WWE wishlist: Evolution 2. The female roster in the main roster and NXT deserves it. Tag Teams to matter again. Matches on the pre-shows. It gives us entertainment and gets more wrestlers a payday.
The thing with the "Fly on the Wall" idea is that it only works if there's a reveal that the babyface have outsmarted the heels because they saw that footage. Somewhat like a "Gotcha! I knew what you were planning before you had the chance to execute it."-type deal. Another way it only works is if the footage is of a backstage brawl or an argument between members of a team. In that case, we would see the developing dynamics of the team off-camera. On a tv production standpoint, it doesn't make sense why a company would spend minutes to randomly cut away to grainy footage of wrestlers talking with each other. Also, how would they even present that footage on-air without ruining the flow of the show? Would the commentators announce "oh, here's locker room footage of what the heels are planning"? Would they just suddenly show the footage in the middle of the show and have every talent, commentator, etc. act like nothing happened until it's brought up in the feud? Would the GMs come out during a segment and reveal "oh, to shine some light on why a wrestler is doing this, here's a clip"? Also, who would be dropping these footage? NXT annonymous? Smackdown hacker? If that's the case, are we gonna have another "who's the hacker" storyline that won't have any satisfying payoffs? And creatively, to your point about "wrestlers not talking to each other in between shows", if footage of them talking/planning backstage is shown during the show, that means the other wrestlers involved in the storyline would be able to see it (maybe not 100% of the time but still) 'cause as we all know, wrestlers are only aware of what's happening on-air. TLDR - The "Fly on the wall" can only work in VERY, VERY specific cases and would limit storytelling in most. I think WWE has perfected the whole "pay attention to the background of backstage interviews 'cause you never know what you'll see" concept because it maximizes tv time in a highly productive manner by potentially developing 2 plots at the same time: the one(s) being interviewed and the one(s) at the back.
I think he wants to just convert the current staged and obviously phony backstage segments, to one where it isn't obvious where the cameraman is.... It doesn't have to be presented any differently than backstage segments are currently.
about the fly-in-the-wall segments, i really love how they used to do it in TNA in the 2010s. deadlock calls it the peek-a-boo camera, but it's essentially what you're talking about. i think WWE doing that (and others for that matter) would be sick!
I hope the hardcore title is actually a real title that matters but idk I’m not hopeful, but Travis Scott holding it is cool and he said he’ll defend it on the first ep of Netflix raw
I don't think having two shows from the same company in the same basic locality at nearly the same time makes much sense, they will be competing with each other.
I kind of disagree about NXT as a full time touring brand. NXT is developmental, and I think being in and around the PC more often than not is still one of the big benefits it brings. Becoming a full time touring brand drags them away a lot more often. I think maybe 1-2 touring dates per month is a good middle ground.
And I think those dates should be in or very close to Florida so they can still be near the PC center, but also it'll kind of feel like a regional promotion, like in the old days.
I hate the invisible cameraman filming backstage bits. It's one thing AEW at least tries to do, having a reason for a camera to be there I'd also ask WWE to stop the overly produced segments, like Cody and Roman in the stadium.
1. I agree NXT touring would be great but only if they tour at local colleges or grand arcades. (S.F. The Emporium) 2. I disagree with this. I think it should be limited to specific storylines. 3. I agree AEW needs to get three storylines with a central focus and give ROH time to be their development brand to showcase other talents. 4. I agree Jey USO as a world champion or better winning Royal Rumble. 5. I agree the Women's Wrestling for Royal Rumble should matter.
My wish for 2025 is for 3 star Okada to be AEW world champion by the year's end (with no blowout match). You keep doing you Rainmaker, you're entertaining as you are! I'm honestly liking the Death Riders story, might be the only one besides the Cultaholic Podcast hosts that thinks that
@@blakebraden21yea I don’t get this take. It’s a tv show. Who cares if the cameras occult or not. When the cameras are “hidden” it just makes it feel like bad tmz footage.
@@blakebraden21.... What?! When the wrestlers are in the ring or that general area there are cameras and it's presented as a real thing. It doesn't present is real and then become a TV show backstage, that is such a strange viewpoint 😵😵💫🫨
Bring back AEW Dark! Have it be like the premier league where the top wrestlers make it to TV and the bottom ones drop to AEW Dark. have it be a competition for TV time
I don’t disagree that the women’s rumble winner should get a main event but the whole “rumble winner gets the main event of Mania” thing has always been a lie and dependent on the whims of booking even before they started the women’s rumble. Starting in 92, the first year the Rumble had championship implications, 17 rumble winners did not get a main event spot. 23 winners did get a main event spot. So almost a coin flip on whether winning gets you that spot.
Some things I'd love to see for AEW only because its long enough as is...I could go just as long for all of WWE's main roster failures. - dedicated booker for womens divison, mens division, trios divison - abolish tag division. Reduce mens singles titles down to two belts. - make it a mission statement not to have a cold match. A cold match means you've failed to develop a character or forward a story - SLOW DOWN! WWE is way too slow. AEW is way too fast in terms of show pacing. Find a happy medium. - The vibe out there is we're sick of the people at the top of the card and we're sick of ex-WWE. Fix this. Focus your next year on establishing AEW names and pushing them to the top of the card. That does not include MJF anymore or the bucks they've had their runs..these people can elevate talent just like Mox can. I'd push people like Garcia, Kyle, and Willow among others but whoever you choose just do it and make them the true focus of your show. You have a solid year and half to nail this with a handful of names. - Hide weaknesses. Ricochet can't talk. WWE didn't hide it. You aren't hiding it. He was incredible in Lucha Underground. Its not hard. Richochet is hardly the only example of failure to hide weakness. - A lot more clean match finishes...look back to what made people like you in year one. This will also let you build future stars. - Follow through. How did a losing feud change someone? How did winning the feud change someone?
I love Steve and Larson but I would like to know why it's ok to talk about backstage stuff with AEW but nothing on Lee Fitting article from the New York Times
Ugh. I like Jimmy and I know him winning one of the major titles is inevitable but he is a below average performer in the ring, particularly as a solo wrestler. I literally cannot recall a *single* good solo match that he has been involved in. His punches look awful, his matches never make sense and he's absolutely *gassed* after 5 minutes of action every match(seriously put on literally any match he's in and there is a rest hold or spot where he's laid out recovering at the 4-5 minute mark, EVERY time). I don't see any of his championship matches meeting the Wrestlemania main event standard.
Tbh AEW has needed to get their shit together for over 2 years now. AEW has been bad for nearly half of its existence and I’m saying that as someone who wants AEW to succeed. They’ve been downhill since Brawl Out which is over 2 years ago now. Their ratings are falling, their live attendance is dire. Something has to change, I really hope it does. AEW has so much potential that it just isn’t reaching.
What happened 2 the Death Riders hinting at a Higher power?? I was all 4 it being Shane O Mac!! Oh & I'm 100% on board with Main Event Jey Uso winning a World Title in 2025! Can you imagine the pop after Jey wins a World Heavyweight Championship?! "YEEEET"!!!
it's funny watching grown men bending over backwards to not be called sexist. I still like these guys but they pretend like so much of the womens wrestling isn't dogshit and it's kind of funny. There are too many top level mens talents to be handing the main event to the women. How about they step their storytelling and acting the hell up and EARN IT? The main events of mania should be for the biggest matches fans care about the most and paid to see. If the women can manage that, then they earned it. It's happened in Japan before, it is possible, i'm not just some anti women douchebag. The RAW women's roster is so thin Rhea stands out so much because shes so much better. Rhea vs Bianca was awesome imo, now imagine if they had the storytelling elements of a men's feud like Punk vs Drew. It's do-able. 33 million people use to tune in WEEKLY for AJW, so I know damn well women's wrestling has the potential to draw. Maybe steve and larson don't understand what they're seeing is bad wrestling and aren't pretending.
We definitely agree on AEW. I got to the point where I only watch UA-cam clips now. I’m also tired of their cult like fanbase. You know, the ones getting easily offended at your thumbnail. It’s the same energy.
Real talk. I dislike the AEW talk from one perspective…YT creators. Y’all say stuff like AEW should get their shit together. And I agree wholeheartedly. However when stuff goes bad people like creators and crappy detractors get paid off that. It genuinely makes me question peoples integrity with the statement. Not y’all though. I’m subscribed. I like y’all. 😂
It’s not lazy. It’s 💯 factually true and I’m tired of the loud small vocal minority of niche IWC marks trying to convince the rest of the world it’s good when majority would agree it’s not.
@@boscotheman82 you wwe fans have this tribal mentality and you can't let others just enjoy what they like, its beond trolling now its a pain in the ass dealing with IWC these days.
Man, it kinda sucks seeing yall going the clickbaity route. Though I'm personally enjoying the current state of AEW. Like, damn, not everything needs to be Bloodline leves of storytelling
Did Steve forget how bad the build was to Sasha vs bianca? Because most of it was can they co exist tag matches that they couldn't co exist the week prior so why would they co exist the following week🤦. And if that wasn't bad enough for some reason Vince decided to do a weird raggie & sasha angle while the can they co exist story with Bianca was happening🤦. I seriously think the Bianca & Sasha match turned out better than people expected it to be that they forgot how bad the build was. Like how people forgot how bad the build was to rhea vs Charlotte because of how good the match turned out. It literally had not heat going into mania. I'm good when it comes to nxt touring because some of these touring crowds have been incredibly mid to worst than the pc crowd. I remember the ufc building crowd not being very good, the last ppv crowd seemed mostly quiet for the show. And I found myself to be annoyed by the crowd this week from the few segments I saw. Only the ecw building show seemed like a good crowd.
Today our AEW thumb for the podcast referred to Darby/Ospreay as MOTY candidate. And we both agreed it was a fun episode. Thanks for the engagement tho.
@FriendoClubTV watching one second of your shit ass video probably does wonders for your retention metrics. Consider this last bit of engagement a freebie. The UK guys make much better click bait, clearly.
Who's gonna tell him (and it's definitely a him) he didn't stop watching because he has commented on their video which he had to click on in order to comment
THere is no "get their shit together". AEW is cold because WWE got hot. There are not enough wrestling fans to have both companies be hot at the same time. As long as WWE is hot, AEW will be cold. If AEW gets hot, WWE will cool off.
How about TNA gets it shit together? Bound for glory only did 5k. The equivalent of WrestleMania they have the hof inductions and everything like mania and it dod 5,000..... Wrestledream two weeks before did 105k.
WWE wishlist: Evolution 2. The female roster in the main roster and NXT deserves it. Tag Teams to matter again. Matches on the pre-shows. It gives us entertainment and gets more wrestlers a payday.
I never understood this.
Do we then get an all male PPV? 🤔 just have the women and men equally involved in a show
I want her back in 2025
So I clearly read this video wrong
Want her back, want her back for good?
@ shit I’ll take 10 minutes
I felt that 🥺🥺
Real
You two were close, right?
The thing with the "Fly on the Wall" idea is that it only works if there's a reveal that the babyface have outsmarted the heels because they saw that footage. Somewhat like a "Gotcha! I knew what you were planning before you had the chance to execute it."-type deal. Another way it only works is if the footage is of a backstage brawl or an argument between members of a team. In that case, we would see the developing dynamics of the team off-camera.
On a tv production standpoint, it doesn't make sense why a company would spend minutes to randomly cut away to grainy footage of wrestlers talking with each other. Also, how would they even present that footage on-air without ruining the flow of the show? Would the commentators announce "oh, here's locker room footage of what the heels are planning"? Would they just suddenly show the footage in the middle of the show and have every talent, commentator, etc. act like nothing happened until it's brought up in the feud? Would the GMs come out during a segment and reveal "oh, to shine some light on why a wrestler is doing this, here's a clip"? Also, who would be dropping these footage? NXT annonymous? Smackdown hacker? If that's the case, are we gonna have another "who's the hacker" storyline that won't have any satisfying payoffs?
And creatively, to your point about "wrestlers not talking to each other in between shows", if footage of them talking/planning backstage is shown during the show, that means the other wrestlers involved in the storyline would be able to see it (maybe not 100% of the time but still) 'cause as we all know, wrestlers are only aware of what's happening on-air.
TLDR - The "Fly on the wall" can only work in VERY, VERY specific cases and would limit storytelling in most. I think WWE has perfected the whole "pay attention to the background of backstage interviews 'cause you never know what you'll see" concept because it maximizes tv time in a highly productive manner by potentially developing 2 plots at the same time: the one(s) being interviewed and the one(s) at the back.
I'm glad someone finally got to kick Larson down a peg on his statement. He's been arguing about this for over two years.
The "fly on the wall" idea is so unnecessary WWE storytelling is perfect the way it is in my opinion why fix something that's not broken
I think he wants to just convert the current staged and obviously phony backstage segments, to one where it isn't obvious where the cameraman is.... It doesn't have to be presented any differently than backstage segments are currently.
NXT ratings always have a bump when they tour, so I think its a worthwhile investment if the goal is to produce new popular talent.
Hmmm. That thumbnail, its not like i seen that quote bout 200k times in last 4 months
Because AEW sucks. Not Steve and Larson’s fault, they don’t book the show.
about the fly-in-the-wall segments, i really love how they used to do it in TNA in the 2010s. deadlock calls it the peek-a-boo camera, but it's essentially what you're talking about. i think WWE doing that (and others for that matter) would be sick!
That Lowell venue is awesome. I’ve been there multiple times for roh shows. Not a bad seat in the house.
I hope the hardcore title is actually a real title that matters but idk I’m not hopeful, but Travis Scott holding it is cool and he said he’ll defend it on the first ep of Netflix raw
NXT if Raw is in New York City do the Hammerstine Ballroom or the Manhattan Center were Raw started at for a show
I don't think having two shows from the same company in the same basic locality at nearly the same time makes much sense, they will be competing with each other.
I'd love 2 be among the 500 friendos & I'd also really like 2 see Going in Raw Tag Team Championship belts!!
I kind of disagree about NXT as a full time touring brand. NXT is developmental, and I think being in and around the PC more often than not is still one of the big benefits it brings. Becoming a full time touring brand drags them away a lot more often. I think maybe 1-2 touring dates per month is a good middle ground.
And I think those dates should be in or very close to Florida so they can still be near the PC center, but also it'll kind of feel like a regional promotion, like in the old days.
In 2025, more hot takes, more star rated, even for bad shows
I hate the invisible cameraman filming backstage bits. It's one thing AEW at least tries to do, having a reason for a camera to be there
I'd also ask WWE to stop the overly produced segments, like Cody and Roman in the stadium.
Wishlist 2025: hard brand split with brand warfare AND traditional 5v5v5 elimination tag matches at Survivor Ssries
Hey Steve, in the description the link stil directs you to your X account and not the bluesky one
Wishlist: HHH develops more MAIN EVENTERS
1. I agree NXT touring would be great but only if they tour at local colleges or grand arcades. (S.F. The Emporium)
2. I disagree with this. I think it should be limited to specific storylines.
3. I agree AEW needs to get three storylines with a central focus and give ROH time to be their development brand to showcase other talents.
4. I agree Jey USO as a world champion or better winning Royal Rumble.
5. I agree the Women's Wrestling for Royal Rumble should matter.
AEW needs to get back to basics, sad to see what i loved was infected with all the brawl out and other issues that happened and has not recovered.
Hell yeah, wish lists are fantastic.
in 2025 i want punk vs roman as a wrestlemania main event (way bigger match than punk vs seth and it gives punk the wm main event he deserves)
11:36 well they now gone and changed that. I do get it. But since like i think like 2017 rumble its been, title oppurtunity
My wish for 2025 is for 3 star Okada to be AEW world champion by the year's end (with no blowout match). You keep doing you Rainmaker, you're entertaining as you are!
I'm honestly liking the Death Riders story, might be the only one besides the Cultaholic Podcast hosts that thinks that
invisible camera is such an immersion breaker for me too steve i felt that
You must hate movies
@@blakebraden21yea I don’t get this take. It’s a tv show. Who cares if the cameras occult or not. When the cameras are “hidden” it just makes it feel like bad tmz footage.
@@blakebraden21.... What?! When the wrestlers are in the ring or that general area there are cameras and it's presented as a real thing.
It doesn't present is real and then become a TV show backstage, that is such a strange viewpoint 😵😵💫🫨
13:20 evidence of the Larson-verse becoming a real thing. (One of the other Larsons wrote that note)
Kinda sad the only women’s WM main event HHH really sees is Rhea vs Bianca
Bring back AEW Dark!
Have it be like the premier league where the top wrestlers make it to TV and the bottom ones drop to AEW Dark. have it be a competition for TV time
FRIENDOOOOOOOOOSS
I don’t disagree that the women’s rumble winner should get a main event but the whole “rumble winner gets the main event of Mania” thing has always been a lie and dependent on the whims of booking even before they started the women’s rumble. Starting in 92, the first year the Rumble had championship implications, 17 rumble winners did not get a main event spot. 23 winners did get a main event spot. So almost a coin flip on whether winning gets you that spot.
I want AEW to be the sport like feel they said they were gonna have 🙄 . They are just Wwe lite .
Some things I'd love to see for AEW only because its long enough as is...I could go just as long for all of WWE's main roster failures.
- dedicated booker for womens divison, mens division, trios divison
- abolish tag division. Reduce mens singles titles down to two belts.
- make it a mission statement not to have a cold match. A cold match means you've failed to develop a character or forward a story
- SLOW DOWN! WWE is way too slow. AEW is way too fast in terms of show pacing. Find a happy medium.
- The vibe out there is we're sick of the people at the top of the card and we're sick of ex-WWE. Fix this. Focus your next year on establishing AEW names and pushing them to the top of the card. That does not include MJF anymore or the bucks they've had their runs..these people can elevate talent just like Mox can. I'd push people like Garcia, Kyle, and Willow among others but whoever you choose just do it and make them the true focus of your show. You have a solid year and half to nail this with a handful of names.
- Hide weaknesses. Ricochet can't talk. WWE didn't hide it. You aren't hiding it. He was incredible in Lucha Underground. Its not hard. Richochet is hardly the only example of failure to hide weakness.
- A lot more clean match finishes...look back to what made people like you in year one. This will also let you build future stars.
- Follow through. How did a losing feud change someone? How did winning the feud change someone?
Ohhhhhh man
Was super excited during the Forbidden Door in Toronto. Now it's kinda just meh? It's a shame.
Friendo
Midnight Vultures, was way better than Sea Change
1 million
"AEW isn't actively bad" Chris Jericho, The Dark Order, and Mone would like a word. 😂
1 thing I need in 2025 Better Long Term Plan Creative for BAYLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want Toni Storm to main event a ppv.
Sami Zayn should be world champion before Jey Uso
I love Steve and Larson but I would like to know why it's ok to talk about backstage stuff with AEW but nothing on Lee Fitting article from the New York Times
Dancing around the fact that AEW is BAD is not needed! Pretending it’s “fine” is not helping. It’s not good & we want it better.
I often find that wrestling podcasters are waaaaay too charitable towards AEW.
Yeet is definitely as catchy as Debra or sex laws
Ugh. I like Jimmy and I know him winning one of the major titles is inevitable but he is a below average performer in the ring, particularly as a solo wrestler. I literally cannot recall a *single* good solo match that he has been involved in. His punches look awful, his matches never make sense and he's absolutely *gassed* after 5 minutes of action every match(seriously put on literally any match he's in and there is a rest hold or spot where he's laid out recovering at the 4-5 minute mark, EVERY time). I don't see any of his championship matches meeting the Wrestlemania main event standard.
...Jimmy?
@@djywrites Jey* Godamnit, after all these years I still do that. haha!
Tbh AEW has needed to get their shit together for over 2 years now.
AEW has been bad for nearly half of its existence and I’m saying that as someone who wants AEW to succeed.
They’ve been downhill since Brawl Out which is over 2 years ago now. Their ratings are falling, their live attendance is dire.
Something has to change, I really hope it does. AEW has so much potential that it just isn’t reaching.
What happened 2 the Death Riders hinting at a Higher power?? I was all 4 it being Shane O Mac!! Oh & I'm 100% on board with Main Event Jey Uso winning a World Title in 2025! Can you imagine the pop after Jey wins a World Heavyweight Championship?! "YEEEET"!!!
Steve and Larson constantly stroke AEW and excuse the horrible tv they out on. They are a part of the problem
Are we watching the same show??
They are far from the worst.
One of the topics is "AEW needs to get their shit together"... that's not excusing.
it's funny watching grown men bending over backwards to not be called sexist. I still like these guys but they pretend like so much of the womens wrestling isn't dogshit and it's kind of funny. There are too many top level mens talents to be handing the main event to the women. How about they step their storytelling and acting the hell up and EARN IT? The main events of mania should be for the biggest matches fans care about the most and paid to see. If the women can manage that, then they earned it. It's happened in Japan before, it is possible, i'm not just some anti women douchebag. The RAW women's roster is so thin Rhea stands out so much because shes so much better. Rhea vs Bianca was awesome imo, now imagine if they had the storytelling elements of a men's feud like Punk vs Drew. It's do-able. 33 million people use to tune in WEEKLY for AJW, so I know damn well women's wrestling has the potential to draw. Maybe steve and larson don't understand what they're seeing is bad wrestling and aren't pretending.
We definitely agree on AEW. I got to the point where I only watch UA-cam clips now. I’m also tired of their cult like fanbase. You know, the ones getting easily offended at your thumbnail. It’s the same energy.
Real talk. I dislike the AEW talk from one perspective…YT creators. Y’all say stuff like AEW should get their shit together. And I agree wholeheartedly. However when stuff goes bad people like creators and crappy detractors get paid off that. It genuinely makes me question peoples integrity with the statement.
Not y’all though. I’m subscribed. I like y’all. 😂
Nah this a cop out.
thumbnail is lazy. AEW has been great. all thing is changed is perception, which won't change until the fed gets cold.
Went to the show last night it was packed and the crowd was on fire. Great show
You're not wrong
It’s not lazy. It’s 💯 factually true and I’m tired of the loud small vocal minority of niche IWC marks trying to convince the rest of the world it’s good when majority would agree it’s not.
AEW has been garbage and it's not going to change as long as Tony is booking
@@boscotheman82 you wwe fans have this tribal mentality and you can't let others just enjoy what they like, its beond trolling now its a pain in the ass dealing with IWC these days.
I wish we had a new co-host for Steve!
Man, it kinda sucks seeing yall going the clickbaity route. Though I'm personally enjoying the current state of AEW. Like, damn, not everything needs to be Bloodline leves of storytelling
You gen z kids trying to keep us in check is adorable. It’s like a baby trying to tell us how to talk on a toy phone
What's clickbaity about it? It's a quote from the video and they both agreed in it.
Did Steve forget how bad the build was to Sasha vs bianca? Because most of it was can they co exist tag matches that they couldn't co exist the week prior so why would they co exist the following week🤦. And if that wasn't bad enough for some reason Vince decided to do a weird raggie & sasha angle while the can they co exist story with Bianca was happening🤦. I seriously think the Bianca & Sasha match turned out better than people expected it to be that they forgot how bad the build was. Like how people forgot how bad the build was to rhea vs Charlotte because of how good the match turned out. It literally had not heat going into mania. I'm good when it comes to nxt touring because some of these touring crowds have been incredibly mid to worst than the pc crowd. I remember the ufc building crowd not being very good, the last ppv crowd seemed mostly quiet for the show. And I found myself to be annoyed by the crowd this week from the few segments I saw. Only the ecw building show seemed like a good crowd.
I just saw the thumbnail and felt relieved I stopped watching these lazy ass grifters. They only cover AEW to generate hate clicks.
Today our AEW thumb for the podcast referred to Darby/Ospreay as MOTY candidate. And we both agreed it was a fun episode. Thanks for the engagement tho.
@FriendoClubTV watching one second of your shit ass video probably does wonders for your retention metrics. Consider this last bit of engagement a freebie. The UK guys make much better click bait, clearly.
Bro you’re a bot who won’t even be back to reply lol
@@FriendoClubTV Darby vs Osprey was a bad match, don't get what other people were watching
Who's gonna tell him (and it's definitely a him) he didn't stop watching because he has commented on their video which he had to click on in order to comment
THere is no "get their shit together". AEW is cold because WWE got hot. There are not enough wrestling fans to have both companies be hot at the same time. As long as WWE is hot, AEW will be cold. If AEW gets hot, WWE will cool off.
How about TNA gets it shit together? Bound for glory only did 5k. The equivalent of WrestleMania they have the hof inductions and everything like mania and it dod 5,000.....
Wrestledream two weeks before did 105k.