AEW Status/Progress Report

[sek69]

Agreed. Someone like Darby I'd just tell him how much time he has and what points he needs to hit and let him do his thing. 

[Big Pete]

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Most importantly, what do you think the greatest positive about current AEW is & what do you think is their biggest hindrance at this point in time?

I missed this the first time around.

The greatest positive is how they've pushed younger personalities like MJF, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, Riho etc. They feel more culturally relevant and it's far more fascinating watching these personalities make a name for themselves instead of seeing guys from the Ruthless Aggression Era FINALLY win the big one.

Their biggest hindrance is their formatting. At the moment the show has so many head chefs and ideas are coming from everywhere that Dynamite comes across like a dogs breakfast. If they could just map things out better and format the show better it would make for better television.

I'd say it all goes back to the general inexperience of the promotion and the state of the roster.

[NintendoLogic]

Tony's more hands-on than some of you seem to think. Not only did he take greater control of the booking after the Dark Order angle, he's had to overrule Omega and the Bucks on multiple occasions when they wanted to lose more.

[Big Pete]

He obviously has a say, but most of the creative comes from the boys and he just throws his 2c and they come to a compromise.

I don't think it took TK to move away from the Dark Order/Elite angle.

[tallmike]

• How do you feel about the commentary in AEW? Jim Ross & Excalibur specifically.

JR's an actively bad commentator at this point in time. It's clear he doesn't enjoy the product and he's more than willing to air that shit out. Excalibur is fine, sounds like Scott Hudson, but the mask is a total hat on a hat thing at this point in time.

• How do you feel about the ring style or the look of the show/arena? 

The in-ring style is what it is. I don't actively love the maximalist shit, but that's like yelling at clouds at this point.

The look of the arena, I don't super care about. The production at times has been a little... off. They miss too many shots they shouldn't, and focus on shit they shouldn't too often. The house produced music is straight butt cheeks. I'm glad they're licensing more music for that reason.

• What are your thoughts about the talent that AEW has been bringing in like Jake Hager, Shawn Spears or more recently, Mark Henry & Paul Wight? 

Spears and Hager are total wastes of TV time, but then again, so is like Kip Sabian and half of the goobers that barely make it off Dark, but they didn't come from WWE.

• Do you think that AEW relies too heavily on comedy? 

Like I don't have an issue with the Dark Order being goofy or that kind of thing, but Jericho, Omega, and the Bucks are all "comedic" characters that desperately need to be told no.

• What about their abundance of factions/stables? 

It's just giving some people something to do, and the fact that it feels like every match ends with a brawl in the ring doesn't help the impression. It also doesn't help that a lot of the stables are full of dead weight talent. Your QT Marshalls, Aaron Solows, Cezar Bononi's, Dolph's dipshit brother, the 5 guy...

• Managers/Valets?

I'll agree with a lot of other people, Taz and Tully are doing great work, but a lot of the other managers just, again, feel like they're trying to throw as many people on the screen as possible.

• How do you feel about the decisions Tony Khan has taken, or how Dave Meltzer seems to give AEW the constant benefit of the doubt where as Jim Cornette will barely acknowledge when something is good?

I don't listen to either.

• Are AEW presenting the women well? How about the tag team division?

The women are in a way better place than they were a few months ago, even if at times it still feels like Baker's the only character that gets any real shine. The rest of the women work matches, and they've gotten better and the matches are longer, but character-wise? Nothing. Tag teams desperately need more to do.

• Is AEW relying too much on gimmick/stipulation matches?

They aren't great at making the stakes for them matter, or putting them as the blow offs when they should be.

Most importantly, what do you think the greatest positive about current AEW is & what do you think is their biggest hindrance at this point in time? I wanted to get some conversation going outside of the AEW megathread to maybe just discuss what we like & what we're concerned about going forward.

Greatest positive: Even though AEW isn't truly what I want from a wrestling company, I'm glad it exists, both as a place for talented people to find work and as competition to what's been the status quo.

Greatest negative: Too much of the company feels like it's an entirely different universe than everything else. Cody's stuff and the Inner Circle stuff definitely don't "go with" the rest of AEW.

[Laz]

On 6/15/2021 at 2:28 AM, Coffey said:

 

• How do you feel about the commentary in AEW? Jim Ross & Excalibur specifically.
• How do you feel about the ring style or the look of the show/arena? 
• What are your thoughts about the talent that AEW has been bringing in like Jake Hager, Shawn Spears or more recently, Mark Henry & Paul Wight? 
• Do you think that AEW relies too heavily on comedy? 
• What about their abundance of factions/stables? 
• Managers/Valets?
• How do you feel about the decisions Tony Khan has taken, or how Dave Meltzer seems to give AEW the constant benefit of the doubt where as Jim Cornette will barely acknowledge when something is good?
• Are AEW presenting the women well? How about the tag team division?
• Is AEW relying too much on gimmick/stipulation matches?

Most importantly, what do you think the greatest positive about current AEW is & what do you think is their biggest hindrance at this point in time? 

1. JR was a great get...but was exposed early on. He was right to goad Excalibur into not just cracking jokes and calling moves, but his constant forgetting of names and overt lack of care for most of the talent makes him hard to listen to. Excalibur has improved in every way, and I already thought of him as the best overall commentator in the business since around 2012 or so.

2. Ring style is meh. I stopped watching all but a few clips here and there ever since DoN last year because the matches were just so, so, so...phoney, I guess would be the word? I don't expect matches to look like [insert worked shoot company here], but when your average match in 2020/2021 looks more like a Power Rangers fight sequence than something out of Rocky or a JCVD flick then I think there's an inherent problem in your approach. This is more an industry-wide issue I have than just AEW, mind you, and it's clearly more of a preference issue than just "here's why wrestling sucks now." As for look, I think AEW has one of the most perfect sets around, and the company logo hits me in that Weyland-Yutani spot.

3. When I was still watching, Spears became a favorite thanks to him being one of the few talents to put some oomph into his moves, and I loved that he was gambling at ringside. If the question is more along the lines of "how do you feel about AEW hiring a smorgasbord of former WWE talents who are all at or near retirement age," then I can tell you that it's a bad sign and reminds me of when TNA de-pushed hot acts like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe in favor of "faked a heart attack to avoid a job" Kevin Nash and Booker T. The mentality might be to attract lapsed fans by signing veteran talent not being used by the competition, but the effect comes off as more "we don't know how to build talent" to me.

4. Yes. Wayyyyyyyyyy too much comedy. A little routine here and there is fine, a promo where I can laugh is great, but when one of the top acts is basically "we're an even lower rent Dungeon of Doom" then I'm not watching your stupid fucking show.

5. An abundance of factions always made sense to me, really. Why wouldn't guys want other people watching their backs in the cutthroat world of professional fighting? MMA and boxing have training camps and teams, so why shouldn't wrestling?

6. Maybe? Unless they've added a ton in the last year, I don't remember the amount of managers/valets being too much of an issue. The amount of memorable ones might be (none), but that's a different story.

7. Tony Khan needs to put his personal ego aside and 1) get off TV, and 2) hire someone as a head booker/showrunner. Somebody who will tell him that he already has three programs going on involving a managerial heel turn, somebody to point out that pulling the same finish three times a show isn't a good idea, maybe somebody that can convince the board that their 7 snowflakes from out of touch newsletter writers aren't worth shit if they keep booking the company as their own personal ego boost. 

8. AEW is trying so, so hard to get their women's division up to snuff, and they've come a long way from day one, but they falter due to the best talents being contracted elsewhere. Trying to build the division around Brandi as a heel authority figure did them no favors, either. The Tag division is a bit better because they've been able to swing things around a little more, but breaking up teams and having the belts not be defended on a regular basis didn't help.

9. Yes and no. Having a couple of specialty matches every big show isn't bad, really, but most are just thrown out there without real rhyme or reason beyond "we had an idea the other night." 

10. The greatest positive is that they're willing to improve and let talent shine. The biggest hindrance is that the booking is inconsistent in quality and there aren't any perceived programs that make me want to watch beyond "oh there might be a few cool spots in this one." Everybody does cool spots now. Try something different.