AEW - April 2023

[w. josh]

If a brand split gets more guys weekly TV time and lets some talent actually develop a sense of momentum instead of disappearing for weeks at a time, I'm all for it. Even if it is meant to keep apart a bunch of nerdy man-children. Call it Tony Day Care and give me more Brody King matches, I'll take that trade. 

[NikoBaltimore]

12 hours ago, Dog said:

I have never, ever said I would block anyone on here. Not once.

The fucker should be banned but if there's anybody to block/ignore it's him.  I know it's great and all to respond to bullshit but he's a troll that is best off not to be fed.  Life's too short to be engaging with stupidity.

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, Octopus said:

So with this inevitable and glorious brand split, who gets custody of Rampage?

That's going to be solely dedicated to QTV, bubba. We need more Matt Schiavone on television.

Conrad should make a shirt saying, "The Schiavones: Fucking Up Wrestling Since 1983.".

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

13 hours ago, Dog said:

How will your cognitive dissonance rationalize AEW getting a 3x rights fee increase next year?

Probably the same way the board hand waves away WWE getting substantial rights increases every time new contracts are negotiated.  That’s worked so far.

[Matt D]

5 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

That's going to be solely dedicated to QTV, bubba. We need more Matt Schiavone on television.

So that’s who that guy is! Man, nepotism makes how wonderfully terrible QTV is even better.

[Octopus]

8 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

That's going to be solely dedicated to QTV, bubba. We need more Matt Schiavone on television.

Conrad should make a shirt saying, "The Schiavones: Fucking Up Wrestling Since 1983.".

Qampage has a nice ring to it

[Elsalvajeloco]

12 minutes ago, Matt D said:

So that’s who that guy is! Man, nepotism makes how wonderfully terrible QTV is even better.

Supposedly, from what I can glean from Tony on What Happened When, this is just a vehicle for the blonde chick. They believe she will be a star. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

Miss Hancock made the hall of fame so... 

[JLowe]

1 minute ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Supposedly, from what I can glean from Tony on What Happened When, this is just a vehicle for the blonde chick. They believe she will be a star. 

insert "That's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for him" gif here.

[porksweats]

2 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Supposedly, from what I can glean from Tony on What Happened When, this is just a vehicle for the blonde chick. They believe she will be a star. 

Perhaps when Hobbs is done with Wardlow, they'll move Hobbs against someone with a manager to get her over as well.

 

[DEAN]

I had a random thought.  What if at Forbidden Door you had MJF vs Okada?  THEN Okada wins the AEW title.  THEN the four pillars REALLY don't look like they are in contention for the belt and it goes over to the contingent of Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, maybe Claudio, and Jay White.  And you could also have Will Ospreay win it and have ANOTHER Ospreay/Omega bout but for the AEW title.  It won't happen because TK is separating the world title from the actual world famous superstars in the company and I'm not sure how mixed up he wants to get with New Japan booking.

[Matt D]

So I am taking the "soft brand split" a lot more seriously today than I was yesterday due to some of the reactions and other things.

I am fairly unique on the board in that ALL of the Elite guys (except for Cutler! That guy cracks me up on Elevation) sort of bug me. Even Page. Even Cole. It's all for different reasons, which is interesting to me. I think the things Omega does well are different than the things Page does well which are different than the things the Bucks do well, etc. 

I'm trying to think who might end up on AEW Elite that I would miss the most on the idea I'd ration my time a bit. I'm not counting ROH guys like Top Flight and Claudio. These are just my guesses.

• Matt Hardy/Private Party: Matt's one of my absolute favorite guys in the company; he's been more outspoken than most about Punk though and is obviously close to the Elite. "Slow" doesn't bother me like it does some people. He's still really good at putting together matches and a lot of his extra stuff on Dark/Elevation is as fun as anything else going in the company. Definitely a work smarter, not harder guy but I'm that sort of watcher, so it's good for me. I like Kassidy and how much of a fan of wrestling he is and how eager he is to die to put other people over. Quen has been out so much I don't feel as strongly about him.
• Evil Uno/Stu Grayson/Alex Reynolds/John Silver: I'm very fond of the Dark Order. Uno is a lot of fun to watch. Stu has amazing energy. Silver and Reynolds are the only guys in the company that can do the "guys just wander into the ring without tagging" style in a way that ends up to be pretty logical and meaningful and impactful. They're just pro wrestling savants along those lines. 
• Chuck Taylor/Trent?: The Best Friends are just so experienced and have worked in so many places in so many situations that they're good, steady hands and I tend to like their self-depricating humor more than I like other attempts at humor from the BTE guys. 
• PAC: I like PAC in small doses. I don't like him as part of Death Triangle nearly as much. He's a great high-impact, intense, workrate-y guy, who can hit wild stuff and make it still feel like he's trying to kill someone with it. It's not my favorite sort of wrestling though.
• Jungle Boy: Just through the margins I get the sense that Jungle Boy is one of those guys who doesn't want to be put in a box of traditional narratives in wrestling. I really didn't like Lucha Express tags. I like his singles work better. I could take him or leave him but I have no problem taking him. 

Then there are the ones that I think would either float or probably be on AEW Punk but I'm less sure about.

• Daniel Garcia/2.0: I assume Jericho is just being carny and he'll do anything that gives him the most power/influence/attention. Garcia feels 85% like a Punk type guy in how he wrestles but who knows. He's also obviously a PWG guy now and a JAS guy. I assume he'd float.
• House of Black: They've been paired with the Elite and the Trios belts are obviously an Elite thing. I think that their style is a little more structured/organized and I like them as champions more. But who knows. Brody King is a big Punk guy, actually, isn't he? Anyway, I can see them floating too. There are a lot of singles matches with these three I'd like to see.

And of course Cassidy would be the absolute worst guy to lose but nothing says I couldn't go seek out his matches. It's not like I'd never watch Dynamite or whatever. I'd just not have to go out of my way as much if I'm picking and choosing. Right now I opt out of certain matches. Moving forward, I might opt-in on some instead.

 

[The Natural]

More people will see this here.

[Craig H]

Here's my hot take: The soft brand split is largely bullshit for many of the reasons stated already. It's not like there is a clear Team Punk/Team Elite split in the locker room and most of these people don't even give a shit. They just want to get on TV or get a push or whatever. If anything, it will be like how MJF never works Rampage. You probably just won't see the Bucks or Kenny on the Saturday show and that's largely because that's their time to go home. From BTE, they come in, do the Wednesday show and taping, and then fly home on Thursday or Friday, spend the weekend at home, and then head to the next town on Tuesday. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Punk works Dynamites or Rampages still.

The other thing that has stuck out to me a lot is that when listening to WOR, Dave sounds like he's, as usual, really carrying the water for the Elite saying how this is Punk politicking because he can say he wanted to do business, but the Elite didn't and now he's the bigger person and the other guys are immature. These guys all want to make money at the end of the day and they'll do business.

The biggest question mark in all of this is Punk's health. He suffered a freak accident injury with his crowd dive, made the injury worse in match, took time off, came back, and then tears a muscle he's never even torn before and it's not like he's Cody where he was trying to muscle up. I mean, who knows, Punk's getting old and maybe his body is just starting to fail him. Us Polish folks don't age particularly well (pretty sure Punk is Polish or part Polish).

[SturmCRF]

1 minute ago, Craig H said:

Us Polish folks don't age particularly well (pretty sure Punk is Polish or part Polish).

Wait, is he? And don't we? I'm of Polish descent on both sides and 38 next week, I hope my bones don't start exploding whenever I leap triumphantly over a barricade into a melee of people.

[The Natural]

1 minute ago, SturmCRF said:

Wait, is he? And don't we? I'm of Polish descent on both sides and 38 next week, I hope my bones don't start exploding whenever I leap triumphantly over a barricade into a melee of people.

Happy birthday for then, my friend! Welcome to the 38 club, I turned 38 6th of March this year.

Edited April 14, 2023 by The Natural

[Craig H]

Just now, SturmCRF said:

Wait, is he? And don't we? I'm of Polish descent on both sides and 38 next week, I hope my bones don't start exploding whenever I leap triumphantly over a barricade into a melee of people.

I come from a large polish family and South Bend is/was a huge polish community, along with Chicago. Everything seems like it's going fine until you hit your 40s. I'm 6', far from an athlete, but I lived a fairly healthy life when it comes to bones and muscles and stuff. My brother is 5" taller than me, played basketball, did lots of jogging, stayed pretty healthy, and he's 14 years older than me. He's just falling apart now. Tore a muscle bowling, spinal stenosis, now his neck is all fucked up. Our dad and uncles all had similar things happen to them where they just started degrading in their 40s and 50s to the point where our dad and none of our uncles lived past their 50s. Now, some of that was due to rampant alcoholism and other stuff, but it doesn't seem like we have the genes that other people have.

I think older generations growing up on shit like duck blood soup couldn't have been good for us.

[SturmCRF]

4 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Happy birthday for then, my friend! Welcome to the 38 club, I turned 38 6th of March this year.

Cheers mate! Yup, I remembered that we were basically the same age, the early 90's WWF UK media offensive took so many young minds.

[The Natural]

1 minute ago, SturmCRF said:

Cheers mate! Yup, I remembered that we were basically the same age, the early 90's WWF UK media offensive took so many young minds.

You're welcome, mate. Indeed. Still remember this:

 

[JLowe]

17 minutes ago, SturmCRF said:

Wait, is he? And don't we? I'm of Polish descent on both sides and 38 next week, I hope my bones don't start exploding whenever I leap triumphantly over a barricade into a melee of people.

My fine German stock meant that I could be in the pit, stage dive and crowd surf at age 50 with only minor bruises and a very sore body.

Anyway, I don't read any sites but this so I really have no idea where all the soft bran split and the Punk return only if stuff is coming from.

[SturmCRF]

4 minutes ago, JLowe said:

My fine German stock meant that I could be in the pit, stage dive and crowd surf at age 50 with only minor bruises and a very sore body.

Anyway, I don't read any sites but this so I really have no idea where all the soft bran split and the Punk return only if stuff is coming from.

Yeah, I'd love to see the cranky maniac back, but not at the cost of a brand split.

I haven't officially retired from the joys of the pit, but in a post Dillinger Escape Plan and Every Time I Die world, it's rare I feel compelled. I do four gym sessions, two Judo lessons and a 10K run pretty much every week, so I guess I'll either maintain an excellent level of fitness for my age or evaporate into a fine mist by about 42. Only major injury so far is a torn meniscus last year, but I think that was 90% a 180lbs man falling on me and only 10% age or genetics.

[Matt D]

43 minutes ago, Craig H said:

The biggest question mark in all of this is Punk's health. He suffered a freak accident injury with his crowd dive, made the injury worse in match, took time off, came back, and then tears a muscle he's never even torn before and it's not like he's Cody where he was trying to muscle up. I mean, who knows, Punk's getting old and maybe his body is just starting to fail him. Us Polish folks don't age particularly well (pretty sure Punk is Polish or part Polish).

I agree with you that the most likely and also most horrifically hilarious possibility is that Punk's out for another 6 months with an injury after his third match back.

[Niners Fan in CT]

By reports I've seen out there in the twitter space it sounds like AEW has 45,000 sign ups for the "All In" presale.That doesn't mean they'll sell that many right away but it's interesting 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Niners Fan in CT

[Krone]

I really don't want an AEW brand split, mostly because I think that having two shows you can see "x wrestler" in primetime is better than one. Another probably because it feels to WWE-esque for my liking. Third, because in no way should they need to split brands because of 4 or 5 people who can't get along. That doesn't seem like a good enough reason to do a brand split.

The other side of my brain says "well the appeal to wrestlers in AEW is the schedule and another day, on top of potentially more house shows could hinder that". But I think that's part of growing and at tops 3 days a week (which I doubt any wrestler would be doing) wouldn't be too over the top on select weeks. I wish the show started at 6:00pm on Saturdays - that would be awesome in my opinion and you could even use it as a lead in to some (should be all PPVs on Saturday but I digress) papes would be good.

[NikoBaltimore]

1 hour ago, SturmCRF said:

I haven't officially retired from the joys of the pit, but in a post Dillinger Escape Plan and Every Time I Die world, it's rare I feel compelled. I do four gym sessions, two Judo lessons and a 10K run pretty much every week, so I guess I'll either maintain an excellent level of fitness for my age or evaporate into a fine mist by about 42. Only major injury so far is a torn meniscus last year, but I think that was 90% a 180lbs man falling on me and only 10% age or genetics.

I'm 40 and out of shape though at least try to eat healthyish.  I could tell I was 40 when one morning I'm in bed and my right shin decided to hurt for no reason.  Was a pain in the ass for a couple weeks and that was from nothing at all.  Darn my Greek stock.  But that didn't stop me from getting in the pit in Philly for a bit.  One fall I could handle fine but when my shin gave me trouble after falling again I'm like "Nope, I'll just chill on the perimeter thank you very much."  Still a very fun time and the people were awesome.