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AEW TV 4/17-4/20 is the backstage the AEW version of the NXT parking lot?


sek69

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These last few weeks are getting rough. TV matches generally (fortunately not always) seem shorter, workers like the Bucks are now cutting promos on the mic *during* their match and things like the 6 man titles / White/Gunn feud are getting multiple segments per show. What the hell is going on?

The women have been an absolute mess. Toni Storm went from being one of the most charismatic and dynamic young women around to a channel changing/fast forward material "character" suffocating an entire division. Purrazzo came in and looked clunky from the jump rather. Couple that with being originally miscast as a babyface and now slow rolling towards a heel without any compelling motivation and you've got someone who's initial shine is quickly wearing off. Meanwhie Mone comes in and her runaway strength -- work -- is being leveraged by having her cut robotic promos while her first match is essentially 2 months after her debut? Some really puzzling decisions and priorities. 

I've got no doubt Dynasty will deliver in the ring because the PPVs always do. But outside of Joe's promos and a literal dream match in Ospreay/Danielson (which outside of the first, silent face to face they've done little to establish just what a bonkers match this is) they haven't given people much to sink their teeth into.

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9 hours ago, WingedEagle said:

Meanwhie Mone comes in and her runaway strength -- work -- is being leveraged by having her cut robotic promos while her first match is essentially 2 months after her debut?

Her debut was cool. Since then she has been a complete miss thus far. She needs to change her ways, because the 2017 WWE-like promos are terrible. Hopefully everything changes when she actually works, because that's what AEW is all about, having really good pro-wrestling matches, ya know (as opposed to grinding 4 minutes of in-ring action in 6 months, if you catch my drift). 

9 hours ago, WingedEagle said:

I've got no doubt Dynasty will deliver in the ring because the PPVs always do. 

Yup. That's where I am too lately, I can't say I'm super excited about the weekly stuff, which has been hit and miss (that god damn Billy Gunn match, I still haven't got over that one). Haven't even watched the week-end shows yet. Probably burned out a bit after the Mania week, but still. Dynasty should be awesome though, whenever I get around to watch it. On paper it's a ridiculous peaks show, really : Okada vs PAC, Ospreay vs Danielson, Young Bucks vs FTR ladder match, Joe vs Swerve. The two women match could go either way, one because of injury, the other because of gimmick. 6 men should be really fun. Strong vs O'Reilly will be technically terrific I guess, but could have zero heat too. Jericho vs Hook is gonna be one of the matches happening this night. 

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There are mitigating factors like ad breaks, but doing a year-long analysis of how the Bucks' quarters perform would be interesting, because having checked the quarters every week in real time, in the last year or so, my feeling is they have almost invariably lost viewers, often a massive number of viewers. Some of the drops in the Bucks' quarters are BRUTAL

dynamite chart 2024-04-17.PNG

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That Bunkhouse match was a really fun throwback. Danielson's post match promo was dope.

On one hand I really like them putting all this effort for Mox vs Hobbs (Mox promo at the end was fucking great) but on the other it just bothers me they can't do that sort of good promoting every time. It's so simple and yet they treat it as something that should be saved for special occasions it seems.

On 4/17/2024 at 9:37 PM, WingedEagle said:

 

The women have been an absolute mess. Toni Storm went from being one of the most charismatic and dynamic young women around to a channel changing/fast forward material "character" suffocating an entire division.

The promo she cut on Collision was outstanding, don't fast forward that one.

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10 hours ago, Jmare007 said:

The promo she cut on Collision was outstanding, don't fast forward that one.

I saw it. Better than her usual fare but the character is simply a miss for me every time out. I don't need to watch her audition tapes for SNL. Hopefully this entire act is shelved if/when the Storm/May story wraps up.

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I saw it mentioned that the problem with the gimmick is how no matter what her opponent does to get the story over, her character doesn't take anything seriously.  Deonna was putting over how they grew up together in wrestling and Toni basically no-sold all of it which took a lot of the air out of their feud.

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The character is kinda fun, but it has absolutely damaged the title and the quality of Toni Storm's matches, which was her entire selling point. The fact that it is over only demonstrate that you can get over for entirely wrong reasons. I don't dislike it, but the women division should have actual workhorses on top, not gimmicks. Meanwhile, Athena is having killer matches on ROH, is a great and credible champ that is anchoring the entire thing and makes it seem way important. Why can't they do this on AEW TV, I still have no idea. The sooner Mariah May gets the title the better, and then Toni Storm's character can maybe get some sanity back and we can have some real good matches again.

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4 hours ago, El-P said:

The character is kinda fun, but it has absolutely damaged the title and the quality of Toni Storm's matches, which was her entire selling point. The fact that it is over only demonstrate that you can get over for entirely wrong reasons. I don't dislike it, but the women division should have actual workhorses on top, not gimmicks. Meanwhile, Athena is having killer matches on ROH, is a great and credible champ that is anchoring the entire thing and makes it seem way important. Why can't they do this on AEW TV, I still have no idea. The sooner Mariah May gets the title the better, and then Toni Storm's character can maybe get some sanity back and we can have some real good matches again.

Amen. Minus the fun part! Athena needs to make her way to AEW ASAP. Like before the pandemic ASAP. Every single thing she's done in ROH, from the killer matches, to the promos and squashes would fit into AEW's programming and be the best thing that happened to the division since Hayter was healthy and putting on big matches.

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