Matt D

Interesting booking. They had to use Ruby there after her debut but it did seem too early. I could see them having her work her way back up the rankings in a few months, but this time with back-up to prevent the interference when a title change would be more organically timed.

They had a really fun match on Dark this week. Loved the hot tag to Sting in this one, and the finishing stretch after tags no longer were part of the tag match was too long but incredibly creative and really featured Sting in the best way.

FTR were having the time of their life feeding for Sting. It's fun how Darby uses his own body as a weapon. Have they ever had him face Serpentico who is used by others as a weapon? I'd watch that.

I am constantly impressed with the bench of matches that AEW has.

I missed the end of Pillman/MJF getting the kids to bed. I would have had Wardlow help MJF win and then have the Blonds win a subsequent tag match next week (because they're the more natural team). MJF is the stronger singles guy. Blonds end up elevated, MJF isn't hurt. I take it they aren't going that route.

Went back and forth with Loss on it. Maybe the most important thing for me watching wrestling at this stage of my life is immersion and commitment, being present in all aspects of the match. It's what drew me so much in with Bock and why I've spent the last year being so high on Tenryu. It's why I am not at all against you guys with Hansen even though I have my issues with him. And there's just none of that with Omega from what I've seen. Especially if this is him being on the good side. Loss called him a truly post-modern wrestler, always self-aware. He never seems in the moment to me, even when he's selling which is when some of this should drop if it's an act to get heat. I appreciate thought out match layouts and callback spots and earned counters, etc., and full credit for him if he's got that going, but I just can't believe anything about him. The good thing is that I've got so much other stuff to watch that it's not actually going to be an issue for me and I won't rain on your parade in other situations, so no worries there.

Shouldn’t these things inherently contradictory to a degree though?

I could be convinced that it's a complex heel act, where he's a guy pretending to be a guy pretending to be a wrestler and thus the double negative makes him an effective heel?

This is my third Omega match ever. Do people really enjoy his stuff enough that they put up with the mannerisms and the faces?

The craziest name for someone who was heavily presented in wrestling history is Paul E Dangerously.

QT really needs to work 20% more like a manager, no matter his background. If he's going to have a role on the show, he's valuable as a more chickenshit figure who is still dangerous when other people create opportunities for him. I'd absolutely like to see what sort of creativity Danielson would utilize vs a QT who wrestles a little more like that.

If true, that feels more of an issue about Reigns vs Lashley vs Big E than Alexa and Charlotte.

Just proof that we are equally as dogged about getting new footage. They did say in the thread they're going to post this stuff for free to everyone though.

They just responded with this: so, something to learn certainly, but don't think we'll be getting any full gems here. I mean, every moment of Johnny Valentine footage is worth having so I won't complain.

Hopefully something substantial.

Cage doesn't carry himself as anything other than a random meat heat Pretty sure Meat Heat is what Stasiak got for secretly recording people backstage.

It was maybe nine months and Pillman spent the first few of those learning how to be a heel so that tracks.

You could do a medium length Danielson reign with the Elite as a unit being too much for him, leading to Omega getting it back. The story could be that Danielson might have had Omega’s number but it’s Page who has the Elite’s.

Given the pace of the shows and how quickly the announcers move on to the next thing, I think it’ll be subconsciously obvious to most viewers that if someone or something is getting that TV time then they matter. I do think they should be using their YouTube channel to get people up to speed on some things right now though. Have a familiar guy like Wight or Henry or Christian (but obviously not Punk or Bryan) create a minute or two intro bumper for some of the best and most important matches/moments in company history and make a curated series out of it to on-ramp interested new fans.

I’m not super worried about it either. I’m just thinking that for the chosen one, he’s extremely absent and the top of the card is filling up with superstars. It’s hard to say how to fix that when they’re already overpacking their shows though.

Not derailing the thread but this is fun:

Uh oh. More cuts coming.

One thing with Page. They've picked up a bunch of new fans over the last two or three weeks I imagine. I doubt any of them even know who Page is since he's been totally off TV and not referenced and isn't any sort of national name. I mean, I barely have any real idea of who Page is. He's sort of like a modern day Cowboy James Storm that drinks and hangs out with the Dark Order?

I was talking to Loss about this and his feeling is that in AEW the people make the belts as opposed to the belts making the people. That said you can only end Miro's dominant reign for the first time once. If they were to have Kingston beat him and then him win it back, the way to do it would be to add something to his act in that second encounter to heat him back up (akin to how Diesel debuted to help Michaels retake the IC belt from Jannetty), like, I don't know, CJ Perry.

I think the way to go is having some sort of unsanctioned “lights out” match where the title isn’t on the line and put Kingston over. That’s how they used to end feuds when they wanted the babyface to go over but not take the belt off the heel.