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Dynamite - 5/4/2022


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11 minutes ago, Dog said:

That everyone isn't seeing this argument as pure insanity baffles me. Hangman is IMMENSELY over with the live crowds, to the point that the disappointment with his heel promo was audible.

Alvarez said something smart (I know, I know) about this. When Bret and Hennig had to fight at King of the Ring, and they were both babyfaces, they found a reason for Curt to work heel that night, and then everyone reset and moved on. Punk worked heel against Kingston and came back, now Page is working heel against Punk. If the argument is that Punk should be taking the heel role again, instead, I probably agree. If the argument is that Page will remain heel in the aftermath -- dare I invoke the terrible words -- let's wait and see. I think and hope he'll come back to us.

Whether it’s insanity or not hinges on whether he drops the belt. If he drops the belt after bouts against Lance Archer, Adam Cole, Dante Martin and a couple of multi man tags in 5 months I graciously invite the assessments that it was not a mega failure of booking for the poor fellow. If he wins and becomes a valued narrative stalwart I bow deeply.

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6 minutes ago, Mr Harms said:

would you say his reign has been a OOF MEGA FAIL BIG MISS?

It’s been pretty underwhelming and he’s often not felt like the most important part of the show despite being the champion.

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Is there a way to know the +7 (i.e. DVR) numbers? I wonder if those have gone up to compensate, and the overall number of eyeballs hasn't changed much.

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22 minutes ago, Mr Harms said:

would you say his reign has been a OOF MEGA FAIL BIG MISS?

He clearly shouldn't have been worrying about friendships or being sad like a latte drinking millennial wuss!  He should've been drinkin beers and kickin asses like the living embodiment of a pickup truck commercial!  I want my rasslin show to be butch as fuck!  Make Hangman great again!  :)

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I watched the main again and yeah, that crowd did not care. It didn't help that they didn't do anything to promote it. Then again having an ROH title match come in ice cold is pretty amusing if you think about it. Not really impressed with the match either besides the finish, we need more Dragon sleepers in wrestling (except from you Sanada, stop already). 

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Moping for a year and a half because some twerps did him a favour and got out of his life isn't exactly what I want in an aspiring top babyface. Not sure people need to set up a strawman alternative or create a pointless binary in pushing back against that.

At least Cody played it cool when he dropped them like a bad habit. 

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6 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Moping for a year and a half because some twerps did him a favour and got out of his life isn't exactly what I want in an aspiring top babyface. Not sure people need to set up a strawman alternative or create a pointless binary in pushing back against that.

ok-boomer-the-office.gif

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2 hours ago, just drew said:

I said last week that I thought Serena needs a manager. That is even truer to me after last night. Lady just cannot talk. If Tully is still making it to tv, use him.

If Tully hasn't been fully shifted over to the ROH side that is a great idea. I think he would be a perfect fit for her. She could be that quiet cocky badass that backs it up in the ring while this loud old man sings her praises with pretty words.

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In another universe that ROH Women's Title match gets treated like Buff vs Booker and ole TK scraps the entire idea of ROH lol.

But there are similarities there. While this isn't the first ROH match they've done, it's one of the first totally cold ones that had a person that has never once had a TV match for them (ala Buff & Booker in WWE). Gresham & Castle also fall in this category, but they have the benefit of way more TV & PPV exposure than these two women. No Impact doesn't count as TV exposure to me lol. Mercedes has done like two or three AEW TV matches in the last year but that is not enough to develop a relationship with the general TV audience. Not many in that crowd knew signature moves or popped because they knew her theme or anything like that.

Just real poor planning. Or maybe wishful thinking is the better way to word it. Baltimore was an ROH town. So maybe TK was banking on some recognition that just wasn't there.

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See how for ages, Regal’s job was to yell  “Wargames!” and book Adam Cole and his mates into the big cage match?

Blackpool Combat Club vs Undisputed Elite for Blood and Guts?

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2 hours ago, chriskbrown50 said:

Actually Thunder could use one too after last night. I like that AEW does not script interviews BUT some talent could use some real hand holding here. 

what we need is a new Mean Gene Oakerlund who can conduct a three person interview. Bit of a lost art that.

I no longer believe pro wresting is real however I firmly believe that William Regal is real.

 

Main was fun, happy to see them get that slot but seemed to suffer from going out cold infront of the audience 

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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie

Re: the Hangman Page discussion, in a lot of ways during his title reign he's been the dog that finally caught the car in the sense that he finally has what he wanted, but now he has no idea what to do with it, and I think in a lot of ways that's the angle. It's a natural evolution of who he is, from overwhelmed self-loather to confident cowboy who is slowly starting to lose his confidence, and also his patience (and with it, his morals).

(And to caveat, yes, the following is my interpretation of how he has been presented. Your mileage may vary. Opinions on a message board, whatta concept.)

From the beginning of AEW, he felt as though he was the lowest member of the Elite, and he had the chance to finally stick out when it was him and Jericho to crown the first World Champion. And, well, he lost. Or in his mind, he failed. So he became self-destructive and started drinking, which led to him loosening up because he stopped caring about the pressure he placed on himself to try and stand out amongst this group of highly accomplished wrestlers and just started showing up and doing what he does best.

Which is probably where the perception that he was a beer guzzling asskicker came from. Because he was an asskicker that, well, guzzled beer after he kicked ass.

But it's when his drinking became out of control, and people caught on that it was the result of his feeling as though he failed, that was when his friends started to give up on him. And then he ended up finding new friends that didn't carry the same stigma as the Elite did, because, well... the Dark Order were a bunch of dorky losers. Just like he seemed to be. But they were the dorky losers he needed.

So he cleaned himself up, decided that he didn't fail, he just fell short, and he wasn't going to fall short anymore.

And so he didn't.

It's oversimplifying two and a half years of story, but that basically covers it.

But the problem then becomes... where does he go from there? Because Hangman always was the guy who would take off his belt to whoop someone or run across a football field to save his friend. The drinking was just when he loathed himself. Now he's confident in his skills. And that confidence starts to chip away when you see all these newcomers start to come in and gun for you, and tell you you're not good enough.

Like the greatest wrestler in the world in Bryan Danielson. But you beat him. And yet everyone still touts him as the greatest wrestler in the world, and you're... what exactly?

Then you go through hell to beat Lance Archer, which proves you're still just as tough as you always were. You beat Adam Cole, a ghost from your past who tells you that you're just the waterboy for the group that you used to be a part of. It doesn't help that those dorky friends who helped get you through that tough patch keep getting in your way, and what's worse, are in way over their heads against the level of competition you're now at. What do you do? Do you try to protect them by pushing them away?

Now you've got CM Punk saying he wants you. Great. And the fans, who cheered you on as you went through the hardest two and a half years of your life, cheer that guy instead.

Surely that has to chip away at you and frustrate you some, right? What's worse is that now you're basically alone.

Hard to blame the guy for lashing out. It's hard to say that it's a heel turn, too, until that lashing out becomes consistent.

So does that mean his character is a failure? I don't think it does. I think it means his character is moving onto the next step, and that next step is him cracking under the pressure of being champion, whatever that will entail.

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I have to push back a bit on Dave's NBA playoffs theory. The 76ers and Heat series is about the least interesting series going on right now and neither have that big of a fan base. 

Some will disagree but I think Tony has booked too far towards a niche of a niche with some things.. 

Take Danhausen for instance. He was a popular character for a small group of people but you bring it to a national audience and people don't get it.. it's not explained.. people are just left wondering what the hell is this?? 

You book an ROH women's title unification match between one relative unknown to a national audience and another who had a cup of coffee in NXT and there's no build to it.. you kind of deserve to lose 100k viewers. 

They have Bryan Danielson and Mox in a stable with Regal,  Sting with Darby, CM Punk, Undisputed Era, Keith Lee, Swerve, MJF and Wardlow, cool little factions like Team Tazz and tag teams that can get over with a national audience like The Acclaimed, Jade Cargill and the baddies etc..  and almost none of these people have anything interesting going on, some do but a lot don't.. they have an embarrassment of riches and they do nothing with a lot of them. 

Why is the TNT title centered around Dan Lambert?  

Why is Jade in so many non-factor feuds? 

Why is JE still the tag champs when there's a handful of teams more over than they are? 

At some point you need to book towards what most people are going to be interested in. An ROH women's title match isn't going to cut it, this is TNT.. not public access.

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I wasn't a fan of the 'Tear in My Beer' Bucks-Hanger storyline either, and I do think it pulled too far away from the Rootin' Tootin' Sonofabitch who, with cocktail in hand, would Lariat a fool at the drop of a drop. That said, I wouldn't call his run a failure. Disappointed? Not me, but to each their own. The Title switch from Kenny and the Danielson matches were excellent, and everything else in-ring has been a lot of fun. I'm not a Cole-hater, but there wasn't a good enough reason to do a re-match - tho, the Texas Death Match was terrific. The biggest problem with this run is how the AEW World TItle MUST be limited to so few title defenses. Page is a workhorse, he needs to be the workhorse, and he'd be a lot better off taking new challenges on TV a little or lot more often.

 

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31 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I have to push back a bit on Dave's NBA playoffs theory. The 76ers and Heat series is about the least interesting series going on right now and neither have that big of a fan base. 

Some will disagree but I think Tony has booked too far towards a niche of a niche with some things.. 

Take Danhausen for instance. He was a popular character for a small group of people but you bring it to a national audience and people don't get it.. it's not explained.. people are just left wondering what the hell is this?? 

You book an ROH women's title unification match between one relative unknown to a national audience and another who had a cup of coffee in NXT and there's no build to it.. you kind of deserve to lose 100k viewers. 

They have Bryan Danielson and Mox in a stable with Regal,  Sting with Darby, CM Punk, Undisputed Era, Keith Lee, Swerve, MJF and Wardlow, cool little factions like Team Tazz and tag teams that can get over with a national audience like The Acclaimed, Jade Cargill and the baddies etc..  and almost none of these people have anything interesting going on, some do but a lot don't.. they have an embarrassment of riches and they do nothing with a lot of them. 

Why is the TNT title centered around Dan Lambert?  

Why is Jade in so many non-factor feuds? 

Why is JE still the tag champs when there's a handful of teams more over than they are? 

At some point you need to book towards what most people are going to be interested in. An ROH women's title match isn't going to cut it, this is TNT.. not public access.

The Danhausen thing is weird. I expected vignettes by this point for him. I think this is a case of Coach TK thinking everyone that follows AEW is an uber-indy fan... when that is so opposite from reality. 

Page's title run is almost non-existent for me. The Cole thing was "whatever", and one I had zero interest in... but who would you have programmed him with over the winter? Coach hasn't exactly built anyone up thats a legitimate threat. Instead he hotshotted a new signing that really had no business being there if AEW really takes W/L and rankings seriously. Scorpio Sky would have had a stronger case to feud with Page than Cole. 

They could have even worked a Miro PPV main event during this run. 

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39 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

Take Danhausen for instance. He was a popular character for a small group of people but you bring it to a national audience and people don't get it.. it's not explained.. people are just left wondering what the hell is this?? 

So, the live crowds are popping for Danhausen but also don't know who or what he is? Hm, alright. I must have been hearing things when Danhausen confronted HOOK on the 4/20 episode of Dynamite and they popped AND chanted for him. Weird.

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8 minutes ago, Casey said:

So, the live crowds are popping for Danhausen but also don't know who or what he is? Hm, alright. I must have been hearing things when Danhausen confronted HOOK on the 4/20 episode of Dynamite and they popped AND chanted for him. Weird.

People like mimes, ok? 

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