AEW TV - 8/21 - 8/27/2024 - Danielson, You're A Star In The Face Of The Sky

[Dolfan in NYC]

Daniel is travelin' tonight on a plane, I can see the red taillights headin' for Spain.

And it's once again time for All In. Judging from what we've all no doubt heard about Bryan Danielson and his current contract status, the main event's outcome seems in little doubt.  But.... stranger things have happened!

Oh, and I can see Daniel wavin' goodbye... God, it looks like Daniel... Must be the clouds in my eyes...

But that's not the only thing on the card!  But tonight we're in Wales! (oh god why?)  We may get another few consequential matches,  including Claudio getting his shot at Kaz Okada.  And here's what else is on tap...

Oh, and I can see Daniel wavin' goodbye... God, it looks like Daniel... Must be the clouds in my eyes...

(Personal note, a close college friend named Daniel passed about 8 years ago (god how time flies)... This song always makes me think of him.)

Anyway, here we go. Let's go All In baby! 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Before anything: sorry for your loss Dolfan - I hope hearing that song is at least comforting and full of good memories.

 

On topic: we had a suuuuper busy weekend, so I missed getting to talk Rampage/Collision in last week's thread (Twitter tells me my DVRing is helping kill the company, so apologies in advance for that, I guess) - before getting into the week ahead, I just need to publicly air the grievance that Angelico v Hologram should've gotten more time! They definitely made the most of their ~5 minutes, but if ever there were a case study in "Ohhh, so *this* is why Dark was important" or "Actually, let's *not* throw RoH in the trash," it was this match.

I anticipate a pretty angle-heavy show here to try and get a few more people in the door at Wembley, so my expectations are tempered accordingly - but anyone not looking forward to Okada/Claudio has no soul, and isn't to be trusted.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

1 hour ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

(Twitter tells me my DVRing is helping kill the company, so apologies in advance for that, I guess)

So YOU'RE to blame! You monster!

[Leonidas]

Currently waiting for my vast amounts of Taco Bell, the show(s) were incredible, very hot and rowdy crowd. We actually burned ourselves out during Dynamite when 

Spoiler

Ospreay

Came out. To the point that half of Collision will be quieter but oh my God when we woke up we went HARD . We sent a heel baby face for the night is all I'm saying. Can't wait to see how it hears on TV. 

[tbarrie]

For the second week in a row, Triller seems unable to stream Dynamite on time. This displeases me.

[NikoBaltimore]

Triller was fine for me last week but it started at 930 tonight. I'm sure it'll be fine for All In but if there's issues I'll consider dropping AEW+. 

[Gordi the recovering AEW f]

Great crowd. It's really too bad they couldn't have brought this guy in, considering they are in Wales:

Spoiler

Too much blahblahblah this week, for my personal tastes. That endless back and forth between MJF and Ospreay made me (personally) ZERO percent more excited for their match. Bryan's brief talk to Ospreay was a million times more effective. To me. Personally. I am legit curious why anyone would legit prefer a long blahblahblah segment to one more fun wrestling match. I also preferred when most of the wrestlers in AEW were pretty much allowed to be more or less themselves, or to be goofy and original, rather than portraying cliched "face" and "heel" characters. I don't see what the appeal is to doing things that way, other than "That's what we have grown used to." On the other hand, and more importantly, the actual wrestling was all excellent and entertaining and the PPV is going to be non-stop bangers for hours and hours. Unfortunately for me (personally) the start time is 1 am Monday Japan time so I won't be watching live. I'll be able to catch half of it after waking up before going to work, then the challenge will be avoiding spoilers (Oh golly! Did Will Osoreay actually use the Tiger Driver?!?! The fn suspense is killing me!) All irony aside, I am fn stoked for the show.

Edited August 22 by Gordi the recovering AEW f

[username]

So there is a legit chance this is a me thing but I can't follow the time-limit rules for this company at all. I thought it was normal TV matches are 20-30 minutes (it depends?) and title matches are 60 minutes, yet Claudio and Okada only had 20 and I honestly can't figure out why? If there is a clear way to keep this all straight please let me know I'd very much love to be corrected and not have to worry about this anymore but I'm at a bit of a loss.

Regardless AEW has gone a bit "make a match where we can't have a finish" kooky this past month or so (started with Swerve/Ospreay in mid-July, both the tag and trios #1 contenders matches and now this one) so hopefully once we get past All In they move back away from that for a stretch.

[SovietShooter]

14 minutes ago, username said:

Claudio and Okada only had 20 and I honestly can't figure out why?

Continental Classic/Continental Title matches have a 20min time limit, and also can have no seconds at ringside.

[The Idiot King]

Didn't mind Ospreay and MJF at all, though it ran a bit long, as someone who really enjoys MJF's schtick. It's obnoxious, it's too worked-shooty, it's repetitive and it always seems to hit. I appreciate Ospreay's earnest himbo routine, and I think he is really stepping into his role. The Saraya-Toni match was bad. The fun stuff they tried to do got muddled by poor execution, and they never gelled at any point, and somehow cooled down the hottest feud going into All In. Glad we at least had the messiness at the end to wash the taste out. Mercedes-Britt and Jericho match were on the lower-end of fine, but wow, that Okada-Claudio match. I agree that the "Oh damn, we just ran out of time, guess we'll have to run it back at the PPV" is getting a little tired, but I appreciate it as a way to heat the crowd up for something without any build. Like, "Hey, that was a really great match, right? Wanna see an even BETTER one?" Loved that match and think Claudio is fighting for third-best Sharpshooter with Sting (after Bret and Owen). Cash Wheeler's looking a little juicy, so I hope it doesn't slow down his execution on things. I don't want Darby or Jack Perry to die in London, but I am open to being made seriously concerned about the possibility. 

[Phantom Lord]

I missed the first half hour so I missed the Britt/Mone segment and Jericho/Billington match. The rest of the show was good. It was great to see AEW in front of an actual lively crowd. The promo with Osprey and MJF was really good and I loved the whole "how much will it cost to hit him" bit.

Okada vs. Claudio was a damn good match. It went by so fast when they announced one minute remaining I didn't even realize 19 mins had gone by.

FTR/Darby vs. The Elite was good as well. I really hope The Bucks lose at All In. Cash Wheeler was all over the place in this match doing an insane dive to the floor to stop The Bucks and Jack Perry from walking out. Loved the triple sharpshooter and eventually the win from The Power and Glory splash and Coffin drop.

The ending segment was good. Swerve cut a good promo and Bryan came out and just went off. I really hope Bryan can pull it off this weekend, but Swerve might just pull it off.

[Go2Sleep]

I thought the MJF/Ospreay segment had one great idea where MJF had a "Colonel Jessup moment" about being jealous of Ospreay, but it was surrounded by 15 minutes of try-hard MJF. If they had built up the promo to that moment and mostly ended it there (or gone straight to the cheap shot), that would've been some great character development and explained why he really turned out of the blue. Instead they blew past it for more cheap heat.

Danielson coming out dropping main event F-bombs and telling Will to kill people with TD91 ruled, though. The wide shot of the whole arena doing the Yes chant brings back pleasant memories from 10 years ago.

 

[username]

2 hours ago, SovietShooter said:

Continental Classic/Continental Title matches have a 20min time limit, and also can have no seconds at ringside.

So that's just Continental TV title matches then as ppv ones have definitely gone longer than 20?

[DreamBroken]

I also didn't realize at all that Okada/Claudio had gone 19 minutes and reminds me why I generally hate the time call often telegraphing the finish.

Really enjoyed both Mercedes/Britt and MJF/Ospreay segments.  Jericho/Billington was pretty good and thought Toni/Saraya was a lot of fun. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

8 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

thought the MJF/Ospreay segment had one great idea where MJF had a "Colonel Jessup moment" about being jealous of Ospreay, but it was surrounded by 15 minutes of try-hard MJF. If they had built up the promo to that moment and mostly ended it there (or gone straight to the cheap shot), that would've been some great character development and explained why he really turned out of the blue. Instead they blew past it for more cheap heat.

Yo, hard agree! I kinda fantasy-booked similar verbiage here like a month or two ago just in the course of BS'ing with everyone, and that line 100% needed more time to breathe. I was in the building a couple years back for the Punk/ADHD/"throwing quarters" promo by him, and I feel like they could've struck a similar chord here if they tightened it up juuuust a little. With that said: I'm willing to give the guys some grace in this situation almost purely because of the level of banana that crowd went for Ospreay - its understandable that there might be some last second audibles, improvs, and what have you. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the fact they blew by what I obviously agree is a super-important beat - I just think there would've been less likelihood of that occurring had this segment taken place Stateside. It is what it is

[AxB]

Now we've established that Hangman is in the Casino Gauntlet, what are the odds that someone scores a pin before he's able to get in the ring?

[Ramo2653]

9 hours ago, username said:

So that's just Continental TV title matches then as ppv ones have definitely gone longer than 20?

I just checked Cagematch on this and only one went over (Okada/PAC and Dynasty at 21:55). 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

3 hours ago, AxB said:

Now we've established that Hangman is in the Casino Gauntlet, what are the odds that someone scores a pin before he's able to get in the ring?

Oooh, I like that. Its a nice way to sneak in a "detour" for Hangman depending on when they plan on having him get to Swerve (e.g. if they're penciled in for World's End, that guy's your possible Grand Slam/ Wrestledream/ Full Gear match for Hanger) AND buys a bit of time if they end up wanting to put the title on Danielson (even if just for a month or two)

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

4 hours ago, AxB said:

Now we've established that Hangman is in the Casino Gauntlet, what are the odds that someone scores a pin before he's able to get in the ring?

His dope new music hits, he's on a long power walk to the ring looking pissed off......aaaaaand someone rolls someone up for a 3 count.  That would be fucking awesome.

[AxB]

14 minutes ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

His dope new music hits, he's on a long power walk to the ring looking pissed off......aaaaaand someone rolls someone up for a 3 count.  That would be fucking awesome.

Even better than that:

Hangman's music hits, he starts running down to the ring, and someone puts a neck cranking submission hold on Evil Uno, who taps out immediately.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

I missed the show live.  Stumbled upon a link (don't do this kids) and it happened to be a live feed or something that started with the Oku-Serpentico dark match.  Oku got a huge reaction and seemed pretty emotional/overwhelmed by it.  A lot of nervous energy to start the match but it was a solid little opener once they settled in.  First time seeing Oku, looked pretty raw to me but he's definitely got some spring in his legs.  I'm gonna try to check out him and MJF if it's online to get a better feel for him

On this link also, before the show went live you could hear Taz and X bantering, talking about how when the crowd got really loud it distorted their audio and they were gonna have to lay out a lot.  That leads me to talking about the crowd.  They were obviously hot, and it came off on TV most of the time, but at other times it felt like AEW was playing with the audio and accidentally dampened them a few times.  The audio definitely got messed up during the MJF/Ospreay segment and they practically muted the crowd at one point (because they were so loud I assume)

I really enjoyed the Mercedes/Baker, Ospreay/MJF and Swerve/McGuinness/Danielson segments, thought they all delivered.  Mercedes was really good here, maybe her best AEW mic work yet?  Baker held her own and they had good material.  Thumbs up.  I didn't think MJF/Ospreay went too long under the circumstances but I totally get feeling that way.  Also good material here.

Swerve was king sized on that promo, one of his best in a while.  And Danielson just dropping F bombs was great.  They were totally unmuted on mine, how did TBS treat it?

Good wrestling on the show too.  Jericho gave Billington a lot and he hung in there.  Definitely got potential, I like the way he hits the ropes and puts his whole body into his offense.  The double crossbody looked brutal.  He's really small (I know) and I don't want him to kill himself with roids like his uncle did....so like his uncle stick him in a tag team.  I liked Toni and Saraya a lot.  Toni was awesome.  6 man was predictably a blast and as per usual Cash does at least one thing that makes me say 'holy shit' every match

Okada and Claudio was great and I'm gonna rewatch it today.  Like others have said that 20 minutes flew by.  I also don't like the way AEW does the time stuff.  Bryan/Dave have pointed it out over and over that they need to train the audience and do time calls every 5 so that the crowd doesn't automatically boo the shit out of it because they know the finish the way AEW does it.

Strong show, great build for All In, I'm pumped for Sunday, WAR AEW!!!

Edited August 22 by ExcellenceofAirPollution
All In is on Sunday not Saturday

[peterien]

The MJF shtick is fast forward territory for me, at some stage he has to learn that not every feud he’s in has to have 20 minute perfectly verbalised promos where sometimes YOU SHOUT AT THE END OF A SENTENCE FOR NO REASON! Sometimes the less MJF the better. 

Thought Ospreay, Swerve and Dragon came off great. Great crowd also. 

[HarryArchieGus]

Fun go home show. Cardiff was a good audience. Mercedes/Britt, MJF/Ospreay, and Swerve/Danielson all wonderfully sold their matches. Jericho v Billington was on point. As was the Jericho promo - his best in what seems like awhile. I love Tommy Billington's Dynamite Kid routine. I hope Dax/Cash are pleading to bring in Harry for a Bulldogs-FTR feud. Saraya v Toni was strong. As was Mariah. Toni v Mariah is gonna absolutely rock Wembley. Okada v Claudio was a total pleasure cruise. Two slick professionals displaying a masterclass of craft. That goddamn dropkick! I love a draw and rematch.  Bucks/Perry v Darby/FTR was pure joy. I love all these guys. I like the chatter about Darby winning the title. Do it! Nigel McGuiness was golden in that main event talkie. 'The Neck Break Kid'! He made Swerve look like a star - more Nigel hosted interviews, please. I loved this show. I was already ALL IN, but this Dynamite really ratcheted it up a notch! AEDub!

[JLowe]

Ospreay more than held his own on the mic with MJF, even if the segment went way too long. Don’t see how he’s not world champion by the end of the year. Crowd was molten!

Okada-Claudio was fantastic, great to see The Rainmaker. They were throwing bombs.

Toni dragged Saraya to a decent match. Toni was also incredibly over. Saraya, not so much. Crowd didn’t react as heavily against Mariah though.

I remember the main event being fine, but not at the level of the FTR-Acclaimed tag from Collision which was one of the better tag team matches in AEW in 2024.

Jericho and Billington was fine, we can complain about Jericho the character but he goes hard in the ring and does a lot to get his opponent over. The double crossbody was stiff, Billington went backward about a foot. I enjoy seeing him from time to time but I don’t know if he’s someone they need to sign just yet.

Swerve-Danielson segment was great. Love the Conglomeration, the “Big Tom” nickname cracks me up, and of course I always love the little Renee-OC interactions at the end. Mone was really heeling it up for most of her segment. The bit with Britt attacking Mone by using Kamille was clever. Putting the title on DMD would be a huge mistake right now though.

[The Natural]

Enjoyed Kazuchika Okada vs. Claudio Castagnoli, that was NJPW Okada. Need to run it back.