r/midcarder

Hello Midcarders!

It appears Sheamus is set to depart WWE per Fightful.

Fightful Select reports, “Sheamus is set to leave WWE as his contract is expiring. He rejected a restructured extension. He was not released.”

So, here's the questions:

Beyond the restructured contract (pay cut), was this a WWE thing, a Sheamus thing, or a mutual thing?

He's 48 and just got off shoulder surgery. Does he want to continue? (I think so.)

If he continues, and again I think he does, is it AEW and reforming The Ba... er... The Pub with Cesar... er... Claudio? Is it MLW? Is it Europe? I don't see Japan going well for him right now.

And what's the new name? I don't see Stephen Farrelly on a marquee putting butts in seats.

Your thoughts, Midcarders?

Midcarders, according to the esteemed and definitely-not-biased Dave Meltzer, who we can always trust to tell us what’s good and what’s bad, early estimates suggest that Forbidden Door is on pace to be AEW’s lowest-selling pay-per-view of 2026. Final numbers aren’t in yet, but the preliminary figures have it trailing every other AEW PPV this year.

Uncle Dave believes the biggest issue was the lack of an AEW World Championship match. Instead of defending the title, MJF worked a 12-man tag to build toward a future title program. Previous Forbidden Door events also featured an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match, which was also absent this year.

Personally, I think we can all agree it’s much bigger than that.

Forbidden Door has always been a show aimed at the hardcore audience, but that audience is shrinking and already watches AEW every week. The crossover novelty isn’t there like it was in 2022. On top of that, AEW has damaged NJPW and several of its partner promotions to the point that they now feel more like feeder promotions than equal partners, with many of them struggling in their own markets.

What do you think was the biggest reason, r/midcarder?

Hook made his ROH singles debut. Is that it for him ever being any more than a low midcarder?

If this is an image coming out of SummerSlam - what prediction about them ruining Sami Zayn's title run will people start running with next? Or does he become Sami Hogan at that point?

Athena’s reign as ROH Women’s Champion & NJPW being relevant here in America..

Absolutely no one cares about Athena’s reign, if they say they do, they are lying.. the only thing more pointless than Athena’s reign as champion is thinking that my Miami Dolphins & the New York Jets will be playing meaningful football & winning meaningful NFL games in January..

I said it for months & over a year now, hardly anyone gives a fuck about NJPW in America.. & it was proven when Takeashita won the G1 & outside of a few subreddits where the sickos live & prosper at.. everyone kept moving on with their day.. hell, even Tony Kahn didn’t make a big deal about it on Dynamite nor Collision or any of their socials…

But these 2 failures of irrelevance go back to one person & that one person is Tony Kahn..

Tony owns ROH & let’s be honest, it is not only ran into the ground, but dead & buried into the ground.. it films 30+ matches every month in a tv studio in Jacksonville, & they all are filler.. tickets are free to whomever wants them, it’s behind a paywall on an app(HonorClub), or on MyAEW.com & it’s a place where people who Tony doesn’t want to stink up his main shows (Dynamite & Collision) reside at(Iconics & Purrazo anyone)

Athena is going to be 38 at the end of August & she has done nothing but beat everyone, some more than once(Billie) & hasn’t elevated the division at all.. no one is in a better spot weeks & months down the line after feuding with Athena.. she is the female Bob Holly when he pitched himself to be champion(IYKYK)..

Same with NJPW.. Years ago, Tony entered a partnership with them & what have they gotten out of it? Multiple AEW wrestlers have held championships there, Multiple talents have jumped from NJPW to AEW, AEW talent has won the G1, but what has NJPW gotten out of it, that they can point to & be like, this partnership was worth it?

I am old enough to remember the hot IWC chatter was that Danielson & other top AEW talent were going to do the G1, & multiple top AEW talent would be frequently appearing over there, blah blah.. & look at where we at now?

NJPW running a show in Chicago a super hot wrestling city that 60-70% of the arena will be tarped off.. & that falls on the American promoter Tony for not holding up his end of the bargain to make NJPW & their talent feel important & special over here.. I mean, Kenny completely buried ZS Jr in a promo, then naturally beat him, their champion beat Pac, but who know who else beat Pac before that match? Briscoe, Darby, Ospreay, & Jack Perry of all people in the C2.. so that means nothing beating Pac..

2 part question Midcarders:

Am I being too harsh on blaming Athena’s failure as ROH Champion on the owner of ROH Tony Kahn?

Also am I being too harsh on NJPW being a complete dud here in America on their American promoter partner Tony Kahn as well?

Hey Midcarders, with most of us in and out for the Fourth of July holiday, let’s keep things light have some fun…

Imagine FOX is investing $100 million into a WWE competitor.

They’ve handed you a prime-time TV slot. You’re hired as CEO, and before the first show airs you have to make three hires: one booker, one male star to build around, and one female star to build around.

Everyone currently available is fair game.

For me, I’d give the edge to Eric Bischoff over Jim Cornette. Not because I think he’s a better creative mind, but because he’s already proven he can oversee a major television production and handle the day-to-day demands of running a national wrestling company.

For my top stars, I’d go with Killer Kross and Priscilla Kelly. I don’t necessarily see either as the faces of the company for the next decade, but I think both have enough presence, charisma, and name recognition to anchor the promotion while I build the rest of the roster and identify the next generation of homegrown stars.

The key for me wouldn’t be chasing ex-WWE names forever. It would be using recognizable talent to get people in the door while developing your own stars into the faces of the company.

So who are you hiring? Who’s your booker, your male centerpiece, and your female centerpiece? More importantly, why those three?

Cody Rhodes done this for Chris Jericho in 2019,

Young Bucks done this for FTR in 2020,

Adam Page done this for MJF just this year,

And now Kenny Omega

AEW has been around for seven years now, and I think it’s fair to say they’ve settled into a very different place than where many of us thought they’d be in 2019.

They’re still putting on good PPVs. They still have a passionate, albeit smaller (and sometimes weird), fanbase. But they’ve lost a lot of the mainstream momentum they once had.

A lot of that is self-inflicted. The mishandling of CM Punk. Letting Cody walk. The fumbles with Danhausen, Penta, and several other talents.

But this isn’t really about booking or talent decisions.

For years, AEW’s marketing has felt surprisingly amateur for a company with this much money behind it. It often comes across like it’s being run by people who know wrestling instead of people who know how to market wrestling. If it were me, the first thing I’d do is bring in experienced marketing executives with backgrounds in major sports or entertainment rather than relying on friends of The Elite and insect dirtsheet writers.

There are outside factors too.

When Dynamite launched, TNT still had the NBA, and that gave the network a much bigger overall profile. Since Warner lost those NBA rights, TNT and TBS simply don’t have the same cultural relevance they once did, making it even harder for AEW to reach casual viewers.

So here’s the pitch, Midcarders:
If Tony Khan hired you tomorrow, named you Chief Marketing Officer, and gave you one mission, to grow AEW’s brand awareness over the next five years, what would you do?

Would you focus on marketing? TV distribution? YouTube? Social media? Signing crossover stars? Or something completely different?

I’m genuinely curious what everyone thinks, because “putting on banger matches” clearly isn’t enough to grow a wrestling company on its own.

Surely you'd think they'd draw more for the big world title match the entire build for the PPV was centered around

Re: Xavier. Counting ROH, he won 1 singles match all year & that was beating Brandon Cutler in ROH & that was all he needed to get a TNT championship match?!?

Re Lio Rush: Wins a 3 way against AR Fox & Action Andretti to become ROH TV Champion, defends it against Lee Johnson in their last taping & now gets a TNT championship match?!?

Midcarders, Does Tony just post random championship match opportunities on Teams or outside of his “office” on a piece of paper & first one who signs the paper gets the opportunity?

Cause this is embarrassing, & why should anyone going forward wrestle matches & win said matches to earn championship matches when Dez & Lio Rush got TNT championship matches for not earning them..

“Real Sports Feel” huh..

Midcarders, if you had a DeLorean and could change one booking decision Vince McMahon made during his entire time running WWE, what would it be?

It can be anything.

A storyline that never should have happened. A wrestler who deserved a bigger push. A title reign that should have gone differently. Someone WWE should have signed. Anything.

For me, it’s still the WCW Invasion.

I’ll never understand how Vince was handed arguably the greatest opportunity in wrestling history and fumbled it.

He had the WWF, WCW, and ECW under one roof. Three recognizable brands. A chance to create years of inter-promotional rivalries and dream matches. WWE vs. WCW could have been its own era instead of a few rushed months.

Yes, some of WCW’s biggest stars were tied up in Time Warner contracts, but Vince also chose not to spend what it would’ve taken to bring in the key names and make the invasion feel legitimate. Instead, his desire to prove WWF was superior seemed to outweigh telling the best possible story.

Imagine if the Invasion had been treated like a long-term war instead of a victory lap.

Austin. Rock. Hogan. Sting. Goldberg. Flair. Nash. Hall. Booker T. DDP. RVD. Angle. Undertaker.

That’s years of main events and dream matches.

To me, that’s the biggest “what if” in wrestling history. Vince’s ego got in the way, and wrestling fans were robbed of what could’ve been one of the greatest storylines ever told.

So, r/midcarder, if you could go back and change one booking decision Vince McMahon ever made, what would it be?