The AEW Discussion Thread

[willmill97]

I haven't heard any update on the AEW game, if I've missed any info? That might be the thing that truly gets me into AEW if it's good.

[Rozalia1]

3 hours ago, buckallmighty said:

Am i the only one here keeping up with the two shows they upload to youtube every week? Dark and Elevation.. They are good if you have premium youtube. Don't think i'd watch them with ads.

 

It's 4 nights a week already at this point and they don't even have a handful of years behind them yet. I mean.. the shows are good, it's just a lot to follow. Don't want them to burnout.

 

Heres this weeks episodes if anyone is interested..

 

AEW Dark from tuesday night

 

AEW Elevation from monday night

 

Maybe. Dynamite watchers conversion to the Darks is really bad. At best 10%. It's only worth is to be able to see in matches talent you like but are unused on the shows that actually matter. So the women mostly, but the men are catching up with how many WWE guys are getting stacked on top of the roster. If you were for example, for whatever reason, a Joey Janella fan, perhaps you enjoy looking at him for the novelty factor, then Dark would be good for 15 mins for you. I checked a few out due to Jade being on them and me wanting to review progress. 

You'd have to pay me to actually watch them every week fully and even then I don't know if my mental health would permit it. I'm not suicidal. 

 

3 hours ago, willmill97 said:

I haven't heard any update on the AEW game, if I've missed any info? That might be the thing that truly gets me into AEW if it's good.

 

They have a mobile "GM" game out and some gambling casino game thing? In terms of a lets say traditional game they have shown some images of it here and there that look a bit off honestly. Nothing as far as when it is out or what it features in terms of modes and what have you. I imagine it should be solid as it is done by people experienced in doing wrestling games and the EVPs involved are gamers, and gamers who were fans of top wrestling games on top of that. I can't imagine it'll be a simulation game as that'd be the biggest joke AEW ever pulled, so it should be an arcade affair which the amount of people who'd have issues with that would be vanishingly small. 

[Rozalia1]

Word is that WWE want to resign him but are resigned to Kevin Owens joining AEW. On a completely unrelated note it came out not that long ago that WWE apparently cut back on catering. I joke I joke. That was apparently newz anyway and they simply changed the company that did the catering. 

 

If Owens is going to AEW then you can count on Sami Zayn going also. To me AEW is already bloated far too much but well...

 

https://www.thesportster.com/tony-khan-aew-full-roster/

 

Just hire everybody I guess. To be expected I suppose for someone who plays with daddy's money. 

[Valzentia]

If Khan screws up Ruby Soho as bad as he did Nyla Rose then I am going to just completely give up on this company. The men's division has been fine, but jesus christ these people don't know shit about running a women's division...

[Rozalia1]

16 hours ago, Valzentia said:

If Khan screws up Ruby Soho as bad as he did Nyla Rose then I am going to just completely give up on this company. The men's division has been fine, but jesus christ these people don't know shit about running a women's division...

 

It isn't that they don't know. It is that they don't care. Omega, the EVP who is supposed to help out with the booking of the Women's division and who by all accounts does want to push the women can't even get his favourites TV time on Dynamite as they too go missing for months. He has tweeted to fans that if they care about Women's wrestling then they need to make their voice heard on the matter. 

 

When you factor in the fact that so many new WWE guys are coming in I don't see how the the time given to women improves on Dynamite. AEW needs something like the "Give Divas a chance" thing to kick off among its fans to scare management to start booking the women more because it has been 2 years and it is clear they won't change it on their own. At the moment they're just a checkbox Khan checks off as his company having because without them he'd not be able to push as effectively the scam that his his company is an all inclusive diverse progressive one.

[ReazonIzTreazon]

On 9/7/2021 at 2:34 PM, Rozalia1 said:

Young Bucks vs Lucha Bros - What was Excalibur talking about this being their first straight up tag match since 2 year ago? The cheek to try and sell this as some manner of rare notable/rare encounter considering the amount of damn heel vs heel wrestling matches these two teams have had. 

 

Bit of a delayed reply but this actually WAS their first straight up tag match in two years in AEW (feel free to look it up). And Lucha Bros were clearly the faces in this match. I agree with a lot of your comments about the PPV in general (albeit a lot less negative) except for the tag match which was my MOTN.

 

At first I thought you was a hater of AEW, a troll, whatever. But now I feel like you're just a jaded wrestling fan. I'd be curious what current wrestling you enjoy (if any) as you evidently spend a lot of time watching and commenting on it. It may be worth your while just taking a break from it all, I've had to do it a few times over the years and felt much better for it. 

 

AEW isn't perfect, few are pretending they are. But it is an exciting time in wrestling, arguably the most since the attitude era on current events. It shouldn't be too hard to enjoy the ride 

[Rozalia1]

10 hours ago, ReazonIzTreazon said:

Bit of a delayed reply but this actually WAS their first straight up tag match in two years in AEW (feel free to look it up). And Lucha Bros were clearly the faces in this match. I agree with a lot of your comments about the PPV in general (albeit a lot less negative) except for the tag match which was my MOTN.

 

At first I thought you was a hater of AEW, a troll, whatever. But now I feel like you're just a jaded wrestling fan. I'd be curious what current wrestling you enjoy (if any) as you evidently spend a lot of time watching and commenting on it. It may be worth your while just taking a break from it all, I've had to do it a few times over the years and felt much better for it. 

 

AEW isn't perfect, few are pretending they are. But it is an exciting time in wrestling, arguably the most since the attitude era on current events. It shouldn't be too hard to enjoy the ride 

 

I did look up their record before making that post and saw that it was correct yes, but my issue was that they'd had plenty of encounters in 6 mans/Pac rather than one of the brothers so making it out it was some rare encounter is simply wrong. Granted, the fact that those matches were heel vs heel affairs heavily colours negatively how I see it all. To be clear if you don't know I actually like heel vs heel matches, as rare happenings that has a firm story reason to happen. AEW overuses them so much I detest when they happen in AEW. The Lucha Brothers are faces you say? I've seen this again and again mate sorry. They'll be "faces" one week and then they'll be heel the next. The next challengers appear like it'll be Santana and Ortiz, a face team, so I'm sure they'll be back to being heel for that. So I just see them as a heel team throughout, or would you rather I count each time they temporarily flip alignment to wrestle heels as a "turn"? It must be double digits on that front this year alone for them.

 

I'm going to try and sum it up and be brief as I could get very lengthy here. The New Day vs The Usos in Hell in a Cell was basically this match in stipulation. I enjoyed that but didn't this, largely due to the Lucha Brothers not respecting the wrestling outside Mexico and not adapting their style to it leading to looooong periods burying the rules by double teaming forever. One time when I decided to time I timed a 57 second long double team. No novelty in a tornado tag like this one if every match you have may as well be one and I find them offensive as a tag team. What of the "Movez" they did? Don't wow me as I know that is the least important part of pro-wrestling and I've seen even weeks in training trainees doing those sort of moves (though they aren't taught correct fundamentals of course). Penta by himself as a heel especially with his manager is fun. Fenix I can see has the potential to be a top face if they ever tried and didn't after one match as a face put him in a tag match as part of a heel team the week after. So it ain't that I detest the individual parts of the tag team. 

 

I like seeing strong fundamentals in basic moves, people acting/moving/reacting in a believable manner true to them, to see a match flow that makes sense and not just random moves, and very importantly to have it all not scream fake. That finish with Penta no selling the off the cage crossbody (that he took the brunt of) while the Young Bucks sold it was a cardinal sin and were I the boss I'd have fired everybody involved. The Lucha Brothers for doing the finish, the Young Bucks for agreeing to take it. 

 

I don't disagree that it is an "exciting time". Dynamite beat, even if barely, RAW, in the key demo. RAW is the number 2 show, is 3 hours, on a different day, and still had a higher overall number, all while AEW is hot and WWE is ice cold, so a lot of caveats but nevertheless something once thought unimaginable. The issue to me is I don't see it positively. None of this is growing the fan base which continues to regress and if this wins out and eventually wrestling just becomes something overly "Indy style" then well, it just ain't proper sorry. AEW promised they were going to be a serious sports based promotion. They love to say they're Professional Wrestling and not Sports Entertainment but no, sorry, they're Sports Entertainment. They aren't aren't as overproduced and just sterile as WWE is though which is certainly a big plus. 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Rozalia1

[ReazonIzTreazon]

2 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

I did look up their record before making that post and saw that it was correct yes, but my issue was that they'd had plenty of encounters in 6 mans/Pac rather than one of the brothers so making it out it was some rare encounter is simply wrong. Granted, the fact that those matches were heel vs heel affairs heavily colours negatively how I see it all. To be clear if you don't know I actually like heel vs heel matches, as rare happenings that has a firm story reason to happen. AEW overuses them so much I detest when they happen in AEW. The Lucha Brothers are faces you say? I've seen this again and again mate sorry. They'll be "faces" one week and then they'll be heel the next. The next challengers appear like it'll be Santana and Ortiz, a face team, so I'm sure they'll be back to being heel for that. So I just see them as a heel team throughout, or would you rather I count each time they temporarily flip alignment to wrestle heels as a "turn"? It must be double digits on that front this year alone for them.

 

I'm going to try and sum it up and be brief as I could get very lengthy here. The New Day vs The Usos in Hell in a Cell was basically this match in stipulation. I enjoyed that but didn't this, largely due to the Lucha Brothers not respecting the wrestling outside Mexico and not adapting their style to it leading to looooong periods burying the rules by double teaming forever. One time when I decided to time I timed a 57 second long double team. No novelty in a tornado tag like this one if every match you have may as well be one and I find them offensive as a tag team. What of the "Movez" they did? Don't wow me as I know that is the least important part of pro-wrestling and I've seen even weeks in training trainees doing those sort of moves (though they aren't taught correct fundamentals of course). Penta by himself as a heel especially with his manager is fun. Fenix I can see has the potential to be a top face if they ever tried and didn't after one match as a face put him in a tag match as part of a heel team the week after. So it ain't that I detest the individual parts of the tag team. 

 

I like seeing strong fundamentals in basic moves, people acting/moving/reacting in a believable manner true to them, to see a match flow that makes sense and not just random moves, and very importantly to have it all not scream fake. That finish with Penta no selling the off the cage crossbody (that he took the brunt of) while the Young Bucks sold it was a cardinal sin and were I the boss I'd have fired everybody involved. The Lucha Brothers for doing the finish, the Young Bucks for agreeing to take it. 

 

I don't disagree that it is an "exciting time". Dynamite beat, even if barely, RAW, in the key demo. RAW is the number 2 show, is 3 hours, on a different day, and still had a higher overall number, all while AEW is hot and WWE is ice cold, so a lot of caveats but nevertheless something once thought unimaginable. The issue to me is I don't see it positively. None of this is growing the fan base which continues to regress and if this wins out and eventually wrestling just becomes something overly "Indy style" then well, it just ain't proper sorry. AEW promised they were going to be a serious sports based promotion. They love to say they're Professional Wrestling and not Sports Entertainment but no, sorry, they're Sports Entertainment. They aren't aren't as overproduced and just sterile as WWE is though which is certainly a big plus. 

 

Naturally when you have two hours of weekly TV to fill and no luxury of split brands there are going to be interactions between the two teams but they recognise the PPV draw of the match and I'm glad they gave the Lucha Bros a run with the straps.

 

I admit that the Lucha Bros have been pretty directionless since early in AEW. I think the pandemic and PAC's travel issues stopped whatever they were planning as Death Triangle before it got going and I don't think his reliability is guaranteed for a while yet so not sure where the Andrade stuff is going either.

 

Fair enough if you didn't enjoy the cage match and I appreciate the reasons why you didn't. For me Wrestling is a variety show and I can get enjoyment out of most styles and types if executed well. I'm not crazy on the 'indyriffic' matches and false finishes which are becoming more common place and I wish they would slow it down at times and focus more on the fundamentals. But at the same time, wrestling evolves. Long gone are the days where a match ends with an atomic drop. Watching wrestling requires a level of suspending belief, although sometimes they push the envelope on that. I agree with you on the finish, I picked up on it myself. But it wasn't enough to sour my enjoyment on the match. Not sure if you were serious on firing them all but it did make me laugh.

 

I'll be honest, I try not to get too caught up in the ratings aspect. I want AEW to grow to the point where WWE takes notice and stops churning out shit but I have absolute zero confidence that will ever happen. I'm not even sure if WWE even care as I could see them gearing up to sell the company. But AEW are still a long way off winning the ratings, WWE have built up a fanbase of 40+ years throughout different generations and there'll be plenty of kids and backwards Americans that will tune in regardless. But now is a key time for AEW to take advantage of the buzz of the last few weeks and keep the new fans tuning in.

 

I asked in my previous post if there is any promotions that you currently enjoy? Genuinely interested.

[buckallmighty]

On 9/8/2021 at 4:44 AM, willmill97 said:

I haven't heard any update on the AEW game, if I've missed any info? That might be the thing that truly gets me into AEW if it's good.

 

All i've really heard on a release date is "first quarter of '22".

 

And there have been a couple teaser videos about character designs. One from couple months ago.

 

And one from a couple days ago..

 

[Rozalia1]

On 11/09/2021 at 3:51 PM, ReazonIzTreazon said:

Naturally when you have two hours of weekly TV to fill and no luxury of split brands there are going to be interactions between the two teams but they recognise the PPV draw of the match and I'm glad they gave the Lucha Bros a run with the straps.

 

I admit that the Lucha Bros have been pretty directionless since early in AEW. I think the pandemic and PAC's travel issues stopped whatever they were planning as Death Triangle before it got going and I don't think his reliability is guaranteed for a while yet so not sure where the Andrade stuff is going either.

 

Fair enough if you didn't enjoy the cage match and I appreciate the reasons why you didn't. For me Wrestling is a variety show and I can get enjoyment out of most styles and types if executed well. I'm not crazy on the 'indyriffic' matches and false finishes which are becoming more common place and I wish they would slow it down at times and focus more on the fundamentals. But at the same time, wrestling evolves. Long gone are the days where a match ends with an atomic drop. Watching wrestling requires a level of suspending belief, although sometimes they push the envelope on that. I agree with you on the finish, I picked up on it myself. But it wasn't enough to sour my enjoyment on the match. Not sure if you were serious on firing them all but it did make me laugh.

 

I'll be honest, I try not to get too caught up in the ratings aspect. I want AEW to grow to the point where WWE takes notice and stops churning out shit but I have absolute zero confidence that will ever happen. I'm not even sure if WWE even care as I could see them gearing up to sell the company. But AEW are still a long way off winning the ratings, WWE have built up a fanbase of 40+ years throughout different generations and there'll be plenty of kids and backwards Americans that will tune in regardless. But now is a key time for AEW to take advantage of the buzz of the last few weeks and keep the new fans tuning in.

 

I asked in my previous post if there is any promotions that you currently enjoy? Genuinely interested.

 

Sure but the problem is that it was senseless to give them all those matches to begin with because as I've said, heel vs heel. You had AEW fans justifying it all with Lucha Brothers/PAC now being faces and then the week after their short Young Bucks feud they're heeling on the Best Friends, even Fenix getting mic time to be a heel for some bizarre reason. This match up could have been fresh and a big deal if Fenix becomes a face as we wouldn't have seen all these heel vs heel matches where they play the face and then are back to heels. I mentioned just Fenix as I'm open to a Face Fenix and Heel Penta tag team. They're brothers, Penta can do heel moves by himself which Fenix can disapprove of, and gives the obvious feud starter of them losing the titles and Penta losing his mind over his brother always taking issue with his heel tactics. 

 

I was serious yes. There is a lot of stuff that can look bad. Obvious misses/grazes that make someone go down for the count. People nearly killing themselves like say Red Velvet and then popping up instantly. People recovering during matches instantly and doing all manner of wild moves without any issue at all. People doing stupid stuff because they don't know better and need to be smartened up. These are all forgivable things that can be sorted with the giving of advice from an authority figure so it doesn't happen again. This though? It was not forgivable. Both teams agreed to a finish where it was outlined that Penta would hold the Young Bucks in place so Fenix could wipe them all out with a crossbody and then they would hit their double team move. Whoever suggested the finish is guilty, however so is the other side as they have to raise the obvious issue and get the finish changed.

 

Smackdown is solid. Roman Reigns is the top guy in wrestling. I've always like Corbin and thankfully he is past the terrible King stuff now. Sami Zayne is fun in his role. Some others. Weakpoint is the tags but it is WWE so it will pretty much always be, though the Usos having the titles gives them some interest now I suppose. 

 

AEW I have said before is very watchable as it has a certain energy to it I feel. To me however it is also even more Sports Entertainment than WWE due to the fact that "movez" is so valued and rules so devalued. The whole "we don't have faces and heels" thing is also very much a wanted Vince thing due to him wanting to step beyond Pro-Wrestling, even if he never committed himself to it because like Khan is finding out it is stupid and doesn't work. It'd be what WWE would look like if Vince began caring even less for the art of pro-wrestling and didn't prefer bigger guys. AEW promoting Nick Gage was so irresponsible and stupid that it almost made me quit watching professional wrestling there and then. 

 

I'm hopeful for the new NXT hoping it leads to a return to form which would be that period until Finn Balor won the title (the first time). I've not watched the first episode of it and I'm sure it'll be rough but I've already heard they are using a lot of new talent so sounds positive. 

[Valzentia]

6 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

AEW promoting Nick Gage was so irresponsible and stupid that it almost made me quit watching professional wrestling there and then.

What exactly is the issue with AEW promoting Nick Gage?

[GoonerLukeThe]

hopefully the aew game will be as fun as the old wrestling games, also hoping the controls won't be complicated and pretty easy to learn

[jackmadrox]

Looking forward to the AEW game! Just a short while ago, I was looking forward to WWE 2K22. After Bray Wyatt got released...I no longer cared about 2K22. Bring on AEW!

[skidmarkgn]

Holt crap that New York card is stacked!!

[Rozalia1]

On 15/09/2021 at 4:11 PM, Valzentia said:

What exactly is the issue with AEW promoting Nick Gage?

 

I'll give you the short answer first. He and his garbage wrestling is an embarrassment, disgrace, and hurts Professional Wrestling in every respect. Below is an expanded version if you care to read it.

 

What is Professional Wrestling? Some people would say it is about "having fun" and putting on a "performance", something that ironically likely matches up with what Vince McMahon thinks who the majority of such people hate. No. Professional wrestling is about simulating a real looking contest while limiting damage as much as possible to yourself and your opponent. Once you start beating each other up for real then you're no longer doing professional wrestling. So for a start Nick Gage is not a Professional Wrestler, easily seen watching the embarrassing display with Jericho where it was clear how not even badly trained, just straight up not trained, he was. 

 

Next we have the fact that garbage wrestling, deathmatch wrestling, whatever you want to call it is not popular nor is it attractive to the majority of people. Wrestling does not want such shows getting more attention as that will hurt wrestling as a whole. It was one of the reasons why "Outlaws" were cracked down back in the day as they hurt business. Some cases were yes, established names trying to destroy new competition, but in other cases it was them trying to stop these other promotions coming in and killing business in an area with their ugly nasty looking shows and roster because once those shows poisoned the minds of the people in the area that they were wrestling that was it, ain't going to watch that nasty crap. So in conclusion, the bigger such garbage grows the more likely people who could become wrestling fans notice it and kills their interest in the majority of cases dead there and then. Wrestling if seen like that looks low rent, something for the "freaks", that sort of thing.

 

Finally we have the matter of health. Wrestling even though it is ultimately supposed to be protecting talent has issues on that front. It has gotten better recently with WWE due to Corona having to stop their house shows which inflict a lot of wear and tear on their wrestlers, but other issues very much still persist. Foolish crazy dives so overused no one cares anymore and are fake looking on top of everything that risk guys paralysing or killing themselves/others being the most obvious in the west. Now what is people in garbage wrestling cutting each other up and bashing each other over the head with weapons? That good for the health? Of course not. 

 

And that is the answer. People in wrestling be it promoters or wrestlers themselves should be trying to take these guys out, not promote them. I don't expect better from the likes of Moxley as he idolises garbage wrestling, was one, and apparently doesn't have the mindpower (or is it respect for the profession?) to realise he needs to be beyond such things. Guys like Matt Cardona though? They know better and should be ashamed of themselves. Just retire if this is all that will book you. Khan as a promoter though can do more damage and as one he should know better. I forget if it was stated they won't do another such embarrassment again, but either way I'm sure he finally learned the very basic lesson of not giving time to garbage wrestling. 

 

On 16/09/2021 at 3:07 AM, skidmarkgn said:

Holt crap that New York card is stacked!!

 

Many would question putting on such a big match so soon and on TV. 

 

However, personally... I very much prefer how AEW does things. They limit the PPVs so there is more time between them and they run special TV Dynamites which function as quasi-PPVs which promotes the idea that the weekly shows matter as things of consequence will happen on them. 

 

Dynamite's card is really strong I will say and do look forward to it. Feel the FTR match has been quickly manufactured if you will for it but well, I hope it will be the start of FTR actually having a positive run for both their sake and likely AEW's. Out of everybody that has come over I have to imagine they're the least happy and most likely to go back to WWE. When they first came in they were booked in a baffling losing feud with the Young Bucks that made less sense than anything they went through in WWE... then disappeared. They then resurface as members of the Pinnacle which you think okay, top heel faction surely... they still barely get booked and the Pinnacle goes on to be humiliated often by a faction they should be running over and currently Pinnacle may as well not be a faction. Losing here if they do might just make them decide they're quitting when they can. An established supposed top tag team losing to a unit that is not a tag team is one of those old unacceptable things which FTR will know about and will not be happy if they have to suffer it. But they have a positive win record because they win matches no one sees or cares about on Dark against nobodies? They were hardly jobbers in WWE and wins there at least came on TV that people actually watched. They still left. 

 

I can't say the same for the Rampage card though. Punk is beating Hobbs obviously and that is stupid as you shouldn't just be handing out losses to Hobbs like that. Young Bucks, or the Road Warriors when with Adam Cole vs Christian and Jurassic Express is just blah. Then the whole Lambert team is just... wrong. Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky in no way fit as guys that Lambert would be managing, Hager who is one of their opponents is more fitting for one... ummm, wouldn't be terrible to have Hager turn on Jericho here. 

[skidmarkgn]

Being as how tomorrow's main event is non-title everyone's expecting Bryan to win, and he very well may to keep it simple. I'm hoping for the rare but useful "time limit draw" to actually bail them out of the decision,  That could then lead to  another match that maybe Hangman could return for and interfere in (maybe being overwhelmed by hate and attacking Omega), allowing for a final "all the marbles" triple threat PPV match that Page actually wins.  We all know Bryan has no problem putting others over and I still believe Page should be the guy to take the title next, he may not be as much of a draw that Bryan would be as champ but a new star would definitely be cemented.

[SelectiveGamer]

For those who cheer on the nails in WWE's coffin... lots of rumors suggest Bray Wyatt will be appearing and showing up around the end of this month.

 

The whole 'Dark Order fighting amongst themselves' stuff SCREAMS this tease honestly.

 

They'll go back to how they were when Brodie was still alive (RIP)

[Rozalia1]

5 hours ago, skidmarkgn said:

Being as how tomorrow's main event is non-title everyone's expecting Bryan to win, and he very well may to keep it simple. I'm hoping for the rare but useful "time limit draw" to actually bail them out of the decision,  That could then lead to  another match that maybe Hangman could return for and interfere in (maybe being overwhelmed by hate and attacking Omega), allowing for a final "all the marbles" triple threat PPV match that Page actually wins.  We all know Bryan has no problem putting others over and I still believe Page should be the guy to take the title next, he may not be as much of a draw that Bryan would be as champ but a new star would definitely be cemented.

 

Reminds me of Roddy Piper vs Hulk Hogan non title match. Silly stuff. Omega taking another loss is stupid if the goal is in fact to put over Hangman. Hangman winning the title by pinning Bryan would also be stupid as the story hinges on him overcoming Omega and being the better man, something which you are not if you pin some unrelated guy. I'd only be for such a thing if they decide to go against the grain on multiman matches and make them not single fall. That change back to a non-WWE way would be even better than the Cage match change as WWE's version is actually good, it just hasn't been done correctly since Bruno (even Backlund did the whole escape the cage in a cowardly manner) so everyone hates it.

 

3 hours ago, SelectiveGamer said:

For those who cheer on the nails in WWE's coffin... lots of rumors suggest Bray Wyatt will be appearing and showing up around the end of this month.

 

The whole 'Dark Order fighting amongst themselves' stuff SCREAMS this tease honestly.

 

They'll go back to how they were when Brodie was still alive (RIP)

 

It does but they really shouldn't go for that. The Dark Order are nobodies and hanging around with them like that will quickly in some eyes put Bray lower down than he should be as he'd just be a more credible Matt Hardy. An ex-WWE heel with a stable of heel jobbers (assuming the Dark Order goes heel for this). Wyatt if still using his type of gimmick is supposed to be the real deal, as in a serious threat, the Dark Order are a bunch of goofs playing at it. He should want nothing to do with these losers. 

 

If Wyatt must team up with somebody then my recommendation would be Malakai Black.

[Viper]

On 9/11/2021 at 3:31 PM, buckallmighty said:

 

All i've really heard on a release date is "first quarter of '22".

 

And there have been a couple teaser videos about character designs. One from couple months ago.

 

And one from a couple days ago..

 

We also just got news a couple days ago that Owen Hart is now a playable character in the AEW game. I have high hopes for this game, I'm already looking forward to it far more than I am WWE 2K22 on the potential roster alone. 

[skidmarkgn]

REALLY good F'n dynamite tonight!!  Bryan and Kenny were top tier, although I think they might have held back a little to showcase what they can truly deliver in something like a PPV iron man match... which would be incredible.  The rest of the matches were mostly paced well and booked wonderfully, not a ton of shenanigans and beatdowns (at least not enough to be obnoxious which isn't something I can say about AEW too often) and some interesting developments showed up, like, how long until they turn Cody now that the crowd is firmly NOT behind him anymore, and do they also turn Black, who the crowd seems to love regardless?  The time limit draw was 100% what I was hoping for so no complaints there.  Pillman looked strong in defeat and feuding with MJF is a really good fit for him.  MJF can hardcore heel by doing things like talking to Pillman Sr while looking straight down to generate ultra heat and hopefully Brian Jr will get a decent rub simply by working with MJF.  I know FTR not going over doesn't sit well with everyone but Sting is still Sting, not only that but he can apparently also still go and Darby's officially a top guy, no need to kill their momentum while the iron's hot.  Malakai Black is hopefully done with the Cody crew and who knows where he'll go next, and we'll see if the fall of Cody has begun Finally, Ruby and Brit killed it... and they killed it in the main event!!  Brit getting a dirty win is fine and doing it against Ruby will hopefully finally get her some heel heat, who knows though, she's awesome and people love cheering her because of it.

[Rozalia1]

Dynamite

 

Bryan Danielson vs Kenny Omega - Bryan the master. Great stuff and I especially enjoyed the opening part with the kicks to Omega whenever Omega got cute. Omega for his part did excellent also because as I've said, when in there with someone who doesn't do foolishness he shines. The ref going out every single time with them to not do a count until it came time to do the beat the count spot bothered me while watching, but by the shows end I began to wonder if I should really be bothered by it. To explain, I felt that in the first number of times they went outside the ring it wasn't excessive so there really wasn't much reason for the referee to go to the outside. When they did go out for a good bit Omega did the entering and exiting the ring motion which is exactly what he should do... but the referee wasn't counting anyway so it just comes off as wrong. This comes off as nibbling at minor details I'm sure, but ultimately it is what AEW has cultivated in me. A few weeks ago they literally had a match that went into the stands, was so outrageous the commentators had to try and cover it by declaring that it was no count out, and then later in the match a count out began when it became time to beat the count... AEW is so bad with count outs, rules in general, that I'm now very sensitive to these things when watching their show.

 

The clowns coming out post match and doing an attack was thankfully brief. I don't care if it was to "further build/promote" the match on Rampage. Don't mess with a top production by attaching this low rent business on it. 

 

CM Punk segment - Punk was out there taking a shot at WWE again, one that I think was really offensive considering New York is the McMahon's ancestral territory if you will. I dislike this stuff but as I watched this one I seemed to get the thinking that it isn't actually Punk being petty, but doing some business. He can hardly be a "rebel" or whatever against AEW, so he does these shots at WWE instead to come off as one still. I could be completely wrong on this of course, but if that is what is actually is going on then I can't take issue with it.

 

MJF vs Pillman - Pillman apparently was trained by Lance Storm who apparently is a good trainer but... his strikes often look to be in slow motion, those horrible forearms especially. Forearms constantly getting buried as a strike in the modern era as bad strikers constantly use them, I assume because they're basically the safest strikes done well or badly. Outside that the match was fundamentally sound. Pillman may need to work on his strikes but the rest of him comes off good. I felt this with his promo previously too but on entrances he should realise that he shouldn't always be smiling, some times you got to be a bit more serious, a bit more meaner in appearance. 

 

Malakai Black vs Cody Rhodes - First off I'd like to say what a pleasure it is to see the original Mrs Rhodes back with Cody, and yes I know I may be one of the few but she is a fine looking woman and has a certain... energy which entertains me shall we say. Not that I'm implying that Cody should do away with the substitute Brandis, after all we live in a progressive age and all that so bring them all. I was pleasantly surprised at the result as with Cody it was in doubt if he was going to put Black over again or not, so good job on that. Anyway... the match. I thought that this would happen, talking of the reaction Cody got with all the boos. I'd give it a bit to see if this reaction holds, though considering how crowds often are, and even more so with AEW... a big crowd like this doing this will promote others doing it. A heel turn seems an obvious thing that needs to happen, don't WWE this now.

 

Now I'm sure many have their ideas of what a heel Cody and Brandi would look like and what heel fun they might get up to which... sure, whatever, but I like to think more on what use you could get out of that to increase business. AEW has a dearth of top Black singles talent, well any non-White singles talent really but in America the lack of Black talent will be more noticeable/problematic. I'd use Cody's heel turn to bring the QT story back and this time put Ogogo over Cody to establish a top Black (he is mixed race but well, race dynamics I think would be the term) talent with QT as his manager. I can very easily see a nice and easy way to book all that while justifying their previous heeldom, but I'm not going to outline it here because if I were to start fantasy booking these posts would get even longer. 

 

FTR vs Darby and Sting - Isn't it interesting how rules suddenly matter if FTR is wrestling? FTR, one of the best tag teams out there. It is almost like good and proper tag team wrestling requires the rules to exist and not have tag team matches all be unofficial tornado matches. FTR is usually kept off Dynamite and honestly you can see why every time they're out there as it just exposes everyone else. I get that they do have their haters, those people who love the Lucha Brothers and call FTR "boring"... but I just don't see the sense in that sorry. They work hard, their stuff has energy, it flows, it makes sense, they get the best match possible out of any team they face. A shame they're stuck being the world's greatest job team. No, I don't care about their official win record. Dark means it is meaningless and they lose overwhelmingly when it counts in their rare Dynamite appearances. 

As for the other team. I don't care to see Sting in the ring much, a thing with really old guys like him is if notice how they stand in the ring... they just look so awkward and it is. Darby however is a real talent and while he is small, he is one of those few that can make it work. On the matter of the result... right choice I suppose. FTR are losers and seemingly won't ever be top guys in AEW, many thinking it being the Young Buck's doing, and as such Darby should beat them. No point them beating Darby if they then disappear for 6 months or go on to lose to the Jurassic Express or whatever randomly. 

 

Britt Baker vs Ruby Soho - Have the women only got main events if Baker is part of them? The placement on the card comes off as trying to defend themselves honestly. It makes some sense as it was a title match while the rest were non-title, but it seems like something devised for the marks to cite for the next couple of months when someone raises the issue of the women getting screwed on their booking. Now you might say that I'm being terrible here as I'm attackive if they're in the deathslot, but now when they're not I'm still attacking. Yeah I am, and I will continue to be until you can't be correct 95% of the time that Dynamite will have a single Women's match and it will be in the deathslot. I don't care if the second match is Jade squashing a jobber within 2 minutes. Just make some progress already. 

 

I saw nothing really wrong with the match as both competitors are solid hands. The only issue came in the finish where Rebel took Ruby's finish and then was quickly back in the ring to celebrate like nothing had happened to her. How phoney and weak does it make Ruby's finisher look if Baker's manager can take the finish and be back up and about instantly no worse for wear? 

 

Overall... there was no bad match on the card. Under normal circumstances the FTR loss might have bothered me but I've long since resigned to the fact they're the losers so it was as such the correct result especially when it was putting over Darby who is a talent himself. The Cody stuff will look bad in hindsight if they try to Roman him and keep him face but I assume they won't. I thought the claim that their last PPV was the "best ever" and all that to be utterly ridiculous but this the best Dynamite/best weekly show in general of at least the year? Certainly. 

 

With shows like this and the momentum only growing... I can start to see them being able to topple the evil heel empire... but then I remember the rest of the roster and what business as usual looks like. It is no coincidence that this top show was one where they didn't have the goofs populating it. Still, it was a really good Dynamite and coming from me who is very critical that is impressive.

 

----

 

Rampage

 

The Road Warriors and Adam Cole match annoyed me greatly as they jacked themselves off as they often do. The Lucha Brothers having a match on the same show became too much. Penta at one point decided to just enter the ring illegally and wrestled for 46 seconds against the legal man while the ref and a heel on the heel corner stood there with their dicks in their hands. 

I've given them way more than enough chances and I've had it. No more. I cannot recall a worse tag team than the Lucha Brothers. They have zero respect for the rules and it stands out even in AEW. They drag every team they are in the ring with down as they have to entertain their nonsense. They hit moves for moves sake. They're constantly involved in nonsense heel vs heel affairs. They are an insult to tag team wrestling and to have them be tag team champions while the likes of FTR are losers is horrendous. 

 

I've had enough. I considered just no longer watching Lucha Brothers matches but that ain't enough as I've suffered too long through this crap to have that be the solution. I will no longer watch any tag team matches in AEW. I may make an exception for a special event type tag match, like say Jade & Shaq vs Cody & Brandi 2, but by and large I'm done watching tag team wrestling in AEW. 

[Glorious Fury]

Still gotta check out Dynamite, a little behind on AEW lately. Seems like Omega/Bryan was excellent. 

 

12 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

I thought the claim that their last PPV was the "best ever" and all that to be utterly ridiculous but this the best Dynamite/best weekly show in general of at least the year? Certainly. 

 

I enjoyed the PPV alot and thought it was the best under the AEW banner, but some of the comments coming after the show were mad on social media etc. Better than some of the greatest shows of the last 35 years are truly questionable claims. It just shows how the standard has fallen over the last decade or so.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Glorious Fury

[Rozalia1]

In a surprising turn of events Jade Cargill won the triple threat match on Rampage and is now the number 1 contender for the Women's championship... or perhaps not as then the match is heel vs heel and that is the AEW signature, but as I've said I don't care if they actually put the belt on Jade.  I do hope this has happened because Jade is winning the title and not because they want to delay a Baker vs Rosa title match... first off delaying programs like that in an obvious manner hurts everything in between then and now, as obviously nobody else has a shot at winning the title. WWE has gotten a lot of flak for doing this often and AEW itself is currently doing it with Omega... though Hangman might end up getting screwed due to all the WWE guys who have come on so we'll see on that. It'd also be extra stupid to delay the match this way as Rosa herself got pinned instead of Nyla who eats pins constantly and has no credibility to lose.

 

Match finish was... ill advised. These chair beatdowns to begin with are awkward and silly looking as guys have to make sure they hit guys on the back and not the head as whoever is taking the chair shots moves around all over the place. Jade, who is green, having to do one is not smart and only hurts her with the bad visual as only 2/6, 3/6 at a stretch looked fine. My suggestion would have been rather than 6 chair shots have it be 3-5 body slams. Jade just picking Rosa up again and again, slamming her, and then winning with a show off pin with her favourite pose. Such a win would look far better, dominant, and nasty then these largely awkward chair shots. 

[Viper]

So I gotta say, the TBS Championship. On one hand I like that it's a Women's title. But I DO NOT like that it's modeled after the TNT Championship. I don't like that WWE reuses designs, so I'm not giving AEW a pass here either. But on the other hand, it still looks better than the Women's World Title...which is strange. I know AEW likes to act like the TNT and World Title are on par with one another, but we know better....so depending on how it's booked, it's already going to look more presitgeous that tiny thing Britt Baker currently holds. 

 

In terms of models though...Sammy's current TNT Championship is gorgeous. I love that they fleshed the design out a bit more and added a ton of stones to the center plate. I wonder if this will be the routine now...every TNT champion gets a different design? Cody had the incomplete one, Brodie had the red strap (then given to Negative 1), Darby had the black strap, Miro had the white and green and now Sammy gets a bejeweled belt. Hard to tell if that's what they're doing, or if it's like...complete now. 

[Rozalia1]

Skipped Elite vs Byran and friends tag match because as I've said I'm no longer watching AEW tag garbage. Still watching the finish and damn, even just watching that angers me. All the Elite guys doing their knees to Jungleboy at the same time... Out of interest I zipped back to see how long a double team was in effect before this point... straight up 2 minutes. Straight up 2 minutes where 2 heels and then 5!!! heels are in the ring at the same time and no attempt is ever made to get them out of the ring. JR at the end has to make a comment to try and save himself from the burial that is done to any announcer who has to call this crap. Tony meanwhile doesn't care, and Excalibur likely doesn't know better. 

Absolutely wretched stuff. If this persists I'll have to stop watching even the finishes to not get angered by this disgracing of tag team wrestling that happens in AEW constantly. Tony Khan for all his "smarts" about the business (reading Meltzer's dirtsheet) clearly knows nothing about how tag wrestling actually works. I'm not going to let him off by pretending that this is all just the Young Bucks. He is ultimately to blame. What makes this even worse is I don't doubt that he actually wants to do good by tag team wrestling... he is just so terrible at it that he does a worse job with tag team wrestling than Vince who dislikes and has no interest in tag wrestling, to the point I think it only remains more out of tradition and it being helpful for killing time on TV.

Side note. Could they stop pinning Jungle Boy in these things? The finish was a damn 5 on 1 move, I'm sure the Dino can take a pin in this situation. He should overall be taking many more pins considering that while yes, he is big, he has no potential unlike Jungle Boy.

 

That Sky Blue is it? Wow... no energy whatsoever in her promo. No idea if she is any good but she needs a manager if this is all she can do currently on the mic. Jade with the comment of making the TBS championship "That Bitch Show" is cool and all but... why would the number 1 contender for the AEW Women's title be in a tournament for this one? Unless Baker is also in it (I'd support that) then it makes no sense and acts as a spoiler that obviously Jade isn't going to win the AEW title... and likely the TBS one too as her then winning it is stupid as you instantly have told everyone that obviously the TBS championship is below the AEW one. Something they haven't yet done with the TNT title. 

As for the women having another title... I don't trust it. In theory this should mean that women will now get 2 matches on Dynamite... but as I said, I don't trust them with Women's wrestling. I think what they're going to do is have the AEW title stuff on Dynamite and then have TBS championship stuff on Rampage. That way both shows can maintain the strict 1 Women's match cap. 

Side note. Obviously Jade should beat Baker for the AEW title and then win this tournament for the TBS title. 

Further side note. The belt needs a redesign already as the TBS looks like HOS. 

 

So the Pinnacle was masked for their attack on Darby... it was clearly and obviously them and no attempt to hide that was made, but at least they were masked yes... is this going to be a thing in AEW going forward or are they being a bit more realistic here this one time and then reverting back? Because guys doing these attacks have never saw the need to mask themselves before. 

 

Hangman returning and winning is the correct move and it is good we can breath easy on that front sooner rather than later. Closer it got to Full Gear the more likely it looked that he had been sidelined.

 

8 hours ago, Viper said:

So I gotta say, the TBS Championship. On one hand I like that it's a Women's title. But I DO NOT like that it's modeled after the TNT Championship. I don't like that WWE reuses designs, so I'm not giving AEW a pass here either. But on the other hand, it still looks better than the Women's World Title...which is strange. I know AEW likes to act like the TNT and World Title are on par with one another, but we know better....so depending on how it's booked, it's already going to look more presitgeous that tiny thing Britt Baker currently holds. 

 

In terms of models though...Sammy's current TNT Championship is gorgeous. I love that they fleshed the design out a bit more and added a ton of stones to the center plate. I wonder if this will be the routine now...every TNT champion gets a different design? Cody had the incomplete one, Brodie had the red strap (then given to Negative 1), Darby had the black strap, Miro had the white and green and now Sammy gets a bejeweled belt. Hard to tell if that's what they're doing, or if it's like...complete now. 

 

Don't worry, plenty of other people will be giving that pass for obvious reasons. I wouldn't worry though as they likely will be scrapping it for something else as currently the front plate looks like it says HOS and you can't have a women have a title like that.

As for AEW and TNT being on the same level... I would say they have maintained that, thus far anyway. Previous holders were all guys you could say were main event guys or guys that could beat whoever was in the main event if they were to have a match. Obviously if they did they wouldn't win, but the point is that they were credible. I don't expect them to successfully do the same with the TBS title as they do not care about Women's wrestling. This is pandering to defend themselves from attacks and help their marks defend themselves and by extension AEW when pressed on the matter of the women getting tiny scraps. 

 

As Baker and the tiny belt... they may well scrap that in future if say Jade wins it and she (in kayfabe) wants a big belt for her big self and not some tiny thing. However, they might well keep it on the logic that it looks like an old timey belt and so that makes it more prestigious looking. You also have to remember that at some point they'll likely put the title on a 5'0 80lbs "Joshi" and a big belt will look terrible on them. I'm pretty sure the title was only a small one like because Riho was the first champion. Just imagine her wearing the AEW men's title and think of the visual. A women wearing a belt that is clearly too big for her. Even just on the shoulder it'll clearly be oversized.