Go2Sleep

I've been on the Kyle Fletcher bandwagon for a while now (and still am despite this upcoming criticism), but has anyone else noticed that he leg slaps so hard his own leg bleeds in almost every match?

If that's what she's going for, TK should chip in with a fitting theme song. I'm far from an expert on what constitutes 60s/70s British counter culture music, but there has to be a good wrestling theme from Pink Floyd or Zeppelin or something. Edit: It's "Burn" by Deep Purple. Get on it,Tony.

MJF and Sterling taking over HS and reducing the original members to menial tasks would have some really bad undertones. If they aren't gonna play it straight, MJF is the one who should be getting out-smarted.

I forgot to comment on last week's Collision, which I thought was an ideal weekly TV show for AEW. Bowens and Takeshita/Alexander took care of business quickly, which left room for Speedball/Dralistico to be the quiet show stealer, and Ricochet/Angelico landed somewhere in between. The main got some time and had some blood to stand out despite the non-finish, but it effectively set up a future angle like Willow/Stat. Perfect pacing. Anyway, Beach Break was a fine bigger Clash style show, which is totally fine to run once in a while. Opening tag was fun with some good fake outs on Ospreay and Hangman falling apart. The women's 4-way was good with some extra chaos at the end. Good to see Mina back and I'm excited to see what Thekla can bring. Not sure what's going on with MJF and HS, but there is some intrigue there. Shelton lined up to superkick MJF if Lashley gave the thumbs down and quickly switching gears was a good touch. Main event wasn't that great, but the attitude style set up for AITA was good. Not super excited for Gabe Kidd, but if he's just there to eat damage instead of Okada, then whatever.

Didn't Curt Hawkins have a big losing streak in WWE that at least raised his profile from "who" to "a guy on TV regularly?" More recently, Harley Cameron, which is a surprising overlook by this thread.

Only comparison I think is way off is Finlay/Eddie which is obviously more of lower-card workrate match. Roddy Strong vs. Wheeler Yuta is probably more apt. And yes, I think the answer is sprinkle in like 2-3 of these kind of matches while still allowing for some longer matches every week. The goal isn't to kill the workrate vibe of AEW, it's to make the matches that do go long feel more special and meaningful for the wrestlers involved. Also, there's nothing that says a short match has to be bad. Given the general quality of AEW's roster, I don't see why that would be the case very often. The fact that "short" equals "bad" or "squash" in peoples' minds is a big part of the problem (and this is not unique to AEW, this goes all the way back to when Raw went 3 hours).

Of all the people who don't need to be going 10 minutes, 2025 Rhino is at the top of the list. Maybe he could've gored Kip Sabian first, but that was exactly the kind of match I'm looking for on my weekly shows. Not everything needs to be 5* Okada/Knight was pretty good despite falling into the trap of being longer than the story required. Okada mixed up his TV formula and let his heel personality shine through. Knight is a super athlete with a decent amount of physical charisma despite not establishing much on-screen personality yet. Speedball as the Steamboat-level pure babyface is working for me. I'd love to see Jet Speed vs. FTR down the line. I think every match had a really good finish.

You could probably get a better opponent for Benoit, and hopefully the Harlem Heat match was a 2-minute squash, but honestly, I'd love a show like this. Finlay/Eddie and the lucha 6-man could use some time, but everything else sounds really fun if kept under 5 minutes. The other thing is WCW had tons of workrate banger ppvs from this time frame (Starrcade from this month wasn't one of them, but nevertheless) that weren't 6 hour arms-races because how do you make your ppvs feel more special than your weekly shows when the weekly shows are filled with 10+ minute competitive workrate matches? AEW has been getting a little better about this lately, but the main reason a lot of their shows feel repetitive is that if everything is a workrate match, nothing is. One thing I will say I love about AEW's format is they vary their overruns enough that you can't clock the finish of the main.

If AEW could replace Marina Shafir with Shayna Baszler and gaslight the fans that she was always in the Death Riders, they could do a lot more with that role. AEW's women's roster is really deep now to the point where someone the caliber of Deonna Purrazzo has trouble getting on TV, but I think Dakota Kai and Kacy Catanzaro would be really good fits without needing to take over the division. Alternatively, merge the TBS/World title and bring on the women's tag titles.

I know people have calcified opinions on the Bucks, but that was a damn good match with Knight and Speedball. All the action was smooth and they had the right balance of the faces getting good moments, but the Bucks just being in the right spots more often to sell the experience advantage.

I think this has been a big knock on modern style going back years before AEW. It's amazing how MNW-era shows got shit on for having "bad" matches, but going back and watching some of that stuff really highlights what could be done better today (and I'm going to guess this applies to WWE almost as much as AEW). Back then, two guys could get plenty of shit in under 5 minutes and the match was still very competitive. Now maybe we didn't appreciate it as much back then because that time was being saved for a 20 minute HHH or Hogan promo, but guys back then were accomplishing just as much in 5 minutes as today's guys do in 15. It also had the knock on effect where every ppv wasn't 5-hour arms race. In AEW today, imagine having some quick attitude style matches, then saving that time for a great 15 minute TV main. You get more guys on the show, and the fans are more engaged throughout. As far as whether or not someone like Blake Christian is a jobber right now (he absolutely is), it's helpful to think of things in terms of inflation. Blake Christian isn't a jobber like Iron Mike Sharpe, but that's only because Sharpe wasn't working in an era where everyone got 10 minute matches. If you follow the trendline of Sharpe -> Funaki -> Blake, you can see that each is equally a jobber, but the amount of offense each gets is proportional to the average match times of their era. Yeah, Blake might get some 2-counts on Omega, but those 2-counts are worth about as much as a 1000 marks in post-war Germany. He's every bit as hopeless in a match against Omega as Sharpe was against Diesel or Funaki against JBL.

Heel FTR is already more interesting than they've been since the Briscoes feud. Dax always works better as bitter guy who *thinks* he's saving pro wrestling, and Cash's faux-conflicted "aw shucks, I guess I gotta try to kill this guy" thing is hilarious. I feel like they could get more mileage out of GoA and HS. GoA are one of the most teflon acts in AEW. Seems like we're headed towards MJF/Lashley for a spot in the syndicate at DoN, but I hope GoA can be protected a little and maybe fill the void left by Cage/Archer. Toni's promo reminded me of the Jericho battle royal ring intros.

They absolutely did and still talk about it 3 years later. I love the random jackpot matches. Everyone knows how loaded the Khans are, and it adds a little extra to random cluster match AEW would be running anyways. Hate to say it, but the attitude-style opening promo kinda worked for me. Granted, it was more like the Invasion time frame where I wasn't really thrilled with the direction of the main angle, but each new song still elicited that internal pop, and still gave hope of something cool happening down the road. Kenny is a really underrated promo. Not the most naturally gifted speaker, but has a genuine connection with the crowds that makes his occasional awkwardness endearing rather than exposing. Dug the quick finish to Mox/Shibata and Swerve/Pac, although that appeared to be caused by injury. Really hope Pac is ok. His ankle would not have been my first guess of things that got hurt on that buckle bomb, but they clearly audibled straight to the finish.

Kinda feel the same way. Fletcher/Briscoe was probably the best (and even that probably ran 5 minutes longer than necessary), and Toni brought the character work really leaning into the Rocky aesthetic, but overall it was a card of "high floor low ceiling" matches that all ran together. I thought the triple threat was a lot more epic than it needed to be, but I'll give Kenny and Ricochet props for that finish. I can't remember a damn thing from the trios title match, but the FTR turn was great. In a way, it felt like show where everyone felt pressured to justify their spot on the card, rather than everyone working together for tight, cohesive show.

Everyone is a fan on the internet now. The IWC is literally everyone that watches wrestling. This isn't 2000 where you have to seek out some niche site like Lords of Pain or The Smart Marks. Social media has integrated everyone into dirtsheet culture and hot takes arms races. Much like everything else sports and entertainment, previously smug and elitist sites like DVDVR have become reasonable safe havens against the broader ills of social media.