07-07-2017, 06:32 PM | #1 |
BAY BAY
Posts: 36,524
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Austin Aries Released by WWE
Now this is out of nowhere it seems. WWE.com is wishing Austin Aries well in his future endeavours. Pretty much all it says so far, but it would appear that Double A asked for his release based on speculation on this Tweet earlier in the day:
After getting injured by Shinsuke Nakamura on NXT with a kick dislodging his eye socket, he was moved to commentary and then became a key member of the Cruiserweight division. I would guess that being in that division did not line up with where he feels he should be used by the company. http://www.tpww.net/2017/07/austin-a...leased-by-wwe/ |
07-07-2017, 06:41 PM | #2 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 51,037
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He's better than they used him, but the division needed him so i get it
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07-07-2017, 06:45 PM | #3 |
King K Cool
Posts: 28,472
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I really wasn't expecting this.
They may as well just end the Cruiserweight Division now. |
07-07-2017, 06:46 PM | #4 |
BAY BAY
Posts: 36,524
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Yeah I get why they put him there, but it is so limiting if you think you can be a big star and AA has always had that CM Punk type of self-belief/ego. On one hand, I wish they'd just scrap the division and have some of those guys mix it up with the main rosters but on the other hand they're sk bad at showcasing their roster in 3 hours as it is to risk guys like Gallagher, Dar and Swann getting lost in the shuffle
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07-07-2017, 06:47 PM | #5 |
TPWW Fire Pro Champ
Posts: 33,992
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Yep. 0-3 in Neville title shots and haven't heard a peep or seen him since. Unless he's been around 205 live.
TNA-GFW will probably snatch him back up. ROH would love to have him back, too. |
07-07-2017, 06:48 PM | #6 |
Former TPWW Royalty
Posts: 66,588
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Bit of a shock but makes sense why he wanted to leave. Only was made a commentator to keep him busying while recovering and probably realized from the Neville feud he was only going to be another throw-away star in the division and WWE.
Wouldn't be surprised if the recent interview he had about wanting a break was him actually wanting to rethink his career in the WWE. He lashed out at the wrestling media for reporting the claims of him being hurt but he still took the break in the end. |
07-07-2017, 07:00 PM | #7 |
President of Freedonia
Posts: 58,167
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Given that Aries seems happy about it - I'm thinking he was under the impression that WWE weren't ever going to use him outside of the Cruiserweight division. And if that's the case I could see why he'd want to get out of it. They're such a bit part of Raw every week, and while I enjoy 205 Live it's often totally heatless.
Stuff like Titus O'Neil interacting with Tozawa is good because it's a cruiserweight interacting with someone who is part of the "regular" Raw roster. It's a step in the right direction because otherwise it feels like they've totally segregated the cruiserweights from the rest of the show, what with switching the ropes and presentation style just for their segments. Not all of the cruiserweights need to mingle with people outside of the division, but a guy like Aries easily could've stepped into a midcard feud with somebody else and not miss a beat. |
07-07-2017, 07:06 PM | #8 |
EATER OF HOT POCKETS
Posts: 14,340
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WWE got as much out of him as they were going to.
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07-07-2017, 07:16 PM | #9 |
Rigged from the start
Posts: 35,417
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Kinda sucks, but unfortunately, being shoehorned in with Cruiserweight Division 2.0 was probably going to see him typecast as a typical low-to-mid card small guy, which is a trope in wrestling that to a large extent I've always kind of despised.
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07-07-2017, 07:27 PM | #10 |
MVP Mark
Posts: 16,447
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King Neville is all that matters.
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07-07-2017, 07:38 PM | #11 |
It's all Bullshit
Posts: 6,911
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Ares was like a mini Jesse Ventura...
I will miss him |
07-07-2017, 07:38 PM | #12 |
LUV CABBAGE/H8 JEWS
Posts: 42,497
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He was in WWE?
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07-07-2017, 07:49 PM | #13 |
Posts: 60,919
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When I first saw Austin Aries in ROH, I was actually blown away. He was so fluid and he managed to hold my interest really well. His rise to the top in TNA actually convinced me to order a TNA PPV. He and Gail Kim/Awesome Kong are the only performers to be able to claim that. That being said, since he signed with the WWE I just haven't had the same feeling from Aries.
I don't know if it is the environment or that the guy simply has shaken it up much over the past decade or so, but he didn't feel "effective" in whatever role they used him in. Given that he is under 205lbs, it makes sense to use him in the Cruiserweight Division. I honestly thought they'd switch the belt over to him, but I was kind of relieved when they didn't, because Neville has been absolutely awesome since winning it. Aries obviously wants to go elsewhere. Maybe he becomes the new chief gaijin for New Japan if Omega decides he wants to go to the WWE? Or maybe he returns to TNA and has another run in the X-Division after interviewing Sonjay Dutt with a banana? Maybe he just takes a break from wrestling and lets his body heal up? I can't say I am particularly excited about the future of Austin Aries, but I am glad he gave WWE a go and he seems happy about his next move. |
07-07-2017, 09:03 PM | #14 |
Rigged from the start
Posts: 35,417
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07-07-2017, 09:10 PM | #15 |
Let me talk to ya
Posts: 11,749
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GFW/Impact/TNA Hall of Fame? Guy had a Wrestlemania match and probably wasnt going to do much more in WWE. Got over with the crowd though and was known before he came but now the people that didn't know him do.
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07-07-2017, 09:58 PM | #16 | |
Former TPWW Royalty
Posts: 66,588
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Some updates from PWTorch about Aires' release:
Quote:
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07-08-2017, 11:03 AM | #17 |
king of sucks
Posts: 4,412
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jim cornett said he had a bad attitude when jim delt with him in roh
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07-08-2017, 11:16 AM | #18 |
Loque Ja
Posts: 87,867
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I'd be happy to be a featured player in the Cruiserweight division, and a surefire future champ. Rather than a lost in the shuffle main roster, never gonna be main event spot.
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07-08-2017, 11:25 AM | #19 |
BAY BAY
Posts: 36,524
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But he probably would have quit in that position too.
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07-08-2017, 07:43 PM | #20 |
b/c 5 is better than 4
Posts: 9,721
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Unfortunate. Could have been so much more than what he was.
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07-09-2017, 06:24 PM | #21 | |
Former TPWW Royalty
Posts: 66,588
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According to the Observer, the Cruiser title being left out of Mania 34's DVD/BR set was another issue leading to Aries leaving.
Think only the UK got the match for their DVD/BR set. Quote:
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07-09-2017, 07:09 PM | #22 |
king of sucks
Posts: 4,412
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guess he will show up pissed off at bound for glory
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07-09-2017, 07:10 PM | #23 |
boop/bop/beep
Posts: 38,427
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"Bad Attitude" in WWE means backing yourself and being pissed off with not being used to your full potential.
But also, nobody has the balls to reach for the brass ring. |
07-09-2017, 07:37 PM | #24 |
MVP Mark
Posts: 16,447
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I would be pissed if my amazing match was cut from the DVD too.
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07-10-2017, 02:31 AM | #25 |
Posts: 60,919
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Yeah, it's a shame that the match got cut. Aries is notoriously hard to work with, but he is talented. There was a place for him, and I don't agree with him that it was much higher than where he was. I wouldn't have minded seeing him and Roderick Strong as a tag team and being allies to Bobby Roode at some point. If WWE could pluck James Storm from GFW, a Roode/Storm/Aries/Strong faction would be pretty good.
I honestly think the dude might take some time off from wrestling, but I'm sure he's already had phone calls from GFW and ROH. Impact could really use some identity players, and Aries does have a long history with the promotion. He would make a perfectly logical signing, if his dignity doesn't prevent him from going back. Otherwise I could see him making spots with ROH and trying to get into New Japan, but I do wonder if he feels "strong" enough to fit in with their main event scene. He'd make a great opponent for KUSHIDA or something though. |
07-11-2017, 02:36 AM | #26 |
I W C DEEZ NUTZ!
Posts: 10,137
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*willing to... "going to" makes it sound like he wasn't that good and they barely squeezed out any potential they were going to get. There was potential to be more; he could go in the ring, he could do it on the stick, and he could work in the booth. Maybe not enough to carry the entire WWE, but we're back to not building stars and relying on the same people to draw and pretending new stars "just aren't getting over".
Seriously, A Double could have at least been a major midcard power. Could have easily been a way to get the Ambrose/Miz feud to end by being in opposition to one (or both) and assuredly ended up with a memorable IC run. Only seeing 205 Live value in him because he happened not to be a couple inches taller is pretty fucking stupid. It's a novel concept, but a dead end for anyone who isn't Neville or pitted against him for the title. "You're small, so you'll never be anything more than flippy floppy guy. We don't like flippy floppy, so you won't be featured barely ever." Actually, I'm starting to wonder if a lot of people should just go back to NXT. Not as a "demotion" or implication that they need more work, but so that they're better utilized and appreciated. And this adds to my belief that WWE just signs guys simply so other organizations don't have them more than they sign guys because they actually see talent and potential. Every day Aries was in WWE was a day he wasn't in TNA or ROH or NJPW or wherever drawing attention to elsewhere. |
07-11-2017, 02:57 AM | #27 |
King of Love and Piss
Posts: 62,988
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I dont know. Seeing that guy front row live at Smackdown, I was blown away. I dont think they knew what they had personally. He was amazing. And not having the Neville vs Aries match on the DVD is a straight bullshit move. I wonder if someone like HHH had a hand in that and we'll never find out about it. It was literally one of the best matches of the night.
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07-11-2017, 06:30 AM | #28 |
Posts: 60,919
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I think Triple H would have been one of the guys supporting it. He probably wants as many indy dudes he's signed to get as over as possible so his branding looks great. That being said, Vince is said to be heavily involved in 205 Live. So why wouldn't he want his cruiserweights on the DVD. Unless it was just a pragmatic "well, we've got to cut something here" and that was the match he deemed least important. I dunno, it seems like a weird move to cut anything in today's day and age, where your whole thing is delivering "quantity" apparently.
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07-11-2017, 06:40 AM | #29 | |
Posts: 60,919
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Quote:
Aries was clearly put into the division to lend things like his ring skills, mic skills and characterization. He has been the biggest deal opponent for Neville so far. I was surprised they didn't give him the belt at Mania, but they seem to be stretching the Neville thing as long as they can, which is fine, because he's coming out like the one true star of the division. When they did the shake-up, I could have seen the value in sending Aries to SmackDown and letting him be that one cruiserweight who is outside the division, talking smack on Talking Smack, etc. But when you are 205lbs or under, the Cruiserweight Division is really where you should be. This is why I am against a modern division in the current WWE. Aries' ego might come into this quite a bit. And he hasn't exactly had an artistically blow-away run. They are jamming a lot of dudes through the door, and they're all getting stuck -- like the diseases Mr. Burns was riddled with in The Simpsons. It's why I'm also against the WWE snapping up every indy talent and saying "Here's another amazing wrestler that has toured the world." At some point that's just your entire mid-card and no one cares about that storied history. Truth be told, I think they did get about as much as they probably needed to out of Aries in that sense. He came in, he actually got to be Austin Aries, he contributed to commentary and he put over their top heel. If Aries is not supposed to be "Mr. 10 Years with the Company" so be it. He did his job well and now both parties can move on. I do think they snatch up way too much talent, but they also feel very light on stars. I think they really probably do want that monopoly, but they also genuinely hope that something catches real fire. It just gets lost in translation between WWE and NXT, and how crowds are going to accept certain acts, and whether or not they are bulletproof acts or whether 50/50 booking is going to destroy the good will it has built. The WWE will sign a whole bunch of quality guys, but they will use them all the same, so what you end up with is a roster of talented mid-carders. |
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07-12-2017, 01:02 AM | #30 |
I W C DEEZ NUTZ!
Posts: 10,137
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... talented mid-carders who get treated like marginal opening acts.
Not discounting the possibility of Aries' ego having things to do with the matter, the fact is if his run were to have happened before the tournament and re-introduction of a Cruiserweight division, there may have been a better career trajectory for him. But being stuck with the purple rope brigade only limited him to two things: title shots against Neville or squandered in a throwaway match on a show either nobody watches or *maybe* a monthly rotation on a random RAW segment in what has become the new piss break. There is little to no shot at moving up the card once you get that aura of "205 human pinball"- it's a rough pigeonhole. And while I agree guys like Tyler Black, Prince Devitt, and Kevin Steen have "teh movez" in their arsenal, they haven't been framed as lesser stars for it. All three of those guys have (technically) been world champions of the largest organization of their profession. But think about if Finn was brought in later, and was part of the Cruiserweight Classic. I don't believe they would have bothered to give him the rockstar push they did in NXT and pre-injury on RAW. I feel he most likely would have been part of the "this is all you are" crowd with Rich Swann and Noam Dar. The only way most of the guys there are going to break away from that is if they either disappear to juice up then come back built like Apollo Crewes for a second look at a main-roster spot, or form a tag team. As far as snatching up talent and being light on stars, that's kind of their own fault on both counts. Again, I champion NXT for doing their presentation right, but it also has the side effect of showing how far divorced WWE is from what made them successful in the first place. There is THREE HOURS of show on Monday night, and they manage to fit in about as much wrestling as there used to be way back when RAW was only an hour with a possible slight overrun to pre-empt Silk Stalkings. They have way more talent on the roster than back then, but still seem to only find a way to highlight the same 8 talents they can manage to barely concentrate on at a time. Of course they hope something "catches fire" so they can make money off the back of it, but they themselves don't make it easy for most of the people they hire anymore. They don't analyze the "why" something is or isn't working and plan accordingly, they just try to either mass produce it, or squash it if it is contrary to other plans or Vince decides he's bored with it. I think a couple of analogies: one, of Steve Austin and Zack Ryder: The Ryder Revolution is what Austin 3:16 would have been if Vince decided to ignore all the signs showing up and still just saw Steve as marginal. No shirts, no pop culture phenomenon, just some random guy that goes against his idea of finding another Hogan. Two, in trying to find that next Hogan, they've usually bypassed all the Rick Rudes, Jake Roberts', Mr. Perfects, and Roddy Pipers. They have a lot of underutilized, untapped talent right now, but there is so much focus on getting Roman to where they think he should be or making sure Cena is around, there's little effort on improving the overall landscape so that those two things won't be a necessity. Again, I don't believe that Austin Aries would have been a banner-waving WWE guy who was given multiple world title runs and been a company figurehead and ambassador, but at the same time I also think he could have been positioned a whole lot better than to be seen as nothing but a occasionally utilized spot monkey. He had the tools, if given a proper opportunity, to EVENTUALLY be a star power money draw, or "the greatest Intercontinental Champion who ever lived". But it wasn't going to happen overnight, and it sure as hell wasn't going to happen on 205 Live. That roster is essentially the new Heat/Jakked/Metal/Velocity/Superstars. The writing is pretty much on the wall for those guys, and it seems like A Double saw that as well. |
07-12-2017, 04:10 AM | #31 |
Posts: 60,919
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Eh, I don't feel that Aries was as stigmatized as the other guys. Felt like he was being used to make it more important. Maybe he would have been "bigger" if it were a few months ago, but he wasn't exactly doing well in NXT, and he was only called up for this cruiserweight thing. He's kind of lost whatever it was he had in a bottle, to the extent that I'd buy him as a World Champion or anything.
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