AEW Dynamite - 4/22/2020

[LoneWolf&Subs]

Looking at Augustus record. No wonder I’ve barely heard of him. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

14 minutes ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Looking at Augustus record. No wonder I’ve barely heard of him. 

He's one of the few guys, in his prime at least, where you can throw out records because it just doesn't matter with him.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

Like a boxing Clay Guida.

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Like a boxing Clay Guida.

I dunno if there is a good 1:1 comparison for him.

[AxB]

One of the things people hated about UFC 's Reebok deal was the fact that it put everyone in the same outfit and took away their individuality. It also stopped them from them from doing fancy ring entrances like Tom Lawlor as the Shockmaster or that Japanese dude who was Diana Ross and the Supremes that one time.

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, AxB said:

One of the things people hated about UFC 's Reebok deal was the fact that it put everyone in the same outfit and took away their individuality.

To be honest, 90% of fighters were coming out in the same shorts and sponsor t-shirts anyway. Of course, you get a Donald Cerrone with his old Thai shorts cut up and spliced together with his board shorts or an Anderson Silva. However, those dudes were few and far between and it was usually the stars anyway. I think the biggest hit was the loss in extra income for the fighters if anything. And unlike in boxing, UFC wasn't going to help in production or in leveraging those elements anyway. So you're just watching someone like a Tom Lawlor do something goofy walking down a plain entrance way and it fail to resonate with anyone. The funny part is if you look at how elaborate Israel Adesanya's last couple entrances (especially the one in the giant stadium vs. Robert Whittaker) have been or Conor's entrances, they've done more in the Reebok era then before the sponsor ban/end of sponsor banners/Reebok/USADA era in the summer of 2015. Of course, it helps they loosened a lot of restrictions so people are doing stuff at the weigh-ins and entrances unlike at the start. In addition, the uniforms are at least not as bland as the first round of stuff in 2015.

1 hour ago, AxB said:

that Japanese dude who was Diana Ross and the Supremes that one time.

I like how he did the entrance, and you couldn't even remember that it was Akihiro Gono that did it. Apparently, it was THAT memorable. Case closed.  

FWIW Gono's last UFC appearance was at GSP vs. Penn II which itself was a lifetime ago (Barack Obama had been only technically POTUS for less than two weeks...think about that), and his very next fight was perhaps the scariest KO loss I've seen in MMA vs. Dan Hornbuckle in Sengoku where I thought he legit died. 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Elsalvajeloco

[LoneWolf&Subs]

I wonder what the individual gear would’ve looked like in a post-Affliction MMA world.

[AxB]

I remember where he did it (the O2 London England), it was a lifetime ago, and UFC aren't very good at making midcarders distinguishable or memorable. Although that might be that anyone who has midcard fighting ability and a main event mouth ends up headlining in title fights they don't really deserve on merit.

[Elsalvajeloco]

24 minutes ago, AxB said:

I remember where he did it (the O2 London England), it was a lifetime ago, and UFC aren't very good at making midcarders distinguishable or memorable. Although that might be that anyone who has midcard fighting ability and a main event mouth ends up headlining in title fights they don't really deserve on merit.

It depends on what you mean because the fighters bear some of that responsibility, but I agree somewhat that was issue for a number of years. However, I mean you have some mean crazy personalities in like the last five years that certain people can't help stand out. From Sage Northcutt to Mike Perry to Derrick Lewis who is a 24/7 meme machine to Ion Cutelaba painting himself green like the Hulk to Angela Hill and Roxy wearing a bunch of nerdy comic book cosplay stuff. You got people like Bryce Mitchell and the ultra adorable Amanda Ribas (and to be fair to your point, Ribas probably won't be a midcarder much longer) as well. It's much less of an issue now because people are deliberately making an effort and trying to be over the top to stand out. 

And to bring this back to wrestling and how this discussion started, it's not like they're (the UFC) putting out a weekly product anyway or a brand new company like an AEW. They're firmly established and entrenched so they feel like they don't have to put in more effort than they have to. Even though Joe Silva was a giant pro wrestling fan, when they (the Fertittas) were losing money after first buying UFC, they scaled back all the elements you would generally associate with pro wrestling (the ramp, the pyro, the music, etc.) to save money and disassociate themselves with pro wrestling (which would turn out super ironic given how UFC would take off a couple years later). Boxing was never really anti-wrestling elements that I can remember, which is why I stated that boxing is a bad example of that.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Elsalvajeloco

[Elsalvajeloco]

23 minutes ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

I wonder what the individual gear would’ve looked like in a post-Affliction MMA world.

Judging by Bellator...still the same just with less foil t-shirts companies and Condom Depot patches.

[Curt McGirt]

I still think the funniest gear I've ever seen was Tom Lawlor coming out in Bloodsport 2 wearing trunks with Durex on the front, Pampers on the back, and assorted other name brands. I was dying trying to read that shit. 

[Technico Support]

18 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

I still think the funniest gear I've ever seen was Tom Lawlor coming out in Bloodsport 2 wearing trunks with Durex on the front, Pampers on the back, and assorted other name brands. I was dying trying to read that shit. 

I was just watching MLW last night and he was wearing tights designed to look like daisy dukes.  Dude is a treasure.