AEW: Missed Opportunities.

[BobbyWhioux]

16 minutes ago, Overly Critical Man said:

Not pulling the trigger on Jaime Hayter vs Britt Baker after teasing it for months. What the hell was up with that? Hayter’s entire title reign was instead wasted on a putrid feud with The Outcasts.

IIRC they were also doing Wardlow/MJF at the same time and so I guess they thought it might be redundant to do both?

But then, there's a Heelish version you can do where the underling lays down such a beating while turning on their boss that they flip the boss face (think Sid/Shawn after WM11) which IIRC I was a proponent of because that lets you pull the trigger on both plotlines concurrently without it feeling too redundant.

 

 

[just drew]

I thought of some more;

Eddie Kingston should've gotten a quick title run during MJF's reign. Wins it at Grand Slam, loses it a few weeks later. I'm actually kind of over the long title reigns for the sake of long title reigns. 

Malakai Black should've beaten Adam Copeland for the TNT Title. House of Black should be treated like a bigger deal in general. 

The Young Bucks had at least five logical chances to drop the Tag Titles the first time before they did. I maintain that the overly long cosplaying they did of the nWo hurt AEW's business. But, for the sake of this thread, I would've had FTR, S&O, and the Bucks in a triple threat, and had S&O win them. That might've been more "hot take" than "missed opportunity."

They should've put a singles title on Keith Lee when they had the chance. I hope it isn't too late.

I do wonder what AEW would've looked like if Cody had stayed. I think the money would've been in deluded Outlander Cody against Hangman Page. 

For current tv, I understand not wanting to book to an audience reaction that could be a fad, but it feels like TK is gonna miss the boat on the Outrunners. That would be bad.

[For Great Justice]

The key to booking the Outrunners on top (which I agree he should do) is to book them in throwback late 80’s / early 90’s angles.

- FTR breaks one of their legs and we get a fan mail in campaign 

- Jake Roberts ties one up in the ropes and cobras their ass

- Due to continuous interference by Don Callis, we get a scaffold match against Cage and Archer 

It would keep them over. Yeah in sort of a meta way, but still, as people love to see what would happen next. 

[username]

These are all good ones but let me add that it is almost the end of 2024 and we still have yet to get Swerve/Lee.

[BobbyWhioux]

1 hour ago, just drew said:

I do wonder what AEW would've looked like if Cody had stayed. I think the money would've been in deluded Outlander Cody against Hangman Page. 

 

Oh I remember we were all mock booking a two years out heel turn where Cody finally went back on his word to "never challenge for the world title again" and double cross Hangman as AEW's closest analogue to a "Hogan joins the Outsiders" moment.

[BobbyWhioux]

1 hour ago, For Great Justice said:

The key to booking the Outrunners on top (which I agree he should do) is to book them in throwback late 80’s / early 90’s angles.

- FTR breaks one of their legs and we get a fan mail in campaign 

- Jake Roberts ties one up in the ropes and cobras their ass

- Due to continuous interference by Don Callis, we get a scaffold match against Cage and Archer 

It would keep them over. Yeah in sort of a meta way, but still, as people love to see what would happen next. 

Ether.

Soaked.

Rag.

 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

20 minutes ago, BobbyWhioux said:

Ether.

Soaked.

Rag.

 

I remember during the Jim Cornette era of ROH, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin beat the Briscoes using the ether soaked rag. Holy shit, did that not go over well with the ROH crowd. 

[DreamBroken]

On the topic of Trent being dropped, he was written out for neck surgery issues when Orange got payback hitting him with the wrench in his last appearance a few months back.

[zendragon]

5 hours ago, just drew said:

 

For current tv, I understand not wanting to book to an audience reaction that could be a fad, but it feels like TK is gonna miss the boat on the Outrunners. That would be bad.

The Outrunners could end up being like Zack Ryder or Fandango a gimmick that kinda goes viral for 5 minutes then everyone moves on 

[AxB]

In the Wrestle Dream Zero Hour, The Outrunners were in the same match as Silver/ Reynolds. The 2021 Meme Team taking on the  2024 Meme Team.

[Sky Blue Sam]

Sonny Kiss

Incredibly charismatic, a decent worker with a unique look that had the potential to appeal to a whole new demographic. Instead got put into a Dark-exclusive tag team with Janela, turned heel to join the Trustbusters on Rampage, then was never seen again. A real waste.

[SovietShooter]

9 hours ago, For Great Justice said:

- FTR breaks one of their legs and we get a fan mail in campaign 

Can you imagine someone like Roddy wearing an "I BROKE TURBO'S LEG" t-shirt?

[Jenalysis]

They should have called an audible on the Jay/MJF match and either had Jay win, or Joe screw over Jay with a DQ.

It wrecked Jay hard.  Joe had a very logical reason to run in for the DQ too with his guaranteed shot at MJF but not Jay.

[HarryArchieGus]

4 hours ago, Sky Blue Sam said:

Sonny Kiss

Incredibly charismatic, a decent worker with a unique look that had the potential to appeal to a whole new demographic. Instead got put into a Dark-exclusive tag team with Janela, turned heel to join the Trustbusters on Rampage, then was never seen again. A real waste.

To me the missed opportunity was not involving Sonny in the Women's Division. She would've been one of the better competitors at the time. I'd still like to see her back in this role. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

21 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

MANIFESTING

[Casey]

22 hours ago, StuntmanCrowley said:

Tony Khan not immediately addressing the Punk/Elite blowup and leaving an incredible bit of business in the pantheon of "What Ifs"  I'm no Punk guy, but I was and still am beating down the door for a Punk/Omega match.  The mileage that could've been gotten out of that real life event is staggering with all of the threads.  I'm still bitter at Punk and the Bucks over it truthfully, but TK as much as I defend him failed miserably as a owner and leader in that issue.

Yeah, for me, this whole conversation begins and ends with this one. There’s an alternative reality where we got CMFTR versus The Elite at Wembley or something. Hell, even before Brawl Out, Bryan & Punk both wanted to tag together and face the Bucks. There was time to do that then. I love Eddie Kingston but that short feud definitely could’ve been put on the backburner in favor of a big match like that. I loved Punk’s TV matches against midcard guys and whatnot, and it was probably his choice, but they should’ve been churning out the dream matches that first year. You definitely could’ve spun off the Omega/Danielson story into a team-up between Punk & Bryan facing the Elite.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

17 minutes ago, Casey said:

I loved Punk’s TV matches against midcard guys and whatnot, and it was probably his choice, but they should’ve been churning out the dream matches that first year.

Part of me wonders if it was a conscious, by-design choice to kick some of those down the road a bit in order to use em to beef up numbers later on heading into the TV contract year (obviously, what happened next was unforeseen).

[JLowe]

On 10/17/2024 at 1:00 PM, just drew said:

Ricky Starks should've beaten MJF, at least for the Dynamite Diamond Ring. 

Santana and Ortiz should've been the first AEW Tag Team Champions. 

Ruby Soho should've won the first women's Owen Hart cup. Britt Baker didn't need it.

 

The whole first Owen cup was so obviously a “we don’t want you having belts so here’s a tournament with a cup for you to win” for both Cole and Baker

[zendragon]

10 hours ago, SovietShooter said:

Can you imagine someone like Roddy wearing an "I BROKE TURBO'S LEG" t-shirt?

TURBO SUCKS EGGS

[SovietShooter]

1 hour ago, JLowe said:

Cole and Baker

I always thought that was not a coincidence. I figured there had to be some angle coming out of this, and if memory serves correct, shortly after this Sammy & Tay ended up with the AAA mixed tag titles.

Maybe I'm full of shit though.

[Octopus]

On 10/17/2024 at 12:06 PM, The Natural said:

Bryan Danielson should have held the AEW World Championship sooner.

 

I look at this title reign and opportunities the same as I look at Kawada not/finally pinning Misawa. If Kawada beat Misawa in 94 and Danielson won the title in 21/22 then my favorite moments in wrestling potentially wouldn’t have mattered as much - June 95 tag and recent All In main event. I like what ifs but these ones effect my current timeline enjoyments too much. Could have still lead to a good future though. 

[Octopus]

SHOULDA BEEEEENS

 

I’m being casual and off the cuff with these. Not looking up dates and who was fully available or not injured or in a diff feud. Just attempting to have fun in this cruel cruel world.

- Kingston should have feuded with Claudio instead of or at least before the Jericho feud. After the Blood & Guts they were both hot and had a built in feud.

- Young Bucks vs FTR III should have been when all of the had belts. The Acclaimed were hot, but so was that story and the right time for it. Say Bucks win or whatever because of the politics of different companies belts (or was it reversed?). Just have Acclaimed beat the winners and scissor over their corpses.

- Making Red Velvet a Baddie in an announcer explanation and not a story played out. I’m still bitter about this. Why the fuck am I watching and all of a sudden things are different and I’m being told about it after the fact. I hated how poorly WWE handled Naomi vs Mandy Rose. Fuck everything and everyone. 

- likewise, Hangman should have either had a better falling out with the Dark Order or not broken up when they did. Idk, dropped ball. All part of the weird post brawl out or whatever the drama was. 

- Figure out how to keep Regal. If he wanted to be with his family, offer to make him a new son.

- it’s tough not really knowing all the drama or what was declined and offered BUT I wish Starks, Miro, and most importantly Punk worked out better. Khan doesn’t have Vince’s psycho ability to convince people to work against their best interest so this was all likely inevitable. 

- MJF’s injury angle before the Jay White match shouldn’t have happened. It was too silly and unneeded when they were already had a good feud going on. 

- a disciple of HBK should not have won the Owen. Even if you didn’t want to give it to Dax, anyone but Cole. Fuck that.

- not making coffee mugs of Pentagon’s mask!!!!! What the fuck

- where’s my Lucha Express cartoon?

- Cody’s stipulation. Either have him win then and be the super face we see him as now or don’t have the stip so he’d be in the mix later. 

- CM Punk. Mentioning him again. Hire better HR or something to make everyone friends. I loved his AEW run so much. Ugh I’m drinking vodka and sprite with lemon juice right now and I keep thinking back to wishing we had more Punk in AEW. Ugh.

right now I’m making Jack’s pizza. I put a bunch of spicy stuff on it and I also made Chicken Nuggets I cut up and put Nashville seasoning on and put it on the pizza. Im ready. 

idk. Im in a weird spot with AEW and things in general. Even talking about it. Maybe I need a break. Maybe I’m too negative. Or too positive. Or not enough of both. 
 

https://i.ibb.co/Zd4pXw0/4-E6821-B5-50-E4-4-E09-94-CA-508-DEFB882-CE.jpg

Edited October 19, 2024 by Octopus

[The Green Meanie]

Hhhhhhhh.....this is a subject that gets to me at times, I've got a couple of things we never got:

- What did Tazz say/do to convince Hobbs to join Team Tazz?
- What happened to Tazz's ongoing litigation toward Dante Martin?
- Speaking of Hobbs, what exactly was the reasoning behind Mox wanting to team up with him and Darby that one time? Mox gave a great speech about Hobbs that sounded like he knew more about him by more then just watching his matches; I was very intrigued where that was possibly going to go.
- They never pulled the trigger on Hangman joining The Dark Order, and subsequently, The Dark Order never got to mention to Hangman what a BAD FRIEND HE IS.

For stuff that hasn't happened yet and still could:

- Will MJF ever get his comeuppance on The Undisputed Kingdom? It seems like they've pivoted and tried to make Adam Cole sympathetic, but we don't have short memories on things like this.
- BCC/Pac
- Jack Perry, Luchasaurs/Killswitch & Christian. I know this is on hold due Killswitch's medical issues, they met briefly once but one or both of them have to acknowledge Perry's new behavior. Christian has an opportunity to tell people that he was right about Perry all along and that he was rotten back when he was a face, and that he really was telling the truth. We still don't know what exactly Christian holds over Killswitch, because everytime it looks like Killswitch is going to turn, something stops him. Christian once whispered something in his ear during what I thought was the strongest moment which stopped him, and we still don't know what that was.

Edited October 19, 2024 by The Green Meanie

[The Natural]

On 10/18/2024 at 12:22 AM, Phantom Lord said:

Bryan should have won the World title at Grand Slam when he and Moxley had that match for the vacant title.

That's my biggest one.

There's something I never thought of until your post, we probably missed out on Bryan Danielson vs. CM Punk at AEW All Out 2022 in Chicago. Bryan Danielson, the AEW World Champion vs. CM Punk, who had to vacate due to a broken foot. Really sucks we never had that match.

Edited October 19, 2024 by The Natural

[The Natural]

On 10/17/2024 at 6:26 PM, StuntmanCrowley said:

Tony Khan not immediately addressing the Punk/Elite blowup and leaving an incredible bit of business in the pantheon of "What Ifs"  I'm no Punk guy, but I was and still am beating down the door for a Punk/Omega match.  The mileage that could've been gotten out of that real life event is staggering with all of the threads.  I'm still bitter at Punk and the Bucks over it truthfully, but TK as much as I defend him failed miserably as a owner and leader in that issue.

This is a huge one. Great promos by Punk, great matches and missing making out of money. You're right Punk, the Bucks and Tony Khan are to blame for that.