Matt D

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.

I just don’t see Eddie as the guy they want to take the belt off Miro. It would be a good moment but he doesn’t need the win and the belt as much as someone else on the roster might.

The good thing is that 18-49 year olds know how to find shows on TV.

If that challenge is to Mox and Kingston, that’s one I’m excited for.

Give it two days and we'll either know or we won't.

Been working through Elevation. The Tony/Kingston/Wight team reminds me in spirit (if not in specifics) of a Tony/Dusty/Zbyszko sort of team. More references to old wrestlers and playing around with actual names instead of Dusty making shit up, but still that same sort of fun dynamic. I like @Goodear's All Wrestling (No Elite) strategy in consuming A(E)W and the webshows feels the best way to really lean into that.

And Embry!

Only person to get actual heat and not “supportive heat.”

Hansen is entirely dependent upon his opponent for a match to be good. Lawler can make anything work.

Having spent so long in 89 AJPW now, I don’t know if I’d feel the same. I’d rewatch at some point. I will Say that what makes Hansen special isn’t always good for his matches.

More of a Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon gimmick then.

I thought Hardy looked pretty good in there considering what I was expecting. I mean other than getting his face crushed. That match was about my speed.

Hey this is a favorite of mine:

Let me tread carefully as I'm only casually following all of this, but one of the greatest strengths of AEW is the use of enhancement talent on their youtube shows to help build their midcarders and the sheer variety of talent they have either at their fingertips or under contract in order to keep match-ups fresh. If they can afford it, they're much better off cycling wrestlers off in an "off-season" sort of format or using them in non-wrestling/promotional roles (like how Kingston announces). There are probably some other things they could do, like create six-man belts, but in general, they're far, far better off using a large roster to protect talent and keep talent fresh.

This show deserves the commission shutting them down at midnight on the dot.

For the sake of his health, Goldberg should probably only wrestle guys like Rollins, Styles, or Zayn who will be able to really go up for him on everything.

I’d rather watch Edge vs Rollins than listen to a Kane political speech.

I’d rather watch Kane vs literally anyone than Edge vs Rollins

Cutting time from Edge/Rollins as they’re going over is the best thing that could happen for the match.

It’s not about Becky or Bianca fans. It’s about fans who are going to turn on the company for pulling this again. They’re going to turn on whatever WWE will try to feed them.

There are arguments about how this could be the start of a longer story like all of the bullshit we’ve gotten before (and Christian going heel was bullshit) but if they try to turn Bianca heel off of this, they’re going to just turn crowds against Becky and dilute her star power.