AEW TV Megathread

[El-P]

18 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

Darby did it. And while I still feel pretty confident Ospreay will win at Wembley, the path to get there and the title picture as a whole feels very unpredictable. And that's good.

I wasn't sure it was gonna happen at first. But when Sting showed up backstage, it was like, yep, this is Lex Luger winning against Hogan at Nitro. And although it wasn't exactly that, because context are very different, it pretty much was. So, enjoy it while you can Darby, you're losing it at Double or Nothing in NY. Difference is, now you're made. Gotta love how they really are pushing the idea now that when you're getting close to the top, you are going for the big one, whether you're a heel or a face. (BTW, Kevin Knight is absolutely turning heel on Speedball when joining Swerve, right ?)

And yeah, whatever is happening with Mox and Ospreay, William is winning at Wembley. And then... Ospreay vs Omega ?

Thekla is so fucking awesome. It's crazy, when you think back like 4 years ago in Stardom, looking at Giulia, Mariah May and Thekla and thought, well, these three are gonna be in the US, who do you think is gonna be the biggest star. And Mariah *could* have (although it has to be said she really never got that over when she was away from Toni, and I say that despite really loving her work). Giulia, well, it was obvious to anyone paying attention to what she was about WWE was gonna ruin her. And yet, it's not like Thekla became the one by default, as she basically is the best women's champ they had apart from Toni. Gotta love her throwing "dumb bitches" and shit in front of those kids too 😅.

 

[Blehschmidt]

Thekla going from basically being "Giulia's tag team partner" in Stardom to eclipsing her in pretty much every way in the U.S. certainly wasn't on my radar 

[sek69]

7 hours ago, El-P said:

Gotta love her throwing "dumb bitches" and shit in front of those kids too 😅.

The look on that kid's face when she said that had me rolling 

Speaking of kids, watching the kids in the audience losing their shit when Darby won reminded me of Ron Simmons winning the WCW title. Obviously the contexts were different but that vibe of "my guy did it" was similar. 

[MoS]

Watched the full Dynamite. Tremendous, tremendous show. Darby is the best TV worker of the decade and him having a cup of coffee with the belt is good. He is terrible on the mic though lol, so best to just have him remain mostly silent. When did MJF become such a great main event-level worker?!?! He was certainly not this comfortable and good in his first world title run 

[El-P]

Meanwhile, at the Stardom show in Vegas...

This shit is just gold.

[MoS]

Thekla is awesome. I had seen a bit of her before work overwhelmed me last year but I watched this Dynamite episode and what an absolute superstar. "I was talking aobut dumb bitches, and here you magically appear!!" LMAO big pop

[El-P]

I don't care, I'm actually enjoying Lio Rush's Gollum persona a lot. I'm always a sucker for good creepy gimmick, and this one is particulary fitting both this guy's singular body type (he's a tiny mofo) and very singular working abilities (super quick, super explosive). He's doing a great job at it too. No idea if it is gonna get over, but I must say PAC and even Danny Garcia at ringside did a hell of a job selling the character, and so did Excalibur talking about the Great Muta, which is really how you should sell it (it's really a mix of Mankind/Muta, and actually can get over as a babyface). I hope it will get the time to develop and chance to get over, because Rush is so damn talented and so unique.

[MoS]

I owe Ciampa an apology. Years of NXT slop had corrupted my impression of him. Tremendous match tonight and this Darby mini-reign is going to be awesome. 

 

I think Darby will be my highest-ranked AEW wrestler (as in, those who have made their names in the North American scene by working in AEW, so people like Danielson are excluded) in GWE. Dude never misses. He is the best TV worker of the last 15 years at minimum. 

[Timbo Slice]

A lot of AEW fans are showing ass right now around the Darby reign and it’s aggravating. This idea that he’s not a Top Guy or some shit or whatever subjective gatekeeping they come with is nonsense. 
 

He’s had a ton of title shots over the years, he’s one of the AEW Four Pillars, he is one of the few names with legit crossover appeal given what he’s done outside the ring, and folks want to say this is the Foley reign or whatever lazy comparison. 
 

These types of title changes and reigns have happened for decades. There’s not a damn thing wrong with the decision, and Darby is more than good enough to have the title. Not everyone in the company needs to work 30 minute Epic Main Events to be World Champion. Enjoy the fact you truly have variety that can work at the top of the company when the competition can only offer anodyne, highly sanitized folks at the top. 

[El-P]

1 hour ago, Timbo Slice said:

There’s not a damn thing wrong with the decision, and Darby is more than good enough to have the title. Not everyone in the company needs to work 30 minute Epic Main Events to be World Champion. Enjoy the fact you truly have variety that can work at the top of the company when the competition can only offer anodyne, highly sanitized folks at the top. 

This.

I'm just glad I'm away from most discourse, although I do check bluesky and (gasp) reddit a bit.

Darby as short-term world champ working great TV match is awesome.

[MoS]

People will complain about anything AEW does. The parasocial relationship so many fans have with WWE is pathetic

[Jmare007]

23 hours ago, Timbo Slice said:

A lot of AEW fans are showing ass right now around the Darby reign and it’s aggravating. This idea that he’s not a Top Guy or some shit or whatever subjective gatekeeping they come with is nonsense. 
 

He’s had a ton of title shots over the years, he’s one of the AEW Four Pillars, he is one of the few names with legit crossover appeal given what he’s done outside the ring, and folks want to say this is the Foley reign or whatever lazy comparison. 
 

These types of title changes and reigns have happened for decades. There’s not a damn thing wrong with the decision, and Darby is more than good enough to have the title. Not everyone in the company needs to work 30 minute Epic Main Events to be World Champion. Enjoy the fact you truly have variety that can work at the top of the company when the competition can only offer anodyne, highly sanitized folks at the top. 

I agree with all of this. I do think we gotta stop using "AEW Four Pillars" as a thing though. That promo aged like milk and only MFJ and Darby showed they belonged on a foundational level. 

I mean, Sammy Guevara being named at the time was laughable in 2022 and nowadays he's in the spot he should be in. And Jungle Boy also found his real place on the card.  

[MoS]

MJF and Darby were always a level above the other two anyway. Yeah, AEW should never have used the "4 Pillars" term. No way it would have resulted in anything good

[The Thread Killer]

57 minutes ago, MoS said:

MJF and Darby were always a level above the other two anyway. Yeah, AEW should never have used the "4 Pillars" term. No way it would have resulted in anything good

Hey, when he was in AEW, Punk suggested that Britt Baker should have been named as one of the 4 AEW Pillars, and her AEW career has certainly turned out…

Oh, right. Never mind.

Perhaps in hindsight it was a bad idea after all.

[El-P]

Sammy is actually great and living his best life doing hilarious sleazy heel shit in ROH tagging alongside LFI. He just needs to never ever be a babyface again.