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AEW - DEC 2021


The Natural

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AEW's terrific year comes to a close. With a month left, here's my awards which could change:

Wrestler of the Year: Bryan Danielson. Amazing giving it to someone with three soon to be four months in AEW than somebody who's had a whole year. The classic vs. Kenny Omega in Danielson's first AEW match I gave *****, ditto for vs. Minoru Suzuki and nearly did vs. Eddie Kingston as well. Danielson is my worldwide WOTY as well.

Match of the Year: Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson, AEW Dynamite Grand Slam. It's my worldwide MOTY as well.

Tag Team of the Year: #FTR. My Tag Team of the Year for any promotion.

Card of the Year: All Out. My Card of the Year from any company.

Women's Wrestler of the Year: Dr Britt Baker narrowly over Serena Deeb.

Best Promos: CM Punk or Eddie Kingston. I'll have to pick one, not sure which yet.

Sting deserved a special award, he proved a lot of people wrong myself included when he wrestled. Sting had numerous tag team matches this year with Darby Allin, the best was vs. #FTR at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam. Honourable mention to Allin/Sting vs. Scorpio Sky/Ethan Page at Double or Nothing.

Edited by The Natural
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7 minutes ago, alstein said:

Agreed on all of those except WOTY, which I give to Rosa.

 

 

 

Thank you for agreeing on all but one. Shit, I forgot about Thunder Rosa. Both Rosa and Britt were in my Women's Match of the Year, the Light's Out match on AEW Dynamite, 17th March. Gave it ***** and for a while it was my Worldwide Match of the Year.

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1 hour ago, The Green Meanie said:

WOTY is either Punk or Danielson. Rosa is no where near the top.

I think the "W" in that case was "Woman" not "Wrestler"

Danielson has been amazing, but I don't really see an argument for anyone but Kenny as AEW wrestler of the year.

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AEW Dark 11/30/21

Bear Country vs Wardlow/Spears: This one was going to give me the strength to make it through. I enjoyed the proper test of strength and Wardlow scooping legs out because he's a heel. Bear Country made a pretty good face unit here. There's no reason they couldn't have been Heavy Machinery in another world, basically. Wardlow constantly scooping low to get pick ups worked bigtime. It fell apart too much at the end to the point where you got the sense no one knew who the legal man was, which is just a bridge too far in these matches. Up until then it was good though and the finish was beautiful.

KiLynn King vs Renee Michelle: Michelle certainly made her presence known vocally. She didn't have a lot else going for her as King made short work of her. I'd say that King's finish would work better with a sit out, but I imagine someone else on the huge roster does it that way as it's a peak 2001 indy move. (EDIT: Griff does it later for a two count; not the guy I was expecting).

Santana/Ortiz vs Gore/De La Vega: I begrudgingly like Ortiz and Santana having a bunch of different structures to their squashes. This had a little more ducking out and under and switching around. It's when they just hit one double team after the other that it gets frustrating.

Skye Blue vs La Rosa Negra: Lots of spin kicks from about half the women's roster. Some things seemed maybe a half step off, like that body press, but if things being a little off make them seem more impactful, why not, right? On the other hand, maybe Skye Blue should never try to actually pick up her opponent?

Reed vs Angels: I continue to like Angels. Wearing the mask to the ring and then taking it off is a good compromise. He has snap, hits stuff well, is a sympathetic seller. The finisher is goofy, but this shined him up well to get eaten alive by Danielson. Reed had some fun rope assisted stuff.

Ryo Mizunami vs Dani Jordyn: The burn book is a really good piece of business for an enhancement talent. Lanny Poffo good. And she used it well for the cheapshot, but then Ryo just steamrolled her. She's just really fun to watch. I imagine she's a lot of fun to watch live. There aren't too many AEW wrestlers I regret that I can't see live, but Ryo's up there. Just electric.

Butcher vs Martinez: Excalibur no selling Taz saying he was 6'5" was funny. Butcher dismantling Martinez was not funny. More grisly. Butcher is one of those guys I think should be winning matches in a minute when possible. You know what he's capable of. You only need to see a little of it.

Julia Hart vs Nikita Knight: I'm glad we didn't lose the camera angle on Hart getting planted. It's pro wrestling. We're supposed to see this stuff. She was super stiff after that too, especially the shot in the corner. At some point all the split offense gets a little silly because it's hard to suspend disbelief on why it'd make something more and not less impactful. I'm sure there's some perfect split-enhanced move out there waiting to be discovered but it's not the bulldog.

Ray Jaz vs Infinito: If Fuego 2's more like a Tinieblas Jr then Infinitio felt more Dos Caras-esque. Very generic 1980s luchador. He kept it very simple but everything was smooth. Nothing fancy. Fun though. I was expecting some more tricked out Hechicero stuff for some reason though. So far, I like the Fuego 2 act more, but I do appreciate the commitment and restraint.    

Leyla Hirsch vs Sahara Seven: I want to see Hirsch vs Deeb. Do you guys want to see Hirsch vs Deeb? In some of her matches, she really doesn't get to show off on the mat and she got to do so more here. She's maybe the best trash talker on the roster too. Almost everything was set up by her saying something. She portrays well the ability to back it up too.

Varsity Blonds vs Comoroto/Solo: AEW Dark Purgatory would be a feud between Solo and Reynolds. I like Griff a lot and Comoroto is basically my favorite guy in the company. While I like the idea of the Blonds as a tag team with 1990 offense and the idea of Pillman in general, man do you ever see the strings with him. I don't know when it's going to click, if it will ever click, so that he can let go and just be instead of trying so hard, but I do hope it happens for him. My guess is that he's a more natural heel and that's how it's going to work out for him, at first at least. Hot tag wasn't so hot but I did like the tag later on back to Pillman. Comoroto's spear was amazing. Let's just focus on that.

Nese vs James: A few small things that Nese did here that I liked. He had a good cut off punch early. I liked the slingshot splash instead of the moonsault. It still gets over his skill/slickness without being such a babyface move. He killed time between moves pretty well and I'm all for a chinlock to get a babyface some hope in 2021 since it's not in 1/5th of matches, let alone every match like thirty years ago. I liked his Elevation finisher better than the knee but it's a trickier move to set up and maybe less warranted. The roster's so big that I'm not sure what to even do with a guy like Nese. I could see him as a minion for Danielson though.

Hardy/Johl vs Black/Agballah: Poor Johl. On the AEW podcast, they had Hardy do word association for every member of HFO and he missed Johl completely. I don't know if it was laid out that way on purpose but he ate an early exploder which might have been a kayfabe inexperience thing. Who knows? If so, I appreciate it. The fireman's carry facebuster thing he did was ghastly. Good reactions from Johl to Hardy's antics in the last minute. Agballah's spinning, kneeling lariat looked like it had a great wind up, but the camera cut makes me think the impact wasn't quite there.

Fuego vs Page: Fun TV match. I liked the early transitions on the outside, with Page taking too long to jaw with the crowd and Fuego going for the Tornado DDT too early. Nice cutoffs and hope spots after that, playing into the familiarity as both guys went for their finish and just couldn't get it. It felt a little anti-climactic in the end, which is weird given that it was a reversed top rope move into a big slam that set it up. Maybe I'm just used to one more twist around the finish. That's a 2021 expectation problem, not an overall match layout problem.

Cole vs Greene: Can we talk a minute about the t-shirt? The fans badly want Cole to love them. They want to feel like they're part of whatever he's doing. They sing along with the catch phrase. They feel like he's cool and they want the validation of being cool too. So he teases the t-shirt and then doesn't give it to them, shattering the illusion. Sort of, as they still chant along with him the four more times he does the catch phrase early which comes off as co-dependent and a little sad since he's obviously spurning them. So then Greene knocks him out of the ring, teases the T-shirt and gives it to the fans (he may have overshot the throw but that's not intentional). So in the end, he's giving them what Cole wouldn't give them, but it's not as if he's giving them something of his own, but instead they're getting Cole's shirt, which they earnestly want... but what they really wanted was Cole to give it to them. They didn't start booing him. They didn't stop chanting along with him. If they had turned on him and then got the shirt, it would have been one thing, but they never turned. They never stopped wanting his love. In giving the fans the shirt but not Cole's love, they're provided a tainted object, something that will only poison them for having it and Greene, in providing it to them instead of giving them something more worthwhile, healthy, and validating, did them harm despite his good, babyface intentions. Maybe they think that deep down, the character of Adam Cole really wanted them to have the shirt, but his arrogance and pride and associations in life wouldn't let him give it to them, and that's why he allowed Green to do it, but that would be a harmful lie. Of course, the greater self-aware notion is that they're aware that Austin Jenkins, who plays Adam Cole, is really a very nice guy and he wanted them to have the shirt, but because they're aware of this, the illusion is all messed up and the sort of heat that he's trying to generate for his character is disrupted and the whole thing is a hot mess. But that's just wrestling in 2021 for you. He should probably either be a face or find some way to not mix his messages for the crowd. I sort of tuned out the match after the shirt thing. Sorry.

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29 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Leyla Hirsch vs Sahara Seven: I want to see Hirsch vs Deeb. Do you guys want to see Hirsch vs Deeb? 

Uhhhhhhh.... YEAH!

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Adam Cole used the duality thing Matt talked about to his advantage and attempted to heel the crowd into cheering for Greene, simply because Cole knew the crowd loved him and would do what he asked them to do despite him being the designated bad guy.  It was totally fucking great.

Yeah, I wanna see Deeb vs. Hirsch.

Edited by J.T.
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1 minute ago, J.T. said:

Adam Cole used the duality thing Matt talked about to his advantage and attempted to heel the crowd into cheering for Greene, simply because Cole knew the crowd loved him and would do what he asked them to do despite him being the designated bad guy.  It was totally fucking great.

Yeah, I wanna see Deeb vs. Hirsch,

Yeah, is Greene Adam Cole's best friend?  That was an astoundingly intricate effort by one guy to get another guy over.  It was masterful.

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3 minutes ago, DEAN said:

Yeah, is Greene Adam Cole's best friend?  That was an astoundingly intricate effort by one guy to get another guy over.

I am not sure if they are friends, but Cole sold just as much for JOTS Anthony Greene on YouTube as he did for Kyle fucking O'Reilly in a USA Network main event.

Cole: "Give it up, Greene.  NO ONE HERE IS GOING TO CHEER FOR YOU~!"

Crowd:  *begins chanting for Anthony Greene*

Edited by J.T.
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So, Matt.   Whose ring attire earned the most snickers from you?

Was it Baron Black's Legend of Zelda / Skyward Sword gear or was it Anthony Greene's pants that may have been loaned to him by the Young Bucks after a quick bezazzle job from Matt Hardy?

I can accept Sonny Kiss coming to the ring wearing sequins.  Anthony Greene, not so much.  I suppose I should be thankful his boots weren't adorned with a million tassels.

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I'm ok if gear matches a character. Greene is the retrosexual or what not.

Ryo's gear is great. Everything else is kind of a blur. It was a ton of matches.

I think they can actually do something with Black, but I'm not sure what. Maybe add him to Jade's entourage, since he's assuredly far smaller than she is and would make her look even bigger by comparison.

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And yeah, it was cool to see Julia Hart lose her temper and work stiff after being nearly killed, but her strict adherence to the splits related offense for the sake of her cheerleader gimmick was a bit much... even though her gigantic hairbow is adorable.

The whole point of a Bulldog Headlock is to drive your opponent's face straight into the mat and it just seems like dropping into the splits would protect your victim from the worse part of the impact.

If she must include the splits as a part of her finisher, I think she should just use the splits assisted Ace Crusher she "borrowed" from Sonny Kiss or incorporate the splits into a Rude Awakening style neckbreaker.   I could probably buy into one of those moves somehow becoming death after Julia just suddenly drops straight down and jars the spine of the victim against her shoulder.

Also she is a cheerleader.  I need to see more evasion gymnastics or tumbling whether it be flips, cartwheels, or forward rolls and definitely more kicks to the face.

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18 minutes ago, J.T. said:

And yeah, it was cool to see Julia Hart lose her temper and work stiff after being nearly killed, but her strict adherence to the splits related offense for the sake of her cheerleader gimmick was a bit much... even though her gigantic hairbow is adorable.

The whole point of a Bulldog Headlock is to drive your opponent's face straight into the mat and it just seems like dropping into the splits would protect your victim from the worse part of the impact.

If she must include the splits as a part of her finisher, I think she should just use the splits assisted Ace Crusher she "borrowed" from Sonny Kiss or incorporate the splits into a Rude Awakening style neckbreaker.   I could probably buy into one of those moves somehow becoming death after Julia just suddenly drops straight down and jars the spine of the victim against her shoulder.

Also she is a cheerleader.  I need to see more evasion gymnastics or tumbling whether it be flips, cartwheels, or forward rolls and definitely more kicks to the face.

A Splits assiated jawbreaker would be pretty cool for a convoluted finish.

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1 hour ago, Matt D said:

Cole vs Greene: Can we talk a minute about the t-shirt? The fans badly want Cole to love them. They want to feel like they're part of whatever he's doing. They sing along with the catch phrase. They feel like he's cool and they want the validation of being cool too. So he teases the t-shirt and then doesn't give it to them, shattering the illusion. Sort of, as they still chant along with him the four more times he does the catch phrase early which comes off as co-dependent and a little sad since he's obviously spurning them. So then Greene knocks him out of the ring, teases the T-shirt and gives it to the fans (he may have overshot the throw but that's not intentional). So in the end, he's giving them what Cole wouldn't give them, but it's not as if he's giving them something of his own, but instead they're getting Cole's shirt, which they earnestly want... but what they really wanted was Cole to give it to them. They didn't start booing him. They didn't stop chanting along with him. If they had turned on him and then got the shirt, it would have been one thing, but they never turned. They never stopped wanting his love. In giving the fans the shirt but not Cole's love, they're provided a tainted object, something that will only poison them for having it and Greene, in providing it to them instead of giving them something more worthwhile, healthy, and validating, did them harm despite his good, babyface intentions. Maybe they think that deep down, the character of Adam Cole really wanted them to have the shirt, but his arrogance and pride and associations in life wouldn't let him give it to them, and that's why he allowed Green to do it, but that would be a harmful lie. Of course, the greater self-aware notion is that they're aware that Austin Jenkins, who plays Adam Cole, is really a very nice guy and he wanted them to have the shirt, but because they're aware of this, the illusion is all messed up and the sort of heat that he's trying to generate for his character is disrupted and the whole thing is a hot mess. But that's just wrestling in 2021 for you. He should probably either be a face or find some way to not mix his messages for the crowd. I sort of tuned out the match after the shirt thing. Sorry.

Man, that brings a tear to a glass eye.  I really hope he one day becomes a face but if the rumors of Mt. Rushmore are to be believed then he's going to be a heel for quite some time.  I think the shirt idea was misguided but like the idea that Adam wants them to chant along to feed his massive ego.  His character couldn't care less about the fans so long as in his mind they play their part.  But unless he drops the Chugs Twitch stream and acts like a scumbag in interviews this is how it's gonna be until his eventual face turn.

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Honestly, Wrestler if the year is tough. Match-wise I’m leaning towards Danielson, despite such a short run so far. But more than that, Omega represented the company so well with his heel work. I loved his promos and enjoyed each time he was on the screen. So I’m going Omega. 
 

I’m still thinking on the other ones.

More categories:

Most improved?

Mr & Mrs Dark?

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9 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

A Splits assiated jawbreaker would be pretty cool for a convoluted finish.

It at least feeds into pro wrestling physics with Julia using herself as a fulcrum and generating sudden impact as she drops into the splits and shocks the vertebrae or the nerve clusters behind the hinges of the jaw.

Gorilla Monsoon would approve of the implied kayfabe effect on the human anatomy.

Edited by J.T.
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Just now, J.T. said:

It at least feeds into pro wrestling physics with Julia using herself as a fulcrum and generating sudden impact as she drops into the splits and shocks the vertebrae or the nerve clusters behind the hinges of the jaw.

Gorilla Monsoon would approve of the implied kayfabe effect on the anatomy.

I think you can somehow argue that the split allows Julia to sink her shoulders more to dip down lower and add an extra couple of inches of recoil/impact/dropping which would work well with a jawbreaker actually, but it's a stretch. And we're kind of overthinking it. Maybe the issue is more that one split move is ok but three split moves are not okay and the bulldog doesn't have as much impact as other things she could do and doesn't look all that great. 

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10 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I think you can somehow argue that the split allows Julia to sink her shoulders more to dip down lower and add an extra couple of inches of recoil/impact/dropping which would work well with a jawbreaker actually, but it's a stretch. And we're kind of overthinking it. Maybe the issue is more that one split move is ok but three split moves are not okay and the bulldog doesn't have as much impact as other things she could do and doesn't look all that great. 

I think there are kayfabe things to consider when modifying a move and whether or not your modification actually adds something or is business exposing.  I am old, but I still have to tumble with everyone else in BJJ class and your body resists itself whenever you go to the ground.  Dropping into the splits while trying to hit a Bulldog just eases your opponent to the mat. 

You're just not using your weight effectively to generate downward force in that manner.  A jawbreaker, cutter, or neckbreaker hit while doing the splits makes more kayfabe sense to me and I am paid very well to overthink things.  It's my job.  How else do you account for every possible way a bored Soldier can ruin a war game simulation at three in the morning?

"I wonder what would happen if I put ten thousand trucks into this resupply convoy?  Maybe I should magically give myself all the ammo in the world?"

And yeah, she shouldn't be chaining like three or four splits moves in her transition offense.  One is perfectly fine.

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3 hours ago, J.T. said:

I am not sure if they are friends, but Cole sold just as much for JOTS Anthony Greene on YouTube as he did for Kyle fucking O'Reilly in a USA Network main event.

Cole: "Give it up, Greene.  NO ONE HERE IS GOING TO CHEER FOR YOU~!"

Crowd:  *begins chanting for Anthony Greene*

I'm not an insider, but I wonder if some of these guys just get a kick out of that studio wrestling format. Like, Adam Cole was doing his best "Paul Orndorff at Center Stage on Techwood Dr. in 1994" impression. It could be as simple as Cole turning to whoever in the locker room and going "watch this shit." But the 80's heeling was on full display, and I was there for it. I actually enjoyed that more than anything Cole's done in 5 years, besides the street fight vs. Jurassic Express/Christian.

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