CarpetCrawler Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 2 minutes ago, Coffey said: The exploding barbed wire bat was cool. The making the ropes blow up to break-up a pinfall was cool. The One Winged Angel on a chair looked like death. I liked those things. But the match had more problems than just the sparklers at the end. It was fine. It was dumb (and the match finish was super abrupt and it already sucked wind out of the sails) and the ending was ultra mega dumb but I had fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 Hmmm on 2nd thought maybe ignoring it was a better option Saying "what did people expect" is dumb as shit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 What did people expect? I expected what I had seen in other Exploding Ring Deathmatches. They even had Onita ON THE SHOW! So obviously they were referencing the match existing outside of AEW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 That was overall a really fun show. My fam, pal, and my nephew and his pals enjoyed what they saw. My nephew fell asleep, and two of his pals had to go home before the Main Event, but Finn, the 11 year old from across the street who has completely caught the wrestling bug and is now a huge fan said this when the "explosion" happened. "That was pathetic." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manatee Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 It is honestly better to just admit they screwed up. It is an obvious lie to say they meant for it to be a dud based on Kingston's selling and, even worse, if it was planned to be a dud that means you mislead people. I only watched this abysmal show to see who the surprise was and to see how bad they would botch the technical aspects of the exploding death match. It was a really bad show but it did deliver a lot of eyerolls and lulz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 I usually defend Dave Meltzer to the death against accusations that he's on the AEW payroll and shit, but holy crap, is he serious with that fucking Tweet? Take the fucking L and move on, guys. Edit: Okay, did Dave did respond to another question with, "It was a bad ending," so it's not 100% rose-colored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 3 minutes ago, PeteF3 said: I usually defend Dave Meltzer to the death against accusations that he's on the AEW payroll and shit, but holy crap, is he serious with that fucking Tweet? Take the fucking L and move on, guys. Dave didn't do that tweet, the JN at the end means it was Josh Nason, who does recaps for the site. Dave only posts from his own account, that was the website account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Reedy Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 Really feel like this is being made too difficult with the "Kenny built a bad bomb" stuff. ECW showed how to survive this in 93, they gained loyalty from their fans with the way they responded honestly. You open Dynamite with Tony saying that they didn't deliver up to their expectations and they're going to make it up to the fans, you open with a 20 minute Fenix-Jackson match with all the spots, and you move on. There's no way to kayfabe cover for Kingston's selling and everything else. Wrestling fans forgive, how many times have we seen it with WWE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 The only thing that I wanna remember from tonight is this: If somehow they don't have John Silver and/or Negative one flirting with Maki Itoh on BTE, what are they even doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RingoPlaysDrums Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 Everything was great about that main event until the final explosion. They imitated Funk/Onita to a tee with Kingston in the Onita role and the countdown alarm. Now that explosion was also a bit of a letdown but I think it did the job there. But in this case people are going to mock it relentlessly, and rightly so. As has been said, if the idea was Omega messing up, Callis should've been driving that home. Also, Christian is a good signing for AEW but when you announce that you've signed a major HOF-worthy name and you're going to announce it at your PPV and it turns out to be Christian who we all saw sign for TNA years ago when he was actually in his prime... people are going to be disappointed. They should've just announced that they'd signed Christian and there'd be a lot more good will. The show was solid but these two big misfires are the things people are going to remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 I think Christian is honestly worse than the explosion. At least the non-explosion is something interesting that happened. Christian is just...meh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Faulconer Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 Who claimed the surprise would be a top 5 Attitude Era worker? It wasn’t going to be Austin or The Rock. That was not a particularly strong in-ring time. Top 5 would possibly be filled by Benoit, Guerrero, Mysterio (although he wasn’t in WWE during), X-PAC,, etc. Christian fits the mold. It obviously couldn’t be some of those names. Sean Walkman probably can’t work on a large stage since he has Hep C...I think that’s the one. It was Christian or Angle..and anything else using that criteria doesn’t make sense. We were pretty much told by Dave Meltzer that it made sense for it to be Christian. It really could have been only Punk, Christian or Angle. If you thought it would be someone bigger then that you didn’t listen to the criteria. People knew a few days ago that Christian was one of Tony K’s all time faves. Just because the result is not what you wanted it to be doesn’t mean it should be someone else that you think would be a better surprise...even if it wouldn’t be physically possible. Christian fit the stipulations both Paul Wight and Tony K put forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RingoPlaysDrums Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 For the record I expected it to be Christian and I think it's a solid signing. He looked like he could still go at the Rumble so in that sense it's a lot better than Angle who can barely move or whoever else who offers nothing in the ring at this stage. People were obviously wrong to expect Lesnar or Punk or whoever else that's a bigger name than Christian but I think that's bound to happen when you hype it up like that and if the end result is that people are talking about how disappointing it was because the surprise was "only" Christian, I think you've got a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 I guess if you feud with Randy Orton in 2020 you end up in AEW Matt Hardy, Big Show, now Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Pete Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 I find the response to Christian really odd. Not unjustified mind you, but considering the type of fan that AEW attracts, Christian Cage is one of the biggest names they could possibly get and unlike Kurt Angle he didn't wear out his welcome. With that said, I can understand why fans were disappointed with the segment, there's few guys in Pro Wrestling who can effectively do the Lex Luger style appearance and get away with it. I feel like Christian would have been better off just debuting on a random Dynamite because as it stands, he was out-popped by Maki Itoh. Also co-sign me as another who thought the main event was completely ruined before the dud 'explosion'. I already felt like the match was up against it, but to have it all just boil down to interference by Anderson and Gallows was such a weak finish. I thought last year's Revolution was the best AEW show to date. This year's may have been their worst. Who's idea was it to let the Casino Battle Royal go the longest? There were just so many poorly thought out ideas on the night. The ending maybe the worst PPV finish of all-time. That was Shockmaster levels of bad and I really hope they don't double down with Omega just being a goof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 3 hours ago, RingoPlaysDrums said: They imitated Funk/Onita to a tee with Kingston in the Onita role and the countdown alarm. Now that explosion was also a bit of a letdown but I think it did the job there. The Funk/Onita had the countdown for the last 5 minutes which is when the alarms kicked off. This had alarms kick off and the clock didn't pop up until the last 30 or so seconds. Not sure I'm understanding correctly, but you think the explosion did it's job here? If so, no. It was embarrassing. They can't use it as an Omega swerve as it will make King and Excalibur look like total buffoons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 I'm a big fan of Christian as a worker and think he'll be a tremendous asset for AEW. If he'd shown up unannounced on an episode of Dynamite, it would've been tremendous (although perhaps not so soon after Big Show). But he's not the level of star where his signing can be a selling point for a PPV. As has been noted, Maki Itoh got a bigger pop. By the way, not only was the ending a dud, every single match on the card had either outside interference or a post-match beatdown. Cornette's going to have a field day with this show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RingoPlaysDrums Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 2 minutes ago, Edwin said: The Funk/Onita had the countdown for the last 5 minutes which is when the alarms kicked off. This had alarms kick off and the clock didn't pop up until the last 30 or so seconds. Not sure I'm understanding correctly, but you think the explosion did it's job here? If so, no. It was embarrassing. They can't use it as an Omega swerve as it will make King and Excalibur look like total buffoons. Nah, I meant it did the job in Funk/Onita. Definitely not here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rah Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 I'm surpsied @El-P has gone so radio-silent. He seemed to be the most excited going in. I think they probably booked themselves into a corner with both payoffs here - noting safety restrictions etc in place for the timebomb match and then the "HoFer level" hype from Show. If he had just played it off as him bringing a friend with him and one people would be pleased to see it wouldn't have been such a let down. I was actually thinking, and would still prefer, it to have been Chris Hero. As for the explosion, I'm sure it would have come across a lot better with a different camera angle. Whoever was in charge of production should get their knuckles rapped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 Only thing management had to do was say "sorry for the letdown, that's on us" instead of putting the blame on our expectations - which by the way were high due to their advertising. I get you can turn this into a storyline but there ain't no way to spin commentary selling it like the venue exploded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 4 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said: Only thing management had to do was say "sorry for the letdown, that's on us" instead of putting the blame on our expectations - which by the way were high due to their advertising. I get you can turn this into a storyline but there ain't no way to spin commentary selling it like the venue exploded. I think that's uniquely important to AEW. Their greatest strength, more than their talent roster or booking or match quality, is that they are seen as the more fan-friendly and honest alternative to WWE. They have rejected the carny spin attempts that have been common in wrestling in the past, and I think they have to commit to that. Now's not the time to embrace it. The lesson of last night is that expectation is the creator of disappointment. I think they need to get back to their bread and butter of cultivating their own homegrown stars and delivering exciting television shows instead of looking for easy solutions in the forms of WWE signings and gimmick matches that can't deliver based on the hype. It's going to take them a long time to grow and I think they have to just accept that this is a long road and buckle in. Figure out where they want to be in 1-2 years and just stick to it instead of the desperation approach we've seen lately. Even the best wrestling periods have included promoters making tons of mistakes, but the best ones quickly learn from them and shift. AEW will be fine if they continue down that road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 My first thought was to do a skit with Hornswoggle as Cheatum, but now I think they should lean into it and just hire Maffew to produce a video for them. Nothing would make the fans feel more heard and part of the act. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanecowboy Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 1 hour ago, Strummer said: I guess if you feud with Randy Orton in 2020 you end up in AEW Matt Hardy, Big Show, now Christian Christian feuded with Randy Orton in 2020? That does not ring a bell at all for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 1 minute ago, urbanecowboy said: Christian feuded with Randy Orton in 2020? That does not ring a bell at all for me. It was during the build for Drew/Orton. Randy was out there beating legends up weekly, and Christian was one of the victims. I'm more confused about Matt Hardy, tho. Was that "career-ending" angle in 2020? Holy shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanecowboy Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 The match suffered before the finish but I thought it went off better than I expected anyhow. Omega comes out looking like an asshole and Moxley looks like a survivor. AEW can talk themselves out of it. That’s fine. This is pro-wrestling and pro-wrestling is Eddie Kingston’s life. He’s gonna come out of this just fine. I read folks saying this “ruined” him. Honestly, if the cameras had’ve shot it better, I don’t think the conversation would be exactly the same. I’m not dwelling on this moment. This was a transitional PPV from the get-go. Let’s move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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