The Wrestling Thread: WWE Clash at the Castle: Scotland

[Slimgrady]

I assume they all had shares to begin with, easily sold back to the remain guys I guess. I also assume Cody won’t be able to be a judge on that Go Big show anymore either as it’s on TBS, with all that on the table, surely the WWE have backed a truck load of money up to his house.

[Prototype]

AEW doesn't exist without him. He was part of the revolution, for sure. If he's going to WWE he's entering nowhere lower than top guy imo. Time will tell.

[Slimgrady]

Has to be some “top guy” deal going on. And hopefully there’s some bit of a storyline on his arrival, acknowledging why he left and how he helped to create WWEs biggest competition in 20 years, but knowing WWE they’ll just announce it on Raw one week and he’ll debut the next.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Maybe he will go to impact.

On Austin, if true it's such a shame it didn't happen ten years ago. I wonder if rather than being an actual match it will just be a fight of some kind, street fight etc

[KK]

If this isn't some sort of Brian Pillman style ruse, it'll be interesting to see how WWE use him again (and possibly Brandi) if that's indeed where he's heading.

What also makes this surprising is that he has his reality show on TNT, which was recently recommissioned, and he's a major part of that Britain's Got Talent type programme on tbs. John Cena does host on their version of Wipeout, so it isn't out of the realms of possibility Warner would keep Rhodes as judge, but I can't see the reality show staying - they'd effectively be promoting WWE.

[captain red dog]

Wow I'm amazed Cody has left. To be fair, that stupid stip about him not being able to challenge for the title basically killed his potential as a top AEW star. That was such a weird decision to make so early. It made it incredibly hard for fans to get behind him knowing that all his matches were literally just grudge feuds or TV title matches. Even if you take someone like Flair's final WWE run, thay at least made sense with him being semi retired. But they went the semi retired route with Cody whilst he was in his prime.

WWE should totally go for him, but would their booking be any different? Ideally Reigns would win against Brock, then have Cody come out at the very end of Mania and issue a challenge for Summerslam.

In reality, Reigns will win at Mania. Rhodes would appear in NXT, and he'd be putting paper bags on people's heads within a month.

What do people think of Zack Ryder? I appreciate how he has tried to rebrand himself, but his heel act seems to just consist of a spilling a bit of blood and waving his middle finger around.

[KK]

So does this mean Brandi Rhodes’ last appearance on AEW TV was getting run down by Dan Lambert (and the crowd).

If he does now end up in WWE, I don’t give it very long before they’re booking The Miz and Maryse and Cody and Brandi in a feud.

[Slimgrady]

I’ve a feeling he’ll debut a lot sooner than ‘Mania, they’re having trouble selling out the 2 nights so his being there would definitely give sales a boost. I assume AEW contracts don’t have a no compete clause like WWE’s so it wouldn’t be out of the realms of possibility to see him at (or in!) Elimination Chamber!?

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I’ve a feeling he’ll debut a lot sooner than ‘Mania, they’re having trouble selling out the 2 nights so his being there would definitely give sales a boost. I assume AEW contracts don’t have a no compete clause like WWE’s so it wouldn’t be out of the realms of possibility to see him at (or in!) Elimination Chamber!?

The belief is that he doesn't have a clause preventing him from doing so.

[KK]

How does Vince McMahon now see Cody Rhodes is the big question. Is he a Drew McIntyre or is he Dusty/Dustin Rhodes. Is Rhodes just going for the money, which is fair enough, or because he believes it’ll open more doors for him/them (The Miz on Dancing with the Stars; Sasha Banks in Star Wars).

Makes a change for the upcoming AEW videogame to lose someone off the roster instead of 2K22!

[Prototype]

I’ve a feeling he’ll debut a lot sooner than ‘Mania, they’re having trouble selling out the 2 nights so his being there would definitely give sales a boost. I assume AEW contracts don’t have a no compete clause like WWE’s so it wouldn’t be out of the realms of possibility to see him at (or in!) Elimination Chamber!?

The belief is that he doesn't have a clause preventing him from doing so.

No belief necessary. His contract ran out late December, early January, so he can do what he wants.

[Rawrgna]

No matter where he ends up on the card the fans are going to chant aew and Stardust non stop at him.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I’ve a feeling he’ll debut a lot sooner than ‘Mania, they’re having trouble selling out the 2 nights so his being there would definitely give sales a boost. I assume AEW contracts don’t have a no compete clause like WWE’s so it wouldn’t be out of the realms of possibility to see him at (or in!) Elimination Chamber!?

The belief is that he doesn't have a clause preventing him from doing so.

No belief necessary. His contract ran out late December, early January, so he can do what he wants.

Yeah I totally forgot that he carried working for AEW out of contract

[Poncho]

It's clear AEW had outgrown Cody. So many better wrestlers have been signed since he was one of the top guys - Cody's always been a mid-carder. I like the idea of Cody trying negotiate a big new contract and realising that, with the likes of Punk and Danielson getting signed, he was suddenly expendable.

[KK]

I'm interested to see how WWE fans react to him. I don't know how familiar the weekly RAW and SmackDown audiences are with AEW programming compared to those that attend the WWE PPV shows, where they tend to be a bit more hardcore and in-the-know. In a lot of cities, WWE fans just don't tend to react much to promos that are happening in the ring anymore - it's a family having a night out, they're there to see the major stars like Roman Reigns, Lesnar, and Sasha Banks, they boo and cheer politely, and that's it. They will sit and listen in relative silence (now often covered up by the abundance of fake crowd noise WWE pipe-in).

Someone like AJ Styles has done just fine in WWE, but he's exciting in the ring. Even if you weren't necessarily aware of him in TNA the crowd were going to get behind him anyway.

[Prototype]

Cody definitely reached the point of stardom where people started to resent him and his undoubted success.

Really intrigued to see how WWE use him. You can call him a lot of things, but he is not stupid. He must've been offered something big to switch back to WWE.

[Slimgrady]

My guess is they were going to have Lesnar V Reigns in a title V title match, now they’re just going to do that for the Universal title and have Cody V Lashley for the WWE title…as boring as that sounds

[Prototype]

Collision in Korea, covered in season 3's dark side of the ring has been uploaded to YouTube

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I see wwe have finally binned 205 live. Still shocked it lasted so long.

[captain red dog]

Reigns vs Lesnar is a lock in I guess, but it would be really great to see Cody win the WWE title at Mania.