AEW Full Gear Discussion

[Stanford]

:lol: No wonder Lesnar said “pass” to all off of Moxley’s ideas at Wrestlemania.

If I recall, Moxley was willing to take pretty much all the bumps. He just wanted Brock to murder him and Brock was like, "Nah, too much work." Then they did the typical lazy Brock match.

And then he had that match with Bryan where he got brutalized for ten minutes.

[improper]

And then he had that match with Bryan where he got brutalized for ten minutes.

That match actually worked, though, at least assuming you're referring to Bryan/Brock. Bryan can play the underdog really well. Ambrose isn't suited for it. Ambrose is suited for brawls and hardcore matches like last night or his Ishii match in the G1. He could have had a great match with Brock, but it just can't be the same match that Brock usually works where he demolishes guys and then they get a couple of hope spots.

[Stanford]

That match actually worked, though, at least assuming you're referring to Bryan/Brock. Bryan can play the underdog really well. Ambrose isn't suited for it. Ambrose is suited for brawls and hardcore matches like last night or his Ishii match in the G1. He could have had a great match with Brock, but it just can't be the same match that Brock usually works where he demolishes guys and then they get a couple of hope spots.

Bryan got more than a few couple hope spots though. He was in control for a while and left boot prints on Brock's face.

I was just pointing out that Brock is very willing to work his ass off on occasion. Just not with Moxley, apparently.

[WRau1]

I'm a little confused as to how AEW booking is going to be anything more than exactly like WWE's 50/50 style.

What is 50/50 booking, why is it bad and what is the alternative?

AEW made a big deal about wins and losses mattering, insinuating unlike the WWE who uses "50/50 booking". Wins and losses don't matter in the WWE because they just run #1 contender matches to setup their mainevents so you can have a guy take an L one night then turn around and win a title shot the next night. In essence, there isn't a difference if AEW is going to have everyone split wins, which has been the case so far. I just find it funny that they made such a big deal about it.

[Dr Positivity]

I thought the PPV had some good, some bad, some great.

I loved Moxley vs Omega personally... hardcore porn ... Well not that hardcore porn. I have never seen a match like that so I was happy. I will say though this basically ruins all their future hardcore matches since they already went to 11. How do you have a match after this where the craziest thing the happens is a guy gets thrown on thumbtacks?

Jericho and Rhodes was pretty good. It seemed slow the first half but by the time their bigger moves came well setting up the storyline and damage paid off well. It didn't look as dire a situation to throw in the towel as the Moustache Mountain match, but MJF was screwing him over anyways. My biggest problem with the MJF heel turn is he was a heel on the earlier AEW PPVs and the debut episode. It would've been more effective if they planned this out early enough that his only exposure so far was as a face.

I enjoyed Page vs Pac a lot... I felt it was physical, and Page is over for me since they started letting him talk a few weeks ago. I feel he could do well in WWE.

Riho and Sakura was good but I thought Sakura was pandering to the crowd too much. I'm in awe of how quickly Riho transitions between moves.

Lucha Bros vs SCU vs Private Party was entertaining but an example of where I can see the downside of AEW style. It seemed like they were hunting for spots. I'm also confused about making the Lucha Bros do babyface moves, and this was another match where they were everyone was blatantly trying to wake up the crowd. I also think the Young Bucks made Private Party look better than they are a few weeks ago. I'm probably complaining too much since the match was more fun than most of WWE's tag matches but could've been a bit better.

Santana and Ortiz vs Young Bucks was the usual solid Young Bucks match. Ortiz kind of came off as a comedy jobber character though between the goofy overalls and stuff like "I'm so intelligent!" and raising himself on the ropes by his teeth which is... fun I guess? But also a weird fit with the proud and powerful theme

Spears vs Janela was the worst match of the night... I think this stage is a little too big for Janela and they pushed him due to the AEW Dark match being popular.

It did feel like a 3.5 hour long version of Dynamite though. I haven't been that impressed by AEW's production values overall and that hurt it a bit here I guess. But it's also the feeling that almost all these matches except for the last two could have happened on a weekly show. The pre buys may have been solid for this one but I can't see $50 PPV as a good model. Just a very high number for an audience that is almost entirely young people. They probably will get murdered by torrents.

[Dr Positivity]

Overall, the PPV didn't really feel like anything more than an episode of Dynamite. I was ok with the Cody v Jericho finish. I liked Mox v Omega. Pac v Page was disappointing as was the decision to have Page go over. Women's match and tag title match wasn't that good.

I'm a little confused as to how AEW booking is going to be anything more than exactly like WWE's 50/50 style.

The 50/50 booking will actually be worse than WWE in my opinion. AEW looks like it's wrestling communism - run by the workers, and therefore trying to get everyone over at once. You can see already with Young Bucks putting over Private Party and Santa and Ortiz or Pac putting over Page that there is an effort to make the biggest names lift up the newer ones. WWE is the one that's willing to feed half its roster to the main event guys like making Samoa Joe and Rusev Reigns' gimps, or **** dudes like Sami Zayn over if they stop believing in them.

[Dr Positivity]

And then he had that match with Bryan where he got brutalized for ten minutes.

That match actually worked, though, at least assuming you're referring to Bryan/Brock. Bryan can play the underdog really well. Ambrose isn't suited for it. Ambrose is suited for brawls and hardcore matches like last night or his Ishii match in the G1. He could have had a great match with Brock, but it just can't be the same match that Brock usually works where he demolishes guys and then they get a couple of hope spots.

Reading between the lines, I feel one of the problems with Ambrose's plan in the Brock match is it wasn't considered one of the important matches going in, even with having Brock. So not only was it required to be a short match which rules out the type of "biggest beatdown of all time" match Ambrose had in mind, but they didn't want him going through an announce table for example (or maybe any table) because Shane was going to jump off HIAC through one shortly later.

I'm sure Ambrose's criticisms of Brock are valid, but some of the damage was done before Wrestlemania when the Ambrose and Brock feud wasn't very over, and some of that is on Ambrose. At some point with a dead feud the WWE decides that instead of trying to make this match people aren't that into steal the show, they're just going to cut their losses and make Brock look strong, keep it short and move on. I also think there's a world where with a different wrestler Brock's simplistic "I beat you up, then you grab a chair and make a comeback" plan might have actually worked. A lot of wrestling matches aren't that complicated storyline wise... and frankly I think Brock actually has good instincts overall on how to tell a story. Brock has had a far better WWE career than Ambrose and while physical talent has a lot to do with that, I would venture there's some things Brock understands that Ambrose doesn't

[Flames24Rulz]

I thought the show was really good -- even though it was a 3 1/2 hour show, it did seem to fly by, just like the TV show. I get why some people think it was basically a glorified version of Dynamite, but in all actuality, I really don't think that's a bad thing because of how good the show has been so far.

My only complaint with the PPV itself is that a couple of those matches definitely didn't need to go on as long as they did. Spears/Janela should've been super quick, Riho/Emi should've been quicker than it was too, and they probably could've shortened Mox/Omega a little bit. But outside of that, it's hard to really hate on the product too much -- Jericho/Cody was great, the tag matches were both really good (although the finish in the tag title match was underwhelming), and Mox/Omega served its purpose.

Oh, and Schiavone absolutely needs to be AEW's lead guy. I get the nostaliga thing with wanting JR to be the voice of the company, but he's clearly lost his fastball.