AEW TV Megathread

[strobogo]

Very strange flex for someone who was just a warm body for a ....uh 7 (?)year WWE run. I would think she'd have trouble pulling that even in TNA. 

[El-P]

Meanwhile all this worthless drama, Collision was one hell of a TV show, with terrific TV matches in Mox vs Strong and Fletcher vs Austin, who is getting over by sheer force of his in-ring work. FTR vs the other Austin & Juice was very good too, Hayter vs Blue was solid as hell and Thekla vs Cameron made up with heat what it lacked in clean work, as Harley still is basically a rookie. I'm thoroughly enjoying the Caster/Bowens angle, leading to the inevitable real Acclaimed reunion (damn, they really are the NAO of the 2020's, except much better in-ring of course). 

And ROH had a terrific Komander vs Lee Moriarty 10 mn draw leading to a championship match at the next special. Also, the Swirl needs to get a serious push, if only because Blake Christian is such a great wrestler. Insane in-ring and slimy as fuck character. Eventually gotta make his way into the "main roster", as they say.

[Stiva]

Blake Christian is a really good promo too. I think they could definitely be a really good heel tag team going forward but I fear they’ll be lost in the shuffle like CRU and Top Flight

[El-P]

That would be unfortunate. I still see potential in Top Flight, especially Dante, but they have been running in circles for years, sadly. I don't see the alliance with Scorpio Sky & Leila Grey going much further but you never know. On paper this is a pretty decent faction.

CRU, I forgot they even existed. Lio Rush should have been used in a different way, he's a very singular talent.

[Jmare007]

Women's Blood & Guts had some really high highs, once it was 5v5 it picked up tremendously and it just kept getting better. Absolutely fucking loved the finish, just heels doing heel shit with some awesome pro wres drama *chef kiss*

I gotta say though, they have to make the entrances shorter. They could've cut 10 minutes and gone faster to the stuff they all really had in mind once shit got going. 

[strobogo]

Do FTR/Stoke vs Brodio/Steamboat. All Steamboat needs to do is throw a couple of chops, maybe a single arm drag. Do it, you fiend. 

[sek69]

Women's  Blood and Guts was beyond expectations, and I went in expecting awesomeness. Mostly everyone wearing white when Skye Blue decided to go full Muta was a great attention to detail. 

[Blehschmidt]

I enjoyed both of the matches last night, and I get that they are staggering the entrance times to work around the commercials, but holy shit, both of those matches were really, really long.

Also, where in the hell did they get those tables!

[El-P]

Yeah, the flux and pacing got all goofy because of the commercial breaks, and you could easily cut off 10 minutes from the men match (the entire sequence of going on top of the cage was really not needed, although I'm glad they did not drop anyone off this high, hopefully we're past that). 

And yeah, those tables were even less cooperative than Nixon Newell & Miranda Alizee.

Apart from that, holy shit Blood and Guts, did they delivered loads of this and that. Of course Skye Blue was the first one of her team and of course she bled two minutes in. Mina did her best Mima Shimoda tribute. And damn Marina, ya crazy bitch. They peaked like crazy for the last period for sure.

Hangman vs Hobbs managed to follow that with even more hardcore shit, although of a different kind. Of course Cage match, perfect time to set it up.

The FTR/Stoke vs Steamboat angle was just perfect. Damn, that FTR/Stoke alliance is the best thing no one even thought about.

Kyle O'Reilly certainly deserved that one. Holy hell, Muta would be proud. It has to be said how insanely *great* Claudio is in his role. And really, Mox and the Deathriders, all things considered, it has to be repeated, really fucked all year long (yeah, apart from the early days and Cope and shit, I know), such an awesome heel faction. The story arc of Mox repeatedly ending up taping out after All In is quite great. BTW, that time where Renee was reporting in a very "newsflash" way while her husband was on screen butchering O'Reilly with broken glass had me rolling. Oh yeah, and Darby went through flaming table, because of course. Tell me he had some protective liquid on him before he did that stupid stunt.

That's certainly how you do a fucking TV special. For the sickos, indeed.

[El-P]

By the way, I'm convinced it flew over 90% of the audience's heads, but Timeless Toni using a *pearl necklace* as a weapon totally cracked me up. She's just hilarious.

[sek69]

Bryan's glee at Yuta being the first one out for his team (because that meant he's get beat up the longest) got a hearty laugh from me. I love how the women's match upped the stakes for the tag title tourney too, since we'll have Toni/Mina vs Megan/Marina.

 

Also holy shit Hobbs's ass must be made of concrete because if I took that bump off the table he did my tailbone would have shot out of my nose. 

[El-P]

19 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Also holy shit Hobbs's ass must be made of concrete because if I took that bump off the table he did my tailbone would have shot out of my nose. 

OMG I didn't noticed the first time, but when they showed the replay of it I CRINGED hard.

[sek69]

He BOUNCED. Like legit a man his size bounced off the fucking ground. That was the most horrifying thing I saw on a show where Mox was straight up stabbing dudes. 

[El-P]

I fell right on my tailbone once and the pain is unbearable. Yeah, this was lowkey the worst spot of the night.

That being said. The Marina spot where she walked on glass to then use it for her kick, visually speaking, was the most bad-ass shit of the night. 

[MikeCampbell]

A couple of observations from the women's matches last night.

 

1. Tay beat Taya Valkarie in just over two minutes and layed out everyone in MXM TV.

2. Hyan and Maya got close to 8 minutes with a the much less pushed team of Riho and Windsor, and not only got to show off some of their stuff, but had Jon Moxley putting them over on commentary.

 

I'll grant that it's possible these are both reactions to last week's drama, but it sure looks like they want to get TayJay over as bad asses headed into their tournament match with Marina and Megan. And it also looks like that they're throwing a bone to Hyan and Maya for being good sports last weekend.  Given that Miranda and Nixon were first on TV in a backstage segment before being in the ring, is it really a stretch to think that they'd have done the exact same thing as Hyan and Maya, had they not decided that last week's quick match didn't benefit anyone?

[sek69]

Hyan and Maya getting so much time/offense sure did seem like AEW was giving them a thank you for bailing them out of a jam last week. 

[El-P]

If anything, they should get a per appearance contract out of it. They certainly looked better than the two other idiots. Maya World in particular looks like she's got good potential.

And so Mercedes is winning another title today. Well, unification of the ROH tv title, whatever it means. She got a 13th belt a few days back defeating Malaysian worker Nor Phoenix Diana at HOG. She's really doing the Ric Flair thingy by having matches she should not have, neither in term of competitiveness nor quality, with local champs. I mean, she went 18 minutes 50/50 with Diana, who has had 43 matches total per Cagematch, and although she does have good potential, you can see she's very green still and some of her stuff did not look great (she did a bad botch near the end in which it looks like she stunned herself). This stint is one for the ages in term of what it accomplishes for these people. (because really now what are the odds most of these match would even happen anyway ?)

[Blehschmidt]

5 hours ago, El-P said:

If anything, they should get a per appearance contract out of it. They certainly looked better than the two other idiots. Maya World in particular looks like she's got good potential.

And so Mercedes is winning another title today. Well, unification of the ROH tv title, whatever it means. She got a 13th belt a few days back defeating Malaysian worker Nor Phoenix Diana at HOG. She's really doing the Ric Flair thingy by having matches she should not have, neither in term of competitiveness nor quality, with local champs. I mean, she went 18 minutes 50/50 with Diana, who has had 43 matches total per Cagematch, and although she does have good potential, you can see she's very green still and some of her stuff did not look great (she did a bad botch near the end in which it looks like she stunned herself). This stint is one for the ages in term of what it accomplishes for these people. (because really now what are the odds most of these match would even happen anyway ?)

and it's utterly mind blowing the amount of mouth breathing idiots who are constantly shitting on her, calling her Mercedes Hogan, claiming she is half the worker she was in WWE, claiming she isn't putting anyone over (cause they don't understand what that means), and all kinds of other dumb shit because either A) They don't like the fact that she isn't in WWE anymore or B,) They can't stand seeing a woman having this level of success.

I am loving this run and I hope she beats Statlander on Saturday (and not just because I don't care for Statlander!)

[El-P]

15 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said:

and it's utterly mind blowing the amount of mouth breathing idiots who are constantly shitting on her, calling her Mercedes Hogan, claiming she is half the worker she was in WWE, claiming she isn't putting anyone over (cause they don't understand what that means), and all kinds of other dumb shit because either A) They don't like the fact that she isn't in WWE anymore or B,) They can't stand seeing a woman having this level of success.

I am loving this run and I hope she beats Statlander on Saturday (and not just because I don't care for Statlander!)

Add this C) a *black woman* that is not doing it in the WWE machine. 20 years of WWE monopoly has made wrestling fans way stupider on average, really, it's a scary thing.

Honestly I would not mind her winning the belt against Stat either, although the arc that the AEW belt is the one she can't seem to win is probably better for a win later on. But yeah, Ultimo Moné is awesome. Gotta love how she behaves with the fans on these shows too, saluting and taking pictures with everyone at ringside like she's Tanahashi. It's so obvious she loves doing this.

[Alucard]

6 hours ago, Blehschmidt said:

I am loving this run and I hope she beats Statlander on Saturday (and not just because I don't care for Statlander!)

Amen to that! Unfortunately see no chance.  I preferred Toni being the one person Mercedes couldn't beat as the story rather than she just can't win that title, but they've thrown that out ending Toni's reign in such a buzzkill way

[sek69]

Watching Dyna-Collision now, and if being married for almost 20 years has taught me anything Harley was probably legit regretting that chest bump she did with WIllow 

[sek69]

Also one thing AEW should take from WWE is the whole "ref calls it like a shoot" because stuff like Speedball apparently forgetting to kick out only to go right to the finish after looked pretty bad. 

[MikeCampbell]

I had high hopes for that Okada/Dorada match, and.....yeesh. I don't know if it was nerves or the size difference being an issue but they just didn't click together at all. Dorada is lucky he didn't break his neck on that last top rope spot.

[strobogo]

7 hours ago, MikeCampbell said:

I had high hopes for that Okada/Dorada match, and.....yeesh. I don't know if it was nerves or the size difference being an issue but they just didn't click together at all. Dorada is lucky he didn't break his neck on that last top rope spot.

It was weird because he was amazing in the triple threat with Okada and Takeshita. Either he got spooked or messed up on that first apron DDT botch.

[Boss Rock]

I honestly thought it was a pretty good match botches aside. The Raging Fire before the Rainmaker was a nice touch.