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AEW - OCTOBER 2022


The Natural

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1 hour ago, Log said:

I don't know. I personally think it'd be pretty hilarious if people figured out that punching Sammy could get you whatever you wanted from TK.

Andrade punching Sammy was probably him testing those waters. "Well, you tell me this, but what if I do it". If you read the full interview (or Cubs' recap) he did mentioning Sammy the rest was about Dorian Roldan and Vikingo and all this backstage shit; the dude is a snake and a backstage manipulator just as much as Sammy is a dumb kid that can't keep his mouth or his Twitter shut. The guy being signed for years was probably not a good idea.

Tony has his hands full here. 

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1 hour ago, John E. Dynamite said:

This would be a hillarious long-term rib, though.

Sammy Guevara IS Robbie Dawber!

Everyone is sleeping on TK running a Variety-style "For Your Consideration" campaign to win Best Booker. 

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My pet theory is in the last year AEW ran into reality.

The business side had a honeymoon period/initial growth phase.  I'm sure internally there was the expectation that paying big money and bringing in top names was going to bring them to the next level and lead to higher ratings, revenues, etc.  Even before Punk spontaneously combusted, hiring Punk/Bryan barely moved the needle. They are basically where they were before, and this may just be what rating are going to be. While there is nothing to be ashamed about being a viable no. 2. promotion and cable ratings leader, I'm guessing the company is not meeting its projections.

From a personnel side, in the last year, outside of arguably MJF, no talent has made the jump from the mid-card to the main event scene. You have the homegrown talents who have now been positioned as the future for several years with no path to the next level. Then you have the former WWE talents who were either disgruntled or underutilized in WWE and have joined AEW only to find themselves in the same position.  A bunch of talents coming to the conclusion that they arent going anywhere fast. 

Along with the booking issues, you have a promotion in a holding pattern. 

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5 minutes ago, JohnnyJ said:

My pet theory is in the last year AEW ran into reality.

They were on tv for like five months before the largest global pandemic in a century compromised their operation for over a year. 

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3 hours ago, (BP) said:

I think a pretty good punishment/rib would be to go the WWE route of breaking up Sammy and Tay onscreen. He’s cooled off because he loses the best part of his act, plus they can stress him out by pairing her with an irresistible stud like, say, Serpentico. 

Tay Conti joining Chaos Project years after trying to ruin Negative one’s birthday party would be too despicable of a heel move to be done on national television.

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I think one of the main issue along with the general unrest in the locker room is the 50/50 booking. Guys are cycled in and out and go missing because Tony doesn't want certain people to lose. 2 of your biggest acts are The Acclaimed and FTR, why aren't you building towards that match? That will draw money and ratings. Someone has to lose but there momentum doesn't have to stagnant if you continue to book them strongly. He has been a huge wrestling buff so he should know that huge acts wrestled all the time and a loss didn't make them less over. He does this with too many acts.

There is no reason for a guy like Wardlow to be missing for weeks with a giant roster. Build him up by have him have matches with perceived important guys. And if he later wins the top title there isn't a reason you can't run that program again. (How many times did Cena face Orton in PPV main events over the years, The Rock vs HHH from the IC title on up.)

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16 minutes ago, wpdougie2180 said:

I think one of the main issue along with the general unrest in the locker room is the 50/50 booking. Guys are cycled in and out and go missing because Tony doesn't want certain people to lose. 2 of your biggest acts are The Acclaimed and FTR, why aren't you building towards that match? That will draw money and ratings. Someone has to lose but there momentum doesn't have to stagnant if you continue to book them strongly. He has been a huge wrestling buff so he should know that huge acts wrestled all the time and a loss didn't make them less over. He does this with too many acts.

There is no reason for a guy like Wardlow to be missing for weeks with a giant roster. Build him up by have him have matches with perceived important guys. And if he later wins the top title there isn't a reason you can't run that program again. (How many times did Cena face Orton in PPV main events over the years, The Rock vs HHH from the IC title on up.)

While I do agree that it'd be nice to see a lot of the roster more (Miro and FTR for me, personally), I don't agree with most of this.

I think the one thing that TK has done well is to keep big matches big. A good example is realizing last night that Mox and Hangman hadn't faced each other yet. That's pretty impressive that they kept them apart for three years. Cena and Orton facing each other a million times was not a good thing. In my opinion, WWE's product was never more boring than during those years. I don't think booking people against the same people over and over and over makes for compelling feuds. Sure, if they match up nicely there will be a lot of good matches, but how many will mean anything?

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2 hours ago, JohnnyJ said:

My pet theory is in the last year AEW ran into reality.

The business side had a honeymoon period/initial growth phase.  I'm sure internally there was the expectation that paying big money and bringing in top names was going to bring them to the next level and lead to higher ratings, revenues, etc.  Even before Punk spontaneously combusted, hiring Punk/Bryan barely moved the needle. They are basically where they were before, and this may just be what rating are going to be. While there is nothing to be ashamed about being a viable no. 2. promotion and cable ratings leader, I'm guessing the company is not meeting its projections.

From a personnel side, in the last year, outside of arguably MJF, no talent has made the jump from the mid-card to the main event scene. You have the homegrown talents who have now been positioned as the future for several years with no path to the next level. Then you have the former WWE talents who were either disgruntled or underutilized in WWE and have joined AEW only to find themselves in the same position.  A bunch of talents coming to the conclusion that they arent going anywhere fast. 

Along with the booking issues, you have a promotion in a holding pattern. 

Someone pointed out that a lot of the initial momentum was the whole “hey kids, let’s put on a show” aspect with Cody and the others. And the anti WWE/Vince sentiment to boot. 
 

then, the billionaire steps in. 
 

and it’s no longer this grass roots thing run by the workers. Heck, giving them a corporate “EVP” may have taken the lister off for some of those fans. 
 

and one of them is gone, the others could be gone and, on the other side, the guy those fans hated has been removed. 
 

the ennui/entropy, from the outisde, makes sense. 

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56 minutes ago, Octopus said:

Tay Conti joining Chaos Project years after trying to ruin Negative one’s birthday party would be too despicable of a heel move to be done on national television.

Tay Conti woo'ed by Luthers perfectly symmetrical face!

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33 minutes ago, Log said:

While I do agree that it'd be nice to see a lot of the roster more (Miro and FTR for me, personally), I don't agree with most of this.

I think the one thing that TK has done well is to keep big matches big. A good example is realizing last night that Mox and Hangman hadn't faced each other yet. That's pretty impressive that they kept them apart for three years. Cena and Orton facing each other a million times was not a good thing. In my opinion, WWE's product was never more boring than during those years. I don't think booking people against the same people over and over and over makes for compelling feuds. Sure, if they match up nicely there will be a lot of good matches, but how many will mean anything?

That's his job to make the matches compelling by making them feuds and not just dream match after dream match. There is Wardlow shouldn't be beating Upper mid careers and then when he wins the title revisit those feuds with a twist aka like the planned MJF vs Punk stuff (also MJF vs Moxley has already main evented an AEW PPV and they are doing that again because people/charaters evolve and the fued can be fresh again). Instead the guys just aren't used because he doesn't want certain guys to lose. (Orton vs Cena was just an example) There are dozens of examples of stalled momentum. 

Edited by wpdougie2180
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when thinking about all the AEW drama of the last several months I keep coming back to two things

- wrestlers are like seagulls, which even if you've never read the book is a perfect descriptor.  someone up there said "herding cats" and "spinning plates" same idea

- "FICKLE!" trademark Bryan Danielson, in regards to both the wrestlers and the fans

For as big a wrestling nerd as Tony is he seems to have missed so many of the lessons he needed to learn to be in the position he's in.  It just keeps making me think for all the lear jets and parties he's been to he's seriously lacking in 'real' life experience, street smarts or whatever.  I keep thinking back to the Punk 'scrum' where he probably lost all respect in the eyes of the lockerroom, and now people feel like they can walk all over him and if they didn't think he was a "money mark" before they absolutely do now.  How can anyone respect him after Punk shit all over his company and he sat there and took it?  It's too much of a macho business for that shit and he put himself in that position. 

I really hate typing all this negative shit about AEW, but it's also crashing and burning before our eyes and is looking clownshoes right when TV negotiations are starting.  If I'm at WBD right now I'm wondering if I want to be in business with this traveling circus anymore

 

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2 hours ago, (BP) said:

They were on tv for like five months before the largest global pandemic in a century compromised their operation for over a year. 

This keeps being repeated, so I'll weigh in and say that growth-prospects were better in the pandemic than now. Advertisers were flush with cash. Networks were booming. Live events were closed but everybody had full pockets for when arenas opened again. It was an extremely difficult period, but basically no businesses were going bust such was the level of fiscal support, and they had a ton of momentum to grow out of.

Now interest rates are rising and disposable incomes are getting slaughtered. Gas prices eeking back up again already .. its not a pretty big-picture economically .. the down-turn is only in its very infancy and already live attendances are noticeably down. Amidst all that, they've spurned all their momentum. I'll be really interested to see if they keep the TV ratings above 1 mil through the next month (ironically maybe more eyes on TV and not paying to go out)

Edited by A_K
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Tony has passion which is needed desperately but he needs to start laying down the law. Doesnt need to be a dick but remind the talent they need to be on the same page to be successful since it's his money his rep. He needs to build a trusted team. Vince had Monsoon, Patterson a guy like Andre in the locker room. From the outside it looks like Tony does everything. And he needs to get the guys to tone down the Twitter the public outbursts like FTR calling him out knowing it would go online. Taz would call this a sloppy shop

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1 minute ago, Serious Darius Bagfelt said:

Tony has passion which is needed desperately but he needs to start laying down the law. Doesnt need to be a dick but remind the talent they need to be on the same page to be successful since it's his money his rep. He needs to build a trusted team. Vince had Monsoon, Patterson a guy like Andre in the locker room. From the outside it looks like Tony does everything. And he needs to get the guys to tone down the Twitter the public outbursts like FTR calling him out knowing it would go online. Taz would call this a sloppy shop

One of the scenes from Rhodes to the Top that sticks out in my mind is Ricky Starks after getting injured last year confronting Cody about his future with the company - since Cody's gone, there's no one to run interference for Tony.

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Remember when Eric Braeden showed up at the Royal Rumble the one year? I know he's a pretty grouchy guy but if you could get Victor Newman as an on-screen wrestling character even just long enough to build to some kind of ppv payoff...that would be the ultimate "male soap opera" or whatever. 

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7 minutes ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

Remember when Eric Braeden showed up at the Royal Rumble the one year? I know he's a pretty grouchy guy but if you could get Victor Newman as an on-screen wrestling character even just long enough to build to some kind of ppv payoff...that would be the ultimate "male soap opera" or whatever. 

Was he really at the rumble?!  Was he like in the audience or on screen?!  Victor vs Sonny, Vs John Black, Vs Todd Manning would be the epic fatal 4 way

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55 minutes ago, Pedro said:

Was he really at the rumble?!  Was he like in the audience or on screen?!  Victor vs Sonny, Vs John Black, Vs Todd Manning would be the epic fatal 4 way

He was backstage during a video segment romancing Dawn Marie (I think). I just remember he gives D'Lo and someone else some tight-lipped advice about a gentleman never giving away his secrets and as he walks away D'Lo goes "Damn, some guys have ALL THE LUCK!!". I've been trying to find it on YouTube for ages but nobody ever seems to upload it. 

 

Holy crap I did find this tho: 

https://youtu.be/FZdsOOW1mjE

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1 hour ago, Execproducer said:

Sonny Corrinthos was after my time. Robert Scorpio was the GOAT. He got to have love scenes with Emma Samms and play a poor man’s James Bond. 

Robert is still there!!  He looks just like my Uncle Rick actually!  I believe Emma Sands is returning to the show this month too actually

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