From The Stevie Richards Show episode 4 – Revamping the AEW roster – who should I get rid of?
Stevie Richards once again takes to the smart board, but this time not for a “what went wrong” wrestler move analysis, but to discuss the issue of AEW’s bloated roster. AEW in the past few months has fired or not renewed a dozen wrestlers as of late, including Jake Hager, Andrade, Mike Santana, Anthony Henry, The Boys, Stu Grayson, Gravity, Dasha Gonzalez, Slim J, Parker Bordeaux, Jose The Assistance, Jora Johl, Ethan Page, Mark Henry, Arn Anderson, CJ Perry and Ric Flair.
Having said that, AEW’s website still claims there are 118 wrestlers on the AEW roster. Knocking off a few names like Brodie Lee (deceased), Sting (retired) and Mr Brodie Lee Jr (a child), that leaves 115 wrestlers on the AEW roster collecting their cheques and, for at least half of the AEW roster, mostly sitting at home doing nothing.
This is where Stevie Richards comes in. Tony Khan and AEW are currently embroiled in TV rights negotiations with Warner Brothers Discovery. The future potential profitability of AEW rests on how much money AEW can potentially generate through ad sales with weekly viewership. To further make AEW potentially profitable, they also need to start making some roster cuts.
Stevie Richards has decided that the AEW roster is too big, and that dozens of AEW wrestlers either need sending over to Ring of Honor permanently, or even more drastic, firing from AEW because Tony Khan’s booking has rendered them worthless and they need to either go to the indies or Japan or WWE and give them a second chance (Brian Cage, for example). Stevie also decided to create a roster split between Dynamite and Rampage, and have 15 acts be the focus of each show. Which AEW wrestlers does Stevie choose? His answers might surprise you!
Elsewhere, Stevie talks about AEW’s current television output. AEW currently broadcasts 5 hours of first run content on TNT and TBS every week: AEW Dynamite, AEW Collision and AEW Rampage are the three shows currently on WBD. Should Tony Khan rescheduled shows for better time slots? Or maybe Tony Khan should even think about cancelling one show out right and moving the spare time over to AEW Dynamite?
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23 Comments
I think we need to bring back the franchise. Because Steven Richards is an imbecile, he says he was a comedy act. Everybody else thinks he's a j****
Jack perry can be marco stunt's muscle, perfect
Cage isn't going anywhere Tony just hired his wife
Don't want Enzo anywhere near AEW
Long post but:
I actually disagree with some of this. I don't think any women should be on Dynamite or Collision. I think AEW Rampage should be an exclusive women's show. Get rid a lot of the belts, create a dedicated women's show, have a world champion, tag champions, a mid card belt. I haven't watched AEW in a long time, fell off, but if Rampage is still an hour, its a perfect spot for solely women. When I watched AEW, heck even in WWE, it feels like women are an after thought outside of the top 3-4 women. Giving the women a dedicated booker, dedicated storylines, a whole hour per week to show what they do would allow time to build a character for more than the few top women like we've seen now. Would it get the ratings like the other two shows? Probably not, but Stardom in Japan has shown that it is possible to create a women's only show and have it succeed. The biggest issue I've seen with AEW is that its TK running 4 wrestling shows (including) ROH as well as two professional sports teams. I'd love to see ROH, Dynamite, Rampage, Collission each get their own roster, their own agents, their own bookers, their own creative feel. Get some legends in there, create 4 different feels. Then have Forbidden Door be where the worlds collide, kind of what Survivor Series used to be during the brand split, only not complete garbage.
My idea would be something like ROH World Championship be the main belt of ROH, have the TV Championship be the main title of Dynamite. Make the Continental Championship the main belt of Collision. Then make the AEW world champion travel between the ROH, Dynamite and Collision. Make the ROH, TV and Continental Champion the equivalent of the Intercontinental championship in 80's – 90s WWF, meaning that, generally, when you win that belt it means you're in line for a AEW World Championship match. Thus at all times you're building up at minimum 6 singles stars across 3 shows, plus you have your travelling world champion.
I agree with Jericho and Nigel as Authority figures, I'd add one more and make TK the president of AEW like Jack Tunney in WWF back in the day. That allows TK to get on TV from time to time, but hopefully limits his time on TV, thus making it a bigger deal when he does show up. TK can make the big announcements like Blood and Guts, Stadium Stampede, Forbidden Door's main event or the championship defences for Swerve at each ppv.
did some body say REVAMP ? 😉
sad you released this cos its better than they can do, scared theyll steal it
they didn't even mention Takeshita what the hell
AEW needs to force talent to train more and exercise. Stop making it like old WCW and old NWA. Stop with putting talent against no name wrestler, doesn't show the talent at all good wrestlers
Surprised you haven't got your "ex-girlfriend" ECW's Francine on your podcast to cover your angle with her and Beulah. That was good stuff. She also trained with you in wrestling school and pinned you for the ECW Tag Titles. You always made the women look good.
What? Hangman is in a blood feud with the world champion, how is he cooled off. If anything, you can say he's the only guy in AEW that is consistently booked strongly since the beginning.
Tony Khan does not know how or like booking big guys to be dominant vs smaller guys which is preferred in aew.
Man, just imagine Lance Archer with Killswitch vs Kieth Lee and Shane Taylor. 🔥🔥
Where would John Cena fit on this roster? Maybe ROH so he can Wrestle the younger generation of talent? 😀
I would take the aew championship off swerve he's just a midcarder
some good thoughts from Stevie. Always been a fan from Blue World order to right to censor and so on. I used to book him as a main eventer in my fantasty league. Good times. As for Ring of honor i think you either got to really do what Stevie said, which is these guys go to Ring of honor, so this is the only place you can see them wrestle. Or you need to use it as developmental(which could do for Collision i suppose. I know WBDiscovery doesnt want Ring of honor as one of the TV shows but honestly, the Honor club is just not a financially sound investment unless you really like seeing certain wrestlers. Right now it;s the new dark with a few shining moments(Athena Billie starkz, when Mark Briscoe is there) But the problem is Team AEW had Mark Briscoe the Ring of Honor world champion, why is a Ring of honor champion fighting for AEW? We know Tony owns both but it just doesn't feel like two companies. I would get as much good talent off of that show and focus on some young men women and otherwise and let Dustin rhodes or Jeff Jarrett run it or book it. That way you get someone evaluating talent and seeing who can be a star and is ready for TV.
Jericho needs to fucking retire… It's just sad… Really, really sad.
I find these kinds of videos gross and off putting when they're made by stans criticizing wrestlers and wishing they be out of work, but to see a former wrestler do it is even more gross. I see the "points" he made about "allowing" wrestlers to leave and work elsewhere, but there is no guarantee that they would get any work elsewhere. My other critique of this type of video, and Steve was honest enough to say it early, is that he was just trying to create a WWE-style company out of AEW. Hard Pass. This is clearly a WWE stan channel. Enjoy.
Creating internal tribalism. 🤟
Real One vs Max Caster, make it happen, with eventual reintegration with Big Bill.
Stevie has excellent suggestions here; such a step up wrestling mind-wise.
I still believe.
Jay Lethal is so underused even though he starred in that legendary wooo off with Ric Flair .
Shame on Tony for messing up with Wardlow
I say sign Bobby Lashley and The Hurt Business and have Bobby beat Swerve for the belt and go on a reign of terror where he beats the Who s who of AEW until a certain Wardlow steps up and stands up to Lashley.