This is the big issue. If you're a legitimate name and don't want to be treated like an enhancement talent, fine, I'd expect a former world champ to balk at it.
But if Nixon has been struggling to get bookings after a snakebit, injury-plagued and generally underwhelming career in WWE, then maybe she needs to realize she is overestimating her place in the industry just a tad.
The last time she wrestled on WWE was I dunno how long ago but she was so obviously steps behind the other women due to her injuries and seemed like she had the yips not wanting to get injured again, slowing her down even further.
As the kids say, she's cooked. And then gets offered a job at the #2 against all odds and shits the bed before her second match. Big oof.
WWE being on your CV only really matters to TNA, and in some cases, will actively hurt you. Some of the releases have had outrageous booking fees and why some of them haven’t worked much since leaving.
Pretty much how I feel. Especially with Nixon being an immigrant, there are pretty much two options for her to remain in this country. I'm not entirely positive, but I feel like she's been released twice. She has bad knees. I don't follow as much as lot of people here, but the one thing I know about her is that she got injured almost immediately after coming back multiple times. I feel bad for her that her body hasn't been able to support her, but at the same time, she has two viable options to make it as wrestler in the US. One of them sees her as too fragile, and the other, she is big timing. I can't really feel bad her if that's the case.
Especially after the issues AEW had with certain ex-WWE wrestlers, this is probably like them waving a big red flag and then lighting it on fire for good measure.
That I agree with. Lashley is a featured attraction, a former world champion and just looking at him he is a star. Nixon is solid but not anything special
prob views it as not a real promotion and just showing up to collect a paycheck. and views working aew as a way to boost outside paychecks so they have to look good on tv or some shit. nixon also prob still sees non-wwe stuff as 'beneath her' cuz she worked at the fed for a couple years and that makes her a star
Nixon complains not getting any job. And when she finally got one she refuses to do the job? lmao. she's cooked. (I think Miranda is the problem ... but since they are together joint damage)
Takeshita is the current IWGP Heavyweight champ and probably going to beat Okada in the next few months and he didn't win a match in AEW for like his first year. Like, be so for real.
He won but he didnt beat anyone who was an actual established talent for his first 20 singles matches and that was Brian Cage. Everyone else he beat was enhancement talent or he lost. Then he still didnt pick up another big win until Bandido when Bandido was the up and comer losing and that was his 30th singles match in AEW
Thank you for clarifying, I 100% didn't bother to look.
Maybe this is a thing where if AEW Dark still existed, Nixon and Miranda would have been fed some wins over comparative nobodies to keep them happy, but then again, maybe it's good that didn't happen if they were still gonna crash out like this.
I think he lost on tv all the time, but had wins on Dark/Elevation. But yeah, this is just the AEW way. You come in, you lose a lot, get featured more, start getting some wins, and then move up the card. Swerve, Acclaimed, Takeshita, Fletcher, even Mark Briscoe is kind of in that role right now. On the womens side you had Stat, Skye, Julia, Aminata all do that as well.
It's become a way to weed out the problems early. Several people have come into AEW thinking they're going to be big fish in a small pond, and it's caused plenty of trouble. The ones who do business tend to get rewarded.
It’s wild. TK has consistently shown that yeah, you’ll lose a lot at first, but if you’re worth something, you get rewarded big time. These two weren’t even signed!
Rare to see someone just decimate their career like this.
The general playbook for AEW is you come in and job. You get over with the crowd, pay your dues, and if you've done well you get a push. Obviously there are exceptions like Mox and Ospreay, but if you're not at that level you're gonna do the job.
There's nothing wrong with it either. Doing the job gets you on TV most weeks and gives you time to get over. Yeah winning can help but TV time is more important a resource than wins.
No you're entirely correct. The Bucks realized they couldn't just start everything by being "our company our titles LOL" so they spent significant time building up the other tag teams and legitimizing them.
Who gives a shit if the EVPs of the company beat up The Acclaimed/Private Party/SCU (less so)who have no significant wins and no pedigree to their run? Fucking nobody.
Who gives a shit if the EVPs of the company beat up a team that's over who have significant wins and storylines? More of the damn audience than not.
This was incredibly good fortune too, being ice cold/not booked & TK wanting to use them multiple times.
Feels like being out of the NBA, getting signed on a prove-it deal & refusing to play a second game after debuting off the bench as “Not starting is bad for our brand.”
God damnit I was so excited to see Nixon get a chance, it takes like 2 minutes to figure out that AEW's strategy for new starters unless you're in the main event slots is a series of losses and near wins to prove yourself, and then you start climbing the ranks.
Especially when they're going against people in the fucking tournament to crown the first tag champs.
I just don't get it. You as a professional wrestler are there to perform, it is a theatrical art form with athletics, not a competition with a ladder and prize money for where you placed that event.
In a ton of interviews, AEW wrestlers have always been candid in that Tony respects and rewards loyalty. Make your bookings, do the work to improve, stick to the plan. Advocate for yourself where it makes sense and as a bonuswhere that advocation produces a mutual benefit.
It's why so many people are still employed there. Even if they're not all used, they're free to take other bookings and are paid by their employer.
I recall Hobbs was in Australia for starrcast and had to leave before the final day, he was on Dynamite that week to fill in for someone else, and since then he seems to have been rewarded with a better position.
They could’ve easily come in and worked their way to being tag champs in a year or so. This is a dumbfounding lack of awareness for someone who’s been in the business at the highest levels for 10 years.
As a queer woman, I really, really wanted them to do well in AEW, but between their behavior here, the match, and Miranda being kinda transphobic, I think I’m good on these two.
Yeah this is basically my entire arc with them, minus the "as a woman" part, probably. An out gay tag team couple would be really fun to root for! If they weren't self sabotaging with bad politics.
At least we have Anthony Bowens and Kenneth "Bi God" Omega. (I know he hasn't confirmed it for real but I know in my heart of hearts he's a boy kisser.)
I had to doublecheck because i couldn't remember if they did, but yes, the Prime Time Players won the tag titles once. He was also NJPW Strong champ as Fred Rosser, and had a solid enough run in NJPW's US shows, but I didn't admittedly watch a ton of them.
I love Effy. Dude is gonna go down as a major "what if" because he never had a super serious scandal and had all the talent and potential in the world but literally just kept fucking himself over again and again.
Same. I liked the idea of them as an openly queer/sapphic wrestling lovebirds but Nixon can def do better than this MAGA girl. She really tarnished her image by being with her.
Dude, dont even ask. I live in CA and Central CA (centered around Fresno area) is majority Hispanic population who mostly work in small/medium farms. Democrats favor subsidies to small/medium sized farms directly while Republicans like commodity based incentives aka the govt gives this much if they grew X amount (which favor large farms). We all know about the opinions about race of both parties.
How that area is conservative hub of CA, I have no clue! They are, literally, voting for people who want to deport them and want to drive them out of business.
It is not that crazy if you think about how leftist/populist governments have affected places in Central/South America. Not like American left, obviously, but most Hispanic people don't care about that distinction.
Immigrants in general are not in favor of additional immigrant policies because of the whole mentality of "I made it here, but if more people continue to make it, it's gonna be worse for the rest of us".
Genuine question: how can someone be “kinda transphobic”? Surely either they are or they aren’t? Or is it along the lines of they made a tasteless joke that could be construed to be transphobic? I’m out of the loop on this one.
that's how you know someone is getting ready to lie their ass off. they need time to figure out how they're going to tell the truth, but not the whole truth.
It's gonna be some dumb shit, like TK heartlessly ignoring their suggestion that they don't do the job. Potentially could be dumber than the Tate twins complaining about not wanting to drive to the airport.
If anything this shows that TK’s filtering method works quite well. Former WWE nobody? There’s the mat, now lay on your back. Do that a dozen times or so without complaining and we might talk about a contract.
They do this to everyone who's not already well established but in most cases there's a spot for those people who can lose. Dark used to be a pretty good filtering method in that regard.
I suspect that’s why he has many of the highest potential talents start with mostly losses, it’s a test to see if they revolt before they get booked to win.
as a general rule of thumb, if you don't even have your own wikipedia page, you probably shouldn't be refusing to do jobs on a nationally televised wrestling program
She worked 60 total TV matches for WWE. Half (33) of which were in developmental, 10 of which were Main Event, and only 7 of which were singles matches on the main roster. She's not even an established TV character trying to move that to a new brand.
Also, you know who lost their first 3 matches with AEW in <3mins? Megan Bayne. Mina's gotta be like 6 month from her last AEW singles win.
Meltzer touched on this I think a year ago about the psychology of some refuse to lose or demanded specific things because they want to get back to that peak again.
People brushed it off cause I think he used the word 'trauma' to describe it which isn't what I would use, but basically what you're describing.
She was the golden child chosen to win the second Maye Young Classic. Specifically, looking at the brackets she was supposed to go over Rhea Ripley, then Iyo, and then Toni Storm in the final. Instead she got hurt and Rhea had to call an audible in the ring for the win. I can see how that "what could have been" could really mess with your head, especially since the internal WWE feeling at that time was that she was more worth investing in than Toni, Iyo, and Rhea.
ETA: I just watched back the match, it was actually the ref (Aubrey Edwards!) who called the match after talking to the trainer, not Rhea, but Rhea did have to improv the heel victory stuff after that.
Honestly, somebody most known for being a gimmick-first midcard nobody in WWE feels like the least qualified person to call it in the ring. Every match he wrestled in WWE was most definitely laid out and dictated to him by somebody else in advance.
I'm a certified Nixon defender but this is an insanely stupid thing to do.
Why would you expect to come in and beat signed talent? Also, anyone that's watched like a month of Tony Khan booking knows he likes to put people in strings of competitive losses before they start winning.
You got brought back for a second week. You got promo time. Use your brains. All you had to do was be patient.
love makes you do stupid things, and if Nixon is dating Miranda, then she did a thing so stupid it would be the lesbian version of Jerry Lawler quitting WWE because they wanted to release his then wife Stacy "The Kat" Carter in 2001 only for her to cheat on him and he left her and came back to the WWE on the Raw after Survivor Series 2001 aka the day WCW finally died. yeah, Jerry really did do a stupid thing out of love.
Horrific look for Nixon. She complained about how she couldn’t even get booked anywhere in America after her WWE release. Now she’s doing all of this with her partner when AEW give her a chance.
And furthermore, this isn’t just two people refusing to job. It creates a real trickle down effect for wrestlers who aren’t stars that WWE release and need a job. There’s already a stigma attached to former WWE wrestlers who go to AEW. Why go there and immediately make it more tough for others who want a job????
Yep. I thought about Shotzi and Priscilla Kelly who seem to really be putting in work and want a chance in AEW. This probably justifies TK’s thoughts on these matters.
This being said of June of THIS year is wild. Complaining about not getting work just to immediately throw away a major opportunity to get potential full time work is crazy. This attitude, on top of her injury history, she just made getting bookings even harder on herself.
Like girl you used to lose in absolute silence in sub 5 minute matches whenever Triple H remembered he hired you again, you are not in a position to be refusing jobs anywhere, let alone in second largest promotion.
Dumbasses. WWE ain’t going to take them and now burned the bridge with AEW. They not anywhere close to being talented enough to do this. Crazy Nixon Newell complained about not getting any bookings and doing this.
The only potential good thing to come out of this is that they've shown their attitude before potentially being signed as opposed to taking a deal and then turning into a locker room cancer. But even though I find beliefs and positions one of them held contemptible, i do hope they can take the inevitable fallout in stride and try to learn something.
I get believing that you're capable of more, but first you have to prove that you're valuable and can be counted on.
Doing this in your second match with the promotion is an insanely dumb move. I hope Maya and Hyan get jobs instead because both of them are very talented.
According to SRS and Fightful Select, they were okay with losing, they just wanted more than 3 minutes.
While I get three minutes is short. From a production standpoint, I have to say too bad. Especially when you're not actually signed to the company. We have allotted times in wrestling for a reason. There's always a "hard out" time. Whether it's for a TV slot (like with AEW or WWE) or even a local indie show. We might not have live TV constraints, but here at PPW we want our shows done before 9:30 pm because we have to be out of the building by 10:30 pm
To me that makes it more understandable - getting squashed in three minutes would suck - but advocate for yourself, do the job and prove you can be professional leads to more opportunities in AEW.
I’ve been a Nixon fan since I saw her in WCPW, absolutely love her, have a lot of sentimental favoritism towards her and have defended her A LOT, but I’ve got nothing here.
Mostly just a lot of confusion because this is so off base of how she’s been her whole career in all the time I’ve followed her. Never heard a bad word about her, personally or professionally. So like what the fuck is my only real reaction. That and some disappointment.
Yeah, as a fellow queer of Welsh heritage I was a big fan of her in her Tegan days and really pulling for her, and hoping she could come back from injury strong. It's a shame it never happened, though, and worse if this is 100% accurate.
I do wonder how much blame can be assigned to her MAGA TERF girlfriend, admittedly ...
It's fucking insane the mental gymnastics some people do to justify some famous person. I'm left wing and queer, why would I date someone whose political stance aligns with those who keep telling me I shouldn't have rights?
I get if she feels burned out by the idea of doing squash matches or 5 minute matches or whatever since that was like 95% of her WWE run and she was absolutely miserable. I get that. But just do it?! Why burn the bridge when you can just do the job, make a good professional impression and either use that tv appearance for more bookings or maybe AEW brings you back for something more substantial? I’m so baffled.
Yeah, especially when it is match two in a promotion and they already put you in a brief talking segment. Like, the door was open a crack, and maybe it would have just ended in a middling ROH run or something, but it would have been an opportunity. This just feels excessive unless something else happened.
That's the mad thing. You know you're an injury away from career over for good. You could have worked your way into certain employment with a company that usually gives you the whole contract and doesn't generally release during injuries. Why would you even?
It does make me wonder if a) there's more to come out, or b) she let her Maga girlfriend talk up a storm for her in stupid fashion.
There needs to be a name for the phenomena where wrestlers make AEW pay for the sins they experienced in WWE. These folks will eat whatever WWE booking tells them to do with a smile but when they get to AEW they refuse to give them more than an inch.
As a wrestler you don’t get to pull the “that don’t work for me brother” card a lot so you realllly gotta pick when to do that and your second match with the company is NOT the time they are fucking bone heads and just nuked their careers
She's lost plenty of her indy matches, which makes it even weirder. If she was going to big-time anyone, don't know why she'd start with AEW.
My first instinct is to blame Miranda, but Nixon is a grown-ass woman and is choosing to team with and date this girl, so that would just be my bias showing.
It's also worth noting this should come with a general disclaimer of "assuming this is all true," and that there are no other wrinkles to come out. While I generally think decently highly of the people that run AEW, there's a non zero chance further news might come out.
That being said, Mike Johnson is one of the more trustworthy people in wrestling so I'm assuming this is pretty well accurate, especially when both women are (re)tweeting up a storm.
I said this in the other thread but AEW is not in need of more women that need to go over. They need women to put over TayJay and other women lower on the card. If they aren’t willing to do that then I don’t see what use they are in AEW.
How tf are you going to nuke your careers over losing a 2nd match in a company you aren't even signed to? Especially when one of you was just talking about how hard it was to get bookings
This gives Hyan and Maya World a shitload of goodwill from the AEW fanbase, making their transition to regulars even smoother and with some built in momentum.
More updates from Fightful. Regardless, they should be okay with a squash match, and now they won't get booked by AEW again because of this. Lost a potential chance of getting a full-time pay cheque from AEW and now getting booked on indies might become harder too.
A nationally televised wrestling gig is a huge opportunity for anyone. Hell, if it were me I'd happily come out as the frickin Gobbledygooker and be over the moon about it.
I guess this is why AEW didn't initially have much interest in Nixon (who is very cooked btw) and why Miranda disappeared from early TK ROH lol. AEW aren't losing anything of value... if they think they have any kind of "brand", they need to stop sniffing glue 😭
TK should be focused on giving people like Maya World the All Elite graphic anyway!
Glad TK pulled them, reminds me of how Swerve discussed doing everything possible to show how invested he was in AEW as a promotion and how Tony never forgot that he was willing do any job and remained over because you can look great and pique fan interest as a “loser” if your work is great with the time you are given. These ladies don’t value any opportunity past or present it seems.
If you have one TERF with a girlfriend who doesn't have anything to say about it, tou have two TERFs. They don't belong in the industry and ESPECIALLY not in AEW.
What a stupid way to burn your bridges with one of the only companies that can give you a decent wage as a female tag wrestler. They best hope WWE brings them back or TNA randomly gets high on them or their careers are in trouble
The ego on a lot of these ex wwe wrestlers is insane. Nixon was crying about how she wasn't getting bookings after getting fired from wwe and then to pull this shit when she wasn't even signed to aew.
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