Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

AEW - AUGUST 2022


The Natural

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

Anyway, someone should make the annual "Mid-Year Awards" post so I can explain to everyone why Punk is "Most Outstanding." That sounds like a topical, fun thing right?

Maybe if it was like some type of march based tournament.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, JLowe said:

I was wondering if I had missed his release and got super excited for a second.

 

6 hours ago, Dog said:

As far as I can see, Dempsey is still employed. They'd be insane to cut him at this point, for obvious reasons. 

Yup, I'm spreading lies. Sorry about that, guys. I could have sworn I read that in the Omnibus thread but I went back and checked, and what happened is I misread AxB's post that very specifically said he was not released yet.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

 

Yup, I'm spreading lies. Sorry about that, guys. I could have sworn I read that in the Omnibus thread but I went back and checked, and what happened is I misread AxB's post that very specifically said he was not released yet.

Yo HHH, we’ll trade you Ethan Page and Tony Nese for Dempsey.

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know if I'd consider WWE the "hot" promotion right now. I see WWE in a rebuilding period right now after Vince McMahon, Laurinaitis, Prichard, et al did a ton of damage to the company. 

However, I do think *IN MY OPINION* that AEW has significantly cooled off, and the bloom is off the proverbial rose, I think it started this year because they were so heavily leaning on Cody Rhodes, and then they let his contract lapse and let him leave. Booking your product so heavily around Cody and Brandi and then letting him cut all those promos and letting him leave without a proper blowoff was terrible. 

I think the ROH acquisition was a mistake. Tony Khan bought ROH without a real plan in place for it. Now, they've made AEW into a co-branded AEW show with ROH matches, and it's not working. It's diluting their product. ROH should've gone dark before they figured out what they were doing. Re-brand the ROH titles into AEW titles. Simple. 

The Battle of the Belts shows have been a disaster. They're one hour. They're taped, and they are treated like complete and total after-thoughts. The numbers reflect that these shows are failures. These are quarterly specials airing on TNT. They air on months when they don't have PPV events. They should be major events and pillars of the AEW calendar.

I have no idea what's happening with MJF. One of the hottest stars and angles in the company, but the lack of development or anything has been troubling. 

AEW is not the hot company anymore. 

When we hear about these backstage drama stories, I'm always skeptical about them because I don't know who is giving the information and what agenda they might have. But to turn backstage drama stories like this as these massive worked shoots is strange to me.

And if Tony Khan can't get this under control, it speaks a lot about his abilities as a captain of this so-called ship.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve been down on AEW since the start of the year, it’s just been way too interference/beatdown heavy, as well as giving too much TV time to guys I don’t enjoy like Adam Cole. Guys who should have got a payoff for all the hard work they’ve put in like Santana and Ortiz and Best Friends seem to be getting skipped over so we can make room for guys like the Trustbusters. Haven’t watched WWE in a long time but Summerslam and the last RAW were way more up my alley production-wise than anything AEW has been putting out lately. Though I thought some matches in Summerslam could have used a little more action or pizzazz, AEW is the opposite, where they need less flashy moves and more moments for things to breathe, especially post match. People say WWE matches all feel the same, but AEW lately feels very samey, especially tag matches where the biggest spot in the match is always the big guy doing a dive last. There was like 4 of those bits on the last PPV. It’s basically a slightly better TNA at this point to me.

  • Like 3
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do we think there's a long-term idea to have Big Show do something other than commentary on Elevation or whatever? Like will he eventually do some squash matches to lead to him losing to Wardlow or something? I know he's old and beat up as f but guy is iconic. Seems like a waste of whatever exorbitant amount they're paying him to limit his use to that one terrible ppv match with QT. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Big Show might be capital W washed at this point, his knees looked to be in awful shape towards the end of his last WWE run (there was a Raw where I cringed watching him walk up the stairs to the ring). You can maybe get a one-off match out of him but I think he's basically down to standing in the middle of the ring and knocking down people who run at him.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, elizium said:

He looked like he was going to collapse in on himself in the QT match, his knees were bowed so badly inward

He did a Dark match in his hometown a few months back and yeah, he can barely move at this point.

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

He said in an interview last month that he was going to come back as his Captain Insano character from The Waterboy for a sort of "one last run"

 

"Captain Insano will be back", Wight said. "The guy who wrote The Waterboy has approved. Tony Khan and I have secured the rights to Captain Insano. There's already an outfit made, the whole nine yards. We're doing a lot of prep work, and this will be my last hoorah so to speak. Let's be honest - I don't think this character is going to be a killer going out there trying to beat Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship," Wight said. "At this point, I think this character is just to have fun. We'll see how it goes, but for me right now, this is just a chance to have fun with this character and be a bright spot on the show. We'll see how I'm feeling and we'll see how everybody takes off with it."

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Called the AEW decline pretty clearly earlier in the year to the chagrin of a few -- seems more & more voices are coming around. As I said at the time, I didn't do it for the larks. Despite running unopposed, I think they have possibly (maybe?) hit 1 m. once since March.

A lot of very bad decision making began to compound on itself. The clear way to go with ROH was obviously to leverage that IP into an invasion angle, considering the number of historic ROH 'greats' they have on the roster. ROH as a standalone has 0 value above that which AEW had already accomplished, and will continue to prove that it has 0 additional value above that which AEW has accomplished. 

It has always been a very ADD-booked product veering wildly between angles being way too short or way too long. However there was always a new dopamine rush waiting around the corner so long as they had the NXT free-agents to plough through and with the Japanese/American indy product to continue to leverage. They've essentially introduced everything "new" that they can at this point, which means the time comes to actually build the foundations. Based on what they've done with talent over the past 12 months, nothing suggests the correct strategic thinking is in place, and given ratings have lost all upward momentum (when was the last time they had a weekly-YOY increase?) it seems to be showing.

 

EDIT: This Jungle Boy/Christian angle is also the absolute worse they could have done for JB. It is shining a light on how embarrassing his mic work is, esp when placed next to arguably an all-time-great mic worker on the other side

Edited by A_K
  • Like 2
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, JLowe said:

I wish Pro Wrestling would move on from Nu-Metal one of these days

Be careful of what you wish for, since it would just mean more Dubstep, give or take a fad or two!

...or Emocore! You may want to retact that wish.

Edited by Shartnado
Oh, no!
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

AEW is bloated af at this point. There's no getting around it. 

Here's the cold truth about Cool Hand and Daddy Magic. I love the fact they they got an opportunity, and I like them. And it was a nice f**k you to the competition. But if they'd never been fully signed I seriously doubt AEW Dynamite would have been a worse show. I'm only singling them out because Khan mentioned them.

I understand why you sign Andrade, why you sign Cole.....but they were not needed. Andrade/Rush vs Private Party is not a feud the world was crying out for. I'm not that convinced people want to see CFO feud with Young/Hung Bucks/Omega.

Why are the Factory involved in the Starks/Hobbs feud? Now I quite like Marshall, and I think Comoroto's new look is funny - but good grief.

I'm bored of Jungle Boy vs Christian before it even began. It will take more than a good match to save it as this point in my mind. It had better be something. Christian remains a questionable signing.

I hope Tony has the guts to make some tough decisions i.e. ship some people off to ROH, and have someone else run it so he can focus on AEW, and principally Dynamite. 

I still tend to think the Punk vs everyone stuff is a work. Punk's pretty content to be a jerk, but that's hardly an unknown quantity. The decision to take the title off Hangman was a mistake, pure and simple. In all honesty, I would reverse it as soon as possible. 

  • Like 3
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, SprintingFromAmerica said:

I still tend to think the Punk vs everyone stuff is a work. Punk's pretty content to be a jerk, but that's hardly an unknown quantity. The decision to take the title off Hangman was a mistake, pure and simple. In all honesty, I would reverse it as soon as possible. 

I think this is when AEW started to go downhill for me.  You invested two years into a storyline to book the new, homegrown champ as an afterthought, then you have him drop it to someone who couldn't be bothered to come in with the company at the beginning(he was asked), and only came in after it was off the ground and successful.  I'd really like to know the validity of the "I'm not losing to Hangman" shit, because if even 10% true, it paints Punk as a veritable cancer for AEW.  I really want that dude to cry and take his ball and go home again.  Outside of the initial "Oh hey he's back" he's done nothing to elevate anyone and is out for himself.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Smaller scale, but I remember when Austin Aries got over and got the belt in TNA/Impact and then they quickly turned him heel and put the belt on a guy who came into a PPV main-event fucked up to high heaven. Yeah Aries is now known to be a douche, but it was a big mistake.

Similarly they never gave James Storm his run. This hurt them big.

I doubt the 'I'm not losing' thing is true, but if it was true...you don't do the match. Absolutely don't do a main-event like that which both sides aren't willing to lose.
 

But I think we're getting the heel turn, and probably Punk/MJF together.

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, A_K said:

Called the AEW decline pretty clearly earlier in the year to the chagrin of a few -- seems more & more voices are coming around. As I said at the time, I didn't do it for the larks. Despite running unopposed, I think they have possibly (maybe?) hit 1 m. once since March.

A lot of very bad decision making began to compound on itself. The clear way to go with ROH was obviously to leverage that IP into an invasion angle, considering the number of historic ROH 'greats' they have on the roster. ROH as a standalone has 0 value above that which AEW had already accomplished, and will continue to prove that it has 0 additional value above that which AEW has accomplished. 

It has always been a very ADD-booked product veering wildly between angles being way too short or way too long. However there was always a new dopamine rush waiting around the corner so long as they had the NXT free-agents to plough through and with the Japanese/American indy product to continue to leverage. They've essentially introduced everything "new" that they can at this point, which means the time comes to actually build the foundations. Based on what they've done with talent over the past 12 months, nothing suggests the correct strategic thinking is in place, and given ratings have lost all upward momentum (when was the last time they had a weekly-YOY increase?) it seems to be showing.

 

EDIT: This Jungle Boy/Christian angle is also the absolute worse they could have done for JB. It is shining a light on how embarrassing his mic work is, esp when placed next to arguably an all-time-great mic worker on the other side

I'm not sure an ROH invasion angle would've worked or made sense. The amount of spotlight ROH continues to get in AEW makes no sense to me. ROH really had little value as a current brand and was largely irrelevant when Tony Khan bought it.

Edited by TheVileOne
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...