again, too, before long. As far as the public knows, Erick Rowan is a free agent whom might be recruited back to WWE as well.

The rumor mill suggests Bo Dallas is set to return to WWE. The company shied away from acknowledging he’s Bray Wyatt’s real-life brother in the past, but it may be time to play that card. A number of fans have speculated that between the tease of women’s title belts and her seemingly casting off her Almost a Super Hero persona recently, Nikki Cross would be an aesthetic fit to team up with Wyatt, too.

One of the refreshing aspects of Triple H taking the reins of WWE creative has been how open he seems to factions, with The Brawling Brutes sharpening their focus, Hit Row re-signing, Imperium and The Club reuniting, Legado Del Fantasma getting their call up to the main roster, and Damage CTRL taking shape. (That’s not to mention The Bloodline continuing their dominant run and Judgment Day getting some momentum.) The Wyatt Family, or some variation on the concept, could offer another group with built in creativity and genuinely different identity than anything else WWE has going today, besides giving a wide swathe of talent something interesting to do in the months ahead.

Since its inception, AEW has had its core body of devoted fans. They’re the supporters who believed in the company’s vision of posing a meaningful alternative to WWE. They’re fans of the WWE alumni who have been better used under the AEW banner, like Jon Moxley and Christian Cage, as well as fresher talents AEW gave an opportunity to shine like MJF and Hangman Page. They’re fans of faster-paced AEW style embodied in acts like Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks.

However, for all the fans AEW has amassed, the company also has its vocal critics who have only intensified with time, AEW’s higher profile, and particularly a web of controversies that have put the company under siege in recent months. One common talking point from these critics has been that AEW is looking an awful lot like WCW. While there are superficial similarities, these comparisons are mostly wrongheaded.

Why Some Fans Compare AEW With WCW

There are surface level reasons why someone might relate AEW to WCW. Like WCW, AEW is a rival promotion to WWE, and just so happens to air its weekly programming on Turner cable networks. Just as WCW was financially backed by billionaire Ted Turner and his organization, AEW is owned and operated by billionaire Tony Khan. There’s also the narrative line that like WCW relying on WWE-established stars like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Bret Hart, AEW has heavily featured talents like Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, and Bryan Danielson.

Additionally, the controversy around CM Punk this summer drew a spotlight to issues with talents having undue influence on the product (as Punk arguably did and may still), besides wrestlers like Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks serving in executive vice president roles. These dynamics harkened back to the narrative of “the inmates running the asylum” in WCW, with figures like Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash wielding different levels of formal or informal stroke during their tenures as on-air talents. WCW was all but synonymous with chaos in its late stages. Between the Punk issues, talents requesting their releases, and the most recent issues pitting Sammy Guevara against Eddie Kingston and Andrade El Idolo, AEW has started to feel the same way to some spectators.

The Management Structure Of WCW Posed Very Different Challenges

One of the fundamental differences between AEW and WCW is the management structure each organization had.  Personalities ranging from Bill Watts to Kevin Sullivan to Eric Bischoff to Vince Russo to Kevin Nash dictated the creative direction of WCW at different points. Regardless of each of these men’s talents and limitations, there were always awkward structures around them answering to non-wrestling people within the Turner or Time Warner organizations.

In his first book and his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff discussed his frustrations working with executives who couldn’t even name what night of the week Nitro aired on. Bischoff has gone on to paint a clear picture that, particularly after Time Warner took over, the powers that be were more interested in ridding themselves of the pro wrestling albatross than setting up WCW to thrive.

Like anyone producing a television product, AEW’s Tony Khan has network executives, advertisers, and other business partners to please. The ownership structure and chain of command is much more streamlined, however. It’s possible Khan could run his company into the ground, but if he does, it won’t be because of decisions that were made over his head within the company, which poses a fundamental difference from how WCW was structured.

AEW Had Been Steady In Its Aesthetic

When fans look back on WCW, there are very distinctive different eras they might consider from its twelve-and-a-half year run. In its early days, WCW largely reflected the same talents and style as Jim Crockett Promotions, in particular anchoring itself around Ric Flair and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

From there, Hulk Hogan signed and launched a two year period in which WCW felt like a WWE Golden Era “tribute band”, featuring many of the big names WWE had spotlighted in the 1980s and a cartoonish vibe.

That gave way to WCW’s greatest commercial success when it recentered around a more realistic tone, rooted in the New World Order faction, accented by the Crow version of Sting and the emergence of stars like Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg. The wheels came off in the years to follow as WCW teetered out of control with erratic booking and over-reliance on worked shoot angles.

To be fair, AEW has only existed for a little over three years, so it’s too soon to speak to its long-term style and aesthetic. Just the same, from what we’ve seen so far, the company’s direction has been largely steady with an emphasis on in-ring action, a faster pace, and storytelling that is provocative, while rarely soap opera-esque. This is a style of presentation that bears little resemblance to any stage of WCW, instead feeling a bit more like a hybrid of the original ECW and ROH’s heyday.

In the end, every wrestling promotion has some degree of similarity to others, and over time it’s possible AEW will come to legitimately offer more similarities to WCW. For now, though, there are far more differences than commonalities between the two major promotions, and fans are best served to consider AEW on its own merits.        

One of the realities of professional wrestling is that it’s difficult to predict any individual performer’s career trajectory. It has become a well-known part of John Cena’s story that, at best, he was the fourth brightest prospect from his developmental class behind Brock Lesnar, Batista, and Randy Orton, before emerging as the defining star of his generation.

By contrast, though, there are WWE acts like Crush and Adam Bomb who appeared to have all the tools to be breakout stars and eventual main eventers, only to fall short of that potential. In an even unlikelier outcome, though, these two wound up finding their greatest success teamed up with one another in WCW years later.

Crush Had Several Stages In His WWE Career

Crush debuted in a relatively generic big man role, as a younger third man to join the Demolition tag team, and help cover for Ax’s limitations as he aged out of his full-time wrestling career. Demolition put over a newly arrived Legion of Doom in what felt like a dream blow off of sorts between the two heavy-hitting big men teams of the 1980s, known for face paint and spikes. The feud rang a little hollow, though, for Demolition both having run its course and not being quite the same with a diminished Ax and green Crush representing them.

Crush enjoyed a second life in WWE as a babyface who leaned into his Hawaiian roots, getting a tan and wearing neon as he became a fan favorite. Unfortunately for him, he ran into a roadblock in the form of Doink the Clown. As much as the evil clown had real momentum as a heel act, it was nonetheless hard for the big man to bounce back from losing this feud (though he threatened to as one of the few stars who proved powerful enough to almost body slam Yokozuna when he challenged American wrestlers to try to topple him).

There was one more reboot in store for Crush in WWE, this time as a heel who focused his attention of feuding with Randy Savage. Their issue came to a head at WrestleMania 10 in an innovative variation on a Falls Count Anywhere Match. Crush held his own, but went down in defeat and never really broached that level of stardom again in WWE. He rode out his time with the company the Nation of Domination faction, after which he led the Disciples of Apocalypse group to feud with them in the gang warfare angle.

Adam Bomb Had Big Star Potential In WWE

Adam Bomb emerged for WWE during the New Generation. Big, powerful, and athletic, he overcame what might have otherwise been dismissed as a cartoonish gimmick to mount a winning streak and look as though he were on the cusp of a main event push.

Bomb had new life breathed into his character with a babyface turn. While he did feud with some big names like Bam Bam Bigelow, he nonetheless felt permanently caught in the upper mid-card mix, never breaking through the glass ceiling to better his prospects.

Kronik Became One Of WCW’s Greatest Homegrown Tag Teams

In WCW, Crush went by his legal name, Brian Adams, and Adam Bomb was first billed as Wrath, then reverted to his own real name, Bryan Clark. Each man enjoyed varying degrees of success in the mid-card. Adams was the in nWo mix as an enforcer type for a time. After getting stuck in a strange sub-division of the roster with Glacier for a while, Clark enjoyed a major winning streak, only to be fed to Kevin Nash en route to his feud with Goldberg.

Adams and Clark found one another as part of the New Blood faction, forging a tag team called Kronik. 2000 was a tumultuous year for WCW, but this team presented a real bright spot as the duo were well cast as dominant big men who thrived as heels and faces alike over the course of the year. They had noteworthy battles with The Natural Born Thrillers as well as the pairing of The Great Muta and Vampiro, before settling into a gimmick something like the APA in WWE—muscle for hire that destroyed anyone in their crosshairs.

Unfortunately, Kronik’s tremendous success was largely shrouded by what happened when the team crossed over to WWE during the Invasion angle. Things looked promising when they were positioned opposite The Undertaker and Kane, The Brothers of Destruction. However, The Dead Man and The Big Red Machine crushed them in kayfabe, and Kronik wound up looking terrible in their televised matches, appearing unworthy of their featured spot. Jim Ross discussed the team’s WWE run on his Grilling JR podcast, and suggested that Vince McMahon wanted them to step back into developmental to improve upon their act, but the tag team felt insulted and it was the beginning of the end of their WWE returns.

In the end, the Kronik and its component pieces never quite realized their potential in WWE. For a moment in WCW, though, they were transcendent—one of the best big man pairs and homegrown tag teams the promotion ever had. Their accomplishments have grown lost to the sands of time, but they were a special unit at their peak in 2000.

Things took a turn for the WWE Universe recently, when a clear direction emerged for the next major challenger to oppose Roman Reigns. After The Head of the Table fended off Riddle in a free TV classic, Brock Lesnar in a wild Last Man Standing Match, and Drew McIntyre in front of a lively UK crowd, there were real questions as to where the company could go next with its top champion. They’ve opted for perhaps the least likely route of all, not in a grizzled veteran or wildly popular young talent, but rather Internet celebrity turned wrestler Logan Paul. While quite a few fans have expressed how unhappy they are with this booking choice, its actually a shrewd decision heading into Crown Jewel.

Logan Paul Vs. Roman Reigns Is A Fresh Matchup

One of the key problems with Roman Reigns and his marathon reign atop WWE is that he has run through most of his credible challengers. He’s beaten Brock Lesnar multiple times. He beat Riddle and Drew McIntyre. He retained the title against the likes of Edge, Kevin Owens, Rey Mysterio, Seth Rollins, and Finn Balor. He even beat part time threats like John Cena and Goldberg.

Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes are two of the full-time roster members still standing in his way, and it stands to reason they’ll each factor in the title picture when they’re back from injury. Meanwhile, even Braun Strowman, who has a lot of momentum off his return to the company, already lost to Reigns at the front end of his time on top.

Logan Paul is, at least, someone new, with a genuinely different set of skills from other challengers Reigns has faced. On top of that, he does garner a bit of kayfabe credibility from winning his only two matches to date, and on no lesser stages than WrestleMania and SummerSlam.

No One Believes Roman Reigns Will Lose The Title In 2022

The conventional wisdom is that Roman Reigns will retain his undisputed title until at least WrestleMania 39, when fans anticipate a dream match with The Rock. With that match expected, it’s hard to buy anyone beating The Tribal Chief before that point, so WWE’s task, rather than creating doubt, is to put forth the most entertaining spectacle possible.

The jury’s out on whether Logan Paul is the best man for that particular task. Nonetheless, he is an offbeat challenger who just might draw some extra media attention, if only for the seeming absurdity of him getting a shot at the most prestigious title in wrestling.

Logan Paul Has Overperformed In Each WWE Match He’s Had So Far

While Logan Paul has no shortage of haters who want nothing to do with him, there’s also a reality they must face. At WrestleMania, he more than held up his end of the bargain, arguably the MVP of his tag team match paired with The Miz against the Mysterios. From there, he did everything he could to steal the show at SummerSlam, going for assorted high spots and feats of strength against The Miz.

Paul doesn’t really belong in the conversation of world title contenders at this point based on his skills and experience. However, his first two outings have offered reason to believe that he’ll rise to the occasion. Particularly in a match WWE is sure to carefully plan and choreograph around his abilities, Paul will likely as not hold up his end for an entertaining match at Crown Jewel.

Saudi Arabia Is The Best Place To Book Babyface Logan Paul Vs. Heel Roman Reigns

An awkward aspect of Logan Paul’s WWE run is that he has purportedly demanded to remain a babyface, despite having overwhelming natural heel heat. On the flip side, Roman Reigns is over enough in his heel persona that he’s edging on fan favorite territory, despite reportedly insisting he wants to stay heel.

With these dynamics in place, staging the match between these two in front of a Saudi Arabian audience—fans who tend to be happy to be there and adhere to cheering the faces and booing the heels—may be the best answer to keeping each man where he wants to be.

Roman Reigns vs. Logan Paul probably won’t be an all-time classic and there are justifiable reasons to criticize the choice for Paul to get a title shot at this stage of his career. Nonetheless, there are also quite a few factors to make this specific choice at this specific time make a great deal of sense.

In the early days of AEW, there was conversation around the company’s so-called Four Pillars: MJF, Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara, and Jungle Boy. The spirit of the idea was that these were four talents who were relatively unproven on a national stage, but each of whom demonstrated remarkable potential, and AEW might grow alongside these youngsters—the company forging its identity as the four of them became household names.

While MJF and Allin in particular have remained in consistently featured roles for AEW, fans have looked on as the company also welcomed in stars who made their name in WWE, besides prominently featuring stars who had established themselves with hardcore fans in Japan or Ring of Honor.

It’s telling that of the five men who’ve reigned as world champion—Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, and CM Punk—three had previously reigned as WWE Champion and one had been a world champ in Japan. Only Page could be considered a homegrown main eventer.

With AEW seemingly at a crossroads after the high-profile controversies of recent weeks, the time has come to re-center their focus on young talent.

AEW Can Take Advantage Of This Moment Of Controversy To Shift Gears

CM Punk has always been a lightning rod for controversy, but may have reached new heights of heat in recent times, culminating in his wild press conference ranting after All Out and subsequent backstage altercation with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks. That, combined with the EVPs’ role in spreading information—true or not—about Punk has created a dark cloud over AEW, and called attention to a need to shift gears and focus on some of the other high caliber talent at their disposal.

Those names might include Jon Moxley who, despite recently reigning as champion, was cast a peg below Punk. There’s also Bryan Danielson, who has selflessly absorbed more than his share of losses across his AEW tenure and Keith Lee whom some fans feel is underutilized in the tag team division. There are younger talents waiting in the wings as well, though.

Injuries Have Exposed The Limitations Of Relying On Older Talents In AEW

In addition to the poor behavior of some of AEW’s more established top talents, there’s also the matter of injuries. Besides CM Punk’s poor behavior after All Out, he also reportedly got injured in his match with Jon Moxley. That issue was compounded by Christian Cage purportedly also being hurt with a similar injury. That’s immediately after Kenny Omega returned from over a half year on the disabled list and after Bryan Danielson missed time.

Injuries can happen to anyone, but it’s also a reality that older wrestlers have more mileage on them and thus tend to be more prone to missing significant stretches because they’re legitimately hurt. It’s another reason why pushing younger names may be the best thing AEW can do at this point in time.

AEW Has Its Four Pillars And Other Young Talents Available To Push

AEW seems ready to go all the way in pushing MJF. At 26, he’s a young talent and AEW can mostly take credit for building him up to main event status. While fans may have been justifiably skeptical about CM Punk putting over the heel when he cashes in his title shot from winning the Casino Ladder Match at All Out, things are more wide open now. With Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson the presumptive favorites to win the vacant title at Grand Slam, it seems entirely realistic one of them would put over MJF—likely as not at Full Gear, staged in front of an MJF-friendly crowd in Newark.

Darby Allin also looks ready for a big push. Beating Brody King in a Coffin Match and picking up the pin for his team over The House of Black at All Out both give him some real momentum to knock on the door of the main event.

Jungle Boy suffered a setback in both losing to Christian Cage, and Cage’s injury meaning Jack Perry won’t get any immediate revenge. However, he has Luchasaurus set up as a natural rival for the weeks ahead. Moreover, being out on his own still suggests Jungle Boy could move up to a better featured spot on the card.

Sammy Guevara is a trickier talent to predict the future for, with real life controversies, and very real heat with the fans perhaps putting a ceiling over what he’ll accomplish in the immediate future. Nonetheless, there’s no denying he’s an incredible in-ring talent and his willingness to play the heel wholeheartedly could pay off in the long run.

AEW certainly has room to look beyond its original Four Pillars as well. Wardlow has gotten over a high level this year and it would only be natural to revisit his issue with MJF in time. The Acclaimed had a gutsy, star-making performance at All Out. Though he’s not that young at 40, Eddie Kingston has been on a journey with AEW and if he can avoid real life controversies like his recent issues with Guevara, he could viably factor into the main event picture again.

Add on Hook, Powerhouse Hobbs, Ricky Starks, not to mention emerging stars on the women’s side like Jade Cargill and Julia Hart, and it’s easy to imagine a very different AEW landscape in a year’s time.

In the end, not everyone can be featured as a main event star in AEW. Nonetheless, out of a time of unprecedented controversy and chaos behind the scenes, the company may emerge all the stronger if it can capitalize and reprioritize around its deep pool of less established talents.