Matt D

I am going to drop some stuff I've written over at DVDVR about incentives and chemical changes because they feel tangentially relevant. There's actually a lot to unpack there. There are maybe three different strands. Also note, I'm most interested in how wrestling matches are worked but the overall presentation and how angles operate are important too. Wrestlers being fans of wrestling who are in it because they are fans as opposed to people mainly trying to make a living. Current wrestlers growing up on post 1990 (or even post-2000) wrestling as opposed to older wrestling. The different incentives re: the fans and what draws. 1. is very similar to things we see in other mediums, be it genre writing or comics or animation or whatever else. Almost every stream of entertainment right now is "Fan fiction" to a degree in a way that it really wasn't in 1980 or whenever. 3 is mainly what I'm focused on however. Let's minimize the idea that people are wrestling for the sake of wrestling or having great matches for the sake of having great matches. In some ways, that'd be pulling wrestling even further away from the medium it once was and into something else. Let's assume that the point of pro wrestling is still to make money and as such, to get fans to spend money on a product. The way this was done changed over the years from just buying regular tickets to local shows, to buying tickets to more occasional nationally touring shows and merch, to paying for PPVs, to buying DVDs, to signing up for streaming. And that's important and it's also connected to the change, but I think we should be focusing on what drives fans to give up their money now relative to thirty years ago. In that regard the change is making money by creating heat and stoking emotions vs making money by supplying a stream of qualitatively, socially agreed upon, good matches.

I will say this: a soft brand split can work. I choose who to “work with” around here and what arguments to avoid and how to engage and I’m pretty happy. You end up watching someone work with himself in the end but that’s ok by me.

Slim J is the new fifth finger.

Working!

I'm just glad I'm not going to have to write up a bunch of Elite matches for Segunda Caida, honestly.

To me, this is not just an ok outcome, but probably the right outcome. Nice showcase match that lets Komander hit some impressive stuff, shows White as a threat in being able to still overcome despite that, sets up the next part of the angle, gives Komander some experience against someone in a different style and some rub by getting some shots in on the new star that come in. Maybe you even have Juice help Jay get a key advantage to show that Bullet Club Gold is a strong unit. Komander continues to be used as an attraction, in spotlights to get over what makes ROH matchups special or in a hyped exciting match for Rampage and the occasional Dynamite. Eventually, maybe he's cycled into some higher role/program where it might make sense somewhere down the line. I agree that if Jay just steamrolls him in two or three minutes, it's not a great outcome. I'm honestly curious about what scenario you might prefer to what I spelled out though.

Hopefully someone like Kommander working wrestlers who wrestle a bunch of different styles with guys like Dustin, Lynn, and Buck helping out will round him out a bit over time. Also, re: Ziggler/Nese, I haven't seen any of his stuff for at least five years, but I'd actually say that I was expecting Nese to be a lot MORE like Ziggler. Dolph is a guy who is always going to go out and try to steal the show, no matter if that serves the overall needs of the match/program. Nese is a guy who will focus what he's doing for the sake of the match and isn't afraid to not get in all of his stuff for the sake of what he's trying to accomplish. I was expecting him to be a crossfit workrate guy and he can do that but he's a lot more.

I think we mostly all want Punk back from an in ring product. But that doesn't mean we can't talk about Nese too, especially as a mid-card JTTS in ROH, basically the world's best 1991 Paul Roma. One great thing about AEW is that it produces a lot of wrestling. One great thing about this community is that we've always been interested in talking about not just Jumbo Tsuruta vs Genichiro Tenryu but also Tenryu's January 1990 one month feud with Isao Takagi. I could write six paragraphs on Serpentico, easy, and another four on Angelico. I have a ton I could say about Skye Blue or Alex Reynolds/John Silver or Kip Sabian. That's always been part of the fun of it.

I’ll spare you guys the fantasy card I had brainstormed over at DVDVR, but I had PAC challenging (and beating) Hobbs for the TNT title on it.

It goes back to people complaining about Swerve losing on Weds. You need guys who can lose. Nese at least does so while trying to work the crowd, fit his stuff into his opponents' with the sort of learned psychology and natural feeling counters I've always really liked, and get actual heat and not just show off. I think it's a big difference to see something like Stu Grayson vs Tony Nese relative to the line up we have ahead of us for next Thursday where 5+ of the matches are enhancement matches. Nese gave Stu a really good win in an entertaining sprint to set up Dutch and Vincent coming out as they lead towards whatever the actual program is. I will say that I struggle a little more with Davari as a singles, but I'm fine with the Trustbusters as Sonny and Slim J are never boring to watch. I do, of course, completely agree with you that the focus and environment of the studio tapings were far superior. As an aside, I'm excited that we have Coughlin, Claudio, and Woods all circling each other in the same sub promotion, just ridiculously strong guys who can wrestle. I'd be excited for Shibata/Coughlin vs Nese/Woods, for instance. Even though they were the sort of losers that you mention, I loved seeing the Workhorsemen vs Shibata/Coughlin this last week.

This resonates a lot with me. The names that come to mind for me are Funk, Tenryu, Casas, Rose. The guys you never want to look away from because you'll potentially miss something, because they're always in the moment and always acting and reacting to what's happening around them. (For current wrestlers, Athena is the one who is living and breathing it for me in that same way). What names are on your list along those lines?

Tony Nese is probably the guy who surprised me the absolute most in AEW from what I thought he was when he came in to how good he actually is. He's really good at doing exactly what the moment demands as opposed to trying to just have a five star match or whatever.

One other personal thing. I almost never get to catch the shows live. I usually watch them on my own terms, picking and choosing a little (and there are some matches with wrestlers I don't like as much or on Dark/Elevation, I might watch on 1.25x speed if it's something I still want to catch, I'll admit that; I still get a lot of enjoyment out of those, again on my own terms). But I am watching mostly everything now, one way or another, save for the stuff I really don't want to see. And while I look forward to matches, I look forward to seeing the taping spoiler lineups for Dark/Elevation/ROH and the end-of-the-show announcement of next week's matches on Dynamite/Rampage almost as much as watching the matches themselves. The giant roster means that there are so many possibilities and I love hearing we're going to get something as out there as Jay White vs Kommander or Taya vs Emi or whatever, or that we'll get Hijo de Vikingo vs Gringo Loco (not even a match that's targeted to me but I still think it'll be great for what it is) or even Colt vs Samoa Joe (just to see what that'd look like) this week on ROH. It's just fun to anticipate what might get booked given all the talent. So I'm happy about another show just for the possibilities. That's what I personally enjoy the most out of AEW, those match up graphics and taping results. It's like opening a deck of trading cards as a kid.

I’m pretty excited for a soft brand split personally. The main benefit is that the only guy in the Elite I ever want to watch is Cutler and I only have so much time, but I think there could be spillover benefits when it comes to being forced to focus on wrestlers and not having so much start/stop stuff. I also think it’s a terrible idea relative to having people go through mediation and counseling and whatever else. It’s just one that will benefit me personally.

Embry was great. I agree.

Jerome is correct.

I'm actually a big fan of partially immobile Keith Lee, much more so than mobile super indy Keith Lee, especially in the center of AEW. Jericho was treating him like 89 Andre who could actually do the strength spots and Lee was working the match pretty much like that. You wouldn't want every match on every show to be worked like that but one match every few weeks really stands out.

Until he does it again…

Despite my misgivings with modern WWE tropes and trappings, I’m probably going to watch all the matches with Sheamus/Drew/Gunther comp style in the next year or so.

Do I want to understand what these words mean?

It's a whole promotion based around people who can do the Malenko/Guerrero stuff. It's nice to see MJF as something else and annoying when he does it as well to prove to the fans that he can wrestle, or whatever.

I wasn’t a fan of those matches. Anyone can do that stuff in 2023. He’s much more interesting when he’s doing an abdominal stretch and holding onto the ropes.

Here's where I am on the PPV. I'm generally pretty positive about this stuff, but not this time. Ultimately, there are a few things I'm looking forward to seeing on the card, like more Jarrett/OC interaction, but no actual matches. That said, I'm very positive on both the ROH taping and the upcoming ROH PPV. Like I said before, given the talent and Tony's penchant to book good matches, if you don't like AEW, just wait a few weeks. But I'm not liking this PPV at all on paper.

Maybe our cruel trip through purgatory ends this week?

Only reason I’m upset about the tag result is that I wanted Orange Cassidy vs Jeff Jarrett at the PPV more than almost any other match they’ve been building.