AEW - April 2023

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, Go2Sleep said:

Both guys are good enough to adapt to whatever the fans give them.

Honest question, are there examples of Omega adapting? He seems like the sort of guy out there to script the “perfect match.”

[Krone]

For some odd reason I really want a Jay White/CM Punk feud with White going over. One can wish right?

[John from Cincinnati]

There've been strange/mixed/downright negative reactions to Punk in AEW before -- the Kingston feud, first time vs Moxley the week after the Hangman callout and all the discussion surrounding it, the Fuck CM Punk chants the week the Elite-Death Triangle ran in Chicago. We don't know what exactly is going to happen, but the possibility exists for strange vibes. And we all know I love that, so definitely let him play in the Cena/Cody zone and bring on the strange vibes. There's a risk there as we know it won't take long for some smart-ass edgelord or a pocket of fans to say something that provokes a response, but he's always been pretty good himself at mouthing off and retaining people support. Some people will love him, some people will hate him, ride the wave from week to week.

I'm sure I've shared the clip before where at the San Diego Comic Con, Punk expressed openness and enthusiasm about the idea that people boo and cheer who they want. Trying to read the tea leaves, I'd imagine he might prefer the Cody zone rather than straight-up heel at this point. Won't be shocked if he is a heel as that could be the path of least resistance, but my guess would be they try to go a different direction. 

Here's that is timestamped:

https://youtu.be/rqMMpCjg2nk?t=1512

EVEN IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT OR DISLIKE PUNK, I highly recommend taking a listen to the 1:27 at the end. Maybe even watch along to see how Jade reacts. By the end of it, there's probably something he says that you'll find humorous.

[A_K]

I like Punk. He's got more innate talent irrespective of his age than 80% of that roster put together. That said, he won't move numbers this time around. He may elevate them to 900k, perhaps even 1 mil on the first viewing to see how they play the Elite drama, but it won't last more than a week or two. This is scripted television drama, not live sport. The issue is and always has been with the script, not the actors: Punk had already pretty much cooled down last time around unless he had an interesting heel angle in the works of his own creation. They can trot The Rock out there and they'd still be dragged to the doldrums in short order by virtue of the actions & words the dramatists are being asked to recite on copy from the guy with a degree in finance from an OK-ish college, who if judged on meritoicarcy / body of creative work and not for having a billionaire dad to finance the thing probably wouldn't have even got a job interview at the Big Company in a similar creative role.

Always good to see Punk back in the ring though. The charisma will never leave him.

Edited April 22, 2023 by A_K

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, A_K said:

probably wouldn't have even got a job interview at the Big Company in a similar creative role.

Dude, they hired the motherfucker who wrote Duckman. They also hired a dude who was like 19 and was a weed smoking hippie whose only experience was getting Paul Boesch coffee and doing ring announcing. The latter guy has been a top position creatively in WWE forever (despite coming up with some of the most WrestleCrap ideas in history) even if you account the times he got fired . Shit, TK would hired to be lead writer sight unseen if that's the criteria.

[odessasteps]

Don’t forget hiring the son of Chico from Chico and the Man.

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 minute ago, odessasteps said:

Don’t forget hiring the son of Chico from Chico and the Man.

Shit, what was Dana Warrior's experience of writing pro wrestling BEFORE she got to WWE? 

They hired Patrice O'Neal (god rest his soul) as a writer. I don't know what his qualification was past he loved old wrestling (much like Tony Khan), and he use to sell popcorn at the Boston Garden before he started doing comedy.

[odessasteps]

It wasn’t WWF but you can prob add Bob Mould to the list.

[Go2Sleep]

3 hours ago, Matt D said:

Honest question, are there examples of Omega adapting? He seems like the sort of guy out there to script the “perfect match.”

I mostly meant that both guys can play face or heel effectively.

I have no idea what either guy's pre-plan/call it in the ring ratio is, but they definitely both have their finger on the pulse of modern wrestling, no matter where they're working.

[Casey]

44 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Dude, they hired the motherfucker who wrote Duckman. They also hired a dude who was like 19 and was a weed smoking hippie whose only experience was getting Paul Boesch coffee and doing ring announcing. The latter guy has been a top position creatively in WWE forever (despite coming up with some of the most WrestleCrap ideas in history) even if you account the times he got fired . Shit, TK would hired to be lead writer sight unseen if that's the criteria.

Love the dude’s passion about wrestling, but they hired fuckin’ Freddie Prinze Jr to be on the creative team, when his only notable writing credits at that time (still?) was an autobiographical show about himself that got cancelled after one season.

[porksweats]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

It wasn’t WWF but you can prob add Bob Mould to the list.

Loved reading his memoir and talking about getting on the juice himself.

[TheVileOne]

CM Punk should go directly after Hangman Page for starting all this and then subsequently acting like he had nothing to do with it. Make him an absolute monster who has returned to terrorize Hangman Page and burn him out of the business. 

[JLowe]

2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

It wasn’t WWF but you can prob add Bob Mould to the list.

In my mind Bob Mould was a part of the greatest era of WCW and then left before it got bad and I literally won’t hear otherwise. You can try and tell me but I’ll just listen to Husker Du and Sugar even louder (and Sugar was the second loudest show I’ve ever been to).

[DEAN]

51 minutes ago, JLowe said:

In my mind Bob Mould was a part of the greatest era of WCW and then left before it got bad and I literally won’t hear otherwise. You can try and tell me but I’ll just listen to Husker Du and Sugar even louder (and Sugar was the second loudest show I’ve ever been to).

I saw Husker Du on the NEW DAY RISING tour. I remember the days before cable TV.

[Craig H]

4 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Shit, what was Dana Warrior's experience of writing pro wrestling BEFORE she got to WWE? 

They hired Patrice O'Neal (god rest his soul) as a writer. I don't know what his qualification was past he loved old wrestling (much like Tony Khan), and he use to sell popcorn at the Boston Garden before he started doing comedy.

Hell, they nearly hired Tony Hinchcliffe who is a fucking idiot and has maybe some of the worst booking ideas I've ever heard when he's talked about them on various podcasts he's been on. 

[HarryArchieGus]

11 hours ago, JLowe said:

In my mind Bob Mould was a part of the greatest era of WCW and then left before it got bad and I literally won’t hear otherwise. You can try and tell me but I’ll just listen to Husker Du and Sugar even louder (and Sugar was the second loudest show I’ve ever been to).

Yeah, Bob and Nash put together some great television (haha, turn it up to 11)! Compare that era to any AEW era and you'll be begging for more QTV.

Ya know, 'the Du' was a tricky group for me. I read about them for so long that expectations were a bit high when I finally heard them (man, I miss the build to hearing music you'd only read about for weeks, months, years). This was well after their demise. I started with their double concept album 'Zen Arcade'. I definitely liked it ('never talking to you again', 'pink turns to blue'), but always felt, for some reason, I just couldn't quite, uh, Perforate it. Later, I remember hearing the early single 'Statues', and feeling like they were starting to make sense. And that maybe I just needed to start earlier than Zen, but I was very very slow to the rest of the catalog. Before I got there it became fully clear that the post-Husker Du Bob Mould/Sugar catalog was not at all for me (I mean no disrespect). Then a pal showed me 'Diane' just a couple years ago. 'Diane' was my way in, and with it I concluded: I'm a Grant Hart guy. Du-Hart Playlists are the way to go for me. On a sidenote, I just saw the not entirely bad, but truly ridiculous, Dusty Rhodes A&E bio. It reminded me that, previous to Dusty's death, Bob Mould played a show here in Toronto at the Horseshoe. After the show, friends, some who knew Bob, were chatting with him when he dropped this nugget: 'Dusty is gay'. If true (yeah I believe Bob), it's too bad the Dream never felt comfortable enough to step out of his Stardust closet and wave that flag high for all to see. I was also reminded of this in connection to Goldust, and the strong McPossibility that the character was an attempt to cut a little deeper on the Dream than was previously known.

Edited April 22, 2023 by HarryArchieGus

[ChesterCopperpot]

All In Wembley seating chart according to Reddit - probably in the 60k seats range 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by ChesterCopperpot

[matt925]

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by matt925

[Casey]

3 hours ago, ChesterCopperpot said:

All In Wembley seating chart according to Reddit - probably in the 60k seats range 

 

 

I hope they have a massive fucking stage. A show like this deserves something spectacular, not your usual AEW PPV stages. Them blocking off that many seats gives me hope.

[odessasteps]

They better hope their attendance is better than the FA Cup semi final with City today. 

[Curt McGirt]

20 hours ago, JLowe said:

and Sugar was the second loudest show I’ve ever been to

I have to ask because I know DEAN said Huskers was his loudest and he's not the only one I've heard that from: what was your top one? Mine was Destructor which gave me actual pain in the morning. Probably my second was a Chicago show with a bunch of local bands, then Selfish from Finland, then Hellshock from Portland, and the volume just kept rising. And of course Japan's Gouka because duh, they're Japanese of course they're gonna blow your shit out. 

I think I started as usual with a band's first release (and I still love Land Speed Record) but a friend of mine handed me a CDR of Zen Arcade and it blew my ass away. 

[ka-to]

I lost the high range hearing in my left ear from a Husker Du/Kraut show.

[DEAN]

57 minutes ago, ka-to said:

I lost the high range hearing in my left ear from a Husker Du/Kraut show.

I SAW KRAUT!  THEY WERE KRAUT!  ALL TWISTED!  I remember back when you could choose leaded or unleaded gasoline.

 

[Curt McGirt]

God do I love An Adjustment To Society. What a fucking record. 

 

[JLowe]

2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

I have to ask because I know DEAN said Huskers was his loudest and he's not the only one I've heard that from: what was your top one? Mine was Destructor which gave me actual pain in the morning. Probably my second was a Chicago show with a bunch of local bands, then Selfish from Finland, then Hellshock from Portland, and the volume just kept rising. And of course Japan's Gouka because duh, they're Japanese of course they're gonna blow your shit out. 

I think I started as usual with a band's first release (and I still love Land Speed Record) but a friend of mine handed me a CDR of Zen Arcade and it blew my ass away. 

My Bloody Valentine/Dinosaur Jr. in 1992, although it was worse because I was pressed up against the stage so right by the PA. Then Sugar in 1994, and third loudest was Mission of Burma sometime in the 2000s. Of course they were so loud in their day that the drummer has permanent hearing loss and has to play with huge headphones and plexiglass blocking his kit from the monitors.

I came late to Husker Du. My first exposure was one of the SST comps in the 1980s and I think it wasn’t a very good song they chose. I also was very into a specific sound as “hardcore” and so it probably wasn’t what fit that window. Copper Blue came out while I was in college and a DJ at our radio station and I liked it but I was very much in heavy/“grunge” mode and it was a little too poppy for me. But then I moved and started grad school and got  soft or something and also really loved “My Favorite Things” and saw them live and it was so fast and loud and I understood it a little better. A couple years after I not only went back and grew to truly love Copper Blue but picked up “Flip Your Wig” and my mind was blown by how fast and melodic and fucking catchy it was (with my more mature understanding/appreciation of “punk”). That’s still my favorite.

And now I’ve seen Bob Mould live probably a dozen times including the tour where he did “Copper Blue” cover to cover one last time and I was a sobbing mess but still made sure I had my earplugs in.