AEW Year 2, Thread One

[King Kamala]

SeaStars are solid but I think Ashley really shines as a singles. She would be great addition to their women’s division.

 

[claydude14]

Should I have heard of this Ashley everyone is excited about?

 

[Valeyard]

I have no idea because of how hilarious the indie worship is around these parts. Cursory look says she's been in Chikara and Impact.

AEW might stumble upon a women's division.

 

[King Kamala]

The “indie worship”is literally me, @Big Beard Booty Daddy , and occasionally @Laz but I guess this board is still quiet enough that 2 or 3 people getting wound up over something counts as “everyone worshipping”?

 

[Epic Springs]

Hey I like indy rasslin too!

 

[King Kamala]

*3 or 4

As far as to whether the casual AEW fan that doesn’t follow indies should be excited ...maybe mildly but temper expectations cause it is Dark!

I am just really happy since she is one of top stars at my local indy.

 

[Valeyard]

Legit no problem, I'm very much in favor of indies and am not "wound up" about anything. It just can be amusing. C'mon, you know I got your back, my fellow fam.

But seriously, they wind up stumbling into a great women's division I will enjoy the shows tenfold. Elite mostly excepted.

 

[King Kamala]

I would be willing to bet a one American doll Jaír that AEW will have a good women’s division in 2 or 3 years. One area of depth IRT to indies/minor promotions I am confident about is women.

 

[Laz]

INDIES UBER ALLES

 

[Baby Shoes]

You know, it isn’t super hard to find something these days. I only knew of Vox because Impact booked her in a tournament recently. I searched/ her team and found stuff within a few minutes.

I don’t watch indie stuff full-time as it is hard enough keeping up with all the wrestling shows with weekly TV programs. Besides, indie wrestling is a lot like indie movies. Occasionally you find an indisputable superstar waiting for a breakout but 95% of who you are watching are better suited making your burger later that week.

 

[King Kamala]

Yeah. I mean A LOT of the indies I watch are crappy and forgettable but I try to list only about the stuff that I like (or occasionally is memorably crappy)

 

[Valeyard]

I did look her up though. It's why I said she was in Impact, which is why I'm happy because the only thing they've done well consistently post-Hogan is the women's division.

There's a quirk to the indie love in general that just makes me smile, not just here but not not here. Not so much like the indie film scene as the indie music scene. Nature of independents in anything. It can be a lot like the puro scene seemed like 20 years ago, at times. But I'll be fine accepting a misguided attempt to goof on such behaviors.

After the Brodie show I have never wanted a promotion to succeed more.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

She's also dating Layla Hirsch, and to get a package deal of signing both would be awesome.

 

[geniusMoment]

I stopped believing the indy hype after people talked up Warhorse for weeks on end. Then I saw him...

 

[Laz]

I've long since learned that you need to weigh the source of the praise, as with anything regarding performance. Most indie fans are still stuck in the post-modern "ironic" hipster phase (sorry @King Kamala but you know I'm right), which means most indies are catering to the audience that would rather watch KOTR '95 or New Blood Rising than Death Before Dishonor IV.

@The Valeyard is spot on with the indie fan quirk assessment, especially so given the awful taste WWE has left in people's mouths over the past...what? 18 years?

 

[King Kamala]

What works really well in an audience of a few hundred people doesn’t always translate into a mainstream major television show. Warhorse and Joey Janela I think are prime examples of that.

Although Orange Cassidy is someone who I thought was definition of niche indy guy and now he is one of AEW’s 10 biggest stars so I have given up on predicting these things.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I'd say Orange is even higher up than that. He was the #1 selling talent on PWT for the year, until Brodie's tribute shirt came out. He has 5 shirts constantly in the top 10 sellers, every day. Going by merhc, there is no one more popular, consistently. He's also a draw in the ratings.

 

[King Kamala]

While making nachos, I think I thought of the difference. Orange Cassidy is a character that no one has really seen while Janela and Warhorse are just shittier, smaller versions of stereotypical goofy ‘80s/‘90s wrestlers

 

[Laz]

Joey Janela worked because he was the only deathmatch guy of that era who had legitimate charisma. I think he's dogshit as a wrestler, but he's somebody I've wanted to like time and again for whatever reason. He also seems like a genuinely good dude, if not a bit on the dumber side.

Orange works even better in AEW than he did on the indies because he doesn't have to work 10-15 minutes (or more) every night out. He's considerably less exposed this way, allowing the schtick to last longer and stand out even more. He is, arguably, the most well-booked talent on the entire AEW roster for that reason.

 

[Baby Shoes]

AEW deserves kudos for walking that very thin line of evolving Orange without losing the essence that makes him so popular. I enjoyed Orange pre-AEW and felt he was very talented but he’s also grown as a performer working with some of the talent he has.

On top of the ProWrestlingTees merch and his being a good seller out of the AEW merch at Hot Topic, his first action figure is coming. Although there is more limited distribution to the AEW line so far, last I heard his figure is selling so well it is on an unprecedented fifth batch of presales since it went up maybe two weeks ago on the site that stocks wrestling figures first.

 

[Valeyard]

Orange surprised me because I thought he was a meme guy with a short shelf-life. I'm very happy to be wrong and am just amazed at how he's caught on in a major promotion.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Joey Janela worked because he was the only deathmatch guy of that era who had legitimate charisma. I think he's dogshit as a wrestler, but he's somebody I've wanted to like time and again for whatever reason. He also seems like a genuinely good dude, if not a bit on the dumber side.

Orange works even better in AEW than he did on the indies because he doesn't have to work 10-15 minutes (or more) every night out. He's considerably less exposed this way, allowing the schtick to last longer and stand out even more. He is, arguably, the most well-booked talent on the entire AEW roster for that reason.

They've done a great job with a few guys. Wardlow has been booked fantastic. He hasn't been overexposed, so we don't know his shortcomings, but the matches he's been in have been very good. This feud with Hager, who people normally can't stand, has been a highlight, and it's all been over the fact they can't stop looking at each other. That's never happened as far as I know. And while people might not be excited for their match, it's at least been intriguing enough.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1346152149957431306

I would run into a burning building if Eddie Kingston told me to vía a profane inspirational speech.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

The fact that it took 18 years for someone to sign him is a crime. He's always been great, but he's a locker room leader like we've rarely seen before. He's part of the reason AEW will survive.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Why he didn’t get more opportunities during his stints with Impact baffles me more after seeing him run with the ball in AEW. I remember seeing him on ROH shows around 2010 but don’t remember being that interested in him. It sounds like WWE was trying to get him to be a PC coach around the time the AEW a offer came. I assume with them its similar to the Samoa Joes and Steve Corinos of the world of having all the ability in an era so focused on look.

 

[Laz]

Kingston wasn't what ROH wanted in a worker under Gabe, so he was relegated to CZW (until Zandig fired him for refusing bad booking) and Chikara. Gabe had his "street fighter" guys with the JAPW crew, and though Eddie was pals with them he wasn't the most reliable at the time.

I still wouldn't call Kingston a particularly great catch in terms of ringwork, but the man can work a mic and bring that realism and urgency better than anyone else these days.

 

[Baby Shoes]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1346614138928246785

 

[Laz]

I cannot find the right words to properly express my displeasure at the lack of propriety on AEW's part in using the 8 year old son of a recently deceased talent as a fucking gimmick.

 

[Baby Shoes]

They filmed that the night of the tribute show and I think they just did it to make the kid happy. I heard the kid actually wrote the promo himself. There are videos all over the internet of guys selling for him backstage all last week ranging from Top Flight to a visiting Adam Cole

Spoiler

Bay Bay

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

that child looks only slightly less like a wrestler than brodie jr