I liked Lio Rush as a manager. When he first represented Bobby Lashley I thought, “This is exactly what the Titus Brand should’ve been”, but that partnership didn’t last too long and Rush was on the move. Now in AEW, Rush lost another client in Dante Martin to Team Tazz, which was the smart move, but not good for Rush’s progression in AEW.
Can Rush wrestle? Yes. He is still phenomenal and can put on a show with anyone. But they need to really write a good storyline for him in AEW. Rush needs to align himself with a faction or they should give him his own and let him keep it. Maybe go with the storyline of trying to compete with Team Tazz and bring back Brian Cage to team with Rush. Have Cage go for the FTW Championship and let Rush be a big part of him winning it.
So what do you think of Rush in AEW so far and if he was to start a new faction who would be on it?
This is how I’d book Solo Sikoa. He would be a knockout specialist. I would put him in a series of squash matches, where the bell would ring and Sikoa would throw a knockout punch followed by a few more hits and just walk out of the ring, leaving his opponent knocked out. I wouldn’t even care about his record, because if the ref counted him out it didn’t matter. Sikoa wouldn’t care about records, he would just want to knock his opponent out.
So after a month or two of this, Sikoa would find himself in a match against Bron Breakker. Match would start, Breakker would throw a punch, Sikoa would duck and give the knockout blow downing Breakker. Sikoa would walk out of the ring as he would usually do. Then, Breakker would stagger and get up. Sikoa would see on the big screen Breakker getting up and Sikoa turn slowly. Ref keeps counting. Breakker yells at Sikoa to come back. Ref gets to the 7 count and Sikoa sprints back in the ring and their match really begins.
That moment right there would define the two men. It would create such a moment that would stick with them throughout their career. Especially, if you these two men are booked to be the top of the company.
I don’t think I would keep Sikoa in NXT very long. Breakker I would keep for a title run or two, but Sikoa would fit in perfectly with The Bloodline and that’s a storyline that I can’t see going on for another two years. You should bring him up right after my idea for the match against Breakker and then eventually have these 2 meet in the future. Possibly for a Survivor Series match where both men are either holding their main or mid card titles.
I wanted to start this off with “Wow the WWE really dropped the ball on Kota Ibushi”, because they did have him in the Cruiserweight Classic, a few matches on NXT and that was it. At first, I though the WWE made a huge mistake not signing Ibushi to a long-term contract, but he wasn’t the same man he is now. He was a lot smaller back then. Now he looks like he put on a lot of muscle and looks the part of a main eventer.
The Cruiserweight Classic was in 2016, since then Ibushi has been in matches against Kenny Omega (the greatest wrestler of all time), Will Osprey, Tama Tonga, Tetsuya Naito, Kazuchika Okada and many other Main Eventers.
Maybe not signing with the WWE could’ve been the best thing that could’ve happened to Ibushi. He did say he wanted to raise Japanese Wrestling up and he certainly has. Eventually, Ibushi will find his way to an AEW or Impact Wrestling arena hopefully not in a similar way Minoru Suzuki did because I don’t want to see Ibushi come and go without a title run. I’d like to see him come for a year, run the gauntlet of dream matches and end his time holding the AEW or Impact Championship.
I think AJ Styles needs to win the Royal Rumble this year. He had NOTHING interesting going on now. Teaming with Omos has been interesting, but I felt like that took him out of a lot of interesting storylines and feuds. Maybe the constant WWE firings stopped a lot of great dream matches for Styles.
Styles could’ve gone against Karron Kross, Keith Lee, Andrade, Lars Sullivan, Buddy Murphy, Killian Dain, Bray Wyatt, Bobby Fish to name a few. Styles has been losing his main event status for a very long time and now it’ll be hard to bring him back to that without a massive change. The Royal Rumble is an easy way to set this up.
So what do you think is in store for AJ Styles in 2022?
I write a lot of these articles, especially wrestling articles, well in advance. I started writing this the day after Adam Cole had his final match with Kyle O’Reilly. It was obvious Cole was leaving, but we were kind of uncertain on O’Reilly’s future in NXT and the WWE. Here’s what I started writing and where I stopped:
The WWE should go all in on Kyle O’Reilly and make him the new Daniel Bryan. Both men are very similar in style. Hard strikes and an excellent submission game. O’Reilly is a feel-good story. Small, overlooked, but has the ability to be champion one day. I never believed in O’Reilly as a singles competitor, but I didn’t think Bobby Fish could either, but I’m loving his AEW work.
Right now, the WWE is devoid of a spark plug in their stories. Roman Reigns and placeholder Big E (I’ll get to that later) are still champion. I don’t think keeping O’Reilly in NXT is a good idea. They are building up too much new talent and I O’Reilly gets gold in NXT he will hinder a lot of new talent progress.
The best thing to do with him is send him RAW
And that’s all I finished on that article. I just witnessed O’Reilly make his AEW debut and stand in the ring with his two best friends. It was an AWESOME moment for the fans, but I find myself a bit pessimistic.
I was never a huge fan of O’Reilly on NXT. Yes, the Undisputed Era was the best thing in wrestling, but Adam Cole was clearly the only one deserving singles run and the rest were just tag team wrestlers. Bobby Fish I fell in love with in AEW because I only recall one singles match, he had in NXT and that was against EC3. Both Fish and O’Reilly we never got to see their full potential. And now that Fish and O’Reilly are back with Cole, are they back to being tag team wrestlers and that’s it? When I say “tag team wrestlers” I mean guys who can only function in a tag team aspect and aren’t unique at all in their own right. Obviously, O’Reilly’s time in AEW is less than an hour, but I do hope they don’t make the same mistakes in AEW with Fish and O’Reilly as they did in NXT.
AJ Styles is set to fight Grayson Waller on NXT, so is it fair to say this is the end of Styles in the WWE? You don’t see top talent like Styles going down to NXT for a good reason. We’ve seen some superstars sent back down to build them back up again. Notably Finn Balor, but after that he’s back on the main roster doing nothing again.
I said many times that this year Styles should win the Royal Rumble. After his split with Omos there really isn’t much going for him. A big change is needed in Styles future, but I don’t think NXT is the place for him. This isn’t CM Punk making his long-awaited return to the ring and having dream matches against new talent. This is a multiple time WWE champion, who is in the prime of his career. This isn’t like EC3 or Mustafa Ali where creative has admitted they don’t know what to do with them anymore. You can put Styles in any feud and it would be great. Yes, going against Waller will be fun, but the goal of NXT is to build superstars to one day go against the likes of Styles, not the other way around.
What do you think about AJ Styles now and what would you do with him?
I’ve been flip flopping on this one for a while. When I heard the rumors of CM Punk and Bryan Danielson making the move to AEW I first wrote “I wouldn’t sign them,” I would’ve rather AEW focus on the talent and stop bringing in new guys.
Then when they showed up I wrote “I was totally wrong. This is an amazing moment for wrestling fans. I can’t wait to see what happens,”. And now my opinion is “I wouldn’t have signed them and would rather AEW focus on the talent already there,”. CM Punk is putting on great matches. Seems like a dream match every week. But again, he’s taking time away from other AEW talent and there is so much there that a lot of them get pushed aside.
Now Danielson is next in line for an AEW Championship match. What about Lance Archer, Brian Cage, Pac, the 4 Pillars and others? Every time AEW signs one of these big-name talents, everyone on the roster gets pushed down a peg. Realistically, I would rather see Danielson challenge Hangman Page for the title rather than a Pentagon or a Sammy Guevara, but still, I would rather them get a shot at a main event match and build off of that.
That was what CM Punk argued with Vince McMahon and Triple H about at the end of his WWE tender. He wanted that WrestleMania main event to build his character more and put him into that top tier of wrestlers.
I’m not saying these aren’t great matches the two men are having. It’s just storyline we aren’t seeing a lot of other talents getting the top spots like they deserve.
Before Lee held on to the TNT title for AEW, he was a constant snub for WWE Championships as Luke Harper. The year 2017 was difficult for Harper because that was when he made the most noise on Smackdown Live and should’ve been WWE Champion that year. They had the perfect setup, make the match a Triple Threat against Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt and have Harper pick up the win. Triple Threats are the best way to protect other wrestlers’ image and give surprising wins. It probably wouldn’t have been a record-setting run, but it was what the fans wanted at the time.
Moving over to AEW was, sadly, Lee’s final destination. He was taken from us too early, and we never got to see his full potential. People rave about his character and his hilarious promos mocking his former boss Vince McMahon, but honestly, I’d rather see the guy wrestle high-profile matches. Lee lost to Jon Moxley for the AEW Championship but then beat Cody Rhodes to hold the TNT Championship. After seriously injuring Cody, Lee went on to wrestle 3 matches. Tag match, a match with Dustin Rhodes, and a match against Orange Cassidy. And then, when Cody was done filming a talent show, he came back and easily beat Lee. Sadly, Lee died a few months after that match.
Lee/Harper never had “It,” which is something that can’t be logically explained, but you know it when you see it. Braun Strowman was also paired with Lee, Wyatt, and Erik Rowan but went on to hold championship gold and wrestle high-profile matches and feuds with top-tier wrestlers while Lee was there to fill up time slots.
Lee was never Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, John Cena, AJ Styles, or Randy Orton, but he was someone who could lead the mid-card division, and there’s no shame in that. The Miz might be the greatest mid-card champion of all time and can easily make a show great with his presence. The WWE and AEW never really believed in Lee. Smackdown Live’s slogan was “The Land of Opportunity,” and AEW’s business model is to give everyone a chance to shine. Sadly, Lee didn’t shine as brightly as Cody did and never got a chance to live up to his full potential.
What do you think? Was Lee properly used? And what dream matches would we have wanted to see?
Did Adam Cole sign with AEW just to be with his girlfriend and best friends or did he go to win some belts? I don’t think Tony Khan watched Cole on NXT and thought “he would be a good filler”. Cole can do it all. Be the face of the company, mid-card, tag team or just be in some great matches. The sky is the limit for Cole in AEW.
So where do you go with him? Right now, its good keeping him with The Elite, but when happens when Kyle O’Reilly becomes a free agent? You already have Bobby Fish there. I can see an Undisputed Era reunion. Sadly, I think Rodrick Strong signed an extension, but with WWE cutting wrestlers on a record pace, it wouldn’t be too ridiculous to see Strong cut soon. Its not like he has a big future there anyway.
Undisputed Era vs The Elite. Even having it as the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega (God’s favorite wrestler) would be a great match. Cole and Omega can rekindle their old feud and that match would be even better if it had a title attached to it.
So where do you see happening to Adam Cole in 2022?
Kevin Owens has resigned with the WWE for a reported 5-year contract. Now is this a good move for the WWE? I did a video about this a few weeks back, but let’s discuss this again.
Pros Of Signing Owens
-Keep a big-name talent away from other companies
-With a depleted roster, Owens can put fans in the arena and watching on tv
-Still in the prime of his career so they don’t have to do many gimmicks to keep the matches interesting
Cons
-Probably cost them an arm and a leg to keep him
-You MUST put him in the main title picture for the next 5 years
-Takes time away from other talents and prospects
Would I have kept him? No. And I’m not saying that because I want to see Owens fight Kenny Omega (the reason wrestling exists), but I wouldn’t pay Owens all the money and put him in the title picture for the rest of his career. You see that in sports like the NFL, the Quarterback gets the maximum amount of money and then the team does bad because they can’t sign free agents or keep big time talent.
What do you think about Kevin Owens resigning with the WWE and what dream matches are instore for him?
World War Joe 