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AEW Dynamite - 12/2/2020


Dolfan in NYC

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4 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

USA Today covered David Arquette's title win, mainstream exposure rah bah bah.

Except Cody can work actual matches with Darby because he's in his 30s and not his 60s. And Cody was actually able to put him over for the TNT title.

Except what does that look like in 2020-2021? Can Sting even work beyond maybe hitting a few token Stinger splashes and a Scorpion Deathlock? 

Cody can also book himself as a star and protect himself even if it means making the new champ look like a chump.
 

Like losing your first match and taking the pin after winning that title and how many times does a champ come out before his partner with no title?

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It was good to see Jungle Boy get featured in the battle royal after we were just lamenting his recent booking.

Miro looked really strong, too.

Matt Hardy smugly eliminating all the internet favorites was A+ work.

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A few negatives:

- they are overdoing having managers/seconds/factions at ringside and doing distractions. It's veering into NJPW Bullet Club territory. Obviously, the whole faction thing is modeled from NJPW but they are leaning into the worst booking instincts with it. 

- the Inner Circle stuff is a little tiring. We went from wacky skits to now dissension. I mean, I guess it's logical but everything with Jericho has just been a little too much of WWE-lite. 

The good: 

- Sting showing up was awesome, if only for the TNT and Tony Schiavone nostalgia. What is so funny about Sting is for a guy that doesn't feel over-exposed, he's never really gone away either. He's probably been on TV more than any other legend aside from maybe Flair in the last twenty years but he still feels like he brings value in the way that other legends don't. He's also an example of one of the great axioms in wrestling that masked wrestlers and painted wrestlers never really look old in the way that other guys will. Everyone understands this except WWE. 

- I was thinking that Callis showing up meant that Impact was going to get some benefit of cross-promotion. I was thinking like "maybe Private Party goes to Impact for a short-run with the tag titles" or "Ricky Starks does some angles." Didn't think that it would be this high-profile. There's some downsides. Impact is such a toxic joke brand (historically) that even though it's a perfectly fine glorified indie now will this lessen AEW by proxy? The upside is Callis is a great performer and him as Paul Heyman managing Omega is a solid act. This is also a big, bold angle in a way that you don't see much in wrestling anymore. It's Omega not only as a heel but as a guy who has turned his back on AEW and, by default, the entire Elite. This is a big, big heel turn and if it leads to Hangman as the AEW savior that's really good storytelling. Obviously, Impact has little to offer except a good women's division and I guess maybe Anderson and Gallows coming in to do a Bullet Club explosion with the Bucks? 

 

Also, they way the company is splitting the shows every week is so interesting. There's almost an A squad and a B squad and then a few guys who show up weekly no matter what.  No one feels over-exposed yet except maybe Jericho. 

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12 minutes ago, Craig H said:

BTW, have they already dropped the Shaq thing?

Hopefully dropped and never referenced or spoken about again. There was no follow-up with Jade Cargill, Brandi, Nyla Rose, or Vickie this week either. Jade was on TV and injured Brandi's arm two weeks ago. Nyla and Vickie had that promo last week, but that was it.

Edited by TheVileOne
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It doesn’t make sense to do the Shaq match until the NBA season gets going, when it can be promoted on all of TNT’s basketball programming.  I’m sure that’s on a slow burn, and I wouldn’t read much into that angle being absent from the show when so much else was happening.

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I have thoughts.

Miro looked strong AF in that Battle Royal. First time he's really looked like he's given a shit since he arrived, and he's a guy where you can tell when he cares and when he doesn't. Like a male Sasha Banks. I liked the Inner Circle interactions and there were a ton of fun moments in that.

I like how Sting waited until after Undertaker was officially retired and there was zero chance of a sweet, sweet Saudi blood money payoff with WWE and Taker before debuting with AEW. That's good business. 

Britt Baker is improving, and I thought she did a lot of good things, particularly in the finishing stretch. 

The main event; Oy. Kenny Omega just does not have anything for me. His "drama geek with a gym membership" schtick was played out before AEW even began, and it grows more obnoxious by the day. One thing I hadn't noticed until tonight is that he chooses what to sell and what not to sell oddly. I did appreciate the screwjob finish, as one is needed to have a pretentious dweeb like Omega go over on Moxley. If Omega is going to now be top guy on AEW and Impact, it looks like there will be zero weekly wrestling shows I watch.

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I guess we'll see what the Impact Wrestling crossover means in the coming weeks. On the surface, I don't see what AEW really gets out of it, other than maybe some fresh matchups and opponents. We are still stuck in this pandemic, so maybe one way to look at it is "we're stronger together than apart."  It would appear Impact would benefit more from this crossover than AEW. Currently, Impact's ratings are so low, they seldom even reported on ShowBuzz Daily.

But what do you do when guys contracts are coming up, and maybe guys want a change of scenery? Can everyone come out of this deal without any feelings being hurt?

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2 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

Hopefully dropped and never referenced or spoken about again. No follow-up with Jade Cargill, Brandi, Nyla Rose, or Vickie either. 

Honestly, they just need to follow through on it even if it's to start promoting something that's two weeks away. Even with bad angles it gets annoying when they introduce something and then drop it because the initial reaction is lukewarm or poor. I appreciate TK and anyone else booking for abandoning shit that isn't going to be good, but you can't do that stuff all the time.

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33 minutes ago, hammerva said:

I would rather see Contra Unit.  I mean sure Simon Gotch sucks ass but imagine Jacob Fatu in AEW

Contra Unit is awesome- but if Fatu has that past that scares off major companies- the rest of Contra can't come off as a threat on their own.

 

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19 hours ago, Craig H said:

Honestly, they just need to follow through on it even if it's to start promoting something that's two weeks away. Even with bad angles it gets annoying when they introduce something and then drop it because the initial reaction is lukewarm or poor. I appreciate TK and anyone else booking for abandoning shit that isn't going to be good, but you can't do that stuff all the time.

They sabotaged Jade Cargill and set her up for failure by going out there without any practice, first time ever holding a mic, and then have Brandi inexplicably show up and turn it into a Jerry Springer segment. If they have big plans for Jade Cargill, and I can clearly see why, I think that's fine. But they should think these things through a little more. Let her practice on the mic and get more comfortable first and maybe not throw her into the deep end with trash TV like that.

Edited by TheVileOne
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AEW has done this a few times but I'm still buzzing 90 minutes later. It's reminiscent of watching peak Austin-era Raw or Sting/nWo-era WCW as a kid. I love this shit even if I don't agree with everything. They just gave me AEW World Champion Kenny Omega (oh nooo! ?... ?) and Stang in the same fucking episode. 

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1 minute ago, Jiji said:

AEW has done this a few times but I'm still buzzing 90 minutes later. It's reminiscent of watching peak Austin-era Raw or Sting/nWo-era WCW as a kid. I love this shit even if I don't agree with everything. They just gave me AEW World Champion Kenny Omega (oh nooo! ?... ?) and Stang in the same fucking episode. 

Agreed, feels like a huge buzz coming out of all that. Seeing all the reactions everywhere and a can't wait to see what happens next kind of feel. I love it. 

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As for what AEW gets- I think the stronger other wrestling companies look, the more it helps AEW.   AEW fans are willing to watch multiple shows, and the more non-WWE stuff gets exposure, the more you can get folks to see WWE as "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world"- the folks who hate WWE might come back to it someday, the folks who have gone beyond hate into indifference likely never will.


As for how I'd use the relationship- I'd give Impact both lowercarders who need ringtime, and folks who are cooling off and you want them off TV for a bit, so send them to Impact (Jericho would be great to send there in a bit, let him raise hell on Impact instead of sliding down the card in AEW).  In return I'd ask for women to feed to Shida and Rosa (maybe hot potato the women's title), and maybe a brief Gallows/Anderson crossover, and Ace Austin because I think he can hang with AEW's top young talent.

It could be cool to just do on Impact a 60-min draw title vs title FTR vs the North for the hell of it too.

Edited by alstein
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I could be wrong, but I don’t see how FTR vs The North can be title vs title when neither team has titles, and Ethan Page is probably leaving Impact and not doing anymore shows with them this year due to exposure to COVID.

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This feels like Pro Wrestling USA in some way. Impact even with Anthem subsidizing is arguably no better than latter day World Class and NWA as late stage AWA,with AEW as the JCP. I don't see what AEW gets out of this since Impact has been such a toxic brand even if there are some people who say its decent right now.

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17 minutes ago, mattdangerously said:

New Japan hates Impact and AEW, so there is zero chance of this happening. 

Thanks for that Gedo.

NJPW honoured their relationship with ROH. Past that it’s been pretty well established that Meij didn’t want to do business with other groups. He’s gone now, the door is wide open. Once world travel begins again you can guarantee Gallows and Anderson, FTR, Omega etc will be taking dates in Japan. I guess Omega just happened to do Okada’s routine tonight? He doesn’t do anything by accident.

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35 minutes ago, mattdangerously said:

New Japan hates Impact and AEW, so there is zero chance of this happening. 

I would definitely use past tense with AEW with that goof Meij out, and while Gedo/Okada rightfully still hold a grudge for how TNA bungled Okada, there are a plenty of people in Impact now with good relations with New Japan (And you have Impact guys in upcoming Super J Cup). It will still be a while before we see a major AEW/New Japan crossovers (middle of 2021 at the earliest, and that's with good results with the vaccine), but I am pretty optimistic that it will happen.

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