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AEW - Jan 2020


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Another TV show concerns me. Bischoff has offered pretty sound business advice for AEW so far and it sounds like he's really liked what he's seen, but he said the worst thing AEW could do would be to expand to two nights of TV a week.

I think one night of TV is perfect enough. It's been part of the appeal for AEW. And that's even more shit for them to produce and they sound like they're spread thin as it is.

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Watching Dark on Mute so I don't have any input on Dave Brown.

I also skipped over the Memphis Legends thing...

Darby vs Cutler

I'm reminded of the old Mick Foley story about his time in Memphis when no one liked him taking wild bumps for Sonny Beach but loved him taking the same bumps for Jeff Jarrett. Darby was bumping pretty hard for Sonny Beach here.  That fall on the top rope off was crazy brutal as was the suicide dive (which I praised for him doing to Cody on the big show). If Darby won't calm himself down, its on the agents to do it for him. In a vacuum, this was fine but it defines AEW that they have zero chill and don't know when they have a situation when one guy should be putting on chinlocks so the star can shine without taking wild bumps.

Nyla vs Shanna

Nyla having that mask for her entrance is too close to Havok's mask and I would have only one person/group wear those. I did like Shanna jumping the gun since she got put through a table and avoiding the 'I'm super mad, let's do headlocks!' trope.  I was fine with how short this segment was because it got right to the point and showed Shanna was not going to lay back and get run over.  The relative sloppiness of the spinebuster and the dive through the ropes were covered by the angle being what it is. AEW Referees are the worst, the poor bastards. 

Gunn Club vs Spears & Avalon

This is the house show bullshit I love. Faces play to the crowd, heels stooge, heels get heat and cheat to keep it, hot tag,  finish. Billy Gunn for president. Spears has entered the 'they are never going to push me, so I might as well have some fun' phase and it's my jam. Austin at least gets that he needs a connection to the crowd and makes sure he acknowledges them in a 'aww shucks, thanks guys' babyface way.  Avalon needs to embrace being a weasel faced zilch even more.

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So, when Jim Cornette predicted TNT would cancel AEW by April, he might not have been correct.

I think adding the extra hour to the existing taping won't be too bad, but, much like WWE has discovered, it's hard to resist expanding product if someone offers you money for it.

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19 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

So, when Jim Cornette predicted TNT would cancel AEW by April, he might not have been correct.

I think adding the extra hour to the existing taping won't be too bad, but, much like WWE has discovered, it's hard to resist expanding product if someone offers you money for it.

Jim Cornette is also entirely composed of bullshit and Wendy's hamburgers so him saying TNT would cancel it is more of his own distaste for nearly everyone involved.

And regarding Darby, we talked about him before on here and Troma had the best possible take on him in that the dude has been skateboarding and doing really stupid shit for years and no one can tell that guy to stop or slow down. No one is going to do that in wrestling either. This change in wrestling schedule for him will be better, but sooner rather than later he's going to fuck himself up and no one can stop him.

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12 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Jim Cornette is also entirely composed of bullshit and Wendy's hamburgers so him saying TNT would cancel it is more of his own distaste for nearly everyone involved.

And regarding Darby, we talked about him before on here and Troma had the best possible take on him in that the dude has been skateboarding and doing really stupid shit for years and no one can tell that guy to stop or slow down. No one is going to do that in wrestling either. This change in wrestling schedule for him will be better, but sooner rather than later he's going to fuck himself up and no one can stop him.

Not sure if you heard it but he was on Jericho's podcast (which I highly recommend to everybody) and mentioned with it being a weekly thing he's had to learn to slow things down.  So I don't think anybody needs to tell him as over time he'll see that he'll need to scale back to a certain degree.

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Quick thought on Dark: I'm digging Shanna and her feud with Nyla, especially the backstage brawl. Nyla jawing into the camera and Shanna jumping on her from off screen was neat and I'm glad they have at least one mid-card feud that seems to be progressing well. I hope they get to have a PPV blow off eventually but it'll most likely stay on the b-show.

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3 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

So, when Jim Cornette predicted TNT would cancel AEW by April, he might not have been correct.

I know he was probably being glib but live sports gets a longer leash than traditional TV programming. Pro wrestling has the added benefit of the content can always be changed on a whim (which obviously gets abused by WWE all the time). There was no fucking way they were going to get canceled by April.

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Very glad to hear that AEW will be sticking around with a bigger contract than before. The 2nd show, I'm not as worried about because I feel they do need to showcase more of their talent on TV as opposed to relying on Dark on Youtube, but I wonder if they'd be better off just turning Dynamite into 3 hours as opposed to a second show. It seems crazy talking about 3 hour weekly TV with the drag that RAW is, but I have full confidence in AEW to be able to pull it off - especially if they aren't trying to churn out two 2+ hour major programs a week.

Granted, I think the release said it was going to be a separate show anyways... maybe a weekly hour long BTE? That could be pretty badass and still help keep the allure on Dark.

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AEW currently airs another series called “AEW Dark” weekly on YouTube. That show typically features matches that take place before or after the “Dynamite” telecast. Reilly says that show will now migrate over to TNT and be built up into a network show.

“We just figured, ‘Let’s bring it onto the network and make it a place where you truly plant up and coming talent,’” he said, “I think we’ll start doing more packages there and filming some behind-the-scenes stuff, not for the matches that night but with other talent to plant stories and grow things that could eventually become another show in and of itself.”

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/aew-new-series-kevin-reilly-1203468829/

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34 minutes ago, matt925 said:

AEW currently airs another series called “AEW Dark” weekly on YouTube. That show typically features matches that take place before or after the “Dynamite” telecast. Reilly says that show will now migrate over to TNT and be built up into a network show.

“We just figured, ‘Let’s bring it onto the network and make it a place where you truly plant up and coming talent,’” he said, “I think we’ll start doing more packages there and filming some behind-the-scenes stuff, not for the matches that night but with other talent to plant stories and grow things that could eventually become another show in and of itself.”

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/aew-new-series-kevin-reilly-1203468829/

 

That sounds pretty good. I was a bit worried. With Dynamite and Dark and BTE and WotRGRS to watch, most weeks I am already skipping through a segment or two here and there. Adding yet another show would be edging into WWE-esque "it's getting to be kind of a chore to follow everything" territory. But Dark moving onto the network with more vignettes and featuring more up and comers could work just fine.

Sounds like good news, also, for those who wish AEW would move more of their video content onto TV. I just made a post saying that they probably were not going to do that. In this case, I am pleased to have been wrong.

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15 minutes ago, gordi said:

 

That sounds pretty good. I was a bit worried. With Dynamite and Dark and BTE and WotRGRS to watch, most weeks I am already skipping through a segment or two here and there. Adding yet another show would be edging into WWE-esque "it's getting to be kind of a chore to follow everything" territory. But Dark moving onto the network with more vignettes and featuring more up and comers could work just fine.

Sounds like good news, also, for those who wish AEW would move more of their video content onto TV. I just made a post saying that they probably were not going to do that. In this case, I am pleased to have been wrong.

Yeah I agree that sounds like one of the best possible options. Sounds like a Saturday night show to me. Then that would give them a live pre show before ppvs. 

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3 hours ago, matt925 said:

Yeah I agree that sounds like one of the best possible options. Sounds like a Saturday night show to me. Then that would give them a live pre show before ppvs. 

i loved when WCW Saturday Night immediately led in to their few-and-far between Saturday PPVs. i can't support this idea enough.

ha, i didn't even think that WWF was doing this with HeAT for years also. loved that too.

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The boys done good, this has to surpass almost everyone's expectations and the concern trolling (elsewhere, not you lovely people) may be a bit more subdued, thank God.

It also hopefully means they'll be less inclined to look over their shoulder in paranoia and counter-program every minute of NXT, but rather will let their creative vision play out at their own pace.   

Surely UK and Oz tours in the works now they have some stability? And where's that AKI inspired video game??? Sort it out, Omega.

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17 hours ago, Goodear said:

Spears has entered the 'they are never going to push me, so I might as well have some fun' phase and it's my jam.

I like to think he's trying to be like Arn Anderson in that he can do comedy spots but still be a killer when he needs to be. I'm curious to see where the tag-team partner thing goes, probably a new signing.

I don't see a major problem putting AEW Dark on TV as long as there's expectations around it. TNT probably figure 'it's content, it may draw some young people, we may as well take it'. You can understand why Bischoff would balk given what he went through but I don't think it's the same situation.

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5 hours ago, twiztor said:

i loved when WCW Saturday Night immediately led in to their few-and-far between Saturday PPVs. i can't support this idea enough.

ha, i didn't even think that WWF was doing this with HeAT for years also. loved that too.

WCW did this on Sunday's with The Main Event on TBS for a few years also. 

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I'm torn on the whole Dark going to cable thing. On one hand I like Dark on YouTube I like the format with Tony and Dasha hosting and throwing to the arena, I like Excalibur and a different guest commentator every week,  i like that the show is as long as they want it to be, matches can go long if they want theres no restrictions going over to TNT or TBS or truTV would lead to some restrictions nothing major but there is more freedom to being on YouTube then on Cable. It's almost like the old WCW/WWF syndicated shows if you don't have cable you can still watch the product but this has more competitive matches on them. I'd like to see Dark stay on Youtube. Now I can understand why Turner and AEW would look to reformat the show for TV. AEW is more popular than predicted, Turner wants a second show on their networks, AEW already has a second show, it's taped the same day in the same building as Dynamite no added expense. Most episodes of Dark are what around an hour so add a couple more promos and video packages add commercials make the show 90 minutes, I've always thought the show had a Saturday Morning feel put it on TBS on Saturday Mornings and call it good.

 

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Taz is going to be an excellent addition to the commentary team. I'm assuming they're bringing him in for Dark permanently instead of the rotating guest commentator with the show moving to TNT. So it'll probably be the same announce crew as usual for Dynamite and then Excalibur and Taz for Dark. I'm okay with that, although I feel Taz has a lot he could offer on Dynamite but I don't wanna see JR or Tony leave the booth and we know Excalibur is going to be their #1 for the enforceable future.

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Gotta give JR some props for finding some passion and a connection to a lot of the main characters in AEW (though it's really easy to know who he really believes in) after I thought he was done. He's still not anywhere his peak and still makes old man mistakes from time to time but he's an asset in terms of adding to the show instead of just being a familiar voice for lapsed fans. 

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5 hours ago, Oyaji said:

Gotta give JR some props for finding some passion and a connection to a lot of the main characters in AEW (though it's really easy to know who he really believes in) after I thought he was done. He's still not anywhere his peak and still makes old man mistakes from time to time but he's an asset in terms of adding to the show instead of just being a familiar voice for lapsed fans. 

Agreed that JR is much improved, with the caveat around him digging some performers more than other. Something I'd like to see him drop is the references to WWE though. Discussing Darby this week he said, "this kid is an enigma, just like someone else I used to know" in a fairly obvious Jeff Hardy reference. Then when talking about Moxley, "he doesn't trust anyone, now who does that remind you of?". It's all a bit wink wink, "and we all know who that is" and it cheapen the product slightly. Slight gripe only though, other than that he seems to be enjoying himself more and getting along better with excalibur. 

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