peachchaos

It's easy to look at III in retrospect as a 2-match show, but out of the 12 matches, 7 of them had storylines going on for months heading into the show (with the 6 man tag even combining two of the stories). It's a company firing on all cylinders.

Sorry if the following valid and interesting point is actually from this thread, it's nearly impossible to navigate but who's complaining? I think it was someone on X/Twitter that brought up the fact that opening the show with Cole and MJF is a brilliant way to give the press what they need in terms of photography since the reporters likely won't last until the end of night.

The legacy of the Briscoes in full effect. Hadn't considered this yet.

As a general principle, I'm not a fan of someone wrestling mutiple times in one night unless its a tournament or gauntlet situation. Then again, WM30 and the Georgia Dome Nitro were some of the best nights of wrestling so apparently I allow for exceptions. This might be the only sensible and probable take on this show I've seen so far, including my own reservations. And even regardless of intent when the show was booked, there's reason to book this show as their big annual event since the odds of drawing a crowd this size again are almost nonexistent. The idea was to put on a great show in front of a hot new audience with the biggest crowd possible. There was no way they imagined this, but they all get to have their cake and eat it too. The "smart" wrestling decision is obviously to save the biggest dream matches to help attendance in the states. Not just All Out and Grand Slam, but for every Collision, every Dynamite. Obviously there's no money in doing CM Punk-Kenny Omega at Wembly when all the tickets have been sold. But the seeds are slowly being planted as always in AEW. There is certainly an argument to be made that nothing Tony is booking is happening in a vacuum and the overwhelming negative response to something like Ospreay-Jericho has been quite loud. One of the strongest complaints against Vince is that he rarely gives in to what the audience demands. (Which isn't really accurate but that's a different section of the board.) Would there be something to gain by pivoting to something like Ospreay-Omega at this point? Assuming it could happen politically, I think there's way more to be lost there story-wise. But guess what? If they do have the balls to try Wembly 2024, they have a match they know people want to see.

You'll never convince the Cornette types and honestly it'd be preferred to weed them out entirely. Which is why I'd like to see an all women's wrestling show with legitimate stars given a worthwhile platform, free from the weighted attachment of men's wrestling. Not everything has to be sink or swim, hell even the very idea of AEW was a risk. But now I'm just complaining, WWE has had the network for a decade and put on one all women's show.

It really is a tough pill to swallow since the top potential draw in women's wrestling can't even get a match on SummerSlam. Has Mercedes Mone at all justified her payday from Bushiroad, for instance? All I know is I'm rarely dissapointed these days, whether its Skye Blue or Rhea Ripley, I feel like I'm seeing someting fresh.

Devil's advocate o'er here...is there any great incentive to push the women's division past the fact that its the correct moral thing to do and fwd thinking and all that? These moving goalposts, whether it be "Let them Main Event WrestleMania!" or "Give them more time on Dynamite!" are so far removed from how stuff actually works in wrestling that by now the conversation itself seems like a contractual obligation. You give the audiece what they want. Women's wrestling has come a long way but its not the draw. AEW gives the women the spotlight when it counts. Do the women need their own show?

Generally, his two mostly widely seen classics are WMIII and the Career Match with Warrior at WMVII. The DDP series is really solid, nothing exceptional but its a highlight of his later work which was very formulaic. Savage was in some classic 80's WWF blood feuds, but his best dance partner through the years was Flair. Gems: Randy Savage vs. Ron Garvin - Cage Match Randy Savage vs. Jerry Lawler - Loser Leaves Town Adrian Adonis & Randy Savage vs. Bruno Sammartino & Tito Santana - Cage Match Randy Savage vs. Tito Santana - No DQ Montreal Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat - No DQ Montreal Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair - GAB 1995 Edit: also vs. Hogan in Philly 1985

True, but the faction led by cohort quarterback Brett Farve is known as the New Lost Equity Wranglers, so who's to say?

Wasn't someone given permission to catelog Dave's shed at one point? Did we ever see the fruit of those labors?

Counterpoint: cheap edits like Botchamania and PromoJoe do more harm than good for wrestling and the term "botch" itself is fucking stupid I also wear an eyepatch but this feels like a greater evil.

I also think Bully Ray's pitch to keep everything at All In unannounced Mystery Vortex style has a lot of legs.

It's also hilarious that people will scrutinize the All In card up-and-down but the legacy event we all love and cherish was littered with trash like Crush-Repo Man, Nailz-Virgil, and Taker-Kamala. An Intercontinetal Championship Match between Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith was absolutely no one's dream match in 1992. But they booked the match and then built a great angle within weeks. It's pretty much universally agreed that the whole "Who's side will Mr. Perfect be on?" angle was a big fluff of nothing, but there is a legitimate classic half hour match between two of the great wrestling characters that has endured for decades. And that's it, its a 2-match card. This has been said, but if you've never been to an AEW show and get to see your first one ever with 70k+ people, you won't care about dream matches and prestige TV, you want Max Caster's rap, you want tha BOOM!, you want to sing along to Judas. The MJF-Cole story has been incredible and I'm quite certain whatever they decide to do with it won't shit the bed.

Not saying this would end the show, but Jamie-Britt would give off strong vibes. Maybe, by chance, Britt somehow gets the belt back beforehand for a similar dynamic.

Biggest thing would be a Big E cash in and win, but they're too chickenshit to do anything that makes Roman vulnerable. Would be a huge moment though.

Found a copy but criminally it cuts out 2 minutes into the match with no finish ?

any excuse to get Owens to carry a cowbell around is acceptable tbh

10/1/95 - featured the WCW US Champion Sting vs. Arn Anderson and Alex Wright vs. the Grappler matches from the 9/30/95 Worldwide: Eddie Guerrero pinned Jushin Liger with a brainbuster and the frog splash; stipulations stated the winner would face Dean Malenko the following night on Monday Nitro

If they did a Mystery Entrant and inducted Savio, it would be a thing of glory.

The promo packages are generally terrible but they're a necessary evil for the endless hours of TV they have to fill and it makes sense to put them on the Network specials to recap everything since most people are not watching the TV. So it's a double edged sword and unfortunately we'll be stuck with them forever. What I miss more than anything is just a good old fashioned interview with a wrestler cutting a promo into a microphone before they walk down the aisle.

I'll go with "Brobdingnagian" instead.

They would make insurmountable amounts of money if they put this on FOX and worked it like the Super Bowl. Which I think is far more likely than doing 2 nights of the big dance.

This year is making a strong case for it becoming a two night show.

Well, Aleister & Ric are the next challengers. So you put them over in the tournament since they're moving up and then have the Champs go over strong at the PPV before they leave.