SquaredCircle

Tonight, AEW Dynamite comes to us from Reading, Pennsylvania!

The card for tonight's show will be:

Singles Match
Hikaru Shida vs. Kris Statlander

Singles Match
Orange Cassidy vs. Wheeler Yuta

Singles Match
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Darby Allin

Eight Man Tag Team Match
Mark Davis, Powerhouse Hobbs, Ricochet & Will Ospreay vs. The Don Callis Family (Brian Cage, Konosuke Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher & Lance Archer)

And more!

Please check your local listings and AllEliteWrestling.com for more information on how to watch. Card subject to change, enjoy your show!

Cultaholic, since PW:I is paywalled

Despite initial reports noting it was believed in All Elite Wrestling that "Speedball" Mike Bailey would be debuting as part of the Continental Classic, that won't be the case.

Mike Johnson of PWInsider has provided an update, noting that Bailey is not part of AEW's plans for the Continental Classic and he likely won't debut until after the new year.

Fightful Select also reported that Bailey's contract with TNA is not officially up until the end of the year, although he finished up with the promotion at the post-Bound for Glory tapings in late October in Detroit. Bailey was able to begin speaking to outside companies in November.

Although he won't be debuting as part of the Continental Classic, Mike Bailey is still expected to join All Elite Wrestling. Bailey had been a part of TNA Wrestling since 2022, establishing himself as one of the promotion's top acts. Bailey ended his time with the company as a three-time TNA X-Division Champion.

The AEW Continental Classic is scheduled to begin on the pre-Thanksgiving episode of Dynamite in Chicago on November 27.

Open secret, but finally confirmed it seems!

So, I decided to go check AEWs merch, and see if there's anything that caught my eye. First, I decided to check their clearance section. Despite running a sitewide no coupon needed black friday sale, and despite me STARTING in the clearance section, I found a BCC design that I thought was hilarious looking, and so I added it to my cart.

35% off something that was already in the clearance section. It's just a T-Shirt. Take a guess at how much it cost.

jeapordy theme

Did you guess $48? I'm unclear if that was with or without shipping. I'm sure it told me, but I wasn't going to pay $48 for a god damned T-Shirt.

But then I started looking around the rest of the T-Shirts. Awful. Truely awful designs. So I thought "Well, ,maybe that's why all this shit is being discontinued. Let's take a look in their normal section"

This time I started with Hoodies. Nope. The designs all look exactly like one guy who's bad at visual design, created ALL of these.

I mean, take a look at this one

I want you to look at this hoodie from the perspective of "I'm going to buy this hoodie, and wear it, in public, as a thing that other people will see me wearing."

95% of people out there in the world don't watch pro-wrestling! And of the 5% that do, only a small fraction watch AEW. They're averaging about 4,000 people per arena per show. I live in a city with 350,000 people in the city itself, but if you include the greater area it's closer to 1 million with surrounding areas. So within a 1 hour drive of downtown Cleveland, 1 million people COULD show up to a show. They had a show here Oct 30th for dynamite. From what I read, less than 3,000 people showed up.

So that means, in this area, if I wore THAT hoodie, only an average of 3-5k people, in a city of 350,000 would get it. Good design relies on the idea of being good even if you've never seen the reference product. Even if you have no idea what AEW is, you can look at it, and say "Oh, THAT'S cool!"

What they have instead is a bunch of products that looks like one single dork designed ALL of it, in the exact same style, and it's all just awful. Taz is employed there. He used to do ECWs merch design in the 90s. He's mediocre at commentary, but I NEVER heard anybody say that old ECW shirts looked like shit. People even replicate the style in parodies/tributes with their own merch. I have an "E C F'N 3" shirt, with the same style/font as the "E C F'N W" shirt. Looks awesome, even if EC3 is irrelevant these days.

My god, if Tony Khan is supposedly such a fan of pro wrestling at it's core, he certainly doesn't seem to have a grasp on how any of it works. Like if we never saw TKs face, and just was told someone named TK is running AEW, you could convince me it's some 12 year old, and it would fully make sense. I'd have no problem being convinced of that. Other than the lack of sexuality, because a 12 year old would be in puberty, and AEW doesn't seem like it's being run by someone obsessed with boobies. Outside of that, the creative decisions DO seem like some random 12 year old saying "YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE COOL??? IF WE PUT A NEEDLE IN A GUYS MOUTH, AND COMMITTED MURDER ON TV OVER AND OVER AND OVER!!! AND ALL THE MERCH CAN LOOK LIKE EARLY 90S WWF MERCH, EXCEPT WITHOUT ANY PERSONALITY, AND THEN....AND THEN....AND THEN....."

Meanwhile you're just rolling your eyes wondering why you can't find a wrestling brand to suit your tastes.

WWE is just morally corrupt on every level.

AEW is seemingly run by a 45 year old 12 year old.

TNA......eh, maybe I should give them another go. 10 years ago it was just laughably bad.

ROH is just AEW version of WWF Metal or WWF Jakked.

MLW just doesn't have an easy way for me to access them.

It's like I enjoy watching wrestling for the first 30 minutes......and then it just sloggs on, because there's a bunch of OTHER stuff that pads the run time. I just want to grab TKs shoulders and shake him while yelling STOP BOOKING FOR AN AUDIENCE OF ONE!!! YOU'VE LOST YOUR AUDIENCE!!!! STOP IT!!!!

First Dynamite on Max will be the New Year's Day episode, and will be Fight for the Fallen.

Also of note: Live Collision on 12/21 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, with Dynamite taping the next day (no live Christmas Dynamite lol).

Lots more dates in the article.

Tonight, WWE Raw comes to us from Grand Rapids, Michigan!

The card for tonight's show will be:

Singles Match
Seth Rollins vs. Bronson Reed

WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Bron Breakker (c) vs. Sheamus

Mixed Tag Team Match
American Made (Chad Gable & Ivy Nile) vs. LWO (Rey Mysterio & Zelina Vega)

Tag Team Match
The War Raiders (Erik & Ivar) vs. The Judgment Day (Carlito & Dominik Mysterio)

And more!

Please check your local listings and WWE.com for more information on how to watch. Card subject to change, enjoy your show!

Welcome to SquaredCircle's 'Meme Monday'!

Have you seen a great wrestling meme this week that just made you crack up? Did you watch a silly moment in a show and just need to craft a meme out of it? Well post em below!

The highest voted meme shall win and be showcased in next week's thread!

Last week's winner attached!

Nitter

"Regardless of what may or may not be in my future. After talking with my family I've made the decision to stop taking Indie dates. I've loved my time in the independents these past 20yrs. I've done amazing things, worked with amazing people and got to travel the world performing in front of amazing fans. That being said I'm tired of the hustle. It's time for the next crop to step up and fill whatever void I may leave behind in the Canadian scene.

"I have faith because of promotions like @NorthernCrown in Toronto, because of wrestlers like @FuerzaLives , new Northern Crown Champion @VaughnVertigo and countless others.

"Please support the Indies. Support the wrestlers grinding. They aren't fueled by money, only a rabid passion or addiction and love for pro wrestling. All I ever did was follow my heart. Driving cars into the ground, barely able to afford to eat or pay my bills just so I could get to a show and wrestle every weekend was tough but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

"I've met and made lifelong friends. Found my wife along the way and built a life and family to support me for whatever lies ahead.

"Thank you to every promotion that booked me (whatever you paid me helped me keep a roof over my families head more than you know). Every wrestler that worked with me (I learned so much from every match along the way) and every fan that showed support (you kept me going in times when I felt like giving up). It's not goodbye. It's just see you later".

Nitter

Hello SquaredCircle! Welcome to our Weekly Discussion Thread!

What have you watched lately? Seen any great matches? Have suggestions for things to watch? Anything not getting covered in other threads that ya wanna fill people in about? Questions about promotions, wrestlers, 'the business' or more?

Feel free to post below!

(Reminder, this thread can and will contain spoilers for possibly any show. Spoiler tags are not required in here, but if the show just happened try and keep spoiler talk it to its respective discussion thread for the first day).

From this morning.

Tonight, AEW Collision comes to us from Albany, New York!

The card for tonight's show will be:

Singles Match
Mina Shirakawa vs. Harley Cameron

Singles Match
Johnny TV (w//Mansoor & Mason Madden) vs. Daniel Garcia

Singles Match
Shelton Benjamin (w/MVP) vs. Komander (w/Alex Abrahantes)

Singles Match
Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Bulk Bronson (w/Beefcake Boulder & Jacked Jameson)

Full Gear Four Way Contenders Series Tag Team Match
The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) vs. La Faccion Ingobernable (Rush & The Beast Mortos)

AEW Women's World Title No Disqualification Match
Mariah May (c) vs. Anna Jay

And more!

Please check your local listings and AllEliteWrestling.com for more information on how to watch. Card subject to change, enjoy your show!

I have some questions about WWE ID.

OK.

Are these talents getting paid?

There is a belief among some we've spoken to that they would be getting a stipend, but they are not under contract like a NXT or main roster talent is.

If they have this WWE ID deal, are they blocked from wrestling talents from New Japan, TNA, AEW, etc.?

As of right now, we are told they have the freedom to go and wrestle anywhere they wish, including those promotions.

Does WWE have the right to tell them who they can't lose to?

No, we are told that as of right now, that's not part of the WWE ID deal. The talents have freedom to wrestle as they did and WWE doesn't control their creative or booking.

The reason I ask all these questions is if WWE isn't in control, what is in it for them?

What's in it for WWE is a few things. One, the belief is they would have right of first refusal on talent. A few years ago, WWE wasn't ready to sign Matt Riddle, so they asked EVOLVE to take and use him. They did regularly. When New Japan showed interest in Riddle, WWE made the decision to sign him. Everything I've heard sounds like that scenario on a bigger scale. If Wrestler X has interest from AEW, they can go to WWE and say, "Hey., AEW wants to sign me. WWE can then decide to sign them first or let them go elsewhere. It's more of letter of intent than anything else. AEW had something along those lines with Nick Wayne, showing they wanted to sign him when he turned 18. It's a way to keep the talents you think have the chance to develop under your spotlight without locking them in.

What will be the effect on the indies?

Well, for the promotions that are being used to indentify WWE ID talents, so to speak, it's a short term positive. Wrestling Open sold out last night in advance, something that has only happened 2-3 times previously. Memphis Wrestling got local news coverage of their taping this weekend. The WWE letters will help put eyeballs on companies from a fan base that otherwise might ignore them. Whether this can benefit the promotions long-term, however, remains to be seen. It could be that the WWE ID name helps sell a few tickets when those talents appear. It could be that some fans ignore shows that don't have that tag, but I think those fans would have likely skipped independent shows anymore. There's an entire fan base out there that only cares about WWE-centric properties.

Is this all WWE is going to do?

No, we know they are working with the announced wrestling schools and one would think that over time, they will expand the program, if they deem it worthwhile. The idea of all of these schools being open to the talents when they are in the area or need guidance sounds like a positive to me. I actually think they could add a few more schools, but we'll see if that happens.