Go2Sleep
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Posts posted by Go2Sleep
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That main event tag is just a pure doomsday scenario. We either get the idiot Sting trope or the tag champs who hate each other trope.
I also dislike Title Tuesday having only one title match that's a heatless obvious winner situation. The last Title Tuesday had 3 title matches including Shida getting an upset win over Saraya.
Show looks like dog shit on paper, so it'll probably be awesome it follows AEW ppv trends.
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1 hour ago, colonial said:
AEW doesn't seem to know how to do face turns with some of their talent ...
-- Stat turns face again because ... her mid-life crisis is over?
-- Skye Blue turned face before her injury because ... she bought a really nice cowboy hat?
-- Anna Jay appears to have turned face because ... she visited Japan and had a good time?
-- Bang Bang Gang turned face because ... honestly, I have no clue why.
Other than Skye, I think these are all pretty justifiable. Not every turn needs a WWE-style dramatic moment.
Stat won the blowoff match over Willow to rekindle some of her badass aura. A tweener run where she goes after a heel champ right after makes sense. Only complaint is losing Stokeley because there's no reason he couldn't be part of a tweener run/soft face turn. Instead he's off to scout Private Party to redo the Matt Hardy angle once they inevitably lose to the Bucks? That part sucks.
Skye, yeah, complete inability to improvise once Julia got hurt.
Anna's been off TV for a while and is now coming back with a gimmick of "I'm improving my workrate now," which flies in AEW. Also, Ospreay really showing he gets it giving Anna the rub here.
Bang Bang Gang have been slow-burning a face turn since Jay White went out and Juice came back. They got screwed by the Patriarchy and are now getting terrorized by psycho-Hangman. Jay coming back to save his buddy is pure babyface.
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That triple threat is going to be fire.
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The only way a BCC Higher Power angle could really work played straight is if Regal was coming back.
Shane-O would be a big OMG moment, but tough to imagine any real follow-up that isn't another doomed invasion type angle.
Can't even think of anyone else that would make sense. Wheeler? Omega? TK? Bryan himself trying to do that Pentagon/Vampiro angle from LU S1?
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9 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:
That's right, Okada's first AEW loss* incoming!
*As a full-time AEW roster member in a singles match. Other terms and conditions may apply.
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16 hours ago, tbarrie said:
I don't like saying it, but does anybody else think AEW has "Just Another Guy"ed Okada?
No. He's very protected and still gets the core audience's ears to perk up when he's announced for a match. He could win the title tomorrow and it wouldn't feel out of place. He benefits from everyone knowing that he can turn in a "NJ Okada" performance on demand so he has time to play around with his character work and broaden his appeal to new fans.
There's a difference between getting used to seeing him every week in regular old tv matches (like Omega, Danielson, and Ospreay before him) and him being just another guy. Jay White has gone way farther down that hole than Okada, and Jay could still be rehabbed easily.
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Nigel/Dragon was ok. Kinda like your favorite 90s band playing their hits. Kind of disappointing that they didn't do a more inspired story reflecting where both guys are at in their careers, but I guess if it's a check off Nigel's bucket list, then good for him.
Hook/Roddy was decent. Glad to see Hook not look like a chump and ending the FTW title is a great call with Hook and Tazz finally getting a real on-screen moment together.
I thought the tag match was a lot of fun. That was easily the Bucks' most inspired performance since the Sting retirement match. Felt like they were excited to go full speed for the first time in a while and you couldn't have two better dance partners.
MVP was a legit surprise and a great segment.
Women's match was there. I don't see what anyone sees in Yuka. She's Riho but taking the "child-like" aspects to even creepier levels and has terrible looking offense both in concept and execution. Mariah isn't "carry dead weight" level, so she didn't look great here either. Good to see Willow and Mina getting involved to give Mariah more to work with.
Main event was good. I'm digging the Mox as a cross of a jacked-up Lars from the first Futurama movie and Anton Chigurh. Darby is a perfect first opponent for revamped Mox, in the same way Foley was a good first opponent for Kane. Use your bumping to make him look as dangerous as possible. Danielson using the tie was a nice touch. Hopefully the crowd in Tacoma is up to the task, because that match could be special.
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The tag division has booking issues due to the Bucks not doing anything with the belts, but the division is probably the deepest it's ever been.
Bucks, FTR, Acclaimed, GYV, BCC, HOB, Outrunners, MXM, Top Flight, Kingdom, potentially Aussie Open, various Conglomeration and Callis Family combos... If nothing else, Tony could fall back on the good old 16 team tournament, or the old All Japan style tag league.
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As stupid as it would be, I would even take Ospreay/Fletcher winning the belts, then Callis forcing Will to give up his belt to Takeshita or a returning Davis. Anything to get the belts onto a team with heat.
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The Daddy Ass/Scissor stuff was mega over and moved a lot of merch so I get it, but their trios title win was an absolute waste that led to them coasting as a comedy group for nearly a year. They tried to reboot them as a serious team this summer, and in fairness they did well in Blood and Guts, but they quickly lost all their momentum with the BS non-finishes against Bucks and FTR then losing at All In.
Also Max Caster calling himself the best wrestler alive in a company where he's in the bottom 10% is deranged heel shit from a supposed babyface and completely undercuts the group dynamic.
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So if Rampage is disappearing soon, what would the ideal send-off matches be? Inuries get in the way of what I think would be the most Rampage-y matches like Butcher and Blade vs. The Outrunners and Skye vs. Nyla on the women's side.
There's the actually good route where you run Hayter vs. Saraya in a vintage Rampage women's hardcore match. There's the comedy route where someone like Bryan Keith wins a battle royal for a title shot "on the next episode of Rampage." In some ways, though, I feel like Rampage would be best embodied with something like GYV going over the Von Erich grandkids in a no-heat, no-doubt match in Fort Wayne Indiana, then never speaking of the show again.
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Pretty sure Christian's not-MITB contract is just a vehicle for Luchasaurus to turn on him during the cash-in.
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1 minute ago, odessasteps said:
That makes me wonder if part of NXT/developmental should be about teaching people about the out of the ring stuff in the business, like how some sports teams do in the minor leagues. I know one of the things JC did in OVW was to try and teach young guys about money management (ie pay your taxes) and record keeping.
Should, yeah, but WWE developmental has always been a re-education camp designed to create total loyalty to and dependency on WWE. Even guys from the outside like Joe and Nigel aren't fully de-programmed, but that could be WWE announcing taking that brainwashing to another level.
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Someone needs to .gif that Mox no-sell of Zay jumping him. That was hilarious, although I don't know why they had to do Private Party dirty like that booking wise. Letting them lose next week while the Yuta story takes shape would've been just fine.
Mark Davis coming back soon looks like a safe bet with all the United Empire references and dusting off the Coriolis.
Ricochet/Ospreay is a great choice for the 5 year anniversary main.
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That's probably for the best. Rampage needs to complete its transformation back to Dark/Elevation and go on Youtube.
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1 hour ago, Casey said:
Why get behind Ricky when you have literally anyone else on the roster (I kid, but I really just don’t get the appeal).
Ricky's role has really been taken by Okada of all people. Cool, funny heel who can back it up in the ring. I mean, it's not really fair because of the resume Okada brought with him, but I'm impressed with Okada's dedication to trying the American style and it's paying off for him big time.
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7 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:
There's too many first run products right now. With not enough differentiation on them. So what should we do? Add another show on the pile!
Things need restructured in a bad way. I still contend that's the main contributing factor to Dynamite ratings being down. Product fatigue. Collision & Rampage & Battle of the Belts & ROH. And potentially another Fox show. It's too much and watering everything down.
Turner should've learned this lesson with 26 years ago with Thunder. They have not, plus I'm sure WWE running 2 weeklies for 25 years (20 or so of which they were the only game in town) broke some brains.
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49 minutes ago, Zimbra said:
I would love to know whose idea it was to do a loose change angle on 9/11. Jericho feels like the obvious answer but I could see Briscoe having a pretty rough youtube history.
OMFG, I actually hope that was intentional because that's god damn brilliant. Normally, I'd say no way they did such a thing on purpose, but then I remember that time Cole and Hangman did a barbed wire crown of thorns spot as a street fight finish on Good Friday, so there might actually be something there. If it was, I would think it was done as a rib on Jericho, though.
3 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:I got the feeling that they'll play Final Countdown and he won't show. Nigel will crow about it for a while and boom, you have your Wrestledream main.
It would be a hell of a flex for TK to pay the Final Countdown fee for a no-show, but uh, that's not happening. Not sure what to make of all the late changes to Grand Slam. Seems panicky, but maybe there's a real reason.
Underrated moment of the show was Hangman still being unfulfilled and even more deranged with Jarrett playing the wise old master. Great stuff from everyone, including the extras emphasizing how far a once-respected locker room leader has fallen.
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If you were trying to inject something, you'd stick it in someones arm (or neck for TV shock purposes). I thought the needle spot was fine. It was something new for mainstream and got the right crowd reaction. I think everyone has bitten the inside of their cheek at some point and knows that getting a needle jammed there would hurt like hell, regardless of whether or not its preferable to being power bombed on a cinder block. That finish of the match called for something fresh, so the needle gets the shock value and the chair shot to the head right after got the ref to finally say enough was enough.
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On 9/5/2024 at 10:35 AM, HarryArchieGus said:
I took it as Danielson evading the questions with non-answers. Not unlike TK doing press. His answer for the question about Pac could read as the BCC are coming to an end: 'he would have been a great choice for the BCC' (or something like that). I don't think he knows what's up with Moxley, and I think it'll become clear before his full time career is over and done with.
Ok I have to admit, everyone conspiring behind his back to murder him is a perfectly good explanation for why he didn't know anything.
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15 minutes ago, Gordi the recovering AEW f said:
This is maybe more JUST me but I might as well get it off my chest here:
In particular, I LOVED that AEW used to be all about good guys being friends and having each others' backs and I mourn to see that they have shifted entirely to stale WWE "strong men stand alone" and "your friends will always betray you in the end" trope booking. I LOVED the loose hang-out feel of the TV shows with the commentators just kind of being themselves. But, nope. Can't use pronouns. Need to have bullshit heel commentators... They really had something special going, a chance to "change 'the business' for the better" but nope. Have to do it the way it's always been done. Breaks my heart. "Because that's how it has always been done" is the WORST reason to do something.
I disagree with your assessment of the show, but I totally agree with this general sentiment. AEW has adopted a lot of WWE-ish tendencies over the past year. Don't know if it's the network, the ex-WWE production hires, or what, but you hate to see it.
I will say this show wasn't an example of that, though. WWE hasn't had the balls to try anything like the last hour of this show for 20 years. While I don't like the BCC turn conceptually, it was executed magnificently. They cut off the MITB trope, and Danielson's sell of Claudio's uppercut was beautiful. Total shock and he knew what was coming, but then he didn't actually know what was coming. The plastic bag was a grotesque visual and a fitting escalation of Mox's new character. Only nitpick is I didn't like Wheeler getting held back by Pac so easily. Claudio would've made more sense there. Tying in with your point, though, this angle does need to dodge the "tag champs who hate each other" landmine AEW has avoided so far.
The cage match was designed to be uncomfortable and it worked. Whether or not it was a good idea is up for debate, but I applaud them for trying something different. The only thing in WWE that could remotely compare would be some of Foley's matches (Taker HIAC, Rock I quit). The whole story of the match was that there would be no winner, just one survivor who would have to abandon any shred of humanity. Even Swerve's big spots weren't really things that made you feel good about them happening. The vertebreaker on the cinder block, stabbing with piece of the house then crying over it, etc. Nothing truly cathartic before Hanger went full psycho. The whole feud has been kind of outside the usual face/heel dynamic and telling the story of both guys dragging each other to hell, physically and mentally while everyone looks on in abject horror. In that sense, the match was executed perfectly.
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I dig the Outrunners making the most of their jobber gimmick and getting an expanded role. Celebrating a huge win over 2 local jobbers and immediately getting bludgeoned by Mox was very on brand.
While I'm kinda over all the "serious" teams at the top of the division (even GYV), the bottom half with Outrunners, MXM, Livin' the gimmick Top Flight, Private Party, etc is a lot of fun right now. I wouldn't mind Taven and Bennett getting thrown into that mix since they're at their best as stooging heels.
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The show-ending angle was obvious, but executed perfectly. Unhinged Hangman actually having a peaceful moment knowing that he finally one-upped Swerve was some top-tier character work.
BCC/Conglomeration + Will was a fun match, but I wished they had prepped Danielson for some of the obvious questions he'd get on commentary. He's the leader of BCC, why wouldn't he know Pac's status within the group? Why would he not have any insight on Mox, even if that insight is "he's gone AWOL for a couple months, I'm worried about him."
Kyle Fletcher has to be this year's most improved by a lot (fitting I thought the same about Skye last year). Everything about him screams main event and he's carried his weight in matches with Swerve, Ospreay, and now Okada this year. Loved the finishing stretch where Kyle was always ready for rainmaker, so Okada tricked him with the cock-knocker instead.
Side note that I feel for Jamie Hayter having to come up with a new finisher now, but her arm-trap lariat looks great. I'm all for being gaslit that it was always the Hayter-ade.
Garcia cut a nice promo, but as per usual with MJF segments, the right moments didn't get to breathe. Then the level of hate in Hangman/Swerve made it look like these two were fighting over a parking space anyway.
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13 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:
I don't remember that Cope/Starks confrontation being 'worst' notable. I didn't see much of Copeland post 2003 to the end of his last WWE run. What did he do to garner a nomination for 'all-time stiff Promo'? I saw or heard enough of his WWE return talk segments/monologues to know he was an all-time drip on the mic. Is that what you meant? It's amazing to me how good he's been since getting away from WWE Scripts in AEW. Like many here, I've loved this late career Elite run.
I meant a stiff promo similar to being a stiff worker. He's not necessarily trying to hurt guys on the mic, but he wants it to look good and his quick wit and way with words can be pretty rough for guys who can't keep up. The Rock is probably the king of stiff promos, but guys like HHH, Shawn, and Cena would fall into that category too. When those guys are verbally sparring with someone one their level, it's like the Kobashi/Sasaki chop exchange, but when it's someone who isn't, it's like Vader vs. a local guy on Saturday Night.
AEW TV - 10/8 - 10/15/2024 - emI Can Dream About You
in ALL ELITE WRESTLING
Posted
AEW is having problems building "the guy" right now. Babyface MJF getting hurt was bad luck, but he shouldn't have turned back heel. I know some people here dug the Joe run, but that was the epitome of a placeholder champ and it caused them to miss Swerve by a beat. Swerve ended up having a solid run, but an earlier win could've let them move to Ospreay sooner. Speaking of, Ospreay is extremely obviously "that guy" but they have him floundering in the midcard, while Danielson and Mox (who are basically old guard guys at this point) are fighting at the top.
Ospreay, Hangman, MJF, and Swerve are the real 4 pillars and should be the ones at the top of the card right now. Mox and Danielson could do the exact same angle over a secondary belt with the idea to cycle Mox into the upper echelon for a bit, along Okada/Garcia/Takeshita/Jay getting turns at some point. AEW used to be good striking while the iron was hot, but they've been a step slow since all the Punk drama.