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AEW Dynamite - 2/3/2021


Dolfan in NYC

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2 hours ago, MoeCristyV.1.6 said:

I just realized why it is called Dynamite..... Just never made the connection...

It's actually called Dynamite because that's the name of the show Tony Khan fantasy booked for the past 20 years. The fact it's on TNT is just a coincidence.

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I think it's fair to criticize the long-term booking in AEW because often it's a journey that is getting figured out as they go and it's going to have some bumps along in the way. The hope is that it will come together, AEW's track record with that has been pretty good so far but not impeccable. I don't think Page has been cooled off, I think he's in danger of getting cooled off if they don't give him something important to deal with and Hardy isn't it. He needs to face down someone like Hager next.

My issue with Jungle Boy's booking is that it never seems to go anywhere. The longview is he is gradually getting better at wrestling on his own but the connecting points are few and far between so it's easy to see him as stagnant. In terms of recent singles matches, he lost to Wardlow but beat Nick Comoroto, KTB, and Dax Harwood. Before that it's the losses to Cody and MJF months before. I don't see much progress there and that was all of his 2020 outside of mostly meaningless tag matches. His contract is up this year, right? Anyone feel like they got the most of him for half of that? And just to give you a for instance, what if JB had been in the match with Eddie Kingston instead of Matt Sydal a few months ago? Same role in the match and he could show us progress by hanging with a wily vet like Eddie. Instead we got a match that did nothing for Sydal and not that much for Kingston tbh. My point is that it's fine that they are slow playing some people but they can do it with a little more attention than they are with him.

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5 hours ago, Hayabusa said:

Okay, so this isn't you then? Coolio ?Guess I confused you for someone else who was telling us that the show would tank before long

 

5 hours ago, Goodear said:

You’re reading into his statement that it will effect the money the show makes when he may be talking about the quality of the show itself.

 

4 hours ago, Hayabusa said:

Goodear, I think ultimately that's what it boils down to though, affecting the product affects the viewership. quality of the product = more or less viewers, and if the product stinks the fans aren't gonna stick around in the same numbers.

aew doesn't have the lemmings to stick it out. just last week there were all  those streaming issues right, and the audience checked out and switched the channel. so i think we've seen let the audience have a bone to pick with streaming or watching live, issues with the signals feed, and they'll bounce on out.

i mean let a guy nitpick every thing they like, nothing against that. he actually lays out a well thought out process behind the critiques and i'll honestly take ten pages of newbury burying a show over just one page of picture/gif/tweet triple post spam posts. like with newbury he'll give you a cohesive narrative on the Why something sucks as opposed to spamming pictures and gifs back to back for likes, so i'm team newbury on this one. 

Happy you're Team Me. Without being too snippy, I'll tell you that Goodear is exactly right on how you've misinterpreted my post. 

I can also tell you that I'm pretty bullish on the long-term prospects of AEW's ratings, especially with the "forbidden door" developments that are likely to energize what they see as their core audience and generate positive word of mouth. If you'd like to insinuate that criticism of their booking amounts to me saying the sky is falling and they'll be cancelled in six months, you're allowed to have that imaginary conversation. But once again, I'm not that person. I would always welcome you to converse with me rather than tell me what you think I think. 

Taken another way, Game Of Thrones was pretty widely watched through it's last couple seasons. You might have noticed all those people griping about the loose writing weren't necessarily connecting their criticism to the viewership numbers. So one can have that conversation. I'm well aware that a lot of people watch shitty television. 

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13 hours ago, El Gran Gordi said:

It goes without saying that it is cool with me if someone else posting here (like, say @Andy in Kansasor @Goodear) wants more from their weekly pro wrestling show than what AEW is currently providing. For me, though. I can clearly remember a recent time when there was no weekly pro wrestling show that I found consistently entertaining and looked forward to. I suppose that makes me an easy mark for AEW, because I am more than satisfied to have that right now. 

It's nice that some people such as yourself can see differing views and treat them with respect and offer them space. Your posts about your fan experience are always appreciated and I thank you for the sentiment. 

Thank you for not trying to delegitimize my perspective as resultant of my being "abused." And thank you for not making assumptions about what I think. ?

6 hours ago, Goodear said:

This discussion always seems to end up on ‘AEW is better than WWE so shut up’ when no one is bringing up WWE. I still don’t watch WWE other than Roman Reigns segments on YouTube. I also don’t talk about ratings because my attitude is and has always been I don’t care if it’s popular, I only care if I like it. I had a question about if a alliance with New Japan would grow their audience because adding another bunch of guys to their roster seems like a recipe for more of what Andy is talking about. 

All of this. 

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4 hours ago, MoeCristyV.1.6 said:

I just realized why it is called Dynamite..... Just never made the connection...

I was a huge Brock Lesnar fan when he debuted in WWE and was obsessed with tornados when I was younger. It took me at least a year before I made the F5 connection. I legitimately thought his finisher was refreshing the computer, so don't feel bad. 

 

To add a little to the discussion, I love reading this weekly thread for all of the different opinions. I've enjoyed Dynamite every time I get to watch but can also admit that they do some stuff that I just don't care for. I give them more leeway because they're not exactly like WWE but they have put some real crap out there, there's just generally more good stuff overall. 

I will say I don't like a decent chunk of their midcard guys. Dudes like Sydal, Spears, Sabian and Janela to an extent seem like such scrubs. I just don't care about them at all. 

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1 hour ago, Andy in Kansas said:

 

 

Happy you're Team Me. Without being too snippy, I'll tell you that Goodear is exactly right on how you've misinterpreted my post. 

I can also tell you that I'm pretty bullish on the long-term prospects of AEW's ratings, especially with the "forbidden door" developments that are likely to energize what they see as their core audience and generate positive word of mouth. If you'd like to insinuate that criticism of their booking amounts to me saying the sky is falling and they'll be cancelled in six months, you're allowed to have that imaginary conversation. But once again, I'm not that person. I would always welcome you to converse with me rather than tell me what you think I think. 

Taken another way, Game Of Thrones was pretty widely watched through it's last couple seasons. You might have noticed all those people griping about the loose writing weren't necessarily connecting their criticism to the viewership numbers. So one can have that conversation. I'm well aware that a lot of people watch shitty television. 

Can i just say, this is what I genuinely appreciate about you. Honestly. You'll express with words and paint a picture and weave a narrative. You and Goodear have absolutely crushed it with your analysis and breakdowns and I mean it, you two will have something to pick apart but its the way you go about it, like Anderson limbwork or like Brainbusters singling out one guy in a corner, you carve out your thoughts and insights in such precise form. 

 
and I'll say one thing real quick --- I may have misinterpreted your post, took it as a different thing you were saying, and then addressed the other thing I thought you were saying. My bad, genuine apology
 
I feel like I've seen way too many posts of "aew is running off viewers" and that's me misreading a post and inventing a strawman.
 
Please keep it up, you and Goodear both have this style that makes lunchtime board browsing fun since you're not just dropping a two sentence review and shitting on things. You illuminate things I might have missed when it comes to catching things and hoping that the booking/writing fixes or improvises on them. I'll shut up now since i'm pretty sure nobody's made it this far into my post and i don't blame them hahahaha.
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25 minutes ago, Hayabusa said:

Can i just say, this is what I genuinely appreciate about you. Honestly. You'll express with words and paint a picture and weave a narrative. You and Goodear have absolutely crushed it with your analysis and breakdowns and I mean it, you two will have something to pick apart but its the way you go about it, like Anderson limbwork or like Brainbusters singling out one guy in a corner, you carve out your thoughts and insights in such precise form. 

 
and I'll say one thing real quick --- I may have misinterpreted your post, took it as a different thing you were saying, and then addressed the other thing I thought you were saying. My bad, genuine apology
 
I feel like I've seen way too many posts of "aew is running off viewers" and that's me misreading a post and inventing a strawman.
 
Please keep it up, you and Goodear both have this style that makes lunchtime board browsing fun since you're not just dropping a two sentence review and shitting on things. You illuminate things I might have missed when it comes to catching things and hoping that the booking/writing fixes or improvises on them. I'll shut up now since i'm pretty sure nobody's made it this far into my post and i don't blame them hahahaha.

No worries, we're good. I've almost certainly been there myself. Sometimes it's hard to remember that even if we're aware of some of what's going on in the larger discourse surrounding something, it's always risky to attempt to extrapolate from that the views of any one specific person. We all form our beliefs with things that might seem incongruous to others if they're just being viewed through the prism of that larger conversation. It's always good to remind ourselves we're speaking to a person, and not the entire hoard of screaming internet weirdos. And thanks goodness for that!

I like to think I'm not seen as coming in here intending to browbeat the company and anyone who likes it. I'm not looking to tear things down. I wouldn't be typing this much if I didn't like this product and want the absolute best for it. Some weeks I'm of a more simple, contented mindset and find it sufficient to let the headline be what great chemistry Omega and Fenix have. Others, like this week, my prevailing feeling is there are some things sticking in my craw and I want to air that out. But it's from a place of wanting the best, even if there's always room for improvement.

Anyway thanks for the kind words, but please never compare me to a Brainbuster again. Arn and Tully should be insulted by the comparison. 

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The great thing about Jericho was always how he wasn’t there all the time and altered his persona pretty much every time he came back. This way he hasn’t gotten stale like so many other WWE characters. Dolph Ziggler is exactly the kind of character he was ten years ago and sadly not the only passenger on this tiresome boat. Granted, Jericho has the luxury of Fozzy and other side adventures.

On a smaller scale and if done right, the booking of AEW can be a quite effective way to avoid people becoming stale through overexposure. Take Orange Cassidy, who’s character so far has been kind of a one trick pony. Orange was a sideshow character the first few months of AEW, rose to prominence with the feud against Jericho, fought Brodie and Cody for the TNT Title, lost to MJF for the Dynamite Diamong Ring and has since taken a backseat. Yeah, he’s still has his appearances on Dynamite, but has wrestled only once and that probably wasn’t even planned (main event of the Brodie memorial show). I don’t think being relegated to a (featured) background character has hurt Orange the past two months.

Scorpio Sky and Jungle Boy weren’t handled that well. Clearly. But then again, who do you relegate down to get them up? I really don’t need Joey Janela, Luther, Michael Nakazawa, Peter Avalon or Sonny Kiss on Dynamite – but they are not taking away minutes from Scorpio Sky and Jungle Boy. Jobber minutes filled by jobbers. Even Matt Sydal is really only winning on Dark to lose on Dynamite. Though, with these jobber appearances then being kinda too competitive, maybe Scorpio or Jungle Boy could have taken that spot. But it kinda comes down to the question if you rather would see Jungle Boy lose on Dynamite or not see him on Dynamite at all (or Scorpio Sky or whoever is not featured enough for your taste at the moment).

Same with Miro. Who do I take out to get him in? Hangman (who’s not getting enough minutes himself)? Kingston? Archer? Hardy? Pac? Penta? Fenix? Team Taz? Darby? Jericho, Cody, Kenny, Moxley and MJF aren't going anywhere.

Okay. Take Matt Hardy out and give me Miro vs. Hangman. But then again… I don’t wanna see one of them lose.

QT Marshall hasn't won on Dynamite for nearly three months. So that' something.

PS: I didn’t get the cut to commercials right, but I’m still counting me one for five for my prediction of getting five more shows of Sting entering, Taz interrupting and cut to commercials. What a drag.

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21 minutes ago, MrKothoga said:

The great thing about Jericho was always how he wasn’t there all the time and altered his persona pretty much every time he came back. This way he hasn’t gotten stale like so many other WWE characters. Dolph Ziggler is exactly the kind of character he was ten years ago and sadly not the only passenger on this tiresome boat.

If done right, the booking of AEW can be a quite effective way to avoid people becoming stale through overexposure. Take Orange Cassidy, who’s character so far has been kind of a one trick pony. Orange was a sideshow character the first few months of AEW, rose to prominence with the feud against Jericho, fought Brodie and Cody for the TNT Title, lost to MJF for the Dynamite Diamong Ring and has since taken a backseat. Yeah, he’s still has his appearances on Dynamite, but has wrestled only once and that probably wasn’t even planned (main event of the Brodie memorial show). I don’t think being relegated to a (featured) background character has hurt Orange the past two months.

Scorpio Sky and Jungle Boy weren’t handled that well. Clearly. But then again, who do you relegate down to get them up? I really don’t need Joey Janela, Luther, Michael Nakazawa, Peter Avalon or Sonny Kiss on Dynamite – but they are not taking away minutes from Scorpio Sky and Jungle Boy. Jobber minutes filled by jobbers. Even Matt Sydal is really only winning on Dark to lose on Dynamite. Though, with these jobber appearances then being kinda too competitive, maybe Scorpio or Jungle Boy could have taken that spot. But it kinda comes down to the question if you rather would see Jungle Boy lose on Dynamite or not see him on Dynamite at all (or Scorpio Sky or whoever is not featured enough for your taste at the moment).

Same with Miro. Who do I take out to get him in? Hangman (who’s not getting enough minutes himself)? Kingston? Archer? Hardy? Pac? Penta? Fenix? Team Taz? Darby? Jericho, Cody, Kenny, Moxley and MJF aren't going anywhere.

Okay. Take Matt Hardy out and give me Miro vs. Hangman. But then again… I don’t wanna see one of them lose.

QT Marshall wasn't on Dynamite for nearly three months. So that' something.

This is a good post that brings up a lot of good issues. I'm going to try to touch on a few of them and give you my thinking. 

We're not even into two full years of them being on TV. So I don't worry about anyone being as exposed as Dolph Ziggler, a guy who's been running in place all in pointless, repetitive, overlong matches on WWE's many hours of TV for a decade+. I don't think that's the risk here. Rather, the people I worry about are hardly on TV enough to qualify as exposed, much less overexposed. That's how I would frame the issue. There are people they conceive of as future stars that they need to find space for.

I also don't think Chris Jericho makes for a perfectly accurate illustration of the solution to our problem. He tends to have runs that span a couple years when he comes back to the game, and is heavily featured when he's in the fold. His template for keeping things fresh doesn't solve my problem of finding minutes for guys who need to be on TV more. Nobody on this show is exposed so much that they have the "you should go away for a while and come back different" problem that Jericho's career arc is presented as being a solution to. 

An overexposure problem may come in the future. I'd look to avoid it by keeping things fresh enough not to feel repetitive and avoid burning all my big matches so there's always something there to be moving towards. As things stand, I take aim at a more immediate problem of lack of momentum for key players.

You correctly point out that a move up for someone is a move down for someone. Looking at things retroactively, I'm keen to look at where there's fat to be trimmed on these Dynamite episodes and where minutes could be given to shine up someone who's a priority. I'm not looking at specific guys to relegate, but segments here and there that can be dumped or modified. Dustin Rhodes feuding with Dark Order job guys or Butcher and Blade? Gone. We don't need to shine up Dustin. Scorpio Sky working ten minute Dynamite matches against Shawn Spears when I have them both penciled in as stepping stone gatekeepers? Nope, replace one of them with someone who matters. Matt Cardona coming in for a feature tag match with his buddy? Sorry Matt, there's no room at the inn. Also: Way fewer two segment matches helps cram something else in there. And it makes the matches that go that distance matter, because not everyone's doing it.

It's inelegant and far from comprehensive, but there are minutes to be had here or there to get guys seen on TV picking up wins or resolving small issue and being seen doing so. Looking back, I'd nip around the edges and get guys who ought to matter featured on TV more often. It doesn't solve the problem completely, but if it gives one or two acts another chance in front of the big audience then I'm for it. In truth, if another TV show does come along, even an hour, that real estate opens up a world of possibilities and changes the game completely.

On the issue of burning big matches, I'm not putting Page vs Miro on TV with no build just to have the guys do something -- they're both guys who I also have winning often. But there are veteran guys on this roster who aren't going to be headlining PPVs or winning belts in my conception of them. Daniels, Kazarian, Sydal, Sky, Spears, take your pick. Get a cranky young vet jealous of Page's hype, yank on his chain, build to an issue that resolves in TV semi-main one week. Don't have him moping around being courted for months on end. Put Jurassic Express in that feud with Butcher and Blade instead of Dustin and QT. 

Eddie Kingston, Butcher, and Blade are kind of perfect in how they're being used right now. They're fodder for people who matter and talk and look good enough to justify the occasional win. And they're not being protected. And Kingston had a one segment match last week! They serve a great function on this roster. 

And since, yes, we're all picking and choosing our darlings: OC has definitely fallen into the start/stop trap I pointed out earlier. But he didn't get a shout-out from me because I'm of the belief that he's been slotted too high on the card and the act gets old quick. He may be the one act I think they're doing a favour by featuring less. ;) 

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5 hours ago, Hayabusa said:

 

I feel like I've seen way too many posts of "aew is running off viewers"
 
 

You are not wrong about this. Here and elsewhere, it's long been a very very common approach to criticizing AEW's booking. I think it stretches back to Adam Page winning the battle royal at the  inaugural Double or Nothing in 2019 and being booked to face the winner of the Jericho vs Omega  main event for the inaugural AEW World Championship at All Out. There were many voices crying out back then that having a lesser known guy like Page fighting for the title was going to cost AEW a lot of PPV buys. And it was pretty common back in the beginning days of the promotion to "warn" AEW that they were driving people away by putting the never-going-to-get-over Dark Order on TV so much. what I'm trying to say is, "AEW is running of viewers" has certainly been there from the beginning and it's basically never let up since then. 

It's also, quite clearly, never been the case.

And it is very easy and very understandable toconflate any criticism of AEW with  the "AEW is running of viewers" type of criticism, because it's been around so long and is so common. 

From the other side, I can see how it would be easy to conflate anyone disagreeing with the criticism of AEW by conflating it with This discussion always seems to end up on ‘AEW is better than WWE so shut up’ as @Goodeardid in this very thread. Presumably that is also pretty common, here and elsewhere.

People here on this thread right now are in fact not saying "AEW is running of viewers" nor is anyone right here tight now saying ‘AEW is better than WWE so shut up.’ What's going on here seems to be - for the most part -actual discussion, which is nice.

Edited by El Gran Gordi
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Sure, Jericho really isn’t an example for avoiding the imminent problem of finding spots for some talent, but I do think that his career arc is worth reminding for in the long run. When people complain that person X isn’t featured enough and hasn’t been seen in weeks, they should always remember that the shark in Jaws is awesome because he’s not there all the time. But, clearly, this is a thing for the future. And the build up of the shark was pretty much flawless, too…

There definitely was and still is fat to be trimmed, sure. Cardona was completely pointless. I get why they wanna give their backstage handyman QT some shine, but, come on, he should not be taking these minutes. Matt Sydal feels completely redundant to me and his spots in the last weeks (losing to Cody in ten minutes and losing together with Top Flight against Hardy Party) probably should have been given to Scorpio Sky. Cody should either go three minutes with Avalon or go ten minutes with someone else. I also don’t really know why Ryan Nemeth was brought in, but the match was kept short so I’m okay with that.

But, yeah, basically I’m agreeing. Maybe Hardy vs. Hangman will be just that kind of a little feud you’re talking about. Although I’m fearing that we’ll see Hardy vs. Hangman at the PPV and I don’t really wanna see singles Hardy anymore. Then again, if they put Silver and Reynolds in there and make it a six men against Hardy Party, I’m down for that.

And I do appreciate AEW giving indy talent a payday per Dark in tough times, but instead of 14 squash matches, maybe just 8 squashes and two or three meaningful matches with storyline implications? Cutler and Avalon had a nice story going. Give me more of that.

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2 hours ago, MrKothoga said:

Same with Miro. Who do I take out to get him in? Hangman (who’s not getting enough minutes himself)? Kingston? Archer? Hardy? Pac? Penta? Fenix? Team Taz? Darby? Jericho, Cody, Kenny, Moxley and MJF aren't going anywhere.

Miro up (although no rush); Archer down. Archer’s 43 now, was a fun monster-of-the-week for a while w/ Roberts but that ceiling has been truly sprung. Hardy goes - full stop. Zero benefit to Matt Hardy. Team Taz as group goes. That gives you your room to move Jungle Perry up (put him in a program w/ Darby & Starks if need be - that way none look tiny), give Hangman minutes on his side quest. Get Wardlow more involved too.
 

Really, really easy to flush out the weak content of the show. It’s basically either the old 90s/00s WWE perennial mid carders who were scoffed at on a sinking TNA literally a decade ago (Hardy; Tazz) or talent who’ve been around the industry for a long time and just don’t make the commercial grade. There’s clearly a lot of nepotism / politics at work though when you look at some of the self-booking decisions & someone like Tazz’s completely & utterly forgettable son getting prime time TV minutes which is just weird.

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28 minutes ago, El Gran Gordi said:

You are not wrong about this. Here and elsewhere, it's long been a very very common approach to criticizing AEW's booking. I think it stretches back to Adam Page winning the battle royal at the  inaugural Double or Nothing in 2019 and being booked to face the winner of the Jericho vs Omega  main event for the inaugural AEW World Championship at All Out. There were many voices crying out back then that having a lesser known guy like Page fighting for the title was going to cost AEW a lot of PPV buys. And it was pretty common back in the beginning days of the promotion to "warn" AEW that they were driving people away by putting the never-going-to-get-over Dark Order on TV so much. what I'm trying to say is, "AEW is running of viewers" has certainly been there from the beginning and it's basically never let up since then. 

I can't remember if I made any predictions about PPV buys, but I was generally pretty skeptical of the booking of Hangman being in the inaugural title bout. I'll happily admit to being proven wrong about him. By this time last year they'd turned him into the hottest thing in the company. If they get him back on that footing, it looks like a genius move in hindsight for them to call their shot with Page.

26 minutes ago, MrKothoga said:

Sure, Jericho really isn’t an example for avoiding the imminent problem of finding spots for some talent, but I do think that his career arc is worth reminding for in the long run. When people complain that person X isn’t featured enough and hasn’t been seen in weeks, they should always remember that the shark in Jaws is awesome because he’s not there all the time. But, clearly, this is a thing for the future. And the build up of the shark was pretty much flawless, too…

...

But, yeah, basically I’m agreeing. Maybe Hardy vs. Hangman will be just that kind of a little feud you’re talking about. Although I’m fearing that we’ll see Hardy vs. Hangman at the PPV and I don’t really wanna see singles Hardy anymore. Then again, if they put Silver and Reynolds in there and make it a six men against Hardy Party, I’m down for that.

Re: the shark from Jaws, that was perfect execution. But it's also a two hour movie you can nail that and move on (or you can make three more Jaws movies). With an ongoing TV show like this, I'd go back to Game of Thrones for a comparison. Some episodes are thin, they drag their feet on some storylines, etc. Why is their so little Tyrion in this one? Is Dani ever getting to Westeros? Who the hell thinks this Sand Snakes stuff is a good idea? And who's that guy again? He looks familiar but I don't remember him because he was in one scene like half a season ago. I see a lot of similarities in how I see some of AEW's booking the last few months. 

And yeah, like you I also have some apprehension on where they're going with this Hangman stuff. I don't need to ever see Matt Hardy wrestle again, so I should be careful what I wish for when I ask for him and a bitter vet to mix it up. Six man would make the most sense there. But what a huge step down the card for a guy some people would have happily penciled into the main event of this show. 

Some interesting calls, @A_K. You're braver than I am making the tough choice on Archer. 

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11 minutes ago, Andy in Kansas said:

I can't remember if I made any predictions about PPV buys, but I was generally pretty skeptical of the booking of Hangman being in the inaugural title bout. I'll happily admit to being proven wrong about him. By this time last year they'd turned him into the hottest thing in the company. If they get him back on that footing, it looks like a genius move in hindsight for them to call their shot with Page.

Re: the shark from Jaws, that was perfect execution. But it's also a two hour movie you can nail that and move on (or you can make three more Jaws movies). With an ongoing TV show like this, I'd go back to Game of Thrones for a comparison. Some episodes are thin, they drag their feet on some storylines, etc. Why is their so little Tyrion in this one? Is Dani ever getting to Westeros? Who the hell thinks this Sand Snakes stuff is a good idea? And who's that guy again? He looks familiar but I don't remember him because he was in one scene like half a season ago. I see a lot of similarities in how I see some of AEW's booking the last few months. 

And yeah, like you I also have some apprehension on where they're going with this Hangman stuff. I don't need to ever see Matt Hardy wrestle again, so I should be careful what I wish for when I ask for him and a bitter vet to mix it up. Six man would make the most sense there. But what a huge step down the card for a guy some people would have happily penciled into the main event of this show. 

Some interesting calls, @A_K. You're braver than I am making the tough choice on Archer. 

For Hangman, I really wonder if the plan was for him to feud with and face Brodie at Revolution, hence the original Dark Order interactions after Full Gear. Now, I would have just ridden with Hangman joining the Dark Order as Plan B, especially since they had transitioned them to face already before Hangman turned them down. I do not think there's anything real damaging to his long-term prospects as a top guy, but they will have to heat him up some before the eventual Kenny challenge.

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Well, let's hope Hangman isn't Danny in that comparison. That would be a major letdown for Hangmans story arc. 

Hangman vs Brody was probably the road planned and kinda explains why Hangman has been quite directionless for a few weeks. Brodie would have been a great build-up for Hangman and a nice meaningful victory. Hardy will hopefully stay a short side quest before he finds another opponent. I'd probably go for Kingston (with Butcher and Blade) or Team Taz next, some clear heels. He'd be outnumbered either way and Dark Order can help him out.

I wouldn't relegate Archer down just yet. Considering how Archer against Ospreay went, there's some potential in programs with the likes of Darby, Pac, Fenix, Guevara or Jungle Boy. He's quite old, yeah, but it's not like he's slowing down like Jericho or Daniels noticeable do. 

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I’ll start off with an old man shouts at clouds section. Can everyone please fuck of with all the cutter variations. One of the most over moves ever (seriously, there must be an alternative timeline where Orton sticks with the play of the day/overdrive finish and never gets a world title run) and so many guys just have meaningless/shitty versions of it.

Why does Kenta have purple hair? Dudes about 40, between that and the weak GTS I don’t think it was a great intro for him. I thought Excalibur’s sell of this was a bit much as well, talking about the briefcase and Mox’s title, none of this is stuff that’s been established in AEW.

I don’t think Chaos Project should be on tv but to be fair they’ve got the minimum amount of offense to be taken as a credible threat and been otherwise squashed, which is fine. I’m liking how Page has just been dominant against the various jabronies the last few weeks. Hopefully the stuff with Hardy doesn’t last too long, I know he has some name value but his whole act is cheap and should be beneath Page. Page calling him out on his shit and a decisive victory is all that’s really needed here, maybe throw in a 6 man with PP and DO.

They messed up the shot but it was nice to see Jake seemingly with a big smile on his face and patting Angelico on the back after taking him out.

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There hasn’t been much from AEW that has grated on me yet.  I have only been watching religiously from sometime in August and there are a lot of new faces for my eyes to see.  If the old boards could talk they would say I am not afraid to watch every promotion that passes my fancy so the fact that there are a batch of new-to-me wrestlers to get acquainted with.  Thank God Shamgod for the syndicated-ish goodness that is AEW Dark every week.  

I think the only Dynamite episode I haven’t watched until the very end was the week of the Dinner Debonair.  I didn’t know they would be doing a shmaltzy song-and-dance but I figured it would be a fine idea that gets stretched out into somrething with two segments.  

I might have bailed on one or more of those overly long Young Bucks showcase matches.  Then agin I haven’t enjoyed those big YB matches like they had with Candace & Joey in PWG.  They need to cut five minutes on every YB match as a rule or pre-match stipulation or something.

I am seriously scared for Darby’s spine.  I think he is definitely one wrestler who works best as an attraction of a sort.  Maybe keep his big singles matches to a minimum.  It might make his attempts at self-harm-by-wrestling help them stand out and actually mean something.  
 

Hangman’s Dark Order courtship would be the most over part of every Dynamite if they had a meaningful crowd present.  Putting goofy individual personalities  aside I think Page/Silver/Reynolds should be the first Trios champs.  

I don’t think there is any need to push Jungle Boy beyond the tag division at this point.  IIRC JB was off tv for a spell because Luchasaurus was injured for a few weeks late last year.  The Dax match was a real showcase for Perry.  He is so young though that they can do a long tag team gimmick first.

Luther has been in several goodish tag matches on Dark.  Serpentico is going to be able to Cruz into a new gimmick once Chaos Project is done.

I have never been much of a KENTA fan.  Going all the way back to the advent of NOAH’s jr tag titles in 2003ish I always thought that he had the exact same problems as the Bucks.  He has had many great matches but I don’t think I would watch a show to see him perform.

And finally...I don’t know why anyone interested in AEW wouldn’t be into the weekly behemoth that is AEW Starks...I mean Dark. We get to see more from some featured performers which helps breed familiarity and eventually fandom.

Apologies for rambling there for a bit.  I am out of practice with my message board posting.

Edited by Ryan Faulconer
auto-correct is a hideous bitch goddess
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On 2/4/2021 at 9:37 AM, Technico Support said:

Thunder Rosa vs Britt Baker really delivered.  Minus a few points for Thunder Rosa doing WWE Shocked Face after a near fall, minus a few more for the screwy, clunky finish, but still very good!  The women's tournament looks cool.  For a brief few seconds, I was worried the Japanese side of the bracket would be their Rio De Janiero.  

I gave Rosa's Shocked Face a pass since I credit it more to WCW era Arn Anderson than I do the WWE. 

Arn had the best "What Do I Have To Do To Kill This Guy?" face.

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