>>13381678Brother, we heard from Tony's own lips that Jade kept raising her Ask price, and he kept meeting it. Ain't too much of a leap to imagine he'd do the same for Okada, Ospreay, White, Mercedes or any other top talents.
>>13381733That's the spirit.....and if AEW commit to doing house shows (or a separate ROH taping day) later this year, I will agree. WWE gives part-time schedules to like 5% of their roster, AEW does it for 80%. You can't build a baseball club with 15 different DH/1B, and you can't baby this much of your wrestling roster.
I think guys like Darby, MJF, Swerve, OC and Moxley deserve the Brinks truck, they're absolutely doing everything possible to build AEW. Danielson, Samoa Joe and FTR have sacrificed Dynamite appearances/crowds to try to help build Collision. That's very admirable. I think the biggest paychecks should be reserved for the guys/gals who show up, week in and week out, and demand to be in matches even if you don't have a title match or main event program lined up for them.
I think overpaying for Mercedes sends the wrong message. Insisting on having every single one of Osprey, White, Okada, Aussie Open sends the wrong message. I'm really hoping Post-Sting AEW and Tony prove to the wrestling world his plans are much bigger than just playing keep-away with NJPW free agents and giving them all Roman Reigns schedules.
If guys that level feel STUPID being on TV and not going for a 5-star match every time, that's a mentality that needs to change. That's not how you grow a company, that's not how you draw 5000+ to your TV tapings. You need your stars to show up, week in and week out, and they can't do that if they're still sore for 3-4 weeks after each Meltzer-star-chasing match.
