AEW During the Pandemic (3/11/20 till ?????)

[909]

Re: AEW 3/11/20 to 3/17/20- Only place where we can get excited about the RULES

https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1238581084725620739

It's over fam. Prepare to be mega bored for three or four months

 

[Lazgistics Supervisor]

Re: AEW 3/11/20 to 3/17/20- Only place where we can get excited about the RULES

Everything involving the Dark Order is shit, but at least they're smart enough to keep it short now.

Jurassic Express vs. MJF/BATB was super fun. Lucha as a face in peril was interesting but led to a lot of fun, classic heel work. Butcher is getting more and more comfortable with his size. If you hate Marko then you're wrong, nobody sells him as a serious threat and he gets a few cheap shots in before getting wrecked. MJF is the best overall heel in the entire company. "I'm going to Disney World!"

Oh man. I wish they held off on Blood & Guts until the summer so we could build MJF's goon squad up (maybe work a deal to get some of his Dynasty pals from MLW in?) and have the match be Elite vs. MJF & Co. That seems like it'd be more valuable as a gimmick blow off than a match between two factions that have barely interacted this year.

Darby continues being virtually perfect in how he's handled.

Baker is alright. I appreciate the little things, like the disgust in her voice, but the delivery is still ehhhh. The crowd reaction shots during the "family reunion" line were awesome. She's being used the best she can be, realistically, at least until the Nyla reign subsides. I wish Swole wasn't drizzling dogshit in the ring because she is a natural on the mic, lots of charisma and she keeps improving at it. It's a testament to her that everybody knows how lousy her ringwork is but the crowds still pop for her.

This is when I point out that every match has been a tag bout since theopener, and this is two 6-mans back to back. Formatting and pacing is still an issue. I like the Death Triangle theme more than just the Lucha Bros theme, actually. Penta has the coolest overall look in wrestling and the Venom-inspired mask is rad as hell. Cassidy has the worst gear in the entire company. Fun match, though.

 

[Lazgistics Supervisor]

Re: AEW 3/11/20 to 3/17/20- Only place where we can get excited about the RULES

Best Friends/Lucha Bros will be fun.

Good, good, good Mox interview. If anybody could find a way to interfere in that match (assuming it still happens and Nick isn't "injured" out) and not make me hate it? It's Mox.

Love that Dustin forced himself as Hangman's partner, and they clearly don't get along but will do what they need to get the job done. Jericho is far and away somebody I want Hangman to work with and I don't see why he'd argue otherwise. One thing Sammy needs work on is his positioning for the hard cam. It's not an exclusive problem to him, either, but something I think that WWE has negatively influenced into the industry as a whole over the last decade or so. This was a perfectly acceptable TV main event and furthered Hangman's elevation that much more. Killer finish.

Inner Circle destroys the Elite gauntlet-style to close the show and I really, really wish there was more interaction between the two factions leading up to this. Matt Jackson making the save for Hangman is a fine addition to the chapter, particularly with the finger that distracted them from Jericho getting a chair.

Dammit, I wish Blood & Guts was really set in stone. Fucking COVID-19 can fuck right off. Excellent show, nothing was outright bad except the Daniels promo about the Dark Order, but at least it was kept to a minimum.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Re: AEW 3/11/20 to 3/17/20- Only place where we can get excited about the RULES

That was keeping it to a minimum? I fast forwarded through the whole thing, and it still felt like it was ten minutes long!

 

[Baby Shoes]

Re: AEW 3/11/20 to 3/17/20- Only place where we can get excited about the RULES

https://twitter.com/aewrestling/status/1238903248007974914

Exalted reveal in front of no crowd will be interesting. May wind up better depending what direction they go.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/theAdamPage/status/1239599119863287808
This is what we need to unify our nation during this difficult moment in history.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/AEWrestling/status/1239930742169190402
P. scummy that AEW is still going through with this.

Air best of shows, have Sammy Guevara cut promos on his IPhone. Now is not the time for WarGames Blood & Guns. Alex of 909 is absolutely right about AEW being just as scummy as WWE is for this.

 

[Kageho]

Could be that TNT is also telling Dynamite that they have to go through with it. As we've seen with Wrestlemania 36, people are seemingly holding to contracts and not really caring about how it will hurt people's lives.

Edit: I realize I went with station and TV show name instead of company name, but screw it. you all know who I'm talking about.

 

[909]

The optics of running a bloody cage match right now is wow. This is the worst industry on the planet.

 

[King Kamala]

Like I get people need stuff to watch now more than ever and some people like watching bloody & violent stuff. Like if you said that you think Better Caul Saul or Westworld should stop airing new episodes, I'd probably call you a ninny.

But do we need blood and guts stuff produced live at this exact moment!?

I hope Cody and the Khans come to their senses but I honestly doubt it.

 

[tekcop]

Yeah. The problem with wrestling is that the blood is real. I agree with 909 that it's already time to stop having matches anyways. But a mutli-person cage match with bodily fluids flying around right now is absolutely unacceptable.

 

[geniusMoment]

I watched WWE for the first time in probably a year to see the empty arena shows. And it was so bad that it's pointless. Running empty arena shows doesn't do anyone any good. I would argue it hurts your product more than it helps (i'm not even talking about the PR or optics of it). I mean the matches look and feel stupid in a sterile environment.

If I were AEW i wouldn't even run best of. I'd make everyone wait to see my product until it was fully able to be back. My first show back would be a ppv caliber show, probably 3 hours, and the main event would be War Games. I'd do teasers and promos for it for months.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/OneHourTees/status/1239661501771849730
Support the WHO with a shirt featuring noted Corona skeptic Chris Jericho.

 

[Baby Shoes]

https://twitter.com/EvilUno/status/1240295054100627458

I guess he is talking about the Exalted One being why no one is safe but I also feel this legitimately could be two independent statements.

Cody also tweeted today about how getting a show together today could be a chapter in a book.
I appreciate them wanting to distract people but still rather they not put anyone in danger.

 

[JHawk]

The empty arena concept with the boys watching from the crowd at least makes it more interesting than the WWE empty arena shows.

Still not sure they should be doing these shows, but there's the one positive I've found

 

[JHawk]

I've also noticed they keep saying "next Dynamite" instead of next week, so I'm guessing they're announcing no more shows until an unspecified date.

 

[claydude14]

As a fan who had the pleasure of watching Brodie Lee work the local indies 10 years ago and enjoy his journey to WWE; it was heartbreaking that this big reveal/debut wasn’t in Rochester and instead in an empty arena.

That said, still probably the best Dark Order segment to date.

They’ll be here in July, hopefully, and maybe they’ll throw us a bone and have him work Mox for the belt that night.

 

[Tino Standard]

The empty arena concept with the boys watching from the crowd at least makes it more interesting than the WWE empty arena shows.

Still not sure they should be doing these shows, but there's the one positive I've found

Didn’t get a chance to watch tonight, but this sounds cool. I was thinking the other night during Raw that it could really help the atmosphere for WrestleMania to have all the wrestlers on hand at the PC come out to watch at least the main event.

 

[geniusMoment]

As a fan who had the pleasure of watching Brodie Lee work the local indies 10 years ago and enjoy his journey to WWE; it was heartbreaking that this big reveal/debut wasn’t in Rochester and instead in an empty arena.

That said, still probably the best Dark Order segment to date.

They’ll be here in July, hopefully, and maybe they’ll throw us a bone and have him work Mox for the belt that night.

I think running any live shows in front of crowds is in serious jeopardy until a vaccine is found. I think there is a very real possibility we aren't seeing large scale events until 2021.

I've already seen many experts mention this will happen in waves. Meaning we'll quarantine for months to bring down cases, go back to semi-normal (probably no large events) and it will begin to rise again as people come into contact with each other.

 

[909]

I liked how in the Brodie Lee video they used some of Matt Hardy's voice recording in order to fool people who were paying attention just a little too much.

 

[909]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfK5V1fB9KE

There's so much going on here that I like and very little that I don't. The video package is Best of WCW level type stuff. Amazing Jake promo again and then some old school ass kicking.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

The empty arena concept with the boys watching from the crowd at least makes it more interesting than the WWE empty arena shows.

Still not sure they should be doing these shows, but there's the one positive I've found

Didn’t get a chance to watch tonight, but this sounds cool. I was thinking the other night during Raw that it could really help the atmosphere for WrestleMania to have all the wrestlers on hand at the PC come out to watch at least the main event.

It was pretty cool. They didn't have a lot of wrestlers, only a handful, and had faces on one side and heels on the other. MJF was the highlight, of course. He had Spears were betting on winners and losers of matches. The guys popped and chanted for things. And Sammy going into the "crowd" to sing Judas with MJF was gold, mainly because Sammy didn't know all the words. Brandi also did ring announcing and was very good.

It's a shame that they couldn't do the Brodie Lee and Matt Hardy reveals in front of an audience, but they did a good job.

It was a fun show and the wrestlers looked like they were all having fun out there, and no just going through the motions. That's not a dig at WWE, by the way, as I haven't seen their shows.

 

[Baby Shoes]

https://www.instagram.com/p/B99a9o5Jze-/?igshid=1cq7t4g5yr3g

 

[Kageho]

Dude lives up to his name. Wow.

Also, Hardy was on Talk is Jericho and both him and Jericho had tried pitching things to work with younger people. Jericho's ended up being the Highlight Reel, with Hardy's just being shot down.

They also said the process between the two companies is that AEW goes "hey, we want to do this this and this. How do you, the wrestlers, think we can go about getting here". That's pretty awesome that even the booking process is like dealing with promos. Probably also explains why early on the booking process was very hit or miss early on, because they probably didn't make sure that the main points were fleshed out as well as they should be.

Still though, compared to WWE's creative, night and day. And if you guys already knew this, my bad. I didn't know myself, so I thought it was neat.

 

[Epic Springs]

Tony Khan just announced that Blood & Guts isn't happening and the next Dynamite will feature a Jericho/Matt Hardy confrontation.

 

[Lazgistics Supervisor]

PRO:
-The empty arena look was rad, with the talent all at ringside. It reminds me of super early Beyond with a budget above "maybe we can go to Spike's later."
-Jake promo on Cody...dude still has it
-Matches were all fun and felt the right length, so limiting the "your turn/my turn" stuff and holding off on EPIC NEARFALLZ~ until bigger matches is paying off. Weird...
-Adam "Handswash" Page

CON:
-I have never seen anything in Brodie Lee that makes me want to watch him for more than a few minutes and pairing him with the hands down worst act in the entire company is dumb. He's not bad but I'd call him a third stringer.
-Lance Archer is even worse than Brodie. At least I can say Brodie isstronger and I've seen him be a part of really killer matches, but Archer has a fucking tramp stamp and spent years being outshone by Christy Hemme.
-DELETE Matt Hardy makes me remember Kenny Omega could be far worse.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Just curious, Laz, when was the last time you saw Archer?

He was meh in TNA so other than BIG, I was surprised WWE even wanted him. He was ok as a killer in WWECW and his team with Hawkins has some promise, then he got cut.

This last year especially he has some good showings in New Japan. Just wondering because I can see that stance if your last exposure was his TNA or WWE work but I think what he did most recently in NJPW could make him really interesting with the AEW roster. If they get Janela to pinball for him, could be a lot of fun.

 

[Lazgistics Supervisor]

I caught some of his G1 work last year, but not being a fan of the NJPW style doesn't help matters. None of the KES stuff stood out to me, either, but I'm willing to blame that on DBS Jr. (who is fucking garbage).

 

[King Kamala]

Regrettably, AEW is still having matches this week. They just announced Kenny Omega defending the AAA Mega Championship (for the first time ever?) against Sammy Guevara.

 

[Brocklock]

I thought Archer was pretty terrible for a long time until he seemed to figure it out last year. He was athletic but he looked very light and loose in the ring and his personality always came off cheesy to me. I thought his offense looked great in the G1 and very great for a big man. He carried himself much better as well and finally had a dangerous aura he's been trying to project. I think his look (hairstyle more so) and trash talking grrr I'm a heel shtick is kind of lame and try hard, but that's sort of how wrestling is now. For the way wrestling is now though, he's turned into a very good big guy.