AEW TV - April 27/29, 2022

[strobogo]

I do not at all enjoy this Jericho doing a WWE satire gimmick, nor do I like that Britt Baker's gimmick seems to be just shitting on her opponent's booking.

[sek69]

I'm loving the JAS gimmick, I LOL'd at the AEW GALAXY

[MoS]

10 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

My team is clapping cheeks at Copa Libertadores, so no Dynamite for me. 

 

Anything I should look forward to?

Well Eddie Kingston cut a tremendous promo where he threatened to literally murder Jericho, and called him a bitch multiple times, and it was awesome. 

[sek69]

Tony Schiavone obviously never watched ECW, since he said you don't normally see kendo sticks in a Philly street fight 

[MoS]

I love Serena Deeb

[Blehschmidt]

Damn that eye is gonna look nasty tomorrow.

[KawadaSmile]

Wait we getting Wardlow vs Big Cass next week? No way

[sek69]

Deonna vs Mercedes is gonna bang

[strobogo]

What the hell is Tony doing with the TNT Championship? Shit is the WCW Championship in 2000.

[sek69]

I think it's fine if only one belt gets hot potatoed, when it gets to like late 90s WWF where every belt changes hands weekly is when it gets silly.

Plus I can't shake the feeling that the stuff with Sammy and Cody swapping the belt was some kind of attempt to get Cody to stay that didn't pan out. 

[sek69]

Also seeing Fenix returning makes me way more likely to buy Triplemania now since Fenix/Vikingo vs Bucks is gonna be balls out crazy. 

[KB8]

I hope Kingston admitting to literal murder isn't something that will hold up in court but I'll tell you what, there's probably no one I believe more when they say they're going to put someone in the ground than Eddie Kingston. He was amazing in that segment. I can get behind this sports entertainment shtick of Jericho's and I thought "the AEW Galaxy" was an amusing line. Jericho and his boys flinging the fireball in Kingston's face ruled and if the JAS decide to just work Memphis tropes into everything they do going forward then they can have my money right now.

I have no real idea who this Danhausen fella is but the graphic for him and Hook having a face-to-face on Rampage just about got the biggest pop of the night. This Hook laddie is over as balls. 

Amazing bit of commentary during the BCC trios: Regal: "[Danielson]'s everything I wish I could've been." JR: "You were pretty good yourself." Regal: "Not as good as he is." Super fun match as well, probably the best BCC trios I've seen so far. 

Wardlow/Archer was a hoot. 

Serena Deeb fucking rules. The other day I watched her match with Shida where Shida gets her 50th win, purely on a whim, and it was tremendous and Deeb was going after Shida's leg like a Rottweiler. She was amazing again here and pretty easily my favourite woman in the company. 

That Guevara bump off the missed whateverthefuck off the ladder was sort of terrifying. I thought all in all they managed to cover pretty well for him being clearly out of it. I don't have much interest in Sky or Kazarian but a mixed tag with Guevara/Conti against Someone/VanZant would be sort of fun maybe? 

This won't mean much to all of you who are probably already watching this week to week anyway, but that's three weeks in a row now where I've watched Dynamite in one sitting (the next day because I am not a young man anymore and who's sitting up until 3am on a Wednesday?), and I legitimately haven't done that with a wrestling show in about 15 years. 

[El-P]

When I was a young pro-wresting fan, the Bret vs Owen match at Mania X was the match I loved the most and probably have watched and re-watched the most on my precious VHS. I loved Bret, and I loved the newly heel-turned Owen. So needless to say, that match between Dax & Cash was pure joy to me. That was a great pro-wrestling match. And don't think I did not notice the Mania X ending spot worked in the middle of this. 

I am also an old ECW fan. So that final ladder clusterfuck of a match was also awesome to me, complete with Sammy trying to kill himself (legit, no idea what he thought but that shit was eerie, Tay's face could become a meme), Tighs Conti kicking some old douchebag in the balls like she was Beulah (it looked AWESOME too, great execution by both), foxy girls fighting around, bump on barb-wire ladder that you barely sell because no time for that shit and a finish no one saw coming.

In the middle of this, two big dudes bumping into each others, Serena & Shida bashing themselves with inanimate objects, some cool competitive squashes, the return of Fénix, "AEW Galaxy". 

Yeah, AEW is absolutely a buffet with something for everyone to love.

The Scorpio win was interesting. I guess they figure Tay & Sammy are such heat magnets that they don't need the belt (which is not wrong) and that the whole angle could actually benefit Scorpio if given the belt back, with the added heat of PVZ. He sure got the biggest reaction in a long time too, although that has to be attributed to Sammy & Tay (who btw still at times comes off as really likable when she looks worried for instance, she has that naturally likable thing about her) because ridiculously over as heels already. I don't mind the switching around for the TNT belt from time to time. It was part of the appeal of the TV or cruiserweight titles in the (good) Nitro era. Plus, you don't wan't it to be always the same kind of dynamics with "one guy gets the belts, keeps it for a while, then passes it to the next guy who deserves it, rince, repeat". Mixing it up a big and changing the formula isn't a bad thing (you don't want it to become a belt that changes every two weeks either obviously).

Next week is gonna be crazy for me because DEONNA MOTHERFUCKING PURRAZZO in AEW already. Long time overdue. She has to keep the ROH belt too. I'm pretty sure she would have on Mania week-end anyway but Tony did not want to force her into back to back matches (the IMPACT and ROH shows were pretty close), so Mercedes was probably thrown in like Suzuki. Deonna already beat her a few weeks back in IMPACT and it's not like Mercedes has been pushed thus far in AEW. Plus, W. Morrissey is showing up to put Wardlow over, so there's no way IMPACT just send two people on the same show to do two jobs back to back. The Morrissey ref was kinda funny since it came on a segment involving Lexy Nair (Morrissey is Lexy's boyfriend). He's basically doing Sid in ECW lately, fist-bumping people and powebombing geeks (and Chelsea Green) through tables. And he's also a babyface there. Deonna has been one of my favorite wrestler anywhere since day one she showed up in IMPACT, hopefully what they do is have her keep the title and be like Omega in reverse (or Thunder Rosa when she was the NWA champ), establish a trust and relationship and sign her immediately when her deal in IMPACT ends (she has done pretty much everything over there). She's awesome and again, it's long overdue that she gets a spot on AEW TV, and hopefully ends up in the company.

[KB8]

Darby is a complete lunatic. Opening match on the B show? Fuck it, suplex me off the apron, why not. Fun wee match.

The pop for Hook finally shaking Danhausen's hand will rival Austin hitting the Stunner on Vince. Prolly. 

[El-P]

Just now, KB8 said:

Darby is a complete lunatic. Opening match on the B show? Fuck it, suplex me off the apron, why not. Fun wee match.

The pop for Hook finally shaking Danhausen's hand will rival Austin hitting the Stunner on Vince. Prolly. 

Yes.

And yes.

Darby totally gives me Cactus Jack's vibes. Match was terrific too. The idea that WWE let Strickland go is just one of these mind-puzzling making no sense decision. Like, WHY ? 

Main event was terrific too. For all the talk about Joe being done in NXT, he has looked nothing short of excellent thus far in AEW. That Trent match was a war. It's also nice that the ROH stuff actually revolves around historical ROH characters thus far, it's a nice way to connect what happens now to the history of the promotion. So much cool matches with Joe in... 

Da Baddies are gonna be awesome if they develop a cool chemistry. I for one to have Kiera Hogan back on my weekly TV after years of following her in IMPACT. She looked kinda nervous I thought, whereas Velvet comes off confident AF. A trio will bring a new dynamic to the division too, which is needed, and Jade getting her own reDragons is not the worst idea in terms of mixing things up for her in term of matches. Yeah, loving the Baddies already.

Danhausen is the kind of stuff that will have some head explode, but that pop is undeniable. Hookhausen ? Yeah, need some shit to go viral on TikTok or something. Orange Cassidy has now some competition in meme pro-wrestling. Him doing the hand-in-pocket spot with Satnam Singh certainly got over too.

[KB8]

I can be a miserable bastard, an old man yelling at clouds and someone who generally isn't huge on that sort of thing, but the Danhausen stuff has been way more palatable than I was expecting. The main reason is that nobody is actually taking the curse stuff seriously other than him (although I haven't seen too much of it so maybe I'm wrong). He's doing all this goofy Papa Shango nonsense and thinks he's scared off Tony Nese, but obviously it's Hook Nese is running from and there was one moment where even Danhausen was like "holy shit this is ACTUALLY working?" oblivious to Hook behind him.

I'm honestly shocked at how enjoyable I've found it. It's pretty much the ideal midcard storyline and people are clearly into it, so fair play to all involved. 

[El-P]

10 minutes ago, KB8 said:

He's doing all this goofy Papa Shango nonsense and thinks he's scared off Tony Nese, but obviously it's Hook Nese is running from and there was one moment where even Danhausen was like "holy shit this is ACTUALLY working?" oblivious to Hook behind him.

And the announcers made sure that point was made clear, that he believed he had run off Neese through his curse while obviously Neese was escaping Hook's hooks.

Danhausen's curse is basically homeopathy. 

[NintendoLogic]

1 hour ago, KB8 said:

I can be a miserable bastard, an old man yelling at clouds and someone who generally isn't huge on that sort of thing, but the Danhausen stuff has been way more palatable than I was expecting. The main reason is that nobody is actually taking the curse stuff seriously other than him (although I haven't seen too much of it so maybe I'm wrong).

I actually think the exact opposite is true. It works precisely because everyone sells the hell out of it. The curses don't actually do anything, but people think they do so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like, he'll curse someone and it freaks out or distracts them enough that they get blindsided by a tope or something. And since HOOK inherited his father's no-selling powers, it stands to reason that he'd be the only one who can no-sell the curse. It's well within the realm of fun pro wrestling bullshit (as opposed to embarrassing pro wrestling bullshit like Papa Shango making Ultimate Warrior throw up).

[strobogo]

Rampage desperately needs to either be live or at least taped separately from Dynamite.

[DMJ]

^ Why do you say so? I haven't found it to be noticeably "dead" on Rampage very often.

 

To me, AEW is really all about the card. The weeks where Rampage feels weak to me are usually when its featuring storylines/feuds that, to me, feel a bit directionless and tired. For example, I like everyone involved in the Team Taz/Lee & Swerve feud but its just not super interesting. Same for the Darby/Andrade feud. I feel like the past few months have featured those storylines much more prominently on Rampage than on Dynamite and I'm not sure they actually were good enough to carry those shows. Nothing about them felt unique or special and "star making," which sucks because pretty much everyone involved in those feuds has "star" written all over them. Just a weird example where the ingredients are there for a great dish, but the finished product is not as good as what you'd expect.

Here's hoping that this week and last week was them wrapping up older storylines and getting things starting for DoN as I'd love to see some fresher pairings. I'm not sure what those pairings could be/would be, but BCC, Darby Allin, Jurassic Express, Malachai Black, Lee & Swerve, Guevara, and others are all due for some new dance partners.

[KawadaSmile]

Did they turn Julia heel on Dark?

If so, I guess we'll get more on this week's TV episodes but that's kinda lame.

[strobogo]

4 hours ago, DMJ said:

^ Why do you say so? I haven't found it to be noticeably "dead" on Rampage very often.

 

To me, AEW is really all about the card. The weeks where Rampage feels weak to me are usually when its featuring storylines/feuds that, to me, feel a bit directionless and tired. For example, I like everyone involved in the Team Taz/Lee & Swerve feud but its just not super interesting. Same for the Darby/Andrade feud. I feel like the past few months have featured those storylines much more prominently on Rampage than on Dynamite and I'm not sure they actually were good enough to carry those shows. Nothing about them felt unique or special and "star making," which sucks because pretty much everyone involved in those feuds has "star" written all over them. Just a weird example where the ingredients are there for a great dish, but the finished product is not as good as what you'd expect.

Here's hoping that this week and last week was them wrapping up older storylines and getting things starting for DoN as I'd love to see some fresher pairings. I'm not sure what those pairings could be/would be, but BCC, Darby Allin, Jurassic Express, Malachai Black, Lee & Swerve, Guevara, and others are all due for some new dance partners.

The energy is always off, both in the crowd and performers. Like the last show of tapings at Full Sail would always be.

[Migs]

On 4/27/2022 at 9:14 PM, sek69 said:

Tony Schiavone obviously never watched ECW, since he said you don't normally see kendo sticks in a Philly street fight 

They've actually made a big deal in the past of him watching it for his podcast with Conrad, so he has seen it. Maybe just a blunder.

[Migs]

On 5/2/2022 at 12:54 PM, KawadaSmile said:

Did they turn Julia heel on Dark?

If so, I guess we'll get more on this week's TV episodes but that's kinda lame.

They have clearly decided it's time to pay this thing off after six months. Not sure why it took so long. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/varsity-blonds-to-call-out-house-of-black-on-aew-dynamite

[Migs]

On 4/27/2022 at 8:51 PM, MoS said:

Wow Wardlow DESTROYED Archer there, the latter's contract must be running out 

With NJPW opening back up, honestly probably a fine time for Archer to go back there. He can always pop up in AEW once or twice a year as a monster, which at times has felt like his role on the AEW roster as is.