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Show Me What: AEW Revolution Predictions Insert | figurefourstar

Alr alr alr welcome back to figurefourstar. Nico back here today with my personal picks for the upcoming Revolution PPV. Won't be going into too much detail with these but I do feel the need to explain a couple.

Starting off with the most obvious, I have The Hurt Syndicate beating The Outrunners to no ones surprise. At this point in time I have absolutely no interest in watching this match as I feel like The Outrunners bring nothing to the table when it comes to anything unique in ring. I will give them credit for getting over with the crowd and it's easy to see how some people can get into an act like this but personally I'd rather force myself into watching a David Flair match over this. The only way I feel like this match could be even remotely interesting is if Bobby and Shelton get these guys to bleed no more than 3 minutes into the match and simply end it as quick as possible after that. Praying that we don't get an "Acclaimed v. Swerve in our Glory" moment here because in my eyes The Hurt Syndicate deserve to have better competition to make this reign memorable. So once again the obvious choice for me here is:

Next up I got "The Protostar" Kyle Fletcher v. Will Ospreay in a steel cage match. The decision I had to make here was kinda tough to decide on solely because I personally can't read what could be next for both of these guys after this match is done with. I believe they are 1-1 in singles competition so it's make sense to have this be their final meeting at least for a good while but with Kenny Omega taking on Konosuke Takeshita, I have a feeling that it's either gotta be 1 Don Callis Family win and 1 loss for the group but something is telling me this isn't the case. I feel like the Steel Cage stip is perfect for interference and that's the only way I can see "The Protostar" Kyle Fletcher winning this time around as Ospreay has been making it clear that he's got bigger things ahead of him. I could see this going either way and I personally wouldn't be upset at either result but for now I'm taking the safe route and choosing Ospreay to win here.

If we're talking about the Don Callis Family we might as well keep it close to home and discuss Kenny Omega v. Konosuke Takeshita for the AEW International title. Again with mentioning the match before, it's hard to tell if we'll see a split in W/L for Don's boys here at Revolution and to be quite honest I was willing to believe that until I realized that Takeshita would most likely go and do some stuff back in Japan after losing here and it lines up perfectly with the speculation for All In: Texas being Kenny v. Okada. I'm not sure if the belts would be unified like others are saying but I absolutely agree that if any match were to be built up now, this would be the perfect opportunity to do so for both men in this match. I'm putting my money on this being match of the night and I PRAY that Mox v. Cope can send the fans home happy after what this contest is gonna end up being. My winner here:

If I have to be honest for a second I've kinda lost my interest in the whole Toni Storm v. Mariah May saga. I thought the perfect end to it could have concluded at Grand Slam Australia but for some reason these two just can't get enough of each other and I just hope that they can either finally make up or send the other packing for a little bit. I do believe this will be a great match and I hope it gives the people the "Main Event" energy everyone wants it to give so here's to my hopeful winner of this contest:

I'm just now noticing the lack of multiman matches on this show in comparison to other AEW PPV's and I think we're gonna end up finding out if that's a good or bad thing but what I can say for certain is that this match right here is going to make up for any doubts about this show. Swerve and Ricochet have been such an exciting and fresh pair to see go at it with one another. Rico has damn near revived his career while Swerve is able to be the proving grounds to really test where both guys are at in their current state. I believe that this has been probably the best "storyline" to come out of the company for this Revolution card build and I think that this ending up in a number one contenders match (at least I think it is ?) makes for a perfect reason to have these guys go even more all out despite their grievances towards another already. Personally I see Rico being nothing but a chicken shit heel in this match and knowing that it's going to deliver, I can't see any other reason then to have them end in with Swerve on top to continue to build on both mens runs.

Brody King v. Kazuchika Okada is a match that I want nothing more than then to be the dark horse that blows everything out the fucking water. Brody's gotta be one of my top 5 favorite acts in the company for every reason from his in ring work, down to something simple as getting barking over with the crowd. As much as I want him to win here I think it's obvious that Okada will retain here and then go to have his match with Kenny at All In: Texas. I'm not gonna get beat up over King losing, but I do fear that maybe Okada won't show up as much as he should for a match like this. I've been okay with his current work and his comedic side of his character is enjoyable for sure but at this point I'm over thinking whether or not Okada will choose to phone it in during a match or not and I'm just hoping that both these guys can get the chance to shine as bright as they can on a competitive card such as this one. My winner here:

Need Hangman to win this desperately I'm sorry. Despite that, the intensity these guys have shown on a week to week basis has been unmatched and I wouldn't expect anything less than 2 of the true main faces of AEW. It feels kind of calming (promise it's not the Aphex I'm listening to right now) that mainstays/day one's of the company can blend in together so well at this stage of their careers and to see it play out the way it has, you would have never expected anyone to have shit on MJF the way they have since even before the whole World Title/Adam Cole fiasco that took place. This is another match where I feel like people just wont understand how amazing it will truly be until the bell rings. I believe this can be a top 3 match tonight no sweat. Like I said before though, I want Hangman to win this match but it feels like MJF could use a big BIG win over Hangman to solidify himself as a threat in this pool of World Title contenders and I don't see these two guys ending their beef just yet so because of that, I have to go with Big Hebrew

Now I'm not too familiar when it comes to any joshi talent but what I do know is that when Mercedes is in the ring with joshi's, the intensity and pace of the match completely flips on it's head and immediately becomes a match of the night contender. I'm excited to see what Momo Wantanabe (shoutout raptors legend yuta wantanabe) can showcase here as I've not seen much again but I have no reason to believe that this won't be a good showing from how often I see others talking about her. I have a suspicion that AEW wants Mercedes to take over the record for how long this belt has been held for so I have no reason to believe that the CEO loses here. Dub for the Boston native

Last and HOPEFULLY not least. Mox v. Cope. Much like the tag match on this card, I have no interest at all in seeing how this plays out as I see no reason for anyone involved to be World Champion when guys like Kenny, Swerve and Hangman are all doing as good as they are at the moment. I just hope that the match itself can deliver but of course I'm leaving LOTS of room to be disappointed with. This whole story has just felt like a classic case of "we have no real plans to continue with this but they're big names so we HAVE to continue it" and I just think this is the one company that can do without that trope. I couldn't care less about Jay White being involved as well and I like Jay myself but at this point the only real positive that I can see coming from this match is Christian Cage cashing in his Casino Battle Royal contract and becoming the AEW World Champ with the show fading as he raises the belt up high. I however only see this happening if Cope unfortunately wins and takes the belt out of this stupid ass briefcase but does Cage cost Copeland another time for a belt ? I don't know but honestly my money would be worth seeing that happen. The winner here ? Christian Cage in my opinion.

Thanks for the read ! Once again my names Nico and this is my passion project FigureFourStar. I've been wanting to start this up for almost 2 years and I'm trying to figure out exactly what "this" is. I enjoy wrestling a lot but haven't kept up with it as much lately so I'm hoping this is a way to stay into it as I really do feel like this is the place I want to be heard. I have a youtube channel also named @figurefourstar where I'm hoping to upload content soon so here's to hoping that I can get that part started as well. Speaking of predictions by the way, I help run an AEW Predictions E-Fed called TIA (This Is AEW). If joining something like that interests you then make sure to check us out cause we're always looking for new talent !

Links for TIA and other figurefourstar affiliates will be in my twitter bio @nicoworldorder !

Thanks for the read again and I'll check back in with something soon !

SOTA: Show Me What - A.G. Cook, Cecile Believe

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Safe In Your Skin: How AEW refuses to open the box of gold they're sitting on.

I recently stumbled into watching ROH on Honor Club 101 out of pure curiosity after seeing a graphic of a match featuring Serpentico & Brandon Cutler on Instagram as I was scrolling through it. I haven't been tapped into ROH in quite some time as I knew the product hasn't been anything worth tapping into recently but after I saw that a match like that was being advertised, I just had to stop and think about the state that this promotion was in.

I know the hate AEW seems to get as a brand is almost never ending and part of me felt like reporting on it like this was gonna be nothing but another "bad faith grift" but it seemed like crazy to me that the card booked right after ROH on Honor Club 100 (which also didn't have much going on for it) was being put out for eyes to see in this sort of format. As much as people joke about this being an AEW Dark/Dark Elevation reboot, it's hard to tell if the people working on this project believe if to be the same as well. There were many things I could nitpick on with the show (Riccaboni & Coleman not being the ones at the desk despite being on commentary is absolutely one of them) but besides that potentially taking up this whole blog, I figured I could do what most wrestling fans think they're capable of doing and that's telling the big boss man backstage how to fix their product.

RIng of Honor is a promotion unlike any other as it's one of the only wrestling companies to feature the likes of talent as: Samoa Joe, Mitsuhara Misawa, KENTA (& Kobashi) AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Chris Hero, Roderick Strong, CM P- (need I go on?). The boots that stepped into the very ring where "Honor is Real" is one that even the powerhouse that is the WWE is almost barely able to match given the history it's built for itself. Seeing where things lie for ROH and the state it's in now is no where near a new thing... To be quite honest the company over the past decade has been chasing the ghost of what it once was for ages.

But it doesn't have to be like that anymore.

March 2nd 2022 Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor and made it known as a key statement when he announced in on that night's episode of AEW Dynamite. Since the purchase it seems like it's been treated as nothing more than a glorified AEW Dark successor and it seems to look like the purchase was more for getting to own the rights to the footage that ROH had stored than anything else. While that is a great thing to own, the nature of how Tony Khan has been able to excite fans made this seem like a new era was going to begin and that the light at the end of the tunnel was finally being shown for the promotion.

Seeing the recent news of WWE acquiring former indie promotion EVOLVE, it seems like now more than ever that ROH should be given the TLC it's desperately needed for quite some time now. I'm not a promoter and I'm definitely not someone who knows what they're saying half the time but I do believe I know enough to say that ROH needs and deserves a change. The roster that is employed by AEW is nothing short of impressive and while hard for all this talent to be showcased at the same time, the 5 hours of programing across 3 shows make that hard to believe. It's no secret that Tony has his favorites but there's no reason to not see talent that's worth being seen on weekly basis when matches like Evil Uno v Blake Christian are being booked on a show that's for some reason only aired for an hour. This has been something opinionated by many online and to see how the cult following that ROH has dwindled over the years makes it hard to believe that the feeling can't be restored by ROH simply becoming a studio show once again. We've seen it work with promotions like NXT & TNA and without the touring it seems very plausible for the runtime of the show to be increased as well.

Kenny Omega said it best when he told the AEW locker room themselves that he wouldn't have hired 80% of them and to be quite honest that's a take that's hard to argue with. Chris Jericho as ROH World Champ and Dustin Rhodes having 2 belts to himself sounds like nothing short of a nightmare and it's a shame that it's one we're all living through at this very moment when younger guys who have the time to build themselves up could be the ones building the brand back up along themselves.

We've seen guys like Daniel Garcia & Wheeler Yuta spend their time in ROH and come up when they seemed ready to tackle on the main AEW roster again but it's not like it was treated as a developmental process for them. In fact ROH doesn't seem to be beneficial for that kind of thing at all and that's where I think the issue lies with this promotion. Over the years AEW was praised as it claimed to be the land where we could see new homegrown stars rise and get their shot in a big time promotion but as the years have passed we've seen more and more former WWE and older talent take to the top of it's ranks.

It's obvious there's a gap in talent at the moment but we know it's one that's easily able to be shortened as talent among the likes of Swerve Strickland, Hangman Adam Page, Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale have shot themselves up to stardom by being themselves and catering to what the fans are able to react to. It's this in my opinion that the sport needs to stay afloat. Indie wrestling promotion DPW is one that does a great at this and seeing as they get comparisons to being the modern day ROH, it's easy to see that the passion for ROH isn't there when it easily could be.

The development and training of wrestlers should be what Ring of Honor caters itself to; something more of a developmental system. Once again it's common knowledge that almost every promotion that has a genuine name for itself seems to have a purpose and fan base that treats it like a friend they can always count on to go with them to the bar every once in a while and it's because of the passion that ROH had many years ago inspired the current day indie and any other promotion not seen on a large scale. It's sad to see the place that once showcased the gods of this very sport be treated like Lennie from Of Mice and Men but until a shift happens where ROH can be about what it once was...

There won't seem to be any hope or honor regarding the once loved promotion anymore until it's no longer safe in it's skin.