Belgian_Waffle Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 They just solved a lot of problems with that Swerve promo. New top.heel, fresh matchup, a Hangman program that isn't him trying to establish himself against someone already more established, two underutilized guys in a program that could theoretically be a major storyline, a feud with no title involved that (unlike Omega vs Takeshita or a lot of Jericho's feuds) doesn't feel too insulated from everything else going on in the company. I don't care for Hangman's work much outside of his first match with Danielson but based on the intensity in this segment I could see these two having some chemistry. I was wondering what the hell they'd do with Hangman to get him out of just being a random component of Elite feuds, and I've been waiting for Swerve to break out of the mid-card ever since he turned heel and started the Mogul Affiliates gimmick, so this direction couldn't have been more of a pleasant surprise. Now if they could just start giving Bowens some singles feuds (without breaking up the Acclaimed) and gently push him up the card as a top babyface we'd be in great shape for another couple years... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, odessasteps said: I’d be curious to try and estimate what the lowest attendance I ever saw at a Chikara show. Maybe less than 100 in Reading or that fire house in the middle of nowhere. I went to a very low attendance Chikara show in Gibsonville NC once. Think it was over 100 though. That Chikara show was the safest I ever felt in a crowd, and the nicest crowd I've ever been in though! Edited September 7, 2023 by Jenalysis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 You can’t pay me to watch that Swerve vs Page match. I’ll enjoy the promos though. Weirdly, I kind of think 2.0 might get an ok match out of the Bucks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Great show. Almost the right amount of adam Cole. Swerve/Page is a great matchup but neither of those guys can eat a loss right now. Samoa Joe is my shit, as is MJF: benevolent douchenozzle. Just tremendous. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 9 minutes ago, Matt D said: You can’t pay me to watch that Swerve vs Page match. I’ll enjoy the promos though. Weirdly, I kind of think 2.0 might get an ok match out of the Bucks. You could probably lose another bet and be forced into it, though 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 I like how a lot of guys could conceivably win this Eliminator tournament. Roderick, Joe, maybe even Darby. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinit Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Chin up Tits out And watch for the shooooooe! 6 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamBroken Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Great start with Orange in to Moxley's first defense. Loved the bit of Orange staring back at Moxley in the ring, then walking up the ramp and facing off with AR Fox, who had turned on him previously. Fox was on fire there before Moxley put him away. EMI looked incredible, put the title on her. Definitely made the most of her 5 minutes. Would've popped huge if it happened, loved the tiger driver straight away, the cross body into the steps, and the delayed underhook backbreaker all looked excellent. Saraya's been trolling Emi over Queen on Twitter, would like to see them in a future match too. Interesting 4 way next week could go multiple ways for Saraya's first challenge at Grand Slam. Crazy to think back that was one year ago when Saraya debuted at Grand Slam, one of my absolute favorite crowd pops. MJF/Joe segment was on fire, amazing work from both in setting up a future showdown. Loving Joe in the main event mix. Glad there's multiple possibilities in the tournament with MJF/Joe and MJF/Strong both matches that need to happen at some point. Great return to the ring for Strong, the apron backbreaker was killer. Another awesome promo from Swerve/Hangman. Excellent stuff set up for the future on this episode. Fun main event with Darby and Nick. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Toni Storm Is President 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peck Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Gotta say, Kris Statlander looks a lot better doing sign language than Robert Gibson. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 1 hour ago, Dog said: AEW rules the motherfucking world? I've decided. Yes, AEW rules the motherfucking world. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 1 hour ago, just drew said: Swerve/Page is a great matchup but neither of those guys can eat a loss right now. People keep saying this about Swerve and yet he keeps eating losses all the time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nice Guy Eddie Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 26 minutes ago, Peck said: Gotta say, Kris Statlander looks a lot better doing sign language than Robert Gibson. Probably because Statlander doesn't have a lazy eye 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Man. I hope we get Swerve vs. MJF sooner than later. Swerve is an absolute superstar. Great promo. I love him first claiming he had been trapped in a coffin for a few weeks before healing in a charity for Chicago schools. A+ commitment to wrestling nonsense, no notes, just give him the title. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 I think Darby doing the whole hesitating "I don't know if I can do it" spiel for his neat but not all that violent finish is the dumbest thing he's ever done, and I've seen him a back body drop from the ring into the guardrail on the way to the floor. Following it up with stomping Wayne in the head repeatedly until the match is stopped may have been worse. Maybe this is just on me but this whole deal only works when used very sparingly and it has not been recently, heck it cropped up multiple times in a ppv main event in the same company a week and a half ago. I guess it's only fair that Bret Hart has one thing living on today to make things much more annoying to make up for the half dozen I regularly blame on HBK. Anyways other than that things were fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobo joe Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Is this the first time in his career Roderick Strong has had an actual character? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 I hate, HATE when companies run World Title Contender tournaments and the bulk of the top guys aren't in it because they don't want them dropping falls. Even if they said something like "Only competitors that haven't had a World Title match this year or that the names were randomly drawn or based off Win-Loss records" but to have a tournament for a #1 contender -featuring Nick Wayne and his, what, 7 matches he's wrestled?, Jeff Hardy who has been gone more than he's been here and Jay Lethal and Trent Berretta who really hasn't won anything of any substance in a long time and Roderick Strong who's been "injured" the last little while (at least he has some credibility with a win over Jericho)- just annoys me. Swerve's promo was really good but I still can't for the life of me figure out his motivation. To build a rep off Hangman? Why does he care whether Hangman is coasting or not? And if MJF's championship reign is just going to be him making sub-par Attitude Era fat jokes and then telling a story about "When I was just a 19 year old kid?!" then Adam Cole needs to turn on him yesterday. Even Samoa Joe seemed to be rather off his game promo-wise, like when he told the crowd who was chanting "Fuck you, Joe" that their mom was saying that...that doesn't really make sense. Did Joe cut them off in traffic? If the crowd was chanting "Fuck me, Joe" then it would make sense...but that would be an unlikely scenario. Tony being upset at MJF getting beat up is the worst. He's been calling him every name in the book for the past couple years and now he loves him? It's even worse than JR calling HHH and SOB all the time, then putting him over. It's unnatural. Darby stomping Wayne was pretty awesomely brutal. I liked Roderick's neck brace going back on as soon as the match was over. Toni's character is unique but I think it's self-defeating in that it's presented as a heel character but she's so bizarre and silly that she gets more cheers than boos. Toni vs Saraya is going to be a presentation nightmare, as the crowd likes Toni being weird and throwing her shoe, and really hates to cheer Saraya. This Jericho-Sammy/JAS break-up feels like it has been going on for 7 years and AEW hasn't even been on for 7 years (That's my Taz tribute). Is Jericho now the good guy for dumping all his friends, getting duped and being an egomaniac?! Jericho beating Aussie Open less than week after they had tag titles is a pretty bad look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Green Meanie Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 (edited) I know we're supposed to boo Swerve, but HE'S RIGHT! And don't ever forget that HANGMAN IS A BAD FRIEND. I absolutely love the Roderick Strong: JEALOUS NERD storyline, he's doing a great job at (finally) being entertaining. And speaking of finally being entertaining, bravo to Toni Storm, her Joan Crawford has been really great! Edited September 7, 2023 by The Green Meanie 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 AEW has more gimmicks and characters in it that crack me up than anywhere else. Everyone is just 100% dedicated to what they’re doing and they probably have the freedom to just be who they want to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 (edited) Good for Swerve for actually having a rapper persona thats actually working on National wrestling tv. Swerve would have came back to WWE when they were 100% Vince free, Hit Row would've worked well for atleast a few months. I feel bad for the rest of that group because it wasn't going to work without any of the missing people especially Swerve or Top Dolla. The fact that they got rid of a third of them after the first few weeks and thought it would still work says alot of how they think about hip hop gimmicks. I'm not really feeling his music from what I have heard but he's making legit moves independently. He won me over with his work in WWE again Humerto Carrillo and Angel Garza on WWE pre-show matches , he can go and he has that star presence. Shawn and Hunter seemed to like him enough that I think he would have been used well enough on the WWE main roster. If some of the Hit Row get cut by the budget cuts then he'll probably convince TK to pick them up and be put with him Edited September 7, 2023 by Ziggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shartnado Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Tony Storm with an amazing promo once again, but who throws a shoe? C'mon! Swerve was impressive on the mic again, and OC still doesn't have a catchphrase! Roddy is also doing really good character work by being technically correct( and truthful), but in a really annoying way! Matches were good, I'll be looking forward to Page vs Cage III, for sure! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 1 hour ago, Ziggy said: Good for Swerve for actually having a rapper persona thats actually working on National wrestling tv. Swerve would have came back to WWE when they were 100% Vince free, Hit Row would've worked well for atleast a few months. I feel bad for the rest of that group because it wasn't going to work without any of the missing people especially Swerve or Top Dolla. The fact that they got rid of a third of them after the first few weeks and thought it would still work says alot of how they think about hip hop gimmicks. I'm not really feeling his music from what I have heard but he's making legit moves independently. He won me over with his work in WWE again Humerto Carrillo and Angel Garza on WWE pre-show matches , he can go and he has that star presence. Shawn and Hunter seemed to like him enough that I think he would have been used well enough on the WWE main roster. If some of the Hit Row get cut by the budget cuts then he'll probably convince TK to pick them up and be put with him Swerve has said more than once that he’s never had a positive interaction with hhh. I doubt a wwe return was ever in the cards for him… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Max got the crowd to boo the idea of him having to wrestle and defend his title. He’s at the height of his powers. 9 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Roddy’s whole persona works for me because Bennett and Taven are so committed to the bit. They may never be anything higher than challengers for the ROH tag or trios titles, but their characters definitely have a place on Dynamite or Collision. The shirts, overacting on showing concern, rushing to put the neck brace on Roddy, etc. were killing me. It’s so good. Swerve continues to be at the top of the lower A tier heels. Christian is probably the top of the A tier, so that’s good company for him to be in. And challenging Hangman is a cool direction to go in. I don’t think Swerve is going to win that feud, but I also don’t think he needs to. Hangman having a new fill in Swerve works for me. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuntmanCrowley Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Nana dancing is a highlight of every single AEW show. 10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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