The AEW Thread

[honestly united]

Just watching it now, commentators not great, does sound like a ROH show rather than their new big deal

[FairWeatherFan]

CM Punk did lay the groundwork for things in the opening promo and pretty much saying he's still the champion. Probably is the main event never had any follow up or post match angle. Even a backstage interview with Samoa Joe would have done something to say he's coming for him to build the match and help connect the two.

Did get the TNT switch that's been part of an ongoing storyline and there was set up to HoB v. Andrade & ??? LFI maybe.

Commentary team didn't bother me much. Didn't really consider it lesser as Kevin Kelly's 20 year removed from regularly listening to him and sounded decent to me. Never the biggest fan of Nigel on comms. Excalibur was a bit of a non-entity to me before AEW started up. Happy to give them a chance. With JR stepping back, after being part of the original announcement, there's an opportunity to tweak it with a new 3rd if need be.

Punk needs tied into something serious for the show to have some extra meaning.

Oh, and Scorpio Sky. I like you but maybe call up Kaz at Impact for a gig.

[8MileBU]

Some recent thoughts and observations: 

• Satnam Singh surely has to stop being utterly utterly pointless sometime. 

• Taya Valkyrie is absolutely dreadful. 

• Isiah Kassidy needs to stop the weird sex noises. 

• Blackpool Combat Club are getting boring.

• Eddie Kingston’s the character is great but his brief performance looked terrible.

• Agree with MJF’s remarks about Adam Cole’s body. He now looks like a regular guy they just plucked out the crowd.

[honestly united]

On collision, given it looks like its the likes of Punk, Andrade, Thunder Rosa, it looks like they have made a show just to put the people no one else on the roster wants to work with on.

[Mark Connolly]

6 minutes ago, honestly united said:

On collision, given it looks like its the likes of Punk, Andrade, Thunder Rosa, it looks like they have made a show just to put the people no one else on the roster wants to work with on.

Nia Jaxx to debut soon?

[forameus]

And also sounds like Kenny Omega will not appear (at least live) on either Dynamite or Collision this week ahead of Forbidden Door, despite the latter being in Canada.  Dynamite's in Chicago, so he'd likely get an interesting reception, but if you're shiting it from putting out one of the big components of one of your biggest matches first because of the reception he'll get in Chicago (because of Punk) or avoiding a massive pop on Collision (because of Punk) then surely that's a pretty big issue?

I know, I know, it's probably not that and he's just not able to appear, but still.

[FairWeatherFan]

2 hours ago, forameus said:

And also sounds like Kenny Omega will not appear (at least live) on either Dynamite or Collision this week ahead of Forbidden Door, despite the latter being in Canada.  Dynamite's in Chicago, so he'd likely get an interesting reception, but if you're shiting it from putting out one of the big components of one of your biggest matches first because of the reception he'll get in Chicago (because of Punk) or avoiding a massive pop on Collision (because of Punk) then surely that's a pretty big issue?

I know, I know, it's probably not that and he's just not able to appear, but still.

The only reason we know that is because Meltzer made sure to put it out there. That's more of a face saving exercise for the Bucks than Kenny. Pre-tapes and post-Dynamite/Rampage go home speeches has been the norm for Elite with live interview segments being a distant 3rd.

If it wasn't put out there ahead of time it would have gone unnoticed otherwise.

[forameus]

8 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

The only reason we know that is because Meltzer made sure to put it out there. That's more of a face saving exercise for the Bucks than Kenny. Pre-tapes and post-Dynamite/Rampage go home speeches has been the norm for Elite with live interview segments being a distant 3rd.

If it wasn't put out there ahead of time it would have gone unnoticed otherwise.

Yeah, that's true, and now I feel like a dick for getting worked by the dirtsheets.  

Still, the fact that it's even a potential issue just shows how mental the whole situation is.  There's presumably now no legal stuff in place, get the guys in a room and tell them to act like grown-ups or face consequences.  Don't just kowtow to Punk and set up quarantine zones across your programming to avoid actually managing the situation.

[FairWeatherFan]

23 minutes ago, forameus said:

Yeah, that's true, and now I feel like a dick for getting worked by the dirtsheets.  

Still, the fact that it's even a potential issue just shows how mental the whole situation is.  There's presumably now no legal stuff in place, get the guys in a room and tell them to act like grown-ups or face consequences.  Don't just kowtow to Punk and set up quarantine zones across your programming to avoid actually managing the situation.

I'm doing my best to try and tune out a lot of the dirtsheets on this. Especially Meltzer where a lot of stuff lifted from him is scattershot thoughts on podcasts/tweets/forum posts. 

There's going to be a clearer picture once Forbidden Door is out of the way and they have to start shaping All In & All Out.

So far we've had months of flip-flopping on points and week one has had the pair of them (Punk/Elite) making jokes. Punk in his promo and Elite on BTE.

[djchapsticks]

Love that they have leaned into this botch.

 

 

[TheGoon]

Really enjoyed that episode, first hour especially,  Forbidden Door’s looking stacked.

[DA Baracus]

Krusty the Clown is Jungle Boy's uncle.

[DA Baracus]

Why is Rampage still a thing?

[FairWeatherFan]

3 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Why is Rampage still a thing?

Why not?

[DA Baracus]

1 minute ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Why not?

It's consistently poor but, worse, meaningless, and they have Collision now anyway. 

It serves no purpose.

[forameus]

I'd agree.  I've got Fite+ and watch Dynamite religiously, but I don't think I've ever watched any part of an episode of Rampage.  There's never been something they've hyped up that I've felt was worth seeking out the time over a weekend to watch.  IT's very much booked like a B show, and now it's arguably a C show, or at least a B with two As taking attention away.

[DA Baracus]

30 minutes ago, forameus said:

I'd agree.  I've got Fite+ and watch Dynamite religiously, but I don't think I've ever watched any part of an episode of Rampage.  There's never been something they've hyped up that I've felt was worth seeking out the time over a weekend to watch.  IT's very much booked like a B show, and now it's arguably a C show, or at least a B with two As taking attention away.

It's also well over saturating the product. There's so much wrestling to watch these that is so easily and freely (or cheaply) available. If anything of value was to happen on Rampage then it would be seen by less viewers. It devalues AEW, and the wrestlers on it, because it means nothing. 

Get it to f**k. 

[TheGoon]

4 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

It's also well over saturating the product. There's so much wrestling to watch these that is so easily and freely (or cheaply) available. If anything of value was to happen on Rampage then it would be seen by less viewers. It devalues AEW, and the wrestlers on it, because it means nothing. 

Get it to f**k. 

It’s not going away any time soon, for better or worse. The more hours they can get Warner to pay gor, the more they’ll put on on. 

Battle of the Belts is somehow still a thing as well  

[DA Baracus]

Just now, TheGoon said:

It’s not going away any time soon, for better or worse. The more hours they can get Warner to pay gor, the more they’ll put on on. 

Battle of the Belts is somehow still a thing as well  

Haha aye, BOTB is, and always has been, total pish. It's another thing that waters down the product.

AEW need to be a bit brutal and cut a lot of talent. They need to then move to two main shows, Dynamite and Collision. A loose roster split seems OK. I'd keep Dark/Elevation too to give new talent a chance and regular talent a place to keep fresh, like a reserve league.

[untitled00]

7 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Haha aye, BOTB is, and always has been, total pish. It's another thing that waters down the product.

AEW need to be a bit brutal and cut a lot of talent. They need to then move to two main shows, Dynamite and Collision. A loose roster split seems OK. I'd keep Dark/Elevation too to give new talent a chance and regular talent a place to keep fresh, like a reserve league.

They can’t keep Dark/Elevation on You Tube due to the new deal with WBD being exclusive in terms of any AEW produced shows (ROH doesn’t fall into this category apparently).

I’ve found Rampage to be pretty shippable for about the last 6 months plus - ironically until the last 2 weeks where the show has just been mental matches with international talent. Whether this will continue after Forbidden Door and what they actually do with the show will interesting.

Battle of The Belts was such a let down. I was expecting a classic ‘Clash of the Champions’ style event with the odd Tag or World title match but instead it was just a second hour of Rampage.

Edited June 25, 2023 by untitled00