MrKothoga

What did people expect from the Young Bucks and Omega? This melodrama really isn't coming out of the blue. Everyone who watched some BTE in the last years (or simply followed them over the last few years) knows they like to do some cringey soap opera stuff. This isn't Adam Cole-Shawn Michaels-Performance Center stuff, this is quintessential melodramatic Omega-Young Bucks stuff. For better or worse. And in the end, this is just the Monkeys Paw for all the people complaining about the Bucks and Omega not putting themselve over enough in the first few months and playing sideshow characters on their own show.

It's clearly the beginning (or continuation considering the incident with Sydal) of that main event push for Nakazawa we've all been waiting for. He's doing it for the people I guess.

I hate myself for thinking about how surely some people on the internet will cry about Kenny not looking strong enough against Sydal while watching the match. I like seeing Sydal losing matches. He’s a good wrestler. He’s boring, yeah, but he’s really fun to watch when up against people I want to see win matches. Fun opener. And would you look at that. A definite squash by Hangman follows. Loved wholesome Hangman Page with John Silver and the music of Pinnacle. Hands up who’s exited for QT vs. Cody! Anybody? No. Dust. Hands up who’s exited for Keeping Up with The Rhodes! Anybody? No. Dust. Ah, fuck, who am I kidding, I’ll probably watch some of it. Tony with the Dad line of the night with “the DDTay for the Conti of Three”. I really liked the aggressive side of Conti, though the camera work in this match was kinda distracting at times. Seems like Bunny is up as the next challenger for Shida but I’m really not buying her as a threat. Looks like a short detour title defense until (hopefully) the next big program for Shida and the title. Just give Britt the title! Really liked the main event and I can live with Hardy’s interference if it leads to Darby clearly putting away Hardy in a title match. I like the matches of Darby and how the thing is more that people just can’t beat him rather than that he’s beating his challengers but a definite win in between his “normal” survivals couldn’t hurt and solidify his position even more. There was no Sting promo being interrupted. That’s awesome.

Everything other than "Jane" would be dissapointing.

Starting from September 10th Rosa vs. Ivelisse, Deeb vs. Hirsch, Deeb vs. Kay, Deeb vs. Rosa and Deeb vs. Conti for the NWA Womens Title. Five matches, four Dynamites, one Pay Per View Buy In. Starting from September 5th Shida vs. Rosa, Shida vs. Swole, Shida vs. Rose, Shida vs. Jay, Shida vs. Abadon and Shida vs. Mizunami. Six matches, three Dynamites, three Pay Per Views.

Jungle Boy vs. Danny Limelight Tay Conti vs. Ashley Vox Will Hobbs vs. Brandon Cutler Max Caster vs. Dante Martin QT Marshall vs. Marko Stunt Baron Black & Vary Morales Vs. Miro & Kip Ray Lyn vs. Abadon Leila Grey vs. Diamante Red Velvet vs. Dani Jordan Skyler Moore vs. Big Swole Butcher & Blade & Private Party Vs. Carly Bravo, Dean Alexander, Brick Aldridge & David Ali Matt & Mike Sydal vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs Riho vs. Maki Itoh vs. Vertivixen vs. Madi Wrenkowski Tesha Price vs. Penelope Ford KiLynn King vs. Jazmin Allure Chaos Project vs. Fuego Del Sol & Jake St. Patrick Sonny Kiss & Joey Janela vs. Brian Cage & Ricky Starks John Skyler vs. John Silver Gunn Club vs. David Ali, Adam Priest, & Seth Gargis SCU vs. Carlie Bravo & Aaron Solow Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs vs. Varsity Blonds Luchasaurus vs. Cesar Bononi Leyla Hirsch vs. Savannah Evans Jack Evans vs. 10 D3 vs. Nick Comoroto Bear Country vs. Dean Alexander & Brick Aldridge Angel Fashion, Baron Black, Vary Morales & Ryzin vs. Dark Order (Colt Cabana, Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, & Alan Angels) Well, I'm trying but for now it's pretty hard to find the difference between monday night Dark und tuesday night Dark. I'm still hoping tuesday night Dark will change (back) to a b-show for Dynamite with angles and storylines for undercard wrestlers.

I though that monday night Dark is post-pandemic Dark and tuesday night Dark ist pre-pandemic Dark. But so far nothing really was said about the future of tuesday night Dark, so who knows.

What's the right way to debut a prominent signing from the evil empire? A high profile feud with the world champion out of the gate or a slow burning midcard feud featuring less known talent? Because it seems like either way is wrong. Death Triangle is still a thing. It was derailed by Penta having visa issues and being out for a few shows. I also don't get why some many people are surprised by Butcher and Blade going away from Kingston. I mean, they are mercenaries, guns for hires. That's how they were introduced by MJF. Of course they come when Big Money Matt shows them the money. The whole angle of Kingston's family was hotshotted anyway because PAC suddenly couldn't reenter the country. But I do agree that people need to stop using Cutter variations. The TKO by Scorpio is fine, I guess. Other than that, go away. Handspring and springboard variations are the worst. Jay Lethal and his Lethal Injection is the most terrible finisher I can think of. Just stick to the Diamond Cutter. I still think that you need to stop looking for clear faces and heels and AEW. It's obvious they don't really go by that traditional dichotomy of good and evil. You're looking for something AEW doesn't want to give you. I don't watch Marvel movies and complain about the twentieth movie with the exact same structure ending in a CGI massacre final fight. I know what I'm getting into, for better or worse.

Vince or Hunter will do a twenty minute long promo to open RAW to do their petty shit.

Some more thoughts after a night of sleep. I still stand by notion that this pay per view pretty much delivered on it’s promises and you probably had some misguided hopes for this show or haven’t watched AEW before if it left you utterly disappointed (excluding the ending, I will not excuse that). But being a wrestling fan is pretty much like being stuck in an abusive relationship, so I can fault anyone and I still fall victim to myself here from time to time. The Inner Circle has more or less run its course, but I’m still invested in seeing how things will turn out. To be honest, Jericho should still be a mayor player, but maybe transition to the tag team division, since 20+ minutes singles matches might not be the greatest idea with him at this point. So, in some way I’m sad that Jericho & MJF as a team is probably already over. The Casino Tag Battle Royale had some great moments although the first ten minutes really could have been cut in some way. QT Marshall turned heel and aren’t we all excited about this one? Really, no one? Fenix, Pac, Silver and Jungle Boy at the end were fantastic and every match up of these four should be too. Jungle Boy is the MVP of every (battle royale type) match he’s having and I’ll always feel bad for Reynolds getting outshined by Silver. I liked Shida vs Mizunami, I liked Sabian and Miro vs Taylor and Orange and I liked Hangman vs Hardy. Perfectly acceptable pay per view midcard with two straight matches and one angle heavy match. Yeah, everything could have been two minutes shorter, but we’re only getting four pay per views a year, I’m fine with midcard matches to end a feud running a little longer. Miro is a menace and I’m excited for his first real singles program. It should just be acknowledged that the gimmick of Pentagon is basically that he could be the most successful wrestler on the planet if he’d just stop playing with his fingers all the time. I don’t really know much about Ethan Page and I feel the ladder match didn’t really helped introduce him that much. Explosion and first minutes of the Battle Royale, this was the lowlight of the show for me. Just a disorganized clusterfuck that couldn’t even deliver on memorable spots and that’s pretty much all it can deliver anyway. I like Christian and maybe he’s still valuable but please stop signing wrestlers. It’s enough. Just stop. There’s so much talent on this roster and AEW just keeps adding and adding and adding. You have some of the best tools in the world, just keep building your damn thing. I will once again say that a Trios Title would be a great thing to do especially since the roster is that big and they have some old guys who I really don’t want to see in singles action anymore. A trio of Big Show and a lesser-known duo and the whole point of the matches is the other trio trying to keep Big Show from getting in the ring is about the only thing I can think of that I’d like to see with Big Show. Big Money Matt should just buy a Trios Title an inaugurate himself and Private Party as the first champions. The Street Fight was really entertaining and had some great moments. I like the commentary over these matches because without it cinematic matches always feel like bad b-movie fights overstaying their welcome to mee. Interferences by Hook and Hobbs sucked, especially with Taz not being there against his will somehow - just let Darby & Sting and Cage & Starks fight it out. Sting probably shouldn’t win against Starks in 2021 but I don’t feel like Starks will be hampered much by this and for the moment I can accept this as basically a tribute to a legendary career that ended on a really sour note until yesterday came by. Speaking of ending on a sour note… ah, man. I just feel bad for Moxley and Kingston laying in the middle of the ring playing dead for a poof. Other than that, good main event up until the interference by Gallows and Anderson, although not the spectacle we probably all hoped for.

Huh. Didn't we all knew it would be a cinematic match? I'm remembering it being said long before.

Terrible explosion aside, I was entertained from start to near-finish. Definitely not the best AEW pay per view but I think it delivered on what was to be expected. A nice show to watch but it's not like you missed anything worthwhile if you hadn't watched it - aside from the main event. Though, now it will probably be remembered for a long time just for that ending.

Seems like Darby Allin and whoever booked the street fight didn’t pay attention in film studies when Chekhov's gun was discussed. If you talk about people being thrown out of a window down several floors you have to throw people out of a window down several floors. And I love the birds eye view camera from above the ring. And AEW has to stop adding more wrestlers. And, oh man, the ending. So great with Kingston coming down to protect Moxley and then what an underwhelming “explosion” to end the show. Yikes. Cody's usual pyro would have been more effective.

After Dark the last few weeks and their spots in the tag battle royale today, I’m now proud to say that Pretty Peter and Cezar Bononi are my new favourite jobber tag team in wrestling. I hope they never win a "real" match ever.

Foley would be perfect as the funny uncle of Dark Order. But aside from beeing the funny side show in backstage skits, I really don't see the use for Foley in AEW.

Jade and especially Red Velvet had great looking gear, but they really need to work on their skills of putting tables up. Other than that, Jade and Red both looked good I thought. All in all, considering I was watching one woman having her first real match ever, one woman having her first match on a national stage and f’n Shaquille O’Neal – this was quite good. Pac is back. Awesome. MJF and his blue bubble gum. Great. Onita on Dynamite. Hilarious. Inner Circle press conference was fine but uninspired. FTR vs. Jurassic Express was good and I liked the old school antics by Tully and Dillon. Nice that this new faction already has their obligatory fall guy in Spears. Add FTR & Spears to the ever-growing list of Trios in AEW. The Giant looked slim like never before and seemingly Tony Khan just can’t stop hiring new wrestlers. But I’ll be very happy to see hall of famer Syxx finally return to TNT. Shida and Mizunami happily and friendly clobbering each other made me smile. A West Texas Rednecks shoutout in 2021! Scorpio sounded suspiciously/offputtingly heelish on commentary. I like Hardy just paying dudes to do his dirty deeds and I think this heel turn really worked out for Matt although he should be doing less and less matches and be more of a manager. All the tag teams brawling at the end of show felt kinda lame. And as always. Here comes Stiiing. And he’s talking - and there’s Ta… oh, Ricky is doing the interrupting this time. Well, that’s something. Ah, there’s Taz and the rest. And Darby’s here too. Fantastic. And cut to commercials. Awesome. This is the greatest feud I have seen in my life… can't wait to see all of them go onto new adventures. - And most importantly: the adampagewrestling.com website featured in Hangman’s chyron just redirects you to a two hours long video of wild horses in nature with relaxing guitar music on Youtube.

To be fair, I also think that AEW really needs to stop adding new names every two weeks, but here we are now with a bloated roster and too many people aimlessly winning squashes on Dark but I'd rather see a nice Trios title match between Hangman, Silver and Reynolds and Hardy Party opening a pay per view than another impromptu battle royale or six men ladder match for some before unknown red herring.

Sorry for changing topics, but I thought this discussion was more suited here and not in the R-Evolution II thread. Okay, let's say the tag title picture 2021 consists mainly of Young Bucks, FTR, Jurassic Express, Miro & Sabian, Santana & Ortiz, Jericho & MJF and Lucha Bros. These teams are the main challengers for one year. Plenty enough for meaningful programs. That still leaves Dark Order (Hangman/Silver/Reynolds), Dark Order II (Uno/Grayson/Cabana/Five/Ten), Team Taz, Kingston with Butcher & Blade, Best Friends, Hardy with Private Party or TH2 and Nightmare Family (Cody, Dustin and their team of protégés) as teams just for the trios title. Again, just the main challengers for the title, the pay-per-view options. AEW has enough teams for two divisions. And again, these are just teams you could run some meaningful programs with. You could still have The Acclaimed challenge for the Tag titles on a Dynamite after they went on a little win streak, you could still have the Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler fail to win the trios titles because the Young Bucks are always credibly contenders and won’t be defending or challenging for the tag title every week. Now, yeah, you could say that Hangman or Starks or Jungle Boy are meant for more than just the lowly potential trios title. Yes, I’m with you. But Jurassic Express won’t be challenging for the tag titles the whole year. Jungle Boy won’t be challenging for the TNT or AEW title the whole year. A few months with the trios title and victories over the aforementioned teams really would do more for him than just be there regularly on Dark and one Dynamite every few weeks. Same with Starks or Hangman. But Jericho, Cody, Darby, Moxley, Omega, Archer, Miro, MJF, Pac and Sammy are also still there and probably will be featured prominently. TLDR: AEW has enough (male) talent to give us meaningful programs for a Tag, a Trios, the TNT and the AEW title. And I haven’t even mentioned Wardlow once.

The FTW title is more a prop than a title, so, who cares anyway. I'd reimagine the TNT title and give it some special set of rules to make it different to the AEW title. Why should I aim for the TNT title when there's the AEW title (Cody aside...)? I really like the Pure title in ROH back in days when I was till watching ROH and would opt for some kind of distinction to make it clear that this title is something different and not just the second best belt you could get around your waist. And I will second @Craig H and say that a Trios title is the only belt worth thinking about to add. AEW has so many factions and trios with Hangman/Reynold/Silver, the Dark Order members, Gunn Club, Team Taz, SCU, Inner Circle, Nightmare Family, Eddie/Butcher/Blade, Hardy Party, Jurassic Express, Best Friends, Death Triangle and there'd still be Top Flight, FTR, Young Bucks, Janela/Kiss, TH2, Sabian/Miro and Acclaimed.

To be honest, QT vs. Lee would be exactly the kind of program I'd like to see Dark get used for. The blowoff match can get promoted to Dynamite, sure, but could you please just use Dark for a few stories.

Don't you sleep on QT. He even learned how to do a Phoenix Splash for his upcoming push to glory! Seriously, he tweeted it. I'd like to see a Sprint Championship with a hard timelimit. Maybe 8 minutes. Title can change by count-out and the count-out only goes to five, so that a suicide dive could be the end of a match. Something like that. I'm not sure about the rules alltogether, but fast paced sprints are awesome and could be a nice difference to the other title matches going the distance.

Callis, Kenny and the Good Brothers just buried the rest of the Bullet Club on the post show. Midcarders who could move up because Kenny and Co left but you cant just replace Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Oh, and AEW really has to stop adding wrestlers pretty much every week. Enough is enough.

It’s wednesday night and you know what that means. I really appreciate AEW continues using tag catchphrase to honor Brodie Lee. I still miss “wrestling has more than one royal family” and really don’t like that Snoop Dogg remix theme of Cody. Dark Order behaving like overwhelmed teens in love (especially Silver) every time they meet Hangman is just fantastic. And while I really don’t wanna see Matt Hardy in the ring anymore, I think he’s fantastic as a money-hungry manager. Though I doubt it’s a good business strategy to acquire talent like that. Yeah, really, what were Kip, Penelope and Miro thinking was gonna happen? Haven’t they watched any wrestling? Thinks like Sammy saying he needs some time away from this place really makes me wonder how AEW will handle their various partnerships in a pandemic-free future. Would Sammy go on a tour with New Japan, go to Impact a few weeks (well, that would still be possible) or travel to Mexico a little? Alex Marvez is everywhere! Okay, now I’m two for five with Sting entering, Taz interrupting and cut to something else. This time I even got my original prediction of cut to commercial right. Yeah. And next week Sting will call out Team Taz. Wohoo! What a drag. Ultimately, that was a really fun show (well produced as well, the difference between live and taped was obvious once again). The first three matches (Darby-Janela, Cody tag, Pac squash) were fine but nothing special, but I really enjoyed the second half of matches. The Acclaimed looked great against MJF and Jericho, I enjoyed Hirsch and Rosa a lot and the main event was a stupid-fun garbage brawl and made Archer look great in defeat.

Like it or not but AEW clearly doesn't care that much about what faces or heels are supposed to be like and you can be 100% right and still be a bad guy. The new eco-friedly Daniel Bryan was right and a fantastic heel. Every evil foreigner criticizing racial prejudices was and is right. So, either way, I see no problem in Taz being right. And Darby doesn't think Janela is overlooked, Darby things he's better than what he's shown so far. That's a difference. And I won't argue that Hobbs brings more to the table than Janela who maybe has some kind of unknown backstage role which justifies his spot. I really don't wanna defend Joey Janela. And clearly Hobbs first weeks as unsigned talent falsify his "true" record and Dark in it's current form is a detriment to the win-loss records. Coming back to the greater theme of this thread, I really like things like Taz beeing right despite being a bad guy in theory. Most of the time AEW feels more like people coming together playing characters they wan't to play, even if that makes their stories chaotic and muddled at times. FTR vs. Young Bucks is a great example of things not really coming together from a storytelling view for me. WWE drove me away because you feel that people are playing a role someone else imposed upon them (even though some people are fantastic in their roles). I don't have that feeling with AEW (even though some people suck with their characters). And it's really not all milk and honey. Darby just deciding Janela is his next challenger feels like something the character would do. Meanwhile, Darby standing next to Sting in awe like a young boy and leaving without saying a word because Sting has said everything that needs to be said feels like a written role without getting the character.