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AEW - OCT 2021


The Natural

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I accidentally put this in the September thread so here we go:

That was a pretty fun episode of Elevation.  I did especially like that while Spears is a heel he had to show the Brodie love with the shirt and pose at the beginning.  It was a nice moment that the crowd appreciated then once Wardlow came in it was back to the heeling.  Good stuff.

As for the sneaker talk I think we need a compilation of all the times The Elite have bought shoes.  Show that to sneakerheads who don't watch wrestling and then tell them the Bucks couldn't even afford Popeyes a few years ago.  I bet the reactions would be quite interesting.

Edited by NikoBaltimore
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Spears / Wardlow vs. Fuego / Marko was the best.  Comedy still has a place in pro wrestling.   Fuego is soooooooooo fucking polished now and the good natured Shawn Spears actually won me over a little in that match with his begrudged heel stylings.  I still hate Wardlow's knee finish thing.   Marko is the Spike Dudley of AEW.  His job is to be thrown as high in the air as possible and land flat on his face.

Abadon is back just in time for Halloween.  She is pretty thicc for a zombie.  Just sayin' is all.

Edited by J.T.
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2 hours ago, zendragon said:

 

You can have your Judas and your Tarzan Boy

For my money, this is the most fun AEW entrance theme to sing along with.

C'mon! Everybody sing!

NACHTLAAAAANNNNDDD!!!

AAAANNNNGEEEEEETAST!!!!!!!

HHHAAAAARRRRT SLLLLLAAAAGGGGG!!!
SLLLLAAAAGGGG VVVEEEELLLLSSSTTTT!

HAAARRRRRRRRT SLAAAAAAAAGG!!

MIJNNNN KNOKKKKKKEENNNN

GERBROOOOOOOOOKENNNN!!

 

(Edit: One of the lines literally translates as "Spring is near" which, yeah, this song definitely gives off that feeling of Spring being near). 

Edited by Gordberg
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11 minutes ago, Gordberg said:

(One of the lines literally translates as "Spring is near" which, yeah, this song definitely gives off that feeling of Spring being near). 

When you almost make it to Spring, but you forgot to pay the boatman’s toll.

14f268762e6ce41a600894174139.gif

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Elevation 10/4/21

Emi vs Skye: Tony immediately regretting asking Eddie to talk is great. Eddie was great as within ten seconds he declares that he only likes Lulu, who is dope, and that Skye has to get over in another territory. Then Tony got the great line that no matter who wins or loses, he gets paid. Again, these aren't what you want for your A show but it's like Dusty being hilarious on WCW Prime. Match itself worked. It wasn't pretty but it worked. There's a line on smoothnness where if you straddle it right, the lack of such can feel like competitiveness. What helped was that the match played into it. Skye took Emi down and started wailing on her and she paid for it in a big way. I loved Lulu's stomps on the floor because they were so overwrought 80s pro wrestling. Big and ridiculous. If she was punching, she'd be doing the big Bret Hart stomping as she did. Emi going twice for the body press in the corner was a nice arrogant bit of transition. Skye's high cross body was as high as you get and worked as a near-fall even though it shouldn't have. The tilt-a-whirl was a perfect cut off moment and the Queen's Gambit looked great (that has to be a tough move to take and make look good). I'm not entirely sure what to think of this one. Skye looked good in the loss from a kayfabe level but I think, as a wrestler, she'd maybe get more out of doing a house show loop with Emi, than she did from this one match alone?

2.0 + Garcia vs Corino, Stetson, Thrillride: I love that we're in a world where Daniel Garcia gets an enhancement match. The intensity he showed at the start rushing Stetson probably wouldn't get to happen against most other opponents and it's a great looking at him. The triple tag thing they do where they make sure to tag both guys each time so they can triple team is really novel (to me at least). Corino had a nice idea of rolling out of the ring to eat the Matt Lee clothesline on the floor, but he was moving in slow motion getting down to do it. Garcia is quite good at milking the moment on his lean back on the Sharpshooter. Onemanthrillride really wasted his moment in the sun here. You have people's attention with the name and the look. Do something!

Spears/Wardlow vs Stunt/Fuego: Hey, Fuego went for the French Catch up and over. He did it as part of an exchange instead of a counter to a top wristlock and because the motion of it was different and the basing of it was different, he didn't quite get it. Good thought though. Spears coming out with the Brodie shirt was his right and if he's going to do it, Elevation's a great place for it, but I think it disrupted his heel reaction a bit. When he did his "10!" thing it wasn't heelish enough and that hurt Fuego doing it in response. He's basically Borne Again but as a bunch of WWE lower-card acts instead. It works but boy does it have a ceiling. People really complain about Marko Stunt? He was used perfectly here, as a foil for guys like Wardlow to have bounce off them. Even when Marko started to get some momentum on him, it was only enough to get a quick hot tag and then work with Fuego. His big offensive move on Spears was just rolling away from him repeatedly. Maybe it was worse a year ago, but everyone in that ring understood who he was and what he was and how he should fit into the match. I was especially impressed with Wardlow's reactions to him. The double death valley driver was set up well (as in it didn't feel contrived) and Wardlow's finish looked a million times better than when he does it out of the corner.  

Archer vs Bruno: Glad to see Jake up and about but he has the presence of my 70 year old uncle out there. Archer definitely wasn't running (or power-walking) to the ring for this one. It's ok because Bruno was so big they could play it differently. Archer's a big guy who can do a lot of stuff and that, from what I've seen, generally holds it back to instead do a bunch of things he should be doing but at very high intensity. Here, he got to do some of the stuff because of Bruno's size and it worked and it didn't wear out its welcome. I think the value in Jake would be in taped package promos getting Archer or one of this feuds over more so than being at ringside.

Abaddon vs Davienne: First look at Abaddon. Davienne sold the intimidation/fear at the start, but the scariest part of the match was Eddie almost dropping the F word. She comes off as more alien/outlandish than terrifying in the ring. A bunch of weird offense (that looks pretty good) and expressions. She definitely needs a handler of some sort. I'm not sure I loved Davienne taking so much of the start of this without more blatant no-selling? I don't know what to make of it with one data point, I guess.

Santana/Ortiz vs Two Guys in Facepaint: I don't know about Santana and Ortiz. I think they're just not for me. Look at how creative and interesting the use of tags was in the 2.0 trios and then look at the four minutes of dull noise of doubleteams this was. They were fine, creative even, but I just wasn't feeling it. Henry was fine on commentary though. Good for him to get his laps in.

Statlander vs Becca: Completely a Statlander match, with Becca's main contribution actively avoiding the boop, up until she didn't. I'd be curious to see what more of a Becca match looks like since she's obviously put a lot of care into her gear/personality. Lots of strength spots out of Statlander. I'm a sucker for interesting entry points into a goardbuster so long as they're not overly contrived and hers was good. I like how the boop's inevitability led to the inevitability of the finish. Statlander is someone who, moving forward, you can put against almost anyone on the roster and it'll be interesting, because she's so committed to her act and very consistent in what she does.

Acclaimed vs Delaney/Cheech: I'd say more a case of missed opportunities than anything else. You want to see Delaney up against a guy like Archer right? that would have been true ten years ago at least. He had a good flurry but a guy on his level shouldn't be doing jumping springboard cutters. Cheech is another guy you'd probably like to see get mauled (I mean 15 years ago, right?). Caster could have done more with the rap considering who was in there. Kingston had some matches with Cheech in 05-06 and you kind of wish he'd been on commentary for this. It was obvious Tony had no idea who they were but that's ok. I like the Acclaimed in theory but you still get the sense they're putting it together. Both of them have around 200 matches on Cagematch despite being wrestling since 2015-6 and they'd just really benefit from House Shows.

FTR vs Nystrom/Dean: First time hearing the new theme and it's pretty perfect. I kind of wish someone could convince Dax Harwood to watch some Blousons Noirs match because he reminds me so much of Marcel Manneveau in all the best ways. I get the sense that Wheeler might be more of the footage guy/historian. Wheeler's tackle off the apron was really good. If you're only going to get to do a few things, making them all like that really helps.

Kiss vs KM: Fans were definitely behind Kiss. KM looked good out there for the most part. The immediate face drop out of the lock up and then later out of the wheelbarrow, the back targeting. Why the heck was he going up top so much though? Kiss' strikes looked good, including the handspring into a kick where I didn't think the distance would work out. The fans really wanted the fireman's carry to work out so I'm glad they got what they wanted. I'd see more KM.

Gunn Club promo: This worked. They were frustrated about inconsequential stuff and Billy was patient until he wasn't. Gunn's head in the opening always freaks me out with the texturing. Scarier than Abadon.

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The yellow face paint dudes were two members of The Batiri from CHIKARA.  I am not sure that Kobold is still working after being called to the mat during #speakout.

Cheech of the Miracle Ultraviolence Connection / Up In Smoke is old and I am guessing that Cloudy is selling real estate in Delaware now, hence the pairing with Colin "ECW = Extra Cute Wrestler" Delaney

8 minutes ago, (BP) said:

The surprisingly good Evil Dead remake. 

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Edited by J.T.
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33 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Cheech of the Miracle Ultraviolence Connection / Up In Smoke is old and I am guessing that Cloudy is selling real estate in Delaware now, hence the pairing with Colin "ECW = Extra Cute Wrestler" Delaney

Cheech and Delaney are a regular team.  They're actually really awesome together.  I think they mainly work Beyond.  I've really dug the stuff I've seen of them together.

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1 hour ago, J.T. said:

The yellow face paint dudes were two members of The Batiri from CHIKARA.  I am not sure that Kobold is still working after being called to the mat during #speakout.

Cheech of the Miracle Ultraviolence Connection / Up In Smoke is old and I am guessing that Cloudy is selling real estate in Delaware now, hence the pairing with Colin "ECW = Extra Cute Wrestler" Delaney

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Funny you mention Cloudy. That 2CW clip I posted a few pages back is HIM getting low blowed by -1 and eating the superkick chair shot. He is currently in a tag team called "High Seas" with Captain Nick Ando who main evented said 2CW show.

Outside of that, his cagematch implies that he just wrestles for small local northeasten promotions. I also preferred Up in Smoke back in the late 00's but those guys haven't teamed together in a hot minute now.

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3 hours ago, Matt D said:

Acclaimed vs Delaney/Cheech: I'd say more a case of missed opportunities than anything else. You want to see Delaney up against a guy like Archer right? that would have been true ten years ago at least. He had a good flurry but a guy on his level shouldn't be doing jumping springboard cutters. Cheech is another guy you'd probably like to see get mauled (I mean 15 years ago, right?). Caster could have done more with the rap considering who was in there. Kingston had some matches with Cheech in 05-06 and you kind of wish he'd been on commentary for this. It was obvious Tony had no idea who they were but that's ok. I like the Acclaimed in theory but you still get the sense they're putting it together. Both of them have around 200 matches on Cagematch despite being wrestling since 2015-6 and they'd just really benefit from House Shows.

Colin & Cheech are one of the best teams in the entire world right now. If all you're familiar with of Colin is his ECW run 15 years ago that's not accurate to go off of for today. If anything working The Acclaimed, Colin & Cheech had to take their foot off the gas a whole lot. A showcase match with Santana & Ortiz would have been killer. I've seen them work Private Party & The Lucha Brothers and both matches knocked it out of the park. I get that this is just Elevation and you may not be familiar with their most recent work. But neither one of these guys should be looked at as an enhancement guy to bump around for a monster. They are much more valuable than that.

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10 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Colin & Cheech are one of the best teams in the entire world right now. If all you're familiar with of Colin is his ECW run 15 years ago that's not accurate to go off of for today. If anything working The Acclaimed, Colin & Cheech had to take their foot off the gas a whole lot. A showcase match with Santana & Ortiz would have been killer. I've seen them work Private Party & The Lucha Brothers and both matches knocked it out of the park. I get that this is just Elevation and you may not be familiar with their most recent work. But neither one of these guys should be looked at as an enhancement guy to bump around for a monster. They are much more valuable than that.

I hear you and that's not context I had past the thread after the fact. I've seen a lot more of Colin and Cheech in the 2000s than the 2010s. That said, if they brought those skills to the table, it would have been nice to see that in practice and for them to build the match around it. Past Colin getting a few good shots in and that ill-advised springboard cutter, it was basically a glorified squash, so my comment sort of stands. A more helpful comment would be that it would have been better for them to work the sort of match we got with FTR last week where they went around ten minutes and really worked the thing with some actual structure. That probably would have been more helpful to the Acclaimed too.

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Quote

Spears/Wardlow vs Stunt/Fuego: Hey, Fuego went for the French Catch up and over. He did it as part of an exchange instead of a counter to a top wristlock and because the motion of it was different and the basing of it was different, he didn't quite get it. Good thought though. Spears coming out with the Brodie shirt was his right and if he's going to do it, Elevation's a great place for it, but I think it disrupted his heel reaction a bit. When he did his "10!" thing it wasn't heelish enough and that hurt Fuego doing it in response. He's basically Borne Again but as a bunch of WWE lower-card acts instead. It works but boy does it have a ceiling. People really complain about Marko Stunt? He was used perfectly here, as a foil for guys like Wardlow to have bounce off them. Even when Marko started to get some momentum on him, it was only enough to get a quick hot tag and then work with Fuego. His big offensive move on Spears was just rolling away from him repeatedly. Maybe it was worse a year ago, but everyone in that ring understood who he was and what he was and how he should fit into the match. I was especially impressed with Wardlow's reactions to him. The double death valley driver was set up well (as in it didn't feel contrived) and Wardlow's finish looked a million times better than when he does it out of the corner.  

I think this is the ideal use for Stunt as a punching bag to gain sympathy and it really wasn't how they've used him historically. They really gave his first win away as he went over in a meaningless tag match on Dark rather than milking the moment for something with more punch like the way WWF used 1-2-3 Kid going over Razor Ramon and used it for meaningful development for both characters. Taking this match in a vacuum and placing it earlier in his run, this sort of rag dolling would allow him to give others big offensive moments while building to his triumph. Unfortunately, he has already been built beyond that moment as a person we were meant to take more seriously being the third in Jurassic Express. So we have AEW having to tear down his development in order to get back to a starting point from which he can build. I found the rolling away from Spears to be a bit hacky and it undercuts Spears' general character who typically does small things well such as stomps and knees. Wardlow was better in this particular outing as he only 'played the fool' in short bursts that didn't make him look anything more than off balance. As a whole picture, Spears and Wardlow actually form a pretty good unit who could do something in the tag ranks operating in a under a hammer and tongs structure which AEW doesn't have with it's other teams. 

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11 minutes ago, Goodear said:

I think this is the ideal use for Stunt as a punching bag to gain sympathy and it really wasn't how they've used him historically. They really gave his first win away as he went over in a meaningless tag match on Dark rather than milking the moment for something with more punch like the way WWF used 1-2-3 Kid going over Razor Ramon and used it for meaningful development for both characters. Taking this match in a vacuum and placing it earlier in his run, this sort of rag dolling would allow him to give others big offensive moments while building to his triumph. Unfortunately, he has already been built beyond that moment as a person we were meant to take more seriously being the third in Jurassic Express. So we have AEW having to tear down his development in order to get back to a starting point from which he can build. I found the rolling away from Spears to be a bit hacky and it undercuts Spears' general character who typically does small things well such as stomps and knees. Wardlow was better in this particular outing as he only 'played the fool' in short bursts that didn't make him look anything more than off balance. As a whole picture, Spears and Wardlow actually form a pretty good unit who could do something in the tag ranks operating in a under a hammer and tongs structure which AEW doesn't have with it's other teams. 

All of this is reasonable and frustrating and not surprising considering what I had previously heard. I had been surprised while watching the match. The airtime on the lift up by Wardlow was amazing and Eddie asking for a replay and getting it was great. As for Spears, I was buying into Eddie's explanation of his character, and the fact he was becoming unglued and that played into that, but who knows if Kingston wasn't just freestyling.

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3 minutes ago, Matt D said:

All of this is reasonable and frustrating and not surprising considering what I had previously heard. I had been surprised while watching the match. The airtime on the lift up by Wardlow was amazing and Eddie asking for a replay and getting it was great. As for Spears, I was buying into Eddie's explanation of his character, and the fact he was becoming unglued and that played into that, but who knows if Kingston wasn't just freestyling.

Honestly I watch most everything on mute on my phone anymore so I cannot speak to commentary choices. I think there is a way to play unhinged and mean and it's not really to do comedy spots as the butt of the joke. I brought up Rick Steiner a while ago in relation to Ortiz and I think it holds true that characters can 'play around' and still be a dangerous threat because what they find funny is terrible for the other person. Spears in general has such a bad case of booking schizophrenia in that he's going in so many directions at one time that he lacks focus.  

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2 minutes ago, Goodear said:

Honestly I watch most everything on mute on my phone anymore so I cannot speak to commentary choices. I think there is a way to play unhinged and mean and it's not really to do comedy spots as the butt of the joke. I brought up Rick Steiner a while ago in relation to Ortiz and I think it holds true that characters can 'play around' and still be a dangerous threat because what they find funny is terrible for the other person. Spears in general has such a bad case of booking schizophrenia in that he's going in so many directions at one time that he lacks focus.  

I think I commented a couple of weeks ago that Spears looked really good in a different match until he pulled the camera to himself and started going on about how he'd expose Darby upcoming or some such and he just took it over the top. Even here, I had a problem with the 10 thing, because I don't think it fits The Chairman Shawn Spears. But if he was being presented there as basically a Borne Again sort of guy haunted by how wrestling has treated him over the years, it sort of works. But there needs to be consistency across products and matches on just what this guy is, 100%, and he can't be hyper serious and taking people out with chairs and also so thoroughly clowned by Marko and basically doing it to himself. Some people can pull that off, but he probably can't.

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If I were Spears, I'd have a super hot wife but that's besides the point. ANYWAY, if I were Spears I'd maybe lean into some Larry Zbyszko for my influence as a lower level heel in a faction with bigger stars. Larry could do all the things Spears needs to do in draw heat as an illegitimate threat to the top stars while being cruel to the Marcus Alexander Bagwells of the world. He needs to walk a tightrope of not being a killer while not being a complete joke and the way Shawn does that is too inconsistent. 

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