AEW Full Gear

[FMKK]

1 hour ago, C.S. said:

 

Sempervive from the Observer was there last night apparently and said the same thing about the crowd being hot throughout 

[Coffey]

1 hour ago, C.S. said:

PAC vs. Hangman rematch this Wednesday on Dynamite.

Tony Schiavone: That'll put asses in seats! 

I feel like we've already seen this match six fucking times & I've never once given a fuck.

[Boss Rock]

The tag title match seems like a stop gap until Proud and Powerful get a shot. My guess is that SCU gets another solid defense under their belt, Santana and Ortiz beat the RnR Express, and they build the tag title match off that.

Definitely against another Pac-Page match, although if Pac goes over I'll be OK with it as it makes sense to do a Mox-Pac match to set up the next contender for Jericho.

[sek69]

13 minutes ago, Coffey said:

I feel like we've already seen this match six fucking times & I've never once given a fuck.

As I was watching that match yesterday I kept thinking I should like this since it's a good match and all, but I just couldn't manage to make myself give the slightest if fucks. 

[Zoo Enthusiast]

1 hour ago, FMKK said:

Sempervive from the Observer was there last night apparently and said the same thing about the crowd being hot throughout 

I felt the same when I heard people say the crowd was dead during All Out.

[peachchaos]

Bored to tears by Britt Baker, Shawn Spears, Adam Page, and Pac. A Darby-Sammy match would have done so much more for everyone than a lot of what they booked. 

Very excited to see what's next for Cody, MJF, the Inner Circle, and Mox. 

Still feels like a huge waste of Kenny Omega. Not intrigued by his character at all right now. 

[Zoo Enthusiast]

5 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

Bored to tears by Britt Baker, Shawn Spears, Adam Page, and Pac. A Darby-Sammy match would have done so much more for everyone than a lot of what they booked. 

Very excited to see what's next for Cody, MJF, the Inner Circle, and Mox. 

Still feels like a huge waste of Kenny Omega. Not intrigued by his character at all right now. 

Pretty much exactly how I feel about the state of things at this point.  The high point of Britt Baker’s run thus far is being in a storyline with sadistic wine mom Brandi Rhodes.

[C.S.]

58 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Definitely against another Pac-Page match, although if Pac goes over I'll be OK with it as it makes sense to do a Mox-Pac match to set up the next contender for Jericho.

Please God no. Enough with the PAC experiment. No one wants to see him against anyone that matters.

It has derailed Hangman Page completely. But Page either needs to act like a fucking cowboy or ditch the gimmick. I feel like the nickname and persona is a remnant of his Bullet Club days where it kinda, sorta made sense.

24 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

Bored to tears by Britt Baker, Shawn Spears, Adam Page, and Pac. 

I wonder if Spears was miscast as a heel. People always wanted to cheer him in WWE. Presumably, AEW fans would've wanted to as well.

Spears and Tully is a mismatch too. Tully should be managing a Horseman type, not someone with a goofy hairstyle that makes him look like the old WCW jobber Horshu.

With that said, I like Spears and think he has far more upside than PAC. 

Spears has at least proven he can generate star reactions. PAC is never, ever, EEEE-VVER gonna be a top guy, unless he's completely forced into it, in which it won't get over at all. I'm not saying Spears is a future World Champion either, but a babyface midcard gatekeeper role would be a perfectly fine use of him. 

[Boss Rock]

I think PAC is way better than Spears. I wanted to get behind him but it really seems like lower card was his ceiling.

[KawadaSmile]

Spears was cast perfectly as Tye Dillinger. A jobber with a good catch phrase.

[FMKK]

40 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Please God no. Enough with the PAC experiment. No one wants to see him against anyone that matters.

It has derailed Hangman Page completely. But Page either needs to act like a fucking cowboy or ditch the gimmick. I feel like the nickname and persona is a remnant of his Bullet Club days where it kinda, sorta made sense.

I wonder if Spears was miscast as a heel. People always wanted to cheer him in WWE. Presumably, AEW fans would've wanted to as well.

Spears and Tully is a mismatch too. Tully should be managing a Horseman type, not someone with a goofy hairstyle that makes him look like the old WCW jobber Horshu.

With that said, I like Spears and think he has far more upside than PAC. 

Spears has at least proven he can generate star reactions. PAC is never, ever, EEEE-VVER gonna be a top guy, unless he's completely forced into it, in which it won't get over at all. I'm not saying Spears is a future World Champion either, but a babyface midcard gatekeeper role would be a perfectly fine use of him. 

Have you told us your opinion on PAC yet? 

[MoS]

I did not mind the violence in Mox-Omega that much, but I can see how some people would think it's a bridge too far. I agree that it should be a long time before they do a Lights Out match again. One odd thing is that this sort of legitimises AEW's attempt to portray itself as a mature pro wrestling organisation with consequences, because in kayfabe, as soon as it became clear that Mox-Omega was going to have a lot of brutality, they made it unsanctioned and said they will not be responsible for anything. 

I did not like that big board with barbed wire though. Any time something as OTT as that is used, it leads to a lot of contrived, melodramatic shit and that detracts from the match for me. 

[C.S.]

18 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

I think PAC is way better than Spears. I wanted to get behind him but it really seems like lower card was his ceiling.

The difference is, Spears has never been pushed beyond his capacity. He was underutilized in WWE, but no one was screaming that he should be a main eventer. Even his high-profile feud with Cody was a midcard spot. 

2 minutes ago, FMKK said:

Have you told us your opinion on PAC yet? 

I'm discussing things on a discussion board. Gee, what a radical concept! 

[Coffey]

41 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

I think PAC is way better than Spears. I wanted to get behind him but it really seems like lower card was his ceiling.

He's definitely better than Spears in-ring, I don't think anyone would question that. The issue is that despite being flashier, they're both just super boring. They don't really seem to have a whole lot of character or direction. PAC is "The bastard" but he's basically "a heel that flips." Shawn Spears is "The Chairman" but he's basically undercard heel that hit Cody with a chair once (and still lost the blowoff). They don't have motivations. And if AEW wants people to care about them, we gotta hear from them more. More non-wrestling stuff. More angles or promos or whatever. PAC has done commentary & it didn't resonate. He's cut a promo & it didn't resonate. He's had multiple matches & despite winning most of them, it's not really resonating. So they need to try something different or stop trying. PAC is a good case for having a midcard belt.

Shawn Spears is just, I think, a lost cause in his current direction. I don't know if he's miscast or what. But right now, it feels like AEW is wasting Tully with him & the best thing Shawn ever did was marry Peyton. I actually think Spears should be in a tag team. Get him a partner, keep them both with Tully and have them Spike Piledrive people & climb the tag ranks.

[NintendoLogic]

I haven't gotten much sleep the past few days, so I ended up crashing in the middle of the show. Cody/Jericho sounds well worth checking out, although I maintain that being the only one who didn't see MJF's betrayal coming makes Cody look like a bit of a goof. Extreme gullibility is not a desirable quality in a babyface. I absolutely will not be checking out Mox/Omega. Deathmatch torture porn is the only style of wrestling whose existence I actively oppose. The people who enjoy that sort of thing are not the kind of people that any respectable company should want to cater to.

[C.S.]

10 minutes ago, Coffey said:

He's definitely better than Spears in-ring, I don't think anyone would question that. The issue is that despite being flashier, they're both just super boring. They don't really seem to have a whole lot of character or direction. PAC is "The bastard" but he's basically "a heel that flips." Shawn Spears is "The Chairman" but he's basically undercard heel that hit Cody with a chair once (and still lost the blowoff). They don't have motivations. And if AEW wants people to care about them, we gotta hear from them more. More non-wrestling stuff. More angles or promos or whatever. PAC has done commentary & it didn't resonate. He's cut a promo & it didn't resonate. He's had multiple matches & despite winning most of them, it's not really resonating. So they need to try something different or stop trying. PAC is a good case for having a midcard belt.

Shawn Spears is just, I think, a lost cause. I don't know if he's miscast or what. But right now, it feels like AEW is wasting Tully with him & the best thing Shawn ever did was marry Peyton. I actually think Spears should be in a tag team. Get him a partner, keep them both with Tully and have them Spike Piledrive people & climb the tag ranks.

You're 100% right about PAC, except that I don't want him shitting up a midcard belt either.

As for Spears, I don't think it's fair to label him a lost cause. He clearly had some momentum during the Cody feud. Yes, it's convenient to credit that to Cody, smokes and mirrors, etc., but I don't think that's accurate or tells the whole story.

The fact is, after that feud ended, Spears basically fell off a cliff and was barely used on Dynamite. That surely didn't help him.

Contrast that with PAC who has been overused, if anything, and has failed to hit a home run each and every time he was put up at bat (as you pointed out).

I think a tag team would be a good idea for Spears. A name change and new haircut would be even better ones.

(I still don't understand how a name as goofy as Shawn Spears wasn't instantly vetoed. I realize that was his indie/developmental name, but it reeks of Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain CAW mode.)

[Coffey]

I actually think giving PAC a valet would help him a lot. Because then he could play off of her as being super paranoid & jealous & raging out at others because of her like Randy Savage did in his early heel WWF days. It would at least give his character some motivation & potentially give another woman on the roster something to do. 

[The Thread Killer]

I find that more often than not I agree with @C.S.'s opinion on stuff here at PWO (with the glaring exception of his opinion of Mauro Ranallo) but I really don't get the hate for PAC.  I've always liked that guy, I liked him in NXT and I liked him when he got called up to the Main Roster (even when they tried to turn him into Mighty Mouse and stuck a fucking cape on him) and I especially loved his run as Cruiserweight Champion.  It wasn't until he held the belt that I thought that division was actually interesting, and I loved his matches with Aries (except for the Submission Match, which admittedly sucked.)  I also think his promos are perfectly acceptable, I thought that quick promo he cut last week after his match was quite effective. Then again, I really like Adam Page too.  His look and work are great as far as I'm concerned...it's just his promos that are a bit wanting. I think both of those guys have a ton of upside for AEW and I think both should figure heavily into their future plans.  Hell, they both seem comfortable in their roles as well.  There's no question that PAC is a heel, and Page plays a great old school babyface. One of my issues with AEW so far has been that you don't know who is playing what role, but you certainly can't say that with either of these guys.

[C.S.]

8 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

I find that more often than not I agree with @C.S.'s opinion on stuff here at PWO (with the glaring exception of his opinion of Mauro Ranallo)  

Mamma Mia! You'll come around.  

I disliked Adrian Neville intensely in NXT, plain old boring Neville did nothing for me when he was called-up (though, in all fairness, it's not as if he was used particularly well), and I began warming up to him slightly when he turned heel and became King of the Cruiserweights. But at no point did I ever really desire to see him in a higher spot (well, maybe U.S. Champion). When Enzo beat him, my reaction was "of course he did" because Enzo actually had a fan-following. No one cared about Neville.

Then Adrian took off from WWE. Fine, whatever, I didn't care either way.

When he showed up in AEW as PAC, I groaned. Bad name, TNA flashbacks of an ex-WWE guy who didn't matter being pushed as a main eventer, and then rumors of him not wanting to job. Since then, he's done very little to improve my opinion.

Whereas, Adam Page seemed like a star in the making in that first press conference outside the hotel in Vegas. Since then? I'm not sure what the hell happened. His lame 1995 Justin Hawk Bradshaw/Bobby Duncum Jr. cosplay costume and character, lack of commitment to said character (he wrestles and acts nothing like a cowboy), etc. has derailed him. In Vegas, he looked, acted, and dressed normally. Since then, everything about him screams Village People. I love a good cowboy, don't get me wrong, but he's not a convincing one. Same with Peter "Hugh Hefner" Avalon and Leva "Blue Pants, Blue Hair" Bates being cast as The Librarian despite doing exactly zero to look, sound, and act like librarians.  

[MoS]

Cody-Jericho right now is my match of the year, just ahead of Cody-Dustin, and I loved everything about the match. I hope Cody is okay and he doesn't have to do that dive again, cuz it might get him really hurt one day, but as far as this match goes, it added a lot of drama to it, and the crowd being hot and both guys being super over helped. 

I don't see what they are doing with Jericho challenging for the tag titles, but I wouldn't mind MJF and Guevera as a tag team and part of the Inner Circle. 

[Slasher]

46 minutes ago, C.S. said:

The difference is, Spears has never been pushed beyond his capacity. He was underutilized in WWE, but no one was screaming that he should be a main eventer. Even his high-profile feud with Cody was a midcard spot. 

I'm discussing things on a discussion board. Gee, what a radical concept! 

I have no desire to see another PAC/Page either, but my reasoning is different than yours. As strongly as you feel about PAC, I feel the same about Page. Dude just sucks IMO. He looked like a nerd out there with the Bucks when they were pleading with Omega to take it easy on Moxley. He is essentially, to me, the male equivalent to Britt Baker, as not ready for primetime.

[Coffey]

I feel like we're going to be having this discussion all over again when Marty Scurll leaves ROH for AEW as well. 

[Alucard]

2 hours ago, C.S. said:

Spears has at least proven he can generate star reactions.

Outside of the NXT Full Sail crowd that treats everybody that way?

Neville/Rollins - 8/3/15, the pop for Neville almost winning was massive. Really the escalation of the crowd from each big spot to that gigantic moment was impressive. Way bigger and more memorable than anything I've ever seen from Spears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJUVE0X63Ck

 

[WingedEagle]

If I can't/won't sit through BJW death matches should I make the time for Omega/Moxley or skip it entirely?

[C.S.]

18 minutes ago, Alucard said:

Outside of the NXT Full Sail crowd that treats everybody that way? 

Yep, because the Royal Rumble was definitely held at Full Sail...