AEW TV - 4/16 - 4/22/2025 - The Hook Brings You Back

[Dolfan in NYC]

It doesn't matter what I say, so long as I sing with inflection. That makes you feel I'll convey, some inner truth or vast reflection...

Well, life continues under the brutal regime that AEW now has at its head.  Yes, who will be the one to defeat the wicked and evil champion... of course I'm referring to Timeless Toni Storm. Because as the other threads prove, the Death Riders are the best thing in wrestling since Sliced Bread (#2!)

 

But I've said nothing so far. And I can keep it up for as long as it takes... And it don't matter who you are, if I'm doing my job, it's your resolve that breaks.

So, what happened last week?  MJF wants friends all of a sudden?  I mean, that didn't work out so well last time. 

Also, the Young Bucks want to be friends to the Death Riders?  Hmm... that's - as the kids say - Sus.  (Though it would be hilarious if they inadvertently turned the DR face because, you know, The Jackson brothers.)

Meanwhile on the other show... Boy howdy, Schiavone really was feeling his oats until... you know, consequences almost happened.

 

Man... don't talk about someone's kids unless you want your neck compressed.

 Because the Hook brings you back, I ain't tellin' you no lie... The Hook brings you back... On that you can rely!

This week... Trios titles! Osperay/Konesuke in a pairing that shouldn't rhyme but does!  And Mercedes vs. Athena will have you over the Moon!  AND COLLISION ON THURSDAY!  (YOU'RE NOT GETTING OUT OF EASTER FAMILY OBLIGATIONS THAT EASY PAL!)

 

 

(A *deeply* angry, meta song about songwriting that somehow became a hit.  The 90s man... what an odd time.)

Enjoy the week!

[Curt McGirt]

1 hour ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

(A *deeply* angry, meta song about songwriting that somehow became a hit.  The 90s man... what an odd time.)

Shit. I must've heard that 1000 times (my folks even bought the CD, and they never bought any music) and all these years later I finally have found appeciation for it. 

There was a lot of '90s music that made me feel like it didn't matter what you said but the hook brought you back, at least it seemed to me. That seemed like the only thing that mattered. And I hated it. 

[AxB]

Definitely a better song than Zero by The Smashing Pumpkins.

[Technico Support]

I enjoyed harder Pumpkins stuff like Zero and Bullet with Butterfly Wings more than morose songs like Today and Disarm.  Then again, I thought Broken was worlds better than Pretty Hate Machine, if we’re talking 90s alternative hot takes.

[Dolfan in NYC]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

I enjoyed harder Pumpkins stuff like Zero and Bullet with Butterfly Wings more than morose songs like Today and Disarm.  Then again, I thought Broken was worlds better than Pretty Hate Machine, if we’re talking 90s alternative hot takes.

Hot take....   "Eye" is a top 5 SP song.  

[Technico Support]

10 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Hot take....   "Eye" is a top 5 SP song.  

It is!

[Casey]

I liked Zwan more than the Smashing Pumpkins.

*dodges tomatoes*

[Phantom Lord]

12 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Also, the Young Bucks want to be friends to the Death Riders?  Hmm... that's - as the kids say - Sus.  (Though it would be hilarious if they inadvertently turned the DR face because, you know, The Jackson brothers.)

 

I shouldn't laugh, but there's a good chance AEW would be tone deaf enough to do that.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

5 hours ago, Technico Support said:

I enjoyed harder Pumpkins stuff like Zero and Bullet with Butterfly Wings more than morose songs like Today and Disarm.  Then again, I thought Broken was worlds better than Pretty Hate Machine, if we’re talking 90s alternative hot takes.

Broken was worlds better than Pretty Hate Machine. 

[Kevin Wilson]

3 minutes ago, Phantom Lord said:

I shouldn't laugh, but there's a good chance AEW would be tone deaf enough to do that.

Part of me thinks, as dumb as this all is, they will still keep The Elite and DR separate and ending Dynasty in such an unfulfilling way was just to re-introduce them as bad guys. DR + Elite is too many people (at least eight, maybe nine if Perry returns), even if they did Anarchy or B&G its still too many unless a few sit out. I think they will keep Omega/Page/Swerve focused on The Elite (they need to pivot Swerve from Mox so that Mox can get into his next feud) and not involve DR much. Or that's just wishful thinking since I don't like super big heel groups, didn't like it in 1997, don't like it now.

[The Green Meanie]

Weren't we told (behind the scenes, that is) that The Bucks lost to Private Party so that they would come back later and "save the company" from the Death Riders? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

[HarryArchieGus]

11 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Hot take....   "Eye" is a top 5 SP song.  

11 hours ago, Technico Support said:

It is!

Not a hot take, but ranking it number 1 might be. I'll rank it number 1. 

7 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Broken was worlds better than Pretty Hate Machine. 

C'mon, apples and oranges. Both delicious and nutricious. Do we all feel similarily about the latter day smash 'She's Gone Away'? The 'performance at the roadhouse' was a highlight (of many many) from Twin Peaks-the Return. 

[The Natural]

Most looking forward to Mercedes Mone vs. Athena. Big match that. Be interesting to see the Wild Card vs. Hangman Adam Page.

[Log]

2 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:

The 'performance at the roadhouse' was a highlight (of many many) from Twin Peaks-the Return. 

"The" Nine Inch Nails.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

15 hours ago, Casey said:

I liked Zwan more than the Smashing Pumpkins.

*dodges tomatoes*

 

17 hours ago, Technico Support said:

I enjoyed harder Pumpkins stuff like Zero and Bullet with Butterfly Wings more than morose songs like Today and Disarm.  Then again, I thought Broken was worlds better than Pretty Hate Machine, if we’re talking 90s alternative hot takes.

Lots of good discussion in this thread! I honestly love Zwan. It's a guitar freak record. 

Broken is a perfect ep. PHM is great but they are completely different beasts. PHM sounds like an angstier version of early Depeche Mode (a good thing!)

Like every Wednesday,  I close so I'll watch tomorrow and avoid this thread until then. I do hope they somehow get Toni on commentary for one match tonight.  

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

 

Lots of good discussion in this thread! I honestly love Zwan. It's a guitar freak record. 

Broken is a perfect ep. PHM is great but they are completely different beasts. PHM sounds like an angstier version of early Depeche Mode (a good thing!)

Like every Wednesday,  I close so I'll watch tomorrow and avoid this thread until then. I do hope they somehow get Toni on commentary for one match tonight.  

PHM was amazing to angsty me at 16.  Looking back, it’s uneven and Trent sounds whiny when he actually tries to sing.  “Well you got me working so hard lateleeeeeeeeee” he just sounds like a nasal little weenie.  Yet the 1 2 3 punch of Head Like a Hold, Terrible Lie, and Down In It (throw Sin in there, too!) are just unfuckwithable.  Broken, OTOH, just goes hard as fuck start to finish, including the bonus tracks.

Edited April 16 by Technico Support

[RazorbladeKiss87]

At the risk of turning this into the music thread (again), hard agree on some aspects of PHM not aging well as I near my 40s but when my older brother gave me it I thought Trent was speaking to teenage me. Sin will always be a favorite thanks to it being my older brother's favorite and I still want to get the Sin logo tattooed on me in tribute to him. 

Up to and including With Teeth, NIN have very few missteps,  to me. Year Zero was a big miss and the Ghosts stuff makes good background music.  I haven't heard anything after. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

31 minutes ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

At the risk of turning this into the music thread (again), hard agree on some aspects of PHM not aging well as I near my 40s but when my older brother gave me it I thought Trent was speaking to teenage me. Sin will always be a favorite thanks to it being my older brother's favorite and I still want to get the Sin logo tattooed on me in tribute to him. 

Up to and including With Teeth, NIN have very few missteps,  to me. Year Zero was a big miss and the Ghosts stuff makes good background music.  I haven't heard anything after. 

Chances are if you've seen a movie since 2002, you've heard everything after. 

Also, NIN is doing the Tron 2025 score/soundtrack.  (Notable because Trent is saying NIN, not Reznor/Ross.)

[Casey]

2 hours ago, Technico Support said:

PHM was amazing to angsty me at 16.  Looking back, it’s uneven and Trent sounds whiny when he actually tries to sing.  “Well you got me working so hard lateleeeeeeeeee” he just sounds like a nasal little weenie.  Yet the 1 2 3 punch of Head Like a Hold, Terrible Lie, and Down In It (throw Sin in there, too!) are just unfuckwithable.  Broken, OTOH, just goes hard as fuck start to finish, including the bonus tracks.

The best thing about Pretty Hate Machine were the demos left on the cutting room floor. Maybe Just Once is unironically one of my favorite NIN songs, and I’m a NIN freak. They’re my favorite band of all time.

1 hour ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

At the risk of turning this into the music thread (again), hard agree on some aspects of PHM not aging well as I near my 40s but when my older brother gave me it I thought Trent was speaking to teenage me. Sin will always be a favorite thanks to it being my older brother's favorite and I still want to get the Sin logo tattooed on me in tribute to him. 

Up to and including With Teeth, NIN have very few missteps,  to me. Year Zero was a big miss and the Ghosts stuff makes good background music.  I haven't heard anything after. 

Year Zero is probably my favorite album of theirs, actually. It’s probably because I was knee deep in my super fandom when it released, participated in the online part of the massive ARG they were doing, and as someone just getting involved with politics around 07/08, it spoke to me.

The three NIN EPs that were released 5ish years ago, and stuff like How to Destroy Angels, don’t touch the older material but they all have their bright spots IMO.

Hey anyway I heard Dynamite has a big milestone and it’s Fuck You Eric Bischoff night tonight.

[caley]

They should actually bring Bischoff out (The heat would be NUCLEAR) then have someone popular (Hook, Toni, Swerve, Darby) run him out of the arena. It would be a great moment and I'm sure Bischoff would do it for any amount of money.

[Zimbra]

11 minutes ago, caley said:

They should actually bring Bischoff out (The heat would be NUCLEAR) then have someone popular (Hook, Toni, Swerve, Darby) run him out of the arena. It would be a great moment and I'm sure Bischoff would do it for any amount of money.

Run back the Ricky Starks/Liger thing and have Bischoff there to congratulate TK and get big timed instead.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Didn't Bischoff get thrown out into a pile of garbage at One Night Stand '05? I'd like to see that again.

[HarryArchieGus]

5 hours ago, Technico Support said:

PHM was amazing to angsty me at 16.  Looking back, it’s uneven and Trent sounds whiny when he actually tries to sing.  “Well you got me working so hard lateleeeeeeeeee” he just sounds like a nasal little weenie.  Yet the 1 2 3 punch of Head Like a Hold, Terrible Lie, and Down In It (throw Sin in there, too!) are just unfuckwithable.  Broken, OTOH, just goes hard as fuck start to finish, including the bonus tracks.

I can't say I haven't thought the same about Pretty Hate over the years. I don't anymore tho. I've come to thoroughly love that skinny fishnet clad androgny as I did when I was a teen. That said, if it's modern day jacked up Trent singing that stuff - I would probably agree. 

2 hours ago, Casey said:

The best thing about Pretty Hate Machine were the demos left on the cutting room floor. Maybe Just Once is unironically one of my favorite NIN songs, and I’m a NIN freak. They’re my favorite band of all time.

A bold call there. I wore out my CDr of 'Purest Feeling'. If we're digging in deep, 'Now I'm Nothing' from the 1991 live bootlegs is amongst my favorites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Xp-DluqmQ

Also a huge fan of the Closer to God EP. The Memorobilia Soft Cell cover is probably the NIN song I go back to the most. 

Note: I just took Fixed for a spin, and probably still prefer it in many ways to the Broken ep. I also just saw a matinee screening of Lost Highway; which, as we all know, features some nice Trent/Peter Christopherson drones and a fun little edit of Perfect Drug. 

Edited April 16 by HarryArchieGus

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Staying on the subject of NIN, my favorite of the remix albums is probably "Further Down the Spiral". If I want a nice mix from different eras of NIN, I'll pop in the live album "...And All That Could Have Been".

[HarryArchieGus]

Quote

* AEW World Trios Championships: Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Wheeler Yuta) (c) vs. The Opps (Samoa Joe, HOOK, & Katsuyori Shibata)
* Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Semifinal Match: Mercedes Mone vs. Athena
* Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Hangman Page vs. Wild Card
* Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Semifinal Match: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Will Ospreay
* AEW World Tag Team Championships: The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin) (c) vs. The Gates of Agony

I like this line-up. Even if it's a complete disaster, I wanna know what Hurt Syndicate v GOA looks like. Death Riders v Opps should be a helluva tilt. Takeshita v Ospreay comes with some lofty expectations. I doubt they'll have any trouble meeting them. I also suspect Mercedes v Athena will be a whole lotta fun. Hanger v Wild Card is the dark horse. I'd love to see it be Josh Alexander. I definitely want to see Alexander v Hanger. It could also be Jungle. I probably like that match more than most. Interested to see how back to back nights work out for them. I've enjoyed the Dynamite/Collison 2 night concept in a live capacity a couple times now. Three if I include a Saturday Night Collision and the Forbidden Door. 'I want to watch it come down'.