AEW TV - 6/29 and 7/1 - Blood & Innards Is A Better Name

[MoS]

7 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Ruby rolling with the Kingston crew? Okay.

They've been friends for years, haven't they

[Big Pete]

I'm pretty sure something happened at the top of the cage which caused the match to slow to the crawl. Around the time where Regal said Kingston was laughing, it seemed like the complete opposite like he forgot to bring his blade or something and you can audibily hear him cuss himself out on top of the cage.

Between that and Santana, the whole match seemed like a clustermuck.

[KawadaSmile]

4 hours ago, MoS said:

Eddie was also telling Claudio at the end that he hurt his back. Hope it's not too serious, the absolute last thing AEW needs is Eddie Kingston on the shelf

From what I was able to sort out reading his lips, he said he was okay even if his back was in shambles.

[Cowboy Hats 4.0]

Really dug the match and the episode as a whole was well laid out and paced. They did a good job with the 'big fight feel', though that might have been 80% Kingston.

Ending things up top is a bummer (though a few cool visuals), but could have been saved with Eddie throwing Claudio off the top. Replace Sammy's dive off with that and you remove some of the lameness that's inherent to the bump.

[DMJ]

- Love Orange Cassidy using the Jefferson Starship song. I didn't know it was his old music on the indies, but the song always reminds me of Wet Hot American Summer and now I feel like I'm finally connecting the dots that Cassidy's character is partially based on Paul Rudd's character in that movie? Or, if that's the not the case, the vibe is the exact same. Any which way, I also dig Ethan Page and Dan Lambert and like everyone else I'm baffled as to how you can have all these pieces and parts and the TNT Championship right there and somehow that title means absolutely zilch. I mean, in any other promotion, one would assume that OC's win would mean a match against Sky is on the horizon, but Sky is busy with Wardlow, who lost pretty much all of his heat in the span of a month. (And I say that as someone who believes he could easily get it back, but that winning a cold TNT Championship isn't the solution.) Again, just seems like have all the right ingredients for a solid midcard title feud but its just not coming together.

- Jade Cargill and the Baddies are such a great act, but I didn't like Stokely Hathaway's post-match promo as he said that despite Cargill issuing an open challenge, Athena nor Statlander stepped up. Its nit-picky, but I wish commentary had been prepared for that line and said something like, "Athena and Statlander did apply, but were denied because ____" or if there had been a backstage segment explaining why they had not signed up or that they were beat to the punch. Like every other major US wrestling promotion of my lifetime, AEW has once again proven that it is way, way easier to develop and build-up a strong heel woman who gets heat, but babyfaces are much tougher to come by and lines like that don't help. 

- I was a bit puzzled at the lack of fire in the Bloods and Guts match. Just seems like they built it up over and over and we still didn't get the pay-off (which is also true of Jericho not tapping). Maybe they're saving it all for an Eddie/Jericho match down the line, which would be perfectly fine too. Its hard to feel disappointed by what we saw, which was a super violent match. That one guy from 2.0 looked like he was in need of a transfusion by the end and the other guy taking a back bump into the tacks was gnarly. Claudio got to shine too. Speaking of which, Claudio vs. Garcia seems like it could main event a show in the next few weeks/months and there's no reason to think it won't be a capital-B Banger. 

[Jmare007]

2.Coke should be a part of every hardcore brawl, dude bumps and bleeds like a madman.

Agreed on the match dragging for too long and towards the end it got kinda ridiculous with both Jericho and Eddie laying around for minutes while there was no other action (after we got like 40+ minutes of it, all over the place). Loved the ending in the sense that continues to build towards Eddie not being able to get his full revenge. It's quite something that finish would've worked the same if it was Claudio or Danielson getting the W.

9 hours ago, MoS said:

Eddie was also telling Claudio at the end that he hurt his back. Hope it's not too serious, the absolute last thing AEW needs is Eddie Kingston on the shelf

Did anyone take a clean bump over the exposed canvas? Eddie was right there but I didn't catch him taking a bump. If he did, it would definitely explain why he was hurting so bad.

[El-P]

Sorry to be the grumpy one, but... this was *not good*. And I understand COVID fucked it up in term of who was available but...

Orange Cassidy doesn't have Pixies anymore. That sucks. Match was solid.

From there... awwww shit. Luchasaurus is over because is a big guy with a dinosaur mask doing cool spots. If he's not gonna do those because he's EVIL now, well, he's dead in the water. We don't need some big dude doing chokeslams, we already got a jacked up dude doing a bunch of powerbombs. Speaking of which, I don't look forward to him as a TNT champ *at all* if he doesn't show me more than he has done thus far.

The Acclaimed vs The Ass Boys is the feud no one wants to see. Yeah, the whole gag about Daddy Ass is funny for a second or two, but let's put this out there : Max Caster sucks in the ring. The Gunn Club are *ok*. When you have such a roster stacked with so much ridiculous talent, I don't want to see this on my weekly TV show. And Danhausen... well he sure is over, but unlike Orange Cassidy, he hasn't shown me anything special or cool or singular in-ring. Anyway, this was the worst FTR match I've ever seen probably.

Jade Cargill squashing people has jumped the shark. Need to move on now to something more interesting. Do those tags with the Baddies for a start. And yeah, send Jade to Japan on excursion so she get real good.

And that Blood & Guts match... Well, I did not get my good little cage match after all, I got a totally overbooked, bloated as all hell, WAY TOO FUCKING LONG mix of TNA/WWE style match, with many cool *moments* (don't call me a killjoy either), but a ridiculous lack of pacing (seriously, the first part never ever ended, how long before each new guy entered ?). And NEVER JUMP FROM A CAGE ONTO A PAD OUTSIDE EVER AGAIN FOR FUCK'S SAKE ! I can't believe they did it again. Mick Foley really did a terrible thing 24 years ago by setting this precedent. And although it's way safer with a pad, it's still way too dangerous for a spot that NEVER EVER comes off organic anymore, hasn't in about 23 years. Anytime you got this huge cage and basically guys end up leaving it makes it stupid and contrived (not to mention all the other guys basically taking a nap in the meantime), and don't get me started on the overly "cute" finish. So yeah, tons of blood and gimmicks, but let me tell you what, Moose vs Sami Callihan at Slammiversary was about ten times better in about half the time, came off way more hate-filled and actually way more spectacular too. 

After the awesome NJPW joint show, that Dynamite left me super frustrated and not looking forward to next show at all. I mean, a fucking battle royal ? AGAIN ? Coach TK should really get some rest, delegate some of the booking and now you're gonna try to sell that ROH PPV at the same time using guys who aren't even on TV regularly (how many vignettes with Sonjay can we get alreay ?) ? 

Yeah. Not a good AEW show at all to me, although some was out of their control. 

Don't do Wargames match anymore. Dusty Rhodes was overrated. Stop it. And stop imitating every WWE cage match too in which people get out of the cage to jump off of it. That sucks too.

Oh yeah, and to answer my own question : the answer is Santana. Doing a uranage no less. And it's not like Santana & Ortiz have been overworking and overbumping for months either. So yeah, the snake bites again.

[The Thread Killer]

I couldn’t agree with you more. Contrived is the perfect word. I would like to go back in time 24 years and nail Mick Foley’s feet to the damn floor that night in Pittsburgh. Thanks to him, every time we have a cage with a roof on it, the fans have been conditioned to expect somebody to get thrown off or some equally stupid stunt. Enough with the damn crash pads already. If we can’t get to the point where a cage match with a couple of guys trying to beat the crap out of each other, and bleeding in the process, is enough then they should stop trying to do them. I blame Shane McMahon and WWE as well for constantly trying to re-create that one moment that cannot and should not be re-created.

[Blehschmidt]

It's especially annoying since the original point of War Games was so that the heels would have nowhere to run. 

Now they get out of the cage every fucking time.

[Al]

If the board had a like function I would like a lot of these posts. The fans seem to like the style so what do I know? But it’s not for me. And I suspect the style will end up burning out the audience.

[sek69]

1 hour ago, The Thread Killer said:

I couldn’t agree with you more. Contrived is the perfect word. I would like to go back in time 24 years and nail Mick Foley’s feet to the damn floor that night in Pittsburgh. Thanks to him, every time we have a cage with a roof on it, the fans have been conditioned to expect somebody to get thrown off or some equally stupid stunt. Enough with the damn crash pads already. If we can’t get to the point where a cage match with a couple of guys trying to beat the crap out of each other, and bleeding in the process, is not enough then they should stop trying to do them. I blame Shane McMahon and WWE as well for constantly trying to re-create that one moment that cannot and should not be re-created.

Funny thing is the only reason that match was so crazy is Undertaker's leg was trashed and crazy ass Mick wanted to overcompensate for that by being more insane than usual. 

[Brynn]

I fell asleep watching the damn cage match last night but caught most of it. I'm going to go back and watch it tomorrow afternoon sometime. Meant to today but was busy with a bunch of other stuff.

[funkdoc]

Apparently i wasn't the only one who liked this show...they finally broke 1 million viewers for Dynamite again after a streak below that level.  Hopefully they take the hint that people want to see faces win on TV once in a while and want to see some goofy bullshit

[Jmare007]

We'll see in the coming weeks if this is any sort of sustainable but I wouldn't say Blood & Guts had the best of build ups so that many people tuning in (compared to the previous weeks) as soon as the interpromotional feud was over might be very telling.

 

[sek69]

I would have expected AEW's ratings to bounce back now that the NBA and NHL playoffs are over and Rampage won't be getting bounced around as much as it has been. That combined with them settling back in their pattern of months to build the next PPV should help matters significantly. 

Also it seems like Forbidden Door did well on PPV too, so all the hand wringing about US fans not knowing New Japan guys seemed to be for naught. 

[El-P]

The gimmick drew. That's it. 

Also, maybe the overly positive feedback from the PPV, coupled with Claudio debuting, helped give a dynamic. As always, next weeks rating is more telling in term of what people thought of this show. 

By far the worst episode in a long, long time to me, I can't remember when I ended up being legit annoyed by an AEW show (really, the Orange match was cool and some moments of the Wargames match were super cool, but it was basically a really good 20 minutes match turned into a 40+ monster with a terrible finish). But hey, I do remember that godawful "MMA" cage match between Wardlow and Jake Hager doing a big ratings way back when too. 

[TheDuke]

They have Fyter Fest and Fight for the Fallen coming up soon don't they? I know they are just episodes of the show now, but I imagine they are still going to blow through some big matches during those 2 or 3 weeks.

[funkdoc]

7 hours ago, El-P said:

The gimmick drew. That's it. 

Also, maybe the overly positive feedback from the PPV, coupled with Claudio debuting, helped give a dynamic. As always, next weeks rating is more telling in term of what people thought of this show. 

By far the worst episode in a long, long time to me, I can't remember when I ended up being legit annoyed by an AEW show (really, the Orange match was cool and some moments of the Wargames match were super cool, but it was basically a really good 20 minutes match turned into a 40+ monster with a terrible finish). But hey, I do remember that godawful "MMA" cage match between Wardlow and Jake Hager doing a big ratings way back when too. 

i think the divide might be that you prefer the more serious AEW we've had a lot of this year (and Adam Cole who none of us can fucking stand anymore), whereas myself and my main watch group enjoy it more when it's closer to CHIKARA or DDT.  Orange/Acclaimed/Danhausen are more what we're looking for in our wrestling these days, at least to go along with the more stoic workrate heroes.

[Badlittlekitten]

Wade Keller made a good point about this show being more character based than the usual Dynamite and whether that's a coincidence or a conscious attempt to turn the ratings around with a different approach. I personally enjoyed it a lot more than recent efforts. I will NOT miss the Undisputed guys.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, funkdoc said:

i think the divide might be that you prefer the more serious AEW we've had a lot of this year (and Adam Cole who none of us can fucking stand anymore), whereas myself and my main watch group enjoy it more when it's closer to CHIKARA or DDT.  Orange/Acclaimed/Danhausen are more what we're looking for in our wrestling these days, at least to go along with the more stoic workrate heroes.

I guess you haven't read a lot of my posting then, since I made very clear 2021 was the peak of AEW to me thus far (basically the reign of terror of Omega & The Bucks), certainly not this years weekly TV. I always loved Orange Cassidy, as soon as I saw his indie stuff which legit killed me. I have enjoyed Danhausen to some degree, but he's way more hit and miss, and inside the ring thus far he's not doing anything that special to me, including in term of funny/bizarre. 

The Acclaimed, well, there's our disagreement. Max Caster is an entrance. When his lines are funny, that's cool, when it's not, and I thought this week was really weak, then it's just nothing, he's a mediocre at best worker. Anthony Bowens is a terrific in-ring worker and really no different on that matter than the tons of terrific in-ring worker they have. Caster I have zero use for in a match, once his rap is done, he brings nothing to the table.

I have plenty of time with modern comedic stuff, I LOVE the Young Bucks going batshit crazy with the meta-comedy, I love Orange Cassidy. I wish they would bring back Maki Itoh on a regular basis. It's really not a matter of serious vs comedy. I just thought this week was not a very good episode, the Luchasaurus squash was a waste of time and doesn't bode well for his character in the long run (he's a guy better used in tags, he's not that good of a worker otherwise, and turning him into Kane would be a terrible idea), the Jade Cargill stuff is been there done that at this point (and that's coming from a big supporter), the tag match was neither very good (with FTR involved mind you) nor very funny (apart from one cool curse spot, I don't see what Danhausen did in that match that warrants the "ah ah funny" label, he was just kinda there to me). And of course the main event was problematic for reasons stated earlier. And really, that episode was absolutely all about that main event, which really wasn't about comedy/lighthearted stuff. The rest was filler. Again, who needed a Luchasaurus squash ? I don't care if he's wearing a dark outfit now, he's the same guy we've seen for three years. We know him.

Not a big fan of Christian Cage "You daddy is DEAD, I wish your family were DEAD !" stuff either. Cage as a heel works better though, it also suits his in-ring style better.

Also, and although I don't mind Tay Conti running around like she does, I sure hope they don't forget she's actually a worker. She needs ring time and reducing her into a valet for Sammy would be counterproductive. I want Tay kicking people in the face, especially now she's a heel. Hopefully she does it with Soho soon and work from there.

[funkdoc]

OK fair, also i just want Tay to be able to train with Suzuki & Shibata like she dreams of ok

[Matt D]

Crossposting:

The kids are all about the polished video breakdowns of things now, right? We need someone to go over Eddie's five stages of grief during the finish of the match.

Denial: What do you mean you got the submission on Parker? I had Jericho. I had him right here? Why did the bell ring? On top of a cage, in Kawada's move. Jericho. He's a coward! I had him.

Anger: You screwed me again Claudio! Just like before! You stole my moment! You knew how much this meant to me! You Swiss asshole!

Bargaining: I mean, we both did it at the same time, right? I had Jericho. I beat him this way already. Maybe this is just our win together. Maybe I can accept that. We all knew he was going to quit.

Depression: Oh no, no, it's not. Who am I kidding? You did it. You came up here. You saved me from the Walls. You did it. You swung him around. My back hurts. Just, no, I don't want to get up. My back hurts and you did it and this was my moment, my chance, and now it's gone forever. 

Acceptance: Fine. Fine. I'll fistbump you. Fine. I hate you. You did it. I'll fistbump you. But I'm Eddie Kingston so I'm still in depression and I'm never going to really accept this bullshit.

[El-P]

19 minutes ago, funkdoc said:

OK fair, also i just want Tay to be able to train with Suzuki & Shibata like she dreams of ok

Oh yes please ! Tay Conti is another one who would benefit from a Japanese trip. Plus she wants to do it.

Also, isn't this the greatest pic ?

 

 

[Matt D]

Kind of negative vibes over here lately but I wrote up the two big matches of the last week over at SC:

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2022/07/aew-five-fingers-of-death-week-of-627-73.html

[Embrodak]

Brody King has not impressed me at all so far. Giving him the #1 contender spot feels as much like a filler “John Cena fights the monster of the month” angle as Hangman/Archer did, and we’re pretty much guaranteed as pointless and gratuitous of a blowoff match as that got with Moxley involved.