All Elite Wrestling

[NintendoLogic]

I think it'd be pretty cool if they subverted expectations by having a Rhodes turn on an Anderson.

[joeg]

Since the very first show of AEW I was saying AEW needs more legit athletes and they need more big guys. If Satnam Singh is who they come back with than I was way wrong. From the little I've seen from his time D-League, he makes Giant Gonzalez seem mobile and coordinated. 

[sek69]

I know he's firmly in the "beloved legend" phase of his career but Arn being a babyface just feels so unnatural. I need my Andersons to be evil bastards who will stomp a mudhole in your face if you cross them, 

[Dale Wolfe]

Yeah, i quite like the idea of cody, brandi and arn being unrepentant heels and causing havoc 

Far more than whatever this currently is 

[Coffey]

I wish AEW had a different ring announcer than Justin Roberts.

[sek69]

Justin Roberts doesn't bother me, he sometimes does what I guess is the ring announcer equivalent of "getting your shit in" but it's never been enough to actively distract me. 

Then again everyone pales in comparison to the Fink to me, dude was like a reverse Mike Tyson with the booming voice coming from that body. I know a lot of it is just natural talent, but it seems like no one really teaches ring announcers how to project like he did. 

[strobogo]

Honestly Arn being Cody's manager has always been fucking stupid and for it to have lasted this long without one of them turning on each other is also really fucking stupid. Cody is all about the respect my father's legacy and JCP/WCW history shit and then he's had an Anderson be his manager for the past year. The fuck. 

[SteveJRogers]

5 hours ago, sek69 said:

I know he's firmly in the "beloved legend" phase of his career but Arn being a babyface just feels so unnatural. I need my Andersons to be evil bastards who will stomp a mudhole in your face if you cross them, 

I know he gave the “Horsemen Salute Of Approval” to the heels Tully and FTR, but I wonder if it’s on Arn not to be his iconic heel persona.

Kind of like “I’ve retired “Arn Anderson, The Enforcer” the day I started to be an agent, and while I’m still called by my character name, I’ve been straight Marty Lunde since the start of the century!”

Maybe that’s, and the cash, also is why he’s been on the convention circuit and the podcast. Can’t be Double A, The Enforcer of The Horsemen if every week you are busting the fourth wall next podcasts, and frequently doing nostalgia fueled panels on the wrestling convention circuits.

[Mad Dog]

It's kind of crazy that Anna Jay has only had 24 pro wrestling matches. 

[strobogo]

I feel like the talk about Kenny's over the top mannerisms really hasn't been the case since his Cleaner run in NJ, where he was absolutely very cartoony and corny and over the top at all times. But that stuff mostly went away once he moved up to heavyweight and has been extra toned down since leaving Japan all together. 

[NotJayTabb]

On 9/24/2021 at 11:18 PM, Coffey said:

I wish AEW had a different ring announcer than Justin Roberts.

I've not watched huge amounts of AEW in the past, so when I watched the Danielson match, where Roberts sounded like a foghorn trying to spit out the words "American Dragon" I immediately remembered how awful he is. Surely they could book Dave Penzer for the same price.

[Boss Rock]

19 hours ago, strobogo said:

I feel like the talk about Kenny's over the top mannerisms really hasn't been the case since his Cleaner run in NJ, where he was absolutely very cartoony and corny and over the top at all times. But that stuff mostly went away once he moved up to heavyweight and has been extra toned down since leaving Japan all together. 

Pretty much.

[DMJ]

This came up in the Dynamite thread and I've obviously seen it elsewhere (r/sc), but can someone explain to me how and why Cody became one of the most despised people in wrestling? 

So much of the criticisms lobbed against him are provably false and some of them are super nitpicky (my favorite current criticism is that he hasn't lost to Aleister Black clean enough yet.) Are his matches and angles the best part of AEW? No...but, like Jericho, the dude helped launch the company so he's going to get his minutes. And I'm not sure one can really argue that he's gotten time at the expense of anyone else. The QT Marshall feud sucked, to be sure, and it certainly reeked of Cody pushing his buddy more than he deserves/deserved, but it was midcard filler and treated as such. 

It just seems the vitriol against Cody is a bit much considering his biggest crime seems to be having entrances that are too grandiose. Like, yeah, sure, but I also think one could argue that (a) having those entrances helped AEW not look bush league when it first started and he was undeniably one of the bigger "names" and (b) it has played perfectly well into what most people consider to be an impending, inevitable heel turn.

As for him as a worker, I'll just say this: he's not a super worker and I don't think he's ever claimed to be or even really tried to work like one. But I don't find him to be offensively bad and am kinda shocked that some do. 

[Timbo Slice]

Short answer? His placement and presentation amongst the other guys is perceived as “unearned.”

[El-P]

15 minutes ago, DMJ said:

This came up in the Dynamite thread and I've obviously seen it elsewhere (r/sc), but can someone explain to me how and why Cody became one of the most despised people in wrestling? 

Three words : Reality TV show.

At the time when the Elite, which is basically the foundation of the promotion as far as what the style goes, was finally placed as heel main-eventers (which is their best act, Young Bucks especially are natural heels) and finally getting the focus (after a year of Jericho & Mox on top), Cody was seen as aping WWE shit, in a move totally contradictory with the philosophy and taste of most of the AEW audience.

Then you add the incredible tone-deaf jingoist promo during the Ogogo feud, which ended up being a fail, and you get Cody going from beloved TV champ to a guy who looks out of place in his own promotion.

[funkdoc]

Don’t forget trying to babyface himself against Shaq of all people!

Also modern fans are extra leery of people in positions of power looking to push themselves - Cody was giving some folks that vibe as early as his open challenges with the TNT title. Compare to Omega & the Bucks, where Tony Khan has to turn down their requests to do jobs - that’s more how modern fans feel top guys SHOULD be.

EDIT: Cody & Jericho are about the same to me in terms of doing important groundwork for AEW but now having go-away heat with me & a lot of my watch group.

[strobogo]

Cody has had the vibe of undeserving since his initial indie run and getting pushed everywhere as the biggest deal despite having done nothing but be Dusty's kid from WWE, then latching himself to the Bullet Club teat and benefiting from all that without having put in any of the work to build it, booking himself to win the NWA Championship on his own show, then when AEW starts kicks things off with that HHH entrance, gets an entrance theme to his entrance theme, gets his own entrance tunnel, keeps saying he's his own man and doesn't want to live off his father's legacy while AEW uses everything they possibly can from Dusty, all leading to Cody finally using the Rhodes name and then American Dream moniker. Not to mention the very self indulgent promos and all of his stuff being so disconnected in its own pocket universe on the shows. 

 

Then the previews for his own reality show make him come off as a man child moron constantly overstepping his boundaries. There's an awful lot to not like about Cody.

[Al]

No mention of the neck tattoo? I feel like that completely killed his vibe.

[El-P]

Everyone wants to forget the neck tattoo even exist. Every AEW fan has PTSD from the neck tattoo. The neck tattoo doesn't exist, like Indiana Jones 4 and the last Star Wars trilogy. The neck tattoo should be blurred on TV.

[Mad Dog]

1 hour ago, funkdoc said:

Don’t forget trying to babyface himself against Shaq of all people!

Also modern fans are extra leery of people in positions of power looking to push themselves - Cody was giving some folks that vibe as early as his open challenges with the TNT title. Compare to Omega & the Bucks, where Tony Khan has to turn down their requests to do jobs - that’s more how modern fans feel top guys SHOULD be.

EDIT: Cody & Jericho are about the same to me in terms of doing important groundwork for AEW but now having go-away heat with me & a lot of my watch group.

I feel like Jericho feuding with Dan Lambert and American Top Team is about the right place for him now. 

[Jmare007]

3 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

I feel like Jericho feuding with Dan Lambert and American Top Team is about the right place for him now. 

That Rampage segment died a death for me, I wonder how the rest of the AEW audience will feel about that feud going forwards.

[Mad Dog]

I think my problem with Cody is that his act hasn't evolved at all since AEW started. His loss to Jericho really complicated his place in AEW because he can't really challenge for the World Title. 

Where I think Cody really fucks up is he'll do jobs but then he's doing the exact same shit at the same place on the card. It really hurts putting people over when you don't step aside from him. 

I also agree that his stuff feels more and more like WWE stuff. I hated his match with Black on Grand Slam. It made Black look like a total bitch instead of the badass striker they are selling him as. I swear you could hear Schiavone rolling his eyes at the Arn stuff. 

[Mad Dog]

3 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

That Rampage segment died a death for me, I wonder how the rest of the AEW audience will feel about that feud going forwards.

I think it's going to depend on how involved the MMA guys remain and if any of them can wrestle. Lambert and Jericho doing promos should be fine. 

[El-P]

I don't watch MMA and know jackshit about it, but the segment itself came off hot. Paige Van Zant seems like she could be fun to have around and Masvidal looked like a star. On the other hand, after the awful Wardlow match, I have no desire whatsoever to see another bad shoot-style match involving Jake Hager. So, jury's out on this one. Lambert as Jim Cornette (and every boomer wrestling fan) has been awesome, I can have him as a manager every week forever.

[Matt D]

I'm fine with the MMA guys being there. Masvidal has a big following. Van Zant has a pretty big following. She's relatively young and seemed to be enjoying herself at least so if she wanted to get into wrestling more, good for her. I think Wednesday ratings showed us the limitations of the current market for AEW if they're just going to put on the best wrestling they can to their core audience. It's a good number but they're not going to grow if they don't leave that comfort zone in ways like smartly using Shaq or these guys or Rosario Dawson or whoever. One segment a show to try to draw in new fans who you can then hook with everything else is going to be more of a net positive than a negative.