Stiva

Are AEW ticket prices still extortionate? Not that’s the only excuse for the low sales but I actually think the damage was done in mid 2022 with regards to booking. When the injuries piled up and Cody left, they didn’t really recover and then everything with Punk soured things even more. I actually think this year has been very solid with great moments and great shows but you can’t ignore that the perception is that they’re losing guys and the guys out there they’re interested in would rather go to WWE since the pendulum has swung back to them being red hot again. I’m hoping that the new TV deal and show on Fox can see them develop three distinct identities for each show and they can actually have a midcard. Not just a bunch of guys who lose to the main guys until it’s their turn to disappear for a while. I’d make Collision the tag show, for instance. Obviously not all tags but I’d endeavour to have two really good tag matches on there every week and develop some of the teams with actual mid card feuds where they can actually win. Build it round FTR since they’re the established “best” team, give the likes of STP and the Outrunners a genuine effort to get over. Bring tags from the indies in for one shots and see who catches on, throw guys together who have been missing for months. The company was built on a strong tag division and that’s eroded. Not sure you can underestimate how much damage adding Collision did to the attendances too. It may be best to just go back to Texas or Daily’s Place every single week for Collision and take Dynamite/Shockwave out on the road and make it so everyone knows that those two shows will have all of the major players on it

Letting Jericho go that long while the Outrunners are so hot is tantamount to grievous wrestling crime. Can that dude not go on a 6 month tour of pretending he’s a rockstar instead? But all will be fine in the world if Private Party bring Daniel Garcia out with them next week

I’m not worried about Moxley/Darby since I think Darby beats him at Grand Slam and then beats Bryan at Wrestledream. All of this is building past the Bryan run IMO. Darby is going to hit Moxley with a flash pin and then the BCC is going to kick the shit out of him until he comes back and wins the title. As soon as Moxley mentioned Darby, I had a feeling that this whole thing was designed to get Darby the title

Nigel picking his moment to challenge Danielson after Moxley tried to kill him is great heel work

Hey, I’m in Mexico so can watch live as I have a lazy night in my hotel room. Darby skateboarding in after the Moxley promo was a nice bit of foreboding. Eagerly anticipating a big angle to close the show

I’m with you on this. Probably since Dynasty onward, give or take a spotty build to DON, it’s been excellent and I wish it was reflected more in the gates and ratings. 2021 AEW is still the gold standard but they just need to stay the course with what they’re doing.

Also, Okada pinning Cassidy is absolutely setting OC up to win the Continental Classic

Was kinda hoping this Moxley angle was going to give him a new stable of his own but if this means he, PAC and Claudio are going to commit to being heels, then so be it. I love how they’re setting up a ton of different people who could retire Danielson. Christian, Moxley and Darby are the most up front and then you have the lingering Ospreay rematch

Part of me knows I shouldn’t like that final angle but it all worked perfectly. The imagery of Hangman toasting himself looked incredible and it’s far more palatable when it’s come after a year long blood feud.

As much as Perry is as unconvincing a badass as you can find, it’s good that TK has actually established a few challengers for Danielson in the past month or so. Swerve won the title and they were scrambling around to heat up a Christian who had just lost his title

Wiki says that the gauntlet is going to have 21 guys in it?! Does that get all of the first 90 minutes? EDIT: ah, it can end before the full field has entered. That makes a lot more sense. I hope they’ve got some left field choices in there

I’m not saying it’s going to have any kind of net positive effect, it’s just such a strange thing to envisage that I want it to happen. Nothing they’re doing is going to change the perception that they’re the B company right now anyway so get weird with it

If you’re not the slightest bit interested in seeing just what Shane McMahon in AEW looks like, then I don’t know what to say. It’s such a bizarro situation that it could only exist in our modern day WCW counterpart

That one dude in Gorilla looked like he had his brains splattered all over the wall. Is Chad Gable dead? Bold way to debut after committing grisly murder.

The Bucks doing a wink-wink authority angle is still dogshit and, like everything they do, is nowhere near as clever or funny as they think it is

MJF coming back in HHH fancy dress was a hilarious touch

They’ve showed some decent restraint to not pull the “heels attack Tony Khan” angle up until now but it’s finally done. It’s all in the follow-up. Also, I’d have bet good money that this Jericho shit was leading to ANOTHER stable where 80% of the matches around it see Jericho facing someone to force them to join. Has he missed any TV since Dynamite started? Seems like every other worker in the company has went away, at least for a bit, but he’s there every week. Did he even miss much time when MJF turned on him?

This might be crazy talk but I have a good feeling about Jack Perry’s return? Feels like all this Punk nonsense has made him intriguing and I feel like he’s going to lean into it really well

Oh dear. What a way to practically undo the goodwill they’ve had with me after a great 2024 up to now. Maybe the ratings will be great but I’m not convinced this is a good idea at all and it feels like a gigantic self-sabotage

If showing this means we can all finally move on from this nonsense, then so be it.

Mark Briscoe winning the title was a great moment and I like the overarching story of Briscoe stepping out as a singles guy, cutting his teeth in the CC and then using that experience to win the big one. Athena really needs to be on AEW TV in a featured role leading up to Wembley. She’s so fucking great

Samoa Joe Vs Eddie Kingston in a series of escalating violent matches would be my pick. Just pick whatever flimsy premise you need to set them off, let them cut promos and you’re off to the races

I see Los Boricuas worked, or are working, a show over Mania weekend so I can only assume that’s why TK needs to free money up

Sometimes you need to do things like the Willow/Riho main event as a way of establishing the women as main event level stars in AEW, even if there are some early pains. Feels like AEW has been staying the course well since the CC when it comes to getting their male roster sorted out and it’s reaping results now (they’re using talent across the three shows really well now IMO) and they have to do similar for the women. Especially if Baker and Hayter are to come back

The most I’ve liked AEW Hardys is when they were having concession brawls with Butcher and the Blade. Everything else has been pretty mediocre but if they transformed into broken down brawlers where Matt throws his right hands and Jeff builds to one big lunatic bump, I’d be fine with that every so often