A_K

The Punk/MJF & Danielson/Page segments were high grade. No zaniness, no high jinx, no desperate *wink wink* humour. Just quality, under-stated narratives. Hopefully the rating is good and they keep on this track.

When they produce a show so well paced, so well toned as that, surely it becomes difficult to justify ever giving Chris Jericho on air minutes again to run that tired old schtick. All the talent you need to run that program around were there front and Center.

Danielson is superb. A cut above. Very good crowd.

Wrong fella. I probably had my hands full predicting Rhodes & Jericho to be malign Trojan horses against the long term betterment of AEW or something at the time.

??? I don’t know who any of these people are

Unsafe working environment? Is that what they call an Indy wrestling promotion nowadays?

Page clean over Danielson won’t hurt Danielson (Page is too much of a fan favourite, and the focus of victory will be on Page rather than on Danielson’s first defeat) but will be a huge boon for Page. So it’s not that much of a problem. Miro’s presentation is in a bit of a bind. Page/Cole should be a blockbuster title program for them if they can omit the tom-foolery so no problem holding back on that for now. I guess the only issue that arises here is if Danielson loses and enters a “where do I go next” holding pattern. But Danielson as TNT Champion can also work well too and keep that belt very strong should they want to put a belt on him. Maybe you re-run the 2 Man Power Trip storyline with Punk as heel world champ & Danielson as TNT champ down the line when Page does need to drop the belt. A lot of where they go next will probably depend on the ratings they get with Page as WC.

Page will look like a clown if he loses on his first defence - he has to be put over Danielson clean without any hint that Danielson loses due to attritional damage from fighting Page’s posse.

It depends on the characterisation of the talent. An (under)dog of war can carry several losses without diminishing their charm (see: Kingston), whereas a pure-athlete or indestructible-machine can only take so many losses in succession before the presentation wears thin. Miro should not have been put into the tournament if he was not going to win it - that’s his second loss in 3, with the win being hard fought. MJF is class. High hopes that Punk evolves into the top heel they need.

Eddie is very good. He’d have easily fit in the heyday 90s/2000s. The DDP comparison further up thread is one I’ve made myself and it feels apt for him. A bit of a Foley/DDP hybrid. He’s been booked wonkily at times (“exploding” barbed wire for example; that silly stuff with butcher and blade) but still came out strong. He would have made a very good TNT champion following Miro’s run and to consolidate there before a World title program some time in 2022 - shame they didn’t go that way. Instead he’s in a bit of a crowded part of the card at the moment so further upside feels limited.

That’s fine. Hangman can beat Miro in a title match while keeping Miro very strong. RE: MJF - that’s another interesting dilemma at the moment. He probably has to go over Darby.

Bit of a selective edit there on those quotes. My bigger take from that was Vince essentially saying he doesn't believe in Lee yet as a global star, and that Lee would need to make him a believer. All said McMahon looks so old.

Good question: Dynamite (running against NXT) in October/November 2020: 866k, 753k, 826k, 753k, 781k Dynamite (running unopposed) in October/November 2021: 1,053k, 727k (Saturday), 575k (Saturday), 941k, 878k

I like Sammy, always have. They should have cut him out away from the Jericho parody show a year ago. Bizarrely at times they seem to have, because the Inner Circle has 0 structure to its storytelling, but as Pacino would say "just when I thought I was out .. they pull me back in!". Given the momentum they had with Miro however he should not have dropped the title in September, and certainly not to Guevara. Some fans may try to intellectualise the booking ("like, it totally showed that Miro's neck is his kryptonite, and Sammy targetted the neck, so it made perfect storyline sense!), but at the end of the day Miro as the big bad of the company should not have gone down to Sammy. He should not have had such an evenly weighted exchange with Cassidy. Now if he loses to Danielson (and its a big if - because he may yet go over) he's suddenly a pretty neutered character who has dropped several losses in a short period of time and had very close fought victories where he has won. I actually think they have to put Miro over Danielson - but I'm not sure what they do with Danielson then as his portrayal so far has been as ice-cold killer, and a loss at this point outside of any title program does nothing for that. Danielson & Punk did bring over casual/WWE fans. The 450k they've since lost on Dynamite & 350-500k they've lost on Rampage had to come from somewhere. The question becomes why have they left, and how do they try and get them back again.

? I guess the answer to your question is .. outside of the core AEW indy base who have been with it since the beginning, he isn't taken seriously, because they've dropped up to 450,000 Dynamite viewers since Dragon's debut at the peak in September & have most recently returned to July numbers despite having added Punk, Danielson & Adam Cole in the interim alongside significant mainstream guest appearances from Masvidal, PVZ, JDS etc.? While Rampage is variably down 20-50% on viewership since its opening episodes. Its not the only reason of course -- they also fluffed the MJF push with Jericho, have fluffed Cody's storylines, have over-extended the Jurassic Express/Elite stuff, fluffed Lucha Bros as champs with zero defences on Dynamite in 2 months etc. -- but leaning on this as being commercially compelling storytelling probably doesn't chime with a downward rating slope despite all the talent value-adds? But maybe having Miro toil against 180 lbers in striking exchanges, or having your secondary title wrapped up in the Chris Jericho show is the way to go, I don't know ?

It’s a storyline. You either don’t unify it or, if you do unify it, you have plentiful thematic options for one of the belts to be dropped subsequently. That belt is completely meaningless on Guevara at this point in time anyway; nor should Miro have given so much away there. The Bulgarian destroyer act is going to wear thin fast if he continually gets bashed around by waifs like Cassidy & Guevara. Danielson bout is bit of a lose/lose: neither of those guys should be taking a loss in a contender tournament right now (too soon for Dragon after joining; too soon for Miro after already dropping a pin to Sammy).

Have said before, will say again: they should have kept the TNT Title on Miro to run a unification storyline. TNT Miro vs World Champ Hangman would have been fireworks: puts the second title over as uber legitimate with a very unpredictable conclusion (either could go over each other), if Hangman wins it underscores transition from sad sack mope to top of the company and you have a 2001 Jericho-esque moment (but Face), if Miro wins you have your 98 Goldberg. That TNT Title looks soft at the moment on Guevara, who shouldn’t have been booked to beat Miro. ATT stuff was fine. At least they understand the portrayal now needs to be that PWers can stand an affecting underdog-story chance vs MMAers in Street rules. ATTers being pretty bland (at least the 2 they trawled out from Bellator) helps put the shine on charismatic PWers. Give it a few weeks then Cody can take a clean win back from Andrade’s interference win. All good.

Must be pretty severe to be taking him off air. He had put on quite a lot of weight & looked ragged but everyone probably thought that was just part of the act - maybe it wasn’t.

I’ve already answered how you solve the PW vs MMA quandary: present MMA as pure but grounded athletes against charismatic, rugged will-do-anything-use-anything street smart PWers. Table spots; high flying lucha spots. Having an overweight 50 year old who is prone to wearing face paint not out of place at a kids Halloween carnival bowling around the place chasing away former UFC Championship contenders however is not said way to do it, and as noted on previous page this particular angle is vapid and just going nowhere. It’s utterly meaningless.

They do, if utilised well. Punk’s usage in particular has been erratic. There’s still probably a little too much goofy stuff in general. Bringing in ATT was a good creative idea but wasting it on dad-bod & granddad-jokes Jericho for example was most certainly not the move. Whatever Cody involves himself with degenerates quickly and is dirge. Few issues.

It doesn’t need to be stupid and silly but, yup, that tendency towards the carny sadly lurks too often

Malakai looks like such a goof now. He went from domineering entrance through to the gradual degradation of having Black Mass casually blocked by a 62 year old who can barely stand on a ring apron to having to cheap-heel his way to the second victory through to being beaten clean all within 3 months. After the cheap-heel win the 3rd bout was wholly unnecessary: move Malakai into a feud with Sammy G, or a holding-pattern immovable object meets unstoppable force feud with Miro and explore the quasi-cult/religious connotations there, and do Cody’s “redemption” angle (if they have to) independently. Instead, as mentioned above, not only Black but also Andrade (who is a terrible pairing for Black given Andrade struggles to be heard coherently in English and Black does have a tendency to be muffled at times due to his accent) are not sucked into this vortex of lameness. It’s all so vacant.

He’s a 36 year old career mid career who left the previous company because he could not pull a dime or hack it at the top end of the card despite his god-given hereditary name and fell into gold by Khan creating AEW, and who through his entire run in this company (the first few months aside) has either bogged it up with unattractive dirge (everything involving the “Nightmare Family” - has there ever been a more vacuous or unsubstantial ‘faction’) or caveated every incoming stars run against him by having the ‘last call’ (see: Brodie, Malakai). To be honest if we’re getting into it I’m a millionaire myself - do you really think I’m offended by him having a “gorgeous wife” or pyro on his entrance, or even the nature of his promos? No: the vulgarity comes from his utterly tasteless self-aggrandisement, the continual pushing to of his tried, hokie act and tired agenda when so many other talents are more deserving of the TV spot. He’s not a “meta genius” - he’s a one dimensional, utterly predictable bore who is getting booed by live crowds because that’s exactly what he is - a predictable, uncreative bore. The booking and how it is continually chopping fresh & more interesting acts is revolting. Malakai as a result has now peaked and it’s all downhill from here to a novelty act.

No, this is not Shakespearean theatre. This is not ‘meta’. This is not some Beckettian commentary on existentialism. This is a vacant egoist pro wrestler with a huge neck tattoo and dyed blonde hair approaching middle age & living out his ego to the detriment of the company because he was given the platform to do so. Please do not try and intellectualise and give credence to it: call it out for what it is.

Anyone who thinks Cody Rhodes does not have an element of creative control lives in cloud cuckoo land. What a deadbeat parasite that guy is. A poor man’s Jeff Jarrett.