AEW TV - April 20/22, 2022

[Timbo Slice]

My issue with Jade is that they need to decide how to truly present her: If she’s an overwhelming force, she needs to be that. If she’s someone who’s just outright better than everyone else, she needs to do more high-impact stuff that shows she’s better. The finish to the match was a perfect example: It just kinda happened without much leading into it.  Too many of her matches are “we need you to go 12-15 because we know you draw” and the matches seem a lot longer than they need to be more often than not. Her going 6-8 on a regular basis while they build up an actual worthwhile challenger is the best possible outcome for both her and the division, but they also have very few female talents that are even on her level from a presentation and talent standpoint, which makes her Asuka in NXT without the depth to make a 15-minute match engaging. She’ll get there quickly, but she’s not there yet and neither is her competition. 

[sek69]

Welp apparently I got COVID from going to Dynamite.

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, sek69 said:

Welp apparently I got COVID from going to Dynamite.

That sucks dude. ☹️

How are you feeling, are your symptoms severe?

Goes without saying that I hope you can beat this back easily without too much physical discomfort, hang in there and best wishes brother.

[sek69]

Yeah I seem pretty lucky so far, at first I thought it was allergies turning into a sinus infection (which tends to happen to me this time of year). Right now I just have congestion/runny nose/scratchy throat/mild cough.  

I'm fully vaxxed and boosted so hopefully this won't get too much worse.

[Alucard]

Jade/Marina was actually Jade's longest singles match to date, going 11 minutes. I personally loved it. Marina felt like a threat for lasting that long even though she hadn't been built up all that much and Jade came off like a complete superstar.

According to the Observer, Kingston/Garcia actually went 22 minutes live, but was edited down to 12 for TV. 

[NintendoLogic]

Best wishes to good brother @sek69.

11 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Baddies are such a good fit I am beginning to think Mark might become redundant soon.

Nah, he still has value as Jade's hype man as well as the guy who gets squashed by her rivals in comedy matches. A female wrestler beating up a wimpy male manager is the only intergender wrestling I approve of.

11 hours ago, Timbo Slice said:

My issue with Jade is that they need to decide how to truly present her: If she’s an overwhelming force, she needs to be that. If she’s someone who’s just outright better than everyone else, she needs to do more high-impact stuff that shows she’s better. The finish to the match was a perfect example: It just kinda happened without much leading into it.  Too many of her matches are “we need you to go 12-15 because we know you draw” and the matches seem a lot longer than they need to be more often than not. Her going 6-8 on a regular basis while they build up an actual worthwhile challenger is the best possible outcome for both her and the division, but they also have very few female talents that are even on her level from a presentation and talent standpoint, which makes her Asuka in NXT without the depth to make a 15-minute match engaging. She’ll get there quickly, but she’s not there yet and neither is her competition. 

That was Batista's main complaint about how he was booked in OVW. He thought they taught him how to be Goldberg and get over by squashing people but didn't actually teach him how to work matches. Jade's never going to improve significantly if she only goes 6-8 minutes every time out. You just have to put her out there and let her sink or swim on her own. It only becomes an issue if audiences start turning on her, and there's no signs of that happening. By the way, I feel like they really missed the boat by not calling her finisher That Bitch Clamp.

[RingoPlaysDrums]

Nice video on Dustin/Punk from Joseph Montecillo!

 

 

[El-P]

The reactions to this match in term of confirmation bias (about the idea of "old-school" basically, although the very specific status of Dustin also plays into it) are more interesting than the match itself, which was a really good, super solid pro-wrestling match as opposed to that "OMG this is such a great fucking match OMG Dustin is the GOAT OMG" stuff that it's been pimped to be (and I say that as a Dustin fan since 1990). Worst thing about the match was JR's passive agressive "I guess people still enjoy pro-wrestling" when the audience chanted the dreaded "This Is Awesome", like sure, most of the other stuff on AEW usually isn't "pro-wrestling", ya know. Maybe I was just in a bad mood (like I had any reasons to be this week ? Oh, yeah, sure...), but I did not think it was anything special at all. To me it was like, really good fan-service to the "old-school", and enjoyed it for what it was. I enjoyed Kingston vs Garcia, Ishii vs Cole, the six men wth BCC, Andrade vs Darby and hell, even Shafir vs Jade more than this one though (for different and various reasons each), and that's only on AEW TV. 

[KB8]

I didn't read JR's "shucks, I guess people DO still like pro wrestling" bit as a dig against the more "modern" stuff in AEW. I read it as more of a dig against WWE where I guess there's this thing that they only do Sports Entertainment and a match build around "fundamentals" and duelling limb work would probably never get a This is Awesome chant (I haven't really watched any WWE in forever so I have no idea if that's the case). 

I loved Punk/Dustin, largely for the reasons you only thought it was super solid. They built it around duelling limb work and the selling of the limb damage was great, it was pretty "minimalist" (other than maybe 53-year-old Dustin Rhodes hitting a fucking Canadian Destroyer, which, as someone who's only properly dived into AEW over the last couple weeks, I was not expecting), they slowed the pace down and let things marinate, they got progressively tetchy with each other as the match went, etc. Things that I geek out for. I'm not saying that's the only AEW match to have any of that stuff (obviously it isn't), but it's one of the only ones I've seen that put it all together the way they did. It certainly felt unique within the context of current AEW, and maybe mainstream American wrestling as a whole, though I don't watch enough to know if that's remotely accurate. I also don't know nor particularly care who was the better guy in it, but I came away from it thinking it was probably my favourite AEW match of the year, the one that played to my stylistic preferences the most, and that CM Punk is maybe my favourite wrestler in the world in the year 2022 despite never being much of a CM Punk guy at any other point in my life. 

[El-P]

15 minutes ago, KB8 said:

I didn't read JR's "shucks, I guess people DO still like pro wrestling" bit as a dig against the more "modern" stuff in AEW. I read it as more of a dig against WWE where I guess there's this thing that they only do Sports Entertainment and a match build around "fundamentals" and duelling limb work would probably never get a This is Awesome chant (I haven't really watched any WWE in forever so I have no idea if that's the case). 

Wow, it never crossed my mind. I wish I was as optimist as you are on this one, I definitely thought this was the return of bitter boomer JR trashing AEW's "usual" product.

15 minutes ago, KB8 said:

(other than maybe 53-year-old Dustin Rhodes hitting a fucking Canadian Destroyer, which, as someone who's only properly dived into AEW over the last couple weeks, I was not expecting)

It was a Code Red, not a Canadian Destroyer.  But he does the Canadian Destroyer too on occasion (I mean, Ricky Morton does it, so).

15 minutes ago, KB8 said:

I'm not saying that's the only AEW match to have any of that stuff (obviously it isn't), but it's one of the only ones I've seen that put it all together the way they did. It certainly felt unique within the context of current AEW, and maybe mainstream American wrestling as a whole, though I don't watch enough to know if that's remotely accurate. I also don't know nor particularly care who was the better guy in it, but I came away from it thinking it was probably my favourite AEW match of the year, the one that played to my stylistic preferences the most, and that CM Punk is maybe my favourite wrestler in the world in the year 2022 despite never being much of a CM Punk guy at any other point in my life. 

I was about to say that you should probably check out most of Punk's matches in AEW, especially since the beginning of the year, since these should probably be right up your alley, but there you go.

And again, I did enjoy the match, and I feel lucky to get those Dustin Rhodes matches that would have never happened otherwise (the post-match to me was actually the nicest moment of it all). 

[KB8]

I guess it's a sign of the times that I no longer know the difference between a Code Red and a Canadian Destroyer. 

The main reason I give JR the benefit of the doubt is that he *usually* seems to be at least somewhat happy in his work whenever I've listened to him. Or at least happier than he was in WWE by the end. 

[strobogo]

JR pretty openly hating Danhausen and all of his segments is good though, because I agree with him

[The Thread Killer]

Last week @sek69 went to Dynamite. Then he got the COVID-19. Today the AEW World Heavyweight Champion Hangman Page announced he will miss tonight’s episode of Dynamite because he has the COVID-19.

I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but this can hardly be a coincidence. It’s clear Hangman Page is trying to keep @sek69 out of circulation. Why? Is Page trying to sabotage PWO for some reason? Is Page afraid @sek69 is planning on challenging for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship?

I can’t tell you the whole story here, but you can find out all the behind the scenes details on my exclusive hotline report tonight at 1-900-909-9900.

Kids, get your parents permission before calling.

 

[MoS]

Maybe it's sek who is trying to keep Hangman out of circulation, hoping to weaken him enough for an #OLT Punk world title run. 

[KawadaSmile]

We all know bubba Sek is in the WARDLOW side of things, so he had an agenda to fulfill

[Blehschmidt]

Oh My God.... Sek was driving the Hummer.....

[MoS]

He did it for The Rock after all 

[The Thread Killer]

I assumed Hangman was the bad guy in this scenario. I can’t believe you guys automatically assumed Good Brother @sek69 is the heel.

But if he is…he should get Good Brother @C.S. to be his manager. All C.S. would have to do is cut one of his “Mauro Ranallo is the GOAT” promos, and he and sek would have massive old school heat, brother. They would sell that mother out, lineups around the block.

[NintendoLogic]

2 hours ago, Blehschmidt said:

Oh My God.... Sek was driving the Hummer.....

Was that before or after he raised the briefcase?

You know, we should hold sek responsible for every single unsolved mystery in wrestling. Like that time on The Simpsons when Steve Sax got charged with every unsolved murder in New York.

[TheDuke]

I have it on good authority that sek69 is actually the original Undertaker from before they replaced him with Mark Calloway in the mid 90s.

[sek69]

Hey I was just trying to give my man Punk an advantage

[Dav'oh]

"Sek Conspicuously Avoids Addressing Hummer/Higher Power/Briefcase/Undertaker Rumours. What Is He Hiding? We Send Liz Hunter Undercover To Investigate!"

[sek69]

*notices several missed calls from someone named Matt Brock*

[SirEdger]

44 minutes ago, TheDuke said:

I have it on good authority that sek69 is actually the original Undertaker from before they replaced him with Mark Calloway in the mid 90s.

I was always told he replaced Ultimate Warrior in 1992.

[Blehschmidt]

I actually have it on good authority that Sek worked for 20/20 and sent John Stossel to Madison Square Garden.