AEW TV 5/18-5/23

[KawadaSmile]

4 hours ago, El-P said:

Which never made any sense to me ! I mean so we're told he's keeping his eyes close so with one sense not working he can focus more of his energy but then again when he opens his eyes then he's getting even more powerful except Ikki forced him to open his eyes so now Shaka is vulnerable ok WTF ?!?! I mean, Shaka was still the coolest this side of Saga, but still, that shit made no sense whatsoever. He was probably an anti-vaxx naturopath at heart too, with all the new-age bullshit in his house.

Have fond memories of the show, but Kurumada's writing is all over the place. Still, the Hades Sanctuary arc is great, great stuff. After that... literally goes down a hole. 

You just know Mu is also like that. Dude is out there fixing armor with blood, who knows what kind of stuff he's doing to treat other diseases.

4 hours ago, El-P said:

And yet, it should not, because you don't squash a main event star like MJF. So yeah, it's tricky.

Unless they flat out start with some fuckery, like hitting Wardlow with everything plus the kitchen sink, I cannot see MJF getting much offense in, given the build they have done. It's the match I am looking forward the most, yet I have no idea how it will turn out.

[Jmare007]

They already established Warldow's weakness is the same as Brock's: their balls. So if MJF starts with a cheap shot low blow, his control segment will make sense.

5 hours ago, El-P said:

 

The NJPW PPV build is gonna be super interesting, because NJPW doesn't build their major card the same way a US company would, and I doubt the NJPW crew will appear every week to build the thing.

 

That PPV was always going to live and die on the "dream matches" they are able to book though. The novelty of seeing first time matches/pairings (or if Omega was around, beloved rivalries) is what's gonna sell it. There's not a lot of hype they can do on TV besides "you know these New Japan folks are great, you also know our AEW folks are great, just imagine what you gonna get on PPV".

[Matt D]

I’d assume they hurt one of Wardlow’s limbs after the cage match.

[El-P]

2 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Have fond memories of the show, but Kurumada's writing is all over the place. Still, the Hades Sanctuary arc is great, great stuff. After that... literally goes down a hole. 

You just know Mu is also like that. Dude is out there fixing armor with blood, who knows what kind of stuff he's doing to treat other diseases.

No shit. Not to mention the guy spent years reclusive in a tower with a ten years old boy or something... Mu is sus.

Can you believe we got this anime in France in 1988. 1988. Two years after Japan. I was twelve and LOVED the hell out of this. Plus, I dunno how it was in Latin America, but the first version was totally unedited, full on gore and violence. That was quite something. And so I only saw the Hades arc like in the mid 00's as an adult, and although obviously the magic was gone and I had been spoiled by research on the Internet at this point, but still really enjoyed it.

Makes me think, one of the great thing about pro-wrestling, is that although it's kinda like fiction, they can never do a prequel, or a re-boot. I mean, they can do "re-boot" of angles and factions, but not in the ways TV show or movies can do re-boots and prequels and offshoots. MLW tried to get some of the Lucha Underground elements and failed miserably.

2 hours ago, Jmare007 said:

That PPV was always going to live and die on the "dream matches" they are able to book though. The novelty of seeing first time matches/pairings (or if Omega was around, beloved rivalries) is what's gonna sell it. There's not a lot of hype they can do on TV besides "you know these New Japan folks are great, you also know our AEW folks are great, just imagine what you gonna get on PPV".

For sure. But what's interesting is how they will build it on week to week TV, as they need to do it in a meaningfull way, it's not like they have some other PPV to sell in the same timeframe (like WWE totally no caring about a name show that is close to a Saudi show, because they feel they gotta build the propaganda show).

[KawadaSmile]

2 minutes ago, El-P said:

No shit. Not to mention the guy spent years reclusive in a tower with a ten years old boy or something... Mu is sus.

Can you believe we got this anime in France in 1988. 1988. Two years after Japan. I was twelve and LOVED the hell out of this. Plus, I dunno how it was in Latin America, but the first version was totally unedited, full on gore and violence. That was quite something. And so I only saw the Hades arc like in the mid 00's as an adult, and although obviously the magic was gone and I had been spoiled by research on the Internet at this point, but still really enjoyed it.

Makes me think, one of the great thing about pro-wrestling, is that although it's kinda like fiction, they can never do a prequel, or a re-boot. I mean, they can do "re-boot" of angles and factions, but not in the ways TV show or movies can do re-boots and prequels and offshoots. MLW tried to get some of the Lucha Underground elements and failed miserably.

Yup. We got Cassius' pulsating ear over here in the early 90s as well. I believe it was the first major exposure to Japanese animation, and it never really stopped being popular. 

One other parallel that came to my mind and it has a bit to do with what you said, is that nowadays the popular anime and manga are ones that either are completely out of the box, like Chainsaw Man, and did their own brand of adventures, or that are just going back to the fundamentals, doing that really strongly, like Jujutsu Kaisen or Kimetsu no Yaiba. It makes me think of how modern wrestling shows/companies have approached the subject.

Stuff like LU had that fresh, unique take on wrestling, Omega and the Bucks have inserted a self-aware, wink wink nudge nudge flair to a mainstream show, and AEW as a whole has lots of "basic", fundamentally sound wrestling and angles. People like Dustin and Punk aren't doing crazy, new stuff. They are putting old tropes to their best use and making you realize why those tropes are effective. Less is more, sometimes.

[El-P]

Damn, the ear. Talk about a trauma for the very first episode ! 

I still miss Lucha Underground sometimes. Brought me back to current pro-wrestling and made me evolve. My first posts about it in late 2014 are full of "bouh indierrific movez flippity flippity flop" boomer takes ! Too bad the company was managed by assholes with unfair contracts, which never ever happens in pro-wrestling, really. But I've gotta say, I don't forget when I get Johnny Elite and Swerve Strickland and have the Lucha Brothers and Thunder Rosa and Luchasaurus (she was his queen and master) getting big push, that I've been following them since the infamous Temple. Wonder what happened to that Prince Puma fellow though, he was ok, had some potential... Heard Matanza was hiding somewhere in Japan too...

[Cowboy Hats 4.0]

I haven't seen the Rampage main event yet, but has any of the programming mentioned why Wheeler Yuta has not been mentioned once the BCC got dropped into the JAS/Eddie stuff. Presumably he's just the odd man out, but his absence has been weird.

[Childs]

3 minutes ago, Cowboy Hats 4.0 said:

I haven't seen the Rampage main event yet, but has any of the programming mentioned why Wheeler Yuta has not been mentioned once the BCC got dropped into the JAS/Eddie stuff. Presumably he's just the odd man out, but his absence has been weird.

He's in Japan for BOSJ, I think.

[Lukeless]

Yea, I remember Excalibur mentioning he was in BOSJ.

[sek69]

Finally got around to watching Rampage, and I was struck by how bald Big Damo looks like dad bod Matt Bloom.

[MoS]

Kris Statlander is awesome. She should concentrate solely on doing power moves