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AEW Dynamite - 10/21/2020


Dolfan in NYC

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Wardlow is billed from Cleveland Ohio, not Pittsburgh. So possibly WWE thinks that everyone from that bit of Ohio is either a Sami Callihan guy, or a Rickey Shane Page guy, so they didn't really look there.

1 hour ago, Craig H said:

Next thing you know during one of the PPVs or free B/R Live shows, they run a promo video for Wardlow. Anyone even remember that now? The promo video was Wardlow walking in a parking lot when a bunch of dudes try to jump him and he winds up destroying everyone.

He was walking on a street with a fine looking woman (who was Anna Jay) and beat up three guys (two of whom were Alan Angels and Lee Johnson).

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Never seen it. I just remember the ad campaign, and a skinny crazy kid in class re-enacting the throat slit gesture that Connick does in it.

Also kind of like I’ve never seen Double Jeopardy, but now I know what that phrase means. Copycat killers, now became a phrase children in school now knew about.

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I have not spent a ton of time on AEW. That's because I barely have time to keep up on wrestling I've been watching for decades. But I saw the musical number was blowing up, as was Omega's entrance. So my thoughts on it:

There is no bigger fan of wrestling ridiculousness than myself. I've gone on huge tangents about how maybe my favorite NXT match ever is Fandango/Summer vs. Emma/Santino. But in terms of wrestling -- it's ridiculous enough on its own that you don't need to break the fourth wall. Peak Ric Flair in the NWA bragging about his $10,000 shoes or whatever -- that is just completely insane and stupid and great. Or you shouldn't break the fourth wall. An example in terms of when wrestling is serious is when people say something like "I want in the 2015 Match of the Year!" I love the artistry of matches, but wrestlers should focus on the competitive aspects "I beat you in a war!" and not promoting their artistry. Because that makes the artistry work better. 

I saw some of the Jericho/MJF promos before. I really like MJF's stuff a lot. He's such a great, obnoxious rich brat and has an awesome Dead Poets Society look. Jericho really is on the short-list of best workers ever and always finds new stuff to do. But he definitely needs an editor. 

When he did all of his Japan stuff and wanted to do a Bruiser Brody tribute and have Japanese fans run away from him -- that's an awesome premise, but he lost sight that Bruiser Brody was a giant guy who looked like a serial killer and played violent drifter constantly. Jericho was in junior heavyweight matches in Japan and after a few decades of being either a fiery technician/conniving heel, trying to switch into an ultra-violent maniac isn't something you can just do. 

I really loved a lot of the execution of the Jericho/MJF date night. It was definitely a lot of fun to watch and really silly. But it really needs to depend on its bigger context for it to REALLY work. If they put it together as these two numbskulls wanting to do an obnoxious musical, then it really works. But if they don't put it into that context of it being in a wrestling context like that, then it's just these two guys showing off. It's fun, but does it add to what a payoff should be?

A great comparison was the Festival of Friendship thing Jericho did with KO. That was just as over-the-top and ridiculous. It had the same sort of premise behind the relationship -- Jericho's acting like KO is the coolest guy in the world and it's obvious KO's setting him up for the fall. And the one second Jericho turned away from being goofy, after this insanely long and ridiculous segment, KO beats the f'n crap out of him and it sets up their feud. It was in the context of wrestling. 

Even the Kenny Omega entrance had flaws. I loved the presentation. It was such a great douchebag self-serious heel act, complete with the La Parka-style dancing women. But the voiceover entrance had the Meltzer "star scale" shout-out that breaks the fourth wall too much for me. But then the humorous parts of it ("even wrestled in North Carolina") is too much of a knowing wink. It needs to be really pretentious like the "speaks Japanese so fluently that." An "even wrestling in North Carolina" line is something that should be a bragging point of some turd-style heel who thinks he's way more important than he is ala Cameron Grimes or early ECW Stevie Richards. If it's a dude who you're positioning as the best wrestler alive, make it as overly smug and pompous as possible. 

Also, I really don't want to hear JR and Tony Schiavvone together. They are both play-by-play commentators. Their role is to drive the narrative of the story that's unfolding on the audience, with the color commentator adding in some kind of expertise that explains what's happening (especially in discussing why the heel is acting that way). Both of those guys just step on each other. Just get one of them to do it.

Or, even better, get someone new and fresh. One of the reasons why ECW broke out in 1994 was because the presentation was so different. That included Joey Styles as the one-man announcer/proxy for the audience at home who was awesome at telling the narrative and the motivations. I think a new voice would go such a long way for AEW. That template also worked really well for NXT's development -- Corey Graves, Renee Young, etc. 

On a positive note: Eddie Kingston makes me want to see that match. That dude rules so much. I loved in the one promo where he admitted he's a bad person but explained why -- it's the only way he can get opportunities. 

I'll probably be putting in more time into AEW. But there are definitely a lot of flaws that I think are being overlooked because it's a new thing and not the WWE. 

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1 hour ago, For Great Justice said:

We can rag on JR's commentary during Wardlow's match last night but he's 100% right that a big, athletic, handsome dude that puts the best squash match in the world on TV right now (IMO) and looks good in a suit...there is always a place for that guy to make big money in pro wrestling. 

Plus, at least half the posts about him in this thread seem to be about how WWE missed out on him. So he was obviously on the same wave length as most people.

But I agree you can almost see the money falling from the sky when he’s in the ring. Unless they bungle things in epic fashion they should eventually make a fortune with him.

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3 hours ago, Craig H said:

Meltzer is out of his fucking mind arguing that Kenny wasn't acting like a heel last night. 

It's always wild when Meltz is just MISSING things. Be that a mild joke by Alvarez or stuff like this with Kenny, and sometimes he just drills in, "no, he hugged him. he has the star entrance..."

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3 hours ago, For Great Justice said:

Having slept on it, I'm going to make my 100th post in this thread to stake a claim for this as the most complete show in the company's run so far. It had everything and would serve as a most excellent sampler platter in response to an alien coming to earth and asked "what is pro wrestling?"

No fooling! So much variety on this show! Speed vs Power, brother vs brother, a squash with a near-perfect intro and post-match, a straightforward fast paced match with a sick highspot, musical comedy (!), a solid ladies match with an up and comer vs an absolute rising star, an entertaining OTT spotfest main event, character development, story progression, Kingston on commentary, a great set up for next week...

I thought I might be burned out on wrestling after watching so much of the G1, but I enjoyed the hell out of this show.

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1 minute ago, Valcourt said:

It's always wild when Meltz is just MISSING things. Be that a mild joke by Alvarez or stuff like this with Kenny, and sometimes he just drills in, "no, he hugged him. he has the star entrance..."

Yeah, exactly. I don't know how he misses shit that is so obvious. I also envy Alvarez's patience with him and his ability to let things go.

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1 hour ago, Casey said:

I’m pretty sure @paintedbynumbers was talking up Wardlow a lot when his first vignette aired over a year ago.

I don’t think he was ever signed with WWE either.

this is true.  I've known Wardlow since his first pro match.  He is an awesome guy outside of wrestling, he just came back to his home promotion 2 weeks ago to work a show for free.  You won't find many guys better than Wardlow. He was in a viral video working Jack Pollock in a cage match where they did a spot and both went through the ring. Outside of that and the appearance on Undercover Boss he had been Pittsburgh's best kept secret.  Justin Labar was his manager for quite awhile.  Interestingly Justin had worked on Chairshot Reality with Brit and both are now with AEW.  

Couldnt be happier for Wardlow and I still will stand by his Swanton as the best in wrestling today 

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WWE had Wardlow in the sense they got a real good look at him and passed.... for some reason. He filmed a segment for the WWE Undercover Boss where he taught "Stephanie" to wrestle, but they cut it from the show. He still got a performance center tryout out of the deal. But they didnt sign him. A huge miss on their end in my opinion.

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Another guy you should all put eyes on is a wrestler by the name of Bulk Nasty.  The guy had a classic with Wardlow and  Wardlow is pushing to get him into AEW.  The guy is ridiculously strong and is over huge.  

 

Wardlow was asked to pick his Dark opponent and wanted Bulk but was told it would be a squash more or less so he picked Man Dime Elijah Dean. I believe that Bulk will be in AEW within the next year.  

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6 minutes ago, paintedbynumbers said:

Another guy you should all put eyes on is a wrestler by the name of Bulk Nasty.  The guy had a classic with Wardlow and  Wardlow is pushing to get him into AEW.  The guy is ridiculously strong and is over huge.  

 

Wardlow was asked to pick his Dark opponent and wanted Bulk but was told it would be a squash more or less so he picked Man Dime Elijah Dean. I believe that Bulk will be in AEW within the next year.  

I have not seen a second of him in the ring, but I looked up his Twitter and I hope he gets signed based on this alone:

 

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1 minute ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

I have not seen a second of him in the ring, but I looked up his Twitter and I hope he gets signed based on this alone:

 

i don't want to sound partial but so many have come from IWC here in Pittsburgh.  Graves, DJ Z,   Elias, Brit, Wardlow,  and they also were the first promotion to buy a plane ticket for Punk and Cabana.  Bulk is hilarious on twitter, amazing talent, he's the guy you want in your locker room.   I have known him and his brother since he started tearing tickets prior to wrestling. Another great guy.   I know AEW has a stacked tag division but look up The Mane Event.  These guys are incredibly atheltic and they have one of the best tag team finishes I've seen in years. They were recently at the performance center as well.  I could see them in NXT/WWE  but Bulk is 100% an AEW guy and will be there by the end of 2021. 

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1 minute ago, EVA said:

I’m not sure how, but I guess I missed the part where Reynolds got knocked out and was basically unconscious in the ring FOREVER with everybody ignoring him and doing spots around him.  Not great!

I missed it live but seeing the video going around it looks really bad. The ref didn't throw the X up, you have one of the Bucks landing on him.  Luckily he is ok but it could have ended very badly. 

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51 minutes ago, Valcourt said:

Wardlow would be a "miss" for the WWE if they knew how to use him. They can't Use Keith Lee correctly and JUST figured out Reigns.

Good point.  He'd be at the Performance Center and NXT "learning how to work" for a few of his prime years, then he might get something before Vince tired of him in the requisite three weeks.

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24 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Good point.  He'd be at the Performance Center and NXT "learning how to work" for a few of his prime years, then he might get something before Vince tired of him in the requisite three weeks.

which makes me wonder if Vince has seen Brian Cage?  You would think he would be his ideal body guy.  Shit, Brian Cage could help the revival of WBF

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As everyone has said, great episode with great wrestling and better promos. Mox and Kingston are killing it every week, it’s really a shame they don’t have full crowds because the reactions would be off the charts. I don’t think they’ll pull the trigger but an Eddie Kingston reign, even a short one, would be so much fun and show how not-WWE they are.

Wardlow/Jungleboy was one of those matches that seem like a preview for a PPV main event in a few years (but I thought that about Jason Jordan/Big Cass too so...). Both men have huge futures ahead of them. Breaking away from MJF is good for Wardlow, there’s a part of me that wants him to win the whole tournament to make Max jealous. Omega also looked great, I missed his introduction due to work but his mannerisms during the match itself were spot on.

Britt has been fantastic in the ring since coming back to match her backstage stuff. And I agree, sign KiLynn King, she’s been good on Dark with everyone from Brandi to Nyla Rose and was really good here too.

The booking around the Bucks has been confusing. I get that they’ve been frustrated with their lack of success and acted out like teens about it, why should I cheer them for that? Especially against FTR, even though they attacked them. I mean, if Tully had said, “That was for Schiavone” they’d almost be the faces. I did really like Dax and Cash’s reaction to the win on commentary.

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1 hour ago, Craig H said:

Count me in for also not noticing until I heard Alvarez mention it this morning. I went back to look and, yep, he was out cold.

They’ve had some bad moments recently with stuff like that. I can understand cuts. But you’re playing with fire when it comes to concussions.

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20 minutes ago, paintedbynumbers said:

which makes me wonder if Vince has seen Brian Cage?  You would think he would be his ideal body guy.  Shit, Brian Cage could help the revival of WBF

I think it was from back when Cage was on Colt's podcast that Cage said he worked OVW and maybe FCW, or at least had a try out? He had a Wolverine looking gimmick. So, WWE had seen him for sure.

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1 hour ago, paintedbynumbers said:

which makes me wonder if Vince has seen Brian Cage?  You would think he would be his ideal body guy.  Shit, Brian Cage could help the revival of WBF

@Valcourt mentioned that Cage was with them in the FCW days.  In Vince's defense, Cage was smaller then ?   The plausible appearance of drug testing in WWE is probably another reason he's not there, as Cage himself has pretty much admitted to being on the gas.  I believe he once said his urine is probably radioactive.

BTW, You can tell Shawn Spears doesn't mean shit -- when it came to someone to help FTR with a beatdown, old-ass Tully did it.  That's hilarious.

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