AEW TV - 9/7-9/9 - Who Throws A Chair, Honestly

[Flyin' Brian]

11 hours ago, C.S. said:

Sammy beats Darby.

Imagine doubling-down on this guy.

Read the room, Tony, instead of just staring blankly around it.

Just catching up on Rampage since I missed most of it last night. I don’t really understand putting Sammy over Darby at this point either, other than just to get a face/heel matchup in the next round and furthering this BCC/JAS feud. Not the right decision in my eyes, especially after Darby started talking about wanting to go out on his own and then losing his first big match afterwards. 

[The Thread Killer]

I don’t get it either. Aside from his size (which might be a problem for some, but it isn’t for me, and it definitely isn’t for the AEW audience) I don’t see any argument against pulling the trigger on Darby Allin and making him one of your top guys and a solidified Main Eventer.

I guess if you want to levy one other possible criticism against him, it could be that his high risk style is going to make him prone to injuries or he’s risky to make that kind of investment in? But the thing is…AEW’s highest paid, top guy right now can’t seem to sneeze without injuring himself and ending up on the shelf for an extended period of time…so that doesn’t really hold water either.

The whole working with/teaming up with Darby and Sting has been fun and everything, and has created some great moments for sure…but let’s be honest. In the larger scheme of things, they haven’t really done anything “big” with Darby recently. He’s just kind of treading water. The occasional feud or big tag match, and then back to the same old stuff.

He’s had some big matches against guys like Punk and MJF but he usually loses those. I’m not convinced he would have scored the pin on Black at the PPV if Malakai wasn’t on his way out the door. I know there are guys who can get over and stay over without winning a lot of matches, but that can also be overdone. Eventually there are some guys who I think if they lose enough big matches, the fans just end up assuming they are not a top guy after all. I would hate to see that tag get hung on Darby Allin.

He is one of the guys who you can honestly point at and say he is an AEW original, not just another WWE release they picked up. He’s obviously extremely popular, especially with kids, which is huge and I don’t think AEW has done anything near as much as they could have to exploit that. He’s got personality and charisma. He’s not a great promo, but he’s passable and those little vignettes he films are a great way of communicating without the standard point n’ shout Pro Wrestling promo. He’s pretty much unique, to me that should be promoted not ignored.

So in short, yeah. Pull the trigger, already. Tony Khan, put down the yayo and push Darby Allin, dammit.

[Embrodak]

With Kingston, you can maybe say he’s a little old and a little volatile backstage to give the push he seemed to merit after the Punk feud and the Player’s Tribune article. And unless he was willing to wrestle like a scrappy babyface instead of a wannabe strong styler, I can’t say for sure that the push would even have gone well. But with Darby, I think it’s just that Tony just cannot call audibles and change his plans except when circumstances compel him.

[Jmare007]

Yeah, Darby/Mox is way more interesting and could have some real heat. Sammy is there to continue to push this neverending JAS/BCC feud and have a heel, bleh.

They should give the strap to Danielson and come up with a reason for MJF not to "cash in" his title shot at Full Gear. Just build the tension between those two while Dragon starts collection dope title defenses that give the belt back it's must have status. Have MJF vs Danielson at Revolution or even Double or Nothing and then put MJF over and let him run with the ball.

But that's never going to happen. Mox will win and then drop the strap to Max in November (so Mox can get his vacation) or the first Dynamite of 2023.

[Embrodak]

Babyface/babyface is a meh dynamic most of the time, though. If they’re gonna push Darby to the title outside a tournament context, I’d imagine it’ll be after MJF wins the title, let Darby get his win back from their last feud.

 

MJF has to be fuming, him vs Punk redux was a money feud compared to him vs some random tournament winner.

[The Thread Killer]

I’m all for Danielson/MJF at Full Gear. That would probably involve BCC mixing it up with Stokely’s new stable in the lead up as well. It could be a good program.

[Jmare007]

I meant to write *not to* cash in at Full Gear. I feel the MJF title match (and win) should be built upon and not get thrown together in 4 weeks against an impromptu tournament winner. Let that shit build some tension, and I think Danielson (specially with a 6-9 month reign) is perfect for that role.

[Coffey]

If there's one guy that AEW absolutely needs to drop from the roster, it's Jake Hager. Even Bryan Danielson can't make anyone give a fuck about that guy. Just total black hole of charisma & entertainment. 

[The Thread Killer]

3 minutes ago, Coffey said:

If there's one guy that AEW absolutely needs to drop from the roster, it's Jake Hager. Even Bryan Danielson can't make anyone give a fuck about that guy. Just total black hole of charisma & entertainment. 

Apparently they just re-signed him. So Jericho claims, at least.

*Insert double facepalm gif*

[SteveJRogers]

5 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

Apparently they just re-signed him. So Jericho claims, at least.

*Insert double facepalm gif*

On the weekend of 9-11 even!  WE TH…

Oh, right sorry Chris

[sek69]

Hager seems like a "kept around to keep someone else happy" kind of signing. If he keeps being a background heater type then that's fine. He's not going to be put over anyone of importance, so it's not hurting anything but TK's wallet.

[C.S.]

8 hours ago, Coffey said:

If there's one guy that AEW absolutely needs to drop from the roster, it's Jake Hager. Even Bryan Danielson can't make anyone give a fuck about that guy. Just total black hole of charisma & entertainment. 

I disagree. I'm no Hager fan, but he brings infinitely more value to AEW as a bodyguard/heater than Bobby Fish, Tony Nese, and dull as shit types like that have ever brought as wrestlers. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

Hager is perfect as Jericho's thug who doesn't talk. And Nese has been great in AEW. He's the perfect lower mid card heel.

[Matt D]

The Nese/Cassidy match is one of my favorite AEW matches all year.

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Hager is perfect as Jericho's thug who doesn't talk. And Nese has been great in AEW. He's the perfect lower mid card heel.

 

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

The Nese/Cassidy match is one of my favorite AEW matches all year.

I think the Nese tag team with Josh Woods has a ton of potential. Unfortunately they’ll probably never get used on TV.

[sek69]

Nese/Woods could be fun in ROH if that ever gets off the ground. 

Also Nese is pretty good as the guy you put in there with someone you want to get over and have a good match. 

[DR Ackermann]

Rampage main event was great. Best AEW tv match of the week. I like how much Dax mixes up his strikes and they all looked good. He's really flipped a switch. And Claudio toned down the uppercut spamming. His regular ones look good but he can fall into the trap of forcing variations that look weak. Best Claudio match in AEW. Looking forward to a rewatch.

[Embrodak]

Fell down a surreal Twitter rabbit hole of people that wish FTR ill will every time they’re booked because they’re friendly to Cornette. I get hating the guy for a variety of reasons, but I don’t get why Jericho or the Bucks get a pass for their politics. Or Tony Khan’s company being *financed* by a Trump supporter, for that matter.

[Migs]

45 minutes ago, Embrodak said:

Fell down a surreal Twitter rabbit hole of people that wish FTR ill will every time they’re booked because they’re friendly to Cornette. I get hating the guy for a variety of reasons, but I don’t get why Jericho or the Bucks get a pass for their politics. Or Tony Khan’s company being *financed* by a Trump supporter, for that matter.

I don't think Jericho gets a pass at all and the Bucks have literally never said anything political publicly?

[sek69]

3 hours ago, Migs said:

Or Tony Khan’s company being *financed* by a Trump supporter, for that matter.

If this is referring to Shad, he made it clear that he stopped supporting Trump once he went full mask-off racist. All available info seems to indicate he was just supporting him as a Republican politician and not any kind of agreement with his special brand of crazy.

[NintendoLogic]

19 hours ago, Migs said:

I don't think Jericho gets a pass at all and the Bucks have literally never said anything political publicly?

 

[Embrodak]

17 hours ago, sek69 said:

If this is referring to Shad, he made it clear that he stopped supporting Trump once he went full mask-off racist. All available info seems to indicate he was just supporting him as a Republican politician and not any kind of agreement with his special brand of crazy.

Okay, but is he donating money to any Republican politicians *at all* right now? Because I think pretending there’s a difference between supporting even Mitt Romney and supporting Trump is the most translucent fig leaf imaginable at this point. He might not support Trump qua Trump because of his particular biographical details, but the only functional difference between (most of) Trump’s presidency and a normal Republican presidency is that people got more mad at business owners and major companies for donating to him. If he donated a bunch of money to Trump *as* a generic Republican, then he supports Trump, even if he’s not a self-identified “Trump supporter”.

 

Re: the Bucks, I could swear there were right-wing likes and retweets from the Obama years.

[Migs]

2 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

 

Thanks for that, wasn't aware. I don't think two retweets from 10 years ago makes them so repugnant they'd need to be dragged, but duly noted.

[Embrodak]

22 minutes ago, Migs said:

Thanks for that, wasn't aware. I don't think two retweets from 10 years ago makes them so repugnant they'd need to be dragged, but duly noted.

It’s moreso I’m unclear why people would be so repulsed by an association with Jim Cornette that they would reflexively hate FTR because of theirs but not be as openly condemnatory of the Republican-friendly politics of at least some people near the top of the AEW ladder. Or Kenny having Don Callis manage him with whatever skeletons he has in his closet, for that matter. I’m not saying there aren’t a million valid reasons to hate Corny, I think litigating him as a dude would honestly require a book-length treatise at this point, moreso I’m befuddled by moral principles that seem contingent on how much someone helps or hinders the ability to watch a postmodern wrestling program.