AEW TV - 10/25 - 10/28 - Rudderless Pumpkins

[El-P]

15 hours ago, Embrodak said:

Also, I know we’ve already blown past this with the last match fiasco, but Ric Flair was implicated as a sexual assailant on national television. We have plenty of wonderful Nature Boy memories that we can cherish and watch clips of on Youtube, there’s zero reason to glorify him in the here and now.

This.

I haven't seen it yet because I'm way behind my watching schedule so I just read the spoilers. *HUGE SIGH*

Yeah yeah yeah, this is pro-wrestling and he's a legend and yaddi yaddi yadda. I guess it's ok then. Well, can't wait for Matt Riddle's debut now.

And yeah, it's foolish to expect any level of decency in major entertainment companies, and people gonna cry about cANceL CuLTuRe if you do. But you know what, apparently, Flair made more money the last two years than he ever did. So yeah, so much for the "but accusations destroys powerful men's career" and shit. 

Hey, Coach TK, I've gotta sleaze thread entry for ya : "AEW booked Ric Flair after he was publicly accused of sexual assault in a documentary TV series".

Jeeez. If there was no Bloodmoney show in a few weeks, that would deserve the most disgusting promotional tactic award. 

This is very disappointing, but then again, but what would you expect I guess...

[Blehschmidt]

10 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

Man a couple of spots in this Shida/Soho match have looked…rough.

Between all the crying she did about Tay Melo being too stiff with her, the spots in this match (and a few others), and the general level of nothing she's brought to the table since her much hyped debut. I am really starting to think that Ruby just isn't very good, but the fact that everyone seems to like her has taken her really far and somehow given her the reputation of being way better than she is.

[El-P]

Damn, and I see Okada was on that show ? Talk about highs and lows. I'm glad I spoiled myself though, so I don't get the bad vibes of the surprise. I just hope Flair goes the way of the roll of coins, and just as quickly.

30 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said:

I am really starting to think that Ruby just isn't very good, but the fact that everyone seems to like her has taken her really far and somehow given her the reputation of being way better than she is.

Just starting ? The jury was out for a while because I wasn't familiar with her WWE work, but at this point, I've written her off as easily one of the worst in-ring worker in the company. She just isn't good. Her offense looks like shit, her bumping is awkward, her running his awkward, her timing is mediocre at best. Yeah, she's got a different look and a cool personality I guess (although she really came off poorly in the TV series I thought). But that's pretty much it. It's insane and ridiculous she's still featured as much as she is, and Athena is stuck at being awesome on Honor Club. Not to mention the tons of other much more talented women worker in the roster getting no time. I guess she's got a nice contract, coming from WWE, and they make the most use of that money. Wait, Athena ALSO CAME FROM WWE. Yeah. Nonsense.

[Blehschmidt]

Well, I was trying to be nice, since you never know what is considered too mean to say anymore. (I still have flashbacks to the "Chris Hero has gained some weight" explosion of several years back)

I am with you. Why she and Saraya are prominently featured while Athena is stuck on Ring of Honor, and Bunny and Penelope, who may not be the best workers but are far more entertaining aren't doing a damn thing is beyond me.

[El-P]

9 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said:

I am with you. Why she and Saraya are prominently featured while Athena is stuck on Ring of Honor, and Bunny and Penelope, who may not be the best workers but are far more entertaining aren't doing a damn thing is beyond me.

THIS.

I actually think Bunny is dealing with mental health issue, or so is the word out there. Hopefully she gets better. But they still never did anything with her really (despite the fact she beat Roman Reigns in the ratings once, yes she did). I'm still waiting for an angle for women as strong, focused and well written and executed as the Allie & Maria Kanellis angle in TNA from way back when.

Saraya at least is actually fun as an outside the ring performer, her getting in the face of fans is never getting old. She's got tons of presence and personality that makes up for her physical limitations (which also are understandable). I guess she got a fat-ass contract too, and she only wrestles every other week (or less). But I sigh everytime I have to watch a Ruby Soho match. Kinda like I sigh whenever Wardlow is on screen, but that's another story.

[Mr Wrestling 2000]

add me to the dissapointed it was ric flair pile. Watching OC and Claudio I was thinking how bad I wanted to see them wrestle and then up pops the graphic for next week. Gonna be good!

[El-P]

What makes it worse, and I don't think much people will make the connection (but maybe they will), is that last week Coach TK was making this super stiff (no pun intended) tweet about Vince's "issues", only to book Ric Flair a week later. Well, point taken.

Would it have been that hard to, I dunno, roll out Lex Luger instead ? 

[KawadaSmile]

If he brought out Flair, you just know he'd try to bring Warrior for a cameo as well. I mean, if he weren't dead.

[El-P]

10 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

If he brought out Flair, you just know he'd try to bring Warrior for a cameo as well. I mean, if he weren't dead.

I doubt he would, because Warrior is not a significant part of Sting's legacy in term of mainstream pro-wrestling (really, who the fuck cares about the Bladerunners in 2023 ? Or at any point, really.). And Warrior's image was deteriorated for a long, long while before WWE whitewashed his putrid hateful ass. Flair's "only" dent was that Dark Side episode (if you discount the hundred stories of him exposing his dick to everyone in shoot interviews for the last 20 years of course), and it's very different from having actual recorded proof of you being a hateful homophobic shit (the reaction to Hogan's name last week demonstrated this too). But it's neither here nor there, really. 

[sek69]

I think the fact that Ric Flair's character for like 40 years was basically "womanizing piece of shit" when it came out that he was that IRL people were more or less like "well that tracks" and just kind of shrugged. There was more outrage over Hogan being racist because that hadn't been a central part of his character on TV all those years. 

Not that I think that's right mind you, just what I think the thought process behind it is. 

[El-P]

7 hours ago, sek69 said:

Not that I think that's right mind you, just what I think the thought process behind it is. 

I think it's much much simpler than this. When it comes to sexual violence, people just don't actually care that much whenever we're talking about whomever with any kind of powerful status. Abusers on stage at Hellfest. Abusers at the Cannes Festivals. Abusers in high places in governments. Abuser as the head of the biggest pro-wrestling promotion in the world.

Sure, when it's a "nobody", then the outrage is massive. If AEW had brought Marty Scurll for instance, the negative backlash would be huge, people who be so outraged about it, how it would be the most disgusting thing ever. Flair ? Same people just go "WOOOO !". Coming out of the Dark Side episode, you know who got the most shit ? Ric Flair, for being accused of sexual assault ? Brock Lesnar, for being accused of sexual assault ? No. Of course not. Tommy Dreamer, for saying something stupid akin to "boys will be boys, helicodick is funny come on". People asked for his head, because OMG this was so bad. He actually was suspended from his job without pay for a while. Flair ? Oh, he was cut out of a WWE intro. Made more money after the fact than he ever did, apparently. Brock ? Nada. People did not even mention him, I guess exposing himself to Terry Runnels was nothing but another shitty anecdote.

So yeah, Flair on AEW TV feels gross, a move that I really never expected. I foolishly thought that maybe, maybe they were a little bit better than this. That's what Sting's retirement tour is looking now too, gross, since Flair is apparently gonna be a big part of it. And everyone is giving lip service to the "legend", the fans, the wrestlers, the announcers, the boss. *yuck* Talk about tainting everything in a heartbeat. 

And looking from a purely creative standpoint, it reeks of desperation. Do anything for ratings. Like throw out Omega vs MJF, which should be a huge PPV match in a big time setting with a long-ass build, on a random Collision with 3 days notice. 

[Robert S]

Also domestic violence seems to be a thing you could get a pass for, I mean no one seems to care about Austin's history in that regard.

[Mr Wrestling 2000]

we getting mjf and kenny going 1 hour to draw

[strobogo]

2 hours ago, El-P said:

I think it's much much simpler than this. When it comes to sexual violence, people just don't actually care that much whenever we're talking about whomever with any kind of powerful status. Abusers on stage at Hellfest. Abusers at the Cannes Festivals. Abusers in high places in governments. Abuser as the head of the biggest pro-wrestling promotion in the world.

Sure, when it's a "nobody", then the outrage is massive. If AEW had brought Marty Scurll for instance, the negative backlash would be huge, people who be so outraged about it, how it would be the most disgusting thing ever. Flair ? Same people just go "WOOOO !". Coming out of the Dark Side episode, you know who got the most shit ? Ric Flair, for being accused of sexual assault ? Brock Lesnar, for being accused of sexual assault ? No. Of course not. Tommy Dreamer, for saying something stupid akin to "boys will be boys, helicodick is funny come on". People asked for his head, because OMG this was so bad. He actually was suspended from his job without pay for a while. Flair ? Oh, he was cut out of a WWE intro. Made more money after the fact than he ever did, apparently. Brock ? Nada. People did not even mention him, I guess exposing himself to Terry Runnels was nothing but another shitty anecdote.

So yeah, Flair on AEW TV feels gross, a move that I really never expected. I foolishly thought that maybe, maybe they were a little bit better than this. That's what Sting's retirement tour is looking now too, gross, since Flair is apparently gonna be a big part of it. And everyone is giving lip service to the "legend", the fans, the wrestlers, the announcers, the boss. *yuck* Talk about tainting everything in a heartbeat. 

And looking from a purely creative standpoint, it reeks of desperation. Do anything for ratings. Like throw out Omega vs MJF, which should be a huge PPV match in a big time setting with a long-ass build, on a random Collision with 3 days notice. 

Flair was originally supposed to be the one to reveal the title that Bret end up doing. He was also supposed to come in around the time of the DSOTR episode that put everything on hold. TK has wanted Flair since day one, which makes sense as AEW = WCW 2.0 (3.0 I guess if we count TNA) on Turner and all the JCP/WCW nostalgia they've always had going on.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, strobogo said:

Flair was originally supposed to be the one to reveal the title that Bret end up doing. He was also supposed to come in around the time of the DSOTR episode that put everything on hold. 

I know. The issue is that it should not have just put everything on hold. After DSOTR, it should have been cancelled, pun intended. It sends one hell of a message. The fact there is no awareness at all about this, and that overall there doesn't need to be because it doesn't matter, speaks loudly about how "far" pro-wrestling really has evolved. 

And really, if we speak real and strictly pro-wrestling : Flair looks like a senile clown with his ridiculous bling bling jewelry, slurring his words and all. It's not like he's Tully or Arn out there. If he had appeared at Sting's retirement to shake his hands, you know, not great at all but understandable. But having him actually part of angles and shit ? For the next few months ? Not only this is gross, but it also promises some really terrible stuff. Flair was embarrassing last time he appeared on WWE TV, trying to have sex with a woman that could be her grand-daughter. I sure hope they are not dumb enough to have him interact with any female workers in a shady way.

I wonder what Triple H thinks of this. Aren't they gonna take this as some kind of high treason or something too ? Maybe they're gonna dig up some old walking corpse of their own (and no, I'm not taking about MAGATaker, who apparently as a Patreon now, fascinating stuff for sure) to counter-program the old creep (very fitting for Halloween though). Parts of me wants them to have Charlotte do a straight job for Jade, and she goes "That's not working for me brotha". Since we have a debacle going on, might as well make it the most entertaining possible.

3 hours ago, Robert S said:

Also domestic violence seems to be a thing you could get a pass for, I mean no one seems to care about Austin's history in that regard.

I mean, Dana White slapped his wife in public while promoting his grand idea of slapfighting (that turned out well), and he did not get even a slap on the wrist for it.

[Dale Wolfe]

I genuinely thought w/ the recent kill tony live show debacle and the abandoned podcast w hinchcliffe, the idea of flair in front of any live audience might actually be done, and then he turns up on aew!

It's a very lopsided program at the moment i think, still quite good to fast forward through but the full thing no chance

Surely mjf omega becomes an angle rather than actual match

[KawadaSmile]

I swear, if they turn MJF/Omega into one of those "heels standing tall at the end of the show" dealies....

[Dale Wolfe]

Just watched the flair segment and christian did have some good jabs at him to be fair 

[JRH]

On 10/26/2023 at 8:24 AM, El-P said:

What makes it worse, and I don't think much people will make the connection (but maybe they will), is that last week Coach TK was making this super stiff (no pun intended) tweet about Vince's "issues", only to book Ric Flair a week later. Well, point taken.

Would it have been that hard to, I dunno, roll out Lex Luger instead ? 

Lex has been looking rather rough sadly (I think he's confined to a wheelchair).

[strobogo]

You know, when Christian made the challenge, I was like "oh well of course Ric will get Andrade and he'll move to the TNT title or something" and then later the interview with Edge happens and I realize I had completely forgotten Edge was in AEW already.

[The Thread Killer]

Danielson is injured again?! Broken orbital bone this time, supposedly. That dude has luck comparable to Adam Cole.

[Migs]

No one talking about how great that main event was? And that they went with a clean finish after all the talk of run ins?

[Matt D]

I’ve been loving less-is-more, make every thing matter MJF. 

(here’s my take on the Righteous match: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/10/aew-five-fingers-of-death-and-friends.html?m=1)

I think I’m skipping Omega vs MJF though. Seems very much not for me. 

[strobogo]

8 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

Danielson is injured again?! Broken orbital bone this time, supposedly. That dude has luck comparable to Adam Cole.

Quite sure it's just an angle 

[NintendoLogic]

The injury is legitimate per PWInsider. These folks need to learn to work because the injury rate should not be this high in a fake sport.