MoS Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 Matt looks like shit but Jeff doesn't look too bad. His offence of course as always looks like shit but the psychology of the match on Jeff finally hitting the swanton was quite nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 Genuinely want Butcher to have a singles run Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 We should all take a moment to recognize what an improvement the new women's title is over the original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 Another really good show I thought. The first match was an awesome spotfest and I look forward to a potential ReDragon-Jurassic Express title match. The Bryan-Mox-Regal stuff is terrific and I love that they appear to be going in the stable direction that was first teased. Hopefully they face Sydal and Moriarity next week. I was skeptical about JAS but they're off to a good start. Daniel Garcia declaring himself a "sports entertainer" is the second biggest heel move this year. Jericho's AEW run has been very peaks and valleys but he seems to be back on the upswing. Warldow-Scorpio was...well the result was correct but the crowd really doesn't care about Scorpio due to the booking and this wasn't an ideal first title defense. That being said, the beatdown was great and proof that Wardlow is an absolute star in the making. The Hardyz-PP tag was solid for what it was. I don't need to see a Hardyz title run but I am interested in them against nearly every AEW tag team. The main event, while not on the level of Lights Out last year, was really good but Britt's no-selling of some spots was pretty blatant. Wouldn't be surprised if there's legit heat between the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 This cage match has really picked up during the break. I'd once again recommend watching the international version of it. Britt's doing some nasty work on Rosa's cut, and then there is this commentary verbatim: J.R - "Notice Rosa has 3:16 on her tights. Today is March 16th" Tony - "Good call Jim" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 Thought the 2nd chair spot was way too convoluted and stupid and it took quite some time to set up, which I guess partly explains why they ran clearly short of time at the end - you can see Aubrey tell Rosa something at the end there - but overall that match was great, Rosa was so over and is so charismatic, and Britt's offence looks so light especially recently but she took some absolutely mad bumps for Rosa, please don't ever compare her to Charlotte again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 I won't argue, bubba. Much like Mourinho in that one interview, I am not allowed to speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted March 17, 2022 Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 I saw a few people bemused at the female demo rating dropping, despite there being a women's title main event. Like yeah, I don't know a lot about women but I know they're not massively keen on watching other women powerbomb each other into thumbtacks and bleed everywhere. If you want to attract women, give Jungle Boy the strap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 As far as pro-wrestling goes, the show peaked with the opening match, which was great. As far as pro-wrestling trainwreck and emotion, the show peaked with Britt bumping like she's Shoji Nakamaki at Kawasaki Stadium in 95 and Thunder Rosa (gotta love the female mariachi band and the Kobra Moon hommage reptile tights) winning the title in her adopted hometown (what a concept). The Wardlow vs MJF angle is the first big angle AEW does I absolutely don't care about, because I can't care about Wardlow. He's ok. He's Adam Bomb with less cool moves and too much of a Batista redux. But the angle is very well done and I get why they are running it. I just don't care about it nor the upcoming match. On a side note and although I kinda hate being that guy, the "THIS IS WAR !" intro with the nuke graphics kinda come in poor taste considering the international context... Wouldn't be against changing that up. Hardys 2000 just need some hot chick with them to really drive the point home. I mean Broken Matt looks like he's just that working that style (and yet, that counter before the hot tag was just great shit, and was the reason why the hot tag got hot, because the move got such a huge reaction just before it happened) and Jeff Hardy is kinda Animal in 1998, doing the same spots that he always did, but with less flash and velocity. I have no idea how much legs this stint has, because honestly there's so much *other* tag matches I'd rather see in AEW than Hardys 2000 against everyone. But with the cost of Jeff, gotta make the most out of it I guess. Great job of getting Wheeler Yuta over. I was expecting him joining Regal's team as the match went on, so that's job well done. Statlander is making her coming out as a human ? Daniel Garcia "the sport entertainer" is a masterful troll job. I did see it coming, but still, it was great stuff. Some echoes of Cactus Jack anti-hardcore gimmick in ECW I guess. Jericho has reached the status where no one really wants to boo him anymore (like Flair in the past), but the SE-word will do just that. Not the greatest show in term of matches (I mean, Mox & Danielson beating the piss out of anyone is great, but it's still a competitive squash), but the beginning and the end were great for different reasons, the new Jericho faction is all designed to get Garcia over which is awesome, just as maybe Yuta going with Regal's killers. Gotta give Scorp some meat for his TNT title reign now though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 14 hours ago, Stiva said: I saw a few people bemused at the female demo rating dropping, despite there being a women's title main event. Like yeah, I don't know a lot about women but I know they're not massively keen on watching other women powerbomb each other into thumbtacks and bleed everywhere. When Meltz said it last year, some people made fun of him. One year later, with tons of gory self mutilation, the female audience has shrinked. As he predicted. So yeah, Uncle Dave was right on the money on this. Also, this really puts in perspective all the talk about "representing", because it's a proven fact that women pro-wrestling doesn't attract a female audience. It has not done it for WWE, it doesn't do it in AEW. It is not doing this in Japan either, hasn't since the late 80's. The Crush Gals were an anomaly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 Weren't Total Bellas and the Four Horsewomen (more specifically Sasha) draws in the female demographic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 8 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said: Weren't Total Bellas and the Four Horsewomen (more specificallu Sasha) draws in the female demographic? Total Bellas had really nothing to do with pro-wrestling. It's the format of the show that drew women to watch them on WWE shows. Cody tried for AEW. (where's my Kappa emote ????!!!) The 4 Horsewoman, I dunno, maybe for a while. But in the long term it hasn't really paid off. The all-female PPV really did not work that well either. WWE surely has way more of a women audience still, despite Alexa Bliss vomiting black goo and cosplaying creepy fetish, so what do we know ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 TB is reality TV, yes, but at the same time the number of female viewers increased, or at least the male to female ratio became more balanced. Still, it would be interesting to look at HARD THROBBING DATA. Not that I am advocating for AEW to start their Totally Baked Starring Britt Baker series, but they need to develop the personalities of the women's roster ASAP. When most of your segments are so indistinguishable from each other it becomes a joke or on-screen characters are basically valets with no lines, it becomes super difficult to care. Statlander is a character. Britt is. Rosa is. Jade is a star without anything on her plate as we speak. That is not enough, man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 47 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said: Not that I am advocating for AEW to start their Totally Baked Starring Britt Baker series, but they need to develop the personalities of the women's roster ASAP. When most of your segments are so indistinguishable from each other it becomes a joke or on-screen characters are basically valets with no lines, it becomes super difficult to care. Statlander is a character. Britt is. Rosa is. Jade is a star without anything on her plate as we speak. That is not enough, man. As I said before, the IMPACT women roster is much more fun to follow, and that includes people who aren't very good workers at all (I mean, the IInspiration, please). They are doing a much better job making everyone seem important on their own level. But it's also easier in a much smaller roster with not a ridiculously stacked male roster of all-time greats too. That's the reality of things that I think many people aren't willing to hear about AEW's roster. The last PPV was really telling. They just don't have a Sasha Banks on their roster, nor a Utami Hayashishita, nor a Syuri, nor a Deonna Purrazzo. Their best female workers like Rosa are very good (Riho actually may be better than very good honestly, but she's hurt). They have some really solid veterans workers too (The Bunny, who should get way more time as a character). Some would argue Mercedes Martinez, who has a rep on the indies, but although I've seen her look really good on many, many occasions, I have not seen her look *great* either (granted I have not seen a lot of her work). And they have plenty of workers who are still green and look like it in-ring (Conti, Jay, Hirsch, Cargill, Velvet, Statlander). Ruby Soho has been a miss to me. Came off looking like a star because she was at the right spot at the right time, but she really has been underwhelming in the ring. Serena Deeb at this time is without a doubt the best of all, hopefully they have her do something meaningful beyond feuding with Shida (who's also good/very good). On the other hand, they do give time to Wardlow, who's neither a great worker nor a great promo nor a great character. Then again, it's a first occurence of me not caring about a major AEW angle also (I guess the worst was still Baker vs Swole, which legit sucked because of you know who). When you consider that a major main event between two women (the biggest they have in that division, and a legit big moment in the company period) doesn't draw women, well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Ewiak Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 I mean, don't we all remember how much time Meltzer and others gave pages upon pages to the fact that women's ratings in the WWF fell off a cliff after the Angle/HHH/Stephanie love triangle was snuffed out? Yes, there are women's wrestling fans who enjoy good wrestling and such, obviously. But, just like the vast majority of casual and even quasi-serious but not smarkish male fans watch people they think look cool and badass (the same exact reason Marvel & the Fast and Furious franchise makes bank), it's not a surprise the casual/quasi-serious female audience shows up for storylines they're into, and that appears to be soap opera stuff, just like the reality show stuff they're into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 The main instances of women's wrestling drawing in female fans are 70s/80s AJW and Total Divas/Bellas. In both cases, it wasn't workrate that drew them in but an emotional connection with the performers. Thunder Rosa may be over, but there's no real reason for women specifically to care about her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 The issue I have with this is that why should there be *specific* reasons for women to care about Thunder Rosa (as a woman performer I think), or anyone else really, apart from "being a pro-wrestling fan" (unless you're making it strictly a feminism issue, which is an entire other story)? If we're talking about casual fans, fine, but I don't care about what casual fans think in those instance (which is why I did not care about Cody's attempt to lure this audience by doing celebrity matches and such). At heart, AEW is still very much a hardcore pro-wrestling promotion (which is why I wonder how sustainable a guy like Wardlow can be after the MJF feud, if the biggest selling point of the guy is doing four powerbombs in a row). There's a very gendered way of thinking behind all of this too, with the whole "women are more about the emotions" and whatnot. Which is not untrue BTW, specifically because that's what they have been geared toward to by patriarcal society (the whole "care" stuff). There is probably so much that could be said about the whole thing, but again I guess sociology would be more adept to study this kind of subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 While I agree Wardlow is not going to be putting on any five star matches or cutting world class promos, he's caught fire with the crowd and there's nothing more primal in pro wrestling than a big dude going out and killing other dudes. AEW should absolutely ride it while its hot, since not doing so is one of the things WWE does that pisses everyone off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 18, 2022 Report Share Posted March 18, 2022 27 minutes ago, sek69 said: While I agree Wardlow is not going to be putting on any five star matches or cutting world class promos, he's caught fire with the crowd and there's nothing more primal in pro wrestling than a big dude going out and killing other dudes. To me he's been pretty meh even has a big guy tossing around other people. I was never a fan of Goldy, ever, but when he showed up on Nitro in 1997 and began to kill dudes, he looked unique. The way he moved, the spots he used, the fact he seemingly always came up with some new ways of fucking up people, not to mention the incredible intensity. That was something unseen at the time and it was different from pretty much everything else in wrestling. The one thing that got over with Wardlow is him doing a bunch of powerbombs in a row. Powerbombs. Sid was doing powerbombs as a finisher when I was 14 years old. He's not very interesting to watch on offense when he's not doing a big spot (those throw away suplexes were cool looking), he's not compelling at selling and clearly the crowds really only pops big for his intro and the powerbombs. The most fun part of the act has been Shawn Spears to me, acting like a doofus waiting to get killed. So like I said, I totally get why they are pushing him now and yeah and they absolutely should do it. But I'm waiting for him to show me more. If he gets to good Batista kinda level, I'll be happy about it, but he's not there. I can't think of one really good or really fun single Wardlow match thus far. And yeah, I don't care one bit for his presentation (stick tongue, grab suspenders, this is WAAAAAAAR.... ok). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tetsujin Posted March 19, 2022 Report Share Posted March 19, 2022 There was a singles match with Jungle Boy last year on Dynamite that I really liked. That was one of those matches that I saw as "ok I don't like neither of these guys but I can appreciate they're good enough". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 19, 2022 Report Share Posted March 19, 2022 Rampage was a nice B-show. Although now that Jericho has turned back heel, the 4 guy announcing team, which is way too much anyway, gets really too awkward with Excalibur surrounded with 3 guys heeling up on the babyface, and Jericho is kinda plugging his new gimmick way too much. Really enjoyed Hirsch vs Velvet. The heel turn did wonders for Leila, I'l digging her tiny tank style, and Velvet is another one who should get more TV time. Darby vs Butcher was very good (Matt Hardy trying to do a run in really shows how banged up he is though). House of Black competitive squash was quite fun and the main event, well, you don't want Max Caster's single match as a main event, sorry. That last segment also screamed of "How dare you call me out Big Swole ?". I totally can get behind a Lee & Swerve vs Hobbs & Starks match, could be excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 19, 2022 Report Share Posted March 19, 2022 Man, Caster is not really good. I guess him doing "intentional" shitty rhymes is a good way to get him booed, but Bowens can talk, looks better, wrestles better, and has more charisma. We may be reaching a point in which staying in that tag hinders him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Schneider Posted March 19, 2022 Report Share Posted March 19, 2022 4 hours ago, El-P said: Rampage was a nice B-show. Although now that Jericho has turned back heel, the 4 guy announcing team, which is way too much anyway, gets really too awkward with Excalibur surrounded with 3 guys heeling up on the babyface, and Jericho is kinda plugging his new gimmick way too much. Really enjoyed Hirsch vs Velvet. The heel turn did wonders for Leila, I'l digging her tiny tank style, and Velvet is another one who should get more TV time. Darby vs Butcher was very good (Matt Hardy trying to do a run in really shows how banged up he is though). House of Black competitive squash was quite fun and the main event, well, you don't want Max Caster's single match as a main event, sorry. That last segment also screamed of "How dare you call me out Big Swole ?". I totally can get behind a Lee & Swerve vs Hobbs & Starks match, could be excellent. It's a fine main event for a show which started at like 1am Eastern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 19, 2022 Report Share Posted March 19, 2022 6 minutes ago, Phil Schneider said: It's a fine main event for a show which started at like 1am Eastern. I don't care at what time it started, with the roster they have, having Max Caster in a main event just doesn't register. The guy just isn't very good at all. They want to make Keith lee look awesome, have Matt Sydal or Tony Neese bump around for him. This was the worst match on AEW TV this week, although Keith Lee is always fun to watch, but really, I'm not far from sharing @KawadaSmile's opinion that Caster is turning into Bowens albatros (yeah, some of his punchlines can be funny especially when they sting really hard, but it only goes so far). I wouldn't mind him as his manager for a while, although he's bigger, which is never a good visual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted March 19, 2022 Report Share Posted March 19, 2022 Just updating Matt Sydal specifically, he dislocated his knee a few weeks back so he's out for a bit (no ligament tears, fortunately). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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