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AEW Dynamite - 7/22/2020


Dolfan in NYC

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I’m still pumped up about Kingston. I want him and Jericho to have a promo off someday down the line. 

With the talk on his physique, I find it refreshing. He’s not going to be overpowering or doing flips, he’s going to brawl and maim. I like that we’re seeing body types from all spectrums. Cage is beautifully buff, Darby is thin, Cody has a neck tattoo, Marco is tiny, Luchasaurus is tall, they got it all. 

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5 hours ago, Doc Townsend said:

Does anyone watch AEW who isn't fairly familiar with indy wrestling?

I dug KIngston's appearance last night, but I was wondering what a causal fan who doesn't watch much indie wrestling would make of him.  His only nationwide tv appearances have been TNA, right?  So unless you're streaming (or buying dvds of shows) Chikara, CZW, etc., you may not know much about him.  If you weren't really familiar with King, you probably saw a pasty fat guy in jobberish ring attire and wondered what the h*ll was going on.

Then again, a casual fan probably would be bewildered by a large chunk of AEW;s roster.  Lucha Bros, Orange Cassidy, Best Friends, Player Uno, the Japanese women, etc.  I hate to think what you make of Evil Uno if you didn't see him and Stu Grayson in the indies ten years ago and build up some goodwill for them.

I guess my question is: Is AEW attracting causal fans who didn't watch indie wrestling before it got a time slot on TNT?

(I would guess the answer is: even fewer than WWE, which I doubt attracts a lot of casual fans anymore either.)

 

it goes seem to have a millenial fanbase- a webcomic I read that is very girly loves Orange Cassidy.  (They had a girl named Cassidy with an orange color scheme that might have influenced things)

 

 

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How WWE Royal Rumble 1992 Gave Ric Flair His Confidence Back

10 Best 'Pipebombs' In Professional Wrestling History | Cultaholic

(sorry for the Benoit)

I was thinking about this yesterday after watching the episode. "Well, Ric Flair was kind of a caricature," but then I remembered all of his super promos from the late '80s and throughout the '90s where he'd get emotional. Plus, it's easier to cut sympathetic babyface promos when you're not playing the bombastic, arrogant character and yet Flair still managed to do it. Flair is the #1A promo of all time in my opinion. Dusty's promos were super inconsistent. For every Hard Times there were 10 not-so-hot promos. You can probably count the number of bad or below average Flair promos on one hand.

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9 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Flair's style of promos didnt have the emotion that Dusty's did. Then he just became repetitive.

I respectfully disagree. I'll put this promo up against any Dusty promo and this was nothing close to the tradition Flair interview.

 

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23 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

I saw earlier someone said Eddie Kingston is the best promo of the 2010's...

He's the best promo since Dusty.

I think the argument on promos this century is Punk vs. Kingston and 3rd place is somewhere miles and miles off. Then that made me think Punk and Kingston never got to feud with each other which made me sad as I’d rive a hundred miles and pay for tickets just to watch them cut promos at each other.

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7 minutes ago, Jiji said:

How WWE Royal Rumble 1992 Gave Ric Flair His Confidence Back

10 Best 'Pipebombs' In Professional Wrestling History | Cultaholic

(sorry for the Benoit)

I was thinking about this yesterday after watching the episode. "Well, Ric Flair was kind of a caricature," but then I remembered all of his super promos from the late '80s and throughout the '90s where he'd get emotional. Plus, it's easier to cut sympathetic babyface promos when you're not playing the bombastic, arrogant character and yet Flair still managed to do it. Flair is the #1A promo of all time in my opinion. Dusty's promos were super inconsistent. For every Hard Times there were 10 not-so-hot promos. You can probably count the number of bad or below average Flair promos on one hand.

Moreover, Dusty relied so much on certain crutches "offer up my innocence/paid me back in scorn", "bull of the woods", etc. If we're talking big match/blood feud promos, they're both neck-and-neck. However, if we're just talking straight on autopilot/random TV taping promos...I'll take Ric's autopilot promos over Dusty's cause he is still liable to say some wild shit.

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I think somebody like Regal cut better promos than Punk.

And agreed on Dusty's high end stuff. That WarGames promo with Dustin is my favourite of his and it's just about the best ever. But Ric has dozens of all timers and then every other promo he did was at least super entertaining.

How the fuck had I not seen that '93 Vader build-up promo? It is SO GOOD.

Edited by Jiji
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So since I’ve not posted a damn thing yet about last nights episode this feels overdue. 

I really loved Eddie Kingston answering the open challenge, and like many others here I thought the finish made sense as Eddie sold a knee injury for almost the entirety of the match. The one thing I hope changes going forward is Cody needs to go back to his natural hair color. The bleach blonde looks like crap, and when combined with his god awful neck tattoo makes him look more minor league than he should. 

MJFs match felt longer than it needed to be (imo at least). I do like him using the Heat Seeker as his finisher instead of the Salt of The Earth though. 

Britt’s segment had me dying of laughter a few times especially when Rebel was telling about how MJ beat The Monstars each of the 19 times she watched Space Jam.

The Taz segment I didn’t care for as much. I’m not sold on Cage, and the ending with Moxley was silly as there’s no way in hell TNT will let someone actually get hit with the bat. 

The tag team Falls Count Anywhere match was definitely my match of the night. I found it incredibly entertaining, and it never felt like they weren’t doing something important. Like with Cody though I will say The Blade needs to change his look. When you’re going that bald just shave your damn head already. It would actually make him look tougher too. Actually thinking about it now I’d thoroughly enjoy seeing The Butcher answer Cody’s open challenge some week. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorites.

The women’s match was a chore, and for two women that each have over a decade of experience it was poorly performed. 

Hangman Page’s match and follow up segment were both quite good. If they weren’t teasing FTR vs Omega/Hangman for All Out I would’ve bought into Uno/Grayson winning the tag belts next week. 

I enjoyed the main event (when Hager wasn’t in the ring as I find him to be even worse than I did in WWE or Lucha Underground). The ending I thought was perfect, and my moment of the night definitely was seeing Serpentico go to the top rope, and then when he unmasked as I’ve missed seeing Sammy on tv this last month. The look on Jericho’s face only enhanced the moment too.

So while I’ve been critical of some things I don’t like in the past I’ll be happy to admit I found AEW to be the more enjoyable show again this week, and say they’ve won me over.

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I still can’t wrap my head around AEW doubling NXT up in the key demo. Just off the cuff it *feels* like AEW is targeted at early 30’s types while WWE is targeted at kids. NXT’s fan base being old as dirt is not something I’d have expected. 

AEW seems to have really hit a second stride now. They were there just after Revolution, had a lull with the early COVID stuff, but are now back full force. 

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6 hours ago, Doc Townsend said:

Does anyone watch AEW who isn't fairly familiar with indy wrestling?

I dug KIngston's appearance last night, but I was wondering what a causal fan who doesn't watch much indie wrestling would make of him.  His only nationwide tv appearances have been TNA, right?  So unless you're streaming (or buying dvds of shows) Chikara, CZW, etc., you may not know much about him.  If you weren't really familiar with King, you probably saw a pasty fat guy in jobberish ring attire and wondered what the h*ll was going on.

I'm going to have to play devil's advocate here. I don't care for him.

I'm not an indy guy. I've heard of Kingston before, but never seen one of his matches. I wasn't impressed. I'm not all excited about him like everyone else is. I just didn't feel connected to his "grrrr I'm a tough guy from the streets" promo, it was....boring to me. He wrestles okay, but I'm not onboard yet.

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I could be wrong, but seems to me these ratings numbers are the kind that occur when you have a consistently entertaining and fun product. 

I have no doubt, this week's rating aside, that Tony Khan and his committee's steady, logical, and viewer friendly booking is going to slowly grow this audience to the overall number 1 position.  

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He could get CM Punk and unless QAnon is telling people to off themselves they won't be beating Fox News ever.

Unless you're talking wrestling overall... I think it'll take years for AEW to build up an audience to beat WWE's overall viewership even if things there continue to decline.

Edited by Jiji
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At the risk of descending into ratings nerd territory, AEW number 1 for male 18-49 for the night. I do think it’s relevant to the discussion, not in the ratings wars sense, but consistent and proven viewership in the right demo and the promise of big bucks for the next TV deal may be the only hope of keeping the lights on through the pandemic for the promotion that has become a favourite for many. 
Obviously I’m not intimate with their business plan but PPV buys and online merch sales must barely make a dent in the lost ticket and in-person merch revenue. 

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They could run Hannity vs Cody and they wouldn’t hear out Fox News back when Raw was getting 3’s every week they were still number 2 to Fox News no matter what 3 million people watch Fox every night.

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Yeah, number 1 in wrestling.  And I did say 'slowly'.  

54 minutes ago, The Green Meanie said:

I'm going to have to play devil's advocate here. I don't care for him.

I'm not an indy guy. I've heard of Kingston before, but never seen one of his matches. I wasn't impressed. I'm not all excited about him like everyone else is. I just didn't feel connected to his "grrrr I'm a tough guy from the streets" promo, it was....boring to me. He wrestles okay, but I'm not onboard yet.

I get this, but more so because I've felt this way about random Kingston clips I've seen in the past.  I think he's upped his game since I saw him way back when.  Everything I've seen over this past year feels legit.  Great intensity.  I believe in this unhinged sonofabitch.  Also, the pleather tights he was wearing and his poor styles over the years has played a part in my lack of appreciation for his talents.  I liked his AEW look here, tho the Taxi Driver t cut off at the arms, rather than the top singlet, would've been even better.  

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7 hours ago, Craig H said:

FWIW, the finish made complete sense. The announcers played up multiple times that Eddie had to sell his wrestling boots to pay off his mortgage and he only picked up a new pair of boots or borrowed a new pair the day before. Eddie was selling the knee heavily since Cody's dive early in the match. Dude has bills to pay and can't afford to not wrestle. Of course he's going to tap out instead doing something dumb like throwing thumbtacks at Cody, which aren't going to do anything. His knee is already wrecked and if he doesn't tap then who knows what happens.

I think that's something that would make sense long-term if they build on it - sort of like the Prizefighter gimmick Kevin Owens had when he first joined NXT. I just hope they build a story on to it, that the loss meant something, why he sacrificed it by tapping, etc.

The Ricky Starks program didn't really do it, he just had a few matches on Dark and then randomly ended up in a pairing with Brian Cage instead. 

In fact, all of the matches to date haven't really amounted to anything. How do they continue to promote this opportunity of a shot against Cody Rhodes as such a prestigious career changing experience, when to date, nothing has changed for any of the 6 for better or worse? Jungle Boy is still in the same spot. Marq Quen in the same, lesser spot, probably Sonny Kiss too. 

By the same token, Hager should be pissed about dropping a controversial fall to Cody rather than carrying on with routine Inner Circle stuff. Archer should want a rematch. MJF has beaten Cody before and is undefeated, why wouldn't he want to take his title?
 

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With the NWA being a sticking point to possibly signing Eddie Kingston, I wish AEW and them could just come to a working agreement. AEW Dark could be a showcase for NWA Powerrr talent since they use local indy guys and girls anyway. Plus if Cody is going to continue to emulate his dad, he needs to be NWA World Television Champion at some point.

I'm just a fan of when promotions would co-work with each other. The NWA is on ice till at least new years from what I read, so it wouldn't hurt them.

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