AEW TV - 4/3 - 4/9/2024 - Takeshita The Long Way Home

[Casey]

Let’s just go ahead and get it out of the way - Sapp says the All In London footage is real, not a troll, and he’s been told that by someone at WBD.

ain’t no fuckin’ way, but grifters gonna grift

[Cobra Commander]

I actually watched AEW Collision for once:

Hey, if they're gonna put a wrestling show on TV at this time of night, might as well watch it

Valiant job by the commentators to act like this is live.

FTR wins and advances in a match I don't really remember much about. They wrestle the Bucks for the titles in a few weeks.

Pac beats a dude and he's issuing a challenge. Nice Rings of Saturn (?) finish

That Jericho/Hook double team submission looked weird. Then Anthony Agogo returned (he still works here?) and they do a beat down and nobody in the crowd appears to give a shit about it. Then they bury Chris Jericho under the Shane Taylor Promotions flag like it's Mid-South in 1986. Okay. I guess if you're gonna have Jericho do stuff, this is better than wasting hot acts on wrestling Jericho.

Dustin Rhodes has a challenge for Samoa Joe. Not to be down on Dustin, who can still do things, but this feels a little bit hokey since it's pretty obviously timed to ride the coattails of Cody's match this weekend. Just remembered the whole "Dustin having to hide a Dax reply tweet about Collision when Dustin was tweeting about Wrestlemania this weekend" thing.

Now don't get me wrong, Dustin vs Joe is probably gonna be a solid match. But yeah, we're running this with several days of build.

The Six Man seemed fun. Amused that Sydal was talked up as an inspiration to others on a team with Christopher Daniels around, who was clearly more of an inspiration for indy dudes 20 years ago. Anyways, House of Black wins, our hero Adam Copeland lures Malakai away and attacks his friends, then FTR and Mark Briscoe run out for a schmozz, then the Bucks show up. This really should have ended the show if not for this being in the Saturday Night's Main Event timeslot. The (most of the) rest of this show is sorta feeling like action that you should make an Irish Exit during.

This Collision is probably way more padded than the normal Collison, right? as a result of it being taped after Dynamite this week and the timeslot (not to beat a horse about the timeslot). They weren't gonna make fans experience a full 2 hour Collision taping, so tape enough wrestling and then fill the rest with promos.

Also Danielson and Ospreay got sitdown interviews earlier.

Jericho and Hook get a promo. Shibata does a promo via a translation app. Okay. Jericho Island has been downgraded to an atoll.

Hey it's.. the Infantry. I have no idea who the Infantry is. Yuka has more infantry looking pants than Adora. Hey, it's Serena Deeb.

Claudio is in action! against The Butcher. Hard to believe it took this long for the Butcher to make his Collision singles debut. I'm listening to more commentary than normal for this show, and boy are they telling us all sorts of biographical information about The Butcher. Claudio wins.

A Julia Hart promo.

I just realized this episode of wrestling TV is sorta like 1998 WCW Saturday Night. Or at least as close as you can get to that in 2024. There weren't any backstage promos with Mean Gene tonight and this wasn't taped from Columbus, GA.

Someone told Samoa Joe about what Dustin Rhodes had to say. Okay, Joe vs Dustin Rhodes won't be for the title. That's better than what it seemed like earlier.

Penta! will he face The Blade? or one of the Texas Hangmen? Or Tough Tom from Disorderly Conduct. Even better, Komander! this should probably be a cool match. Plus, I don't remember when this show started (it was delayed by the Final Four) so I won't know when this match is supposed to end. Komander in his 32nd AEW match, it's possible to keep too many stats in wrestling. Cool kick counter to the handspring off the ropes. I might have typed this on the internet before, but the whole "picture in picture through the break" thing for taped shows is... a decision. In theory, they probably could air almost all of this match without PIP and have less time to use filler on the rest of the show... but as noted above, we're kinda pretending this isn't taped, so. Nice dive by Komander. The crowd is faring pretty well by this time of the taping since they sound like they're liking this match. Pretty fun match.

Penta vs Copeland on Wednesday seems like it could be interesting, or a styles clash.

Edited April 7 by Cobra Commander

[Curt McGirt]

8 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

Nice Rings of Saturn (?) finish

THE BRUTALIZER 

[Cobra Commander]

I don’t know how much new ground was broken last night with Penta and Komander but it was a good 10 minutes or so aired in pretty much the middle of the night in most of the country.

[Zimbra]

Just now, Cobra Commander said:

I don’t know how much new ground was broken last night with Penta and Komander but it was a good 10 minutes or so aired in pretty much the middle of the night in most of the country.

One are where AEW could take some pointers from WCW is just throwing out an 8-minute spotfest somewhere in the first hour of every show to get the crowd hyped.

[Cobra Commander]

taping after a Dynamite, if they air taped matches in order, I guess there's a case to be made for closing off Rampage episodes with that sort of sprint match to try and juice the crowd a little to close out the show. Sorta like how fireworks shows try to close out with a bang.

there's a case to be made that some of how wrestling TV shows are laid out is a little too faithful to the era of head to head competition. This is something both top promotions have sort of an attachment to upholding. I know this might contradict me thinking they should have ended last night's Collision with the House of Black/Bucks vs FTR/Briscoe/Copeland schmozz

Also, TNT isn't gonna have Saturday Night basketball head to head with Wrestlemania Night 1 every year, so if AEW is on Saturday nights for one of those years, there has to be a way to duck going head to head with Wrestlemania that doesn't look like you're totally ducking Wrestlemania ("Hey TNT, can you air some alternate feed of the Final Four so we can air the show later at night?").. especially if you don't have a Clash of the Champions level card to try and compete.

[HarryArchieGus]

Collision is the Sunday tape delay priority. Elton John opening returns! Could the promo montage be far behind? Please. FTR v Top Flight was good, not great. The Martins seemed a bit sluggish here. I may have overhyped this one in my head after Darius/Dante's solid promo on Supercard. Loved the the reverse into Shatter Machine finish. Pac squash was fine. Not sure why Pac would heel tease his top rope finisher? You're the babyface, ya bastard! I very much liked the post match promo. Pac deserves more mic time, and seems to be getting it. Okada v Pac is a terrific booking. Okada video is good stuff. I like the reps the promo packages are getting. Excitement is brewing. Bryan Danielson sitdown was terrific. Loved all of what he was saying here. Renee is an MVP! Hook/Jericho v Taylor/Moriarty seemed well laid out to showcase the Hook. He looked like a beast throwing around Taylor. I'm all for Ogogo aligning with Taylor/Morarity. The fighting over submissions finish was good, but I'm starting to get a want to see Lee get some wins and credibility back. Shane Taylor loves spandex. He loves the feel of it. Even if its not his best presentation. Hook/Jericho/Shibata promo was good, and I'm all for that 6 man. The Dustin 'ALL IS I WANT, ALL IS I WANT!' promo was a lot of fun. Joe v Dustin will be a helluva piece of business! Ospreay/Renee promo was very good too. The packages and videos really help make this show come alive. House of Black v Keith/Daniels/Sydal was another nice showcase. Here's hoping for Keith v Black singles. Keith oughtta battle Buddy and Brody too. Malakai's heating up, and I like seeing it. Cope/FTR/Briscoe/Bucks run-in provided a modicum of sizzle towards each's future battles. Simple but effective. Rocky/Roddy promo was also simple but effective. Bucks/All-In announcement, and I'm looking forward to it. Yuka v Adora was stronger down the stretch. Yeah, I'm curious what Yuka v Deeb might look like. Good booking. Menard/Garcia promo was good. I'd like to see more simple direct promos from this pairing. Claudio v Butcher wasn't without its charms. I need to see Claudio go on a run like he had while wearing the ROH Title. Basing for more high flyers for example. Julia Hart promo was good. She's doing admirably well on the microphone. Samoa Joe promo was excellent. So stoked for the Dustin match. Komander v Penta was pretty strong for both. I'm curious to see what Copeland v Penta looks like. This was a fun show. The promos and video packages make for a much better flow. They tell us that stuff is happening in AEW, and the future is bright. I buy that! 

[Matt D]

I liked the Rampage main event a lot. It's going to be a lost match because of the timing but the end Andretti vs Garcia bit was quite good.

The spot where Andretti caught Komander off the ropes in a torture rack for his finish was nuts, spot of the year contender and no one saw it. Ah well.

[Curt McGirt]

Poor Okada. He needs two translators: one for PAC's Begbie-Speak and another to change that from English into Japanese.

EDIT: Hey, Dustin vs. Joe on Wednesday (I think)! Awesome. 

Edited April 8 by Curt McGirt

[Matt D]

Here's the Andretti image. I captured it myself, dammit.

[Curt McGirt]

He's lucky he has a strong neck.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

1 minute ago, Curt McGirt said:

He's lucky he has a strong neck.

But not as neck strong as Roderick Strong

[sabremike]

My prediction on the only thing that matters: The rating for Wednesday's Dynamite is going to be a big disappointment because nobody outside the internet really gives a shit about any of this (the non reaction to AC's rah-rah promo last week should've proved that).

[Nice Guy Eddie]

16 minutes ago, sabremike said:

My prediction on the only thing that matters: The rating for Wednesday's Dynamite is going to be a big disappointment because nobody outside the internet really gives a shit about any of this (the non reaction to AC's rah-rah promo last week should've proved that).

As much as I generally like the stuff you post, I hope you're 100% wrong on this one. I guess I'm in the minority because I give a shit and I like Cope's promo. I want AEW to succeed. I don't want to go back to a world where WWE has a stranglehold on the wrestling industry. I tried giving Raw another chance tonight, but I just can't get into it. Part of that might be due to Pat McAfee, who makes me wish I deaf. 

[Greggulator]

I would like a successful AEW as differentiated from WWE as possible. AEW is at its best with things like crazy good random matches, Eddie Kingston, Orange Cassidy title reigns, Toni Storm, The Acclaimed, etc. 

Who the hell cares about any of this? Like… just move the hell on. It is so pathetic looking. I really don’t like Punk and would be perfectly fine never seeing him ever again but this is just so lame.

[sabremike]

22 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

As much as I generally like the stuff you post, I hope you're 100% wrong on this one. I guess I'm in the minority because I give a shit and I like Cope's promo. I want AEW to succeed. I don't want to go back to a world where WWE has a stranglehold on the wrestling industry. I tried giving Raw another chance tonight, but I just can't get into it. Part of that might be due to Pat McAfee, who makes me wish I deaf. 

Trust me: I hope I am wrong here as well. 

[The Natural]

What I'd tell CM Punk, the Young Bucks and Tony Khan? Let it go. Move on.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

We would have all been better off if CM Punk never came back. 

[The Green Meanie]

London Lighting is a Shetland RJ City.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

11 hours ago, Greggulator said:

I would like a successful AEW as differentiated from WWE as possible. AEW is at its best with things like crazy good random matches, Eddie Kingston, Orange Cassidy title reigns, Toni Storm, The Acclaimed, etc. 

Who the hell cares about any of this? Like… just move the hell on. It is so pathetic looking. I really don’t like Punk and would be perfectly fine never seeing him ever again but this is just so lame.

I don't know what I think, have to wait to see how they handle it.  I'm beyond sick of anything Punk drama related and moved on the second he was fired.  I normally wouldn't advocate this, BUT Punk fired the first shots and they wouldn't be showing it if it didn't Rashomon his version of events.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see it and it's either put it on Dynamite or put it on youtube so might as well try to pop a rating

That or it's a fake out by the Bucks.  I'd find that absolutely hilarious.  epic trolling.  And I like using this as a way to get Perry into their group if they go that route.  I know he's divisive around here but I like him and thought he was gaining traction as a heel

Edited April 9 by ExcellenceofAirPollution

[peterien]

12 hours ago, The Natural said:

What I'd tell CM Punk, the Young Bucks and Tony Khan? Let it go. Move on.

100% all of them need to move on, yes Punk brought it up again but Ariel quizzes him on it, if he said nothing people would have had a problem with that too.

I said it in a previous comment but I don’t know what the gain is here. One weeks rating pop? Yay but what happens after? 

[FourPostMassacre]

12 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

We would have all been better off if CM Punk never came back. 

Mistakes were made. Hope the dude is in therapy.

[Go2Sleep]

They were obviously phoning it in on Rampage and Collision this week, but can I just say how much better it is that Jericho is using White Zombie instead of Judas now? Low-key killer theme.

[Octopus]

13 hours ago, Greggulator said:

I would like a successful AEW as differentiated from WWE as possible. AEW is at its best with things like crazy good random matches, Eddie Kingston, Orange Cassidy title reigns, Toni Storm, The Acclaimed, etc. 

 

For me, AEW is most riveting when you have a combination of competitive matches, buffet style presentation of styles, an interconnected world that reasonably can see one rivalry lead to another flawlessly (Kingston going from Danielson to Punk), and a long overarching story that hits.

The Hangman Saga, MJF vs Cody, MJF vs Punk, Danielson vs Kingston, Adam Page vs Swerve. It’s a shame that MJF vs Cole both didn’t pan out well and they were both injured with how much time was invested in it.

The 2 main things about AEW that I love(d) the most is Bryan Danielson being awesome and specifically the Hangman Saga. With Dragon going to part time, I really hope they can hit another long story that is told through subtleties and in ring moments that I feel emotionally invested in.

The CC being an annual event could help but that’d only be a month.

 

[Zimbra]

13 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

We would have all been better off if CM Punk never came back. 

It's such a shame that immediately after he won the AEW title his plane was shot down over the sea of Japan.  It spun in.  There were no survivors.