AEW TV 3/8-3/10 - Light The Damn Beam

[Timbo Slice]

Enough with the bullshit about the MJF drink stuff. It’s devolved into pettiness. 
 

Now Light The Beam. 

[KawadaSmile]

Wardlow vs Hobbs. That's all that matters.

[southofheavy]

They knocked Revolution out of the park after a couple few weeks of tepid buildup. 

I'm really excited to see what comes next. 

And yes, Wardlow vs Hobbs should rule. 

[Flyin' Brian]

Orange Cassidy is great. Match vs Jarrett should be fun. 

[Tenese Sarwieh]

I love these Hangman interviews with Renee; her nuanced facial expressions are the cherry on top. 

[sek69]

As great as FTR is in the ring, Dax is just as good on the mic. That mf makes you want to run through a brick wall. 

[Stiva]

My boys Miro, Darby and Sting are AWOL but QT Marshall is back, baby. We are truly blessed

[sek69]

Yeah that doesn't make sense, Hobbs doesn't need a mouthpiece and it's not like QT is going to be his bodyguard. Technically it makes sense since it's part of AEW canon that QT is the asshole teacher at the wrestling school and Hobbs is a student, but he's way past the point where he should be seen as someone's student. 

[SirEdger]

Seems like this is basically some long-term storytelling. I was reminded earlier that last summer, there was a segment with Powerhouse Hobbs and QT in regards to taking care of Ricky Starks. Seems like this is QT repaying Hobbs for that particular moment.

[sek69]

Also International title > All Atlantic title. 

[RocknWrestling]

Apparently both QT Marshall and Samoa Joe did a couple of tweets that referred to Wardlow's car break-in. I'm gonna laugh hella hard if it turns out to be an angle after all.

[Embrodak]

I am absolutely happy that Hobbs is a champion, but an unmotivated falls count anywhere match and a bizarre interference by QT was not the way to do it.

[KawadaSmile]

8 hours ago, Stiva said:

My boys Miro, Darby and Sting are AWOL but QT Marshall is back, baby. We are truly blessed

Who is Miro?

[Embrodak]

MJF doing an in-ring bar mitzvah feels like an audition for WWE.

[DMJ]

For some reason, my Hulu Live only taped the second half. I'm not too sour on it as I was mostly tuning in for Hobbs/Wardlow.

- HOB/Elite/JAS is enticing to me. As tired as I am of the JAS, I'm willing to accept that Jericho is not going to be taking time off - which is what I'd really want for him - and so therefore he is going to be on the show and involved in a storyline that gets considerable TV time. So, of all the potential feud partners, House of Black is the best I can come up with. We don't need the Starks/Jericho story to continue in any way. We definitely don't need more JAS/BCC stuff. Plus, aside from Jericho (who does, respectfully, often "bring it" when needed), there is some potential in Guevara, Buddy, Brody King, Garcia, etc. mixing it up. Similarly, House of Black had an endless feud with Death Triangle and then...that was kinda it, right? Cuz Black took time off? Regardless, House of Black should be a big deal and get good responses and I'd much rather than feud with credible opponents than just do "great match-for-great match's sake" stuff against random teams.

- As for the Elite...maybe them not regaining the titles (I don't expect they will) is how we get to Omega back in the singles scene and the Bucks back doing tags. I wrote it weeks (months?) ago, figuring that Kenny was still not completely 100%, but if you've got those separate entities on your roster and your card's sometimes lack star power, I'm not sure why you're packaging them together long-term. 

- Something I didn't like: Hangman and Moxley still tussling. Just a total head-scratcher to me. Dark Order are goofs. Page and Mox just had a whole series of matches and did everything they could possibly do to eachother (the fact that Mox even wrestled on this show seemed like underselling the Death Match to me). I just don't get it. I know Claudio is ROH Champion and ROH has its own shows and all, but, to me, you can still have him on AEW as a tag specialist...only, to do so successfully, you have to give him a consistent partner. BCC tag in so many various amalgamations that it never feels like any particular duo is really in the title hunt, which is a shame because Claudio is a fucking fantastic tag wrestler and Yuta especially seems directionless (at least on AEW TV, I can't speak for Honor Club stuff). Also, again, why the fuck isn't Moxley taking time off? He's still arguably the biggest star on the roster, but wasn't this dude supposed to take a few months off after the last last PPV? I get having Mox on your upcoming house shows for the drawing power, but its time for this guy to come off TV for awhile. And, once again, there was the perfect opportunity to do it after the Deathmatch, but Tony bungled it by having him wrestle on Dynamite. 

- Loved Danielson's little taped promo. That's how you explain a guy's absence for 3-4 weeks. He just gave it his all, came up short, and is now forced to reflect on his future. Some might say having Mox or Jericho do the same thing would've been repetitive on a show like this, but there are multiple ways to skin this cat. For example, how about if the rest of JAS showed up on the show, but Jericho himself was nowhere to be found? Now you've got a power vacuum at the top for maybe a couple of weeks as Jericho, frustrated that he couldn't beat Starks, is now questioning his own greatness. With Mox, the dude just lost like 4 pints of blood this weekend. A simple throwaway line from Excalibur about him needing to recuperate would've sufficed. 

- I liked everything about the Hobbs/Wardlow match except the finish. Another example of 2 steps forward, 2 steps back. Hobbs/Wardlow in the main event seemed like a big deal. Hobbs becoming the new champion in front of an approving crowd was the right call. Why the hell do you need QT involved? If you're going to have Wardlow get screwed, have it be by a name wrestler. It doesn't even need to make logical sense. Have it be a returning Miro. Have it be PAC. Have it be Christian. I think it'd be a mistake, but have it be Eddie Kingston as a heel turn. It could've been Andrade maybe. But QT fucking Marshall is a jobber. Just a totally fucking stupid booking move and I don't care what "longterm booking" bullshit explains it. There are STARS in your company. QT Marshall isn't one of them and will never be one of them. Let a star be the guy that screwed that Wardlow. Then you can have Wardlow, a guy you're trying to build, feud with an actual star while Hobbs, your new champion, can go on to feud with another star on the rise (Starks? Jungle Boy?). But now you're stuck with a Wardlow vs. QT Marshall story that absolutely nobody could ever give a single shit about and makes Wardlow look like an Elevation/Dark-level talent. Just an absolutely terrible finish to a match that had the crowd going crazy and really felt like another star-making performance out of both guys to me.

[The Man in Blak]

Setting up Wardlow as a transitional champ between Joe and Hobbs seems like a pretty big airball.

Giving Hobbs his first title on a win where QT Marshall gets the “heat” — as much as there can be in a fustercluck like this — is like trying to crossover dribble, rolling your ankle and falling square on your face, breaking your nose.

[SirEdger]

Wishful thinking on my part but a full-time return for Stu Grayson would be nice.

[NintendoLogic]

I suppose turning Moxley heel is a satisfactory way to address the problem of a feud between babyfaces where both sides come off as unreasonable, although I don't know how smart turning the guy who's been the heart and soul of the company for so long is. Maybe the bigger issue is the inherent contradiction in Moxley's character. He's a violent short-tempered asshole who likes to hurt people. Those are quintessential heel traits. The only reliable way to keep someone like that babyface is to pit him against strong heel antagonists. Say what you want about the interminable BCC/JAS feud, but Jericho knows how to be a smarmy heel the fans won't get behind. When Moxley goes up against other babyfaces, the tension becomes impossible to resolve.

[Coffey]

On 3/11/2023 at 1:54 PM, NintendoLogic said:

I suppose turning Moxley heel is a satisfactory way to address the problem of a feud between babyfaces where both sides come off as unreasonable, although I don't know how smart turning the guy who's been the heart and soul of the company for so long is. Maybe the bigger issue is the inherent contradiction in Moxley's character. He's a violent short-tempered asshole who likes to hurt people. Those are quintessential heel traits. The only reliable way to keep someone like that babyface is to pit him against strong heel antagonists.

They could turn Moxley heel by having him go straight laced & being against violence & blood.  Although that would probably bee Cactus Jack in ECW or Right to Censor levels of character work.