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AEW Double or Nothing - 5/25/2019


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I kinda grimace when I hear people talking about AEW as competition or that it's another version of the Monday Night Wars.  Let's just wait and see how the next set of shows does and how they handle the TNT show.  I think the biggest hurdle will be how many viewers they're doing by February.  Sure, this show was real good but wait until they have to do 52+ shows a year and be compelling too.

I wouldn't mind Marvez being gone.  He comes across like a better third wheel than Saxton or Renee but he didn't really add too much other than to set up the other guys for talking points.  Another thing is that I was disappointed in the little backstage interview segment they did with Kylie Ray as I thought it looked a little low-rent.  

I should mention that I really got a kick out of the Cody throne thing and what it represented.  The Attitude Era of the WWE was garbage, to me, except for the really good angles, and there were definitely less of those than bad shit thrown against the wall and sleaze.  I tend to separate the AE of 97-99 from the overall wrestling boom of 95 onward, in my mind.  I generally like the latter but not the former.  It was a good message and a great symbol for forward thinking.

BTW, does anyone know if they were using a 20x20 ring?

Edited by notoriusvig
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I was happy to see them use a 20x20 ring. It just has a more "big boy pants" look... and I remember hating that small WCW ring. 

I will say this - this show got me looking up wrestling news for the first time since 2001. 

Three man booths always get on my nerves. JR really isn't the voice to be leading this wave for AEW. I kept thinking last night that a Mauro type of guy teamed with Excalibur would be ideal. The sad thing is I came think of who that could be. JR should be in the back as a Production lead with the occasional special heavyweight match call. He's wasted on Junior's and Women's.  

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29 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

I was happy to see them use a 20x20 ring. It just has a more "big boy pants" look... and I remember hating that small WCW ring. 

I think I’m the only person who liked those rings. It was small enough to make the giants look huge, it was short enough that little guys had an easier time clearing over the top rope, and it made everybody on the roster look like speed demons because of the short length. 

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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1 minute ago, Oyaji said:

I would very much like it if they had that cameraman (person?) platform by the ringpost so we could get those amazing over the shoulder shots like WCW had. 

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees, and the wrestlers cutting improvised promos into the camera(Which is something Jack Evans did last night that the production missed).

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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Nothing but love for AEWDONPPV here. 

The battle royale was excellent.  That ecstatic Shawn Spears mid-match moment felt like a loud call out to all the mismanaged squandered talent across the E universe - especially those able to make the jump.  Pillman Jr. (looking Morton Jr as someone pointed out) is most certainly destined for the top of the card.  So to the unique and wonderful talent that is Orange Cassidy!  Lots of potential breakout stars in there.  

The Sabian-Guevera match was excellent as well.  So to the opening six man (I see Scorpio Sky as a singles star shortly).  So great to see Daniels-Kazarian getting a much deserved run on national television.  Lindaman in particular on the fantastic OWE side was impressive.  It'll be exciting to see who else OWE has to offer.  

The women's 4 way was fine (nice Awesome Kong surprise), certainly not bad, but not at the level of the rest of the card.  My hope is they focus heavily on the Joshi talent whom delivered nicely.  That match made me very interested in seeking out more Joshi.    

Best Friends-Angelico/Evans was solid; not familiar with the Super Smash Bros but they looked impressive with their troops. 

Cody-Dustin was top notch.  Great story, well executed.  Bringing some real honest emotion back to the (US) squared circle.  The blood gushing out of that 50 year old man's head was a tad bit frightening.  I thought the throne dig was fun and funny, but not as funny as this negative reaction.  Tho, I do find it kind of admirable that the root of the complaint may be a need from certain fans for sportsmanship and class.  Truth be told, I left the world of pro wrestling in the early aughts due to the all powerful Helmsley politico run, the burials, the boring interviews and angles and matches, so that felt like long overdue comeuppance. 

Nice to see the Hit man.  MJF was really good in that segment.  I am new to Adam Page, but I like what I saw in the Casino Royale.  

The Bucks-Luchas was fun.  Yeah, really would have been beautiful to end on that exciting Lucha Bros flurry. Like a lot of posters on here, the Big spot false finishes didn't quite work for me either, but the match was certainly a ton of fun.  This is by far the best example I've seen of the Lucha Bros wrok - very impressive.

Omega-Jericho was excellent.  I liked the Jericho entrance, but that Fozzy song is beyond terrible.  Jericho's caved in chest with his thickness presents a strange bloated look, but he looked as good in-ring as I ever remember seeing him.  Omega is as great and deserving of the hype.  Loved the clean finish here, and throughout the show.  It's really great how such a simple variable as only having clean finishes can so greatly influence the direction of a show and a company.  Also, loved the post match Jericho promo.  And all his heel work throughout the match and pre-match.  Reminds me how great he was in the late90sWCW when he wasn't forced to adhere to horrible scripting. The Moxley run-in POP was exhilarating!  What an excellent hook this show left on!

Kudos to AEW, they lived up to the hype.  Here's hoping they can keep it at this level.  If so, I'm a full time wrestling fan again.  

               

 

Edited by Harry. Archie and Gus
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2 hours ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Who was Mark Henry representing? I'm guessing he's no longer employed by Titan? 

Another question I have is how did Billy Gunm and Glacier get the rights to their names?

I don’t know about Gunn, but Glacier bought his back from Kaz Hayashi.

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31 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

Didn't WWE officials (or even Vince himself) mention AEW by name in a talent meeting recently?  Also,  "piss ant company" rings a bell. 

I think I read it was Stephanie. 

Either way they're not going to do anything about their product other than just keep talent tied down and not use them while pushing people who the fans have tired on... like WCW.

Edited by Wyld Samurai
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38 minutes ago, w. josh said:

Well, AOC retweeted Cody's diversity answer today with praise. This is starting to feel more and more like a huge deal.  

Bucks probably don’t like that, but I imagine Cody is giddy right now.

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I think that what I liked the most about this show is that it had enough variety on it that it felt like, oh, I'm not really into Lucha Bros/Bucks, but that's okay, because I got a totally different match tonally and in the work in Cody/Dustin and another one in the women's tag that I really enjoyed.

I feel like across the board, wrestling has gotten very same-y within the same show, and the show last night avoided that. I basically subscribe to Mick Foley's line of thinking on this where he compared a good wrestling show to the circus - if you don't like the acrobats, you might like the elephants, and if you don't like those, you'll like the guy who eats fire, etc. There's something for everyone. I hope AEW's weekly show hews to this philosophy as well. 

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7 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Why would they care?

Not to turn this into a political thing, but they were pretty against Obama. Unless those were fake tweets or they were hacked.

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15 minutes ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I think that what I liked the most about this show is that it had enough variety on it that it felt like, oh, I'm not really into Lucha Bros/Bucks, but that's okay, because I got a totally different match tonally and in the work in Cody/Dustin and another one in the women's tag that I really enjoyed.

I feel like across the board, wrestling has gotten very same-y within the same show, and the show last night avoided that. I basically subscribe to Mick Foley's line of thinking on this where he compared a good wrestling show to the circus - if you don't like the acrobats, you might like the elephants, and if you don't like those, you'll like the guy who eats fire, etc. There's something for everyone. I hope AEW's weekly show hews to this philosophy as well. 

Honestly this is exactly what always stopped me from getting super into New Japan. Essentially everyone subscribes to the Inoki strong style. It's boring after awhile. You need variety. 

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4 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

 

It was great. Really wouldn't be shocked if it's revealed they had David Lynch in the truck. 

People are so thirsty for something to get excited about that they're inclined to mistake competence for mastery.

Re: the throne thing, I'm on the side of those drawing parallels between Cody and Hunter. In that both are cheesy dudes who should always be heel!

Differences if opinion and all that, but I sure as hell wouldn't call what WWE does "mastery." It's been a shit show for a long time now. Every show looks the same where WWE's production trades high def, ultra glossy visuals, and stale, but safe camera shots for anything visually dynamic and creative. 

Not only that, but WWE constantly misses shit. Even with NXT (Takeovers, not weekly TV), they're missing one spot after another. Every year when we get a Royal Rumble you can count on missing more than a few eliminations, which is inexcusable.

I'll take a "competent" and sightly raw look for what we had last night over WWE's completely shitty commentary, interviews, camera shots, and production and day of the week.

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8 minutes ago, Casey said:

Not to turn this into a political thing, but they were pretty against Obama. Unless those were fake tweets or they were hacked.

You mean the uproar earlier this year or last year when people mistook one of the Bucks outing dumb shit Bischoff said about Obama 10 years ago for something Matt or Nick said?

One of AEW's pillars is being an all inclusive company and their owner is Muslim. 

I think you can do the math from here.

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