AEW TV - 10/12 - 10/14

[Flyin' Brian]

Looking at spoilers for Rampage tonight and I am super happy for Jericho's next challenger for the ROH Title. 

[Jimmy Redman]

I echo everything Matt said about the Hangman character and the whole Page/Mox/Max dynamic. I really loved Hangman's promo, it felt like exactly the kind of reset he needed, but what I HATED was the decision to have MJF sitting in the crowd again, which just distracted the crowd from what he was saying, so they were chanting "MJF" for the asshole heel while this babyface kid is pouring his heart out and literally bashing his own brains out trying to promote the world title match.

They should know by now he's going to get cheered so I found it moronic. The MITBification of MJF fucking sucks.

Speaking of hatred, what in the everloving FUCK are they doing with Jungle Boy??? 

I cannot express how much I hate this neverending fucking angle and how much it has destroyed Jungle Boy. Same shit happens every week, and he just fucking jobbed to the literally dinosaur, which is inexcusable (and I'm a dinosaur apologist!). Hate it. That kind of killed my interest for most of the show.

Jericho is the other thing killing me. I literally skipped the match. Why are you making me skip DANIELSON MATCHES?! And the Garcia SWERVE~ has been inevitable and drawn out way too long, just to do it in the one fucking place where it gets a babyface pop! 

On the other hand, Orange winning RULED and perfectly capped that series of matches with PAC. Love that shit. 

[MoS]

I thought Hangman's promo was excellent. He has quietly stepped up his game after All Out.

I think I would preferMJF as a face tbh. Fans clearly want to cheer for him, and being a face would mean not aiming for cheap heat as much as he does. After all, Piper was a face for far longer in his career than he was a heel. He is winning the title at Full Gear, let's see how he does once he gets the ball

[Embrodak]

I don't mind Page, he's clearly a talented guy, but I hate the junior high soap opera shit they do with him and the Bucks and the Dark Order. I actually think a heel turn could do a lot for him, have him start plugging up the anxiety and self-doubt with dirty tricks and angry ass-kickings. Then he can rebuild as a babyface when someone eventually beats some sense into him, and maybe we can stop with the "omg I'm so anxious and tormented" stuff and actually have this good-looking, athletic guy acting like the star AEW wants him to be, because whatever they've been doing with him since he won the title, it is just not working for me. "World wrestling champion who's an anxious cowboy with imposter syndrome" is like a Chapo bit.

[The Thread Killer]

After watching Rampage last night, I can only assume that Tony Khan has secured a ROH TV deal and is getting ready to announce that and the next ROH PPV…or he has totally lost his mind.

[Matt D]

2 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

After watching Rampage last night, I can only assume that Tony Khan has secured a ROH TV deal and is getting ready to announce that and the next ROH PPV…or he has totally lost his mind.

I’d love a feud between the Pinnacle + Joe and the JAS (after they potentially get the ROH trios belts) right now. So many fun potential match ups. And it would centralize most of the ROH stuff in one place. 

[El-P]

On 10/13/2022 at 4:02 AM, Blehschmidt said:

It never fails to amaze me that almost every week on this show, some dipshit has paid good money to sit in one of the first few rows on the hard camera side and do nothing but pay attention to when they are on camera so they can hold up a Cornette sign and look disinterested in everything else happening.

Well, these people are dumb as fuck, therefore...

On 10/14/2022 at 10:15 PM, Jimmy Redman said:

Speaking of hatred, what in the everloving FUCK are they doing with Jungle Boy??? 

Stalling until Christian Cage comes back ? And yes, it sucks and is hurting Jungle Boy. The match was really fun, but I was appalled by the result. JUST DO SOMETHING ELSE. This feud is bad WWE level frustrating now.

Let's be real, the episodic nature of the show, apart from the top angles, is not good in term of the undercard and mid-card. We had that really good Storm/Shida vs Baker/Hayter match, and once again, there was *nothing* furthering the story of Baker and Hayter. ZILCH. It's like they are also stalling until Rosa or something comes back. Meanwhile, Hayter is gonna lose steam, or at least it's a risk, and there's no explanation why all of a sudden Hayter is fine with Baker. And there could be, just tell the story. Another exemple. We have now THREE angles about making business deals and buying contracts, The Firm with Private Party & Matt hardy, which really comes from nowhere and was a complete afterthought, Jose the NPC wanting to buy Soon-to-be-not#10-anymore for whatever reasons, and Daivari from WCW Saturday Night wanting to buy Hook's title apparently. If I never hear "buy this guy's contract" EVER AGAIN on AEW TV it'll be too soon.

Shawn Spears getting the Perfect #10 gimmick back is certainly an idea. At least that way he can get over I guess, but retreading to old NXT stuff from years ago doesn't feel fresh at all.

Glad Brian Cage is back on TV. The fact he comes off the most charismatic of his trio says a whole lot about Gates of Agony though... Like, yikes, this isn't MLW.

The Kingdom in AEW ? I say YES. A case of the whole being much better than the sum of the part. Were very fun in NJPW years ago and come from a very fun stint in IMPACT as part of Honor No More. And speaking of IMPACT, someone in AEW should watch the product to get how to shoot backstage stuff and introduce new people. They literally TRUMP AEW on that matter, with vignettes and build-ups (as well as episodic booking, tbh). The way the Kingdom walked in and Excalibur almost casually said "It's the Kingdom" was legit cringe in term of making it look like "yeah, whatever, these guys are here".

Mox vs Hangman promo segment was great. The Jericho ROH stuff is great. PAC is a MONSTER worker, everything he does is absolutely incredibly great, even the way he contorts his body as he falls down selling a punch. Technically (not in the "technical way" as in ZSJ, but in term of mastering everything about the technics of pro-wrestling) probably the best pro-wrestler in the world. I wanna see him every week for ever. Match against Orange was wonderful and Orange winning was an awesome moment, well deserved too. 

It's not like I don't enjoy the product anymore, I do, I think some of it is still great. But there are many issues to fix, both in term of booking (not matchmaking, because that's the strong point of AEW, no one can compete with that part, but rather the episodic element of it) and production (always the same issues, rushed, repetitive backstage stuff, no time to breathe especially on Rampage, questionable directing choice that makes them look like WWE at times).

The Blade looks eerily like Goldberg. And Bunny almost had me wanting to sing Oh Canada ! More of them + the Butcher on TV, please. Way more.

[El-P]

That sure was something. Sometime we forget that are actual people. 

[Flyin' Brian]

3 hours ago, El-P said:

Well, these people are dumb as fuck, therefore...

Stalling until Christian Cage comes back ? And yes, it sucks and is hurting Jungle Boy. The match was really fun, but I was appalled by the result. JUST DO SOMETHING ELSE. This feud is bad WWE level frustrating now.

Let's be real, the episodic nature of the show, apart from the top angles, is not good in term of the undercard and mid-card. We had that really good Storm/Shida vs Baker/Hayter match, and once again, there was *nothing* furthering the story of Baker and Hayter. ZILCH. It's like they are also stalling until Rosa or something comes back. Meanwhile, Hayter is gonna lose steam, or at least it's a risk, and there's no explanation why all of a sudden Hayter is fine with Baker. And there could be, just tell the story. Another exemple. We have now THREE angles about making business deals and buying contracts, The Firm with Private Party & Matt hardy, which really comes from nowhere and was a complete afterthought, Jose the NPC wanting to buy Soon-to-be-not#10-anymore for whatever reasons, and Daivari from WCW Saturday Night wanting to buy Hook's title apparently. If I never hear "buy this guy's contract" EVER AGAIN on AEW TV it'll be too soon.

Shawn Spears getting the Perfect #10 gimmick back is certainly an idea. At least that way he can get over I guess, but retreading to old NXT stuff from years ago doesn't feel fresh at all.

Glad Brian Cage is back on TV. The fact he comes off the most charismatic of his trio says a whole lot about Gates of Agony though... Like, yikes, this isn't MLW.

The Kingdom in AEW ? I say YES. A case of the whole being much better than the sum of the part. Were very fun in NJPW years ago and come from a very fun stint in IMPACT as part of Honor No More. And speaking of IMPACT, someone in AEW should watch the product to get how to shoot backstage stuff and introduce new people. They literally TRUMP AEW on that matter, with vignettes and build-ups (as well as episodic booking, tbh). The way the Kingdom walked in and Excalibur almost casually said "It's the Kingdom" was legit cringe in term of making it look like "yeah, whatever, these guys are here".

Mox vs Hangman promo segment was great. The Jericho ROH stuff is great. PAC is a MONSTER worker, everything he does is absolutely incredibly great, even the way he contorts his body as he falls down selling a punch. Technically (not in the "technical way" as in ZSJ, but in term of mastering everything about the technics of pro-wrestling) probably the best pro-wrestler in the world. I wanna see him every week for ever. Match against Orange was wonderful and Orange winning was an awesome moment, well deserved too. 

It's not like I don't enjoy the product anymore, I do, I think some of it is still great. But there are many issues to fix, both in term of booking (not matchmaking, because that's the strong point of AEW, no one can compete with that part, but rather the episodic element of it) and production (always the same issues, rushed, repetitive backstage stuff, no time to breathe especially on Rampage, questionable directing choice that makes them look like WWE at times).

The Blade looks eerily like Goldberg. And Bunny almost had me wanting to sing Oh Canada ! More of them + the Butcher on TV, please. Way more.

Agreed on most of your points. Jungle Boy should have went over Luchasaurus and Christian could have recruited someone else to try to take out Jungle Boy. Keep the feud going but keep it fresh. Keep throwing different challenges at Jungle Boy that he can overcome until Christian is back and Jungle Boy can have his victory. 

The repetition of the same thing at the same time is definitely a problem. Noticed it with the handshakes at the end of MJF/Yuta and Darby/Lethal two weeks ago too. 

Hopefully they pull the trigger on Hayter sooner than later. More Butcher Blade and Bunny yes please. Hopefully Orange gets a spotlight with the title that PAC really didn't. Jericho vs Castle is going to be fun and I honestly hope they keep it going for a few weeks and have a ROH 6 Man tag title match too. 

 

[El-P]

20 minutes ago, Flyin' Brian said:

Noticed it with the handshakes at the end of MJF/Yuta and Darby/Lethal two weeks ago too. 

Yep. In this case, both were good in themselves, but I was like "Wait, they basically did the exact same angle twice in a row on the same show".

Oh yeah, I'm glad Dalton Castle gets featured too. 

[Dav'oh]

2 hours ago, El-P said:

Sometime we forget that are actual people

That's the way it should be when watching them on TV. I don't want to know the Iron Sheik is a real person playing a role any more than I want to think Homer Simpson is a drawing. They're Supermen, they're SuperStars, they're SuperPlumbers/Monks/Ice Hockey players - they're not Johnny Kafoops from next door.  

They can keep the kayfabe-breaking personal outpourings for the anti-social medias and off of my totally legally streams. If ever I  give four-fifths of a shit about Ronnie Arnell or Windham Rotunda's turmoils and tribulations, I can follow them on the Twitters.

[El-P]

37 minutes ago, Dav'oh said:

That's the way it should be when watching them on TV.

Except that stuff wasn't on TV. It was after the show. And actually, pro-wrestling is not a cartoon. They are not drawings, they are real people. And pro-wrestling is much more than a "real life cartoon". Pro-wrestling is always on the thin frontier between reality and fiction, which is why some moments that are "real" in the pro-wrestling sense actually are real, and some emotions purveyed by pro-wrestling actually goes beyond fiction. Because it's not theatre, nor movie, there's still that bizarre awkward relationship with reality that makes pro-wrestling fascinating. I'd rather live in a time where pro-wrestlers (and other performers) are seen as actual humans beings too, with the good (that kind of empathy and better understanding of people) and bad (harrassment on social media, because people are shit) that goes with it. 

Anyway, that was a nice post-show segment. Good for Shawn Spears.

[strobogo]

Jungle Boy definitely got absolutely fucked by Christian's injury. I don't think there is a good way to keep that going for something that's a 9-12 month injury for Christian. The Lucha turn, then maybe sorta turn back, then turn again all in like 3 weeks was probably not the best way to go.

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, strobogo said:

Jungle Boy definitely got absolutely fucked by Christian's injury. I don't think there is a good way to keep that going for something that's a 9-12 month injury for Christian. The Lucha turn, then maybe sorta turn back, then turn again all in like 3 weeks was probably not the best way to go.

They should have just had Jungle Boy "injure" Christian in that match in a bump-free sort of way. Totally lose his cool so that Christian won the match because he goaded JB too far but that he certainly paid the price for that victory. I know we're (rightfully) complaining about too much repetition of the same themes, be it the handshakes or the contracts, but I think they could have differentiated this enough from the Sammy/Eddie finish. Some brutal violence out of JB (or the simulation of such) would have helped to get him over at no real loss and when Christian came back, he can say that he never lost to JB and there'll be more heat to go around there.

[NintendoLogic]

If they wanted to differentiate it, they could have had JB jump Christian during his entrance and have the match declared a no contest due to Christian being unable to compete like Roman vs. Rusev at Summerslam. I'm not sure how to fit in the Luchasaurus turn, though. Maybe save it for Dynamite.

[KawadaSmile]

If Jungle Boy is gonna lose, just make him lose to Wardlow. 

[Jmare007]

There's tons of ways to work around Christian's time off. Making JB move on to other stuff and make Christian cost him a big match at Double Or Nothing 2023 to reignite the feud was right there too.