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AEW - MAY 2021


Casey

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6 hours ago, alstein said:

Ren Narita is getting a match on DARK this week.

 

This was advertised, but I just scanned through the show and didn’t see the match anywhere.  Am I blind?  Insane?

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56 minutes ago, zendragon said:

I know who he is but I have no idea about his music. sure people know these guys but lets no assume that everyone knows everything

Fair enough... I mean, I don't know every indie wrestler...

But, let's say there's a hypothetical "AEW fan who never watches any Japanese wrestling" sitting in front of his TV on a random Wednesday night. And Kaze ni nare starts playing.

Now, for that fan (or for @zendragon) the music itself sparks no reaction.

But... a lot of people in the crowd are popping like crazy, marking right out. So, regardless, it's going to have the TV viewer's attention. Obviously, something good is about to happen.

Then, MiSu comes out, scowling, black towel over his head, pointing at whoever is in the ring. 

So then our hypothetical @zendragon is going to be all "OK, Minoru Suzuki in AEW. That should be good" and even our hypothetical fan who has never seen a Japanese match can probably pick up on what's about to happen. 

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone is going to be thinking "I don't know who that is," reaching for their remote, and hoping there is something that they've seen before on another channel. 

If AEW had prepped everyone in advance you'd get a different reaction, with almost everyone watching knowing the music already and having a clear idea what to expect when Suzuki hits the ring. So, that's also good and exciting but it isn't always necessarily going to be better than the "Oh, F***! Something is about to go down and I don't know what it is but I can tell it's going to be good!" type of reaction. 

Both are good. There is room for both.  

Edited by El Gran Gordi
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5 hours ago, El Gran Gordi said:

 

Man... "AEW fans don't know who legendary Japanese wrestlers are" is a genuinely terrible take. We all heard the pop that Nagata got, and the crowd reacting when he went for the arm bar. Surely we haven't forgotten that Omega, Cody, The Bucks, Jericho, Mox, Archer, Pac, and more all have close ties to New Japan and that it was a bunch of "big in Japan, but not stars over here" guys who sold  out an arena and earned the company a TV deal in the first place.

@Goodear: Did you not know who Yuji Nagata was? Would you really think "Who is this guy?" if MiSu showed up unannounced? I doubt it. The half-million casual fans who watch Dynamite regularly but would change the channel in confusion if, say, Tomohiro Ishii (or Kyoko Inoue or Kikutaro or Lulu Pencil or Ken the Box) showed up out of the blue are an imaginary construct. 

As @Curt McGirt correctly pointed out, "casual wrestling fan" is pretty much an imaginary construct these days.

Everyone's a "smark" now.

That being said, I'm not in any way opposed to using video packages to build up new-to-AEW wrestlers coming from overseas or the indies or wherever, or new-to-Dynamite people making the jump from the youtube shows. It would be fine to do that more often, but it's by no means necessary. On the upside video packages build hype and anticipation, on the downside you spoil the surprise, and risk pandering to the LCD and insulting the intelligence of your hardcore audience.

*Shakuhachi music playing* "Hailing from the exotic orient, Kota Ibushi *graphic: 飯伏幸太 Ibushi Kōta* is a master of the mysterious martial arts signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling *graphic: stock footage of neon lights and busy streets in Tokyo, then a shot of a temple or shrine and a cherry blossom tree * Many of you will no doubt be astonished to learn that this foreigner from a far-away land once teamed with AEW Champion Kenny Omega *graphic of Omega and Ibushi adorably cuddling* as the Golden☆Lovers..."

 

Hell I haven't seen Yuji Nagata in about 20 years. If it wasn't for his WCW run it would have been just like 91 WCW with Rude and Sting fighting Chono... A dude that is supposedly big in Japan but I have no reason to really care about him.

MiSu registers a little less than Nagata... And that's only because of his wackadoodle haircut. He's not Fat Japanese Elvis or Yakuza looking dude, or green mist spitting dude with the awesome moo Sault & elbow drops. He's ⚽ ball haircut dude.

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11 hours ago, EVA said:

This was advertised, but I just scanned through the show and didn’t see the match anywhere.  Am I blind?  Insane?

No, a Ren Narita match was announced, as was one with Danny Limelight. Neither aired.

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7 hours ago, DangerMark said:

Minoru Suzuki walking out and doing Minoru Suzuki things to Cody until he gets either bewildered or dead enough to shut up and take his paternity leave would be amazing. 

Cody hamfistedly trying to figure out a way to cut an anti-Japan jingostic promo would be worth it.  Didn't Dusty cut a promo about computers taking jobs?  I know Pillman referenced American car industry workers losing jobs because of Japanese cars in his initial program with Liger, which is hilariously 80s/early 90s.  Cody could just borrow from these promos like it's not 2021.

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4 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Didn't Dusty cut a promo about computers taking jobs?

It's literally a line in the "Hard Times" promo. It wasn't a stupid line, either, obviously the automation of labor in the Reagan days meant the boss got the job done cheaper and the average joes got fired. It stood next to some yucky sentiments - the Japanese auto industry taking away from the US' being a sort of postwar "revenge", the computer industry being seen as a dangerous Eastern entity, the idea that the US was borrowing a more cold, efficient, dehumanizing factory culture that was somehow Japan's idea first. And yeah, there's tons of anti-Japanese economic rhetoric in interpromotional interviews of the era, quite possibly being cut by the sons of people who served in WWII and took those prejudices home with them.

That "a computer took your job" Dusty line worked, though. It's a perfect example of how to appeal to the plight of the working man without being a douche about it. It's a perfect example of how to make a political and economic statement fit within the context of a wrestling promo. Cody knows it can be done, he just can't do it.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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This move is weird. TNT was in need of anything that drew eyeballs, they have it, and then they decide to move it to TBS? And also, putting AEW Rampage on TNT? On Fridays? Seems like the smarter move would be to keep Dynamite on TNT and put Rampage on TBS.

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