AEW Youtube Nonsense (Dark/Elevation, vlogs, etc.)

[The Natural]

 

[DEAN]

AQA~!  She's taller than Kiera Hogan.  Who knew?  There were like 90 wrestlers on the show.  OVW champion, Freyah the Slaya, takes on TayJay and Red Velvet and AEW should sign her.  She is large and Alaskan.  Her OVW biggest rival, Haley J, takes on Ruby Soho and does some Memphis heel things.  The final ten man was fun, showboating the awesomeness of Matt Sydel and Jay Lethal.  I dug the Brock Anderson spinebuster.  Baron Black and Isaiah Cassidy set up Cassidy screaming like a little girl, which I didn't think we would get on a YouTube show.  BUT WE DID!  SO I DECLARE THIS EPISODE A SUCCESS!  I dug the wee lass babyfaces against the midcard lady heels- as Leyla Hirsch has an uneasy alliance ALREADY with Nyla Rose and Emi Sakura.  Leyla doesn't get along with anyone!  YAY! AEW RULES!

 

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

Oh, baby!

You give me Lance Archer, Legit Leyla, and JD Drake wearing trunks as The Good Lord (Steven Regal) intended? I'm a happy man!

Plus, three different kinda weird ten-man tag team matches. I'm delighted for the people whose hobby is complaining about AEW,  since I am sure that in their opinions three  kinda weird ten-man tag team matches is at least two kinda weird ten-man tag team matches too many but in my opinion it was precisely the right number of kinda weird ten-man tag team matches... so everyone can be happy.

First Match: (26-11) Anna Jay, (53-9) Taynara Conti, (43-21) Red Velvet vs. (0-8) Angelica Risk, (0-1) Arie Alexander, (0-2) Freya States In A 6-Man Tag Team Match (Yes, the Wrestling Headlines site called this a six-man tag team match. I'm still gonna c&p their match listings because it's fun that they list the records (and also they call Tay: Taynara).

I really enjoyed how they used Freya States The Giant here. Apparently she has had two matches in AEW already? you'd think I'd remember her. Maybe she wasn't used so memorably in the previous matches? Is she Freya the Slaya? She's probably Freya the Slaya, isn't she? If only there were some way to look that stuff up.

Second Match: (16-14) Daniel Garcia, (15-9), 2.0, (14-11) The Gunn Club w/Billy Gunn vs. (0-2) Ariel Levy, (0-1) Chico Adams, (0-29) Dean Alexander, (0-0) Dominic Garrini, (0-0) Kevin Ku In A 10-Man Tag Team Match 

Apparently Garrini and Ku were a popular tag team in MLW. Violence is Forever vs 2.0 on a future YouTube show, please!

Adams tapped out before Garcia started cranking on the Sharpshooter. 

Third Match: (31-20) The Bunny vs. (0-0) Kaitland Alexis 

Settle down, Gordlow. 

Just a quick squash, with Bunny doing a cool thing where she flirts with the camera before snapping her teeth like the goat on that Pearl Jam album cover. I flinched both times.

Fourth Match: (10-4) Andrade El Idolo, (35-18) The Butcher, (43-27) The Blade, (37-36) Private Party w/Jose The Assistant vs. (6-41) Shawn Dean, (0-47) Baron Black, (0-20) Carlie Bravo, (0-10) Chandler Hopkins, (0-5) Jameson Ryan In A 10-Man Tag Team Match 

Oh me, oh my! Andrade tagging in Kassidy and letting him make the pinfall is such good, thoughtful, long-term storytelling after Matt would always steal the pinfall in their matches. I marked right out for that! Mark Henry was really funny here, as well, he and The Big Paul throwing around gentle dad jokes is just so charming. 

Speaking of World's Strongest Men:

 Evan "T-REX" Singleton is apparently a legit contender to earn that title in 2022. Commentary mentions his "time in WWE" where my "research" indicates he was known as "Adam Mercer" in FCW and NXT. Anyone remember him? 

 

Fifth Match: (15-4) Ruby Soho vs. (0-0) Haley J 

Another quick squash. 

Sixth Match: (45-10) Lance Archer vs. (0-0) Joey O’Reilly

And another. Archer's squash was the nastiest of the three, unsurprisingly. That's kind of his deal. I agree with the complainy types that Ruby Soho could use a more impactful-looking or otherwise convincing finisher. Not saying a choke slam or a power bomb, though. Maybe a submission? OR: Bring back the Togo senton!

Seventh Match: (58-23) Nyla Rose, (30-12) Leyla Hirsch, (22-16) Emi Sakura w/Vickie Guerrero vs. (0-1) AQA, (5-4) Kiera Hogan, (6-14) Skye Blue In A 6-Man Tag Team Match

Also a six-man. OK, Wrestling Headlines. Is this a deliberate thing? A new kind of gender-neutral language? It was just one of the first sites that popped up when I did a search so I could c&p matches (cause I didn't wanna type out all the ten-person and six-person tags and couldn't remember all the names even if I'd wanted to).

This match was very much my jam. Maybe the three most stand-out female enhancement talents in AEW. I could see any or all of AQA, Kiera Hogan, or Skye Blue working their way up the card in the future. 

You can kick Leyla in the face six or seven times and she'll keep going. She only needs to knee you in the head once. I love how she can't seem to get along with anybody.

Eight Match: (5-2) Jay Lethal, (35-30) Matt Sydal, (62-29) Frankie Kazarian, (23-43) Lee Johnson, (10-7) Brock Anderson w/Arn Anderson vs. (3-24) Chaos Project & (0-2) The Wingmen (Peter Avalon, Cezar Bononi and JD Drake) w/Ryan Nemeth In A 10-Man Tag Team Match 

Matt Sydal in peril and fired-up Frankie were both really good here. Loved the spinebuster. But really, you had me at JD Drake wearing trunks again.

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Gordlow

[DEAN]

6 minutes ago, Gordlow said:

I really enjoyed how they used Freya States The Giant here. Apparently she has had two matches in AEW already? you'd think I'd remember her. Maybe she wasn't used so memorably in the previous matches? Is she Freya the Slaya? She's probably Freya the Slaya, isn't she? If only there were some way to look that stuff up.

Hell yeah!  That's Freyah the Slayah!  Fuck yeah!

[The Green Meanie]

Chaos Project + The Wingmen = BOY STABLE ACHIEVED

I cannot express in words how happy I was to finally see those two working together. I knew they weren't going to let them win, but it still was worth it. That's pretty much my ideal AEW Boy Stable, and I finally got to see it in action.

 

Also SO HAPPY to see THE BUTCHER back, and looking lean and focused. Though nothing will replace his initial monocle, I'm digging the new look.

Edited February 22, 2022 by The Green Meanie

[DEAN]

Freya the Slaya!

 

[NikoBaltimore]

I find one of my favorite things about the Dark shows are when Emi and Nyla team up together.  They're clearly having the time of their lives and it shows.  Add Bunny to the mix and my goodness it's damn near magic.  I do miss them all mugging for the camera after Emi's corner move but you still get Nyla loudly singing along to "We will chop you!"

[Matt D]

Definitely enjoyed Elevation.

• TayJay and Velvet worked well together. Tay looks really credible. Pretty amazingly so. So did Freya for that matter. Size and presence.
• Ku took a bunch of offense and Garrini got to taunt once. Hopefully they get to do more in the future. 2.0 and Gunns bickering was entertaining, with a good payoff.
• The Kassidy story they're telling with Andrade fostering him is working for me. I'm not sure what happens with Quen moving forward though. It's just fun watching all of these guys interact.
• Soho was super over. Nothing too amusing happening in the match though. I thought in general Soho looked better than usual. Sharper. Her angle here was ring positioning of her opponent.
• Archer squash was appropriate. I get less of a sense that he turns this on when he's wrestling normal opponents though. He needs to channel Hansen more and just be absolutely exhausting to watch.
• Six women tag was primarily interesting because Leyla got her face caved in repeatedly. Probably not the way to build her. Fans felt robbed for not getting the shooting star press from AQA and Nyla needed to play up that spoiler effect more.
• I enjoyed the main but needed more interaction from basically everyone. What we got with Serpentico hitting his own guys by accident was good. Brock looks more comfortable in there every week.

[HarryArchieGus]

18 hours ago, DEAN said:

Freya the Slaya!

 

Yeah, very impressive size and offense.  On defense however... the sell on the corner trio attack suggests she might be a 'not ready for prime time player'.  That said, I completely agree they oughtta sign this behemoth and develop her.    

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Watched Elevation on lunch and don't have anything to add that you guys didn't cover much more articulately (though, I'll happily add I'm also on the 'sign and refine' train with Freya).

Working on OG Dark right now and I just needed to shout Luther's promo out for being 30 seconds of silly, '80s fun. His closing line to Tony was the icing on the cake. Him and Matt Lee would not be out of place whatsoever in front of a green screen with Mean Gene, and I mean that as a compliment. Throw in some Nick Commoroto heavy breathing in the background for good measure.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Zakk_Sabbath

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

It was cool to see Skye Blue and Fuego get wins. On the other hand, both of those matches seemed to have a few minor issues with timing and spacing in a way that I associate more with lower card rookie matches on a small local indie than with AEW YouTube matches. I'm inclined to assume that maybe David Ali and Ruthie Jay need a little more seasoning (although Ali's had more than a few YouTube matches for AEW)... but who knows?

It was cool to see some more big young guys working on Dark: Karam, Lamar Diggs, Ben Bishop. None of them are at that Toa Liona level where I am really hoping they'll show up again and again, but (for example) Nick Comoroto's power moves look even more impressive when he's executing them on a dude the size of Diggs. Nice to see matches being worked at a variety of paces, as well. 

Julia Hart's subtle-by-wrestling standards character work continues to be very well done and entertaining.

@Zakk_Sabbath covered Luther pretty well. I agree wholeheartedly.

Here's something I'm wondering about: 

I don't dislike Taz on commentary. The singing and the "____ Jones" stuff are consistently amusing and he sometimes comes up with a funny bit or some good insight... But I find that I greatly prefer the gentle dad humour and warm camaraderie of Mark Henry and Big Paul. Taz comes across as a little tetchy and caustic at times, which I personally don't enjoy so much. 

I get that Taz is a heel. He's probably not supposed to come across as likeable. Also, I am not really nostalgic for ECW or the Attitude Era. AEW gets nostagia pops outa me for Arn and Tully, but I'm sure they get them from other fans for Matt Hardy and Christian, and Taz being all New York tough guy on the mic. 

I'm in no way advocating for Taz to be taken off commentary. He's good!

I figure this is a "me" thing, enjoying Mark and Paul quite a bit more... but I am curious how other people feel. Specifically about the YouTube commentary. Lets not get into discussion of JR or Jericho on commentary here in this thread, please. 

Also: Tony and Ex are consistently excellent, in my opinion.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Gordlow
of -> or

[DEAN]

A fine episode of WCW Saturday Night again, though the Braves are starting early so it was kind of short.  I like that they are going with competitive squashes, en lieu of plain squashes.  It was like the gathered all the gatekeepers between Enhancenment and Barely Signed, so it was really fun.  The Nick Camorratto (I have no idea how to spell it) match was the best since he gave Lamar Diggs all kinds of offense and made for a beautiful Worldwide Point.  Ben Bishop at 6'11" is our new Ron Reisse!  Dress him like a mummy and have him hump somebody! David Ali should have pulled the upset.  We don't pay good hard money to see Fuego del Sol win.  Matt Sydel should have turned heel because of the degree that the crowd was behind Serpentico.  Luther was very loud.  FIVE STARS FOR HIM!  PETER AVALON GETS THE PIN!  Rohit Raju is our Dark Elevation Tony Nese now, hopefully.  YAY! AEW RULES!

[Rev Ray]

I like the serpentico/Luther dynamic and I'm fine with him as a job guy with a fun gimmick.  I await serpentico getting his Jake milliman upset wins on TV some day.

[The Green Meanie]

I meant to say it earlier, but I'm a big fan of new ref Stephon Smith.

And in regards to Monday's episode of Dark Elevation....I spoke too soon. THAT WAS EASILY ONE OF THE BEST EPISODES OF DARK, NAY, WRESTLING I'VE EVER SEEN.

The Wingmen in full force with Peter Avalon just being amazingly Peter Avalon with that stupendous hair and facial expressions and Ryan Nemeth continuing the tradition of white guys doing hip gyrations....amazing.

Then! AN INTERVIEW WITH CHAOS PROJECT that had me in tears. And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, SERPENTICO's match with (pretty much) LUTHER ON COMMENTARY with such gems as "STOP BEING EVIL!" at that fanhausen, and "I DON'T LIKE BALD PEOPLE" at Bryce Remsburg. *chef's kiss*

I favorited this episode and actually saved it for prosperity's sake.

Edited February 23, 2022 by The Green Meanie

[NikoBaltimore]

11 hours ago, Gordlow said:

Here's something I'm wondering about: 

I don't dislike Taz on commentary. The singing and the "____ Jones" stuff are consistently amusing and he sometimes comes up with a funny bit or some good insight... But I find that I greatly prefer the gentle dad humour and warm camaraderie of Mark Henry and Big Paul. Taz comes across as a little tetchy and caustic at times, which I personally don't enjoy so much. 

I get that Taz is a heel. He's probably not supposed to come across as likeable. Also, I am not really nostalgic for ECW or the Attitude Era. AEW gets nostagia pops outa me for Arn and Tully, but I'm sure they get them from other fans for Matt Hardy and Christian, and Taz being all New York tough guy on the mic. 

I'm in no way advocating for Taz to be taken off commentary. He's good!

I figure this is a "me" thing, enjoying Mark and Paul quite a bit more... but I am curious how other people feel. Specifically about the YouTube commentary. Lets not get into discussion of JR or Jericho on commentary here in this thread, please. 

Also: Tony and Ex are consistently excellent, in my opinion.

Taz was a lot more in-your-face when he started commentary in WWF and TNA.  I found that to be a bit off-putting at times but understood it was him portraying his gimmick in verbal form.  This time around in AEW he's settled into a pretty nice friendship with Excalibur where they're shooting the shit and cracking jokes.  He still has those moments but is otherwise enjoyable.

That said I'm in agreement on liking the team of Mark and Paul.  They've been a bit more on track with Excalibur on the team but when it's Tony with them they're just three dads having fun.  I said it before but if they were at a family party I would be thrilled to sit there while they're having fun watching wrestling.  It also helps Mark be a lot more comfortable on commentary as he's able to just let loose and throw some quality one-liners.

[Matt D]

Taz said on Unrestricted that he was hired to be a heel and act like a heel and get stories over that way in WWE/TNA and he much prefers being able to get the wrestlers over instead in AEW.

Personally, I think Tony/Wight/Henry would be a fun team but Tony doesn't seem to do Elevation much anymore. Wight comes in very prepared and really tries and Henry is just sort of there, and he's fine, but I like him more with someone who'll push him a bit. I think if someone really coached Henry and prepared him for the shows, he might be a little bit better, as in he has charm as just someone having fun but it's a bit diminishing returns for me. I really miss having Kingston for 2-3 matches every week to just shake things up and keep everyone on their toes.

Excalibur/Taz are the most entertaining to me, just because they're having so much easy fun with one another.

I'm behind due to (in part) a new Cota vs Casas match popping up but I did see the first match last night and that was rough because the crowd was so dead when Griff was in there for what seemed like an eternity. I don't know if it was just the placement on the tapings or the fact that it was going long as a faces vs enhancement match. My biggest takeaway is that shrugging, surly Julia shouldn't be part of the House of Black but should be Orange Cassidy's valet instead.

[HarryArchieGus]

12 hours ago, DEAN said:

Rohit Raju is our Dark Elevation Tony Nese now, hopefully.  YAY! AEW RULES!

I'm hoping Rohit Raju sticks around and finds his own Wingmen.  Very underrated talent with potential far beyond 'wrestler number 4' of 5 or 6 in weekly X Division scrambles.

[HumanChessgame]

1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:

I'm hoping Rohit Raju sticks around and finds his own Wingmen.  Very underrated talent with potential far beyond 'wrestler number 4' of 5 or 6 in weekly X Division scrambles.

Raju has always been great in AAW. He's a great heel on the mic as well as in the ring and Karam is a good heater. If they weren't clearly heading for a splitup, I wouldn't mind seeing the two of them battle MJF and Wardlow in a battle of weasly heels and their heavies.

[HarryArchieGus]

58 minutes ago, HumanChessgame said:

Raju has always been great in AAW.

Love to see him work outside of Impact.  Not to say what I saw of him didn't impress, but the matches were far too often multi-man scrambles.  Any links for free non-Impact Rohit battles?  

[HumanChessgame]

2 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Love to see him work outside of Impact.  Not to say what I saw of him didn't impress, but the matches were far too often multi-man scrambles.  Any links for free non-Impact Rohit battles?  

He also wrestles as Hakim Zane. Here's a no dq match he had in AAW a while back

Vs Shane Strickland a few years ago

 

[JLowe]

17 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Watched Elevation on lunch and don't have anything to add that you guys didn't cover much more articulately (though, I'll happily add I'm also on the 'sign and refine' train with Freya).

Working on OG Dark right now and I just needed to shout Luther's promo out for being 30 seconds of silly, '80s fun. His closing line to Tony was the icing on the cake. Him and Matt Lee would not be out of place whatsoever in front of a green screen with Mean Gene, and I mean that as a compliment. Throw in some Nick Commoroto heavy breathing in the background for good measure.

Luther "the Animal" Steele and Nick "Missing Link" Comoroto

[The Natural]

 

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

Oh boy, Archer vs Fuego was great! 

I was hoping Archer wouldn't just toss him down the ramp and into the ring and pin him like he's just another jobber. And, indeed, they gave Fuego a full entrance and then he used speed, guts, and determination to take a tiny bit of the fight to Archer... but Archer still came across 100 percent as a monstrous force who easily absorbed and shook off everything Fuego could throw at him.

Damned close to the platonic ideal of what Archer vs Fuego should be. Archer looks like a force of nature and Fuego earns our respect by giving his all in a hopeless cause.

And that spot where Archer just punched Fuego out of the air was beautiful.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

On 2/23/2022 at 2:35 PM, JLowe said:

Luther "the Animal" Steele and Nick "Missing Link" Comoroto

I get a Hercules Hernandez vibe from Comoroto. 

[DEAN]

Nothing was really great tonight though Alan Angel vs Frankie Kazarian was pretty good.  Leyla Hirsch needs a better finisher; her cross-armbreaker is kinda anti-climatic at this point.  Main event was kinda fun.  Jay Lethal is the best wrestler in AEW.