AEW General

[Vic Boss 610]

Road To Double or Nothing Episode 8

 

Matt and Nick are trolling at the start, Penta and Fenix won a match to win the AAA tag-titles and then Konnan immediately put them in a match against the Bucks after that

[Galeigh 280]

Where is a good place to watch AEW? I miss wrestling and WWE can suck a dick. 

[MT 897]

Well they really only had the one show so far.

[Vic Boss 610]

Their debut show is May 25th, this youtube channel has backstage build-up for it

 

There's rumours they'll be getting a significant TV deal at some point but if they have one, they're not revealing it for now

[Psycho666Soldier 271]

2 hours ago, Galeigh said:

Where is a good place to watch AEW? I miss wrestling and WWE can suck a dick. 

My man!

 

Never knew you were a former wrestling fan.  Have you considered New Japan?

[Galeigh 280]

No good place to watch it as far as I know. Just sketchy sites. 

[Psycho666Soldier 271]

I live for sketchy sites.

 

Yeah, the only legitimate place you can watch is by paying 9 bucks a month.

[Vic Boss 610]

And AXS TV though it's not live (I think they're close now, though).

[MT 897]

For anyone that doesn't know, for the last few years, one of the major fighting game tournaments out in Florid has been doing wrestling cross-overs (the guy running the event is a huge wrestling fan). Last few years it's been with New Japan, this year it's with AEW. 

 

With that said, Kenny Omega has announced the exclusive FyterFest. Unfortunately, all ticket packages are sold out except the most expensive one. Which sucks, because I was really looking forward to that gourmet cheese sandwich.

[MT 897]

TNT/TBS is rumored to be looking into airing AEW. TBS is the channel that used to broadcast WCW, for anyone that didn't know.

[MT 897]

The first match for FyterFest was announced, The Elite vs Pac & The Lucha Bros.

[MT 897]

Cody's opponent for Double Or Nothing

[Vic Boss 610]

"I'm here to kill the Attitude Era."

 

I have been waiting so long for someone to fucking say this

[Vic Boss 610]

Awww shiiii, the Turner TV deal is set to be announced next week

[MT 897]

AEW to have 1 hour show on TNT later this year

[Vic Boss 610]

For the love of god, keep it 1 hour.

 

Also if I'm Fox/WWE, I stay away from the same timeslot/competition as AEW. You don't want to be putting on a shitty WWE product like they do and then have people flip channels knowing something better might be on the other show.

[MT 897]

Pac vs Adam Page isn't happening at Double Or Nothing, but it did happen here.

 

 

[MT 897]

A guide to get you caught up on the AEW roster

[MT 897]

Is anyone else watching Double or Nothing tonight? Bought it earlier, looking forward to it!

[Vic Boss 610]

Yup

[MT 897]

The Bleacher Report Live stream I paid for didn't work, so I had to go to other routes. That was working fine for about 45 minutes and now that's not working either. Guess i'm not watching this live.

 

Spoiler for Best Friends vs Anjelico/Jack Evans though 

 

 

They gave the Best Friends hug the Rainmaker treatment with the zoom out

 

[Vic Boss 610]

Camera angles and stage set-up was super-duper WCW, felt like I was watching Nitro again

[MT 897]

Honestly, everything before Cody/Dustin is okay to miss. The rest was pretty great. That ending though!

[Vic Boss 610]

Yeah, the last three matches were all good for different reasons, the ending was awesome. The matches before that were all too long.

[Blackjak 57]

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Vic Boss 610]

I really loved how he made the Scott Hall-like walk across the hard-cam view. And have to believe that was on purpose that they were mirroring that

[MT 897]

AEW's newest signee makes a statement

[Vic Boss 610]

"One day, they'll all come to my funeral just to make sure I stay dead."

[MT 897]

The end of MJF's appearance on the Stone Cold podcast

 

So good.

[Vic Boss 610]

BOOK IT, TONY KHAN

[Garlic Junior 136]

The NJPW esque post match interviews were great.

 

Conversely, I love that they are not over producing things, but I hope they get a consistent voice for the weekly show.

 

The mix of kayfabe and shoot questions was fine, but mixing traditional wrestling lingo and WWE speak (Britt Baker constantly saying "superstars" for one) was jarring.

 

Plus as many have pointed out, the Casino Royale may have been good to get all the boys a few moments but it did NOT advertise what the actual show was all about to prospective buyers.

 

Worked well for All In, was okay for DON, but they need a much stronger lead-in for All Out.

 

Cody v Dustin was must see, Omega v Jericho was mostly must see, Moxley was must see, the tags were good, everything else was okay.

 

I was thoroughly entertained. I would have paid £15 but ITV made it ridiculously hard to do so and to enjoy not live, so I'll buy a few tshirts instead to support.

[Vic Boss 610]

Last-three matches and ending angle were great and it makes me excited for the future and wanting to watch the big matches at their next few shows. That fucking advil blade-job by Dustin, god damn. And it was so bizarre seeing Moxley in the ring with Kenny Omega at the same time. Like KO in the ring with Cena alternate-universe shit.

 

Criticsm-after-the-fact time though:

 

Awesome Kong being on the show was a fun surprise, but there's also like 3-4 reasons I didn't like how they did it (took away from Nyla Rose, Kong has a bad back and can barely move, changing matches randomly on the fly looks minor-league even when they do it in the WWE and it implied evil authority figures could be a thing in AEW)

 

I think there was too much indie shit in-a-potential-bad-way on the show and I think the wrestling and match lengths in the non-main-event matches should have each been cut down by 4ish mins each. A lot of indie wrestlers know two speeds, fast-paced moves with no-selling and then suddenly over-dramatic selling because it's near the end of the match, which leads to their matches peaking too early and then they just keep going and going and going and "it should've ended already." It really stands out because I'm also watching the NJPW BOSJ right now, and they have 10 singles matches every night but they're all done with guys who know how to pace it so that they don't overstay their welcome.

 

I'm mostly being nitpicky, but two things I absolutely hated:

 

- That they mentioned that tag team matches will feature a 10-count for illegal wrestlers leaving the ring after tagging out and then the referees never bothered counting and the wrestlers ignored it anyways.

- That the plan is to feature Japanese women in a similar fashion to the WCW Cruiserweights in the mid '90s before they got buried as a way of standing out from other companies, but then they throw six women into a tag match and maybe the hardcores in the building have heard of Aja Kong from reading Meltzer Star-Rating lists and everyone just kind of gets lost in the shuffle and no one gets over (I used to wonder if Cornette complaining about the multi-team Junior openers at Wrestle Kingdom was just him being too much of an old man, but I do get it now, it's hard to follow what's going on if you aren't familiar with the people involved and you kind of just forget about them afterwards.).

 

Buuuut I also can't tell if this was a dry-run for the future product or just working to the audience they knew was at the show. Feel like it's the latter because they do work their audiences.

 

 

[Garlic Junior 136]

I also hated the Kong thing, buuuuut, Devil's Advocate, this is their one chance to suck in WWE/TNA fans.

 

WWE fan - "Oh this Brandi Rhodes lassy does the stuff that I like Stephanie McMahon doing"

 

TNA fan - "Oh they are showing respect to Kong like TNA did but WWE didn't, I am now engaged"

 

Maybe overthinking it, but I was okay with that ONE instance. Plus plus plus Brandi is always a chickenshit heel manager for Cody anyway so it fit her kayfabe ethos.

 

Agree about the Joshi stuff, needed a bit more of a reason why everyone was an individual. All melded together and I actively try to enjoy women's wrestling more than men's. 

[Vic Boss 610]

Road to Fyter Fest 2

 

I dig Darby Allin

[Galeigh 280]

Confession time: Watching Jericho and Ambrose (now Moxley) in the Ambrose Asylum was what pulled  me  back into wrestling and now that both are in AEW I have 0 interest in WWE anymore.

[Vic Boss 610]

Fyter Fest on Saturday

 

@Blackjak

@Nick

@MT

@Galeigh

@Garlic Junior

@Psycho666Soldier

@Eizan

@KR

@all of Blackjak's nerdy supercard friends and/or ex-girlfriends that he secretly uses as alternate pick accounts

Anyone want to start doing AEW picks? We don't really know what their show schedule would be like, but we could just have arbitrary cut-off points (like after 7 or 8 events or something) for the first "season" until they figure out their schedule, or keep Win/Loss records like they do (Correct/Incorrect)

 

Could also do scoring via where you place (ex: If there's 8 people picking, #1 earns 8 points, #2 earns 7 etc). Or just do the same thing that was always done with WWE.

[Psycho666Soldier 271]

I'd definitely be down for some AEW predictions.

[MT 897]

Let's do it.

[MT 897]

Jon Moxley vs Joey Janela is now non-sanctioned

[Vic Boss 610]

RIP, whichever of them dies in the ring

[Blackjak 57]

On 6/27/2019 at 8:08 AM, Death Rider Mox said:

Fyter Fest on Saturday

 

@Blackjak

@Nick

@MT

@Galeigh

@Garlic Junior

@Psycho666Soldier

@Eizan

@KR

@all of Blackjak's nerdy supercard friends and/or ex-girlfriends that he secretly uses as alternate pick accounts

Anyone want to start doing AEW picks? We don't really know what their show schedule would be like, but we could just have arbitrary cut-off points (like after 7 or 8 events or something) for the first "season" until they figure out their schedule, or keep Win/Loss records like they do (Correct/Incorrect)

 

Could also do scoring via where you place (ex: If there's 8 people picking, #1 earns 8 points, #2 earns 7 etc). Or just do the same thing that was always done with WWE.

 

On 6/27/2019 at 8:17 AM, Psycho666Soldier said:

I'd definitely be down for some AEW predictions.

 

On 6/27/2019 at 11:18 AM, MT said:

Let's do it.

 

 

Fuck. I just saw this. 

 

Might be a little late to throw stuff together

 

---

 

Honestly, All Out seems like a good place to start something like that. 

[Vic Boss 610]

All-Out it is then.

 

Same scoring system?

[Blackjak 57]

Sure

[Psycho666Soldier 271]

Pre-show was pretty fun.  Matches were good(especially the opener), and I loved all the Fyre Festival parody segments.  But the Librarian bit and the Dark Order segment were a bit rough to sit through.

[Vic Boss 610]

Good but not great show. I only watched the opening tag on the pre-show (as per the Meltzer recommendation and/or Jim Cornette reaction on twitter), never heard of Private Party but those guys are good shit

 

Show Thoughts

 

 

 

- Cima vs Daniels was solid for both guys age. I like that they worked an opening match pace and Cima won to make him look strong for his Fight For The Fallen match against Kenny.

- Nyla Rose not only not getting the win in the triple threat but taking the pinfall to me is a bad booking. I'd have her undefeated for as long as possible, I might've had her squash both women even. She's a murderer both in how she works and how she looks, gotta protect that and size.

- Adam Page looking strong, MJF is a huge prick and is about as slam-dunk as you can get for a future star. Everyone else looked okay. I'm somewhat wondering how records work in these multi-man matches. The winner gets a W, the guy who takes the pin/submission loses, which is fine. If the other competitors also take L's, there's not much kayfabe reason anyone would ever willingly enter a multi-man match because you have a 75% chance of adding an L to your record, and if they don't take an L, then they can complain that they didn't lose and I hate how lazy-booking that is.

- I loved the ending of Cody and Darby, but I think they rushed it at the end (which may have actually made it better because of the sense of urgency)

- Didn't need that unprotected chair shot at the end (even if Cody was trying to angle it so that it hit shoulder instead of his head)

- Elite vs Lucha Bros/Laredo Kid was about what I expected. It's probably mind-blowing if you've never seen them before,  good-but-expected if you're used to what they normally do.

- I cringed at the appropriate spots in the death match but I think they no-sold or under-sold legit damage too much. At least it went on last.
 

 

[Blackjak 57]

2 hours ago, Death Rider Mox said:

Adam Page looking strong, MJF is a huge prick and is about as slam-dunk as you can get for a future star. Everyone else looked okay. I'm somewhat wondering how records work in these multi-man matches. The winner gets a W, the guy who takes the pin/submission loses, which is fine. If the other competitors also take L's, there's not much kayfabe reason anyone would ever willingly enter a multi-man match because you have a 75% chance of adding an L to your record, and if they don't take an L, then they can complain that they didn't lose and I hate how lazy-booking that is.

 

Maybe have it count in the way an OT loss works in Hockey? Still a "point", but not as many as a win and more than a loss. 

[MT 897]

For anyone that didn't catch the pre-show

 

 

[Garlic Junior 136]

I'd personally be up for mixing up the scoring system. The proposal of 8 points for a win if there are 8 players might be good in case people sleep on an event? 

[MT 897]

I'm up to the beginning of Cody/Darby right now, and I'm noticing JR is jumping into the conversations at weird times. Does that get better further into the show? Because it's kind of annoying.

 

Edit: It got better.

[MT 897]

Pretty great for a free show. Was interesting to watch as a fan of wrestling and of the fighting game community. Seeing Jebailey come out and actually take a table spot was fucking crazy. Seeing Yipes (the dude with the braids who was sitting to the left side of the ring on hard cam) get hype was amazing, and that dude should be in the front row at more wrestling events. Seeing that dude who's always front row at NXT shows was kind of odd at first, but I got over it real quick. Fucking Goldenboy (from Overwatch League commentary) doing commentary all night and getting to work with two of the greatest announcers in pro wrestling was amazing to see as well, and he did a fantastic job. I hope they bring him back for more.

 

Like Ma said, MJF is fucking incredible as a heel, and everything he says just makes me want to see him get his ass kicked. The Librarian shit is incredibly lame and needs to go. I don't know much about the male one, but Leva Bates is better than that shitty gimmick. It's not funny, and from what i'm gathering it's pretty universally hated. Seeing the Best Friends win was awesome. I enjoyed the women's match, and like Ma i'd like to see Nyla actually win. It's only her second real match of AEW so there's still plenty of time to turn it around. I just wanted to give Yuka a hug at the end of that match, she looked so sad. That Street Fighter intro for the Bucks/Omega was hilarious too, I just wish the lights had gone out for a little less time than they ended up going with, would've made Omega's appearance even better.

 

Great show all around, and I feel like they did a good job starting some actual storylines for future shows. Also, maybe it was just the version I watched, but it seemed like all the text/graphics were really low res?