All Elite Wrestling

[SPS]

On 12/10/2019 at 1:50 PM, Laz said:

If it weren't for Johnny Webb and Messiah...

What about The hardcore homo Angel? or Kaos? I'd take one of them over Janella any day.

[gordi]

11 weeks in, and in a way AEW stands out more for what they are not doing wrong than what they are doing right. 

I don't watch WWE any more (might tune in for RumbleMania) but I follow along on recaps and read the threads here, because I enjoy that. As I wrote on the WWE thread, it seems that these were all actual storyline reasons for fighting this week:

- You gave our manager, who is vegan, a Christmas ham. For that: YOU WILL PAY.

- A guy who is supposedly funny and entertaining sang a song about having a threesome with myself and another female wrestler. While singing that song, he mentioned that my haircut makes me look like a dude. You laughed at that. Now, YOU WILL PAY.

- Last week, you poured dog food all over me. This week you have tied another wrestler up in chains, and are threatening to pour dog food over him. Here I come to MAKE YOU PAY by pouring dog food on you!

With an apparent subtext that we should automatically hate men who don't eat ham and women who don't want to be in our threesome fantasies. 

FFS

As long as that is the bar that AEW has to clear, they will have my viewership.

They have succeeded in getting Darby Allin, Riho, Private Party, MJF and others over with me. They have failed in getting Brandi, Baker, Spears and Hangman over with me thus far, among others...

Cody, Jericho, and Mox are all legit stars.

Omega and the Young Bucks seem to be holding themselves back, trying to get other wrestlers over... I am OK with that right now.

The matches are move-tastic and often overlong, but I have come to accept that as the state of pro wrestling at the end of the 2010s. I continue to hold out hope fore more variety. Having Cody, Dustin, and Tully around make me think that there is a chance they will rub off on the younger wrestlers. At least everyone in AEW is generally trying their best to tell a story in there. And there is some variety in the stories they are trying to tell.

 

Mainly, though, they just have to keep * not * being WWE, and I will be happy.
 

[joeg]

^^^ Agreed with everything you said. 

 

I was just thinking about Orange Cassidy. While he might not be my cup of tea, I think he may be the smartest man in pro wrestling. Everybody out there now a days is killing themselves with big bumps and big dives trying to get over. And here Orange Cassidy gets over doing the exact opposite! He takes 1 (usually small ) bump in most matches and makes it count more than some of the incredibly dangerous bumps we see other guys taking.  With that he gets a bigger reaction each time he bumps than when Janela or Moxley or Omega or Allin take a dozen death defying bumps in a match. Anybody who can figure out a way to make six figures wrestling once a week and not doing anything that could jeopardize his long term health is fucking brilliant in my opinion. 

[gordi]

^^^ Agreed with everything you said. All respect to Cassidy for making that work.

[El-P]

I was thinking the same thing the other night watching Dark. Cassidy = smartest guy in wrestling today. Guys like him or Joey Ryan get what it is all about : getting over to whatever audience you can. The ways are yours. Cassidy and Ryan are smart. Janella & Allin are crazy. I enjoy both, myself, but if I were to be one of those (or work against one of those), I'd totally be Cassidy or Ryan.

[gordi]

This is pretty great. Does my heart good to hear a truly great pro wrestler whom I hold in the highest regard saying some of the same things on his podcast that we've said in this thread. He also confirms a couple of interesting things that I suspected might be true, about stuff like the atmosphere backstage:

 

 

[gordi]

And here is a nice little Christmas present from AEW:

 

 

[El-P]

This is so interesting on so many levels. It really seem like they still consider their NJPW stint as the peek of their career, despite not making a lot of money there. And yet the biterness of the break-up really sheds a light on why NJ and AEW really haven't cooperate at all and probably won't until something drastically changes. It's also striking how much the whole Kenny Omega not coming off like a star thing is an echo of real-life issue, as Omega really did seem heartbroken about the Japanese situation and looks like he's not that interested that much (for now ?) as making himself like a bigger than life star. The teasing at the end is interesting too, and this is something I hope will eventually happen in AEW.

[gordi]

I absolutely agree that this is a particularly interesting episode of WotRGRS. Every episode is interesting to me because they each give a pretty clear look at the personality of the "real people" behind the characters we see on TV and their history, friendships, and connections. This last one, though, really takes us behind the scenes and gives insight into things we have all be wondering and speculating about on here w/r/t "Why are/aren't they doing this right now?" and "What happened then, and why?" kind of stuff. And the "we have the power, right? Why don't we just book it on the..." ending absolutely hooked me as well.

I hope everyone who is interested in AEW takes the time to watch this one. 

[Badlittlekitten]

Putting all their best/important stuff online as usual. Proper WWE move. They’d be better off making some sense of there tv show first.

[tallmike]

Or at least making sure their talent was free for certain nights before making and promoting matches...

I do appreciate that they are letting BAR have her and the booking, but again, something that should have been worked out before the match was announced. This feels like something not even Impact would fuck up.

 

[sek69]

Don't sell Impact short like that, they'd certainly have fucked that up too! 

At least they handled it in a situation where everyone wins rather than just bigfooting over the indy group like WWE would have. They just bumped the match to next week and get an extra Riho match out of the deal. 

[Big Pete]

I don't see the issue of having Kris honour her prior booking. If anything it plays into her underdog status that she has to honour the wrestling code and fulfill her other obligations before she can partake in the biggest match of her young career.

The issue is that instead of post-poning the match, somehow the three women she beat all got a simultaneous title shot and Riho is under a severe disadvantage. For a company that marketed itself for treating wins/losses as important this is yet another example of AEW's booking flying in the face of it.

It's not a big deal right now but it could be down the road if this becomes a habit.

[SirEdger]

Or they could've chosen to not even acknowledge why the match is being postponed and instead use Brandi Rhodes' attack to her eye last week on Dynamite as the kayfabe excuse as to why Kris is wrestling on January 8th instead. I mean, they have to have this play a part in her title match against whoever wins on Wednesday, right?

[rovert]

I was told they actually have a segment in the can that was set to air on the January 1st show with Kris and a doctor & the doctor not clearing her to wrestle.

Kris DID inform AEW of the booking conflict too.

I think ultimately the real explanation is that AEW is unhappy how the Brandi storyline/angle/group is playing out. We will likely know in the next few weeks if it gets retooled or dropped.  

[SirEdger]

The Nightmare Collective is way too similar to the Dark Order. I honestly don't know why they ultimately decided to remove Brandi from Cody at ringside. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to see Arn Anderson back in a managerial position with Cody but Brandi and Cody WORKED. I don't know if they felt the need to have Brandi thrive on her own without being constantly associated to Cody but it doesn't work for me so far.

[gordi]

It's January 1st here. My daughters are at their grandma's place in Wakayama prefecture. My wife has to work today (she's a midwife at the city hospital, babies keep being born even on holidays). I had some time to kill, so I have been going back and looking at the year in AEW. It's been pretty amazing.

- Maybe a pretty good starting point was back in February, when it was reported that  Double or Nothing sold out in four minutes. I remember being really excited to hear that. Like: "This AEW thing just might work out after all!"

 

- Then, in May, Double or Nothing: Glacier's ice mist, CIMA in a six-man tag, Awesome Kong showing up, and AJA KONG! I'd forgotten all about that! 

- The absolutely bonkers 25-minute non-stop spotfest between the Bucks and the Lucha Brothers for the AAA Tag Team Championship.

- Cody vs Dustin in a legit MOTY classic bloodbath with a great story.

- Mox showing up to kick ass at the end of the Jericho vs Omega main event.

 

- In June we had Fyter Fest where The Librarians,  Nakazawa vs Jebailey, and Spears accidentally busting Cody's skull with a chair showed us all that AEW was not perfect.

-There was a fair bit good wrestling and fun stuff on the show as well. My personal favourite was probably Cody vs Darby, which was where I started really paying attention to Darby Allin.

 

- In July we got Fight for the Fallen, a charity show which WWE counter-programmed with the Evolve Anniversary show. Also I think that NJPW had day 2 of the G1 on the same day. 

- The AEW show had a staredown between the two Kongs (Awesome and Aja), Omega vs CIMA, and the Bucks vs Dusty's Sons.

- They announced they were going to be on TNT starting in the fall, and there was much rejoicing.

 

- In September we got the All Out PPV. This was when I really started paying attention to Jurassic Express and Orange Cassidy.

- PAC vs Omega was really good and the spot where PAC took the Kotaro Crusher and landed on his feet was really sweet. I was pleased at the result since it provided further evidence that AEW isn't a vanity promotion for Omega, Cody, and the Bucks to just put themselves over.

-The Cracker Barrel Clash was sick, in both the good and bad senses. 

-The Bucks vs Brothers ladder match somehow outdid their math from Double or Nothing. I guess not really "somehow." There were ladders involved. That's how they outdid it.

- Riho vs Shida was a very good 女子プロレス match on an American PPV, so that was cool.

- Jericho got the belt on this show, too. Which has proven to be the right decision.

- Also: Arn showed up ad gave Spears a Spinebuster, which was awesome. LAX showed  up, too. 

 

- In October we got the first episode of Dynamite. I might go through the past three months of Dynamite and Dark if I have too much time on my hands tomorrow.

[sek69]

It is pretty funny looking at social media and seeing folks freaking out/predicting doom for AEW when they've probably had the best first year any promotion could hope for.  Sure they made some mistakes, and maybe the Elite are realizing that there was more work involved than they bargained for running a company, but it seems overall they're doing pretty good in an industry so dominated by one company there's large swaths of fans not used to anything different.

[MoS]

Didn't Shahid Khan say recently that he was "blown away" by how much money AEW was making? And while they have def made some mistakes, they seem financially responsible. They are not going anywhere anytime soon. 

[gordi]

17 hours ago, sek69 said:

...they've probably had the best first year any promotion could hope for.  

 

15 hours ago, MoS said:

They are not going anywhere anytime soon. 

 

Yep. That was maybe the most amazing thing looking back at the past year. It's so easy to forget how, back at the beginning of 2019 AEW still felt like kind of a pipe dream... that really only became a reality in October. It's astonishing how quickly we've gone from pulling for these underdogs to nitpicking every little thing... but that is life online these days.

 

- Anyway, even though AEW already feels like kind of an institution (and the centerpiece of my current wrestling fandom) their very first TV show was really only three months ago.

- Cody vs Sammy was a damned good first-ever-TV-match for the promotion, and it was immediately followed up by Jericho attacking Cody to set up their first real TV storyline. A very good start.

- There was a lot more storyline stuff, including Mox putting Kenny through a glass table and the hint of a heel alliance between Jericho, Sammy, LAX, and the debuting Jake Hager. With hindsight, we can see how well all of that paid off.

- Best match of the show, IMO was the AEW Women’s Championship match between Riho and Nyla Rose. Very good David vs Goliath story.

- Tony Schiavone showed that he is still pretty great.

- On Dark: -Darby Allin vs CIMA paid off Allin's risk-taking when, this time, he hit the Coffin drop. 

- Where has CIMA been lately?

- We also got the kid in the front row dressed like Orange Cassidy. 

- Remember how exciting it was when AEW beat NXT in the ratings?

 

- Week 2, October 9th: Private Party beat the Young Bucks in the 1st round of the tag tournament. Still one of my absolute favourite moments from AEW. Stone cold proof that this is not a vanity promotion. I know that there is already some outcry for Kenny and the Bucks to put themselves over more... but I am happy that they aren't HHHing or Kevin Nashing things up. I love how AEW is willing to push younger, lesser-known wrestlers. 

- Darby wins with the coffin drop, again, to set up a title match for next week. They built it up even more when the (newly-named in an awesome Jericho promo) Inner Circle attacked Dustin after the main event, leading to Darby skateboarding down the ramp to attack the champ.

- People had been (correctly) complaining that AEW's TV was all wrestling and they could use some more segment and promos and interviews to build up the characters. On Dark, AEW showed that they were listening to their fans by starting out with a backstage segment to set up the Janela vs Omega unsanctioned match and they also had an interview with referee Aubrey Edwards.

- The unsanctioned match was a pretty effective build-up towards Mox vs Kenny.

 

- Week 3, Oct 16: The tag tournament rolled on, Riho vs Baker had some nice learned psychology, the PAC/Mox/Kenny triangle of hatred continued to develop, and Jericho taped Darby Allin's hands behind his back during their Philadelphia street fight.

- There were a lot of run-ins on this show.

- I don't think this week's Dark was too memorable, but we got a little more character development from Scorpio Sky and MJF, and there was a charming spot in the eight-man main event where Dustin called a time out of sorts to catch his breath after chaining a few athletic spots together. 

 

- Week 3, Oct 23: This show featured Dynamite's first really great TV angle: The Inner Circle interrupting a Cody promo, leading up to The Concourse Brawl. I'd forgotten that DDP was one of the guys who joined Cody to even the odds.

- Private Party vs Lucha Brothers was plenty entertaining.

- This show was where most people started to get sick of Britt Baker the Actual Dentist and also Dark Order. It was also, I think, the start of Goth Witch Brandi, which doesn't seem to be working.

- Dustin teamed up with Sonny Kiss on Dark. Also, Cody interviewd MJF and Darby Allin won a hardcore three-way with a chair-assisted coffin drop.

 

 

[gordi]

Week 4, Oct 30: Halloween, so we got Rick and Morty, Undertale, and Street Fighter cosplay.

- SCU won the tag tournament, which probably wasn't the best booking decision.

- More good NWA-nostalgia-inducing angles, with the Cody and Tony limo interview and Dustin getting assaulted in the parking lot. 

-And LAX beating up the Rock n Roll Express!

- Dark was kinda "meh" but we did get to see Big Swole in AEW for the first time, and got some interview time with Dr. Actual Dentist and Jimmy Havoc.

 

Week 5, Nov 6 gave us the legendary Jericho promo video featuring Soul Train Jones and Chris' Aunt's friend from church Mrs. Bobski.

- Cody also absolutely nailed it with his go-home promo, and we got a Bonzo Gonzo finish to continue the build to Full Gear.

- Dark aired on Friday, before the PPV. Shida vs Swole was really good, and CIMA made another appearance.

- Full Gear, Nov 9:  Young Bucks vs LAX was predictably exciting; Riho had a nice technical match with her trainer,  Emi Sakura; MJF threw in the towel on Cody, meaning Cody never gets to challenge for the title again; and Mox and Kenny had a truly crazy 40-minute Death Match.

 

Week 6, Nov 13: We got some fallout from the PPV, including Jericho trying to get MJF to join his heel stable. LAX and the Bucks got into a backstage brawl the highlight of which was a nonplussed Orange Cassidy standing in a bathroom.

- Darby Allin answered Mox's open challenge, setting up a great match for the following week.

- SCU vs Jericho and Sammy ended with Scorpio Sky pinning Jericho with a small package to set up an I-didn't-see-that-one-coming title defense.

- On Dark, Dustin did commentary, Kris Statlander showed up, and Private Party vs Best Friends and Young Bucks vs StrongHearts were both very entertaining tag matches.

 

Week 7, Nov 20: Nick Jackson v. Rey Fenix was predictably exciting. 

- Billy Gun looked like a giant in the battle royal, which set up MJF vs Page for a fancy diamond ring next week. 

- Jericho cut a hilarious promo ripping off an old Happy Days bit.

- Mox vs Darby Allin was an amazing match, Super intense. Probably my favourite AEW match so far. 

- On Dark, Trent went over Pentagon Jr. which... I dunno.

- Jack Evans vs Kenny Omega for the AAA Megacampeonato belt on AEW Dark was a nice little present for the fans, in my opinion.

 

Week 8, Nov. 27: AEW Returned to Chicago for the Thank You, Jericho! celebration. Jericho's dad made an appearance!

- The Jericho vs Scorpio Sky title match was pretty easily the best match on the show. 

- Omega got his win back from PAC.

The Butcher, Blade, and Bunny Connection debuted and attacked Cody.

- Dark featured really good Jurassic Express video packages... 

 

 

[goodhelmet]

Thanks for the rundown Gordi! In this day and age of disposable wrestling, it's helpful to have a guide like this. 

[Sweet Brown Koko]

https://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/jericho-tanahashi-wrestle-kingdom-aew/#.Xg_y6CVMGaM

 

It was mentioned on the Wrestle Kingdom thread that if Tanahashi beats Jericho he will get an AEW World Title shot.

[gordi]

I really hope that happens, and that it leads to all kinds of cooperation between AEW and NJPW in 2020 and beyond.

[Stiva]

They’ve released the Memphis legends being “honoured” next week and Dave Brown’s name is on the list. If he’s not on Dark, then something has went wrong.