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I love when Biss makes these random statements out of nowhere with no copntext, shit cracks me up every time.
My take on Gabe:
Brilliant booker who was was booking for the right crowd at the right time. One of the few modern guys who respects long term storytelling. When many of his storylines peaked, you found yoursefl saying, "holy shit, that's why that other thing happened 4 months ago, wow, it all makes sense!". He often planned out his stories two champions in advance. The Nigel title win was planned out something like two years in advance. Who does that? Only Vince Sr did shit like that on a consistant basis.
His booking requires you to pay attention. That's why it was the "right crowd", because the ROH fan is going to devour every show, pay attention to all the details, and care about every match result.
He used to do subtle shit like booking storylines that were venue specific. For example, on a card in Edison one time, Hagadorn used brass knux to beat Bobby Demppsey in a pre show match. A few months later, they played off of that finish in a tag match. These were PRE SHOW matches, yet they had a little story going with them beyond "Dempsey hates Hagadorn", and it rewarded the fans for paying attention to the previous matches. WWE & TNA don't respect the fans enough to pay ettention to detail in MAIN EVENT storylines.
It was the right time, because the style of wrestling Gabe prefers was just getting hot when he got the book.
Gabe also effectively built stars (within his bubble, or course) and has a great eye for new talent, much like the guy he learned from. The ROH roster turned over more than people think over the years, but he was always able to replace the Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joes, and Bryan Danielsons with the Nigels and Daveys and Heros.
The negative, is he's over sensative to criticism. Why he gets into internet wars of words with people is beyond me. Who cares if some guy from some website didnt like your last show?
Another negative, is his obsession with "factions". Gabe became enamoured with the Dragon Gate style, and thats fine. I remember his saying that it was the future of wrestling, and would take over for the "head drop" style on the indy level. And it is an very exciting, progressive style. But ROH fans rejected the "faction wars", which was a concept taken directly from Dragon Gate, and now with Dragon Gate USA, Gabe has once again booked a promotion built entirely around factions. It just doesnt work.
Another problem, is the Dragon Gate guys are world class level elite athletically, and its not like you can find a bunch of indy guys hanging around who can do what Masato Yoshino and Dragon Kid can do. Rich Swann, Chuck Taylor, Johnny Gargano, these guys are good young talents, but they cant touch the DG guys, which is a crazy high standard, but who also have been working on the style since the early 2000's when most of them started in Toryumon. I'm just not sure something as narrow as DGUSA can make it beyond the level they are at.
And finally, he will never admit it, but its pretty clear Gabe is still hurt/pissed about being canned by ROH. That was his baby, but it was clear coming off of "faction wars" that he needed a breather. Plus, he didnt want to book for TV, and you had all of the DG drama.Comment
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Austin Aries tweeting and faceboooking and whatever elsing about retiring again.Comment
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What kind of money does Aries make, legitimately. I know you or Biss has to have a rough figure.
What in the fuck else is he going to do that will net him more money? Hasn't that always been his gripe is that he's not making big money so he'll go elsewhere? Doesn't he run a little wrestling school operation...surely he can't be making serious coin doing that...Comment
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I'm sure biss would have a good idea on what a guy like him can get payoff wise on the indy circuit these days. If top ROH guys are pulling down roughly $500+ per shot (I think Davey gets like $700? or in that range. less for TV tapings), I would assume Aries is getting less for EVOLVE or whatever.
He was running the ROH school for a while, but not in years. I dont think he has a school, but I could be wrong.
Aries simply has no options, I think he's just frustrated at this point. I dont think he sees eye to eye with Delirious, so ROH is not an option. He was rejected by the WWE (for Tough Enough, at least). TNA doesnt seem to be an option.
He basically has been working for Gabe's two promotions, but DGUSA and EVOLVE run infrequently. I know he's been doing some PWG out in LA, and random indy shots. I would suspect his income is way down from when he was a ROH regular, especially when he was doing ROH and TNA at the same time. DGUSA & EVOLVE draw in the 200-400 range, so the payoffs cant be what he was getting in ROH, plus its less frequent.
He has talked about doing some acting, I dont know if he has anything lined up, but I know he was taking classes.
He's basically a guy who is in his 30's now who has been doing indy's far too long to be an indy darling anymore, while most of the guys he came up with have moved on (Joe, Danielson, Punk, Shelley, Nigel, etc). It must be depressing, knowing you are just as talented, but now you look around and you are the "old guy" in the lockerroom, being used to put over the Rich Swann's of the world on iPPV's in front of 150 people in a bar. Especially when not too long ago you were working Hammerstein in front of 2000, and on TV every week as a headliner, looking like a good bet to get on WWE TV.Comment
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You make a good point, W2B...good postComment
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not much I can add to what W2B had to say, Sadly his numbers may be a little high.
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its all about doing well at the merch tableComment
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Of all of the shows I have been to, nobody pushes merch like the CHIKARA guys. It's the most fan friendly experience by far. All of the guys come out and mingle with the fans, take pictures, sell gimmicks, shake hands, kiss babies, the whole nine. I've heard more than a few bad things about Quack, but I can say that he runs a really fun family freindly show.Comment
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Killings was awesome last night.
The Del Rio segment was awful and completely killed the crowd.
I was surprised to see Andy win TE over Luke.
"Sometimes I just want to be with my family and watch movie and eat some popcorn. But when I step on the mat I know there is no other place I'd rather be." - Marcelo GarciaComment
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