AEW Dynamite - January 15, 2020

[War is Raw]

We never saw a shoot interview or book telling us how AEW is really booked yet or what the plans were. We can piece things together, but in many ways, AEW has kept a tight lip on things, or has had contradictory statements from Cody and Tony. I don't believe Tony "regrets" anything. I have high standard for burden of proof. I defended Barry Bonds back in the day.

IMHO the plan was always to book Omega and the Bucks to get over talent until 2020 when they would start winning again. And I feel fans had insanely high expectations for Omega and they lose sight that his w/l record and TV time were very high even during his slump. He's also had great matches with CIMA, Jericho, PAC, Janela, Evans, and last week's tag. He's like an MVP baseball player who switches teams and gets off to a "slow start" which is still better than 90% of players in the league, like A-Rod with the Yanks. And in many ways the proof is in the pudding that the plan is working, based on the ratings. AEW is Jericho, the best heel champ in decades. There is a less of a variation in the segment drops, which means the unknown talent is slowly getting over and The Elite is getting hot. Compare to RAW and it seems like that show is falling off a cliff and not even Becky vs Asuka and Orton vs AJ draw viewers.

Regarding PAC, I can see how a minority of fans could find him boring because he's realistic and virtually unstoppable as a brutal heel, but he is perfect at his role, a hard worker, more than a spot monkey, one of the best in the world, in shape, and was an in-demand internet darling (with talent) before Dynamite. That Darby match was universally praised except for prolly one critic on this board. But I get that everyone has different tastes and a "casual sports-entertainment" fan may be put off by him (and sadly would like him to be a goofy superhero or something). It's a losing battle to target PAC IMHO, especially in a league that pushes Brandi, Baker, and Dark Order (and I love their video segments), although it is one's right not to like or appreciate any performer.

[Cowboy Hats 4.0]

What’s a good name for the secondary title?

[SirEdger]

Given Cody's love for old school wrestling, I'd bet it would be the AEW TV title.

[C.S.]

1 hour ago, War is Raw said:

That Darby match was universally praised except for prolly one critic on this board. But I get that everyone has different tastes and a "casual sports-entertainment" fan may be put off by him (and sadly would like him to be a goofy superhero or something). It's a losing battle to target PAC IMHO, especially in a league that pushes Brandi, Baker, and Dark Order (and I love their video segments), although it is one's right not to like or appreciate any performer.

I hope you don't mean me. I openly admitted to never watching the Darby match because I had a raging headache that night and the rest of the show was underwhelming to me (possibly because of said headache), so I cut my losses when the outcome - a PAC victory - was obvious, and I wanted to get dinner while something was still open. 

Agreed about Dark Order and Nightmare Collective though. I'll take PAC over them.

Actually, maybe PAC can put on the cape you seem to think I want and lead the Dark Order as Count PACula.  

I actually really like Brandi outside of this rubbish.

Baker is a tricky one. I think he she has upside, but maybe they need to lean into the dentist gimmick more. That's a slippery slope though, especially for a fed that with a track record of gimmicks like Dark Order and Nightmare Collective. I'm not really sure what the solution is. Obviously, it isn't to go Full Yankem with her, but they need to do something. I'd turn her heel and have her insist on being called DOCTOR Britt Baker by everyone. That's a good first step, at least, at injecting some personality into her pedestrian PAC-like act.

 

[SirEdger]

Just saw something pop up this afternoon about Luke Harper/Brodie Lee being rumored to be affiliated somehow to the Dark Order and I got no idea what to think about that.

[sek69]

38 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

Given Cody's love for old school wrestling, I'd bet it would be the AEW TV title.

They should go all the way old school and have it be a medal like the Mid South TV title was at the start. 

[C.S.]

2 hours ago, SirEdger said:

Just saw something pop up this afternoon about Luke Harper/Brodie Lee being rumored to be affiliated somehow to the Dark Order and I got no idea what to think about that.

He's better off being paid by WWE to stay at home. 

Even the Luther role in the Nightmare Collective would be better than having anything to do with the Dead Order.

[The Thread Killer]

3 hours ago, SirEdger said:

Just saw something pop up this afternoon about Luke Harper/Brodie Lee being rumored to be affiliated somehow to the Dark Order and I got no idea what to think about that.

[The Thread Killer]

3 hours ago, SirEdger said:

Given Cody's love for old school wrestling, I'd bet it would be the AEW TV title.

I can't remember exactly where I saw it, but I distinctly remember seeing Cody saying in an interview at one point that if AEW did add a secondary title, he wanted it to be a TV title.

[War is Raw]

The rating breakdowns haven't been published, but looks like the opener was hot, Cod's promo was great, DDP did well, and the Mox beatdown by Jericho was fantastic.

The women's match and PAC vs Darby bombed, @C.S. So you are not alone when it comes to raging headaches- 88,000 tuned out.

A couple of podcasters said the final two in the NXT battle royal ran too long, but Io has been a draw a few times. And as we have seen, Darby had lost in the main vs Jericho and now PAC, but had gained vs MOX. Never gained on the undercard. PAC has not carried a rating yet without MOX or Omega.

[SomethingSavage]

On 1/18/2020 at 5:44 PM, sek69 said:

They should go all the way old school and have it be a medal like the Mid South TV title was at the start. 

Be bold. It's 2020. Make it an icy wristwatch or a gaudy BattleBowl ring.

[War is Raw]

Just extrapolating from one article I read in a 1950s magazine, but I think it said Buddy Rogers would defend his NWA T.V. title (Ohio) against the winner of an annual tournament, which lasted over many shows. Not sure how big the brackets were or if it lasted all year (the article acted like it was an ongoing tourny). So the title itself was basically the "King of TV" who defends it once a year. 

Just an interesting original Golden Age concept for the "Television Championship".

[Migs]

On 1/17/2020 at 10:17 AM, The Thread Killer said:

Was that ROH show from Jericho's cruise ever made available on Fite or some other VOD, or was it exclusive to the cruise?

They did a comp show that's on Honor Club - it's all the matches from a tournament on the boat, plus the Y2Jacksons-Kenny/Cody/Marty six man.

[Migs]

On 1/17/2020 at 11:30 PM, rovert said:

The Meltzer/AEW thing is so tiresome. But it is what it is. He will lose his shit if WWE doesn't deliver a locally advertised dark match at a TV taping. But for months and months Being The Elite on Youtube created the expectation Marty was coming in. Casual/faithful ELITE/AEW fans thought it was a done and were left disappointed.

ROH presented Marty with an incredible package and he made the best decision for him. No question. But trust me Marty and Cody have an odd relationship. Cody made it clear Marty was the sixth and bottom member of the Elite and broadly thought Marty was using the Being The Elite Youtube show and the general faction deal to promote his own separate merch.

I mean, to be fair... he kinda did? (And it's worked, that dude seems to move a lot of merch.)

I do think there's a bit of a disconnect between Marty's value to Being the Elite (a key, really, in that he's pretty funny) and his value as a TV worker (certainly valuable, but not sure he'd be an AEW main eventer).

[rovert]

On 1/20/2020 at 4:24 PM, Migs said:

I mean, to be fair... he kinda did? (And it's worked, that dude seems to move a lot of merch.)

I do think there's a bit of a disconnect between Marty's value to Being the Elite (a key, really, in that he's pretty funny) and his value as a TV worker (certainly valuable, but not sure he'd be an AEW main eventer).

Most/all wrestlers are massively overvalued in 2020. The last wrestler that made a +1,000 or more fan difference at the gate on live events is John Cena.

Still, the Elite themselves created the expectation on their own Youtube channel that Scrull was inbound. They had enough goodwill to be able to wave it off and playoff the "Marty" angle with a joke hiring of Marty Jannetty on Being The Elite this week. In the future, they should manage expectations better. You live and learn.

[MoS]

23 minutes ago, rovert said:

Most/all wrestlers are massively overvalued in 2020. The last wrestler that made a +1,000 or more fan difference at the gate on live events is John Cena.

Is this restricted to the American scene? Cuz I think Jericho has significantly spiked the Tokyo Dome attendance for the WK shows, especially with his feud with Omega.

[sek69]

26 minutes ago, rovert said:

Most/all wrestlers are massively overvalued in 2020. The last wrestler that made a +1,000 or more fan difference at the gate on live events is John Cena.

It sounds impersonal, but wrestlers are like real estate. They're worth what people will pay for them. If anything, two decades of only one major player depressed wrestler value to the point that them being overvalued in 2020 could also be seen as a long overdue market correction.  

30 minutes ago, rovert said:

Still, the Elite themselves created the expectation on their own Youtube channel that Scrull was inbound. They had enough goodwill to be able to wave it off and playoff the "Marty" angle with a joke hiring of Marty Jannetty on Being The Elite this week. In the future, they should manage expectations better. You live and learn.

I believe they 100% thought Marty going to AEW was a fait accompli and it was just a matter of waiting for his last deal to end.  It doesn't seem like it even occurred to them that there was any other option. Like I'm sure they figured maybe WWE would swoop in with a completely stupid money offer, but they didn't seem to consider ROH offering the keys to the kingdom. 

Which, to be fair, this is the promotion owned by the company that had to be dragged kicking and screaming to spend the money for proper TV production not that long ago and (despite saying they might at some point) never seeming like they were actually going to spend the money needed to compete.

I also think it kind of revealed Marty wasn't as close with those guys as they let on. When Cody and the Bucks announced they were forming AEW, you knew Kenny was going to join them despite him trying to create some air of uncertainty. You knew he'd never want to go to WWE and be a cog in their machine, the only real question was would NJPW go all in on the guy they were building their US expansion around.  They seemed to think Marty was the same deal, and never considered the alternative.

Having said all that, I think there is a distinction between that and the time honored WWE tactic of promising or implying something they had no intention of delivering. This was just a company that despite all the successes is still a new company capable of getting caught with their pants down. Like rovert said, you live and learn.