6/15/2022- AEW DYNAMITE!

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

2 hours ago, zendragon said:

I think this highlights one of TK's blindspots. He's such a huge wrestling dork of course he knows who all these guys are but then expects we all know it as well. I try to keep up with NJPW on AXS when I have time so I know who the main players are but I don't know everyone. Some of these debuts have a TNA "OH WE KNOW WHO THAT IS!" feel to them

There's a certain limitation to the style of "this is important because we say it is". There needs to be a lot of credibility to the promotion in order to be able to just accept at face value that something is important just because the promotion states that it's important.

And like... a AEW vs NJPW show feels like it's a situation where you're either an obsessive footage watcher so you're going to know every little detail, or you need to accept AEW's credibility that the people coming in are important and on the same level as the people they're being put against. There's no middle ground to that. It's kind of dangerous water to tread if you're hoping to rope in folks that might not be familiar.

But hey! Maybe it'll work! Who knows!

[(BP)]

I don’t know if they’re trying to grow an audience here as much as they’re curating to their base and getting as much money out of them as possible. There’s something to be said for that, but I wouldn’t argue with anyone who thinks they’re sacrificing too much tv time to it at the expense of their larger following. 

Edited June 18, 2022 by (BP)

[Octopus]

16 minutes ago, Stefanie the Human said:

I INSIST THEY SELL SUB SANDWICHES, THE MARGIN IS BETTER, I AM RIGHT BECAUSE I SAY I AM

Prepare to get dog piled. Sub sandwiches are sell out hoagies and you are less of a burger fan for suggesting that. Hot dogs are this burger joint’s future and you’re a fool if you don’t agree with me.  GET HER, FELLAS!

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

5 minutes ago, Octopus said:

Prepare to get dog piled. Sub sandwiches are sell out hoagies and you are less of a burger fan for suggesting that. Hot dogs are this burger joint’s future and you’re a fool if you don’t agree with me.  GET HER, FELLAS!

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, (BP) said:

I don’t know if they’re trying to grow an audience here as much as they’re curating to their base and getting as much money out of them as possible. There’s something to be said for that, but I wouldn’t argue with anyone who thinks they’re sacrificing too much tv time to it at the expense of their larger following. 

I don't really care about any of this, but it's one month, maybe a month and a half, while they have other programs still going. Jericho is still feuding with Kingston. FTR is still going after belts. Etc. It's a way to sort of keep everything fresh for a month before they get into whatever they'll be doing for the rest of the summer (And while NBA and NHL finals are going on so a lot of the more casuals, assuming they exist, might not be tuned in anyway). They could still handle it better but part of the problem was that the card came together so late and that's not entirely their fault. In an ideal world, we would have gotten a 35 second video package on whatever the heck a Shota Umino is two weeks ago.

[The Natural]

 

[The Natural]

 

[John from Cincinnati]

14 hours ago, Gordlow said:

You know what would pop a huge rating? Bring back Shaq!!

Everyone knows the money match is a rematch with Cody. Shaq’s gone.

[Octopus]

4 hours ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Everyone knows the money match is a rematch with Cody. Shaq’s gone.

Cody leaving is the long con for that rematch. Or should I say….long Khan…

[Salads]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:19 PM, Stefanie the Human said:

There's a certain limitation to the style of "this is important because we say it is". There needs to be a lot of credibility to the promotion in order to be able to just accept at face value that something is important just because the promotion states that it's important.

And like... a AEW vs NJPW show feels like it's a situation where you're either an obsessive footage watcher so you're going to know every little detail, or you need to accept AEW's credibility that the people coming in are important and on the same level as the people they're being put against. There's no middle ground to that. It's kind of dangerous water to tread if you're hoping to rope in folks that might not be familiar.

As you say, it requires some credibility, and some faith. Faith that the titles the viewer has never heard of mean something (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't) and faith that these guys are as good as we hear they are. The latter is kind of redundant when we see them in the ring beforehand - if the guy doesn't impress then the words ring hollow, and if they do then we didn't need to be told.

In my opinion the 'this guy is great, here is a list of championships he has won' approach, while a no-brainer wore thin after it was used on both Nagata and Kojima and can't be relied on alone. In the case of Tanahashi / Ospreay / Okada when JR describes them as one of the best / top five / whatever in the world it means something, but outside of that they have to differentiate. We need the crib note caricatures on how to tell them apart and what the story is. Eg:

Nagata - Why does Moxley want to face him? Because he's a wrestler's wrestler with the likes of Danielson among his admirers. Why isn't this old man afraid of Moxley? Is he an idiot? No he's a vet that has seen it all - he's faced Goldberg in WCW, Kobashi in NOAH, Lesnar in NJPW and Fedor in MMA land (shhhhhh don't mention ANYTHING about the content of those matches). Something like that because we can see he is past his prime and Moxley isn't going to be dropping any titles to him. 'Japanese megastar Yuji Nagata' is crying wolf.

Suzuki - He's an old school sadistic SOB who rightfully strikes fear into people. He's teaming up with fellow bully Jericho to participate in one of his favourite hobbies torturing young men as they face Mox's kids. Guevara and Kingston are there to avoid it being too much of a one-sided match-up but that's the story. I'd better buy that show because I want to see those kids not get destroyed hopefully!

Ishii - Stone pitbull. Call him the stone pitbull a lot the name is English and perfect.

Ospreay - The OC match has a decent build from a story perspective, but I saw more comments picking up on Will's current character from this board than from the commentary team. Why has he got that jacket and that face? Is he an idiot? Yes. We all want to see him lose but unfortunately he's a world class wrestler. He gets to be in charge of United Empire in spite of his lack of leadership skills or judgement because he is really good at wrestling. Imagine Starscream in charge of the Decepticons.

O-Khan - Here's your chance JR. The guy is oriental as hell so you know how to sell this. It's a proper gimmick and it never went out of fashion.

Tanahashi - 'They call you the Ace' is good but letting us know why he's the Ace would be better. We've been told Moxley has been chasing him for years but again, why? What is the distinction going to be between Tanahashi and this Okada guy who is also great when he shows up? Tanahashi is the Cena - he never gives up or turns turns heel. Hero to women and kids everywhere (because the posing, flowing locks and air guitar might seem a bit odd otherwise). He's been the face of NJPW for what seems like forever which is both why Mox wants him and why he's had to wait so long to get to him.

You know what, all those like-for-like matches we saw on booking wishlists leading up to Forbidden Door (Danhausen/Yano, Kenny/Okada, UE/BC, Zack/Bryan, FTR/Aussie Open, Hiromu/Darby etc) may look like they're using EWR stat logic to decide what would get the best match quality percentage, but they have these little simple hooks that don't need a lot of explanation and make people want to see them. If you have time to build you can do better but when you don't that's really useful.

[A_K]

There was lots of time to build. 9/10 weeks, give or take.

Edited June 19, 2022 by A_K

[The Natural]