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Bryan

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Posts posted by Bryan

  1. 1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:

    The ‘WWE Dynamite’ sell would be a shitty thing to fire somebody over if it was a first offence.  But is a cherry on top good reason  for somebody who has had 20 plus months of countless flubs and a salty unprofessional attitude towards the product.  It’s really incredible how selfish he’s been with his angry demeanour.  Seems clear from his announcing and his angry pod that Jim is suffering from the hand that life has dealt him.  He needs to put in some work to heal these wounds and one wonders if being a commentator/podcaster  in 2021 isn’t a hindrance more than a help.

    Further, calling JR or anybody a racist over comparisons to other wrestlers is the kind of divisive and inconsiderate behaviour that makes things that much worse.  That said, his comparisons have become a calling card for him that nobody seems to be digging.  

    If Tony Khan didn’t fire Joey Janela for being dangerous to work with (and looking physically pathetic), busting open and coming dangerously close to potentially injuring one of his top baby faces that he’s been grooming for the top spot since the beginning, right before a ppv; expecting him to fire JR for flubbing a line just seems like wishful thinking by his haters.

    • Like 1
  2. 3 hours ago, John E. Dynamite said:

    There's such a fine line when it comes to these comparisons and unfortunately it takes a lot of knowledge and context to understand what JR tries to get at. This is why I discuss wrestling on DVDVR and not Twitter and Reddit.

    Gino Hernandez and Sammy Guevara - Two preening prettyboy heat magnets from Texas, Gino from the Dallas area, Sammy from in Houston. Both are half-Latino. I don't think I've ever heard either speak Spanish. Both started wrestling around 17 or 18 and were understood to be prodigious. The only footage of Gino Hernandez is where he is 28 years or younger. Sammy turns 28 this month. It is a completely fair comparison. I would make it in a heartbeat if I were in JR's position, especially since enough of the AEW audience has watched Dark Side of the Ring. I wouldn't list off all those points, but I'd expect somebody to get what I mean.

    On the matter of JR's other comparisons, do people ever take into consideration where JR used to work? He can't really compare people to WWE talent, so he goes back to his Crockett and Mid South days. On "The Brainbuster Scandal"; JR called/reffed/watched way more Dick Murdoch matches than Koko B. Ware - yes, Koko had a run with Watts in '86 but outside of that was entirely with Memphis or WWF. Murdoch was a Tri-State and MSW fixture. Also, Killer Karl Kox "invented" the brainbuster and taught it to Murdoch. I get that JR dropping the wrong names lacked some tact, but Jesus, some of these so-called flubs make complete sense.

    Wow, that’s a lot of good information I didn’t know, thanks for sharing!

    And bolsters my view that a portion of the AEW audience actively seeks out things to get upset by when it comes to JR.

  3. 6 minutes ago, sabremike said:

    Excalibur used that term because it was an angle that a black wrestler (Human Tornado) came up with and that was part of it. 

     

    8 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

    That’s not a very good take.  Excalibur said it as part of a stupid promo 15+ years ago in front of 50 people, was encouraged to say it by the black wrestler he was in a program with, and immediately regretted it.  JR just last night compared two very different wrestlers whose only common trait is their Hispanic descent and, as mentioned, put over Hobbs with a “he speaks so well!” 20+ years after Chris Rock called attention to that shit in his act.   I’m not saying the dude wears hoods on weekends like his old pal Dick  Murdoch, but I am saying he’s got that low key racism of so many guys of his age and geographic demo.

    He said it, a black wrestler telling him to do it doesn’t make it okay. A white person that grows up in a mostly black neighborhood that gets a pass there will still be canceled if they say it outside that community.

    I’ve never seen Gino Hernandez wrestle or cut a promo, and if you have, I guarantee you’ve seen less of him or any other obscure references JR makes. So the connection that it sparked in his head could be personality or something else.

    And again, JR making an outdated comparison to modern wrestlers of the same ethnicity is no where as bad as Excalibur using the n word.

    BTW, if Excalibur actually was remorseful after he said it, then he knew it was wrong when he did it. But he still said it.

  4. 54 minutes ago, punkenhead said:

    Not saying JR is racist, and the Hobbs/Butch Reed comparison is fine and valid; but JR referred to Hobbs on a Dynamite past as "quite articulate". As someone who has lived in the South my entire life, I recognize that as a low key racist comment predicated on the fallacious notion that blacks are generally inferior to whites, and it is surprising when a black person is capable of speaking adroitly. So, JR is either low key racist or a product of his times. The Guevara/Hernandez comparison is a head scratcher, certainly. Either way, to me, renewing his contract is not good business; however, Tony Khan is a freaking saint and an old school fan, so he will keep JR around until the wheels come completely off. 

    The current President referred to Barack Obama in the same way (though he also added clean, IIRC) so I’m not sure how offensive that is really.

    And while you could assign racist overtones to it, you could also say that Hobbs is a large hulk of a man that makes angry/scary facial expressions in the ring which creates stereotypes in people’s minds regardless of race, so by saying that JR was trying to convey that he’s not a meat head but a person with some depth.

     

    • Like 1
  5. The JR is a racist stuff is racist for making old school comparisons to wrestlers of the same ethnicity is ridiculous.

    Especially, since of the three Dynamite announcers the one that said the “n word” on camera in a wrestling promotion is not JR (or Tony).

    So if you’re not also pounding the table for Excalibur to be fired for his past racist actions, you can miss me with the JR is racist for comparing Hobbs to Butch Reed stuff.

    JR flubbing the line was bad and unfortunate but the way a portion of the AEW fan base actively looks for any mistake he makes to attack him for is obnoxious and toxic.

    Believe it or not, JR is not the only announcer in AEW (or in commentating) to make mistakes. One of the amusing parts I’ve noticed when I’ve watched Dark is Taz or Excalibur flubbing something and then them making fun of each other.

  6. 9 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

     

    The difference is it's not a legitimate sport and when JR is talking about how guys need to put on mass, he's most likely talking about getting on steroids.  I don't think that's a harsh thing to infer, since he spent years doing just that for Vince. 

    This is not MMA, and getting bigger for wrestling means something entirely different.  There is no performance gain, in kayfabe, that Ethan Page would realize if he had bigger pecs or sculpted shoulders. 

    It’s not a legitimate sport but the beauty of wrestling is when you invest in it and forget about it when you’re watching. You can’t do that if they don’t treat it seriously.

    And AEW treats its product like it’s a legitimate sport, they rank the wrestlers based on the quality of their wins and losses (and people don’t win matches via hypnosis), so the announcers should treat it seriously too. 
     

    JR complimenting a guy and saying he has the frame to be bigger is not handing the guy a needle. And AEW apparently doesn’t actually drug test, so anybody could be on anything anyway. Considering how almost everyone in the UFC got smaller post USADA, we’d probably be surprised how many people were using stuff.

    • Like 2
  7. 59 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

    Well, JR spent his entire adult life as a talent evaluator / scout in pro-wrestling. It's in his blood. It's not like Ethan Page is Dynamite Kid or Eddie Guerrero where that extra 20# of muscle ruined him. Every sport does the same thing. 

    Yeah, especially combat sports like MMA. You would hear speculation about how Jon Jones had the frame to fight heavyweight or how guys should move up or cut weight depending on their performances.

    I don’t understand hating on JR for this (other than just hating JR to JR) he’s just treating it like a legitimate sport. If it was a legitimate sport Page would want to get to the top and the analysts theorize on what he needed to do to get there. Him adding some size would actually improve his presentation and compliment his in ring style even more, so it’s not like it was unreasonable either.

    And the Young Bucks don’t need to get bigger, they need to get leaner (especially Nick). And ironically, the average viewer would think that they had gotten bigger if they did that too.

    Edit: It looks like Jungle Boy got his big win after all. Has to be the people’s champion now, certainly mine.

  8. On 6/20/2021 at 4:10 PM, Casey said:

    It's weird that people still complain about Marko Stunt, since he's basically a glorified mascot for the Jurassic Express at this point, hasn't won a meaningful match in WELL over a fucking year - and when he does win a match, it's usually in tag matches, and going over either enhancement talent, or people nobody cares about like Cutler, Luther, etc. I don't even really care for Stunt in the ring, but it's such low hanging fruit that complaints about him seem really dumb at this point, especially with how they're using him. It'd be one thing if he was the one challenging Kenny Omega in two weeks for the title, but instead he's getting wins on Dark over indie dudes or getting squashed by bigger guys/people they want to push.

    I mean, really, without going back to watch it, can you tell me how much offense he got in against Santana, Ortiz and Guevara in their six man tag over a year ago? No? Then who cares about how realistic it looks when he gets offense in against someone, since nobody is going to remember shit like that in a few weeks (much less a year plus later).

    Also the MMA thing sucked and Cassidy/Bononi was way better. Even though they committed the cardinal sin of Jim Ross' idea of wrestling, where they do dives to the outside and everyone waits around (oh no).

    I can recall Stunt kicking out of Penta’s  package pile driver, and I only brought him up because him wrestling is the fakest thing I’ve seen in wrestling.

    And in the context that people were criticizing the worked MMA match for not looking real enough but are okay with other incredibly fake things. Including the Orange Cassidy catapult into the waiting arms of the jobbers that took forever to perform.

    It’s just weird to me and kind of funny that people can shit on a worked MMA fight for not looking real enough and then in the same breath defend a comically contrived dive spot in which everyone is clearly cooperating with each other just to perform the spot.

  9. 20 hours ago, Kev said:

    I thought the opener was fine as a novelty, like Hager getting the win in his environment. Generally liked the chaotic post-match, although the Sammy run-in, complete with theme song, was a bit off. I like the subtle teases of Wardlow as ‘actually a decent dude’ for when the inevitable face turn comes.

    Handicap was good and, again, nice logical booking, although like everyone else I’m wondering what’s the next step here, I suppose that’s a good thing though.

    OC vs. Bononi was fun. Perfect wrestling as variety show stuff. I can’t really put my finger on what it is, but Statlander has added something to the Best Friends act, and they continue to be the most likeable thing in AEW for me.

    I quite liked the goofy Kenny segment in the moment, but it feels misplaced for the heel world champ. See Miro for someone who can say goofy shit while still coming off totally legit as a character, but Kenny feels like he’s role-playing 80s comedy villain.

    Hardy’s act just comes off very minor league to me, just not believable. Bunny is dreadful also. In theory, I like that they’re playing off their history with this little feud for Christian, but Hardy is someone I don’t think offers much anymore (at least on screen).

    Thought Brock looked decent enough, that whole thing was fine, nothing  more to really say on it.

    I hope the Andrade interview being solo signifies more of a loose association with Vickie (e.g. she doesn’t actually appear with him). Not keen on them teasing another surprise, just let the surprise be a surprise.

    Hart is very green but thought that match was solid. It probably shouldn’t be significant but I appreciate the simplicity of them booking the more experienced wrestlers to have advantages over the rookies so there’s a clear hierarchy being built.

    Nothing about this Nyla Brit setup is working for me. Transitioning Brit into a tweener role also feels increasingly like it could be a misstep. If your unlikeable heel is your most over face then you need better face characters.

    If Penta isn’t going to be heel then they should really ditch Abrahantes.

    With the new gimmick and him going for a grizzled vet, mercenary thing, Kazarian could do with dropping some of his more high-flying and convoluted stuff. He’s a weird one for me in that he always hits his ‘athletic spots’ perfectly well, but for some reason they never actually look good. I kind of feel the same way about Nick Jackson. Is it just me or is this a thing? I’d use something like ‘forced/false athleticism’ to describe it.

    Abrahantes is the best part out of the Pentagon character outside the ring, imo. 

    I agree with pretty much agree with everything else you said.

    The criticism of the “MMA” match not looking realistic enough is amusing to me. Since on this same show everyone waited outside the ring to catch Orange Cassidy while the Best Friends took a good minute to get him up. Literally everyone could have gotten into the ring to stop it. Talk about unrealistic. Never mind this promotions fans take 90lb Marko Stunt seriously as a wrestler.

    I guess people have so much more respect for MMA than pro wrestling that they have higher standards for worked MMA matches?

    The striking sucked but the striking sucks in all pretty much all American modern wrestling matches these days.

    But I liked the finish and thought they did a pretty good job of making Wardlow look strong in a losing effort. Also, they way he inserted wrestling moves in the match was pretty good. I was pretty impressed with him running into that hurricanranna. If that was a real move you could perform on someone without their cooperation, I think that would be how it would work.
     

     

    • Like 1
  10. 2 hours ago, Technico Support said:

     

    They consistently get good babyface reactions and are a genuine feel-good story.  They're booked as friends and they watch out for other babyfaces.  That's awesome.  Why get rid of that?  Would any of them be better off on their own without the group?  How would Miro "end" the Dark Order anyway?  Does he murder them?   Does he put up his wife in a series of "loser breaks up with somebody" matches? 

    How they could end is laid out in the post I responded to.

    You’re reaction is why you’d do it, you take away something fans like to get the heel massive heat.

    And they do get a good reaction for now but I’m not sure how long that lasts since some of it is probably related to sympathy. 

    And there gimmick doesn’t really make sense anymore. They’re a cult without a cult leader that no longer really engages in cult like behavior but still retains the masks and numbers from when they were the cult.

  11. On 6/14/2021 at 11:38 AM, Goodear said:

    I found this compelling entirely for Miro who is the only one on the show tangibly building momentum during this terrible Friday run. Uno left very little impression on me and was unable to pull off the emotional "I'm doing this for my friend!" vibe. Miro on the other hand comes off like a monster staring down seven guys with the presence that he could probably take all of them and still make it to dinner on time. I think there could be something there with Dark Order vs. Miro and there could be some good television if they didn't just do a one and done. Dark Order could reasonably have their entire motivation be to get the TNT title back into the fold (which would give them something to do for the first time post Brodie). Miro could challenge all of them that each of them get a title shot but if he beats them all, they disband. You then have an escalation of stakes as Miro knocks them off one by one and the tension mounts as they become more desperate to stay together. You could either then end with Miro crushing them all and maybe having Hangman Page for revenge or have one of the Dark Order who has some potential (like Silver) get a super mammoth win at the end. 

    Yeah, I didn’t watch live and had heard good things but was not impressed with Uno at all. His offense, especially strikes looked terrible and his movement was not very fluid less so than I remember in his tags. Don’t know if he’s gotten out of shape or doesn’t know how to be a singles guy but it was not good.

    I like the idea of Miro ending the Dark Order. The best part of the group was that they were a bunch of geeks (except Anna Jay) that Brodie Lee berated. They’re still geeks they’re just sympathetic geeks now. Not sure how much legs that will have—having Miro end the group forever would get him some major heat if he did it relatively soon.
     

     

  12. 11 hours ago, alstein said:

     

    Janela's value to AEW is his links the the indies and scouting.  As a wrestler, he should be a slimy heel manager, and be used eventually to get Sonny over if you ever think Sonny is worthy of such a push (I have my doubts)

    A lot of the folks in the low card in AEW do other things, and they're pretty good in their low card spots.  Janela wants to be more than what he's capable of.

     

    I’ve heard people say this but I’m not sure what unique ties to the indies he has, especially since as far as I know, he was most known for falling off a building into a dump truck or something.

    Isn’t Excalibur a part owner of PWG? I’ve never seen one of their shows but I’ve heard a lot of the WWE’s upper card guys worked there before WWE, so I think Excalibur might have a better insight into indy talent than a garbage match guy.

    Do you know any of the talent Janela’s scouting has brought into AEW?

    • Like 1
  13. 2 hours ago, John from Cincinnati said:

    With the exception of Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose. I see this idea bandied about quite a bit, but it's never really been tested. With the exception of Ambrose, they've never really lured away a perennial headliner or someone on the cusp of that. I'd be interested to see how well this thinking held up if they managed to land the equivalent of an '05 Christian or an '06 Angle. 

    Didn’t Christian leave WWE back then because he wasn’t thought of as a main eventer? I just remember it seemed like every WWE mid card guy and washed up legend would immediately go to the top.

    And I recall an interview in which Khan was a little defensive about Miro’s booking stating that he’d already had his year booked out so there wasn’t really a neat fit for him.

    So even if Reigns or Rollins were unexpectedly released tomorrow, I’m not sure he’d change his major booking plans to accommodate them.

  14. 14 hours ago, alstein said:

    I agree, even though I said I'd prefer Mojo to Braun ,the right answer is "neither".

     

    At this point, AEW has enough rising stars that they don't need WWE folks unless they are really, really good.  You don't want to clog the rise of all the young stars like Hobbs/Sammy/Ricky/etc. 

     

    That said, you need to have a reserve for when Vince manages to snatch some of your top young talent ,and some folks are going to take that WWE money.  I think AEW has that reserve, and it's important to show you can elevate folks- as that is what would make ambitious talent hungry to be in AEW.

     

    If I belt I was going to be a star one day as a young wrestler, I'd rather take my chances as a jobber on Dark than go through the NXT system.  At least there's evidence of folks moving their way up in AEW quickly if they're good enough- Eddy and Ricky being the best examples.

     

    Who they bring in isn’t as important as what the plans are for who they sign. I didn’t think they could get the jobber stink off of Brodie Lee but he ended up exceeding my expectations with the new character.

    I’m skeptical but if Tony Khan had an idea for Braun, I’d at least give it a shot.

    I also think Mark Henry could just be doing his friend a favor and trying to drum up the value of Strowman elsewhere.

    Anyway, AEW has already proven they don’t push the former WWE guys to the top immediately like TNA. And with big guys, it’s often the opposite. So I don’t think they should not add talent just because it’s WWE guys.

    And AEW definitely has some weak links. For example, Joey Janela is so bad that he busted open one of the promotions top baby faces and came dangerously close to suplexing him into the ropes right before a ppv. Lucky he wasn’t fired.

    No one can tell me AEW wouldn’t be better off with someone with proper training that looks like a physical threat filling in his jobber to the stars role. Current AEW guys would look better beating someone like Mojo Rawley before a big ppv match, and almost certainly be safer in the ring.

    • Like 1
  15. 2 hours ago, Death From Above said:

    JR definitely seems out of gas and given how much in the past he's said he hates 3 man teams, I suppose it's no surprise. For the most part I can deal with his quirks but I admit his constant frustration with modern tag wrestling is grating on me.

    Everyone should be frustrated with modern tag wrestling. If you can’t have a match within the context of the rules you’re not good at your job. And if what you really want to do is think up and perform cool looking stunts, you should probably just go to Hollywood.

    It’s particularly galling with AEW because they initially said they wanted a sports based presentation and I just saw Tony Khan recently reiterate that in an interview.

    The foundation of a sports based presentation is ensuring the rules matter. Imagine a fighter leaving the cage or blatantly, intentionally low blowing his opponent in front of the ref in UFC and the ref not doing anything because of so called referee discretion.

    The AEW tag team division is such a mess that Rick Knox was trending for being an incompetent and useless ref during the ppv.

    You’d think that would be embarrassing and cause some reflection and changes but introspection doesn’t seem to be something AEW and its EVP’s are interested in doing.

    • Like 3
  16. 19 hours ago, HumanChessgame said:

    Do people actually differentiate TNT and TBS that much? Even when I had cable they always came off as more or less the same channel.

    In my mind, I view them like this: TNT is NBA, TBS is MLB (mostly Braves) and they both have a bunch of dumb shows I don’t watch. 

    If they were moved to Trutv that would be concerning but this seems like a lateral move.

     

    • Sad 1
  17. 22 hours ago, tbarrie said:

    The rankings are an excellent story-telling tool IMO. Like any story-telling tool, they should be used in a way that serves the needs of the larger story, of course. And it's nice if there's some in-universe explanation they can point to that explains why person A is ranked higher than person B. But complete consistency is not needed. If they could come up with a rigorous formula for the rankings and keep to it while still getting results that drive the story they want to tell, that would be both neat and impressive. But that's above-and-beyond stuff.

    Regarding your specific example - Page dropped below Cage in the rankings because he lost to Cage. I can't imagine anything more simple and logical than that. And Moxley's raw numbers are almost as good as Page's, but his lone loss is to the champ while Page lost to the #3 contender. So Moxley being ranked higher than Page doesn't strike me as a problem either.

    Tony Khan compared AEW’s ranking to the college football rankings, so if you just look at it like that it makes sense.

    There’s not an exact formula but you in college football, know that who you beat and how you beat them or vice versa will have an impact on your rankings.

    Losing big to a team ranked below you will usually cause a bigger drop than losing a close game to a team ranked above. But it’s determined by people who have biases, so they might be more forgiving of an SEC team than a PAC 12, for example.

    I like AEW’s rankings system as it is and think down the road they might even be able to come up with a storyline out of it.

    • Like 3
  18. 1 hour ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

    This is quite the shit opinion.

    This forum has such a weird dichotomy with AEW. We have people thrilled with the shows singing the praises of Miro and Darby and Hangman. We have people with hate boners for like Omega and Cody and Jericho. It's almost like there's not a rational middle ground. And I'm not going to knock that. I certainly hateddddd Cody's promo last night and agree with every bit of criticism it got. Everyone has opinions and it's not wrong to feel how you feel about characters.

    But Jericho is 100% a team player. Cody as well. I know you're super critical of like every single aspect of AEW but you're way off base here. More than usual. Jericho is a millionaire top of the card main eventer. He just took a 10 foot backwards bump off a cage as a means to help get a younger guy and his faction over. How is that not a team player? He definitely didn't have to take that bump. He could have pulled a Hogan 'That doesn't work for me brother' but he didn't. And it was probably even his own idea. He's a dude that legitimately cares about the next generation getting over and takes a lot of pride in accomplishing that with them. Cody's dumb promo aside, what about him is not a team player? Dude let Brodie smoke him in 3 minutes to win the TNT title. Didn't even hook the leg. Cody did that to help put over a dude that deserved the shine he was getting. How is that not a team player?

    Straight up delusional shit opinion.

    Yeah, I listened to Jericho’s podcast on the Blood and Guts, and he said the bump wasn’t his idea and he didn’t really want to take it but it was the best option for the storyline. It didn’t come across (especially because Excalibur over sold it with there’s nothing but concrete under that line) but he really didn’t have to do that.

    I think some of Jericho’s ideas are goofy for my tastes and I’m not sure always work. But it’s clear he’s trying to help younger guys.

    I would say the same for Cody too. He was (probably rightly) criticized for going too long with underneath guys in his open challenge. But him doing that led to Ricky Starks and Eddie Kingston getting jobs with AEW.

    And Technico Support’s criticism of the Brodie Lee situation is unfair. It’s obvious that the long term plan they were building too was Darby finally getting over the hump and beating Cody for the title. And Cody was only gone for like two weeks, so it was unnecessary to drop the title to him.

    Dropping the title to Brodie and in the fashion that he lost breathed new life into his character. His character and the Dark Order were dead in the water after AEW’s ridiculous booking trope of having a big guy come in look dominant and then lose the first big singles match.

    And again, since the plan was for Darby to dethrone him, and he wasn’t gone that long, he didn’t have to do it.

     

     

    • Like 2
  19. 9 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

    They don't need Tessa, and I don't want her there either.

    AEW needs stars and whatever you think of Tessa Blanchard, it’s undeniable that when you see her on tv that she has the it factor.

    AEW has women with potential but Britt Baker is the only one currently under contract that is a star. And they’ve been reluctant to pull the trigger on her for whatever reason.

    Thunder Rosa came in and made another promotion’s title more prominent than AEW’s because she has the it factor/star quality others including their champion don’t.

  20. 20 minutes ago, Goodear said:

    I know this wasn't the discussion that you were having, but my problem with it wasn't protecting Dax but that The Inner Circle has kicked the dog shit out of the Pinnacle (which I am going to predict that Cornette will start calling The Pinochle in a few weeks) every time they've crossed paths since The Inner Circle came back after a very short heel establishment phase. I wouldn't have a problem if they gave the heels some sort of out or did something to get them heat again but the faces are just mudstomping them into paste. I don't want to be in a position where I feel bad for the heels, but they're not really getting anything in the build and that's not a good way to get them heat or The Inner Circle steam.

    I suspect that The Pinnacle will probably win the Blood and Guts match based on how this has been going so far but the Inner Circle immediately getting their heat back was a huge mistake, imo.

    Especially, with Blood and Guts as the end game. It would have made more sense to have the Pinnacle narrowly escape their comeuppance by constantly fleeing which would have made the inner circle challenge make more sense.

    • Like 1
  21. 55 minutes ago, The Great ML said:

    Bucks and Omega are not good at professional wrestling...at least my preferred version of what pro wrestling is.

    I had such high hopes for this company...but it needs a real booker and people who aren’t afraid to say NO.

    Couldn’t agree more. And while I can appreciate letting guys run with their own ideas, the problem is that too many wrestlers have the same ideas in AEW.

    I don’t know how many times they’ve had the same storyline with different people going on at the same time.

    • Like 2
  22. 5 hours ago, tbarrie said:

    Also, random thought: am I misremembering or did Ethan Page refer to himself as "All Ego" and/or use it in his entrance video? If so, why?

    I mean, it's okay for a heel to have a nickname that's an insult, like "No Class" Bobby Bass. But Bobby Bass didn't refer to himself as "No Class". That would make no sense. So why would Ethan Page actively use a nickname that says he's full of himself but can't back it up?

    I think modern wrestlers tend to not really think things through (in terms of their characters or how they construct their matches ). And I guess there aren’t people to tell them things don’t make sense anymore.

    How someone like Tony Khan wouldn’t be like, “You’re all ego, so you have no substance...?” is a little baffling.

     

    • Like 1
  23. 1 minute ago, Goodear said:

    This line up looks like more Dark to me. Not sure what the difference is supposed to be but this card doesn't highlight it, whatever it is. Unless Dark is going to be changed to make either more or even less important.

    They had said a couple of weeks ago that there would be more promo packages about the talent featured, so hopefully that will work better than Excalibur reciting a few random facts at the start of matches.

  24. 30 minutes ago, Craig H said:

    There was a point where @just drewhatred of Kenny kinda bugged me because, like, it's a very weird opinion to have considering that Omega is objectively a great wrestler, but now it's more or less amusing to me. It's especially amusing to see him give Spears a pass. I mean, so long as it doesn't veer into that weird Cornette territory, then it's fine.

    Although, hate on Kenny all you want, but Maki "hitting" Shida with the mic was the worst thing on the show.

    I think it’s hard to say someone is objectively great in wrestling maybe beyond the execution of the moves. Since there is an element of subjectivity into what makes you enjoy a match.

    Spears performs all of his moves well. His matches have been unspectacular but solid and he hasn’t embarrassed himself by being an idiot in the ring. I think the issue with him is he’s never had a character that really connected. I hope he’s able to find that with this new horseman stable.

    But people online seem to really hate him. Aside from the character, I think he might be looked down on because he was a jobber in WWE. Which is a shame because WWE is garbage at identifying talent to push. How they have wasted Cesaro and Chad Gable is criminal.

    With Omega I’d only seen the Jericho match in NJPW and one of the Okada matches that Meltzer gave seven stars  or whatever to.

    And he’s had some good matches but I have always found his tap dancing before moves, effeminate hand gestures, weird facial expressions, and odd promos off putting. 
     

    To me, he came across as a weirdo douchebag as a face, so I’m glad he’s become a heel and just turned that up.

    Personally, I don’t think he sucks but I also think great might be a little generous and the greatest of all time talk is ridiculous. He doesn’t come close to touching Angle, Benoit, or Guerrero in their primes for instance.

    But to each their own I guess.

    Anyway, after work I somehow completely spaced out that it was Wednesday until the Callis Kenny Omega promo, so I missed most of the show.

    With the reported audio issues it’s probably not worth it to bother to going back.

    I wish they would actually do something with Scorpio Sky. When he’s been given a chance he’s shined. The initial tag tournament, the match with Jericho. But he just disappears into obscurity after those.

    The MJF Inner Circle stuff is cool. Everyone saw the MJF turn coming but with the triple swerve it still ended up being surprising which is impressive. So they deserve credit for that.

     

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