Dolfan in NYC Posted January 1 Posted January 1 Met my old lover in the grocery store, the snow was falling Christmas Eve... I stole behind her in the frozen foods and I touched her on the sleeve... The WORLD has ENDED! Well, more accurately, Worlds End has ended. (For the record, I hate that there's no apostrophe there.) Anywho... we had a show with great matches! We had Ricochet lose AND be made fun of! And we had... hmm... no title changes! And, oh, FTR is back. And they brought back Adam Copeland... (...Christian's going to cash in on AC when he beats Mox for the title isn't he?) Went to have ourselves a drink or two but couldn't find an open bar. We bought a six-pack at the liquor store, and we drank it in her car. Anywho, it's Fight For The Fallen tonight! Not to mention the DEBUT of AEW on MAX! Corporate Synergy~~ We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now. And tried to reach beyond the emptiness but neither one knew how... On tap tonight! 6 man trios action! And a lot of other stuff they're boxed in by a Japanese PPV with! (I mean, I'm not going to be the one that the main event is now filled with 5 ex-WWE guys. Nope. *cough*) (Oh, was I tempted to use the Backstreet Boys cover... But I like Dan Fogelberg too much.) Happy nAEW Year! 2
Gordi the BJW fan Posted January 1 Posted January 1 OK. So. In last week's thread, in a post where I was otherwise lavishly praising Christmas Dynamite, I said this: TK's recent obsession with making the absolute crowd-pleasing *****+ match the opener and ending the big show with a heel or heels standing tall is kind of baffling to me. As always, I vastly prefer how the "old" AEW would strive to send the fans home happy. And... Dang! That PPV was almost like an exaggerated parody version of that! And I have been doing my "Lemme tellya something, BROTHER!" Moxter bits for a couple of weeks now and to be honest I really didn't think Mox was exercising "creative control" backstage to make sure "this is where the power lies! " or whatever... But golly dang this whole mWo House of Moxture thing has already devolved into dispiriting self-parody territory. So the "in-ring work, per se" continues to be f'n amazing week in and week out but the endless repetition of betrayal and backstabbing and cheating to win "storytelling" and the bizarre refusal to let the good guys win the big one or to end things on a happy note seem to be wearing thin with more than a few of us. On the other hand: Orange vs Hangman, and Hayter vs Julia! I mean, I complain... but it's not like I am going to skip this one! I had a wonderful New Year's Eve in Osaka with some of my wrestling friends, drinking and feasting from early evening until the first morning trains started up around 5 am and we made our sleepy, happy ways home. ( And the wife and daughters and dog and hamster had a good time at grandma's house in the countryside also). I thank almost all y'all for the very enjoyable AEW discussion here in 2024 and genuinely hope you all had and/or have as safe and happy a new year celebration as I did. 3
Shartnado Posted January 1 Posted January 1 1 hour ago, Gordi the recovering AEW f said: OK. So. In last week's thread, in a post where I was otherwise lavishly praising Christmas Dynamite, I said this: TK's recent obsession with making the absolute crowd-pleasing *****+ match the opener and ending the big show with a heel or heels standing tall is kind of baffling to me. As always, I vastly prefer how the "old" AEW would strive to send the fans home happy. And... Dang! That PPV was almost like an exaggerated parody version of that! That's the message I got from that one! Nevertheless, good stuff on tap, as usual! 1 1
ExcellenceofAirPollution Posted January 1 Posted January 1 I'm on the Max trial so we'll see how the streaming goes Worlds End was good and I loved the last month or so of TV largely due to the C2, but they've got some work to do to keep me interested. They need to address the situation with The Elite and need opponents for Okada before Kenny, and it feels like Jungle Man should be Omega's first program if I'm remembering the last angle they did correctly. Feels like Perry needs a bit of a character tweak as well, the brooding and the bus stuff wasn't working for me. I liked him better as a vicious, cocky little shithead, kinda like Syxx. MJF and Ospreay are two of the biggest stars and there's no clear direction for either of them. I'm hoping for meaningful followup for Brody King, he's a guy who should be around the top of the card. Turning him face as Darby's muscle has to happen at some point, they'd be an incredible tag team and House of Black has run it's course IMO. I never know what's up with Rush but I'm going to keep banging the drum on turning Mortos babyface. Swerve and Ricochet as a direction with Lashley on the backburner is an interesting choice and off to a good start, but it feels like Hurt Business is going to get involved with this. I was actually looking forward to Copeland's return because it felt like the way he got hurt and coming back relatively quickly will earn him a lot of love from the AEW hardcores who were maybe lukewarm to him being in the promotion before (this is an indictment of myself, though I was warming up before the injury). I totally get him and FTR being a thing, I just have a hard time getting into them these days. Crowds have been mild for them for a while now so they're due for a change, maybe this will help in the short term. And even though Cope and Mox hasn't been done before here or in WWE it doesn't feel fresh, at least not yet. I think Mox has been compelling in this role but there's just something missing in the presentation/characterization that could be cleaned up with a few promos or pre-tapes. And for some reason Pac never wearing clothes, even when they're outside in the cold or driving around in a pickup truck, really irks me. It's reached "Randy Orton never wears pants" territory, but at least he wore a damn t-shirt! 2
AxB Posted January 1 Posted January 1 People from Newcastle never wearing clothes is a well established thing. You know how, in NFL games that are freakishly cold, the cameras can always find one guy (or group of guys) shirtless in the freezing cold? When that happens in the Premier League, it's always a Newcastle United home game. 3 4
Log Posted January 1 Posted January 1 https://wlos.com/news/local/local-wrestling-stars-rally-support-helene-recovery-all-elite-wrestling-fundraiser-event-fight-for-the-fallen# Nice story that may explain why three of the five “ex-WWE” guys are in the main event tonight. 3 2
Casey Posted January 1 Posted January 1 (edited) I mean, that’s been expected in some form ever since they announced where the 1/1 Dynamite would be held at. Most expected Copeland to return tonight, not have his return match. And I know not everyone watches the media scrums, but they did explicitly say just that (Dax wanted to do just a little live show with AEW guys to raise money for charity but TK said he’d do Dax one better and here we are). But even if it was in, I dunno, New York, I’m pretty sure this would main event, given that it closed out World’s End. Edited January 1 by Casey 2
dorfus malorfus Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) I think they should have Copeland pin Mox clean in the trios and immediately announce the title match for two weeks from now on Dynamite. If they pop a big rating and the feud seems to have legs they can always run it back on ppv. No sense dragging it out for a month when they're already hampered by declining ratings and attendance. When I think of the days when this promotion was HOT I think about the great matches they were regularly "giving away" on Wednesday night TV (Omega vs Danielson, both Hangman vs Danielson title matches, Punk vs MJF in Chicago...hell, Sammy's TNT title win over Miro felt like a real big deal at the time and that wasn't on a ppv either!). I think one can point to the Punk injury and the build to the first Forbidden Door as the period when they started running rote matches with fairly predictable finishes on tv and saving too much for PPV. Garcia vs Briscoe sounds awesome but I hope Garcia's next feud is with MJF so he can finally get his win back and maybe elevate himself and the TNT title in the process. Orange vs Hangman should be great and I'd like to see that one spin out into a long term feud. Also feels like we should get Orange vs Yuta soon in a big singles match to wrap up that feud (with Yuta winning clean). Also speaking of hurrying up and resolving feuds it's probably time for Caster to join the Hurt Syndicate tonight. I thought the Acclaimed already officially broke up back at Full Gear. Edited January 2 by dorfus malorfus 3
Technico Support Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) Max stream looks so much better than Sling. Edited January 2 by Technico Support
SovietShooter Posted January 2 Posted January 2 1 hour ago, dorfus malorfus said: I think they should have Copeland pin Mox clean in the trios and immediately announce the title match for two weeks from now on Dynamite. I believe that would be here in Mox's hometown of Cincinnati. So, this has a very high probability... 1
clintthecrippler Posted January 2 Posted January 2 Well damn, I am subscribed to MAX through a Hulu/Disney bundle with "MAX Premium Add-On" through the Hulu app and apparently the AEW Dynamite livestream isn't available, you have to be subscribed to MAX stand-alone proper/direct unless I am missing something?
Casey Posted January 2 Posted January 2 1 minute ago, clintthecrippler said: Well damn, I am subscribed to MAX through a Hulu/Disney bundle with "MAX Premium Add-On" through the Hulu app and apparently the AEW Dynamite livestream isn't available, you have to be subscribed to MAX stand-alone proper/direct unless I am missing something? Are you able to watch anything live from the BR Sports section? If not, that’s why. 1
SovietShooter Posted January 2 Posted January 2 12 minutes ago, clintthecrippler said: Well damn, I am subscribed to MAX through a Hulu/Disney bundle with "MAX Premium Add-On" through the Hulu app and apparently the AEW Dynamite livestream isn't available, you have to be subscribed to MAX stand-alone proper/direct unless I am missing something? I have a Max/Netflix bundle thru Verizon, and I am watching it just fine.
clintthecrippler Posted January 2 Posted January 2 53 minutes ago, Casey said: Are you able to watch anything live from the BR Sports section? If not, that’s why. It took me a while but I finally troubleshooted the issue, there's an "Activate" link buried deep within the Hulu site to enable watching contact on the Max app itself, good to go now! 3
Cliff Hanger Posted January 2 Posted January 2 So first off, curse you Dolfan for bringing up a song that makes me cry. I'm really angry that watching on Max is an inferior experience to watching on cable, because if I am paying for ad-free Max (as I already was) then when cable goes to "ads and the match share the screen" Max viewers should not get full-screen ads, period. I might as well save money on Max if the ad-free version isn't ad-free. So Dubba J pretty much HAS to win the Owen, right? There is no reason to give him the One Last Ride push if he isn't gonna win the tournament dedicated to his dead best friend. Otherwise a good show, but taking "Cope" from nickname to ring name is a mistake. Also, needed another women's match. 2 1
NoFistsJustFlips Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) AEW just continues to have the lamest vibe. That new Dynamkte song sucks as bad as Elton John on Collision. On par with using Wheels on The Bus Go Round & Round. Same vibes. So is the February Grand Slam in Australia off or something? The video screen was promoting Revolution as the next PPV. Feb 15th is supposed to be Grand Slam. But maybe it's not a PPV anymore? No mention of it at all. Odd. It's 2025. If your world title scene is Mox, Edge, Jeff Jarrett & Christian you fucked up. On their own all solid talents with merits to be on top. But that combo on top is some stale ass moldy bread. Does... does AEW suck now? Am I being too harsh? Is it just the TV that's bland and boring? PPVs usually always deliver. But man there is not a lot here that feels hot. I don't like being so negative. But boy was this show extremely not for me tonight. Edited January 2 by NoFistsJustFlips 2
Cobra Commander Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) Things I remember from this week's edition of AEW Dynamite: That theme sounded like someone trying to cover "I'm So Excited" to get around paying royalties. That might just be an audio issue Alex Marvez wearing Bob Caudle glasses Large William towers over Copeland, who is now Cope, in an effort to get me to stop calling him Edge Ricochet looking like a school shooter and stabbing Swerve Adam Cole doing unremarkable things again MJF prerecorded interview again Jeff Jarrett doing a mid-80s Jerry Lawler promise to win a title Orange/Page looked like a fun time Julia Hart wins after bringing an arrow into the ring and using that to distract Aubrey Castor getting beat up The forces of good win the Main Event EDGE STAY AWAY FROM JERICHO ISLAND Edited January 2 by Cobra Commander 2
Niners Fan in CT Posted January 2 Posted January 2 Inferior experience? No way! I disagree with that. AEW looks AWESOME on Max. The difference between the Dolby Vision and regular cable is night and day. I will be watching AEW on Max from now on. It's not realistic to expect that they'd have no commercials. 5 1
Niners Fan in CT Posted January 2 Posted January 2 As for the show itself I thought it was decent. Ricochet stole the show. He is an interesting character which I could NEVER say when he was in WWE. 6
Casey Posted January 2 Posted January 2 9 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said: It's 2025. If your world title scene is Mox, Edge, Jeff Jarrett & Christian you fucked up. On their own all solid talents with merits to be on top. But that combo on top is some stale ass moldy bread. MJF just reentered the World title scene. Jay White literally just had a match to determine the number one entrant for a battle royale that gets you a shot at Mox. Hangman & Orange Cassidy are still in contention. Darby is the heir apparent. I’ve been down on AEW since 2023 but holy shit man, watch the show. 4
just drew Posted January 2 Posted January 2 I loved the way the show looked. There was lots of good shit in here. Is it mildly concerning that tafka edge, Jeff Jarrett, & Christian are potential main eventers? Maybe. But at least these WWE alum are working hard. This isn’t an nwo in tna situation. The Hurt Syndicate look like HUGE stars. It’s insane to me that triple h sees $ in vacuous bums like Karrion Kross & Austin Theory yet let Lashley leave. Absolute nonsense. I’m enjoying the Hangman descent into madness. That Mercedes promo was godawful, but she’s a terrible promo, so that’s not surprising. At least her matches are quality now. More rampant bummery from the UKE guys. Just completely uninteresting. I’m a sucker for a “one last ride” story, so I’ll give the Jarrett thing a chance. Main event was fun. Again, Cope does not seem afraid to break his assbone. FTR seem like good dudes irl, and I’m happy they got to do that for their hometown. 3
dorfus malorfus Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) I was mostly joking when I compared Swerve and Ricochet to the Jimmy and Rick storyline from Degrassi but Ricochet going full tilt murderous heel while keeping his glasses on the entire time legit has me wondering if Tony Khan had Rick in mind the whole time. Awesome sequence that made me care about a guy I thought I didn't want on tv (Ricochet). Honestly I would rather see Christian vs Jarrett headline All In then another Jay White main event. I was really hoping he was out of the title picture after he took the fall at the PPV. Hopefully he just wins this gauntlet, loses to Moxley, then becomes a final boss for midcard babyfaces. I'll applaud White's business sense; he was a handpicked guy in a super hot promotion during a period when they could do no wrong, then knew when to jump ship before people could figure out he was never any good (and never even over, to boot). At least Tony Khan had enough sense to not sign Iibushi too while he was ravenously snapping up New Japan fool's gold (oh wait...). Overall I thought this show was really fun, looked great, felt fresh, and never dragged. Edited January 2 by dorfus malorfus 5
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