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AEW - SEP 2021


The Natural

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15 hours ago, Matt D said:

Anyway, RSP. So he wrestles as a corrupt judge who feigns polio and uses a cane as a weapon in Olde Wrestling. Do you guys know about this? A little goes a long way in watching it but it led me to check out Segunda Caida favorites, the boys from Jollyville as the Jollyville Jeepers, Clean and Jerk, and it's awesome to see those guys interacting with kids and what not considering their usual setting. Anyway, this was great and I'd love to see a match like this once a month or so.

He had a really fun comedy match against Will Wrestle at IWTV's Family Reunion show during Wrestlemania weekend. Will Wrestle is a hobo character (Will Wrestle 4 Food) and it was built around him continually taking a dollar bill out of Judge Hugo's pocket.

RSP is great

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These Universal Studios Dark shows have been a lot of fun.  I echo the praise for Starks v Lockhart, Kiera Hogan (and her signing), and the Bononi-Jaoude team.  Private Party looked good too.  Isiah Cassidy in particular has really improved his game.  Haven't watched the Martin/Sydal-Factory bout yet.  Looking forward to their match with Johnson/Rhodes on Dynamite.  

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Jaoude’s okay… He’s like a male Tay Conti, but without the “TV camera is in love with you” charisma. It’s cool to see Bononi try out a different personality for once. Maybe he should lean into the martial arts a bit more, instead of just power moves. Get in some Muay Thai knees in between the throws.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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21 hours ago, christopher.annino said:

 

All in all it makes things all the more exciting to be a wrestling fan again, whether you are watching the world's biggest sports entertainment promotion introducing new stars and taking risks again, or the rapidly rising new kid on the block, while also having a wealth of smaller televised and independent promotions thriving. 

?

I was kinda thinking about how WWE has rebranded NXT away from being "super indie". AEW has done a really good job of finding its own lane, And I actually think NXT is smart to get out of that lane. More promotions should try being something different (what ever that is) rather than say TNA in the early to mid 2000 trying to be WWE Lite 

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13 hours ago, AxB said:

Ricky Starks vs Darius Lockhart was like the FTR vs Rogers/Green match from last week. A long, competitive match that wasn't the squash you were expecting. They should probably consider signing Darius, he's really good.

Just watched it, was surprised at how competitive it was, good stuff.

 

I liked that one Tazz’s explanations for Ricky being in trouble during the match was because “Team Tazz was out all night partying with the Micky Mouse”

 

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1 hour ago, eikerir said:

Just watched it, was surprised at how competitive it was, good stuff.

 

I liked that one Tazz’s explanations for Ricky being in trouble during the match was because “Team Tazz was out all night partying with the Micky Mouse”

 

That's hilarious. Cheers. Always liked Taz's commentary. Taz, Don Callis and Excalibur are my favourite AEW commentators with an honourable mention to Tony Schiavone.

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2 minutes ago, Jiji said:

The Mall of America talk has me hopeful it happens one day mostly for Best Friends coming out with the Luger Nitro debut collarless dress shirt. Stuff of legends.

@John from CincinnatiI expect full weekly breakdowns of Rhodes to the Top. 

I bought two collarless shirts in 1995 at Abercrombie in Towson Town Center and I thought I was the most stylish, sexiest motherfucker around.

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9 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

I bought two collarless shirts in 1995 at Abercrombie in Towson Town Center and I thought I was the most stylish, sexiest motherfucker around.

I had a brown plaid collarless shirt when I first went to college in 97. They were definitely a 90’s thing!

I’m glad camera phones were not a thing back in the day!!!

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Dark 9/28/21

Thunder Rosa vs Nikita Knight: Is Knight actually a rookie? As in first match rookie. Because if so, this was a hell of a debut for her. This is what google's telling me. I thought she moved really well in there with none of that hesitation or awkwardness I've seen in some of the other Rosa enhancement matches. Maybe one reversal off a whip in the center of the ring into a knee that could have been a little bit better but a lot of it really came off as struggle instead of awkwardness. Sometimes, it looks real because it is real because of inexperience or uncooperativeness, but this seemed pretty good all around. I loved the eyerake on the top ropes. I liked how aggressive she was in the ropes. Maybe they kept it a little more simple because she was knew, more strike based for instance, but I thought the initial matwork worked well too exactly because it wasn't so smooth. The dropkick to the chest from Rosa works a lot better in the corner than in the ropes. The necktie seemed just a little off but Knight should be proud of herself for this one and it's a feather in the cap of Rosa too.

Private Party vs Carlie Bravo and JDX: I'm high on Private Party in these Dark matches. Great engagement. They let the characters drive the action, both in how they got clowned early and how pissed off Kassidy was when they got the offense back. They got it back after a very good transition with Quen coming in out of nowhere. Like I said, they came off as pissed and that gave all of the cutesy tandem offense a real edge to it, which isn't an easy task. Bravo and JDX had some fun combos and plenty of charisma but the crowd wasn't exactly feeling the USA chant. I haven't actually seen Party in a real match yet but I enjoy their enhancement work certainly.

Hogan vs Grey: My first look at Hogan. I know she had a tag run in TNA that people liked and I can see her as a pretty good face-in-peril from the little I saw here. That's the case with these matches. You only get glimpses of a total wrestler, but I liked her selling, especially on the strike exchange. The kick out of nowhere is a good finisher but only if it's sold that way and treated that way and I don't think the announcers put it over enough. Camera work missed the abrupt dropkicks. Nothing to really say about Grey here (I didn't love how she hit the ropes with her hand leading but I'm not going to harp on that every time I see it).

10 vs Gore: Is Gore just big or is Vance not as big as I thought he was? I guess Gore is big. Good for him. He still got a little too much here. You want Vance dominating a little more cleanly. I didn't mind Gore's first bit of offense because it let Vance come back with the charge into the corner but they went around a little too much after that, including the bit of playing possum that just didn't add much to the match. They should have probably sold Gore's size a little more on commentary and made the pop up power bomb not just dominating but a physical feat of strength.

Bononi/Jaoude vs Ryzin/St. Patrick: "Legit combat sports athlete" is not a good way to introduce someone in a pro wrestling match. I get that it's 2021, but come on. That makes wrestling subconsciously look inferior. "Legitimate, not like this hokey bullshit," you mean? Of course then they cut to Ryzin with his red rooster mohawk and... ah, nevermind. Then, the first thing Jaoude does with his combat sports background? A legdrop. Awesome. He does move around in there a little different and that's interesting to watch. I wouldn't mind seeing him against a guy like Black (or Danielson, of course, but that's everyone). Ryzin killing himself on that bossman slam type move by Bononi was funny because the physics are all off. Bononi has an unfortunate Test element to him where he's a big guy who does big things but they don't necessarily look and feel big. St. Patrick really went flying on the pumphandle throw though. I don't know? Are these guys signed because there's a Brazil TV deal or something?

Archer vs Singh: Archer's pretty ideal for a studio wrestlers with the creative starts to the matches and talking to the camera and just beating a guy around the ring. The bell ringing so late was funny. I thought Archer almost rolled his ankle walking over Singh after the match which would be a uniquely stupid way to injure yourself.

Starks vs Lockhart: I've never actually seen Starks before. I'd like to see Starks' entrance in front of a crowd. The music is definitely different. I'm immediately intrigued by Lockhart's Tenryu tribute with the tights. He's a ton of fun on the mat right from that get go. That back bridge on the pretzel hammerlock thing is not something I've seen before, I think. Starks is extremely present in his reactions and very giving early on. I liked his selling of the fist after the punch and his pissy stomps later on. He comes off a little like a 2005 Rock clone but that's not necessarily a bad thing in 2021. He uses a lot of pre-2005 offense which is also sort of appreciated in that role. Lots of nonchalant biting which was sort of funny. Lockhart had a good back elbow and hit hard on his charging shots into the corner late in the match but he did not feel very Tenryu-y to me. You don't invoke his name if you're not going to walk up and kick some bastard in the face. I still liked him though. This was good. You guys know this was good.

Uno/Grayson vs Alanis/Gray: Alanis did little things I liked, working the apron and interacting with Gray. He didn't wow me in ring. Gray was all sorts of flopsy in how he took offense. I don't have a good sense of Grayson relatively. The PK/Pile Driver combo is a fun finisher though. Best part of this was Gray doing the Dark Order hand thing before the match. That was funny.

Julia vs Tahaka: I actually think Pillman lost on Dynamite because Julia didn't underscore her name on the entrance. She does here. I don't know. I thought it was funny that she missed the double knee moonsault, then sold broadly but not the knees and then remembered that she's a cheerleader and was supposed to smile all the time and just toughed through it. I have no idea if that's a character choice or what, but if it is they should establish it better. Takaha is best controlling the center of the ring with headbutts. Maybe Julia shouldn't be doing Alexa Bliss' Sparkle Splash (Twisted Bliss). Maybe? Her finishing flurry is good with the front handspring corner clothesline looking good, but they need to get the other angle on the split bulldog.

Bear Country vs Brick Aldridge and some other guy: Brick Aldridge is a pretty good NXT 2.0 name. This was good, of course. Bear Country is a very solid gatekeeper sort of tag team that a promotion should be glad to have. Against them, hope spots should be about misses and not hits. I don't think we needed Aldridge giving Boulder a belly to belly. Not sure if that's where he got hurt or not (hell, it might have been the missed moonsault that I just lauded structurally). Hopefully he's ok.

Sydal/Martin vs QT/Solo: Good to get some shine on Sydal/Martin before their highlight Dynamite match. I like the mishmash team approach. Very Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton. I haven't seen Sydal in years. I wonder if Martin was an Evan Bourne fan. This was fun, with Sydal looking like he's never missed a bet from ten years ago. He did a little bit of everything. I liked Solo's expressions as he got clowned in the opening chain wrestling and he was overall competent for the rest of the match. Good timing on the heel chicanery stuff. QT looked good basing for Sydal. I still hate that he uses the sitout powerbomb in his role. This had double heat with two good hot tags and Martin's flipping stunner is great but it's not a move he should do every match. That's really important. The opportunity has to exist and it shouldn't always exist. Finishing stretch was bombastic and fun. Nice WCW syndi show main event.

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1 hour ago, Matt D said:

I haven't seen Sydal in years. I wonder if Martin was an Evan Bourne fan.

Quick back story but yeah Dante was a fan of Sydal/Bourne which the announcers leaned into when they wrestled each other.  Since then they would save each other from beat downs and have since been teaming.  I'm not sure when Darius is returning but I would love to see those three do trios matches.

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1 hour ago, Matt D said:

Are these guys signed because there's a Brazil TV deal or something?

I believe neither are signed. Bononi is just getting a lot of work for somebody that isn’t signed by them. Maybe he hangs around tapings a lot, and they’re like “Hey, Bo, baby, ya wanna work a match”. 

And why he’s got the small big guy syndrome is probably the gear, and body. Cesaro has had that same issue for years. Lance Archer had that too, and then he put on 80 pounds of muscle.

I like Bononi a lot. If Tony Khan ever starts AEW Films, and buys the rights to William Lustig’s film catalog, Bononi is your Maniac Cop, right there.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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Tbh, if youve tried playing that thing, you probably wouldn't wanna read all that copy either. I had high hopes, but it's very weird and very buggy. I know Kenny Omega said in the past that the console game probably wouldn't have a GM-style mode, but I'm really hoping they reconsider that position now that Elite GM has been out for a while.

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On the flip side I saw the recent additions they put in and it has me wanting to play the game again.  I didn't find it buggy so much as without the challenges at the time it was just a meandering endless mode that needed more to it.  Hopefully this is enough to keep me playing for a bit though I think more can be done.

Oh, and in thinking about tonight I thought it was great that they had -1 in the game and he's got the same stats as his dad.  That's pretty sweet.

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39 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

Quick back story but yeah Dante was a fan of Sydal/Bourne which the announcers leaned into when they wrestled each other.  Since then they would save each other from beat downs and have since been teaming.  I'm not sure when Darius is returning but I would love to see those three do trios matches.

What about Dante & Matt vs Darius & Mike?

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2 minutes ago, Infinit said:

What about Dante & Matt vs Darius & Mike?

That works for me too and it's neat that once Darius comes back there's lots of possibilities to be done.  I like Dante more than Sydal at this point but everything involving them is worth keeping an eye on.

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20 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

On the flip side I saw the recent additions they put in and it has me wanting to play the game again.  I didn't find it buggy so much as without the challenges at the time it was just a meandering endless mode that needed more to it.  Hopefully this is enough to keep me playing for a bit though I think more can be done.

Oh, and in thinking about tonight I thought it was great that they had -1 in the game and he's got the same stats as his dad.  That's pretty sweet.

I had it really, really early on. Maybe I'll give it another shot this afternoon. I was under the mistaken impression the changes were just all cosmetic/animation based.

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36 minutes ago, Infinit said:

What about Dante & Matt vs Darius & Mike?

Reminds me of when the American Wolves had a brief split in ROH and started teaming with other dudes against each other.  I think it was something like Davey and Kyle O'Reilly vs Eddie & Roderick Strong but I could have that backwards or it could be some sort of fever dream.

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