>>12628870I don't think Tony knows how to develop talent at all.
He provides them training and trainers but they are left to their own devices to be eventually slotted somewhere in his spreadsheets to fight against someone. If they don't work for him for some reason they are discarded till he remembers them. Its up to them to evolve into something Tony finds attractive.Tony can replace them by just grabbing whatever talent outside of his own roster without a contract that needs more cash and easier work hours, reach into his pocket and pay them without no guarantee or even needed it if the reported -34 million profits this year is to believed and Tony isn't shitting his pants over it.
And you see the difference in shows: Most successful or at least often featured AEW stars seem like they are not on the spotlight because they are exceptionally popular with their audience, more like they are popular because they are featured. They are memes, that's why Orange Cassidy is in every show regardless of what he does, that's why he gets booked to win. That's why Jericho is obsessed with name and character changes because that registers in Tony's head like dogs hearing a squeaky toy sound. Look at The Kingdom who rode on the Roderick neck meme to get back on TV. To him that's something is happening that affects his spreadsheets and needs to be paid attention to. If you don't know how to work that or shy away from it, you ain't on his shows.
Shawn and NXT are like, "we gotta make this rookie shitter work somehow so we have shit to put on the main show 3-4 years from now and make them pay the investment back in tickets and merch", not just on Lex but every single one that comes through the system and is featured on TV. Otherwise it's a loss on the company record. So they try new shit, repackage and educate hoping something or someone will go over and not just by saying a funny thing once but by being overall star or at the very least a safe good midcarder
