AEW TV - 9/13 - 9/19/2023 - Haaalf in the baaaag

[HarryArchieGus]

Forget best Jade match, that was the best QTV skit. Harley rules, and Johnny's really taking to this role. I miss QT tho. 

[AxB]

They changed the Bowens vs Uno match to Bowens vs Silver for some reason.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Very solid Saturday Afternoon Rampage. Not saying it was an all timer, but in contrast to a couple of you, I actually really enjoyed the chaos of the opener (and shout out to Alex Abrehantes with the dive/bump!) - main event was great, and I'm super looking forward to Stat/Britt tonight after Stat's performance hear, it should be an interesting dynamic with Britt being the hometown-ish hero (and hopefully her presence sells a few extra tickets with State College being a big football town, or at least it used to be in the old days). Also really psyched for both tag matches - I hope there's a nice stretch of Danielson/Bill, I thought their WWE stuff got a bad rap because there were about 1000 better things to do with both of em at the time

Edited September 16, 2023 by Zakk_Sabbath

[Sex Machine Gun]

First Jade match where I was going "damn, this is actually pretty fuckin' good" while watching the highlights (the last seven minutes of the match) on YouTube this morning. If WWE can teach her how to work, give her those oh so vital reps, absolute megastar who's doing the media rounds when they have WrestleMania or SummerSlam next year.

[Hamhock]

Which Jade WWE debut idea is worse:

1. Once more interrupting Cody - “Yet again I’ve found you!” leading to a groan-inducing Brandi run-in.

2. 4-month 50/50 feud with Nia Jax.

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

Just a few quick thoughts about Collision:

Ricky Starks has some of the worst ground and pound I’ve ever seen. 

For a guy that has hype he’d jump to WWE, Ricky Starks also has the crappiest looking spear I’ve ever seen. That one he “hit” on Danielson was business exposing bad. I can’t believe Just Drew actually defends this bum that needs to go back to wrestling school.

[Belgian_Waffle]

God damn I can't be the only one who breathed a giant sigh of relief when Stat retained again tonight. Brit looked like shit the whole match too even with AEW's version of 1987 Barry Windham carrying her. 

Kudos to: Stat for being the GOAT, and to TK for knowing a good thing when he sees it in this instance, and for Cargill for giving the best performance of her career on the way out. 

Jeers to: Baker for yet another ugly performance (extra sad considering how good their All Out match a couple years ago was), and to this crowd of Penn State animals who were willing to let their hometown pride interfere with the common sense answer as to who should have been cheered here. 

Other than that I thought it was a really solid show except for Kevin Kelly being awful and the Righteous who are blah in the ring and car-crash-bad on the mic. 

[Curt McGirt]

I just kinda slowly veered off of watching this one AND missed the whole first half-hour due to dinner going over. I blame Rick Ta Life's Army for completely flushing my interest. At least Statlander won, which I did watch the end of and damned if I didn't think Baker was going over. Couple other things:

Andrade vs. Bullet Club Gold is... something? He can work his way up to Knife Pervert and it'll be a good match. Hell him and Juicey Boy's loud ass would be a good match, probably. 

Cash did the ass-eating head shake. Kudos. 

Sign in crowd: "Cornette Is Always Right"

Damn, Eddie's nose is fucked up.

[Jenalysis]

29 minutes ago, LF2 said:

Just a few quick thoughts about Collision:

Ricky Starks has some of the worst ground and pound I’ve ever seen. 

For a guy that has hype he’d jump to WWE, Ricky Starks also has the crappiest looking spear I’ve ever seen. That one he “hit” on Danielson was business exposing bad. I can’t believe Just Drew actually defends this bum that needs to go back to wrestling school.

 

Given that it was Danielson, you definitely want to go easy on a spear given his history and the ZSJ match coming up.  I'm ok with Ricky doing a weak one there.

 

Enjoyed Dark Order Shenanigans and their new gimmick.   Also Stat was two for two in carrying folks to great main events this weekend.

 

Let Bullet Club Gold beat up luchadors every week!  Can we bring back Juventud to be fed to Juice?

 

[Belgian_Waffle]

24 minutes ago, LF2 said:

 For a guy that has hype he’d jump to WWE, Ricky Starks also has the crappiest looking spear I’ve ever seen. That one he “hit” on Danielson was business exposing bad. 

I'd have to go back and watch this spot but to be fair I'm pretty sure this one was actually Danielson's fault, he just stood there and didn't raise his arms and looked out of position. I thought maybe he came down hard on the injured arm during that tope spot he probably wishes he didn't do...he seemed a bit out of sorts/off his game for the rest of the match.

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

11 minutes ago, Jenalysis said:

 

Given that it was Danielson, you definitely want to go easy on a spear given his history and the ZSJ match coming up.  I'm ok with Ricky doing a weak one there.

 

Enjoyed Dark Order Shenanigans and their new gimmick.   Also Stat was two for two in carrying folks to great main events this weekend.

 

Let Bullet Club Gold beat up luchadors every week!  Can we bring back Juventud to be fed to Juice?

 

Your Juventud comment should win comment of the week. I like the idea of feeding the Juice to Juice. Anything that pushes him and Switchblade further up the card is good by me.

I forgot to mention I did enjoy the Dark Order tonight, and I also really liked seeing The Righteous pick up a much needed and big win too. 

Oh and while I’m a fan of Britt’s I can’t deny your Stat comment either. She was the much better half (three quarters even) of that match, and I’m glad they kept the belt on her. I wouldn’t mind seeing her break Jade’s record.

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

12 minutes ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

I'd have to go back and watch this spot but to be fair I'm pretty sure this one was actually Danielson's fault, he just stood there and didn't raise his arms and looked out of position. I thought maybe he came down hard on the injured arm during that tope spot he probably wishes he didn't do...he seemed a bit out of sorts/off his game for the rest of the match.

Excellent point about the tope spot. I’ll watch it again tomorrow too, but live it looked like he definitely landed on the right arm. I’m assuming he’s healthy though with the match they announced for next week unless they swap him for Mox between now and then. 

[Curt McGirt]

Third me as someone who would love to see the Battle of the Juices. Who can cut a more absurd promo? That's really what we need.

[HumanChessgame]

Starks' spear has always looked like crap and he's way too small of a guy for it to look effective, same with Edge. The Bobby Hill reference to Danielson getting a nut shot got a chuckle out of me.

I actually like The Righteous (though they were much better with Tyler Bateman and Vita VonStarr also in the group) so it was surprising seeing them get a win over The Hardys. They'll be a good space filler match against Cole and MJF.

Even though it was a short match, I dug FTR/Bear Country. Their schtick is one of those things I find a lot funnier and more engaging than I probably should.

Is Andrade still affiliated with the other LFI guys in AEW? Even if not it's not like continuity matters much and can get retconned for some arbitrary reason, so I thought they might be setting up an LFI/BCG match for the next PPV.

I get they were trying to build Britt up as the franchise player of the women's division during lockdown and whatnot, but she's really not gotten any better.

[Phantom Lord]

Not a bad episode of Collision tonight. I thought Starks/Bill vs. Bryan/Claudio was a good match. I liked the ending with Ricky cheating to win. Big Bill looked solid in the win.

FTR vs. Iron Savages was a good open challenge match. Nice to see The Workhorsemen step up for the next challenge. That should be a good match with them and FTR.

I too like The Righteous so I was shocked to see them get the win over The Hardy's. The Hardy's are going through the motions right now so it's better to see them lose than win against more deserving teams.

Statlander vs. Britt was all right. I thought for sure Britt was winning since they were hyping up the hometown thing, but Kris had a nice counter to her finisher.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

Rumors and innuendo, fake newz, whatever it is, I don't care: back the Brinks truck up to Ricky Starks' door. Fuck whatever he is in the ring, not that I'm discounting any of your opinions, but... he's just got it. I think people would be way, way more forgiving of him if he were 30 lbs heavier in a different time, but it's not like that anymore. BCC were naturally their tremendous selves, especially freak ass Claudio, so I won't spend much time on the obvious, but I gotta tell you: I absolutely can't get enough of this Starks/Bill pairing. Idk if there's maybe some question about who (if not Joe or Cole) should take the title off MJF eventually (since all signs pointed to some kind of eventual unification with CM Punk's NWO X division belt) but in my mind, the main event of Full Gear or Winter is Coming (if they move to 12 that's gotta be December, right?) definitely ought to be Starks/MJF as a true test and show of faith in some homegrown talent - much like the pillars four way this time last year - that dude is worth whatever he wants, though. IDGAF if they gotta cut Trevor Lawrence from the Jags and get Cody back too just to keep him happy, I never, ever want Starks to leave. Big win for him here, and great promo later in the show, so hopefully that's an indicator of things to come. Bill staring daggers through TS ruled too. Again, think what you want about him in the ring, but if you can't see what he's bringing as an overall package, then I just don't know, we gotta agree to disagree. Watch him in these tags he's always doing *something* whether it's mugging for the roving camera, jaw jacking the front row.

Fuck yeah, Mogul Embassy vs Elite!!! I'm real psyched to be in the house for this one next week. I haven't gotten to see Hangman wrestle live in a while so I'm really looking forward to that. And you guys already know how I feel about GoA

Super f'n wish Miro/Hobbs II were on the card in NY - big bag promo from him here, topped tonight only by Eddie talking that Eddie shit.

BEAR COUNTRY IS HERE. Today is a good day. Wonderful selling from Bronson on that shoulder to the post, and they BRUTALIZED poor Dash with some of those double team moves. BIG BOI MOONSAULT FROM BOULDER. Fuck me, singles push when?? I legit hope this makes the weekly poll. Didn't outstay it's welcome, at all - model TV match. Felt badly about the 'who are you' chants for the Workhorsemen. Not sure what was taped earlier for ROH but maybe it would've helped the live crowd if they'd gotten to see them do their thing earlier in the night (if they didn't, that is)

Lee Moriarty man, that poor guy keeps getting dumped into these bloated, forgettable stables (no offense to the great Shane Taylor). What about teaming him with someone like Angelico and giving them a nice push in the tag division(s)? Or what about you put him with Kommander/Vikingo, add them to the Trios division, and have him be the ground game complement to their good lucha things?

Eddie Kingston. Eddie FUCKING Kingston. Maybe it's my east coast bias, but this was one of the greatest promos of all time. Period. "I am gonna fuck you up in New York, motherfucker." GOD DAMN, I abso-fucking-loutely cannot wait to be in this crowd. If Claudio wins, we riot!!

I was kinda wondering who Hook/OC would wrestle - but immediately realized, its 100% gonna be the Aussies, right?

@Greggulatorgreat job booking Toni's interview tonight man, the b&w intro and soap opera filter were a real nice touch I thought.

I dug the quick Scorp promo before the walkout - I'd like to see more of that for sure, even if it's PiP - didn't love him losing his first match back, but at least he had the knee as an out. Looking forward to seeing where we go with BC Gold and Andrade (Austin Gunn not getting a nickname was tremendous btw) - maybe an uneasy alliance with LFI or HOB? Surely LFI has found their way outta that van by now. Maybe it was the same guys who kidnapped Joe back in TNA

The Righteous:The Wyatts :: Mordecai:Undertaker

Claudio cut a great promo in his own right here for someone who always got flack for his mic work. And on a side note, I wanna say I'm absolutely loving the use of archival footage from CHIKARA here (and DDT and NJPW earlier for the Omega/Kota video). Depending on what the deal is with Max moving forward, if there's any kind of archive situation, part of me wonders if there will be any more libraries purchased to sweeten the pot. Transitioning ROH and Honor Club there would be a no brainer, and there's obviously tons of Dark/Elevation in addition to the three main shows, BotB, and PPV archives, but it would be kinda cool if something like CHIKARA popped up on there.

Crowd was hella hot for Britt, obviously, and the school colored gear was a cool detail by her. Stat made my butthole clench with that initial knee sell, but I was relieved once Britt did Bret's stuff (say that 5x fast) with the ring post. Something I noticed between watching Rampage this afternoon and this one here, Stat really has some excellent facials I have to give her big time kudos for them. Britt too - in all honesty, she could probably teach her boyfriend a thing or two about how to do 'shocked and appalled at this kickout' a bit better! I really enjoyed this. I agree Britt didn't look as good as she did on PPV, but I didn't think she was as terrible as some of you. Stat's for sure on a roll tho- I thought it was interesting Britt put her over similarly to Jade after the match.

I hate to harp on this point because I know Ian Ricaboni has a family, day job, etc. that precludes him from doing Collision regularly but I just listened to Kevin Kelly say "Nobody knows the anatomy better than Dr. Britt Baker" Come on, man… she has said DMD at least 3-4x on this show...

All in all, I have to say, this was the best and most cohesive wall to wall week of AEW in quite some time; make of that what you will.

See you motherfuckers in Queens!

 

[Curt McGirt]

That was a hell of an opening tag! Super hot crowd, real good work from everyone. I didn't have a problem with the spear though it looked like it hit high. You know who's really good? Big Bill. The guy I used to jokingly call "Giant Edge" is legit one of the top five guys in the promotion right now, probably. And not only him, but especially Ricky have REALLY good worked punches, which is something you gotta tip your hat to considering how many people don't. For some reason I want to know what Kevin Nash thinks of Bill's work. 

[DreamBroken]

Knew there was no way Britt was winning the title just days after taking the fall on Dynamite, but the Lockjaw sequence was awesome and had me wishing. 

Always like the promo montage opening Collision. Cool to see the Powerplex! get the finish from FTR. Dig Andrade using the Figure 8 as well. Shibata vs Nick Wayne on ROH sounds fun. Love that we get another RVD appearance next week

Definitely here for more Keith Lee/Shane Taylor interaction again (finally), though I still wish they kept JD Griffey around as he was for Final Battle last year rather than shoehorning Moriarty in to that spot. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by DreamBroken

[Fighting a man with a perm]

That child continuously screaming through the Starks match was almost the worst noise on Collision this week, but then we had a KK/JR combo in the main event. Gotta agree with @Curt McGirt on Liam Mór (Big Bill in Irish), that chap has come on leaps and bounds and works big man incredibly well.

The "Urban Playboy" Pretty Boy Smooth who got smoked by Aussie Open was sporting the greatest fivehead since Arsenal legend Gervinho. You really have to just admire the confidence to name yourself "pretty" with a hairline like that!

 

[Godfrey]

BBC/Starks and Bill was a fine outing. Bill is getting his big man selling down and he and Danielson have always had chemistry. I'd say it's possible to rebuild Bill into a monster heel with enough time but he's already in his late 30s so at most he could be a monster of the month once or twice like Lance Archer. Probably best to keep him as a heater for a younger guy

Britt/Stat was a little disjointed. Baker's matches tend to have one step too many in an exchange and it leads to some looseness. The transition to a standing octopus hold with mandible claw was fun though

On a side note, I have to wonder if it would be beneficial for AEW to run some smaller venues in the future. We know they're moving fans opposite the hard cam, lowering the lights, and shooting strategically but the wrestlers having to turn away from TV viewer to address the majority of the live crowd is becoming too noticeable. 411 said there were about 2400 tickets out for this show as of the 15th. Would it be too much of a step down to run a 5000 seater instead of 15000? Would it improve the atmosphere? Would the network object? Or is this one of those things that seems like it would matter but doesn't?

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

Big Gervinho was funny on Dark whenever he got squashed by a way smaller opponent and even back then I wondered why keep that hair around when it doesn't wanna stay on your head. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

8 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

For some reason I want to know what Kevin Nash thinks of Bill's work. 

"Doing way too much out there" lol

1 hour ago, Godfrey said:

Would it be too much of a step down to run a 5000 seater instead of 15000? Would it improve the atmosphere? Would the network object? Or is this one of those things that seems like it would matter but doesn't?

Have to agree here. I can't remember whom the interview was with, but someone recently mentioned that TK prefers NBA arenas for whatever reason, obviously he's a hoop fan along with the EVPs but not sure if there's any other logistical reasoning, or if a decision has been made as to whether there may be a public perception advantage to running the big building or something.

For my money, some of the loudest crowds of the early days came in those smaller college buildings (and I thought they looked great on TV as a nice change of pace, especially at that time with the Stamford Monopoly being so samey in every arena).

Perhaps this is nostalgia talking on some level, I've written this here before, but if there are similar/continued live attendance woes this spring I think a really cool, atmospherically positive way to skirt the issue would be to run an outdoor amphitheater tour using a setup similar to Daily's Place. Maybe try to partner up with a LiveNation (I believe they own a lot of them nationally) or similar to paper them heavy through radio contests, or offer some ticket package deals with other concerts/events coming through semi-contemporaneously. Like if you're going to Willie Nelson for $60 and live in the area, maybe you get the usually-$60 Summer Dynamite ticket lumped in for $5-20 just to put an ass there

Edit: Or another idea, I was just talking in the formerly-a-Punk-thread about seeing Metallica last month - they offer a ticket tier called the 'Wherever I May Roam Pass' where you can go to any and every show on the tour for a flat $500 if you were so inclined - might be a neat idea for something like this. With the Khans' NFL/EPL relationships surely they have some sort of 'season ticket' partnership/vendor/infrastructure in place, or at least a foot in the door compared to 'Joe The Promoter'

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Zakk_Sabbath

[Belgian_Waffle]

Re: who's beating MJF for the title eventually. I've always been under the impression they're going to make this a Hogan run and stretch (not drag!) it out for another year or so. I certainly don't see him losing it to Joe, or Joe ever holding the belt; given his age and how over he is without the belt he doesn't need it and AEW has too many mid-level guys in need of elevation to give it to Joe. I wouldn't want to see Cole win it for the same reason. 

Given that Max has pinned Darby twice with the side headlock I would like to see the story culminate with Darby finally getting his revenge, pinning Max clean and getting a title run before he retires young. It's a moment you'd rather have gotten than not gotten, and it's a much more feel-good end to MJF's reign then giving it to someone who was already a top guy somewhere else (I'm very negative on how much they're protecting Jay White for this reason as well. White can take (lots of) losses and still be at the level he's at. Starks really came out of that feud as very much damaged goods when he'd had a lot of momentum going in). 

Re: Lee Moriarty. Remember when Moriarty was one of the three names Danielson singled out (along with Yuta and Garcia) as someone young he'd like to work with and bring into the BCC? It's interesting how quickly they followed up on Yuta and Garcia but not Moriarty. I like Moriarty a lot so hopefully this program with Taylor has some legs. 

Last thing is I just wanted to mention how funny and sad it was listening to Meltzer devote like 5 minutes of his show earlier this week to going off on an unhinged rant because his creepy pal Ospreay was ranked below Masha Slamovich in the PWI 500 (and listening to whoever the other guy is but who thankfully wasn't Alvarez and so instead of agreeing and egging Dave on just got quiet and seemed vaguely amused).

[Octopus]

Juice vs Juice - sponsored by Juicy Juice

[Zakk_Sabbath]

1 hour ago, Octopus said:

Juice vs Juice - sponsored by Juicy Juice

Make it a bloody three way dance with Freshly Squeezed OC - triple juice from triple Juice