MoS

I LOVE long Loss's posts. AEW when it started had a buffet approach where they said they had something for every kind of fan. That's okay when a new promotion is trying to establish a foothold, but 1.5 years later, they have established themselves, they have a core fanbase, and now they need a coherent sense of identity. It's one reason why I feel its booking has been really inconsistent throughout the last few months, since Mox's title reign ended, honestly. As Loss put it, pick a lane and stick to it.

I have never understood this. The worst of Steph is worse than the worst of Shane, but Steph's highs destroys his highs, and 2014-16 run aside, her work was much better as a chickenshit heel in the attitude era than Shane-o-Mac doing his stupid dance steps and going toe-to-toe with Rock

Their viewership was well below what it should have been on the fallout Dynamite from their biggest show ever. There's no denying that the damp squib hurt them. It's about rebuilding now, and they made a good first step yesterday night.

This remains a fantastic thread and here's my contribution to it:

Miz will be Edward won't he

I thought the Darby Allin-Scorpio Sky match was the best, but Fenix-Matt also had a tremendous match. We also need to think about how amazing Kingston is. He managed to explain his actions by telling everyone he had a panic attack, which in the hypermasculine world of professional wrestling, will be thought of as cowardly by so many wrestlers and fans, and somehow not just make it a babyface move, but also normalise it as something everyone has, no matter how strong. My man is destigmatizing mental health issues, and I love him for it

Yeah they balanced out the Christian being the star and Mox and Kingston his openers by putting the focus on MJF (and Sammy really) and destroying Chris Jericho, that obvious crash pad aside. If Christian is a stop-gap feud as they continue to build Omega and his minions v. Mox/Kingston, then fair enough, but this night's booking wasn't a good sign. Otherwise, a really good episode of Dynamite. Showcased some of AEW's greatest strengths and got Mox and King to partially salvage Sunday's debacle.

Mox and Kingston being the prelude to Christian's big slow main event entrance is the most TNA thing about Dynamite I have seen till now. This is not a good look

Should happen every time JR speaks, like earlier today when he forgot the super complicated name "Lucha Bros"

PENTA has such a charismatic presence, it's a shame they had done both Fenix and PENTA a disservice by continuing to pair them up

I might be biased as a King fan, but he somehow semi-salvaged this?! And blaming IMPACT for it was gold. They do need to still finish it nicely though, that promo by itself isn't enough. Moxs' wink after the "If you have a weapon, use it " line is a hopeful sign

This "he didn't hook the leg" is becoming a commentary clutch. Excalibur mentioned it about Fenix's pin on Matt. Fenix didn't hook the legs because he was pinning Matt's further arm and shoulder. It might be picking nits, but it makes the pinning wrestler look sloppy, and doesn't highlight the amazing achievement that kicking out of it was.

Yeah I think the same. Wrestling fans might mock you mercilessly, but they are also forgiving in general if you don't feed them bullshit. ECW managed to recover from two such failed explosions. WCW's biggest moments came AFTER similarly embarrassing misfires like Shockmaster. But they have to not bullshit the fans or insult their intelligence. If you do that for an extended period of time, fans absolutely will leave you, like we saw with WCW and WWE for the last 20 years or so

In fairness to him, I think he was a bigger star than D-Von Dudley so there's that

How do they address the biggest, most embarrassing both in their history? Apologise and move on? Try to work it in a storyline? Double down on it? Pray?

Hey man, one's man's cowardice is another man's smartness #IntelligentBabyfacesFTW

The only retcon even slightly conceivable is them saying Mox realised Kenny fucked up and whispered to Eddie to play dead so Kenny and the Dork Brothers didn't return to finish them off. Of course that wouldn't explain why the announcers treated this like they just saw Misawa die in the ring

Tony apologising for it and Kingston cutting a promo where he makes a kayfabe explanation is the best way to move forward I would think. I mentioned in the beginning of this thread that I have thought that AEW's booking has been inconsistent for a while now. Hopefully this means they never hotshot a gimmick match to heat up a cold PPV and instead allow booking and stories to sell the PPV. Doing the former instead of the latter means that you always rely on the gimmickry failing and you having nothing to back it up. Good booking, on the other hand, always allows you to have a backup.

Between this shit and the biggest star of all time being Christian, AEW's credibility and rep as non-bullshitters took a severe hit tonight

That was the worst explosion I have ever seen. It's a shame cuz I thought the match was great

That non-kickout kickout was brilliant

This cinematic match was good but it featured too much Sting, too little Darby