All Elite Wrestling

[Jmare007]

2.Coke is a great example of putting a talent in a position to succeed, he's fucking awesome in the role he's in right now.

[Embrodak]

On 7/5/2022 at 11:18 AM, strobogo said:

How have there been no updates at all on the MJF situation 

My feeling is MJF is probably legit suspended for no-showing the meet and greet and maybe going farther in the “shoot” promo than he was supposed to, and he’s either still in the punishment period or Tony Khan has no idea where to go with it because it was so ad hoc.

[Ryan Faulconer]

I don’t think MJF quitting can be sold  as such without him missing at least two months of TV time

Only missing three weeks and showing up at the FD PPV would be too soon and too typical of pro wrestling.  If this angle is what it it is TK will want to make fans think MJF just might be gone.  I just hope this angle doesn’t turn him babyface yet.  They could also The Rock’s post-SummerSlam. 98 trajectory.  MJF teases fans with a turn only to turn heel again at the most opportunistic time in a storyline.

Should it not be an angle then I really question MJF’s decision making abilities as they relate to his career. He has too much time left on his contract to be pulling the kind of BS he is trying or has already tried and somehow thinks this would be considered successes.

[strobogo]

51 minutes ago, Ryan Faulconer said:

I don’t think MJF quitting can be sold  as such without him missing at least two months of TV time

Only missing three weeks and showing up at the FD PPV would be too soon and too typical of pro wrestling.  If this angle is what it it is TK will want to make fans think MJF just might be gone.  I just hope this angle doesn’t turn him babyface yet.  They could also The Rock’s post-SummerSlam. 98 trajectory.  MJF teases fans with a turn only to turn heel again at the most opportunistic time in a storyline.

Should it not be an angle then I really question MJF’s decision making abilities as they relate to his career. He has too much time left on his contract to be pulling the kind of BS he is trying or has already tried and somehow thinks this would be considered successes.

I didn't mean on TV, I meant just like Meltzer gossip. Seems like the whole thing has been completely memory holed. I think that's a big reason why Wardlow lost all momentum. Yes, the storyline played out and came to a satisfying conclusion, but the next show completely overshadowed it in every way and then no one will mention what Wardlow's deal for the past 2 years has been.

[Embrodak]

10 minutes ago, strobogo said:

I didn't mean on TV, I meant just like Meltzer gossip. Seems like the whole thing has been completely memory holed. I think that's a big reason why Wardlow lost all momentum. Yes, the storyline played out and came to a satisfying conclusion, but the next show completely overshadowed it in every way and then no one will mention what Wardlow's deal for the past 2 years has been.

I kind of agree with this, but Wardlow’s booking has also been atrocious. And he needs a mouthpiece, badly, imo, he just doesn’t have that Goldberg intensity where he can sell a match and/or feud with body language alone.

[KawadaSmile]

The issue is that they spent like three weeks with him fighting literal security guards, he refused to take part in the Battle Royale for the Interim Championship match, saying he wanted to face CM Punk straight up - which makes no fucking sense, as being Interim Champ would 100% guarantee he would take Punk head-on - and spent time doing fuck all waiting for Sky to heal up. 

I mean, he better fucking win this title tonight, at the very least. They had something hot in their hands, thanks to their own build, and it cooled off significantly. 

[strobogo]

He was booked perfectly for 2 years, and when it came time for the big payoff, it was completely overshadowed with MJF drama that had nothing to do with him.

[Matt D]

I thought the 20-on-one match was visually great. They can cut it up into a 30 second video package and use it for years. He should definitely go over tonight though. I get why they kept the belt on Sky during the West Coast loop and it was easy to get lost in the shuffle during the NJPW stuff and Blood & Guts, but if he goes over definitively tonight, it'll all be fine. Knowing the way Khan books, it's not impossible they try to hold things off for August 3 in Columbus though. Wardlow's an Ohio guy. It'd be much better to have him win tonight and then set up a big defense against a hoss then though.

[El-P]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, more than anything else Wardlow needs to be able to actually work a great match by AEW standards. If he can't, there's so much goodwill for a guy who's game is basically sticking his tongue out and doing a bunch of powerbombs in a row in a company where they got Keith Lee or Miro (who are better at *everything*, work and promos, and way more charismatic), for starters. To me he's still absolutely unproven and MJF was the sole reason he ever got those great reactions. I don't look forward to his title reign at all if he's gonna be another Goldberg clone, because he's nowhere as unique as Goldy was, nor does he have the freakish looking intensity (not to mention I was never a Goldy fan to begin with, but back then he was pretty unique in every way possible). Not saying he can't be something, but as he is now, with the lame-ass "Wardlow's World" line to boot, my interest in him has dropped back to zero after the MJF feud.

[Matt D]

If the AEW crowd feels like they're experiencing something rare and special (and something that other people are not), like they're part of a moment or a movement, then that works in and of itself, regardless of whether he's putting on 4 or 5 star matches or whatever. It's just a matter of protecting him and keeping that special. We're in agreement that "Wardlow's World" is not the way to do it. Licensing War Pigs would have helped too.

[Timbo Slice]

Lee is not even close to what he was pre-COVID. He possibly will never get there, either. Otherwise he’d be in the world title mix himself.  Pro wrestling is about amplifying strengths, and Wardlow’s strengths were on full display against someone with charisma. He’s complementary, not a feature player, and can figure it out along the way to become more complete. But you have to give him something to work with regardless, and Tony has failed him there. 

[El-P]

4 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

He’s complementary, not a feature player, and can figure it out along the way to become more complete. But you have to give him something to work with regardless, and Tony has failed him there. 

Agree.

I've said it before, I thought Shawn Spears also was GREAT during this time, the best he's been in AEW. He easily was more fun than Wardlow himself during those segments.

Also, in what ways is he special ? He's a big jacked up dude that does a bunch of powerbombs in a row. Even by Goldy's scale, which is what it is, it's not special. Especially not in 2022.

Also, honestly I've been thinking this for a while now, but the entire "This is WAAAAAAR" stuff kinda strikes me as kinda bad taste right now. Maybe because here Ukraine is in the news everyday and I'm actually reading about it too much, but still. Kinda cringe to me too.

[Timbo Slice]

He has a charisma, but comparing to him to literally the most charismatic presences to ever grace a wrestling ring does him a disservice. He’s special because he’s a lot more different that the usual fare around him. I think people pigeonhole him as “jacked guy there to do powerbombs” instead of that being his BASELINE. He’s not a finished product. He can absolutely get better. Goldberg was an anomaly. We need to stop comparing dudes who just need more seasoning to literally one of the most unique wrestlers in the history of the business. 

[El-P]

I dunno. He's been in AEW for three years now. He hasn't improved a whole lot to me in term of his in-ring work thus far. He's 34 years old. It's not like he's even at Batista's level when he was good. So I don't think there's a huge progress margin unless he really figures out something different. To me as of now he's like the best Adam Bomb ever or something.

[funkdoc]

Word from SRS is that they were going to let Colt go completely until the locker room pushed back against that, and now he’s getting an ROH-exclusive offer. Fits with everything else involving the Dark Order lately, though this was what i assumed would become of him anyway

[Matt D]

They just released a new combo Uno/10 shirt. They’ll probably get a win tonight in Rochester even if only on Elevation.

[Migs]

2 hours ago, funkdoc said:

Word from SRS is that they were going to let Colt go completely until the locker room pushed back against that, and now he’s getting an ROH-exclusive offer. Fits with everything else involving the Dark Order lately, though this was what i assumed would become of him anyway

CM Punk is a heel.

[KawadaSmile]

LOL at him pulling the "you people" stuff

[strobogo]

I feel like there was a company that had an angle where the title corrupted anyone that had it, without screaming it in your ear every time. I can't seem to recall what company/title it was, though.

[NintendoLogic]

The closest I can think of is the cursed belt in FMW that killed whoever held it.

[sek69]

So it looks like Eddie/Jericho is going to be blown off in a barb wire death match, right after Jericho dropped the news that his mysterious illness he had was a pulmonary embolism and he's still on blood thinners from that. Seems......unwise.

[Jmare007]

11 hours ago, sek69 said:

So it looks like Eddie/Jericho is going to be blown off in a barb wire death match, right after Jericho dropped the news that his mysterious illness he had was a pulmonary embolism and he's still on blood thinners from that. Seems......unwise.

Yikes. I read TK quotes about Danielson and Cole's concussions and how "cautious" he's being with them by not rushing them back (though in Cole case, he was having a number of lingering issues before his last concussion) and then immediately read your post and it's like wtf.

[The Thread Killer]

I want to preface this by saying that I really enjoyed this past weeks episode of Dynamite. I thought it was excellent and a real improvement over the last couple of months.

Having said that, this announcement about the barbed wire death match really reaffirmed to me that somebody really needs to save Tony Khan from himself. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it. A barbed wire death match on free network TV, especially so soon after a War Games match…just…WHY? It sounds like a colossally bad idea for a variety of reasons…but what do I know.

[strobogo]

TK definitely overdoes the blood and guts stuff, however, it certainly differentiates from WWE and it's not like every major Memphis/JCP/ECW show didn't have blood and bullshit.

[Stiva]

Blood and Guts just hit over 1 million so I can kind of understand him seeing how far he can push it on tv for a rating. Didn’t the Moxley/Omega barbed wire PPV do good numbers too?