Loss Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 I'm still not sure Page winning was right, but they seem committed to this direction and it's too late to back out now. If it's me, I don't take Omega vs Danielson and Punk as title matches off the table for the foreseeable future, and I build to Danielson vs Punk for All Out and try to book and fill Soldier Field, with neither of them losing a match until then. That's not what they chose, and time will tell if it was the right call I guess. The challenge AEW has in my mind is that the things they do to maximize their audience are not the things the most devoted parts of their fanbase want to see. I saw Full Gear at a movie theater and the room was pretty quiet for Punk-Kingston and Danielson-Miro but came unglued for the Bucks 6-man and Omega-Page. The Elite means a lot to their audience and I get the logic in not abandoning it for that reason. Page has been very helped by the Danielson series, to a point where I thought it was asinine they would even think about Page retaining when this started and by the time it was over, I bought it because Page stepped up so much and now looks like a worthy champion. The feud worked. The test now will be that Punk and Danielson are both doing big things but that whatever Adam Page is doing feels like the most important thing on the show and not secondary to whatever they are doing, which to me is the big risk in doing an Omega-Danielson rematch not for the title. The minute the title is an afterthought is the minute he becomes the Intercontinental Champion of the World. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 I think they’re gonna keep Omega and Danielson separate for a very long time because I feel like Danielson has a list of things he wants to accomplish, and many of those involve New Japan. Him putting over Page means that they can really play the long game in letting Danielson and Omega face off for the title again, because I don’t think you want Page to drop the belt to either of them. You still have Punk/Page on the table, which can lead to Punk/Omega, which can come back to Omega/Danielson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rah Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 https://twitter.com/republicoflucha/status/1479147791792308226?s=20 This guy is inhuman. Great news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 When it happened it reminded me of when Eddy dislocated his elbow which, while still gnarly, is probably the best possible outcome of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rah Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 Keep trying to embed the tweet with no luck. Basically, Fenix suffered a dislocation and will be back within the month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted January 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 5 hours ago, Loss said: The challenge AEW has in my mind is that the things they do to maximize their audience are not the things the most devoted parts of their fanbase want to see. I saw Full Gear at a movie theater and the room was pretty quiet for Punk-Kingston and Danielson-Miro but came unglued for the Bucks 6-man and Omega-Page. The Elite means a lot to their audience and I get the logic in not abandoning it for that reason. Yup, I realized this when I saw the quarter numbers of matches like Adam Cole v. Orange Cassidy and Jurassic Express v. Elite/Don-t-Call-Them-Undisputed-Era, matches which personally held no appeal to me and which also kind of bored the shit out of me when I watched them. But they did excellent quarter numbers, particularly in the demo, to the point where I would absolutely not be surprised if Adam Cole is the next challenger for the world title. If I were watching yesterday's show at a similar movie theater, it is entirely possible that the place would have been louder for the tag title match than the world title match, simply cuz in the former they attempted a lot crazier stuff, and until Fenix Sid'ing himself, were able to do said crazier stuff. The specific lightbulb moment for me was a spot where I think like all four of them including Luchasaurus, someone who outweighs everyone else in the match possibly combined, were on the top rope holding hands and then basically did a tumbling routine culminating in a crazy bump, and the fans went absolutely nuts for it, while I was just slightly bemused. This question of how to grow your fanbase while still properly servicing your existing fans is really at the heart of promoting. WCW ultimately went out of business because they just could not find a balance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted January 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 1 hour ago, Rah said: Keep trying to embed the tweet with no luck. Basically, Fenix suffered a dislocation and will be back within the month. Really great news. Now hopefully Jake Atlas's injury also turns out to be mild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 I really liked this week's episode. - Danielson/Page delivered again. Man, Danielson has become beyond hyperbole for me in terms of how much praise can be put onto one guy. It obviously takes two to tango and Adam Page is definitely holding his own, but I think Daniel Bryan could carry me to a 3-star match even though I'm not athletic, have never wrestled before, and would probably get gassed after 6 minutes. - I thought the MJF/Punk segment was great. I like that this feud feels different than the Punk/Kingston one and the Punk/Darby one. I feel like that's been lost a bit as we nitpick whether MJF should be focusing so much on bringing up Punk's WWE past. To me, it works in this context because MJF has portrayed himself as something of an avatar for the "WWE Style" that turns its nose to to the "hardcore fans" and the "indie darlings." I thought the lines about Mania were great. They popped the live crowd too. Its fine to say you don't like something and there are plenty of things that pop a crowd that I think are absolutely awful (i.e "The Worm" that Otis was doing), but its important to keep in mind that AEW is inherently going to be hit-and-miss because there is more freedom given to the wrestlers. I appreciate that more than what the WWE does, which is often dreadfully boring because they don't take risks. - Which brings me to the Jericho/2.0 segment. Again, I kinda thought it was fine. Was it great? No...but 2.0 got some mic time and Jericho got to appear on the TBS debut (which was why he was there) and hopefully this is leading somewhere interesting. As I wrote above, when you let wrestlers go out and do their thing, it may not always be a homerun, but at least it can be an interesting trainwreck. I would not be surprised at all if Kingston/Jericho is in the pipeline as Jericho has a tendency to latch himself onto more interesting, more relevant characters. He also has a tendency to somehow make these things work (no matter how much I'd hate to admit it). Kingston needs a W and beating Jericho still means something so I'm game for it. - No issue with Jade Cargill getting the TBS Championship. I agree with the general sentiment that Ruby seemed like a creative dead-end for that title while Cargill, who may not be the smoothest worker, is a nice fit for a "TV Title"/lower midcard level championship (which a second Women's Championship is, as misogynistic as that may sound). - Great tag match to close out the show. Lots of solid teams to challenge JE though I don't think their run is going to be very long as I'm guessing Fish & O'Reilly may end up with the titles sooner than later. I'm not super hot on that idea, but will admit that at least they have fresh opponents in AEW while, in NXT, their rivalries dried up the longer the UE run went. - Finally, in terms of who can challenge Page? Jeez. This feels like another non-problem to me. Miro, Black, Adam Cole, maybe someone really out-of-the-box like Andrade or PAC. They have plenty of time till March. It may not be super popular but maybe some sort of multi-man? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin' Brian Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 1 hour ago, Rah said: https://twitter.com/republicoflucha/status/1479147791792308226?s=20 This guy is inhuman. Great news. That is great. I was hoping for maybe just a dislocated elbow best case scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 Last night's show did a .43 in the demo, almost matching Raw (.45). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted January 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 Even better than the demo number are the numbers for 18-34 and female viewers, particularly F18-34 AND F12-34. A part of that is of course Dynamite returning to prime time in the pacific and central time zones, and Big Bang Theory reruns presumably giving a stronger lead-in with female viewers than the 500th airing of The Equalizer (I must have the credit scene memorized by now), but it still did the 4th highest P18-34 number in its entire history (including Rampage), the 2nd highest F18-49 viewers in its history, and also the 2nd highest ever in F12-34. That's hugely impressive. It's a great sign that the show is working with younger viewers and bringing more women into the fold. For all of its minor missteps and small weekly booking mistakes, the general trend is undeniably strong and very positive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 33 minutes ago, DMJ said: Its fine to say you don't like something and there are plenty of things that pop a crowd that I think are absolutely awful (i.e "The Worm" that Otis was doing), but its important to keep in mind that AEW is inherently going to be hit-and-miss because there is more freedom given to the wrestlers. I appreciate that more than what the WWE does, which is often dreadfully boring because they don't take risks. Thankfully the numbers seem to be backing this up, folks seem to apricate that AEW lets their folks have more freedom (even if it means sometimes things land with thud) because overall it produces a better show and a better viewing experience than a product so carefully produced it might as well be an animatronic show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 4 hours ago, Rah said: https://twitter.com/republicoflucha/status/1479147791792308226?s=20 This guy is inhuman. Great news. I am amazed. Maybe the most fitting ring name I've seen in a while. Dude turning his arm into noodles and taking "a couple of weeks" to return is absurd. 3 hours ago, DMJ said: - Which brings me to the Jericho/2.0 segment. Again, I kinda thought it was fine. Was it great? No...but 2.0 got some mic time and Jericho got to appear on the TBS debut (which was why he was there) and hopefully this is leading somewhere interesting. As I wrote above, when you let wrestlers go out and do their thing, it may not always be a homerun, but at least it can be an interesting trainwreck. I would not be surprised at all if Kingston/Jericho is in the pipeline as Jericho has a tendency to latch himself onto more interesting, more relevant characters. He also has a tendency to somehow make these things work (no matter how much I'd hate to admit it). Kingston needs a W and beating Jericho still means something so I'm game for it. While I pretty much agree with the rest of your post, I'm not so sure about this. 2.0 got NOTHING in that last segment, mostly because it was so Jericho-centric. I like their 80s cokehead promos, but Y2J was really bringing the whole segment down with the whole "pinhead" and "squarehead" stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted January 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 The quarter numbers for the TBS title match are hugely impressive, especially in the key demo. People are worried about Jade not being able to have good long matches and being mechanically unsound, but she is clearly a star, and stars deserve some special treatment. Their mechanics and sloppiness can be forgiven or at least ignored. This was absolutely the right booking decision imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 Yeah, Jericho was dragging that whole segment down, the "pinhead, squarehead" stuff sounded like it was dying a death to the live crowd and he was doing the whole "if they don't laugh keep repeating the joke" thing that is always a sign of failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 1 minute ago, sek69 said: Yeah, Jericho was dragging that whole segment down, the "pinhead, squarehead" stuff sounded like it was dying a death to the live crowd and he was doing the whole "if they don't laugh keep repeating the joke" thing that is always a sign of failure. Our best hope is that Jericho is self-aware - like he claims he was during his deathly bad WWE "rooty tooty booty" phase (or whatever that dumb catchphrase was) - and this is setting up another evolution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thread Killer Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 If he was self-aware, he wouldn’t have gone into that segment with his hairline drawn onto his head in magic marker, and shoe polish rubbed into the front of his hair. He’s starting to look like Steven Seagal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 OK, I watched Hangman/Danielson Part Deux. I don't want to jump the gun, and I need to watch it again to fully process it, but my initial reaction is to call it the greatest match in AEW history. It's as if Danielson was a PWO lurker and worked the match specifically for me after reading my comments about the first match. And yes, his jumping jacks continue to infuriate me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted January 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 Are "squarehead" and "pinhead" like some TV references or something? Cuz not only was the entire thing extremely unfunny, but it also made zero sense. The chef's kiss of cringe was one of the commentators making the most forced, contrived laughing sound you will ever hear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 4 minutes ago, MoS said: Are "squarehead" and "pinhead" like some TV references or something? Cuz not only was the entire thing extremely unfunny, but it also made zero sense. The chef's kiss of cringe was one of the commentators making the most forced, contrived laughing sound you will ever hear. The one 2.0 guy's face is kinda square-ish - I guess that's the extent of the "insult." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonzalez Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 Jericho has completely run dry at this point, and I liked the MJF angle. As well as parts of the ATT angle. I thought 2.0 coming out there with a live mic finally would be a highlight. Nope, Jericho is done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 One thing that came to mind was that he dropped a South Park reference, calling 2.0 "Terrence and Phillip". Considering how that show was massively popular and how little the crowd reacted to the reference, is it safe to say that Jericho is pandering to the wrong demo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonzalez Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 I think it’s all in the execution. Jericho can usually get dumb shit over. He had none of that same energy he did in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted January 7, 2022 Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 Never thought I'd change my avatar here but after watching some backstage pictures of yesterday's show https://projects.theplayerstribune.com/aew-dynamite-behind-the-scenes/p/1 I had to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted January 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2022 Because I am a complete nerd, I went back and rewatched the world title match and it is a stone cold classic. I recommend all Americans (and Canadians?) to watch the international Fite feed of the match. It is entirely uninterrupted, the crowd is hot, the commentators are great. As a bonus for us nerds, during one of the commercials, when Hangman wipes Dragon's blood on his chest, Tony Schiavone references the Lynn-Corino Heatwave match, just going "Haha, Jerry Lynn knows all about that!!" Just the best pro wrestling match to start your new year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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