10 Worst Ideas That Actual WRESTLERS Came Up With
CM Punk believes veteran advice is valuable. Maybe not, on the following evidence...
Last year, CM Punk made a massive deal about veteran advice and how it was beyond disrespectful not to take it.
This was one of his many problems with the Elite. Who were they not to listen to those who paved the way? The counter-argument was this: the Elite paved their own way by defying industry norms and ultimately playing a significant role in the formation of a company that allowed Punk to walk into it as a major, well-paid story with the artistic freedom he always coveted.
The Elite didn't believe that veteran advice was necessarily beneficial to their careers, particularly since doing the exact opposite - and defying Jim Cornette, Harley Race and the "minds" in developmental - saw them prosper.
It's a recurring theme in The Discourse: should wrestlers take advice from veterans, and also, do people need to have been involved in the business in order to have an insightful/accurate opinion on it?
This idea is rather undermined by the idea that so many veterans demean themselves on the podcast grift and trot out some of the worst takes you will ever hear, purely to remain relevant.
It is also undermined by this list...
10. Saraya Books The Worst AEW Match Ever
AEW wrestlers enjoy a degree of creative control.
Most are allowed to cut promos in their own voice, and a select few have input into their storylines; the Elite, MJF, Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley all have a signature approach to storytelling that sets their work in the promotion apart. This is a good thing - AEW is the destination for great promos - but nobody outright books their own arc. Everything is filtered through Tony Khan.
Mercifully so, in the case of the following pitch.
Saraya has recovered from a dismal start, in which she appeared entitled to ride in and "save" a division with her revolutionary presence. The fans were put out by this TNA-adjacent development, and Khan pivoted by turning Saraya heel and incorporating this attitude into her onscreen character. That's just as well, since, left to her own devices, Saraya's ideas are...not good.
At least, one idea, pitched to DJ Whoo Kid (h/t 411Mania), was not good. At all.
"Ronnie [Radke, Saraya's notoriously divisive partner] even wanted to become part of it. A storyline, do something against Chris Jericho. He's such a good bad guy. He plays a very good bad guy, and people love to hate him. I feel they [Ronnie and Jericho] would have a good storyline. I would love to wrestle one of the guys. If I have to beat up Chris Jericho, Jericho would be up for it."
This would situate Radke as the babyface in this scenario, and to those unfamiliar with him, that wouldn't be a good or successful idea. He can't wrestle, for starters, and is loathed by many within the alternative rock scene. Since Jericho himself is alienating some fans with his perception as a clout vampire, you're looking at the highest ratio of unlikeable people in one ring since NXT UK folded.
"It writes itself," Saraya argued - which is correct, provided you ask ChatGPT to book the worst AEW storyline since December 2019.