Lurker > NBIceman

At least once a week, yes.
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Lopen posted...

Mostly I'm thinking his move set lacks impact

I never thought about this but it's so true. And so odd considering he had one of the higher impact offenses around during his ROH days.
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The Dear Hunter - The Old Haunt


Diablo Swing Orchestra - A Tap Dancer's Dilemma


Children of Nova - The Complexity of Light


Dirt Poor Robins - But Never a Key


Blue yster Cult - Astronomy

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Valuable Current Assets continued
Leyla Hirsch: Shoot-style worker, which would immediately make her stand out in AEW, but the thing that's gonna make or break her is whether she can present that in a believable enough way that it makes up for her small size. I like her upside a lot, but I have no idea if it'll translate on a big stage considering some folks already seem to be having a bit of an issue with Riho.
Hyan: Another ROW product, and I'm just never 100% sure where I come out on her. She's got all the pieces - good size, attractive, solid work, deceptive athleticism, and damn does she throw a hell of a running corner knee. But she can be inconsistent, and there's times when it really looks like she's having to think her way through a match. I've seen it live. I'm also not sure if she has that intangible IT factor. If she can put the pieces together, though, she could be huge. Check out this 450: https://twitter.com/_thehyan/status/1099562722918838272

Women with some potential and could at least be Upper Midcarders
Christi Jaynes: This borders on a vanity pick since I've seen her so much in Texas, but I do think there's something there. Very rough around the edges but there's flashes of athleticism and skill that come out now and again, especially since the couple of runs she's had in Mexico. She's got some decent size, too. Most importantly, she's developed some awesome crowd connections in the promotions she works often. Gets some real fantastic reactions. That's always a valuable trait.
Sonya Strong: If you like stiff kicks and big suplexes, you'll like Sonya Strong. I don't know if she has a star aura, but she's good enough that I could see her developing into something valuable in her own right. And she was trained by Amazing Red, so, you know, I'll always appreciate that.
Erika Reid: Fantastic look. I like to think of her as Shotzi Blackheart if she was better and didn't sell pictures of her shit online. In-ring is rough, but she's got time to figure that out. And if she doesn't, she's at least an excellent manager.
Alex Gracia: The third and final ROW product on the list, and the least experienced of anyone, with only one year under her belt. She's made a lot of noise in that year, though. She's very athletic and already fairly smooth in the ring. Her biggest asset is her look, though. She's incredibly attractive and has the sort of appearance that just naturally makes people want to root for her. Provided she's not held back by her small stature, she could turn into a huge face.

Are at least better than Britt Baker, who is a dentist, Tier: The "good hands" of the list, who don't have a lot of upside but could still contribute.
Shazza McKenzie: I've never seen her have a great match, but I also can't remember seeing her have an actively bad one. She's likable, she was in the All Out Battle Royal, and she's been trying on social media to get AEW to hire her for a while now. She'd be a very useful wrestler to have around.
Shanna: Portuguese veteran who can have some excellent performances with the right opponent. I swear at one point I saw a rumor saying she was signed already, but that was a while ago.
Katey Harvey: AKA the "Shit Winter Soldier." In-ring is nothing special, but it's fine, and she's a great character that can cut a hell of a promo.
Allysin Kay: The very definition of "solid but unremarkable." At least her look is good.
Samantha Heights: Kind of a failed prospect that never reached the heights (heh) some people expected, but she can do some good traditional heel work and that wouldn't go amiss in this division.
Zoey Skye: I really like her, but she's kind of missed her window and at this point probably just isn't gonna get that much better. She has the same size problems of some other names here without the upside.

Okay, I'm done. I did your job for you, Brandi. Stop pushing the dentist.
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Mercedes Martinez Tier
Mercedes Martinez: I didn't think she really fit in either of the categories she's between. She's crowding 40, but she's still so good that AEW could lean on her for a couple of years if they really wanted to. She's got the skill, she's got the presence, and she's got the ability to make whoever she's in the ring with look better. Some of the women on this list got jumped up a whole tier (or made the list at all) because I saw them have a match with Martinez where their potential came through. She got a star reaction as the All Out Battle Royal Joker entrant, so I'm completely lost as to why she's not on the roster yet.

Current Stars: You could plug these wrestlers into the main event level tomorrow and they'd be just fine. And then you could rely on them being over for years afterwards.
Keyra: I understand she wasn't booked on Triplemania, but Cody coming back from that trip talking about how great Big Mami is was a little disturbing. You've got a 23-year-old luchadora here who's already awesome and is still getting better that's working with a partner promotion and you're more interested in a comedy act than her? My man, you're set for comedy. Get some girls who can actually go.
Kellyanne: Maybe she can come in a package deal with Eagles. She's got the cool punk/grunge/alternative look that Bea Priestley does, except she's actually a good wrestler and not a nightmare to work with. And she's 25.
Ivelisse: 31 is basically just young enough for her to qualify for this tier. I know she's a head case and all, but she keeps getting hired despite that reputation for a reason. She could be a great heel for a good long time.
AQA: Book her against Mercedes and she'll get over the way Private Party did against the Bucks. Straight out of Booker T's Reality of Wrestling promotion in my old neck of the woods in Texas. She's young, she's athletic, she's got swagger, and she can work. She also has one of the prettiest Shooting Star Presses of any wrestler going today, male or female. https://www.instagram.com/p/Buxed6lArui/

Could be Current Stars but are probably more like Future Stars Tier: They've got talent, but they're not finished products yet for one reason or another.
Kris Statlander: I have no earthly idea how she hasn't been scooped up by a big company yet. She's 6 feet or damn near but moves around like she's nowhere near it. She's still a little raw, but with the right opponent she can do great things, and she's got the highest ceiling of anyone on this list.
Millie McKenzie: I don't know if she turned down the WWE offer because she really values being a freelancer right now or because it was insulting dollars-wise. If it's the latter, AEW should be going after her hard. She's as close to a prodigy at 19 years old as you're gonna get these days, and she's only going to get better with experience.
Ashley Vox: I'm not clear on what kind of obligations the NWA is demanding from their talent right now, but under the assumption that it's probably nothing super solid, Vox should be waaay on the radar. She brings an aura of intensity that would really be welcome in that division right now, with the potential to be a real cornerstone later on.

Valuable Current Assets with Big Potential
Jessica Troy: As big a blow as losing Kylie Rae was, Troy could conceivably be what they wanted Kylie to be. She's cute, she's likable, she's got energy and some technical skill, and she's even 5 years younger than Kylie.
Jamie Hayter: Hasn't quite put it together in-ring yet, except against the very top tier talent, but she's a hell of a trash talker and plays her character well. Perfect midcard heel with the potential to be more if she really connects.
Avary: A more serious version of Session Moth Martina. One of the more charismatic prospects on the list, and she's starting to improve in the ring as well. Also has the benefit of working well as a face and heel.
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On the subject of working harder than Bischoff, I've spent a good part of the last week or so re-familiarizing myself with the current landscape in women's wrestling. A while back, when AEW was just starting to take shape and they were still in the process of announcing their roster, I remember throwing out like a dozen names that I thought they should bring in for their women's division, but I wasn't thinking too hard about it and probably half of them were veterans that are practically done with their career. Of the other half, some have signed with WWE and one (Kylie Rae) was indeed signed to AEW before being released under vague and frankly strange circumstances.

So, in response to the lackluster start for the AEW women's division and their apparent commitment to pushing Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, as one of the stars, as well as to some opinions I've seen that "yeah, maybe Britt Baker The Dentist isn't great, but who else is really out there at this point?", I decided I'd actually put in a little effort and take a hard look into the talent that's around these days. I actually found more than I expected to. So what started as a vaguely facetious attack on Practicing Dental Surgeon Britt Baker has now become something of an indictment on AEW's roster as a whole.

These are all free agents. I didn't even include some of the big possibilities like Rosemary or Tessa Blanchard who might be available soon as well. And, for the sake of simplicity (and because the list would be stupid long otherwise), I didn't include joshi either, since free agency is a little weird considering the general ideas of loyalty for those promotions.

Veterans Tier: Some of the older stars of yesteryear that probably can't be counted on as huge pieces going forward but could be invaluable for letting some younger women learn from the best.
Madison Eagles: She's had some injury issues and my speculation is that she's too involved in the Aussie wrestling scene to commit to a full-time gig, but even so, she'd instantly be the best female worker in the company and probably in the top 10 overall.
Cheerleader Melissa: Her best days are behind her, but she still brings size and experience. I will always be baffled as to why she never got a legit shot with a big company.
Ayako Hamada: For some reason I thought she was retired. But nope, she's still working. Of particular interest is some recent bookings with AAA that seem like they could be a natural stepping stone given AEW's partnership with them. (It's because of these AAA dates that I'm not considering her technically a joshi.)
Nicole Savoy: Whatever relevance SHIMMER has maintained in the last few years has really come mostly on the back of Savoy. She was in the Battle Royal at All Out and she's got the talent (and honestly, she's right on the edge of being young enough to conceivably be placed in the next tier), so I'm not sure what the hangup is here.
LuFisto: She's got a lot of miles and years on her, but she doesn't seem to be slowing down much. It'd be a feel-good story to see her finally get some shine on a big stage after her long and hard career, but it's not like she wouldn't back it up with good work. Even just a one-off with Nyla could do wonders.
Nicole Matthews would be here if she werent banned from the country.
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Posting so I remember this a little later.
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Hell, every one of us that's posted in this topic or on the Discord has done more work than Eric Bischoff.
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I did more wrestling-related work in opening Paint and mocking up a new AEW W/L box for their website a half hour ago than Bischoff did in four months.
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Bischoff might be the smartest man in wrestling.

He doesn't know anything about wrestling, but he might be the smartest man in wrestling.
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Well, that's... better. I'd hesitate to call it good, but it's better.
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Could've been Nick.

Oh, there's three now. Who's the third?
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I do understand the idea that you may not see what the big deal is about the Bucks if that was the first match you've ever seen of theirs, because it was clearly intended as a Private Party showcase first and foremost. And most of the Bucks' greatness, as Ed said, comes from having the most consistent and long track record of any team in history.

It was the false finish complaint specifically that aggravated me.
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Funny thing is, the matches most often gone after by people who don't like false finishes generally don't occur in WWE.
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Strife2 posted...

Dude, the fuck is the problem? I'm saying AEW isn't some godly amazing counter culture answer to WWE. It has loads of problems, and I noticed them. I'm new to what AEW is offering, so what else am I supposed to do? Gloss over JR being an old fuck?

I guess you missed the big long double post I made a week ago where I said the exact thing, where AEW isn't something crazy different from WWE and how much that disappointed me.

What irritates me is that one specific criticism - "too many false finishes." It's lazy and flat-out nonsensical.

The entire style of 90's AJPW, one of the most beloved eras in wrestling history from both a match quality and business perspective, was centered around long finishing sequence with insane moves and big kickouts. And yet in the last five years, for whatever reasons, false finishes have suddenly become a bad thing. It represents such a shortsighted misunderstanding of what wrestling is.
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Strife2 posted...

The problem is they did so many fucking things when they don't have to. PP should have won off the Shooting Star Press, because that was the most impactful move of the match. What's better is it came after the Bucks had that crazy Sharpshooter spot. PP got the hope spot they needed. They got one of the Bucks out of the ring with the Hurricanrana/Cutter thing, and they could have finished off the other guy with the SSP. Why even need the roll up? It would have been a shock win either way.

My main concern is more that this was an opening match to a tournament (even with the Young Bucks), rather than saving a crazy finish for the finals. It got PP over in a big way, but finish with a flashy move, not the dumbass rollup spot.

*And lets be fair, New Day/Bar or New Day/Usos did a lot of this shit too. I'm not shitting on the Young Bucks due to name value. I've never fucking seen them till now*

Fine, whatever.
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I'm really getting tired of the "too many false finishes" complaint on matches. Multiple false finishes are not inherently a bad thing and never have been.

False finishes only become a problem if they take away from the pop of the actual finish. That very rarely happens in Bucks matches. Crowd went insane when PP won.

I don't know how you watch that match where a team of young wrestlers got more over with a live crowd in twenty minutes than anyone in WWE has in five years and think, "Eh, they did too much."

No, they did the right amount. If they hadn't done all they did, Private Party might not have gotten over like that.
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It wouldn't shock me if they turn it around, but if they don't, my money would be on Arizona.
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Great_Paul posted...

2. One was my fault, one was not my fault.

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Funnily enough, I've had the same experience with South Park. No matter how much I tell people that it's not my thing, they keep throwing out episodes to watch like they're just gonna happen upon that one no one else did that's gonna make me a fan.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Jay Gruden is the one laughing now

he no longer has to work for Dan Snyder

Seriously. This was his plan all along.
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56
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Jakyl25 posted...

I really get the vibe that this is a significant moment in history, the way Goldberg losing was.

Maybe now people will realize now that the whole "WWE is going to be forced to actually try with AEW in the mix now" idea is just flawed from the start.

THIS IS THEM TRYING! THEY'VE BEEN TRYING EVER SINCE THE AEW WHISPERS FIRST STARTED! The last year has already been what they think is good. If anything, they're doubling down on their bullshit because they think it's what they're good at.
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I'm not gonna lie, I forgot CZW was still in business.
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This seems like a good time to remind everyone that there is SO MUCH wrestling out there that can suit any taste. Everyone knows about NJPW and Impact and AEW.

Then you've got Dragon Gate, the fastest-paced action on the planet with a heavy focus on stables and where every result in every match has long-term implications, with a little bit of comedy thrown in on every show.

You have DDT, which is a ton of comedy with occasional massive supercards that feature incredible matches.

You like women's wrestling? Let me introduce you to Joshi! Ice Ribbon, STARDOM, SEAdLINNNG! Women beating the absolute hell out of each other! Too exotic for you? Check out SHIMMER or Pro Wrestling EVE.

Did you know Beyond Wrestling has a weekly show? It's called Uncharted Territory and it's very consistently good, especially if you're into the whole intergender thing.

How's your Spanish? Do you like high-flying and wild brawls? Lucha could be right for you!

Don't have a ton of time to commit to wrestling these days? No problem! Watch Wrestle-1 or AJPW, where you can pretty much just watch the top-billed matches on their bigger shows and not feel like you're missing anything important... because you're not!

Do you like over-the-top storylines and gimmicks and characters and possibly comic books! Maybe you'll enjoy CHIKARA, too! I don't know, I don't watch it!

The power is in your hands, people. And I would very much love to point you to introductory matches and shows for most of these promotions. The ones I can't, someone else sure will!
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That is not markedly worse than the exploding TV or the child with the horror monster voice.
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You dont get humor out of it?

No. I've never been a "fun-bad" entertainment kind of guy. I've got too much of a backlog of "actually good" stuff to watch or read or play, and that includes wrestling.

That all sounds really bad but I don't know that it sounds that different or that much worse than a lot of things they've been doing for, like, years.
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Jakyl25 posted...

NBIceman posted...

StealThisSheen posted...

Holy shit WWE is stupid

I literally cannot watch anymore

What could have possibly just happened that caused you to only now reach a breaking point?

Dude

Like you need to see this match

It is THE STUPIDEST THING THEY HAVE EVER DONE BY MILES

I'm not gonna do that. Just tell me.
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StealThisSheen posted...

Holy shit WWE is stupid

I literally cannot watch anymore

What could have possibly just happened that caused you to only now reach a breaking point?
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Raka_Putra posted...

FBike1 posted...

Dedue posted...

Queen Elincia

Casuals.

In the lore, the throne rightfully belongs to Renning.
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Punnyz posted...

I feel like Gravity Falls would be decent if you watched it before things like Adventure Time and Steven universe, but it just failed to impress me

If you swapped GF and SU in this statement you'd get my feelings.

I am baffled by the love SU gets.
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5/100 certainly isn't quite as good as I did on the first list, but I guess I was a little riskier with my noms this time around.

Not surprised these are the final 5 for me, although I thought there was an outside chance Trapeze would sneak in.
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Gravity Falls for sure.
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Fluttershy_Pony posted...

^I'll give Sacred Fire a try later. Do you have any specific song from Citadels in mind or should I just pick arbitrarily?

Ancient Arrows is probably my favorite off the album and one of their more popular tracks so I guess that'd be the place to start.
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Oh wow, I took a beating yesterday. That's what I get for nominating a bunch of really emotionally charged songs, I guess.

Name: The Trapeze Swinger
Origin: Iron and Wine
Link:

I don't imagine it changes your overall opinion much, but this song isn't so much meant to be about someone looking back at their life as it is a frank examination of how two people who once were close can slowly drift apart, through no fault of their own, just because their lives happened to go in different directions. They could've been happy together had either of them been just a slightly different person, but it wasn't meant to be, and even though he's long since accepted that and now has Heaven waiting for him, he still can't tear himself away from spending a few more seconds looking down at the girl sitting in the back row at his funeral.

I've always appreciated the beautiful writing in the song but I never really got it until I started to drift away from one of my best friends and realized how perfectly that feeling is captured here.

Name: Head Home
Origin: Midlake
Link:

I agree with you that the song isn't "happy," but I do feel like it's almost hopeful in a way? I don't know, to me there's something comforting about retaining the fortitude to persist in your way of life and to appreciate the small pleasures, however few they may be, of that life, even as the rest of the world has more or less passed you and that life by. Maybe I'm overly sentimental or optimistic.

Name: Zelos
Origin: Mandroid Echostar
Link:

If you still have any interest in Mandroid, Sacred Fire off that album is the one I'd consider much closer in quality to Zelos than anything else. And the Citadels album is a much stronger effort than Coral Throne overall.

Name: The Grocery
Origin: Manchester Orchestra
Link:

I oscillated quite a bit on nominating this because the subject matter was so heavy, but I was really curious how you'd react to that. Hopefully I didn't do any lasting mental damage.
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pyresword posted...

What kind of monster would curl over the front first

Seriously, what the hell?
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Off the top of my head, the Strider remake.
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I wonder if I'll ever actually play this game. I lost whatever remaining interest hadn't been killed off by BBS and DDD when it came out that the FF characters weren't involved.

KH3 might have perfectly captured what a lot of people loved about the series. Or maybe it didn't, I've heard both opinions. But either way, I know it certainly didn't capture what I used to love about it.
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Steiner posted...

Listening to the VOW podcast and they sum up the Bray thing perfectly - some of the people who are already fans may be in to this, but WHY would you put this on the first Fox episode you're hoping people watch because of The Rock? Any non fan who sees that is laughing their ass off and mocking this show to their friends tomorrow.

I was making this exact point to somebody yesterday. It's nice that the current WWE fans enjoy the Fiend stuff, but haven't they already proven that they're never going anywhere?
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Oh, damn, is that another MWC account?
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I forgot you were a Megas fan. Whoops!
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I guess I'll throw in a rec for Death Parade even though I think I might be the only fan of it here.
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From the Observer:

''The night opened with 1,609,000 viewers for AEW and 913,000 for NXT. NXT with Riddle vs. Cole closed the gap to 1,551,000 to 981,000 against Cody vs. Sammy Guevara. MJF vs. Brandon Cutler lost 111,000 viewers vs. Io Shirai vs Mia Yim losing 15,000. Pac vs. Adam Page lost 125,000 viewers while Johnny Gargano vs. Shane Thorne lost 50,000. Riho vs. Rose lost 1,000 while Shayna Baszler vs. Candice LeRae lost 20,000. Pete Dunne vs. Danny Burch gained 29,000 viewers. The six-man main event of AEW gained 67,000 viewers while the NXT tag title match with Bobby Fish & Kyle OReilly vs. Street Profits head-to-head lost 193,000 viewers in the final quarter. However, when AEW ended, NXT did pick up 139,000 viewers in the final ten minutes.''
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Steiner posted...

Jakyl25 posted...

Vince would probably literally murder Shane for those numbers again

He'd murder Shane just as long as he could get away with it

Seriously. When did he start needing a reason?
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It didn't lead directly to it, no. And yes, it was a small package - I guess I refer to it as a rollup for convenience sake and maybe I shouldn't do that. So it might not annoy you as much as I seem to have inadvertently led you to believe.
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I don't even think rollups are inherently a bad thing, but they need to be used sparingly. Or they need to really be put over. I loved the period of ROH when Danielson was winning a ton of matches with the small package and the commentators would always talk about how he just did that move better than everyone else. It just didn't work in the context of the Sammy/Cody match. Or in the context of the rest of the show.

That's the thing, hardly any of what I talked about is a bad thing in a vacuum. But when you put them all together I think it sends a very bad message on a debut episode.

By the way, I can't believe I forgot to talk about the camera. What is American wrestling's fascination with camera cuts on every move impact? I can watch puro promotions and go a full minute without seeing a cut sometimes. It looks better and seems like it'd even be easier to produce! The crowd reaction shots have to go, too. They haven't had an actual good one yet.
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I should mention that I really did like how much they talked about the W/L records, but I wish they'd have gone into more detail about why Cody was getting the title match with Jericho instead of entering into a #1 contender's match with Page or something. I can justify it to myself and understand the kayfabe thought process completely, but I know I've had conversations with people who were a little confused on that booking and it would've been good to explain it to fans who were interested in the concept of such records. Again, anything to separate yourself from the notion of what mainstream American wrestling is nowadays.
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- The best comment I saw on the Lucha Bros/SCU segment was "They just did in 2 minutes what would've taken WWE 10 or 15." I don't think an angle like this is necessary to build heat for the tournament - the tournament itself should be heat enough - but if you're gonna do it, keep it short like this.
- Page/PAC was on its way to being a damn awesome match, and then PAC squared Page in the balls off a ref distraction. People are going to tell me that PAC is "THE BASTARD" and it's well within his gimmick to win matches this way. I would tend to agree. But if that's the case, maybe you shouldn't have all the shenanigans in the opening match. It was at this point in the Discord that Whiskey Nick, who watches only WWE and who presumably is the kind of fan AEW wants to convert, said "Yeah, this seems a lot like WWE so far." That is a terrible, terrible sign.
- Again, to recap, there have been three matches on this show. Two had shenanigans and a screwy finish. The other was essentially a squash.
- Nyla Rose vs Riho... was tough. There's definitely things I liked about it, bur Rose doesn't impress me at all, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I watched an Ice Ribbon match a couple weeks back that was pretty much exactly what this match was trying to be, but better. That's on me, though. Usually I can judge a match in a vacuum without comparing it to a similar one, but for whatever reason I couldn't do that here. What isn't on me is that I probably checked out mentally as soon as Nyla started trying to swing the chair. The heel is dominating the match and yet is apparently willing to risk a DQ in the first ever women's title match. Can we just have wrestlers not be morons, please? That'd be a really easy way to separate yourself from the competition.
- Britt Baker on commentary was the worst thing on the show. It's more WWE bullshit to have someone only tangentially related to the match join commentary and then contribute nothing. I was willing to accept it since I figured she'd be involved in an angle afterwards, but then Omega makes the save instead. So what was the point?
- This is admittedly a nitpick, but Omega's involvement irritated me a bit. His match is next. Don't you want to save his first appearance for that entrance to get the biggest pop possible?
- The main event was the most entertaining match on the show, and I don't even have a problem with the whole Mox thing. I do wish the commentary had at least tried to explain away why it wasn't a DQ, but unless I missed it, they didn't. I don't need much. "Well, Omega wasn't the legal man at the time." "Well, Rick Knox is the ref for this match, and he doesn't like to call for DQs." Anything.
- I don't have the words to adequately describe the feeling of disappointment when, during the big show-closing brawl, I get a tiny voice in the back of my head saying "How incredible would it be if the lights went out and we got Super Dragon?" only for the big surprise to indeed be Jack Swagger, who I just have no use for.
- Those personal issues aside, I think the angle was good. It's refreshing to see a brawl where friends of the guys involved actually show up instead of just watching them get beat down backstage. I really hope they don't make a habit of ending shows with some big angle, but for the debut show and for what it was meant to accomplish I get it.

Here's the bottom line: were it not for the tag tournament starting next week, I don't think I'd be looking forward to the second episode very much. I don't think this was a bad debut, but I had enough big problems with it that I also can't say I liked it much. This may have been "WWE, but better," but I don't believe AEW can succeed to its true potential by being WWE, but better. They need to be a true alternative. We'll know for sure when ratings come out, but it won't shock me if there were big drops in viewership after, like, PAC/Page. I hope I'm wrong.
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So, folks here, especially if they also frequent the Discord, know that I've been probably more bullish on AEW's chances of success than the vast majority of fans. That goes back to last year, before AEW was technically even a thing, where I was one of the first people I saw saying that All In would not only sell out but sell out quickly and convincingly. I was right on that prediction, just as I've been right more recently with how well the AEW PPVs have done. So with all that being said, I hope I'm proven very, very wrong on the sorts of things I'm about to say.

Much of my optimism for AEW, both as a product that would appeal to my personal wrestling tastes and as one that could be a legitimately strong competitor in the market, has been based in the idea that they would be the first real alternative to WWE that mainstream audiences had ever really seen. WCW was not truly that different from WWE. Their "win condition," so to speak, was being "WWE, but better." TNA, no matter how much they claimed otherwise, was the same thing. Promotions like ECW and ROH never had the financial backing or production value.

Tony Khan has been saying all the right things to make me believe that AEW was really going to break the mold. Win/Loss records, which I've wanted some promotion to commit to FOREVER. He hates screwy finishes and wanted to limit the BS in matches in general. He doesn't like the "invisible camera" backstage segments. They have, for the most part, practiced what they preached on the PPVs. The only fuck finish has been the Brandi/Allie match at Fight for the Fallen, which I don't think anybody cared about anyway because Brandi Rhodes will never be a thing.

But then we get to Dynamite.

- Cody/Sammy was a very good match that the crowd was into and I can't overstate how thrilled I am that Guevara is getting an opportunity on a stage like this after years of me watching him in mediocre Texas indies wondering why nowhere big wanted him. But the longer this went, the more annoying things happened. Brandi gets taken out on a suicide dive because she was standing by Sammy for no freaking reason. So we have our first instance of attention being drawn away from the two guys actually wrestling, for however brief a time. Then, while the ref's back is turned, she hits Sammy with a shoe or whatever. It doesn't lead to the finish, at least, but I also don't get why it was necessary. Then, we have Sammy kicking out of all these big moves and losing to a rollup. A very clear hierarchy had been previously established here. Sammy lost to Kip Sabian on the DON preshow, who then lost to Hangman Page, who then lost to Chris Jericho, who Cody is challenging for the world title. The rollup finish is WWE bullshit already - why does the first title challenger have to use one to beat a guy like Guevara?
- So, to recap, the very first match that AEW decided to show to hundreds of thousands of first-time watchers included a) a manager spot, b) manager interference, and c) a rollup finish. The only reason this isn't true of 75% of WWE TV matches is that they don't use managers. Meanwhile, NXT has Cole vs Riddle in a straight, no-BS wrestling match. Don't like those optics.
- Jericho attacks Cody after the match. No problem with this. Good segment.
- Cutler/MJF, again, exactly what it should've been. MJF got a live mic, did what he does, and won a quick match. I'm not as in love with MJF as most are, but they clearly see a star in him and so I'm glad that they're committing to presenting him like one. That's how you build stars.
- The segment with Los Gueros del Cielo and the B-list celebrities in the front row was not good. That's more WWE-esque shit. At least it was short, though. Chris Van Vliet should never be in the position of hype man. He's a good interview guy, keep him there.
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Tom Bombadil posted...

oh man I get to be the guy with the hot take again I guess

Oh, just wait until I put my thoughts down later.
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