JCup's Blog

The Duality of Wrestling Twitter All Elite Wrestling held the 4th annual All In event at Wembley Stadium in London, England. It was  highlighted by one of the greatest matches in AEW history, its stellar main event, and a chaotic card with mostly good, fast-paced contests that kept the show moving at a brisk pace.  It's become clear that All In isn't meant to feature a card full of one-on-one dream matches, which I'll get into later in this post; instead, Tony Khan has opted to fit as many members of his stacked roster onto the card as possible. All In's main card featured a Trios Roulette Royale, a Three-Way Match, and a Casino Gauntlet, while the pre-show was loaded with 3.5 multi-man tag matches (the Gauntlet started towards the end of the Buy In).  We also saw the debuts of the former New Day - now collectively known as The New Level - and they're allied with former AEW World Heavyweight Champion Swerve Strickland. Their presence in AEW certainly feels signifi...

600 × 338 600 × 338 I t's time for Part II in my #DEEPDIVE series examining every single WWE-to-AEW jump throughout the past 7+ years. Part I focused on three Day1 hires: PAC, Chris Jericho, & Dustin Rhodes, all still part of the All Elite Wrestling/Ring of Honor families. I determined that all 3 were worthy hires, though not without their Fed warts that pop up from time to time (particularly with Jericho and Rhodes).  So, what does Part II entail? We're going to look at two superstars who departed the comfortable confines of the World Wrestling Entertainment to enter the new and exciting AEW. Let's jump right into it:

Wrestling Twitter was once again abuzz after speculation ran rampant that WWE SUPERSTAR Johnny Gargano had removed mention of WWE from his Twitter bio, potentially hinting at his exit from the company. According to False Finish HQ, however, Gargano did no t have WWE in his Twitter bio and remains listed on their internal roster; nonetheless, AEW Sickos debated the merits of Gargano potentially joining All Elite Wrestling (a debate that has been occurring on and off throughout the past several years).  The discourse turned to AEW president Tony Khan and his alleged affinity for the "Black & Gold" era of NXT - or for his desire to further "WWE-ify" a product that's supposed to serve as an alternative. It reminded me of an old thread I started on the F4W Board, where I tracked all of the ex-WWE talent who became #AllElite. It's a thread that hasn't been updated in quite some time, but it kept coming back to me throughout the day.  So, I've decided t...

World Wrestling Entertainment loses another. Earlier this afternoon, Mike Johnson of PW Insider revealed that Ilja Dragunov has opted to depart WWE following an uneven seven-year tenure. Dragunov, 32, was quickly and unceremoniously shifted to the Alumni section of WWE.com's roster page. False Finish, a WWE-friendly media outlet, added that WWE hoped to retain Dragunov, but he ultimately chose to let his contract expire and officially enter free agency. Dragunov, a gifted professional wrestler, last competed in this year's Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal - where Aleister Black eliminated him. Let's cut right to the chase: Tony Khan should aggressively pursue Dragunov : On paper, it's difficult to imagine a better fit than Dragunov and All Elite Wrestling. He's only 32 years old and wrestles a style that is far more appropriate for AEW and its partner promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling, than it was for WWE. I've already seen a million tweets pegging him as ...

I was unable to watch the live broadcast of Wednesday Night Dynamite , but I really wanted to see the follow-up to the lackluster Redemption PPV. AEW is in Detroit, Michigan, which has caused expectations for the return of the Motor City Machine Guns, who ultimately did not make their return during this show. I've heard through the grapevine that the MCMG may not want to sign long-term contracts, which makes sense; but, more than that, these guys chose WWE over AEW for whatever reason, and I don't think they should immediately be handed full-time AEW contracts.  Anyways, let's get to it:

All Elite Wrestling ended its streak of near-perfect Pay-Per-Views following the inaugural event Redemption .  The show felt like a slog to get through, which is particularly frustrating given the show started one hour earlier than usual. I found some of the wrestling to be sloppy, and the storytelling eye-roll-inducing. I don't think it was a bad show, or at least not in the same vein as WWE Premium Live Events, but it failed to live up to the sky-high standard set by Tony Khan and his roster.  It's also a show shrouded in confusion. We do not know why Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland have disappeared from television, despite Khan's insistence that the two remain in good standing. MJF may or may not be injured, and the severity of his possible injuries may or may not be significant. We do not have enough information, which is frustrating in itself.  This was the show where Kenny Omega was set to defeat MJF for the AEW World Championship, a decision that played out a c...

All Elite Wrestling founder and CEO Tony Khan has assembled one of the greatest talent rosters in the history of weekly professional wrestling television.  It may look dramatically different as Khan attempts to stay the course heading into 2027, one of the more crucial years of AEW's existence. The current Paramount-WBD merger appears to be on hold, and it's difficult to get an accurate read on the prospects of it being approved. Khan has been shouting from the rooftops about all the potential benefits his promotion may reap if the merger goes through, often citing his relationship with Paramount's head honcho, David Ellison (please keep better company, Tony). But that's a discussion for another day, and I'm going to approach the rest of this article with the assumption the merger goes through. Khan has a chance to entirely reshape his roster, as several wrestlers have officially hit free agency following their releases from AEW's rival, World Wrestling Entertai...