AEW TV 8/31-9/6 Punctuation still breaks threads like Haaland is gonna break records

[Jmare007]

9 minutes ago, NotJayTabb said:

Where IS Samoa Joe, by the way? He's the ROH TV champion, and he's getting less screen time than Lethal, who he beat on PPV. Is he injured or just on the sidelines?

He was shooting a TV show, I think.

[Al]

On brand for the television champion

[C.S.]

Lost opportunity: Fish not jobbing to HOOK. 

5 hours ago, subatomic_elbow said:

I'm not buying this PPV. Punk no-selling an injury to get his win back over Moxley and get crowned in Chicago, leading to months of a face champ Punk ruining AEW TV, is not worth my money. I'm not paying to watch him blow a Paradigm Shift and slowly crawl over to pin Mox. When Ace Freaking Steele is an important part of you main event angle, things have fallen apart.

I'm not buying the PPV either, so don't think I'm trying to talk you into it, but I am pretty sure this is the beginning of a slow burn heel turn for Punk. 

I actually hope he loses in Chicago to really get the wheels in motion, but even if he wins, I expect this will either be his last truly face moment or where he officially turns. 

2 hours ago, NotJayTabb said:

Where IS Samoa Joe, by the way? He's the ROH TV champion, and he's getting less screen time than Lethal, who he beat on PPV. Is he injured or just on the sidelines?

2 hours ago, Jmare007 said:

He was shooting a TV show, I think.

"Twisted Metal," to be specific, which has the potential to be a really big deal - far bigger than being the "World" Champion of a dead brand. 

[subatomic_elbow]

30 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Lost opportunity: Fish not jobbing to HOOK. 

I'm not buying the PPV either, so don't think I'm trying to talk you into it, but I am pretty sure this is the beginning of a slow burn heel turn for Punk. 

I actually hope he loses in Chicago to really get the wheels in motion, but even if he wins, I expect this will either be his last truly face moment or where he officially turns. 

"Twisted Metal," to be specific, which has the potential to be a really big deal - far bigger than being the "World" Champion of a dead brand. 

I think I've been burned too many times by potential big angles. Paying for the show and having it end with face Punk in the crowd, cradling the belt, after a clean-ish win would be too much to bear. His injury is the only thing that kept me watching over the summer and I think I just have to accept it now.

[DMJ]

- I liked the passion and performance of Punk's promo...but I just don't like this storyline. To me, it feels like a very convoluted, illogical path to the same place that I think everyone predicted in June/July (a CM Punk title reign upon his return). I'm not against Punk winning the title, but the first "match" felt wholly unnecessary. Its just confusing. Are we supposed to think Punk was or wasn't re-injured during that match? Did he come back too early or not? Was he 98% healthy last week but 10 days later is now 100%? Or is it the other way around now? Did Punk lose because, when Mox attacked his foot, he lost his confidence (resulting in him eating two Death Riders) or because Mox actually beat him straight-up? Did Mox beat Punk physically or did Punk beat himself mentally? 

Just seems like a lot of time and energy spent for a match that didn't need this many extra layers. 

[KawadaSmile]

Not wrong, but he should be wording this a bit better.

[SirEdger]

If I'm an AEW woman reading that tweet, I'm absolutely livid.

[strobogo]

In regards to Don Callis still being with Kenny, seemed clear to me that the segment with Don/Ospreay in the locker room was planting the seeds for Don to turn on Kenny and ride Ospreay's coattails. 

[sek69]

4 hours ago, NotJayTabb said:

Where IS Samoa Joe, by the way? He's the ROH TV champion, and he's getting less screen time than Lethal, who he beat on PPV. Is he injured or just on the sidelines?

Filming the Twisted Metal show (movie? I forget which). 

[NintendoLogic]

Tony said absolutely nothing wrong. This is a star-driven business, and the biggest stars can and should receive preferential booking. The men's and women's divisions shouldn't be treated equally, but they should be treated fairly. If a woman becomes the biggest star in the company (like Becky Lynch was in WWE a while back), she should be booked accordingly. But pretending that Thunder Rosa is anywhere near as big a star as CM Punk would be ludicrous.

By the way, as someone whose knowledge of active soccer players other than Messi and Ronaldo is basically nonexistent, I initially thought the thread title was referring to either Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland or Parker "Harland" Boudreaux.

[Jesse Ewiak]

How did Becky Lynch become the biggest star in the company? By haviing more than two-minute segments on TV, even when they weren't 10/10. 

Also, you can make Thunder Rosa giving up the title a big deal w/out it just being an 8 minute promo like Punk. Now, yes, it might've meant somebody in another match would've been only able to kick out of 2 finishers instead of 3, runining their deep, intricate storyline that only 10% of the already hardcore audience gets. 

[strobogo]

Thunder Rosa is also a bad promo. Britt Baker got a ton of promo time every week when she went on her big run.

[Robert S]

26 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

Tony said absolutely nothing wrong. This is a star-driven business, and the biggest stars can and should receive preferential booking. The men's and women's divisions shouldn't be treated equally, but they should be treated fairly. If a woman becomes the biggest star in the company (like Becky Lynch was in WWE a while back), she should be booked accordingly. But pretending that Thunder Rosa is anywhere near as big a star as CM Punk would be ludicrous.

The star-thing often is a circular thing. If you want someone to become a star, treat them like a star. Do you think Roman Reigns ever would have gotten to the level he is right now if they would have treated him like let's say Zack Ryder for a bunch of years? No, when Roman came in, they introduced the time keeper barricade for him to spear through, gave him the Diesel-run at the Rumble, let him run the gauntlet at Survivor Series etc.

[Embrodak]

2 hours ago, subatomic_elbow said:

I think I've been burned too many times by potential big angles. Paying for the show and having it end with face Punk in the crowd, cradling the belt, after a clean-ish win would be too much to bear. His injury is the only thing that kept me watching over the summer and I think I just have to accept it now.

I must admit, I don’t understand this at all unless it’s just personal with Punk. Even if one does not like or believe face Punk, and I think that’s a fair criticism even if I disagree with it, I would kill to have a higher proportion of the roster take their shit as seriously and present it as straightforwardly as Punk has. Even if it was melodramatic and over the top, which I don’t necessarily agree with but think is a valid read, the stuff with Punk last night was 1000x more wrestling to me than that six-man main event, where my 67 year old dad lost track multiple times of who the legal person was even supposed to be.

[Frankensteiner]

7 hours ago, subatomic_elbow said:

I've purchased every AEW PPV from the start, even the RoH and Forbidden Door. I've been to live events. I have a wall of action figures on my wall. 
I'm not buying this PPV. Punk no-selling an injury to get his win back over Moxley and get crowned in Chicago, leading to months of a face champ Punk ruining AEW TV, is not worth my money. I'm not paying to watch him blow a Paradigm Shift and slowly crawl over to pin Mox. When Ace Freaking Steele is an important part of you main event angle, things have fallen apart.

Signing Punk was a less successful WCW signing Hogan. 

Interesting in that we are polar opposites.

Watching the last few months with Punk out has been a slog. Only the JAS/Eddie feud was interesting, and that was mostly due to Jericho's character work.

I have very little interest in seeing Moxley as champion or any of the other potential headliners (Omega, Cole, Page). The six man to end the show last night is just not my thing so Punk's throwback babyface style is a nice way to moderate against some of the flaws of the rest of the roster.  

Hope they still get to the Punk/FTR partnership they were teasing at the start of summer.

[sek69]

48 minutes ago, Jesse Ewiak said:

How did Becky Lynch become the biggest star in the company? By haviing more than two-minute segments on TV, even when they weren't 10/10. 

She became a star because Nia busted her face up and she got to have a cool "badass stands bloodied but victorious" moment. She kept it going with her promos, but they weren't the cause of it. 

[sek69]

It's one thing to not like CM Punk, but AEW has been back over a million viewers since he's returned, crowds are hot, and the angle to build the Mox match (as quickly as it had to be done) was fire. To say his signing was in any way a detriment to the company is some real galaxy brain thinking at this point. 

[Timbo Slice]

I understand why people want to distill Tony’s comment down to a singular issue but there’s so much that goes into why that presentation isn’t as equitable as it should. 
 

Tony cites numbers as his driving force, but when given the opportunity, the women who have gotten run have, outside of a short time with Britt, not done well with it. And I’m not talking about the subjective nature of their work or their character or what have you. It hasn’t drawn folks in for the most part. 
 

Stephanie’s Women’s Revolution (TM NXT/WWE, all rights reserved) was a combination of not only being given the time, but making the most of it. People were ready for the women to shine, and the character work got folks invested to the point when, on NXT’s biggest stage at that point, Sasha and Bayley made them and the other women undeniable.

Britt cooled down significantly after frankly being overexposed (playing the same insider note over and over again does her no favors) and Rosa had heat when they crossed paths. But once given the chance, Rosa couldn’t hold viewers herself. Jade has had some decent pings, but her booking has been scattershot as time constraints for the other talent Tony has brought in (yes, namely men) have gotten more shine. It’s not just one thing or the other. Toni should get the title on Sunday and it’s not going to be A Big Deal because as good as she is in ring, she’s not really compelling. Lest we also forget what happened with Ruby Soho once she was given her opportunities, which was sad given what we had seen with her previously.

Becky’s moment went viral because she got an uncommon situation presented to her and she went enough off the beaten path that folks took notice. Rosa and Britt did something similar with their street fight, but everything fell apart once the follow through actually happened. AEW does give women some of those opportunities (but not enough of them), and that has to do with a bloated roster, Tony’s penchant for not using same talent every week, and women with weak character development overall. Tony has too many toys at his disposal to know what to do best with many of them, and it’s making many parts of the roster seem like afterthoughts. 

[Timbo Slice]

8 minutes ago, sek69 said:

It's one thing to not like CM Punk, but AEW has been back over a million viewers since he's returned, crowds are hot, and the angle to build the Mox match (as quickly as it had to be done) was fire. To say his signing was in any way a detriment to the company is some real galaxy brain thinking at this point. 

The quick response to this is that Punk represents a completely different ideal than what AEW was before him, and it’s being used as a cudgel against him due to how much it has changed the product to revolve around him in a lot of ways. The narratives around his character does him no favors, either, but at the same time, AEW’s fanbase is fickle at large with issues like this. It’s why Page’s angle with Punk was about “protecting AEW.” It was a turnaround against Punk from his WWE days when he was in Page’s shoes. Tony knows this stuff and it’s what he thinks is going to make him money.

[sek69]

I mean, AEW as an entity was willed into existence due to the growing base of pro wrestling fans who were beyond tired with WWE's hamster wheel of the last 20 years. What better person to lead that charge than the guy famous for being sick of WWE's bullshit?  Like the only difference between Punk and Moxley is that Mox didn't have a very public falling out with his best friend. 

[Timbo Slice]

I think people underestimate how many fans think Punk is riding the coattails to an ascending promotion.

[sek69]

7 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

I think people underestimate how many fans think Punk is riding the coattails to an ascending promotion.

I mean, even if he is it's still driving numbers for the company....so.....good?

If he was dragging them down, I'd understand the resentment but he's been nothing but positive business wise. 

Seems like people are mad that AEW is being run as a business and not a a magical fantasyland. 

[Jmare007]

24 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Seems like people are mad that AEW is being run as a business and not a a magical fantasyland. 

That's what fans do with everything, specially hardcore or "first day" fans, of course AEW ain't gonna be any different.

[Matt D]

I remember having talks with some people here a few years ago about how all wrestling felt homogeneous, that Japan, Mexico, England, the Indies, NXT all seemed like they were converging more and more. What we've seen in the last twelve months is AEW becoming more of a "big tent" promotion stylistically and that can only be a good thing. I know it makes people who were in love with the lead up and onset and first year or two of the promotion frustrated but it's now this melting pot of the 2010s New Japan style and the PWG style and the BCC/Mox+Danielson-as-Hansen style and the Punk/FTR sort of Neo-Bret-ism and a bit of the hosses-bealing-people bits and whatever else. It's a big promotion putting a lot of matches on every week, every month, every year and there's something for everyone even if it's not everything for someone anymore.

[Timbo Slice]

Interestingly enough, the main event from this week recycled some bits from the famous 6-man tag from PWG where Ospreay hit the cutter to counter the Meltzer Driver and then did the SSP version, and the first thing that came to mind was how it seemed muted because of the production. 
 

I still think they’re trying to find their way capturing all the styles. They need a few more wide shots, they cut to the crowd too much. A bit more simplistic production goes a long way.