The AEW Discussion Thread

[skidmarkgn]

On 10/6/2020 at 1:13 AM, Simpo said:

Anyone got any thoughts of the latest that's been going on? 

 

Long term booking at its finest with Cody/Darby.  Even when other feuds were going on with the two they always made sure that they stayed connected.  Darby would build himself up for weeks, only to lose to Cody.  After the loss, he rebuilds, gets a rematch... and loses again.  Meanwhile, Cody's trying to feature new talent in his weekly challenges (one of which brought Eddie Kingston's brilliance to main stream eyes), and even taking a squash to Brodie Lee but we all knew it was going to eventually loop back to Darby.  When Darby finally slayed his dragon and won the TV title, a new star was made.  Not only did they spend a year making a new star, they did it while weaving other story lines into the mix. 

 

Hangman and Omega, simple logic booking, with an appropriate payoff, and lo-and-behold, it's looping back to Moxley/Omega.  Bucks/FTW, Jericho/Cassidy (which I'll admit hasn't done as much for Cassidy as I was hoping) and Death Triangle's reunion and immediate, LOGICAL, feud with Kingston are all shining examples of Aew's ability to book long term and provide actual payoffs that make sense.  If only they could figure out the Dark Order and women's division.

[skidmarkgn]

So now we've got an AEW, NWA, Impact working relationship.  I'm also hearing about New Japan being in the mix of this team up.  Good lord the possibilities.

[IntroPhenom]

So last night...

 

Spoiler

Sting returned to the ring.  Checked him out on wikipedia, and the dude is 61 years old!  I wonder how active he'll be in AEW.

 

 

[SelectiveGamer]

I just love to see how AEW and The Sinking Ship are now in a conspiracy to put WWE out of business for good. Because you know... that will end well for everyone I'm sure. ?

[Glorious Fury]

7 hours ago, SelectiveGamer said:

I just love to see how AEW and The Sinking Ship are now in a conspiracy to put WWE out of business for good. Because you know... that will end well for everyone I'm sure.

 

I don't really get the hype that I've seen for the AEW/Impact collaboration, It does literally nothing for AEW as Impact has nobody with any name value barring maybe Ken Shamrock and hes well past his best. WWE currently is putting out utter garbage and still getting people watching, so yeah can't see them being too worried!

[skidmarkgn]

8 minutes ago, GloriousFury9414 said:

 

I don't really get the hype that I've seen for the AEW/Impact collaboration, It does literally nothing for AEW as Impact has nobody with any name value barring maybe Ken Shamrock and hes well past his best. WWE currently is putting out utter garbage and still getting people watching, so yeah can't see them being too worried!

 

Adding the Good Brothers and the North to AEW's already stellar tag division is a pretty big bonus, plus it adds possibilities for various Bullet Club reunions (especially if NJPW is on board and lets them us the name), Impact also has a pretty strong women's division which could help provide a spark AEW has desperately needed since its beginning.  James Storm also had a recent appearance on impact and thinking about a Storm/Hangman feud doesn't sound too bad to me.  And honestly, when you think about it,  the same argument could be made about the NWA partnership when it happened and now Starks and Kingston have become major players for AEW.  Impact is obviously getting the better end of the deal but AEW wouldn't be in it if their wasn't some opportunity to expand for the better.

7 hours ago, SelectiveGamer said:

I just love to see how AEW and The Sinking Ship are now in a conspiracy to put WWE out of business for good. Because you know... that will end well for everyone I'm sure.

 

If this teaming up is what's needed for the WWE to finally take a step back and re-evaluate what they're putting out than how can it be a bad thing.  I've been a fan since the '80's but after last year's Hell in a Cell (where they power botched the Fiend vs. Rollins) I gave up, I couldn't take it anymore, and every time I look into results or reactions it's always the same, "why the f--k did they make that incoherent booking decision... this makes no sense!!",  "What ever happened to the _______________ and _______________ story line?  Was it dropped?", "hey, where's __________________?  He/she was so good in NXT".  With the exception of Takeover events, no one is ever praising WWE's product.  Wrestling's greatest era was during the Monday night wars.  Competition is good for the industry.

[Glorious Fury]

22 hours ago, skidmarkgn said:

 

Adding the Good Brothers and the North to AEW's already stellar tag division is a pretty big bonus, plus it adds possibilities for various Bullet Club reunions (especially if NJPW is on board and lets them us the name), Impact also has a pretty strong women's division which could help provide a spark AEW has desperately needed since its beginning.  James Storm also had a recent appearance on impact and thinking about a Storm/Hangman feud doesn't sound too bad to me.  And honestly, when you think about it,  the same argument could be made about the NWA partnership when it happened and now Starks and Kingston have become major players for AEW.  Impact is obviously getting the better end of the deal but AEW wouldn't be in it if their wasn't some opportunity to expand for the better.

 

I don't watch Impact so I don't really know the talents other than the ex-wwe guys who were largely used as enhancement, so just going off the roster by name value and how it would affect viewer interest. I'm sure some wrestlers will impress and it will help AEW create some new stars. I don't think they would be able to pull off an invasion type angle though, as the rosters are just too big in terms of star power. They could shift some talents across though if they were to go down that path like they did with Steve Austin, Kurt Angle in 2001. 

 

22 hours ago, skidmarkgn said:

 

If this teaming up is what's needed for the WWE to finally take a step back and re-evaluate what they're putting out than how can it be a bad thing.  I've been a fan since the '80's but after last year's Hell in a Cell (where they power botched the Fiend vs. Rollins) I gave up, I couldn't take it anymore, and every time I look into results or reactions it's always the same, "why the f--k did they make that incoherent booking decision... this makes no sense!!",  "What ever happened to the _______________ and _______________ story line?  Was it dropped?", "hey, where's __________________?  He/she was so good in NXT".  With the exception of Takeover events, no one is ever praising WWE's product.  Wrestling's greatest era was during the Monday night wars.  Competition is good for the industry.

 

Totally agree, competition can only help both brands. 

 

[Rozalia1]

On 04/12/2020 at 5:19 AM, skidmarkgn said:

If this teaming up is what's needed for the WWE to finally take a step back and re-evaluate what they're putting out than how can it be a bad thing.  I've been a fan since the '80's but after last year's Hell in a Cell (where they power botched the Fiend vs. Rollins) I gave up, I couldn't take it anymore, and every time I look into results or reactions it's always the same, "why the f--k did they make that incoherent booking decision... this makes no sense!!",  "What ever happened to the _______________ and _______________ story line?  Was it dropped?", "hey, where's __________________?  He/she was so good in NXT".  With the exception of Takeover events, no one is ever praising WWE's product.  Wrestling's greatest era was during the Monday night wars.  Competition is good for the industry.

16 hours ago, GloriousFury9414 said:

Totally agree, competition can only help both brands. 

 

While AEW is clearly trying to compete, Tony Khan's recently with the ratings and demo cringe listing of NXT's numbers with AEWs makes that clear enough... WWE really doesn't seem to be as a whole (HHH might do some moves here and there, but his power is limited). NXT is slotted in to reduce AEW's numbers a bit yes, but that seems more to make sure that their future TV deal comes out nicely (why pay WWE X money if AEW is close to it?). 

 

If Vince wanted to really compete he'd make sure NXT had a few big names from the main roster on it often. He'd promote it heavily on RAW and Smackdown constantly. He'd also, call it arrogance or whatever, take it out of HHH's hands. 

 

As for WWE stepping back, morbid as it is, that only has a chance of happening once Vince is no longer in charge which will only be when he is dead. Vince unlike his father is not willing to allow someone to take over and take the company in a direction counter to his own. 

[skidmarkgn]

6 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

While AEW is clearly trying to compete, Tony Khan's recently with the ratings and demo cringe listing of NXT's numbers with AEWs makes that clear enough... WWE really doesn't seem to be as a whole (HHH might do some moves here and there, but his power is limited). NXT is slotted in to reduce AEW's numbers a bit yes, but that seems more to make sure that their future TV deal comes out nicely (why pay WWE X money if AEW is close to it?). 

 

If Vince wanted to really compete he'd make sure NXT had a few big names from the main roster on it often. He'd promote it heavily on RAW and Smackdown constantly. He'd also, call it arrogance or whatever, take it out of HHH's hands. 

 

As for WWE stepping back, morbid as it is, that only has a chance of happening once Vince is no longer in charge which will only be when he is dead. Vince unlike his father is not willing to allow someone to take over and take the company in a direction counter to his own. 

 

That's funny because I see it the exact opposite.  WWE has hot-shotted and counter booked big AEW shows 100% of the time up until Winter is Coming. 

[Rozalia1]

On 06/12/2020 at 3:06 AM, skidmarkgn said:

 

That's funny because I see it the exact opposite.  WWE has hot-shotted and counter booked big AEW shows 100% of the time up until Winter is Coming. 

 

I've heard that said often and I'd say yes and no. NXT was a show that was 1 hour and largely consisted of predictable jobber matches with a superstar main event. It's top guys often would go good periods without showing up again on TV. Going to 2 hours and getting a modern format means that yeah, by comparison it certainly is "hotshotting" as they're running far more big programs. Another thing to keep in mind is NXT unlike AEW actually has to send stars up to someone else, often enough as we have seen months out from the boss man having anything for them but you got to meet his deadline. Once the word comes from on high that you're losing a guy then yeah, why wouldn't you burn through everything with them? It's not like Vince cares that the guys he is being given have been shown on national television getting beaten as to him if you're on NXT/AEW/whatever else then you may as well not exist to the audience. 

[skidmarkgn]

Hopefully it's T-minus until I can see my girl Rosemary on AEW television.  Abadon, Su Yung, and Rosemary all running together... yes please.

[skidmarkgn]

The TV numbers for yesterday's Impact haven't been released yet but for what it's worth, the Twitch numbers have.  The weekly average is about 2,000 people, The Omega segment last night... 56,600.  I know it's Twitch which is whatever, but from what I hear a lot of people don't have AXS TV so the Twitch numbers might be a little more telling in this case.  AEW's got a pretty stacked card tonight so it'll be interesting to see if this crossover can keep them on pace with the numbers they did last week.

[Rozalia1]

Impact did the best it has done in a long time but I doubt the numbers will hold. Saw that Tony Khan is doing a Vince in Memphis on Impact which he did I think a good job with though him becoming on air for AEW is... uh... they already mention him faaaaar too much. 

 

They've had two strong numbers in a row in thanks to Sting and Shaq I suppose which is very good as the more time you can keep those new people around the more time you have to potentially convert them. There is some negative aspects but not going to rain on the parade they have going here right now, they're doing good and I'm happy for them.

[Rozalia1]

And their numbers have dropped, worse, NXT shot up. I saw a lot of talk of AEW leaving NXT in the dust but I suppose that isn't going to be happening right now.

 

I have to say the drops were well deserved honestly, they deserve to drop further next week. Kenny Omega vs Joey Janela was offensive in it's stupidity. They have their world champ, a guy they're pushing not just in company but supporting on an inter-promotional level and... he is going longer than he needs to, yes a short match by AEW standards but still too long. He is taking crazy bumps either from doing moves he doesn't need to do like the stupid I'll just try to paralyze myself dive to the outside or worse... taking a top rope to the outside leg drop... through a table... which Janela being a self trained amateur botched and so landed right on Omega's face... which meant nothing anyway as Janela lost instantly after putting him back in the ring. Oh and we can't forget Janela's Shawn Michaels vs Hulk Hogan level of selling either, which beyond making him look like a goof buries his opponent too for being part of this tomfoolery. 

 

I'd not have liked it much if this was a match against Moxley who enjoys this sort of garbage, but at least he is a big name and you could see some manner of logic to it. Hard and fast match with several big spots and by the end Omega wins... but against Janela? Joey Janela? A job guy? Not even a job guy who has future potential but a straight up dead ender. Omega should have crushed Janela and Kiss (who was ringside for Janela) 2 on 1 in half the time the match went to me. If he is the top guy than treat him as such and protect him. He doesn't need to be taking all these risks against lowcarders.

[skidmarkgn]

I don't really see it as much of a drop as it was a return to normal.  The Winter is Coming show was stacked and the numbers were going to be way up.  They also advertised a complete card for the following week and it was pretty stacked as well. 

[Rozalia1]

I can't say you are exactly wrong on that. They had two uh, lets say high paced shows where a lot of stuff happened (as you said, stacked) and then you had this following show. However even under those parameters in no world should Joey Janela be in the main event and having that sort of match with the AEW champion but if he absolutely must be, then just squash the guy full on. 

[skidmarkgn]

Had no idea Brodie Lee was off of television because of lung issues.  He was one of the good ones and it's heartbreaking that he's gone.

[Rozalia1]

I was honestly shocked when I woke up and saw the news that he had died. Usually these things don't shock me but considering I've been watching the guy for years and he only took himself off TV not that long ago... absolutely shocking. I knew it was likely bad as no injury was declared but I expected it to come out before something like this could happen. He was someone who could have been so much more if Vince due to Brodie's look didn't imagine him with a southern accent and then felt slighted for life when Brodie couldn't do it. Still, was on national TV for years, had great matches, is said by everyone he has come across to be a stand up guy, and will be fondly remembered. You don't have to be a world champ for people decades later to remember you as a good one. 

If there is an afterlife I wish him a good one and of course, condolences to his family. 

There is something though which some people are raising which considering the guy just died is... not a good time, but it is a little odd I'll admit. The fact it's not clear what he died from outside a nebulas "lung problem" is not good as it means a lot of people are going to think it is Corona. Saying it is "not Corona" only fuels that if you don't provide the evidence. It is not impossible to imagine he did die from Corona, gotten at an AEW show (or not, but people will instantly write it off as so), and it is getting hushed up. This is the company that is still allowing Jericho to do concerts after all so hardly a company with the most care on this issue. 

 

[jackmadrox]

Alright. Tonight I am sitting down and giving AEW Dynamite a fair shake. I kept putting it off. I'm hoping to see abadon, I really dig her horror thing.

Edited February 18, 2021 by jackmadrox

[skidmarkgn]

On 2/17/2021 at 5:20 PM, jackmadrox said:

Alright. Tonight I am sitting down and giving AEW Dynamite a fair shake. I kept putting it off. I'm hoping to see abadon, I really dig her horror thing.

 

If you have on demand I would HIGHLY recommend going back and watching the Brodie Lee tribute show, one of the best tribute's I've ever seen.  Also, not sure how long ago the matches were but Feix vs. Penta, Fenix vs. Omega, and the six man tag (basically anything involving Fenix right now is straight fire) from last week are worth looking up too.

[Rozalia1]

Depending on your taste of course. I'm personally completely uninterested in that stuff listed, though I will admit Fenix certainly puts his all into the mad flippy stuff and he might be the best/one of the best at it. 

 

What I'm looking forward to myself is the in-ring debut of Jade Cargill who looks like a million bucks and AEW should support to massive degrees to make a star. What? New to wrestling and green as hell? Ultimate Warrior is my answer to that. Forget the subpar woman's division that AEW has, which considering the influence of Kenny Omega likely will never book Jade correctly anyway (Riho/certain others in no world should get a single bit of offence on someone who looks like Jade, and yes, Nyla jobbed to Riho and all that. That was even more absurd). Have her manhandle Darby Allin, and Grampa Sting too for that matter, to capture the TNT title at the very least. Then perhaps give her the "5-minute White boy challenge" gimmick that Rodney Mack had where she squashes the guys that you'll see jobbing on Dark in under 5 mins. She can hold the title until after Brandi gives birth, so Brandi can interfere in a match to allow her husband Cody to defeat Jade for the title.

 

In short, when Jade isn't on the screen everyone should be asking where Jade is. 

[GoonerLukeThe]

Big Show joining aew is a massive statement, hiring a guy who was in wwe for over 20 years is pretty big tbh

[Glorious Fury]

 

On 2/24/2021 at 8:14 PM, Rozalia1 said:

Depending on your taste of course. I'm personally completely uninterested in that stuff listed, though I will admit Fenix certainly puts his all into the mad flippy stuff and he might be the best/one of the best at it. 

 

What I'm looking forward to myself is the in-ring debut of Jade Cargill who looks like a million bucks and AEW should support to massive degrees to make a star. What? New to wrestling and green as hell? Ultimate Warrior is my answer to that. Forget the subpar woman's division that AEW has, which considering the influence of Kenny Omega likely will never book Jade correctly anyway (Riho/certain others in no world should get a single bit of offence on someone who looks like Jade, and yes, Nyla jobbed to Riho and all that. That was even more absurd). Have her manhandle Darby Allin, and Grampa Sting too for that matter, to capture the TNT title at the very least. Then perhaps give her the "5-minute White boy challenge" gimmick that Rodney Mack had where she squashes the guys that you'll see jobbing on Dark in under 5 mins. She can hold the title until after Brandi gives birth, so Brandi can interfere in a match to allow her husband Cody to defeat Jade for the title.

 

In short, when Jade isn't on the screen everyone should be asking where Jade is. 

 

Didnt know who she was before seeing this. Certainly has a great look and star potential, surprised WWE didn't try harder for her. 

 

3 hours ago, LukeTheGooner said:

Big Show joining aew is a massive statement, hiring a guy who was in wwe for over 20 years is pretty big tbh

 

Agree with this, didn't expect Big Show to join AEW at all. Don't think he will do too much on TV but still interesting. 

[skidmarkgn]

3 hours ago, LukeTheGooner said:

Big Show joining aew is a massive statement, hiring a guy who was in wwe for over 20 years is pretty big tbh

 

If I understand correctly it's supposed to be more of an announcer role than anything, which is great.  I wouldn't mind him charging the ring an using his name to help build the current and future AEW stars, like Sting's doing for Allin or Hardy's doing for Private Party and Hangman, but him being a consistent in-ring performer doesn't interest me at all.

[Rozalia1]

As far as I've heard it will be to act as an announcer yeah. In the past when Big Show randomly got on commentary in WWE a lot of people noted, I remember doing it myself though don't remember specifically what it was I found good... think it was some insight on certain moves perhaps, so people since have said he could have a future on commentary once his career is up. I imagine he likely asked to get a position in WWE of that nature, got turned down, and phoned up AEW who are going to give him a job simply for the big news of "Big Show signs with AEW".

 

It's a mixed bag ultimately. On one hand, you can work without control freak Vince McMahon in your year. On the other, in AEW you have to call absolutely rotten and embarrassing stuff like Marko Stunt, Riho, plus the general tomfoolery that happens.