sek69 Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 Seriously, it was a fun moment and the crowd ate it up. I didn't hate the angle at all, but I missed hearing Timeless Toni cut unhinged promos end in her threatening to tear someone's tits off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 Pop of the night for me seeing Okada bust out laughing at Buddy and Brody's tough guy promo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 AEW in Daily’s Place just hits the sweet spot. It just feels right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 On 1/24/2025 at 5:01 AM, El-P said: Will Ospreay can do any style, and any style better than most everybody ever. He can still do flippy junior stuff better than Ricochet. As demonstrated by the brutal garbage and bloody brawl with Omega, he can do that also. Put him with ZSJ, he can do european submission matwork up his ass. His match with Micheal Oku at Rev Pro last year was a masterpiece of heeling up like a bastard and building an underground babyface sensation like nobody's business. Put him in Arena Mexico and you'll see the result. Not to mention he adapted to US TV wrestling format ridiculously quick, including in term of promo work (he was great in Japan in his own way, but that was very different). And also : Young Bucks are the greatest ever. There is not even a discussion about it. Remember when they had this match with Griff Garrisson and Pillman Jr. and then people were clamoring that these two needed to be pushed as tag champs because they were so good already ? Same thing happened with Private Party. They got them handed out super cold, from being beat down by the Deathriders. They had not been pushed nor featured forever. Matches started cold because of it. And twice, by the end, the crowd was going crazy for Private Party, were invested in them winning. That is called great work. There's a reason why AEW was at his hottest *it itself* (and by that I mean, before the disastrous CM Punk signing) when Omega & the Bucks were finally pushed at the top acts in 2021. AEW was born out of a particular context, at a time when a certain audience at a certain desire. You can't just declare that you will "restore the feeling" magically by pushing this or that guy. Context has changed. The audience has changed. But still, there is an underlying sense of what AEW was build upon. That is what needs to be found again and adapted to what the context is today, if that is even possible. This is why I have lamented that AEW, after a while, became "just another pro-wrestling company". Then again, the great and important things only come in bursts. This. All of this. Its mind boggling to think about how much time and energy are invested in COPE!~!, Jeff Jarrett, Christian, Jericho (at this stage) and other similar imports. Combine with that start and stop focus on acts like Hook (who's yet to prove he deserves any greater role, while also very much a chicken & egg situation of how the lack of consistent work has contributed to his stagnation). I'll even add Danielson & Sting to that crew given how their writeoffs were utilized. Near perfect moments and build, but how did they help the company the day after? Capping Okada as a comedy heel? What are we even doing here? There are undoubtedly complications, wrinkles and backstage conflicts that make this harder than we make it look on paper, but its not *that* hard. Build and push relatively fresh acts. Let them crush it in the ring. Use the old folks to build and supplement the card. Get a babyface or 2 (Hi, Will Ospreay) over as the face of the company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 It’s wild people don’t understand Okada is working this way because he’s beat up to hell and is trying to essentially preserve himself for the big matches. It’s not a secret or anything. He gets to work like this and save some wear and tear and collect the biggest paycheck of his career (allegedly). Dude is damn near 40 and worked a hellacious style on top for over a decade. They’ll get to All In and he’ll get 30 with Kenny and they’ll turn back the clock for a night, but dude saying “bitch” and getting as big a pop as anything he does in the ring tells you everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted January 28 Author Report Share Posted January 28 On 1/26/2025 at 7:17 AM, sek69 said: Oh shit, sup TK. I wish I had that private line with my former fellow DVDVR poster, ya know. I'm just that smart. (sometimes) Yeah, that angle on the show was perfect, complete with Tony acting like Mariah did when they first met. And really, the entire show was tons of fun and felt *right*, from the angles, the matches (most of them, Gates of Agony I don't care about and at this point never will, although Liona has potential still), the backstage stuff, the vignettes (loved the Callis one and the tease for Renee's Youtube show with her husband). On 1/26/2025 at 10:40 AM, Stiva said: AEW in Daily’s Place just hits the sweet spot. It just feels right It does. And yes, there's a sense of nostalgia about it too because in a very odd way, my favorite overall time in AEW probably was during the pandemic. Totally carried me through it too. And yeah, Okada's back was getting thrashed in NJPW already. There was this entire period where he carried balloons to ringside after his long-ass reign. The guy doesn't look like it, but he's got serious mileages on his body. Whenever he needs, he can switch on to be one of the best ever on the big stage, and that's everything you want from him at this point. I wonder who Callis was teasing as a fifth man... Anyway. This Collision felt more like the AEW I loved than any TV show this year (and a whole lot in the previous 6 months). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckjaywalk Posted January 30 Report Share Posted January 30 I'm starting to think that the biggest issue with the Death Riders storyline is that there's not really a World Champion right now. That's a void that is felt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 31 Report Share Posted January 31 IMO the issue is they are supposed to be uncontrollable bad asses but none of them really convey that other than Mox. Pac can at times but it seems like he's only around some of the time. Yuta is just a geek who looks like a 12 year old wearing a fake beard, and Claudio spent so much time as the beloved underdog never allowed to shine in WWE that it's hard to even see him as a bad guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted January 31 Report Share Posted January 31 Claudio was a good heel with The Bar, so I don't think that's the issue. Also, I got the impression they telegraphed Ospreay turning on Omega with that Callis Family beat down, which would fucking suck as the company needs top faces. If it was just awkward execution, then it's okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted January 31 Report Share Posted January 31 - Ospreay turning on Omega would probably be my final AEW straw. - Hobbs feuding with the Learning Tree is fine for TV, I guess, but I kinda liked Hobbs vs. Death Riders way, way more because it actually made Hobbs seem like he mattered. Hobbs in an extended program with Claudio would probably do him a ton of good and unless the match was particularly bad, I'd be up for 2-3 battles with Hobbs getting more and more competitive with each successive match. They don't need to be 20 minutes. Give me an 8, a 10, and a 14. - Speaking of Death Riders, I thought the segment with Renee was interesting in the sense that they played it very straight and didn't really mention the elephant-in-the-room (Mox and Renee's marriage). I tend to veer on the "less is more" side, but this might have been too little of an acknowledgement. I kinda wish Mox had at least said something like, "We've talked about this, Renee..." or "You know me better than anyone so when I say..." or "Renee, you know what I'm trying to do here, but its all these blah blah blahs who don't understand what we are trying to do..." - So glad MJF didn't help Jarrett win, which I thought would be the finish after Mox's interference (and lead to an MJF/Mox match that I don't think should happen yet). MJF/Jarrett is another feud that is fine for TV, but I don't really need it explored for weeks and weeks much longer. I don't think Jarrett will truly retire anytime soon, but why not run the match as a retirement match anyway? Its pro-wrestling. How many retirement matches did Funk have? Flair had at least two and supposedly wants another. Jarrett should have at least 3-4 before he really hangs them up and the first being against MJF would be cool with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 1 Author Report Share Posted February 1 How did we get from Moxley murdering Danielson in front of Orange & Darby to the Deathriders feuding with cOpE and Jeff Jarrett ? (well, not really, but you get the point in term of weekly TV) The week to week booking is incredibly low effort. Omega vs Cage then Ospreay vs Cage. Same beatdown. Swerve vs AR Fox then Ricochet vs AR Fox. Moné vs Sakasaki main eventing was cool as hell though. Maybe Coach TK has read that Sumie Sakai tweet. Hopefully Grand Slam is more akin to a PPV. Because AEW does awesome PPV's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 1 Author Report Share Posted February 1 17 hours ago, DMJ said: - Speaking of Death Riders, I thought the segment with Renee was interesting in the sense that they played it very straight and didn't really mention the elephant-in-the-room (Mox and Renee's marriage). I tend to veer on the "less is more" side, but this might have been too little of an acknowledgement. I kinda wish Mox had at least said something like, "We've talked about this, Renee..." or "You know me better than anyone so when I say..." or "Renee, you know what I'm trying to do here, but its all these blah blah blahs who don't understand what we are trying to do..." Well, uh, actually... The entire segment, which as always is a Youtube interview show, begins with Renee addressing that elephant in the room. And it is actually great stuff. Too bad none of it is reflected in how the angle has been going for the last month or so on TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted February 1 Report Share Posted February 1 It isn’t too late to just pivot to babyface Swerve on top and run Swerve/Hangman in Texas. Pivot Death Riders to the title-less Blood and Guts program and then move Omega, Ospreay, Fletcher and Okada into the Swerve title picture. It really shouldn’t be hard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 1 Author Report Share Posted February 1 I honestly have no idea what they are doing anymore. They are very much necessary to the landscape, especially now. But at this point, I'm totally disengaged and watching straight out of habit. I already dropped TNA from my viewing habits. WWE can get fucked. The most interesting/fun company to watch right now is probably Stardom, although for me it's only a few big shows per year, really. I've been following closely the current scene for the last ten years (and had the most fun ever with AEW from 2019 to 2021), but right now, I feel like I'm slowly moving away, for many reasons (one of which being the obvious one). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blehschmidt Posted February 2 Report Share Posted February 2 Harley Cameron finally got her first win on Collision last night, and man they managed to make it feel like it wasn't a big deal. The fans were going nuts, and she jumped out of the ring to celebrate with them... and they immediately cut to Deonna Purrazzo reacting. Then they cut to Taya reacting in the ring. By the time they got back to Harley she was in the aisle. Then she got about ten seconds to celebrate before we cut to an interview with Ricochet. They've actually been building this, and she is apparently gonna wrestle Mercedes, why would you not put this over? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 I really liked this week's Dynamite, but they really need to stop saying "The feeling is back!" again and again. It's a lose-lose proposition. Show me the feeling is back, what's the point of telling me? It's "Show, not tell" for a reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 8 Author Report Share Posted February 8 Totally agree, like I said before. And yeah, this episode was terrific. Do that AEW, make me happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 9 Author Report Share Posted February 9 And so they did. And that was very much needed. The Australia show should be great, after all. Keep up the good work and stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strobogo Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 I've only followed the Harley Cameron thing peripherally on social media, but I say strap her up Saturday. This is the era of feel good wrestling moments, Cameron beating Mercades for the belt in Australia would be a huge feel good moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 13 Author Report Share Posted February 13 A bit too soon for Harley. But she's growing fast. She's hilarious, she's multi-talented, she's quite good for her experience level in-ring already. She has all the potential to be a big homegrown star. But winning here and now is not needed. Mercedes can make her look better than she ever had before and raise her status in the process. I won't matter since the huge feel good moment is happening anyway with Toni Storm beating Mariah May and getting her title back. Of course they could still do it for the fuck of it, but the follow-up would be very tricky. If there wasn't a Toni vs Mariah match on the same card, yeah, do it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 Another great episode of Dynamite. Past week's Collision was excellent too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 13 Author Report Share Posted February 13 Yes. Funny. I'm like, "oh, my interest is drifting away". Then AEW delivers a bunch of great TV show in a row leading to the Australia show which should be terrific and *fun*. Last Stardom Korakuen show was terrific. The Fridays at Arena Mexico are tons of fun. NJPW just delivered a classic. Damn pro-wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blehschmidt Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 I honestly think Mariah cheating to retain, and Harley upsetting Mercedes (even if the reign is short) might be the better way to go. I love Mariah as the uber-bitch heel champ, and don't think her reign should end quite yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 Toni is going over given May beat Toni in London. Harley winning isn’t necessary right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeCampbell Posted Thursday at 01:13 PM Report Share Posted Thursday at 01:13 PM This whole International Championship Series perfectly illustrates my frustration with this company, despite how much fun the in-ring product can be. So, Cassidy beats Strong last night, and now he challenges Takeshita next week. The winner of that (the Int'l Champion) advances to automatically defend against Kenny Omega at the PPV. Yes, the champion is part of a touranament to decide who gets the privledge of defending the title against Kenny Omega. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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