MERCEDES MONE BUST IN AEW? Reacting to Pro Wrestling HOT TAKES 

The legacies of Steve Austin and The Rock benefitted greatly from how short their runs on top were. They didn't have the time that other major stars have had for fans to get bored of them, and didn't have to undergo as many reinventions to make up for the creative well running dry. Heel Austin and Hollywood Rock showed shades of that, but they simply don't have the sample size of people like Flair, Sting, Hogan, HBK, or even someone like Bret when it comes to staying power at the top of the industry. They left before the fire had a chance to fizzle.

Right WWE's biggest asset is the ability to create homegrown talent and cultivate talents that weren't pushed to meet their fullest potential elsewhere. As much as I loved the black and gold super indie days of NXT, and as much as I hated 2.0, the current white and gold product is where NXT needs to be. Now they aren't all homegrown guys. You still have your Andre Chase's, your Axiom's, your Wes Lee's, and Roxanne Perez's and so many others, but there's still a lot of talented and up-and-coming talents, especially on the women's side.

I'll say this and Denise Salcedo said it best. If getting Mercedes Mone doesn't change how the AEW women's division is booked then there's no hope for it. Tho I think it's been better lately in 2024 imo.

The thing with Cult of Personality is that I don't think there's ever been theme music that is so applicable to a wrestler more than it is to CM Punk. Every line really connects to his character. It also is just an amazing song

as songs go, yeah I'm with JohnnyBoombatz, This Fire Burns is badass. but as a theme song for CM Punk, I suppose Cult of Personality fits better, especially now that it's what everyone associates with him.

Tna Kurt Angle wasn’t necessarily better he was just on so many pain killers that he probably didn’t care about his well being

The Rock coming back to WWE (as a board member) will only do damage to his previously loved career

Saying triple h is too obsessed with long-term booking is basically just outing that some people dont have the attention span for a real long-term story arc. There are plenty of shorter term storys but the bigger ones become bigger because of them being longer term

My hot take. R Truth is in terms of popularity on the level of Cody. Any time he pops up from behind the couch he gets a giant reaction. Priest saying he can stay and make himself a home got a giant pop .

The first major wrestling promotion to host an annual all-female International Women's Day card on free TV (or PLE) will benefit from getting more eyes on the product and open up new demographics. Annual repetition and low entry cost will be key to growing these demographics. Plus, the matches will be awesome.

2021 was the best year for AEW, but id say if their peak was All Out 2021, then the Dog Collar Match from Revolution 2022 was probably their last grasp at success

That's right, I AM Tony Khan, Steve and Larson banned from all future Sacramento Dynamites!

I think Ring of Honor was more prestigious before it was bought by Tony Khan.

Miro don’t want to takes loses. That’s why he sits so much

0:22 the PURE bewilderment of and Larson

Some long term storytelling is great - some stories are worth taking months to tell and adding little things along the way... But in 2023 it got to the point of being ridiculous. Almost every story was long term: - of the men's singles titles there were only 2 title changes in all of 2023 - both for the US title - JD joining The Judgement Day - Bobby Lashley being mad at The Street Profits - Is Jimmy back in Roman's good graces? - Gunther being mad at Imperium - When will Santos turn on Rey - When will Damage CTRL turn on Bayley The problem with Triple H's long term storytelling was that most of these stories didn't move along, like Bobby was mad at The Street Profits then they'd get back in his good books with a win only to lose a week or two later and now Bobby is mad again followed by a week or two later they win and Bobby is happy again, etc. Around November time most of the main stories were in the exact same spot they were back in July.

The young folks don't like long stories like us older guys do, they have very short attention span lol

I don't know if it's too controversial of a point. But as someone who likes both AEW and WWE, I don't honestly see too much of a difference between AEW now and back in 2021/2022. Part of me thinks they stood out so well during that period because of how bad WWE was during that time bearing in mind it wasn't until mid-way through 2022 that Triple H took over the booking after Vince's first exit from the company. Maybe there has been some dip in quality with AEW over the last year or so, I just don't know if it's as big of a dip as everyone is making it out to be. Part of me does think that AEW wouldn't be seen as highly in that period if WWE wasn't as bad as it was then.

I partially agree with the long-term storylines hot take. I LOVE long-term storylines, but not every single storyline has or needs to be a full year in the making. It gets tiring to not see any payback to those who follow the rivalry because you know it won't have any pay-off until a big PPV. Let me get title changes at EC, RR, Payback... I don't know, give me something that will keep me entertained while the long storylines develop.

13:29 The fact that there’s another friendo named Jaylen Moore scared the SHIT outta me

When Steve here, And Larson said that WCW 2000 was unwatchable dog (bleep), all I thought is we need a WCW 2000 watchalong for charity. 😂

My hot take take is that gimmicks aren't bad for pro wrestling, they are only bad when executed poorly. So many legends are legends thanks mostly to the gimmick itself and the gimmick's ability to allow for character. Undertaker, Kane, Million Dollar Man, Brutus the Barber, Yokozuna, Mr. Perfect, Big Bossman, just to name a few. Even Stone Cold, one of the most popular ever, was technically a gimmick. Nowadays, people are scared of gimmicks because of how badly gimmicks were booked for a short period in time, when they are actually one of the main reasons us older crowd even got into wrestling in the first place.

Mone has gone to AEW for most money (which is fine btw). Even she knows surely that her matches and creative would have beem way better in wwe. Wwe offered her what she was worth probably more, AEW will just throw the money at her but she will be with all the other old toys in a few months while tony kahn gows shopping for his new shiney thing.

Steve so with you there! I preferred Edge getting stacked by Roman too! 😂😂😂😂

My hot take: Retirement matches in wrestling are often mishandled. Legends shouldn’t always give stock to younger wrestlers when there are better stories to be had with familiar foes, if that opponent can still go in the ring. Examples are Cena should face Punk/Orton rather than a young star that requires a build and new history, or Sting facing Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Hardy, or someone he has history with rather than The Young Bucks.

Hot Take: AEW doesn't need Britt Baker. The women's division has improved recently and mainly because she isn't there, when she was there she was hogging up time for the rest of the women, also don't get me started with her title reign.

Hot Take: There are more bad royal rumbles than good ones.

Thanks for picking my comment guys! Edit: Also i want to clarify that i do believe that andrade is a great in ring wrestler. His matches in nxt/ the continental classic were incredible however, his presentation in both company’s he’s been in seems boring and un interesting to me. do i think that he’ll do better in his Wwe run than Aew yes. But do i think he’ll ever be a main eventer in a major north american company no.

Hot Take: With Okada, Mercedes and Osprey now signing with AEW and with how bloated the AEW roster is with the numerous people on the roster I feel like we are not far off from an AEW mass release like what WWE does and it may become an yearly thing like WWE mass release's however I dont think AEW will receive the same amount of backlash like WWE does.

10:10 just copy-paste this for WWE. They haven’t had anybody come up who is on the main event scene as young as what AEW has right now. Ask yourself that question and hit it at the other company, and you’ll see how crazy your response was.

Hot Take: There's no coming back after losing the match where you drank the other dude's blood.

What if Steve Austin went to TNA in 2002-2003 after he “took his ball and went home”?

Hot Take: The first 7 episodes of NWA Powerrr are the greatest wrestling program of the 21st century. No program did a better job in less time of getting barely knowns and never were's over with fans and did a better job finding lapsed fans than that show. It was the closest thing to old school southern wrestling and legitimately made people care about guys like Tim Storm and the Question Mark. Bonus, Dave Marquez on that show was the best interviewer since Mean Gene.

That big e portrait is terrifying 😂

To give my take on the Jericho gimmick one: The Wizard is a top tier Jericho gimmick

probably isn’t a hot take, but here goes: wrestling fans will have so much more fun if they stop paying attention to ratings and buy rates. popularity isn’t the only indicator of quality! we have more flavors of wrestling ice cream than ever before, and people still wanna argue that vanilla is the best flavor because it outsells strawberry. some people just like strawberry and that’s okay!

Big monsters can be entertaining, but because they're generally low ability, it's more about the booking, who they're against and overcoming the monster. Andre, Big Show, Kane.

The only issue with the change to nxt being more home-grown talent than indie talent is that it seems like a lot of the womens division get injured alot

20mins of talking up wwe and down AEW get a new gimmick

Wheeler Yuta was the worst choice for BCC out of the 3 guys danielson named (garcia and moriarty). He’s a charisma vacuum and just does not fit with the rest of the other BCC members because he’s an artificial alpha male.

Perc Angle is the only Angle I recognize as a person 😂

Jumping off the Miro hot take. Miro has to make a choice when his contract expires: Money or Prestige. He will not get both. WWE and AEW will pay him well but he will be a face in the crowd in the midcard. If Miro wants to prove he's a main eventer, he should go to TNA. He would be TNA World Heavyweight Champ within a year of joining.

If the Judgement Day is going to keep the titles for a bit, they should give them one belt each with purple straps...which Damien seems to like, but it's also the color we get when Red and Blue get mixed.

Champions should stack their challengers more often

Can't ever be too obsessed on LTB .

People pretend you can’t love long term storytelling and step critique it.

I hate this but: I think we have seen the peak of Adam Cole (bay-bay)

Mone will come in and spike viewing numbers for a week or two most likely high 800’s mid 900’s but as the weeks go on it’ll settle back to being mostly in the 700’s because we’ve seen Tony is incapable of booking a huge star

My hot take: Hot take videos < Mat Chat videos

I would put good money on Mone feuding with Saraya with the whole motivation being Mone forced her to retire

I dont think her signing is gonna do anything bc she was expected at All In.

Jey shouldn't beat Gunther. It probably should be Ilja, Bron or Dunne.

Can't say I've liked much of anything Jericho's done in AEW.

Mercedes/Sasha isn't the draw she thinks she is

I don’t think Braun is a good example of an average giant wrestler. Unlike most wrestlers his size (and ESPECIALLY compared to) he can actually move pretty well so he’s sorta an anomaly

That type of has always looked great on larson

No matter how good or bad it is, people will always want AEW to fail.

Larson took 3rd place in the world's oldest teenager competition.

NXT area isn't ugly.

Completely agree about WCW 2000 If you didn't watch it in real time it can be tough to understand just how shit it really was.

I really like Andrade, but his weakness has always been his poor English-speaking skills. He needs a mouthpiece or he will never get over.

Baker is injured. Or at least she was for a long time. Something back related.

2-Sweet Friendos

Rusev not wanting to take Ls is whats holding him back in AEW. He would have been great in the CC .

What the hell was the deal with that okada questions that flashed on screen but a different question was answered. On top of the okada question never got answered later. I hope Mercedes didn't sign one of those malakai black 5 to 6 year deals just in case it doesn't work out & she wants out. But if she did at least she will get a big bag I guess like most people would say in 2024

I felt the aew tna connection for awhile, they have ex wwe legends smaller stature high work rate guys throughout the majority of the card and the stars are kinda mediocre (to me)

Ric Flair is a 12/10 talker, but a 6/10 wrestler.

Hot Take: The Miz is and always will be an automatic channel change for me, guy is a walking cringe factory with a boring moveset. I don’t even find his promos to be particularly good.

Mercedes signed a 3 Yr deal I heard.

We have all been thinking about this wrong. The future of the WWE isn't in finishing Cody's story with Roman. That's already manifesting. The best thing WWE can do right now to promote their brand as a positive is to play the hell out the division between HHH and The Rock. The story is the power vacuum in Vince's absence. You don't even have to mention Vince to make it work. They shouldnt. But its there hovering over them. The casual audience knows. The die hards, of course, know. And because of the scandal ... well, everyone knows. Anyone who experienced the Attitude Era and since knows Hunter. Dwayne was once the highest paid actor in Hollywood. We don't know what the limitations of Paul taking a single bump, but there's a deadline with so much going on before we hit that date. Start building the narrative fast. If they want to nail it out of the park and have their Wrestlemania moment: we all know how a certain rattlesnake gets along with the boss. I grew up along side them. If you're reading this, theres a good chance you did too. The situation dictates that they will have to learn on the fly, how to build a marquee card when for the first time since their generations most successful Era, its not the amount of eyes watching, its that they are paying attention.

AEW's biggest problem is no storytelling. Random match here and there while good matches are not compelling. When they focused on Page's struggle to beat Omega and believe in himself, or the Punk vs MJF feud they were must watch. Now not a feud or story going that makes people feel they must tune in.

The Intercontinental title strap changing colors was an awesome thing. I've seen people say different color straps look weird, but I thought it was cool and think it would be cool to see a current title they do that with.

I agree that This Fire Burns is waaaay better than Cult of Personality

AEW has a product just like WCW in the late 90s that appeals way more to an international audience and soon American wrestling fans that mostly or only watch WWE will find that out. If AEW was on MAX after All In their TV numbers would go up because people who don't know about Fite and don't live in a country that airs AEW shows live still have no idea that AEW even exists. Just like people who didn't have TNT or TBS didn't know about WCW for the first 7-8 years in places like Europe and had no desire watching the WWF product

Fans are taking things regarding Cody/Roman/Rock too far. I understand not liking an angle or wanting Cody to get that spot, but a lot of what is being said about Rock is a bit too far and some of the most rotten apples sending desth threats to his daughter is behind too far. I like Cody a lot, I want him to get that spot and get the win (even though I like Roman and Rock more than him), but people gotta settle down with some of whats being thrown out.

Is Samoa Joe AEW's Kevin Nash?

NXT is the worst wrestling show on TV and the preformence center is actually hurting the development of talent in North America

Man i kinda miss when the friendo community wasnt just always shitting on AEW for any and everything no matter what they do. If they dont sign Moné, people will laugh and say they fumbled it. If they do sign her, people will say shes not a draw and that She'll be buried or ruined or whatever A lot of yall by this point are in the "AEW can do no good unless theyre bought by WWE" it feels like.

TNA is great now though

dont say people who watched wcw in 2000 didnt. I DID WATCH IT. i watched it from the start to the finish. every episode. i liked every episode. i had no issue with it. stop saying everyone hated WcW in 2000 because i did not.

Hot take WWE & WCW did an equal amount of stupid shit in the 90’s and 2000’s but WCW became the butt of jokes because they went under.

Wait I swear you just had a haircut Steve lol I'm always saying something about it but it looks long in this video lol

I don't see Andrade as a top star at all. I think he's hit his ceiling many times and doesn't need to go beyond that. He's a great wrestler in a landscape where most are great wrestlers. I don't see anything else in him that would make me think he could be anything but a midcard champ at best

I have a hot take JBL was a worse world champion than Jinder Mahal

HHH and Tony Khan have the same problem, they both get married to an idea and stick with it right or wrong. Long term storytelling can be great, but sometimes the story you're telling sucks and you need to adapt.

Was WCW 2000 worse than WWE's guest host era? I didn't watch either.

Aew must’ve paid her a shit load of money she would’ve been the biggest star in women’s division if she went to wwe Sasha banks vs rhea Ridley would be on of the biggest women’s matches of all time

AEW is more like WCW in 2000

Unfortunately, having Sasha there won't do much. She'll probably be hot for a couple of weeks, and then be forgettable and just another woman there. That company doesn't know how to use talent to their full potential. Look at Edge. It's especially worse in the women's division. You got Sareena Deeb, and Thuder Rosa there, who should be working with everyone, just because they have so many relatively green ppl. They book people they like, regardless of ability. Sky Blue is on tv every week and she's never blown anyone away and what's her face is booked like she's Charlotte Flair because she looks like Stevie Nicks. Not saying they can't get better as characters, but they're booked beyond their current abilities

I feel similar about AEW feeling a bit like TNA at the moment. Its probably just it being Joe as World Champ, Christian being a top star, focus on Sting, and TK making weekly 'huge announcements'. It genuinely just feels like what TNA did 20 years ago 😂😂

I can't mone been used in aew like she wants

Now as for my hot take, every woman that was released during the pandemic and after that during the quote-unquote budget cuts era is going to come back to wwe.

IMO wwe is very stale for past year everyone keeps their championship no change = boring and repetitive nothing is keeping invested week to week or even month to month now I like AEW right now

Gotta remember with AEW is that almost all of their "old" wrestlers will be gone sooner than later with retirement... Edge, Christian, Sting The Hardy's, Jericho. Also, as they pull in established Stars... Ospreay, Mone, etc ... they won't be renewing the baggage wrestlers than are just cashing checks. Regardless of what Tony books, these big time wrestlers will naturally change the shows and PPVs.

Steve & Larson say something positive about AEW challenge: impossible!

OVW's weekly show is better than AEW Dynamite.

Mercedes is definitely all elite but i wish she wasn't.. i really don't see aew women's division doing anything decent. Toni's gimmick is already annoying theu need actual creative.. Mercedes being a triple h girl i would have thought as soon vince was out the way she would go back especially now trinity is back.

Sasha Banks might move the needle...not by much but Mercedes Mone won't do jack ! But then again her toxic nature might be a perfect fit.

Wishful thinking from a certain group of fans

She will be the cm punk of womens division when they already have catty problems and the bucks for dudes