AEW TV - 12/7 & 12/9 - Stuff and Things

[Matt D]

2 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

Exactly. I don’t think TK should take the World Title off MJF yet, it’s way too soon for that. But I really hope Ricky’s push doesn’t evaporate after next week, although I suspect it will.

He’ll fail to win the title but will get the ring by beating the world champ. Not a bad consolation push.

[Coffey]

The one thing that Ricky Starks needs to drop is that head in hand taunt he does at the top of the ramp. It makes him look bush league.

[MoS]

21 minutes ago, Flyin' Brian said:

Ok, it showed up in my Facebook feed that Ricky Starks won the Dynamite Diamond Ring battle Royal? Can someone please explain to me why he was in it when he already won the title eliminator tournament and had an AEW title shot? Does he get two title shots now?

This was for the diamond ring that MJF wears/carries. Starks if he wins will also get the ring along with the belt. 

[Flyin' Brian]

3 minutes ago, MoS said:

This was for the diamond ring that MJF wears/carries. Starks if he wins will also get the ring along with the belt. 

AEW’s Facebook page was saying the winner of the battle Royal got the ring and a title shot before the match. Maybe someone’s wires got crossed

[The Thread Killer]

FTR/BRISCOES III BITCHES

[Flyin' Brian]

33 minutes ago, MoS said:

This was for the diamond ring that MJF wears/carries. Starks if he wins will also get the ring along with the belt. 

Didn’t in past years the final 2 in the battle Royal have a singles match for the ring?

[KawadaSmile]

Listen pals this HAS TO BE Sasha motherfucking Banks.

[SirEdger]

It's cute that marks are so desperate for Sasha returning that they think she isn't still under contract with WWE.

[Embrodak]

Why would Sasha debut in a tag match against Britt/Hayter when she could debut in a weird feud with Jade as the representative of obscure rapper Bow Wow

[Embrodak]

Having said what I said earlier, MJF is quite a bit more comfortable and natural on the mic than Starks. That’s not Starks’ fault, he’s been booked atrociously and not gotten as many self-development opportunities as he should have, but MJF is still his better.

[MoS]

1 hour ago, Flyin' Brian said:

Didn’t in past years the final 2 in the battle Royal have a singles match for the ring?

They did, the rules have been tweaked this time apparently. 

I thought this was a tremendous episode of Dynamite, capped off by an excellent main event. For me, FTR-Briscoes 3 (and a double dog collar match to boot!) is the clear main event for this ROH PPV, and I am very excited to see how they try and top their previous matches. 

[Timbo Slice]

Joe/Darby is the 2022 Hoot of the Year, pals. 

[MoS]

3 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Listen pals this HAS TO BE Sasha motherfucking Banks.

I personally think it's Kairi. No way does WWE let Sasha go without a lengthy non-compete, they would be foolish to do so

[flyonthewall2983]

6 hours ago, Embrodak said:

Having said what I said earlier, MJF is quite a bit more comfortable and natural on the mic than Starks. That’s not Starks’ fault, he’s been booked atrociously and not gotten as many self-development opportunities as he should have, but MJF is still his better.

I don’t want to say it sounded desperate but Starks’ promo had the feeling in it somehow that this was going to save his job, regardless or not if it was actually in jeopardy.

For his part in it I like that Max doesn’t just steamroll over guys on the mic like some in his position would have before him. This match good as it will be, is surely to be forgotten by January, but the incremental effort to make everything seem big and important wins me over. 

[MoS]

7 hours ago, Embrodak said:

Having said what I said earlier, MJF is quite a bit more comfortable and natural on the mic than Starks. That’s not Starks’ fault, he’s been booked atrociously and not gotten as many self-development opportunities as he should have, but MJF is still his better.

I have the opposite opinion, I thought Starks sort of made MJF look..not phony, but hollow and unserious, as the kids say these days. I might agree that MJF's delivery was more polished, something that comes with experience, as you pointed out, but overall Starks felt more organic, more genuine, and just left a much bigger impact on me. Yes, he did ramble a bit, but so did a lot of legendary promos in pro wrestling history, including the guy MJF compared Starks to - seriously, go watch some of Rock's 1997 promos after he had just turned heel and joined the NoD, he would be all over the place - and I didn't feel it detracted from his promo at all. In fact, it made him feel more natural and passionate, made me want to see him win more. 

This also made me think that MJF would do well not to get into a similar promo battle with Eddie Kingston during his title reign. King has all the qualities I spoke of above, and also has a lot of experience cutting live promos on TV. MJF would get massacred imo if they went head to head like this. MJF has come a long way and is much better than he was when he first engaged in a promo battle with CM Punk - where he rambled quite a bit, and Punk was obviously far more polished - but he still isn't as good a promo as Kingston is. 

[rovert]

56 minutes ago, MoS said:

I have the opposite opinion, I thought Starks sort of made MJF look..not phony, but hollow and unserious, as the kids say these days. I might agree that MJF's delivery was more polished, something that comes with experience, as you pointed out, but overall Starks felt more organic, more genuine, and just left a much bigger impact on me. Yes, he did ramble a bit, but so did a lot of legendary promos in pro wrestling history, including the guy MJF compared Starks to - seriously, go watch some of Rock's 1997 promos after he had just turned heel and joined the NoD, he would be all over the place - and I didn't feel it detracted from his promo at all. In fact, it made him feel more natural and passionate, made me want to see him win more. 

This also made me think that MJF would do well not to get into a similar promo battle with Eddie Kingston during his title reign. King has all the qualities I spoke of above, and also has a lot of experience cutting live promos on TV. MJF would get massacred imo if they went head to head like this. MJF has come a long way and is much better than he was when he first engaged in a promo battle with CM Punk - where he rambled quite a bit, and Punk was obviously far more polished - but he still isn't as good a promo as Kingston is. 

Starks's promo was great no question but I don't know how anyone could view it other than MJF largely feeding Ricky cutting lines backstage about himself so MJF could show ass as a top heel and re-align his crowd reactions. 

[El-P]

Awesome show, period. Ricky Starks hanging on with MFJ (the best promo in the business in at least the last 20 years) on the mic. Joe vs Darby, holy hell. Yuta & Garcia foreshadowing possibly a terrific match. Red Velvet coming back and looking like she has not missed a beat. That mofo of a main event. CLEAN too. Gotta give it up to Caster, who has step up big time in the last 6 months. And Cash Wheeler was in "ok, everybody is talking about Dax all the time, enough now" mood. The post-match promo by the Ass Boys was AEW at its best fake-teasing something to deliver something better. The Briscoes case is really unique... That match is the unexpected gift of the end of the year. As far as the Acclaimed go, I guess they wipe Lethal/Jarrett on TV and move on to the next challengers. Ride the wave of the scissors. 

Kudos for trying to correct the trajectory of the Regal angle, I thought they did a decent job trying to tie the loose ends here, all things considered. Gotta give it to TK for that one and actually being a class act to Regal too. Also, the fact he did acknowledge there will be less ROH presence on AEW after this week means that either ROH gets some TV deal, either he just listens. Hopefully both. Mox talking about how the BCC are gonna be done with the JAS also strikes me as a sign of listening. I must say I have no idea why anyone would think Mercedes Varnado would end up in AEW at this point, I fully except her showing up back at the Rumble. That would be a coup for TK for sure though, but then again, we've been there before, and it did not turn out that well. So, either way I'm fine with it.

[MoS]

4 minutes ago, rovert said:

Starks's promo was great no question but I don't know how anyone could view it other than MJF largely feeding Ricky cutting lines backstage about himself so MJF could show ass as a top heel and re-align his crowd reactions. 

MJF definitely didn't try to steamroll him the way a lot of heels in the past 20 years have tended to do, but compared to Starks' organic energy, he came off a bit like a tryhard

[El-P]

The Saraya interview struck me most in term of how she basically ain't wrestling for an entire month now. Not sure about that one. Her tag partner, well, maybe Kris Statlander ? She was on such a roll when she got injured again.

[Cap]

Absolute banger Dynamite.  I - like everyone - really really liked Joe vs Darby. I think Joe's deliberate pace really helped set this apart from some of the other great Darby vs big guy matches. Not that it blew the others out of the water, but joe put his signature on it and that will always resonate with me.

While the just mostly insult your opponent promo isn't my favorite, I really liked the segment with Starks and MJF. As much as I like Starks and as hot as he has been lately, they had some work to do to elevate him to MJF/world title picture level and I think having him cut that promo in front of that crowd was a quality step in that direction. Maybe I'm giving him the benifit of the doubt, but it felt to me like MJF was really giving Starks the space to shine here. Not only did he not steamroll Starks, but he sort of hammed it up a bit more than normal (at least for his more recent promos) and gave Starks a nice, big target to hit. But Starks deserves all the credit in the world for the way he delivered those lines. It really felt like a big deal. I also agree with the speculation that MJF will win the title match and Starks will win the ring. It will set up a rubber match of course for the title again and we will likely get a very good to great trilogy out of it.

I sort of felt like the Regal stuff was a bit overthought, but I still loved it. I can't tell if that is because it was actually good or if its because I just love the Blackpool Combat Club and they speak to my sensibilities as a fan. I'm not sure there is anyone else in the world that could have pulled that off other than Regal. I haven't been following the rumor mill, but I'm assuming this means he goes back to WWE/NXT. If that's the case, I'll be sad to see him go, but don't begrudge him the decision. This is about the best way he could leave AEW.

The main event was also really really good and made me want to see this match-up again on a ppv. Pitch-perfect ending for something like that too. FTR looked like the better team on the whole, but they just came up against the hotter team on the hotter streak that is in the middle of a massive level-up. The match stayed true to the story of each team and it didn't feel like anyone came out worse for it. And that announcement at the end.... I am absolutely amped. I wish the Briscoes could actually be on TV, but I'm assuming this still about their past remarks.

[Jmare007]

This Dynamite felt like the reset we've been waiting for the last 6 months.

 

Also, it's too bad Eddie is a beloved babyface because I think he would be a perfect follow up for Starks after he losses to MJF. A guy he can have promos battles with and will force him to continue to get better at them and a wrestler than can give him all sorts of different (great) matches to keep building momentum. Sadly, I don't see Eddie being able to turn successfully, the crowd will cheer him no matter what lol.

[Champagne]

3 hours ago, MoS said:

I have the opposite opinion, I thought Starks sort of made MJF look..not phony, but hollow and unserious, as the kids say these days. I might agree that MJF's delivery was more polished, something that comes with experience, as you pointed out, but overall Starks felt more organic, more genuine, and just left a much bigger impact on me. Yes, he did ramble a bit, but so did a lot of legendary promos in pro wrestling history, including the guy MJF compared Starks to - seriously, go watch some of Rock's 1997 promos after he had just turned heel and joined the NoD, he would be all over the place - and I didn't feel it detracted from his promo at all. In fact, it made him feel more natural and passionate, made me want to see him win more. 

This also made me think that MJF would do well not to get into a similar promo battle with Eddie Kingston during his title reign. King has all the qualities I spoke of above, and also has a lot of experience cutting live promos on TV. MJF would get massacred imo if they went head to head like this. MJF has come a long way and is much better than he was when he first engaged in a promo battle with CM Punk - where he rambled quite a bit, and Punk was obviously far more polished - but he still isn't as good a promo as Kingston is. 

I find MJF's whole act to be very contrived and it takes me out of almost every segment he's in.

[ragemaster]

2 hours ago, El-P said:

The Saraya interview struck me most in term of how she basically ain't wrestling for an entire month now. Not sure about that one. Her tag partner, well, maybe Kris Statlander ? She was on such a roll when she got injured again.

She said in a interview that was the recommendation her doctor and that they would monitor her health and increase her matches on how her body holds up.

[Gramsci]

Great show! But I also liked the one from last week and It drew one of the worst ratings in recent memory.

I doubt they are announcing a tag team match 1 month in advance if they don't have someone BIG booked for it. I don't know if Sasha is still under contract with WWE, but I remember reading somewhere that she'll start taking wrestling bookings in January, so I don't see it as impossible. It reminds me of when people were saying that Bryan would be staying in WWE because of Total Bellas or something similar. 

[El-P]

1 hour ago, ragemaster said:

She said in a interview that was the recommendation her doctor and that they would monitor her health and increase her matches on how her body holds up.

Yeah I know. But that makes her a tricky character to use. Obviously like I said before, as long as she's healthy and doesn't paralyse herself, it's all good. Let's not be stupid about working pro-wrestling matches.