Wrestling Entertainment - we know, you don't have to tell us!

[DE.]

As I expected AEW's ratings are collapsing. 795k NXT, 683k AEW. NXT had a loaded show this week with Ripley/Baszler and Cole/Balor, but even so I just don't think what AEW is doing is going to click with people. There's so much I'd change about their show right now. As I said in my previous post, at the moment it's like a weird mix of mid-90s WCW/WWF and mid-2000s TNA. People don't want that shit. They didn't want it at the time and don't want it now. Add to that their poor booking of the Elite, who are the primary draws for their core audience, weird gimmicks, lack of titles beyond the world and tag team belts, and their inability to build characters effectively and you're looking at a recipe for trouble. Where was Moxley this week? Where were Guevara, Santana and Ortiz? These are characters the show needs to be built around but they're nowhere to be seen with no obvious reason as to why they're absent. 

Weirdly I actually prefer AEW Dark at the moment. It actually does a great job of building characters and mixes promos with matches a lot better than Dynamite does. 

Edited December 19, 2019 by DE.

[Bigdoggsteel]

On 18/12/2019 at 17:54, DE. said:

In fairness Storm is a big name, which I think is why he's being pushed into the title picture at the moment. I agree that he's nothing special these days, although ten years ago in TNA he was decent. His feud with Chris Harris was awesome and the America's Most Wanted tag team was great, as was Beer Money. I think overall he's better as a tag team wrestler but for name value alone I can see why they are featuring him prominently for now. I agree on Allysin Kay/Sienna - I don't think she has a great look nor is she that good in the ring. I'd much rather they give the belt to Thunder Rosa or even Melina.  

I enjoyed Into the Fire, thought it was a good PPV and Stu Bennett is excellent as a replacement for Cornette. The Marty Scurll reveal was a nice surprise although I get the feeling he'll eventually end up in AEW. There's no rush though as AEW has a big enough roster as it is without adding more to the mix. Probably better for him to wait until things have settled down a bit in AEW before appearing there.

Powerrr was back to being decent after a few dodgy weeks following the Cornette incident. Aron Stevens is a fantastic promo, and the eventual match between him and Question Mark should be a lot of fun. It's been ages since I've seen CW Anderson, I didn't even know he was still active tbh. Zicky Dice was... interesting. I'd never heard of him before seeing him this week on Powerrr. Storm's "keep messin' around with me and turn me back to the old me" line from his post-Into the Fire promo is lifted straight out of "Forgot About Dre" by Dr. Dre/Eminem which, uh... OK? Maybe it wasn't intentional, but it sure sounded like it was. Aldis being in the TV title tournament is a bit odd. I don't think the world champion should be concerned by a lower mid-card title, but whatever. He did a promo about it so they at least explained why and I assume he'll be out of the tournament quickly to move into a feud with Scurll. I thought Aldis' "team" felt a bit similar to Jericho creating the Inner Circle - or a retread of DX with Camille playing Chyna - but  I guess we'll see where that goes. The main event was alright but I've never been huge fan of Ken Anderson so it wasn't that interesting to me. His gut is pretty big nowadays too.

I'm a bit surprised they're doing another PPV so soon - even AEW are only doing them quarterly. I'm very curious to know how Into the Fire did, and what they needed to pull in viewers to break even. 

Zicky Dice was hilarious. The way he just shouted out "i'll end this!!!" in the middle of his promo like he had tourettes or something cracked me up. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

14 hours ago, DE. said:

As I expected AEW's ratings are collapsing. 795k NXT, 683k AEW. NXT had a loaded show this week with Ripley/Baszler and Cole/Balor, but even so I just don't think what AEW is doing is going to click with people. There's so much I'd change about their show right now. As I said in my previous post, at the moment it's like a weird mix of mid-90s WCW/WWF and mid-2000s TNA. People don't want that shit. They didn't want it at the time and don't want it now. Add to that their poor booking of the Elite, who are the primary draws for their core audience, weird gimmicks, lack of titles beyond the world and tag team belts, and their inability to build characters effectively and you're looking at a recipe for trouble. Where was Moxley this week? Where were Guevara, Santana and Ortiz? These are characters the show needs to be built around but they're nowhere to be seen with no obvious reason as to why they're absent. 

Weirdly I actually prefer AEW Dark at the moment. It actually does a great job of building characters and mixes promos with matches a lot better than Dynamite does. 

Do you watch Dynamite on Fite tv? 

They are doing a lot of weird stuff. Cody and Allin tagging and then it's announced they would have another match against each other.No build, no sense, no tension between them. So strange. 

[DE.]

On 20/12/2019 at 12:01, Bigdoggsteel said:

Do you watch Dynamite on Fite tv? 

They are doing a lot of weird stuff. Cody and Allin tagging and then it's announced they would have another match against each other.No build, no sense, no tension between them. So strange. 

Nah I catch it on the watchwrestling website the day after it airs. 

I don't mind a little bit of weirdness in wrestling - it's supposed to be fun after all - but AEW has gone way overboard with aliens, cults, etc. They've got a lot of rabid fans who will defend everything the company is doing, but the proof is in the pudding. Their debut had 1.4m viewers, they're now down to 683,000. That's a massive drop, there's no getting away from it. They've gone from regularly beating NXT in viewers and demo to now losing on both. If people seriously think the Dark Order are going to turn things around then they are deluded. 

[Miller11]

My god that latest episode of Dynamite was horrendous. The bad far outweighed the good, and that ending was atrocious. Dark Order make Aces and Eights look like the Four Horsemen. They need a rethink really quickly, because this sort of rubbish will turn people off in droves. To be honest I will only be tuning in to the next episode out of morbid curiosity rather than any expectation of being entertained.

Cornette reviewed the show on this weeks Experience... and he shows just how they are missing someone with his know how behind the scenes. It’s not just a scathing attack, well, not all of it, but some genuine constructive criticisms that I really hope somebody listens to.

[DE.]

This week AEW scored 967k whilst NXT got 548k. Decent results for both. NXT was just an awards/clip show essentially so their rating was always going to be low. AEW's stiffest competition was college football but they posted a much improved audience share despite that, so good going. 

I actually thought Dynamite this week was a significant improvement on the shows that ended 2019. The set looked different due to the arena which was cool, and the show overall felt fresher and more interesting than we've been seeing recently. Having the focus on the Elite in the opening package and the ending segment (and having them go over) was a smart move and a step in the right direction, as was leaving the Dark Order off the show completely. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

Loved the latest NWA Powerrr. Credit it where it's due, Aldis is really coming into his own as a heel. I think the good thing about the show is the crowd interaction. Not a perfect show, but just an easy watch. Liking Tim Storm more too. Eli Drake also. Some real talent there and they are all putting a shift in. 

[DE.]

NWA is definitely back to firing on all cylinders after a rough few weeks during the Cornette controversies. Honestly though I don't think they miss him. Stu Bennett is doing a great job.

I'm not really sure they need the female only show - frankly I don't think many of their women wrestlers are very good, with the exception of Thunder Rosa - but I guess nowadays it's just something you have to do. 

[DE.]

I also noticed Jushin "Thunder" Liger has now retired. He had one hell of a career, including overcoming a brain tumour in 1996 to continue wrestling. I remember seeing him in WCW as a kid, although at the time I really had no idea who he was, I just thought he had a cool outfit. He actually wrestled Brian Pillman on the first ever WCW Nitro in 1995. Kind of a shame AEW didn't throw Liger Vs Pillman Jr out there for their first show, but I guess that might have been a little too on the nose. I can remember watching Liger briefly in TNA as well. He had a match with Samoa Joe at Bound For Glory in 2005. The match itself wasn't anything special but I thought TNA did a great job with Liger's entrance. They even used his OG theme song, and I think they might have been the only major American company that did that. WCW had their own theme for him and WWE used a theme that was similar but not the same.

Anyway, it was always cool to see Liger and hopefully he gets to enjoy his retirement.

 

[Bigdoggsteel]

30 minutes ago, DE. said:

I also noticed Jushin "Thunder" Liger has now retired. He had one hell of a career, including overcoming a brain tumour in 1996 to continue wrestling. I remember seeing him in WCW as a kid, although at the time I really had no idea who he was, I just thought he had a cool outfit. He actually wrestled Brian Pillman on the first ever WCW Nitro in 1995. Kind of a shame AEW didn't throw Liger Vs Pillman Jr out there for their first show, but I guess that might have been a little too on the nose. I can remember watching Liger briefly in TNA as well. He had a match with Samoa Joe at Bound For Glory in 2005. The match itself wasn't anything special but I thought TNA did a great job with Liger's entrance. They even used his OG theme song, and I think they might have been the only major American company that did that. WCW had their own theme for him and WWE used a theme that was similar but not the same.

Anyway, it was always cool to see Liger and hopefully he gets to enjoy his retirement.

 

Always reminded me of a power rangers villain! 

[Bigdoggsteel]

42 minutes ago, DE. said:

NWA is definitely back to firing on all cylinders after a rough few weeks during the Cornette controversies. Honestly though I don't think they miss him. Stu Bennett is doing a great job.

I'm not really sure they need the female only show - frankly I don't think many of their women wrestlers are very good, with the exception of Thunder Rosa - but I guess nowadays it's just something you have to do. 

It's bizzare. Their womens division is so week, but I suppose it allows them to have a really strong hour of the mens show and also give the relatively inexperienced female division time to develop. 

Stu Bennett is absolutely excellent. I would go as far as saying he is better than Cornette. He is a heel, isn't he? Do you know who I think is the real MVP of that show, its the young fella who does commentary with him. He is excellent at the doe eyed innocent straight man, whilst all the madness goes on around him. 

I think I'm going to get the PPV. Which is something I rarely do. 

[DE.]

6 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Always reminded me of a power rangers villain! 

Haha, his persona is actually based off an anime character so you aren't far off. I believe his OG theme song is the anime's opening theme too. Only in Japan could you base a character off a cartoon, use the cartoon's opening as your theme and still get insanely over. 

4 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

It's bizzare. Their womens division is so week, but I suppose it allows them to have a really strong hour of the mens show and also give the relatively inexperienced female division time to develop. 

Stu Bennett is absolutely excellent. I would go as far as saying he is better than Cornette. He is a heel, isn't he? Do you know who I think is the real MVP of that show, its the young fella who does commentary with him. He is excellent at the doe eyed innocent straight man, whilst all the madness goes on around him. 

I think I'm going to get the PPV. Which is something I rarely do. 

The women do often seem kind of squeezed onto the normal Powerrr show, so maybe giving them their own spotlight will help. I had no idea their women's roster was that big to be honest, I thought they only had about six people.

Cornette had that old school sound which worked well with NWA stuff, but Bennett is a better overall commentator imo. I've really enjoyed his work so far. As for Joe Galli, yeah, he's pretty good. Plays the old school JR/Schiavone play-by-play role well, and doesn't come across as annoying or naive. The only thing that bothers me slightly is that he has one eye slightly higher than the other... I didn't notice it at first but now I can't unsee it 

[DE.]

I just finished watching both days of New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 14. Jeez that was a slog... roughly 10 hours. I can't say I paid full attention to everything as it was sometimes in the background whilst I was doing other stuff, but as far as the standouts...

Both of Liger's retirement matches were really good. Honestly I didn't recognise half of the "legends" as I've never really gotten into historical Japanese wrestling, but nonetheless they did a great job of putting the finishing touches to Liger's career. Going out on his back for both matches was a mark of respect from Liger - although I wouldn't have expected anything less. An absolutely class act. I didn't realise he's still "only" 55... it feels like he's been around forever. Quite the final entrance as well!

Both of Jon Moxley's matches on the shows were really solid. He looks like a totally different person since leaving WWE. 

Ospreay/Takahashi was fantastic, but that's almost guaranteed when Will Ospreay is involved. Good to see him not trying to kill himself for once mind. Hiromu Takahashi looks like an absolute star and I'm guessing he'll be pretty big in the next few years.

White/Naito was good but I didn't think the ref bump was necessary and the match could probably have been a bit shorter. Naito's knee injury angle was obviously playing into his match on day two against Okada so made sense.

Okada/Ibushi was excellent, although it was kind of obvious Okada was going to win to set up the match against Naito on day two. This match went just under 40 minutes so one hell of an effort from both guys. I'm not sold on Ibushi's look if I'm honest but he's a hell of a worker nonetheless. 

Ibushi/White from day two was another really good match with an excellent story told with Gedo getting involved to give Ibushi an out for losing. I assume his double loss over the two days will factor into a storyline that plays out leading up to next year's Wrestle Kingdom. I probably won't keep up with NJPW so I'll have to wait until next year to find out how they went forward with this.

Jericho/Tanahashi was superb. What can you say about Chris Jericho? Still incredible despite his age. I didn't expect Tanahashi to tap but it shows how much respect he and NJPW have for Jericho, and I imagine they'll have a rematch at some point. Interesting that the AEW championship was spotlighted for this match. Relations between NJPW and AEW have been publicly rocky since the Bucks and Omega departed for AEW, but hopefully this signals a thawing of tensions. It would be really cool to see some of the NJPW stars appearing for AEW. 

Okada/Naito lived up to the hype and produced an outstanding main event. I remember a couple years ago watching Naito lose to Okada at WK12 and wondering if NJPW dropped the ball as Naito seemed so incredibly popular at the time - but I guess they knew what they were doing as it made for a great storyline for this main event, and Naito became the first person to hold the IWGP Intercontinental & Heavyweight titles. The post-match attack by KENTA was a nice touch which sets up future storylines going forward.

Only four major complaints from me - the event was too long and had too many multi-tag matches which weren't anything special. The english commentary team were often annoying and I wasn't a big fan of them - no choice but to listen in English however as otherwise I'd have no idea what the context of the storylines were. Finally NJPW simply has too many false finishes and kickouts from finishers. It's a very common NJPW complaint though and at this point I don't think they're going to stop doing it. 

Overall an enjoyable event but finding ten hours of time to watch it isn't easy. Wrestlemania is long enough but somehow New Japan went even further. How long before we have a 24 hour event? I can only watch so much before I begin losing concentration. The big matches drew me back into watching but I totally zoned out of a lot of the undercard stuff. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

So, Scott Steiner....

I said here early on when I started posting that Scott Steiner is probably my favourite wrestler, top 3 for sure. His US title and World title runs in WCW were when I got back into wrestling after watching it very young. I watched WWE intermittently after that and next time was ,funnily enough, TNA with Cristina, AJ styles and Scott Steiner et al. He had deteriorated at that point. His runs with those 2 titles in WCW was great, he was a bad ass and ran rough shot through whoever got in his way. I won't mention his WWE run after that. Obviously the Steiner brothers were great too. Remember watching a match of theirs of WCW recently(pre blonde hair and roids), it was against 2 jobbers. To be honest, they probably should have gotten jail for what they did to those 2 poor boys. An absolute destruction. Scott gave 1 of them a back flip power bomb followed by a running frankensteiner to the other. He threw the guy off the ropes and frankenstiered him on the way back. It looked brutal. He really was a genetic freak. 

However, not sure about his unveil last night. Something abut bringing in guys like that cheapens the NWA brand in my mind. The Rock n Roll express were different as they hadn't been active that much prior to the NWA revival. I actually thought it was Kevin Nash last night, something about that would have fit better for me, maybe that's odd as people would probably categorize him as similar to Steiner. I suppose it ultimately depends on what they do with him, but he just can't really go anymore, can he? Gold on the mike, but does his style suit NWA? Will give them the benefit of the doubt and see how this goes. 

[DE.]

I haven't watched Powerrr or AEW Dark yet as thanks to Wrestle Kingdom I'm still catching up with Raw and New Year Dash, but I feel like NWA has enough wrestlers already without adding more. Steiner has NWA history so I don't necessarily mind him being added to the show, but it feels like they're going to need to extend the show past an hour if they're going to seriously showcase half the talent they have! The Steiner Brothers were an integral part of Nitro when I started watching, so I've got a lot of fond memories of them during that period. I was beginning to tune out of Nitro once Scott got his big singles push and I never rated Rick as a singles competitor. I wasn't watching WWE during Scott's run there but  I think everyone agrees it was awful, save for "GIMME A FUCKIN' MIC". Steiner was well past his physical peak during his TNA run but his promos there were absolutely legendary. Steiner Math alone made his TNA run worth it, and I thought he was good as part of the Main Event Mafia. I'm not sure what he'll bring to NWA as his promo style will have to be neutered somewhat and his wrestling skills are very limited these days. I can't imagine he'll have a major role or too long of a run there, but he'll give them some name value which can't be a bad thing short term.

Just finished Liger's retirement ceremony from New Year Dash and it's well worth going out of your way to watch. The entire NJPW roster (all wearing Liger shirts), the NJPW President and Liger's wife and son came out and gave him flowers. Antonio Inoki appeared on screen to wish him good luck. Liger had a retirement speech which was translated by one of the English commentators - although he (the commentator) started choking up towards the end! Then the roster threw Liger up in the air three times and the crowd and wrestlers sang his theme song before he left. I bet the creator of the Jyushin Liger anime never imagined an entire crowd would be singing the theme song over 30 years later! Quite a few of the wrestlers and the audience were in tears. It reminded me of Ric Flair's ceremony back in 2008. Really classy stuff. 

Edited January 8, 2020 by DE.

[Bigdoggsteel]

16 hours ago, DE. said:

I haven't watched Powerrr or AEW Dark yet as thanks to Wrestle Kingdom I'm still catching up with Raw and New Year Dash, but I feel like NWA has enough wrestlers already without adding more. Steiner has NWA history so I don't necessarily mind him being added to the show, but it feels like they're going to need to extend the show past an hour if they're going to seriously showcase half the talent they have! The Steiner Brothers were an integral part of Nitro when I started watching, so I've got a lot of fond memories of them during that period. I was beginning to tune out of Nitro once Scott got his big singles push and I never rated Rick as a singles competitor. I wasn't watching WWE during Scott's run there but  I think everyone agrees it was awful, save for "GIMME A FUCKIN' MIC". Steiner was well past his physical peak during his TNA run but his promos there were absolutely legendary. Steiner Math alone made his TNA run worth it, and I thought he was good as part of the Main Event Mafia. I'm not sure what he'll bring to NWA as his promo style will have to be neutered somewhat and his wrestling skills are very limited these days. I can't imagine he'll have a major role or too long of a run there, but he'll give them some name value which can't be a bad thing short term.

Just finished Liger's retirement ceremony from New Year Dash and it's well worth going out of your way to watch. The entire NJPW roster (all wearing Liger shirts), the NJPW President and Liger's wife and son came out and gave him flowers. Antonio Inoki appeared on screen to wish him good luck. Liger had a retirement speech which was translated by one of the English commentators - although he (the commentator) started choking up towards the end! Then the roster threw Liger up in the air three times and the crowd and wrestlers sang his theme song before he left. I bet the creator of the Jyushin Liger anime never imagined an entire crowd would be singing the theme song over 30 years later! Quite a few of the wrestlers and the audience were in tears. It reminded me of Ric Flair's ceremony back in 2008. Really classy stuff. 

Sorry, I massively ruined that surprise so!  The more I think about it, Steiner could be gold with the way the crowd interacts with the talent at the podium. 

Ha ha, I would imagine the difference with Ligers is that he is actually retiring! 

[DE.]

7 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Sorry, I massively ruined that surprise so!  The more I think about it, Steiner could be gold with the way the crowd interacts with the talent at the podium. 

To be honest I'm watching Powerrr so late this week that I would have seen the spoiler on reddit even if you hadn't posted about it. Steiner will be interesting if nothing else! Keep his ring time limited and it could be a decent little run for him.

7 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Ha ha, I would imagine the difference with Ligers is that he is actually retiring! 

You say that, however... 

?

Edited January 9, 2020 by DE.

[DE.]

After bouncing back with a decent edition of Dynamite last week, I feel like AEW was back in the doldrums this week. So frustrating.

The Nightmare Collective stuff is just total shit. It isn't over at all. Brandi was just annoying and awkward on commentary, and the introduction of Luther was just baffling. Excaliber briefly mentioned that he's a "Japanese deathmatch legend" but I'm pretty sure 95% of the audience had absolutely no idea who he was.  "Mel" meanwhile is just a bad Serena knockoff who we know absolutely nothing about. She was introduced as a fan who hopped the guardrail to join the Nightmare Collective for... reasons. Now she's a competitor. Why? They need to abandon this crap ASAP and stop wasting airtime with it. It makes no sense for Cody to be the company's top babyface and his wife a cult-leader heel - especially with their relationship established and acknowledged. It's not like they even gave a reason for Brandi's sudden turn. She was a babyface and then suddenly became a heel for no clear reason. She's like a budget version of Stephanie McMahon and it's just not working. 

Daniels/Guevara was okay but the Dark Order post-match nonsense was pointless. It just made the Dark Order look weak when Daniels rejected them and they got their asses kicked. They're basically just a group of jobbers that nobody really takes seriously. AEW seem to think the reveal of the "exalted one" will boost the group to legitimatacy, but I don't see it. AEW also has too many "recruitment" storylines going on at the moment. The Nightmare Collective, Dark Order, Jericho/Moxley... even JR made a comment about it. I've said it before but they really need to make an effort to streamline their storylines. 

Cody/Dustin Vs Pentagon/Fenix was alright, but Cody's post-match interview was a bust. He's supposed to be this super babyface, but rather than accept MJF's challenge he lets Arn Anderson not only talk for him but also refuse to give an answer. It didn't even make sense considering the previous week Cody was literally begging MJF for a match and said he'd give him anything to make it happen. Now this week he has to think about it? It wasn't a great look for Cody and the crowd booed what seemed to be a cowardly response. Arn Anderson is a legend but I'm not sure why he's been put with Cody. Cody is one of the best talkers on the roster, he doesn't need Arn Anderson speaking for him. Cody is one of the best wrestlers on the roster (in kayfabe at least), he doesn't need Arn Anderson managing him. Basically, he doesn't need Arn Anderson. 

Not sure what the point of the Lanny Poffo promo was. It cut out pretty abruptly and he looked confused. 

Speaking of Cody looking bad, the MJF segment took it to another level. He makes Cody look like a wimp for not coming out to confront him, then DDP comes out as the next old timer to talk for Cody. He then gets beaten up and Cody is still nowhere to be seen. I wouldn't mind if the commentators had given some kind of plausible reason for Cody's non-appearance, but nope. QT fucking Marshall came out to help! MJF was a great promo as usual but this did nothing for Cody at all, it just buried him. As for DDP, I love the guy but this is a lot of promo time for somebody who is a non-competitor. I'm sure that there are other wrestlers on the roster who could have done with the screen time. Darby Allin? The Bucks? Omega? Even Dustin Rhodes would have been better as at least he's an active competitor. There's so much wrong with how they're booking this. They're making Cody look like a chump and Butcher and Blade didn't look a whole lot better getting destroyed by a 60 year old. It's possible DDP is coming back for a match but again, don't they have enough actual wrestlers that need ring time without having a retired wrestler taking such a huge amout of the spotlight?

Jurassic Express Vs Best friends was fine. Good match. Orange Cassidy isn't everyone's cup of tea but I think he's fine in small doses, and he's clearly over with the live audience. 

The final segment between the Inner Circle and Moxley was really good. Easily the best part of the show, but it involved Jericho so that's pretty much a given at this point. Jericho giving a shout out to Wrestle Kingdom was another sign that the AEW/NJPW relationship is getting better. The twist of Moxley turning on the Inner Circle straight away after pretending to join them was obvious, but still well done. They could have dragged it out a little longer but they've got plenty of mileage to work with in this storyline so I'm okay with them getting straight to it, especially as everybody would have expected Moxley to turn on the Inner Circle at some point anyway.

I dread to think where AEW would be without Jericho. They're lucky to have him as the rest of the show is really struggling to click. I simply can't understand why Omega isn't being pushed as one of the focal points of this company. Another week where he barely appears. They're building to an Omega/Hangman feud by the looks of it, but I can see Hangman going over as he needs the credibllity boost, and Omega is essentially reduced to the "veteran helping the younger talent get over" role which is not where he belongs at this stage in his career. He should be at the top of the card but he's stuck in mid-card with very little character development. I don't get it at all. 

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by DE.

[DE.]

Ratings - AEW 947,000, NXT 721,000. A good rating for AEW despite their problems, whilst it's a decent enough audience number for NXT but their primary demo collapsed to a 0.19 (AEW got 0.36). NXT dropped out of the top 50 which is a really bad sign. Prior to this their lowest cable rank had been number 32. AEW by comparison was 6th this week. 

Sucks for NXT as they are putting on good shows, hopefully just an aberration. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

12 hours ago, DE. said:

After bouncing back with a decent edition of Dynamite last week, I feel like AEW was back in the doldrums this week. So frustrating.

The Nightmare Collective stuff is just total shit. It isn't over at all. Brandi was just annoying and awkward on commentary, and the introduction of Luther was just baffling. Excaliber briefly mentioned that he's a "Japanese deathmatch legend" but I'm pretty sure 95% of the audience had absolutely no idea who he was.  "Mel" meanwhile is just a bad Serena knockoff who we know absolutely nothing about. She was introduced as a fan who hopped the guardrail to join the Nightmare Collective for... reasons. Now she's a competitor. Why? They need to abandon this crap ASAP and stop wasting airtime with it. It makes no sense for Cody to be the company's top babyface and his wife a cult-leader heel - especially with their relationship established and acknowledged. It's not like they even gave a reason for Brandi's sudden turn. She was a babyface and then suddenly became a heel for no clear reason. She's like a budget version of Stephanie McMahon and it's just not working. 

Daniels/Guevara was okay but the Dark Order post-match nonsense was pointless. It just made the Dark Order look weak when Daniels rejected them and they got their asses kicked. They're basically just a group of jobbers that nobody really takes seriously. AEW seem to think the reveal of the "exalted one" will boost the group to legitimatacy, but I don't see it. AEW also has too many "recruitment" storylines going on at the moment. The Nightmare Collective, Dark Order, Jericho/Moxley... even JR made a comment about it. I've said it before but they really need to make an effort to streamline their storylines. 

Cody/Dustin Vs Pentagon/Fenix was alright, but Cody's post-match interview was a bust. He's supposed to be this super babyface, but rather than accept MJF's challenge he lets Arn Anderson not only talk for him but also refuse to give an answer. It didn't even make sense considering the previous week Cody was literally begging MJF for a match and said he'd give him anything to make it happen. Now this week he has to think about it? It wasn't a great look for Cody and the crowd booed what seemed to be a cowardly response. Arn Anderson is a legend but I'm not sure why he's been put with Cody. Cody is one of the best talkers on the roster, he doesn't need Arn Anderson speaking for him. Cody is one of the best wrestlers on the roster (in kayfabe at least), he doesn't need Arn Anderson managing him. Basically, he doesn't need Arn Anderson. 

Not sure what the point of the Lanny Poffo promo was. It cut out pretty abruptly and he looked confused. 

Speaking of Cody looking bad, the MJF segment took it to another level. He makes Cody look like a wimp for not coming out to confront him, then DDP comes out as the next old timer to talk for Cody. He then gets beaten up and Cody is still nowhere to be seen. I wouldn't mind if the commentators had given some kind of plausible reason for Cody's non-appearance, but nope. QT fucking Marshall came out to help! MJF was a great promo as usual but this did nothing for Cody at all, it just buried him. As for DDP, I love the guy but this is a lot of promo time for somebody who is a non-competitor. I'm sure that there are other wrestlers on the roster who could have done with the screen time. Darby Allin? The Bucks? Omega? Even Dustin Rhodes would have been better as at least he's an active competitor. There's so much wrong with how they're booking this. They're making Cody look like a chump and Butcher and Blade didn't look a whole lot better getting destroyed by a 60 year old. It's possible DDP is coming back for a match but again, don't they have enough actual wrestlers that need ring time without having a retired wrestler taking such a huge amout of the spotlight?

Jurassic Express Vs Best friends was fine. Good match. Orange Cassidy isn't everyone's cup of tea but I think he's fine in small doses, and he's clearly over with the live audience. 

The final segment between the Inner Circle and Moxley was really good. Easily the best part of the show, but it involved Jericho so that's pretty much a given at this point. Jericho giving a shout out to Wrestle Kingdom was another sign that the AEW/NJPW relationship is getting better. The twist of Moxley turning on the Inner Circle straight away after pretending to join them was obvious, but still well done. They could have dragged it out a little longer but they've got plenty of mileage to work with in this storyline so I'm okay with them getting straight to it, especially as everybody would have expected Moxley to turn on the Inner Circle at some point anyway.

I dread to think where AEW would be without Jericho. They're lucky to have him as the rest of the show is really struggling to click. I simply can't understand why Omega isn't being pushed as one of the focal points of this company. Another week where he barely appears. They're building to an Omega/Hangman feud by the looks of it, but I can see Hangman going over as he needs the credibllity boost, and Omega is essentially reduced to the "veteran helping the younger talent get over" role which is not where he belongs at this stage in his career. He should be at the top of the card but he's stuck in mid-card with very little character development. I don't get it at all. 

 

Good post.

Apparently, according to Brian Zane,  the Poffo interview and the other Memphis related stuff will be on Dark.

So, so true about Brandi and Cody. That entire thing makes no sense for all the reasons you point out. It's crazy how they thought this was a good idea. Even if the 2 of them were in the cult it would make more sense! 

[DE.]

6 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Good post.

Apparently, according to Brian Zane,  the Poffo interview and the other Memphis related stuff will be on Dark.

So, so true about Brandi and Cody. That entire thing makes no sense for all the reasons you point out. It's crazy how they thought this was a good idea. Even if the 2 of them were in the cult it would make more sense! 

It's strange because Cody's 'inner circle' so to speak are referred to as the Nightmare Family (assumedly including Brandi) and Brandi's group is the Nightmare Collective. You would assume from the name conventions alone that they were somehow connected. The fact they are actually on completely opposite ends of the spectrum makes it even more bizarre. Tony Khan seems to pride himself on listening to the fans so I hope he reads the criticism this angle is getting and either tweaks or drops it entirely. I'm okay with Brandi being on the show, but not as a knockoff version of Stephanie McMahon, all the way down to playing heel on TV but doing loads of good stuff outside of TV. 

Moxley/Jericho is the best thing on Dynamite by far. If they can start creating more storylines on that level then we'll be getting somewhere. Also Sammy Guevara is really growing on me. He's such an obnoxious little twerp that you can't help but love when he gets beaten up. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by DE.

[Bigdoggsteel]

So Tessa Blanchard won the Impact world title. A big achievement, doesn't really bother me, I only tentatively follow Impact and I'm not a huge Sami Callihan fan. From what I have seen of Tessa, she can go. I don't think everyone likes the idea though. I mean Becky Lynch winning the WWE title would be ludicrous. Beating Brock Lesnar ?

What I found very interesting was the twitter war between Blanchard, Allison Kaye ,Chelsea Green and others. Seems so odd timing wise. It looks to be like the other ladies are jealous. Why not bring that stuff up when it happened, instead of the day before she wins the title. Chelsea Green strikes me as a bit of a pain in the ass, she tweeted once that fans should show her more respect and not be shouting "whoo whoo whoo" to acknowedge that she is with Zack Ryder. Very Diva like behavior.  

[DE.]

Tessa Blanchard is a horrible human being to be fair, but yeah, it was interesting timing. Tessa kicked it off with what appears to be a very hypocritical tweet about supporting women, mind.

As for her winning the world title, stupid but it's Impact so whatever. It was only through the twitter war that I found out they even had a PPV at the weekend.  

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Tessa Blanchard is a horrible human being to be fair, but yeah, it was interesting timing. Tessa kicked it off with what appears to be a very hypocritical tweet about supporting women, mind.

As for her winning the world title, stupid but it's Impact so whatever. It was only through the twitter war that I found out they even had a PPV at the weekend.  

I hadn't heard that she was that bad previously. What are you basing that on?I think she is only like 25, some career to date. 

[DE.]

On 13/01/2020 at 16:48, Bigdoggsteel said:

I hadn't heard that she was that bad previously. What are you basing that on?I think she is only like 25, some career to date. 

She basically got blacklisted from WWE for having a really shitty attitude. Lots of stories of her being a pretty terrible person - bullying, arrogance due to her family name, racism... all the good stuff. Still a young lass so I hope she's done some growing up recently as she has the potential to be a huge star. Going to take a while to distance herself from the negative reputation she's built up though.