Go2Sleep

I think they would get used about the same as Muta or Liger. You'd get some midcard bangers, but they wouldn't be displacing anyone even in the Flair/Savage/Luger tier, let alone Hogan/Sting/Nash. I don't think Okada is quite a missed opportunity on the level of Ospreay, though. He could be doing more, sure, but he's a few years older than Will and (fair or not) being a native English speaker is a big advantage when trying to be the face of an American company. Okada laying low, experimenting with American tropes, and not just relying on being a plus workrate guy has him in a significantly better spot than Takeshita. Plus nobody has ever been worse off for finding an over catch phrase, even if it's just the word "bitch." I suspect he'll get more time to shine now that the Bucks are out of the picture.

Kind of ironic that guys being too selfless has cost AEW big momentum at points between Danielson and Ospreay. I know their hearts are in the right place, but they'd be helping everyone in the company a lot more by embracing the ace status. Will Ospreay is a fresh face in America and has a real "you gotta see this guy" aura that could be drawing more eyes to the company as a whole if marketed correctly. Ospreay is a uniquely special worker like Omega and Danielson before him, and him not going 100% so he doesn't out-shine everyone is a far bigger drag on a young national promotion than him coming in and beating everyone. You'll have plenty of time to job later, plus it'll mean something.

I think we're in the midst of one of the company's biggest missed opportunities right now as Will Ospreay is not the center of the promotion. He was the most over guy in the company last summer and is clearly the best worker, yet he's stuck in an endless midcard feud with the Don's revolving door stable. You have Will, Swerve, Hangman, Okada, White, and now Lashley who are all varying degrees of hot right now/the last few months, yet the top program is Mox vs. OC. Unless they actually plan to strap up OC, I don't see the point.

Lio Rush vs. Komander Rampage series perfectly channels that Jimmy Yang vs. Paul London Velocity energy and I love it.

Jarrett's rep got ruined because the most visible stretch of his career (woman beater IC champ -> "ace" of Dying WCW/Early TNA) was also his worst.

Sir, this is the "Hot Takes" thread, not the "100% correct statements of facts" thread.

Bobby Heenan was an overrated announcer. The partisan heel schtick was lame even as a kid, and while not as overtly gross as Lawler or Zbyszko, he had plenty of racist/sexist jokes that are cringe-inducing on re-watch. I'd even argue that while Lawler was overall worse, he could sell a big angle/moment a lot better. Heenan's best work was the early NWO era that forced him into being more of a tweener and Dusty being so wild that he had to be the straight man at times. I'm not really sure what he brought to the table except early childhood memories.

Most of the show was meh, but that Brandon Cutler horror movie scene with the BCC was a perfect segment for the Halloween themed show. Unless there's some actual plan Hurt Business to square off with BCC, doing both angles concurrently makes no sense. I mean, kayfabe wise sure, Mox probably sees that they respect the business and are trying and all that so no reason to attack them. The structure of the shows becomes insulting to the viewers' intelligence, though. It also results in things like HOB being reduced to enhancement roles for an extremely rusty Adam Cole.

I'll just wait for Excalibur to explain it on the show.

Collision was one of those AEW shows that looks like nothing on paper but ended up being really good. Jay/Shane was a really smartly worked match that strayed from the usual AEW formula. Jay doesn't seem ideally suited to work babyface, but he's skilled enough to pull it off. He bumped early in the match to set up adversity, then gradually wore down the legs of Taylor to believably establish the comeback. Made Jay look smart and crafty and didn't diminish the power of Shane. Quietly a top AEW TV match this year. Outrunners/MXM was on the opposite end of the spectrum as a quality sports entertainment match. MXM is a perfect enhancement team for AEW and the Outrunners are getting better at working the longer matches. Both teams kept the crowd involved the whole way without going too crazy in the ring. Reminded me of early NXT. Lio/Ricochet was another good match where both guys added a good story instead of just hitting their spots. Lio had a chip on his shoulder and Ricochet came across as condescending enough to see why Lio would be annoyed without Ricochet being a true asshole. Ricochet was clearly better but he had to earn it. I do agree his axe bomber isn't the greatest finisher, he should be using that spinning roundhouse he used early in the match which stood out to cap the sequence of "who could out quick the other." Still doesn't negate the work both guys put in here.

TK has enough self awareness to realize he has zero TV presence.

Kyle Fletcher's promo was the highlight of the show. We've known he's had the moves for a while, but his match output this year combined showing the range to cut a top tier heel and face promo (his American dream promo against MJF) as well? Far and away the most improved in AEW this year and a no-doubt future main eventer. They're doing a nice job building up Shelton for Swerve. The MJF/Kingdom angle makes zero sense, but it re-casts the Kingdom (with AAAADAM) as goofy faces and MJF as the weasel-y heel, and I'm ok with that. That devil angle was trash, and sometimes it's better to just memory hole stuff and put guys in a better role. I guess Private Party is getting their big moment next week? It would be silly to break them up when they're at the center of defending the honor of AEW. Kamille/Aminata was pretty bad. It'll be interesting to see what Stat can get out of Kamille, but Stat/Mercedes should be a money match. The BCC stuff this week was very 97 NWO. At least it looks like they're not gonna waste too much more time, but OC, Darby, and whoever really need to start pushing back. Also extremely weird that there was no Pac. Did the BCC send him off to get fitted for pants? Hopefully they run Anarchy in the Arena at Full Gear.

HOB getting announced for a Dynamite appearance must mean they're either breaking up or setting up a big staredown with BCC. Probably the latter with how easily BCC dispatched Top Flight and Dark Order. I could see Mox wanting to re-create that Shield/Wyatts moment, and now that I think about it, when you look at current BCC as Mox's vision of the Shield, it makes a lot of sense.

Daniel Garcia is one of the leaders on the face side, and Pac's a Day 1 guy on the heel team, so I don't think that's a major dividing line.

I'm really looking forward to the 3-way tag they set up for Rampage next week (Kingdom/STP/GOA). Three solid low-card teams that could all use a win and would all honestly be good to get a push freshen up the top of the tag scene. The latter two moreso, as I think Taven and Bennett have more value as a trio with Roddy as the leader, but they're all pretty fun when they get time. Also a rare AEW non-ppv match where it's impossible to pick the winner. More matches like this and less JTTS to stuff please.

I was wondering what the deal was there. After Hangman laid there forever, I was wondering if someone forgot they had an overrun and sent them out early. Luckily, they had 3 competent vets in there who adapted relatively well with Hangman staying out of sight, and Christian/Jay avoiding that side of the ring, but it definitely had some early 2000s SD-retape vibes.

The nu-BBC stuff was pretty good, but it kind of overshadowed everything else on the show. Even though there was a lot of good work, everything else felt too low-stakes. The Elite tie-in was a step in the right direction. Mercedes/Aminata was a good match and felt more "vintage Mercedes" than most of her AEW work so far. Shelton/Lio was great as expected. Lio is really underappreciated for the way he plays up the size difference in most of his matches. He makes everything close quarters look like a struggle, is athletic enough to do lots of cool-looking quick-strike offense that looks credible, and of course, bumps as well as anyone in the non-Darby division. Shelton hasn't lost a step and his superkick is the new sheriff in town. Shelton/Swerve should be a banger before Lashley wrecks shit. This BOTB might be the most afterthought one yet, and that's a high bar. First mention is a 2-second plug at the very end of the show announcing a non-title match lol.

That 6-man is so late 90s/early 2000s AJ/NOAH. Can't wait for the cold tag to Romero. Shelton/Lio should be a fun semi-squash.

Looking back, they probably should've never put Bryan's career on the line and just had Swerve beat him. Bryan clearly emptied the tank in that match and it would've been a nice cap to Swerve's run. Best yet, everything else could've played out almost exactly the same. Psycho Hangman goes on to beat Swerve for the World title and sets up the program with Jay after demolishing Darby at Grand Slam. Bryan says his career is winding down and next time he loses he'll end his full-time career. He takes the TNT belt off Perry with the same BCC turn after. Mox says Bryan is an albatross to the BCC at this point. He wished Jack was up to the task of finishing Bryan off, but clearly TK's hand-picked "next guys" aren't ready so he has to do it himself. Mox does the exact same angle with the TNT title instead of the World. Hindsight's 20/20 and all that, but I think AEW is in a much better spot right now with that route.

Yeah, that's why I put it out there. AEW's roster is ridiculous. Even most of the poorly-booked and seldom-used guys would probably look decent in that setting. I mean does anyone really wanna see Anthony Ogogo vs. Ross Von Erich in a 20-minute draw? Probably not, but with 12 guys you'd probably still strike gold somewhere.

My buddy and I had a thought experiment during Wrestledream, and I thought I would pose it here: What is the worst possible Continental Classic lineup AEW could run with their roster? I think we came up with Aaron Solo, Billy Gunn, Butcher, Jacked Jameson, Vincent, Marq Quen, Angelo Parker, Max Caster, Ogogo, Cutler, and the Von Erich Grandkids. There's also a case that replacing one of those guys with a washed dude like Jericho or Dustin which adds to the depressing factor even though it increases the name value.

Triple threat (even with the literal screwjob), and Hologram/Mortos were great sprints. I was pleasantly surprised by the tag title match with Private Party actually building up some good heat at the end. Main event was a really good match, with the finish and show-closing stuff being... a choice. I feel they could've made the finish a bit more dramatic and maybe ended it with the Gotch-style piledriver after Bryan fought through the choke instead of the other way around. Not really sure about the stretcher job and how long it took, but I did like the detail of Mox not even touching the belt and putting it in a bag. Lends some credence to the higher power angle and Darby as the guerrilla resistance leader is a cool direction. Wheeler siding with BCC is fine in and of itself, but the build up was sloppy on Dynamite. They could've set that up a lot better. There's potential for this angle in both directions. Low floor, high ceiling.

Yes, I watch AEW. I was saying for the hypothetical question of how to arrange the belts, I would bring it back in some form. It doesn't have to be called FTW and low-card hardcore matches usually pop the crowd and fill a niche that doesn't overshadow what the major belts offer, while being a style that's intriguing to see what high-end workers do with it.

World: This should be on Ospreay, but given the hand we're dealt, Mox. TNT: Takeshita Tag Team: Outrunners briefly, then Lashley/Benjamin Women's: Stat, then eventually Hayter Women's tag: Saraya/Harley FTW/Hardcore: Darby Get rid of everything ROH and all the redundant singles belts (International, Continental, TBS). Can't believe the one belt they actually did trim down was one that was differentiated in some way. The trios belts don't necessarily need to go away forever, but now is a good time to take a break and see in anyone actually misses them. I'd be ok with ditching them if Freebirding became a common and accepted practice in the tag division. The Continental belt should just be a ceremonial belt given to the winner of the CC, not something to be defended.

AEW is having problems building "the guy" right now. Babyface MJF getting hurt was bad luck, but he shouldn't have turned back heel. I know some people here dug the Joe run, but that was the epitome of a placeholder champ and it caused them to miss Swerve by a beat. Swerve ended up having a solid run, but an earlier win could've let them move to Ospreay sooner. Speaking of, Ospreay is extremely obviously "that guy" but they have him floundering in the midcard, while Danielson and Mox (who are basically old guard guys at this point) are fighting at the top. Ospreay, Hangman, MJF, and Swerve are the real 4 pillars and should be the ones at the top of the card right now. Mox and Danielson could do the exact same angle over a secondary belt with the idea to cycle Mox into the upper echelon for a bit, along Okada/Garcia/Takeshita/Jay getting turns at some point. AEW used to be good striking while the iron was hot, but they've been a step slow since all the Punk drama.