Bryan

Why would the crowd have been expecting a surprise entrance for the advertised Cody Black match when Cody should have been coming out? I don’t think that’s why he was booed like that. I think he was booed like that because the AEW crowd loves Malakai Black and most of them thought Cody was returning to get his win back from him on a big stage.

AEW pretty much always puts on a big match that could be a main event on first. The additional advantages of it going on first are that it meant less commercial breaks during it and there was no danger of guys missing there time cues (as sometimes happens in AEW) and Omega and Bryan having to condense their time limit draw match as could have happened if it was the main event. Also, it wasn’t a title match and there was a title match on the card, so I personally like the title matches being the main event.

I could see that but I really hope not. Since I think being the Sting of AEW would be a lot better for his long term prospects as a main eventer than taking over a group of lower mid carders.

There are several UK wrestlers significantly better than Havoc they could have signed. A genius? I very much doubt that (his hype video showed him falling off a building into a dump truck of barbed wire and being injured for months.) and he apparently didn’t do a very good job of scouting black talent, considering the complainants and names people have brought up. They both were/are not good wrestlers though and those spots could and probably should have gone to wrestlers that are actually good at wrestling and that would appeal to an under served audience in America.

With the women they could be given more time but part of the issue is that with the exception of Britt Baker (and Thunder Rosa who they’re obviously trying to keep away from Britt until a ppv), none of the women consistently hit home runs. I recall Big Swole getting really over with the crowds and getting multiple tv matches in a row but she wasn’t very good at wrestling, so I assume they’ve been training her on Dark. Nyla and Kris Statlander had an abysmal ppv match, etc. I don’t think looking at the champions is fair given the amount of time the company has existed for and how all of the reigns have been long. And everyone who has been champion makes sense based on how they’ve performed. You also didn’t count the women title holders which is interesting. That being said, I think AEW has hired too many people based on what I assume is personal connections over actual talent. That’s the only way I can explain how guys like Joey Janela and the vampire guy that got fired because he was abusive towards women got hired over some of the guys from your list.

I think your criticisms are fair and I think AEW has had an issue with assuming fans know more than they actually do which has led to some lackluster debuts, For example, I remember The Butcher and The Blade debuting to silence because almost nobody in the building knew who they were when they came out of the ring. The only issue is they have more talent they can use in the time they have, so it’s difficult to take away from guys for video packages even if it would help in the long run.

I love that his follow up tweet is him correcting himself for using the wrong too.

He looked a little nervous but I think it might have been his first live promo. I’m sure he’ll get better with more experience. Also, I assume they’re just feeding him to MJF to build MJF back up, so it’s not that big of a deal. I thought Malakai vs Dustin was a good opener. I like that Dustin jump started the match like that—shouldn’t be feeling out a guy when he’s attacked a member of your family. I’m pretty excited about the prospect of Team Taz vs CM Punk feud. The Taz promo was a little awkward—I don’t understand why Taz wouldn’t want his guys to take out a top guy. CM Punk using Taz’s catch phrase was good though. I hope Hobbs isn’t out long if he was concussed. Britt Baker’s “why don’t you run away back to catering where you were for the last 4 years” was line of the night. I liked Adam Cole getting heat by doing the jealous boyfriend thing with Tony. Dan Lambert is great at getting heat. I’m interested to see where they’re going with that. AEW should see if they could work out a deal to loan out some of their more green guys to New Japan to get Minoru Suzuki for an extended run. This guy is awesome and I wouldn’t mind seeing him in AEW for the next 6 months.

But why did the purse strings get closed? It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that former WWF guys were signed to exorbitant deals would it? The bad creative didn’t have anything to do with giving a former WWF guy creative control or another ship jumper booking power? You’re trying to separate the signings and the ratings rise from the consequences of what some of these signings did or ultimately caused. Just hiring a bunch of big names has not actually been a sustainable long term business model, as far as I’m aware. My understanding of the 80’s was that the WWF’s business model relied more on running lots of house shows (hence the we were on the road 350 days a year), so cycling in guys seems like it would make more sense. And while Vince was able to crush most of his competition, the reason WCW could sign so many people was because the WWF couldn’t compete financially despite having accumulated so much talent. I don’t have a problem with how AEW is booking I just suggested they not bring in more WWE guys for about a year to focus on having the younger guys work with all the newcomers. They haven’t actually done anything yet, and for all we know Kevin Owens was just pulling a Randy Orton to finesse a bigger deal from WWE. On paper, cycling guys in and out like you say makes some sense. But I’m not sure you appreciate the potential psychological effects on people being left out that don’t want to be and the acrimony that could result from that.

My point is people feeling aggrieved hasn’t been the AEW locker room by all accounts. And that you risk upsetting that by bringing in too many people, too soon. Which I think would be unfortunate.

All Out did not feature the following non-jobber wrestlers doing any wrestling: Adam Page, Andrade, Brian Cage, Cody Rhodes, FTR, Ethan Page, Lance Archer Malakai Black, Pac, Ricky Starks, Sammy G, Santana and Ortiz, Scorpio Sky, Wardlow, Will Hobbs. And that’s before they added Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson. Obviously, Adam Page and Cody are on paternity or reality tv leave, and Pac had travel issues but they won’t be gone forever, so it’s going to be impossible to prominently feature everyone regardless of how good they are. Push the best people is a fine sentiment but there only so many spots to push guys into. It’s not a video game and so the reaction to not being featured on two consecutive ppvs and learning they’re bringing in even more guys who are friends with the evp’s is generally not, “you’re better than me, come take my spot.”

In an upstart promotion with a niche audience in which breaking 1 million viewers is still viewed as an accomplishment. Based on the comments from some AEW talent the goal is to beat Raw. I don’t think “TNA’s strategy was actually a good one, Dixie Carter just ruined it,” is a sound plan to achieve that.

Did it occur to you the reason WCW and TNA went down the path it did was because they had such a large roster with only a limited amount of spots inevitably led to politicking and then bad creative? Once again, I’m not opposed to any of the former WWE guys they have already signed right now. I just think they have enough for awhile. Look at all of the talented guys that were not on the ppv or preshow. And that was before two more big names were added. But at the end of the day, you cited two companies that failed utilizing the strategy of signing as much WWE talent as possible. It’s not a strategy that has actually worked long term. Also, what matters most in this situation is perception—and there is a perception that “AEW is just a bunch of guys Vince fired (that’s a literal quote I saw online recently)” among some casual WWE fans. If the goal is to expand the audience to casuals and even convert WWE fans, (which it obviously is) you have to avoid that perception. In my view, the best way to avoid that perception is to start elevating the homegrown talent. Something TNA didn’t really do since WWE guys tended to immediately go to the top. Finally, let’s be real: Kevin Owens is not Hulk Hogan. No regular wrestler in the WWE right now is going to move the ratings needle like that. CM Punk was probably the last person not named The Rock or Austin that could even really move the ratings needle.

Literally no one compared what happened at All Out to TNA. What I and others have said is that they have a lot of WWE guys and if you keep adding a bunch more it’ll be embracing the TNA meme: “Look Taz it’s [insert modified WWE wrestler name] in the Impact Zone. And the released guys appearing lose their luster because almost everyone shows up. Right now, everyone speculates about people going to AEW but I think they’ve actually been very selective and done a good job so far. So you don’t assume everyone is showing up so aren’t sure who will show up. They didn’t need to sign Zach Ryder because he was friends with Cody, and I don’t think they need to sign Kevin Owens because he’s friends with the Young Bucks either. In my opinion, they already have a loaded roster (especially for only having 3 hours of tv a week) and so should now focus on elevating their homegrown talent over the next year with the newcomers instead of bringing in more WWE guys.

Doesn’t move the needle for me either. I think they already have enough goofs on the roster and especially enough former WWE guys for a while. I think it’d be good to take a break from bringing in WWE guys to avoid the TNA vibes. I’d only make an exception for any of the four horsewomen and Rhea Ripley for the next year or so. Anyway, saw The Acclaimed’s return and that was a clever and amusing way to deal with their situation. Hope they get there push back, they’re a fun act and most of the crowd likes them. And they’re trending on Twitter.

Legitimately can’t think of a better wrestling ppv I’ve ever seen. They knocked this one out of the park.

I’d say the notion that the cage is capable of keeping anyone out was actually shot dead, set on fire and then buried when a 4’11 (maybe) 95lb unathletic goof effortlessly climbed to the top of the cage from the outside. And that’s to say nothing of the history of cages not actually being very effective of keeping people out in pro wrestling.

I liked the match but was thinking the roles really should be reversed when watching it. I thought this was a much better show than the past couple of weeks. Only thing I didn’t like was the HFO bailing when they had a significant numbers advantage over Jungle Boy and little Marko Stunt. Can heels not count? And then after Jungle Boy takes a bump off the cage, Stunt just walks back down. So lame, fingers crossed Khan doesn’t re-sign him. CM Punk getting physical and hitting the GTS was cool. Both MJF and Jericho did an excellent job with their promos. Having JR who signed Jericho to WWE do the interview was a nice touch too because if he does retire there is a nice symmetry there. After the Miro Kingston package I never want God’s favorite champion to lose but also want Kingston to win. Britt Baker teasing a free agent signing only for it to just be her was very funny.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s likely because Jericho seems like the type to want to have the possibility of one more match in his back pocket but it’s still plausible. After all, Jericho is 50 and obviously not in peak physical condition anymore. With Punk and maybe Danielson and Bray Wyatt and who knows who else there are going to be less top spots and AEW appears positioned well for the future (largely thanks to him early on), I could actually see him deciding to hang them up.

Kenny Omega telling Christian his video backfired because it just proved he was a better athlete at 10 than Christian was at 20—And Christian’s incredulous look to that absolutely cracked me up. Dan Lambert is an amazing promo. He could actually get me to care about the men of the year. MJF saying daddy is out of milk, these utters are sore was maybe the most ridiculous and amusing line I’ve heard in wrestling. CM Punk teasing/confirming Bryan Danielson was interesting and a good response to the crowd.

Tony Khan actually said in a pre-Rampage interview with Busted Open that the format would be different for that nights show but to expect the show to be more like first week going forward.

Why would anyone in the wrestling business attack a fan for showing emotion? They literally want to invoke emotional responses from their audience. That’s very dumb. Anyway, I don’t think the Punk debut and promo could have possibly gone any better if you gave them one hundred tries. Literally my only complaint about the show was Mark Henry dismissively laughing at JR’s assertion that Garcia had a good game plan, and spewing the everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face cliche. He did get punched in the face (and dropped on his head) but still had the former champ in a submission. Not helpful and kind of made Garcia look bad when he was getting his in the match.

This is pretty amusing coming from someone that was confused by paying fans not conforming to his Twitter bubble views. Have a day, pal.

Or it’s possible a member of a popular tag team was wrestling without his tag partner and new music without explanation at the show. And they just wanted to see the tag team act they like. And it’s not a boogeyman. That was just the most charitable explanation I could come up with for why people who clearly knew very little about an event would demand someone lose their job for referencing it.

His gimmick is literally that he is a dipshit that raps dipshit things, so they clearly do. The Acclaimed were/are an over act (They’re douchebags that it’s fun to root against) and Twitter isn’t actually representative of real life.