2020 Pro Wrestling Thread

Supposedly, some of the producer type folks were furloughed as opposed to released, just because there are no house shows for them to handle.

 

Yeah, Chioda was there for 31 years. Nice loyalty there, Vince.

 

And apparently Chioda was sidelined with some sort of surgery. That's why he hasn't been on camera for a while.

WWE also taking a lot of flack for forcing No Way Jose and Sarah Logan to come in for squashes Monday, only to kick them to the curb two days later.

The ongoing list:
- Drake Maverick (James Curtin)
- Curt Hawkins (Brian Myers)
- Karl Anderson (Chad Allegra)
- Luke Gallows (Drew Hankinson)
- Heath Slater (Heath Miller)
- Aiden English (Matthew Rehwoldt)
- Eric Young (Jeremy Fritz)
- EC3 (Michael Hutter)
- Lio Rush (Lionel Green)
- Kurt Angle
- Sarah Logan (Sarah Rowe)
- Mike Chioda
- Primo (Edwin Colon)
- Epico (Orlando Colon Nieves)
- Rowan (Joseph Ruud)
- Mike Kanellis (Mike Bennett)
- Maria Kanellis
- Zack Ryder (Matthew Cardona)
- No Way Jose (Levis Valenzuela)

- Dave (Fit) Finlay
- Lance Storm
- Mike Rotunda
- Shane (Hurricane) Helms
- Scott Armstrong
- Pat Buck
- Sarah Stock
- Shawn Davari
- Billy Kidman

 

Rusev's gone, too. Every day will still always be Rusev Day, though.

This is starting to feel like a newspaper layoff thread.

 

Unless he asked for his release ... fuck that. Rusev was over huge when he was allowed to show his personality and wasn't saddled with shit like that Jerry Springer angle with Lana and Lashley.

 

I wonder how much of this is attributable to XFL vs. coronavirus.

 

And, honestly, how much of it is the normal shedding of dead weight that comes every year around this time?
Looking at the active wrestlers, the only ones who have done anything of note in recent weeks and months are Drake Maverick, Anderson and Gallows, Rowan, Rusev (if he's gone), and maybe Lio Rush. Heath Slater and Curt Hawkins are surprises mostly because they've always been reliable jobbers. Most of them were going nowhere in WWE and spinning their wheels. Rowan, Rusev, EC3, Anderson and Gallows might be the only ones that AEW is even interested in.
The backstage talent is a lot more surprising.

 

And maybe Drake Maverick can finally consummate his marriage now that he doesn't have to obsess over the 24/7 title.

 

They hadn't been doing the shedding of dead weight the last few years, mostly because they didn't want them to go elsewhere. Heck, some of them were getting raises because the E didn't want them to go to AEW.

 

Rusev has to be the #1 free agent from that list. I always thought the WWE mishandled him, seeing how over he was getting, despite stupid gimmicks.

 

I listened to Brodie Lee/Luke Harper on Jericho's podcast recently. It's always interesting to hear those guys open up about their time in WWE. He talked about how he couldn't ever seem to escape Rowan's orbit, whether it was in the Wyatt family or tagging together as the Bludgeon Brothers. They just kept winding up paired with each other. He liked the guy (and it's worth noting that Jericho spoke highly of him as well) but was frustrated by it. After hearing that, it'll be funny if Rowan winds up in AEW as the Dark Order's primary enforcer.