AEW TV - 7/3 - 7/9/2024 - Britt Be A Dentist... And You'll Be A Success!

[Technico Support]

8 hours ago, Craig H said:

There’s no way Hangman would lose again.

I can’t express how much I’m looking forward to this Hangman heel/tweener run. Basically a Hanger driven by absolute hate for Swerve to do things he doesn’t want to do, like joining the EVP side for B&G, shunning all friends to do everything for himself and the livelihood of his family, etc. Basically a modern day DTA Hangman Page.

Given enough time, he’s going to be a bigger face than he was before.

I am SO FUCKING HERE for Stone Cold Hangman just beating everybody.

[AxB]

7 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

They could have used a Dusty finish. That might be hard considering there's no rules in ECW though.

That's why Bill Alfonso was there. To get heel heat by enforcing the rules and reversing decisions (removing babyface wins).

Onto Rampage: ROOOSH vs Komander reminds us that Rush has spent very little of his time in AEW wrestling other Luchadors. Rush mostly just eats him alive, but that's how he generally wrestles. He's not a guy who has 50/50 matches.

Private Party vs Fletcher & Takeshita, that was mostly a showcase for the Don Callis Family team (but the way the angle is going, Fletcher is going to leave the group with Ospreay soon, so it's less of a "Look at this new kickass Tag Team" and more of a what could have been). Quen has done a great job of getting himself back in ring shape though. When he first returned, he looked chunkier and seemed to have lost a step athletically, but he's back to his best now. But PP as an act, they're one of those 2019 signings who had a big future in 2019, but were then eclipsed by later signings. The Acclaimed and Top Flight both took spots that Private Party could have occupied.

I was expecting a shorter squashier match, but they kept kicking out of stuff. Not sure about Fletcher and Takesoup hitting stereo Brainbusters for Twos, when that's MJF's new killer finish, but oh well. Schiavone at the desk looking miserable at sharing a camera shot with Callis was funny, can't wait for all of the idiots to screencap it and talk about how he's not happy in AEW.

Two matches in a row where a guy called Kyle is in the ring while his questionable friend provides commentary! I do fins it interesting that whenever you have an unsigned local indie guy on AEW TV to do a job, they always get a hometown hero pop from the fans (even when they're clearly the heel in the match, like GPA tonight), which never happens in WWE.

Speaking of WWE, we get a couple of promo packages (from Joe on Jericho, and Storm on Trish Adora) and a recap video (of MJF/Garcia) so all of their goldfish-brained fans can remember that AEW has storylines.

Hikaru Shida vs Mariah May was stiff as hell in parts. They're both babyfaces, but Shida was working as veteran heel in the match. But considering that the winner gets Willow Nightingale on Wednesday, they're going to be the heel in that match no matter what.

The odd thing about the Owen Hart tournament is, it's (a couple of) 8 person single elimination tournaments, but being spread over a bunch of shows like it is, it doesn't have that epic feel that either a one night tournament, or a round robin does... like, you don't feel that people are arriving in the final battered and exhausted. Maybe it's just me.

Good show though.

[Curt McGirt]

I took a cursory look at this one while it was on, coming in after the Rush match (will go back and watch that squash. Callis' "All this is yours my son" segment after was cool). Fletcher coming out behind Takeshita made him look like an afterthought. Private Party coming out at all made the match an afterthought to me. And of course I didn't give a Shida match any play, but Toni's outfit and the interplay with Mariah is still a hoot. I'm thinking she'll probably win the Owen unless they want to do a breakup angle with Toni, and that should NOT happen. Now, Danielson versus Knife Pervert? Danielson versus 1989 Terry Funk Hungman? This one is more of a tossup. It's probably who Bryan wants to wrestle more, but also since they just reintroduced Page, they probably want to give him some more juice after trampling Jarrett. I'll go with Page, and Danielson laying down as well. 

55 minutes ago, AxB said:

That's why Bill Alfonso was there. To get heel heat by enforcing the rules and reversing decisions (removing babyface wins).

Good point, but I'm remembering Tod Gordon coming out, overrunning his authority and letting the Taipei death match between the Rotten Bros. go on. 

[Gorman]

4 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Good point, but I'm remembering Tod Gordon coming out, overrunning his authority and letting the Taipei death match between the Rotten Bros. go on. 

From my upcoming ECW history book, "King of Philadelphia:" 

"Tod Gordon put Bill Alfonso in charge because there were no rules for him to enforce. So Fonzie stopped the match at the first sign of blood. Then he left the building to stop a brawl between the Gangstas and Public Enemy. That meant the Rottens could destroy each other in peace."

[SovietShooter]

5 hours ago, AxB said:

The odd thing about the Owen Hart tournament is, it's (a couple of) 8 person single elimination tournaments, but being spread over a bunch of shows like it is, it doesn't have that epic feel that either a one night tournament, or a round robin does... like, you don't feel that people are arriving in the final battered and exhausted.

I agree with you on this, but I think this may be (somewhat) by design, that way the Continental Classic does come off as the more grueling competition. What I think kinda kills the momentum of The Owen in the way you're describing is how the matches are haphazardly scheduled.  Perfect example is doing Danielson vs Pac, a second round match, before Hangman vs Jarrett, a first round match. Things like that make it seem like it is being shoe-horned in, rather than being featured bouts the show was built around.

[SovietShooter]

This may be a controversial opinion, but I think that referees should be used more as characters, rather than just a set of stripes in there to count pinfalls.  I'm not saying you have to have Babyface/heel refs and a ton of cheating and so forth, but just defined personalities, biases, and strengths/weaknesses.

Like, in baseball, everyone knows Angel Hernandez, CB Bucker and Joe West were shit refs. In college basketball, Ted Valentine was a camera hog, etc.  It would be easy to lean into something like Rick Knox being an incompetent official, Bryce having a faster count than Paul Turner, Aubrey quicker to pull the trigger on a DQ - shit like that.

The actual problem with that is that certain workers have favorite refs that always work their matches (for logical behind the scenes reasons), and in this day and age with earpieces and live cues and such, they are almost like a stage manager in the ring too, and that role factors in a lot more than in the bygone days of yesteryear.

[Curt McGirt]

Oh yeah, now I remember. Tod was like "Is Bill Alfonso gone? Is he gone? OKAY THEN LET'S START THE TAIPEI DEATH MATCH" and then they start slicing the shit out of each other. He had to actually not be present after all. 

Unfortunately, I've seen too much Tirantes and Red Shoes to want anything more from my refs than proper calls and counts.

[StuntmanCrowley]

I couldn't even imagine the dredges of social media if Aubrey Edwards became more prominent.  

[tbarrie]

5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Fletcher coming out behind Takeshita made him look like an afterthought.

He's Kyle Fletcher. He is an afterthought.

[StuntmanCrowley]

I miss Aussie Open.

[JLowe]

22 minutes ago, StuntmanCrowley said:

I miss Aussie Open.

Me too, they would also freshen up the tag team scene some.

[StuntmanCrowley]

Agreed.  The tag/trios division feel aimless.  I know the Bucks/Acclaimed are working towards something, but the tag division was once such a strength and now it feels like WWE where the tag division is an afterthought.

 

Weren't the MCMG supposed to be coming in soon?

[JLowe]

33 minutes ago, StuntmanCrowley said:

Agreed.  The tag/trios division feel aimless.  I know the Bucks/Acclaimed are working towards something, but the tag division was once such a strength and now it feels like WWE where the tag division is an afterthought.

 

Weren't the MCMG supposed to be coming in soon?

I think the trios division is partly to blame for the recent lackluster tag division. Like Acclaimed without Billy Gunn, Lucha Brothers without PAC, HoB doing Freebirds style or just letting Malakai or Brody be a singles wrestler, Top Flight without Andretti, Gunns without Juice or Switch. Then Aussie Open as the Callis team, MCMG, maybe Nick Wayne and Killswitch as Jurassic Express redux.

[COLETTI]

I never get excited for a Kyle Fletcher match, but then the bell rings and I'm usually all in - dude can fucking go, even if it's a bit videogame-y.

Bonus points for the Lyger style pants. 

Edited July 6 by Coletti

[Go2Sleep]

47 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

He's Kyle Fletcher. He is an afterthought.

I think he's actually got potential as a future guy. He's young, got good size, can keep up with the main event style, and hanging out with Ospreay will hopefully enhance his charisma (which I think is there, but not showing currently as a Callis goon). I can imagine him as an AEW main eventer in few years easier than like Hook.

13 minutes ago, StuntmanCrowley said:

Agreed.  The tag/trios division feel aimless.  I know the Bucks/Acclaimed are working towards something, but the tag division was once such a strength and now it feels like WWE where the tag division is an afterthought.

The trios division is fine. When Buddy gets back from his honeymoon, HOB have feuds lined up with the Patriarchy and BCG, who are feuding with each other in the mean time. Jericho and Joe's competing educational institutions have a strong non-title feud and either group could be easily moved into the title scene when that's done. You still have Death Triangle and Top Flight floating around. I do agree that the tag division is lost right now, though, especially since FTR went down. Seems like they can only do one at a time. MCMG were rumored/seem like an ideal fit, but I don't think that was ever confirmed.

[DMJ]

- Mone has been acting like a heel from the beginning - the extra lavish entrance, the CEO nickname (I mean, is there anyone more hated in modern late capitalist society than a CEO?), the fact that she got visually pinned by Willow in their TBS Title match, the condescending tone of every one of her promos - but I think they didn't want to necessarily beat the audience's heads with it because (a) there was merch money to be made and (b) the fans in Boston and in other cities did want to cheer for her initially because she was the biggest star in the division so seeing her live was always going to get a huge pop.* And, who knows? Maybe they also thought she might get over as a babyface despite clearly being a heel so best not to have Excalibur and Schiavone and Tazz sell her as a villain the way they do the Young Bucks or The Learning Tree?

Here's hoping that, moving forward, they do start having the commentary make it clear that she is buddy-buddy with the Bucks and has an attitude (but can back it up in the ring). Then, let Mercedes do the rest of the work to get heat.

Also - last thought - I wasn't a huge fan of Britt's lengthy promo. It's a shame that shooting straight from the heart and revealing a very real medical issue has become a wrestling trope, but it has. It just seems like every 6 weeks, somebody is coming out to detail some horrendous career-ending injury and how they're now medically cleared and are back to take their spot back. I'm hoping they make this feud less about "AEW Original vs. AEW Outsider" because that's also a trope and maybe more about their characters. Something like: Mercedes Mone is an arrogant, entitled drama queen who pretends to be pro-woman but has thrown a temper tantrum and walked out every time she's been asked to step aside for a new woman to get the spotlight. Britt Baker is a big fish in a small pond and, like her husband, is too fragile to have ever actually achieved anything at the level that Mercedes has. They don't like each other. They don't respect each other. Now they're going to fight. That, to me, is a dynamic where I'm not sure who is going to win.

- They really need to do more with Takeshita. I don't know why Tony doesn't see him as, if not their Brock Lesnar, than at least their GUNTHER. I thought they were setting him up to beat Briscoe for the ROH Championship but that doesn't seem like where they're going. I'd love to see him go after Perry for the TNT Title but I don't think they're going in that direction either. For a company with a half-dozen titles floating around, how this guy doesn't get one and then just go on an undefeated streak for the next 3 years makes no sense to me. 

 

* I love to bring up this story just because so I again...Somewhere between 2004-2006, I went to an indy show here in Cleveland (it was pre-AIW, so I'm guessing it was either a Cleveland All-Pro show run by JT Lightning or a Pro Wrestling Ohio show) where Buff Bagwell was the big star they brought in. Of course, the whole time, before he makes his entrance, fans are just goofing on Bagwell, talking about Judy, chatting amongst ourselves at how far Buff had fallen to be doing this show, etc. Then, Bagwell shows up, sporting the top hat, looking like "The Stuff," doing all the shtick and all 100 or so fans are just going wild for him. Myself included. Sure, there was still some "Where's Judy?" heckling, but Buff had fun with it and worked the match as the babyface and got babyface reactions. We came to ridicule and boo this guy, we left with our wallets $20 lighter because we all wanted a Polaroid with him and the hat. In a larger sense, this is why you couldn't have Mercedes debut as a heel. The live audiences were going to mark out for her.

[tbarrie]

3 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

I think [Kyle Fletcher]'s actually got potential as a future guy. He's young, got good size, can keep up with the main event style, and hanging out with Ospreay will hopefully enhance his charisma (which I think is there, but not showing currently as a Callis goon). I can imagine him as an AEW main eventer in few years easier than like Hook.

Maybe. Let me digress a bit...

I don't know if I ever properly expressed how boring I found the Two Bland Kyles of AEW. Two decent mechanics without an ounce of personality between them.

But the O'Reilly vs Strong PPV turned me around a bit on O'Reilly. It worked for me as a good example of "the match is the story" - a nice, simple story of Submissions Guy vs Guy Who Does Seven Thousand Backbreaker Variants. (Which is not a story I'd expect to encounter in any genre besides pro wrestling.)

Since then, he's been decent enough as a member of the conglomeration. As a straight man to contrast with the over-the-top characters like Brisco and Cassidy, he's fine.

So could Fletcher similarly redeem himself in my eyes? It's entirely possible.

But until it happens, I'm still going to make jokes about how bland he is.

[Curt McGirt]

I want the Aussie Open guy who's injured to fight the Butcher so you can squint and pretend it's a man fighting himself. 

[hammerva]

So Marko Stunt in AEW.  In 2024.   I haven't heard anything from him from since his brother was found to be a complete creepy fuck.  I assume he was working somewhere

And they already teased him and Luchasaurus in the backstage interview.  It would be something if the one guy that can break the grip of Christian was actually Marko Stunt 

Edited July 7 by hammerva

[Jamal]

Really dug Adora vs Toni and all of the stuff with their respective entourages.

Hope Riho is okay. Looked like she injured her wrist towards the end of the match.

[Octopus]

Keep Marko Stunt for great getting thrown around moments.

[The Green Meanie]

That was Kip Sabian? He looked pretty....bloated.

Kudos to the writers for bringing up a fairly obscure point and calling back a point MJF made about a year ago. A couple of things I wanted to point out:
1) I knew they were going somehow make it be that MJF was mad at Garcia via Osprey somehow, but I wasn't sure exactly how they were going to connect it. Not a bad job how they did it.
2) Logic says that MJF SHOULD be going after The Undisputed Kingdom, one by one, but with both Cole and Wardlow out with injuries, now isn't really the time for him to be doing that. I do hope that they'll come back to that eventually, because we all know we were looking forward to him getting his comeuppance from/on them.
3) My wife was watching tonight with me, and she has both conditions that MJF mentioned having, ADHD and rejection sensitive dysphoria. When he brought that up, I gave her kind of a smirk, and she said "Sir, those things don't make ME violent!"

I think I might have been confused; was tonight's Collision not in Mississippi? If so, why exactly was the crowd cheering for Memphis, TN?

Speaking of Mississippi, kinda surprised (and slightly glad) to see Marko. When the Lucha Express music started, I legit started to worry that a midget version of someone (a la WWE) was going to come out. One thing I sincerely want to see is interaction between Christian and Jack Perry. Christian could totally go with the "I told you people about him" angle to explain Jack's behavior now a days, or Jack could embrace Christian somehow. Either way, I'd like to see their paths cross.

Hangman being Psycho Hangman makes sense. He's super jealous that Swerve became the people's champion, and more popular coming out of their feud. However, he's STILL A BAD FRIEND.

[Fighting a man with a perm]

This was an enjoyable show. Great main event (with a very meme-able shot of Christian lying down outside the ring).

Max's promo furthered the story and did a good job of adding some layers. I just don't get the people cheering him here though, even if you're a fan of his work you lessen the impact of it with your reaction to his heinous acts. I can only assume these people think Ricky Gervais is an edgy and hilarious comedian.

During the first match Nigel made a quip about "titty city" being equally appropriate for the next match, which ended up being Toni Storm and Trish Adora. Someone needs to have a word with him because that's incredibly disrespectful. Schiavone was stunned into silence by it. Nige has some good moments, but he's quantity over quality and he far too often crosses the line to Jerry Lawler "puppies", bleugh!

Positive stuff - lots of great backstage stuff here from Hangman, Christian, HOB, the conglomeration. Some interesting development with OC's character becoming more nihilistic.

[SovietShooter]

Southaven, MS is a large municipality that is part of the Greater Memphis Metro Area. It is growing at a rapid rate, and is now the 3rd largest municipality in MS.  It is starting to become an important shipping & transportation hub, because of its proximity to the Memphis airport/FedEx facilities.

[colonial]

9 hours ago, hammerva said:

So Marko Stunt in AEW.  In 2024.   I haven't heard anything from him from since his brother was found to be a complete creepy fuck.  I assume he was working somewhere

And they already teased him and Luchasaurus in the backstage interview.  It would be something if the one guy that can break the grip of Christian was actually Marko Stunt 

Appears Marko is now a youth pastor at a church in Olive Branch, MS. Hopefully he comes back again with the Christian storyline -- AEW has hinted a few times at Killswitch breaking away from Christian, but quickly drops it each time. Might be worth a shot to give it some legs.