Go2Sleep
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Posts posted by Go2Sleep
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5 hours ago, Log said:
I was recently thinking how most tag teams nowadays are shooting for Midnight Express or RnR Express, but where are the Road Warriors or Skyscrapers of today? We need to have more teams of big dudes/gals just wrecking fools.
Malakai/Brody could definitely be the modern version of this in AEW. Gates of Agony job too much but they could probably be heated back up.
Thought they had something going with Bill and (Brian) Cage before they abruptly dropped that for the Bill/Starks team.
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The Acclaimed have a nice role as the NAO of AEW, but I can never see them being more than that. Entrance always pops the crowd, competent enough, but never gonna out-shine the top guys in the ring.
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I'm glad Kevin Kelly is gone. He was useless in AEW. I kinda hope they do a rotating third announcer like they used to do for Rampage. Menard has been killing it in his test runs. Paul Wight has been decent in his appearances and is sharp enough to not get pushed around by Nigel. Riccabonni is always competent. I'm sure Taz could handle one extra show a month. Hell, throw RJ City in there once and see what happens.
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Good lord, they're actually gonna make me like the heel authority figures aren't they? Okada as the Bucks' muscle, plus Matt using Eddie's money to do his own rain-maker thing (and also making sure to recover every last bill), and the Cody entrance... I also love the decision to bring Okada in as a heel. Not every big debut can or should get the huge babyface push. Reminds me of Cole debuting as a heel right before Danielson. The long game is obviously Omega/Okada with a Sting/Hogan build and, uh, that's gonna be pretty great.
The rush-job on Joe/Wardlow gives me hope Swerve will be getting his belt soon.
Kris Statlander is real good, yall. She beat the brakes off Riho yet still made the loss convincing.
Will Ospreay is HIM. Basically turning the clock back 10 years on Kenny Omega. He's gonna be a perfect ace for AEW.
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I wanna see Brody/Malakai get a run with the straps. Seems like the perfect monster heel team for the rest of the division to bounce off.
Feels like it should be pretty easy to get 16 teams in for a serious tourney. HOB, FTR, BCC, Top Flight, Bucks, Kingdom, Best Friends, Patriarchy, Callis Family, Planet Jarrett, Hardys, Private Party, 2.0, LFI, Mogul Embassy, Abrahantes Family. That's 16 of just people on TV most weeks. You dig into the jobber ranks, throw some randos together, and snatch some established teams from Impact/NJ/CMLL and you could probably do 32.
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They already pretty much gave up on Jungle Boy, so it shouldn't be too hard. I don't think this particular botch was Sammy's fault, but I do agree he's midcard for life regardless.
They've got a new load-bearing Swerve and Ospreay they can keep the roof up with.
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The only thing I didn't like about the show was not pulling the trigger on Swerve. You just gotta give guys their moment when it's hot. Joe has no value as a long-term champion, heel Hangman can do a million other things besides keep going after Swerve, and it's kinda obvious Will Ospreay is the next big thing so they're in danger of missing the boat entirely on Swerve if they don't get him that belt by Dynasty at the latest. It feels like Kenny passed the torch to Will at Forbidden Door last year as the guy who embodies what AEW is going for as a company, and Will taking down the belt at All In (no matter who has it) is a bit of a foregone conclusion.
I really liked Takeshita/Ospreay, and the Sting sendoff was a fitting spectacle. Got a good laugh out of Sting not giving a single fuck about the TV cues at the end. For all the big names they brought out for the event, Scotty Riggs got the biggest pop in our watch party. I could do "remember this guy" with mid 90s WCW midcarders/jobbers all day.
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Why? Unless there was something we didn't see or info that came out after the fact, it looked like an unfortunate botch where someone got hurt. Definitely not a deliberate attempt to injure or working negligently. I don't see anything either guy could've done to make that spot safer other than not doing it. The only thing I can think of is that Jeff didn't call for the GTH when they went home early, so if Sammy made that call by himself, yeah that would be pretty negligent.
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I'm sure in Taya's case she just didn't want to sign over her naming rights to WWE, and happily smashed the NXT random name generator button.
It's also kinda funny that Sasha took the Mone
tname to another company not long after.-
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Rampage was probably the dullest one ever, but Collision was a solid go-home show. Loved Mark Briscoe getting some shine against HOB and the chaotic brawl after the 8-man. I feel like they could've thrown some more people in to the Scramble segment instead of letting Jericho and Wardlow take all the time.
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On 2/28/2024 at 10:16 PM, JLowe said:
If you had Stat-Skye Blue as your MOTN going in, then go ahead and buy a lottery ticket.
On this show, this bet would've been like +180 at worst. Trios would probably be the favorite given the names, but those 6 tend to benefit from smaller matches where they can really milk the one on one time, plus it was more of a setup match. Stat is the AEW women's workhorse, Skye was last year's most improved and they had every reason to go hard since their PPV ceiling is probably a pre-show tag. Stat also makes the Code Blue look killer every time. Outside of that, you know OC isn't going all out against Nick Wayne, Jericho ain't getting anything special out of Atlantis Jr, then a bunch of promo segments.
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If Swerve is winning, I'd put that on last. Swerve is over enough that he'll have the crowd back and you really don't want your first black world champ getting pushed down the card as an afterthought to a white man's retirement.
I get it, Sting's a legend, and AEW is fortunate to feature his official retirement tour, but I've always been of the mind that the current stars get main event preference over retirees. Going on last helps Swerve's presentation a lot, and it does nothing for Sting since he won't be on any more shows. I'd put this match in the middle of the show. Give it some time to breathe after with all the crowd respect, run a couple backstage segments, then have Meat Madness as the next match because they'll get the crowd back with power spots and meat chants.
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They're basically the same characters as HHH and Stephanie during the Yes Movement.
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Deonna is playing the straight woman for Toni to bounce her wackiness off of. The feud has been pretty well done for the most part, I think the Madison Rayne stinker is just too fresh in people's minds. It highlights why Toni was incredibly smart to develop this gimmick, though, because it gives her a way to make her matches stand out even against people who can't keep up with workrate Toni Storm in the ring. I suspect Toni and Deonna will have a really good match at Revolution before they go their separate ways.
I agree long-term that Deonna will be better off going full heel, and I eagerly await the Mariah/Toni feud where they take "underling finally snaps" trope and turn it upside down with the boss character ending up as the sympathetic face while the underling is portrayed as a Mark David Chapman/Yolanda Salvidar type.
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Thought Keith/Malakai was good, they got pretty creative with their strike sequences. Also nice that they threw Keith a bone on Rampage, even if it's right back to "close but not quite" jobs on Collision for him.
Good to see Hobbs get a real win, and the main was a solid Danielson carry though not a bad effort by old man Akiyama.
Caster having a "mom's spaghetti" moment needs to be turned into an angle if it wasn't one. That was very weird.
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On 2/23/2024 at 12:52 PM, The Natural said:
Wrestling Observer 2023 Awards. C&P from elsewhere.
WON 2023 Best Non Wrestler:. DON CALLIS
WON 2023 Most Improved: JULIA HART
WON 2023 Most Underrated: CHAD GABLE
WON 2023 Rookie Of The Year: YUMA ANZAI
WON 2023 Europe MVP: WILL OSPREAY
WON 2023 Mexico MVP: MISTICO
WON 2023 Japan MVP: WILL OSPREAY
WON 2023 US/Canada MVP: CODY RHODES
WON 2023 Hodge Award/Non-Heavyweight MVP: EL HIJO DEL
VIKINGO
WON 2023 Best Flying Wrestler: EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO
WON 2023 Bruiser Brody Memorial/Best Brawler Award: JON
MOXLEY
WON 2023 Bryan Danielson/Best Technical Wrestler Award:
BRYAN DANIELSON
WON 2023 Most Outstanding Wrestler: WILL OSPREAY
WON 2023 Best On Interviews: EDDIE KINGSTON
WON 2023 Best Weekly TV Show: AEW DYNAMITE
WON 2023 Womens Wrestling MVP: RHEA RIPLEY
WON 2023 Promoter Of The Year: NICK KHAN
WON 2023 Feud Of The Year: SAMI ZAYN & KEVIN OWENS VS.
BLOODLINE
WON 2023 Best Major Wrestling Show: AEW REVOLUTION 3/5 SAN
FRANCISCO
WON 2023 Match Of The Year: KENNY OMEGA VS. WILL OSPREAY 1/4
WRESTLE KINGDOM TOKYO
WON 2023 Tag Team Of The Year: FTRWON 2023 Promotion Of The Year: WWE
WON 2023 Best Booker: PAUL LEVESQUE
WON 2023 Wrestler Of The Year: WILL OSPREAY---
Biggest takeaway is WWE wins Promotion of the Year, Triple H Booker of the Year and Nick Khan the Promoter of the Year. Keep Tony Khan from Twitter.
So AEW got the top 2 weekly shows, best ppv, most charismatic, best technical, best brawler, best flyer, best non-wrestler, best announcer, most improved, best gimmick, featured/signed the best overall, and the promotion of the year is... WWE?
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I hope everything is ok in Hangman's life and he has whatever support he needs, but from a storytelling perspective, Hangman Frank-Grimes-ing his way out of the title match is a pretty logical wrap-up. I can break into someone's house and everyone will still cheer me because I'm Swerve Strickland. If he was gonna do the fake leg injury, doing it by failing on a cinder block stomp would've been the way to go, though. It's time to strap up Swerve anyway, and going back to the Hangman well so soon has been a drag on his ascent. Joe talks the talk as a champion, but AEW needs 2005 Joe at the top, not 2024 Joe. The Sting spectacle gives the ppv enough juice that they don't need to push Joe into working a longer match. A good 10-minute sprint with Swerve working face and winning clean will be just fine.
Speaking of Frank Grimes, though, Wardlow airing all of his very legitimate grievances with his booking only to have Excalibur announce that he will be in a match called "Meat Mayhem" right after was good stuff.
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2 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:
I'm with you on 'Team No Heel Authority Figure', but the Jacksons gimmick doesn't quite feel a part of that trope for me. Not yet at least. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the endgame is they actually have no power of authority.
Maybe, but the stuff on Wednesday didn't feel like that. You had Darby talking about their hiring power, them bullying an announcer, and another announcer kissing their asses to gain favor. The last two could be subverted I guess, but it's right out of the attitude era playbook.
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I think the Bucks are doing a decent job with the gimmick, but I really hope Sting and Darby send them packing in a couple weeks because the heel authority figure trope is one I've been glad to not see in AEW.
Also, I must know if either Saraya or Harley is a 90s Simpsons nerd or, if not, what their reaction was when that promo was pitched.
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I think the big knock on Taven and Bennett is that their presentation is usually pretty dull, not that they're bad in the ring. They remind me of ReDragon, except they aren't quite at the level where they can pull off a "wrestling speaks for itself" gimmick. Still, Taven's definitely the KOR of the team who has a much higher singles ceiling and is generally underrated. I appreciated that the graphics department found a suitably psychotic looking picture of him for this match and he was a great choice for a TV main with OC who always delivers. Both guys and the story were elevated here, really pro work from everyone.
Hangman using Dril tweets as promo material got a real lol from me.
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Multiverse of March Madness
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1 hour ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:
I almost wonder if the new Bucks will tone down the high flying stuff to be even bigger heels. Try and ground Top Flight .
The handspring back rakes and what not was some of their best stuff.
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3 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:
Let's get this strraight - Daniel Garcia, in-ring technician, strong promo, rising star, full of potential, but let's make him a loveable jobber? Akin to the Dark Order? I think I'd prefer charismatic Menard slowly morphing into Heenan, and Garcia as his championship caliber Bockwinkel.
12 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:So can I just say how much I love that AEW takes managerial pairings that look like their going to lead to all the same old heel turn tropes, then turn them into charming and logical babyface pairings instead? Menard/Garcia and now Stokely with Willow and Stat.
I'd like to see Menard, Parker, and Garcia fill a "Best Friends" role where Menard and Parker are mostly lovable jobbers, but every once in a while they bring in their big gun who gives them a chance against higher ranked guys. They did this with Hangman in the Dark Order too and it works really well for the way AEW likes to book their weekly shows. You can also bring Ruby into the fold and she can finally win the Owen with the power of love and friendship.
AEW - MARCH 2024
in ALL ELITE WRESTLING
Posted
He beat Okada and ZSJ last year (yeah he gave the wins back in NJ, but still got the first one when it was a "dream" match), and recently Hechicero as well.
I like Bowens, but I just don't see it. He's fine in the ring, but you put him next to Ospreay, Swerve, MJF... Even guys farther down the card like Garcia and Buddy... He's just not at that level. AEW's roster is so absurdly stacked, there's gonna be a ton of guys better than Bowens who never sniff the world title.