All Elite Wrestling - Discussion

[tugs]

Inner Circle storyline is dragging, Sting-Darby vs Taz Team is dragging.

Miro reacting to his environment was top notch though. Really knows how to play the card.

Thunder Rosa vs Britt was a great match as well. Perfect finish by keeping both look strong.

Main event was a bit sloppy at some points and surprisingly it wasn't from high spots from Fenix (seriously this guy needs a run, he's like Mysterio taking a super serum). Mox waiting on the Paradigm Shift from Omega, Gallows falling down the rope even before Archer's clothesline, Anderson waiting for that spine buster spot being too obvious, Kenta and Mox on the semi failed GTS. Botches all over. Still a great match though

[Ruzious]

Mental note: Do not invite Miro to my next wedding.

[Scott Hall]

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[Dominator83]

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It tries to be Nitro but it's more like Thunder

[Amare_1_Knicks]

I just skimmed through this weeks AEW Dark, and I must say — the amount of underweight, generally small (in stature and lacking in muscle tone) and effeminate men littered throughout this program was alarming. Everything has this overwhelming comedic tone to it, and everyone acts jovial and silly as well. More and more I feel like AEW (and perhaps wrestling as a whole) is moving away from what I grew up watching.

[RonMexico915]

I just skimmed through this weeks AEW Dark, and I must say — the amount of underweight, generally small (in stature and lacking in muscle tone) and effeminate men littered throughout this program was alarming. Everything has this overwhelming comedic tone to it, and everyone acts jovial and silly as well. More and more I feel like AEW (and perhaps wrestling as a whole) is moving away from what I grew up watching.

I once said that Sonny Kiss was a pathetic attempt at being a legitimate wrestler and got eviscerated for it. I haven’t seen this episode, but I am not surprised. AEW is trying to cater to a “different” segment of wrestling fans. I would say it’s small in number, but who knows.

Anyway, I prefer wrestlers that look like they could kick ass in real life and ones that make their moves look as “real” as possible. Throwing weak punches and wearing a bikini doesn’t work for me. Unless you’re Brandi or Penelope.

[Flames24Rulz]

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I can sort of understand this and I see where it's coming from. However, I'm entertained by the product more often than not. I DVR all of the wrestling shows on TV now, and I find myself fast forwarding the least through AEW and SmackDown. The booking for the matches is usually better than the 50-50 booking/roll-up/distracted finishes that have become the norm on RAW & SD.

The criticism about feuds taking way too long to develop is 100% on point, though. The Sting-Taz feud doesn't need to be an every week thing, especially when nothing is happening to progress the feud. Same with the inevitable Inner Circle breakup. The main problem is there's such a delay between PPV's right now (what, like five months from Revolution from the last one?) that they've kind of painted themselves into a box with how they book Dynamite. At least that's how I feel. It definitely has given off some strong Nitro/Thunder vibes lately tho.

[Amare_1_Knicks]

Janela vs Darby wasn’t a bad match. Glad Sonny wasn’t at ringside (sorry, I’m just not a fan). Didn’t go terribly long but I thought Janela was a tad more competitive than he should’ve been, but it didn’t necessarily look out of place due to their respective sizes.

Sammy leaving the Inner Circle was cool. I suppose it’s leading to Sammy v MJF at Revolution, which is good. It’s just all taking painfully long to develop. IMO, the IC should’ve been fully disbanded by now.

Sting comes out for an interview and gets immediately interrupted by Taz... yet again. Pretty sick stunt by Darby though.

Did Peter Avalon and Cezar Bononi (who?) need to be on Dynamite this week (or ever) ? Lee Johnson is a talented prospect so I’m glad he got his shine.

Skimmed through the main event. Caught a few cool spots but it didn’t seem like it would be my type of match. I’ve grown weary of Moxley fighting around the arena.

[Ruzious]

Jericho is still a great asset, but if he's going to continue wrestling, they need to have a talk with him. He can't have a singles match in that shape - he blew up in less than a minute in a tag match. He looks ok, but his cardio is awful.

[jakecronus8]

I just skimmed through this weeks AEW Dark, and I must say — the amount of underweight, generally small (in stature and lacking in muscle tone) and effeminate men littered throughout this program was alarming. Everything has this overwhelming comedic tone to it, and everyone acts jovial and silly as well. More and more I feel like AEW (and perhaps wrestling as a whole) is moving away from what I grew up watching.

I have many problems with AEW, though I must say at the very least for the sake of the talent I’m glad they exist. More options = more money and leverage in a profession that is harsh and cruel to the talent involved over the long haul.

That being said, my issues in no particular order:

Talent look and physique- I’m not a guy like Vince that wants every wrestler to look like a body builder, but man some of these guys look like high school kids. For as great a talent as someone like a Jungle Boy may be, I can’t suspend my disbelief to see people sell for him. If guys like him want to be in the business it should be as a personality type or manager that takes bumps. Besides physique, I see some of the ring gear these guys and girls wear and it looks straight out of a backyard fed.

Production is cheap and suffers from too many on air snafus. This is not a big deal to me as they are still so new and figuring things out as they go. I will say though, that it objectively Pales in quality compared to wwe, even in their C show NXT.

The announcers are not good. I love JR and he is unquestionably the greatest announcer of all time, in his own words “Father Time don’t do no jobs.” Hearing him try to keep up is increasingly uncomfortable and Schiavone is just collecting a nostalgia check. Don’t know enough about Excalibur but the lucha mask gimmick for a commentator is again just reminiscent of something you’d see in a backyard. It’s jarring to see Taz play big bad heel manager then do comedy color analysis.

The women’s division is really really lackluster and there’s no excuse for it. They have the budget and opportunity to change this with the tremendous amount of Indy talent around the world. Why they sit on their hands is anyone’s guess.

I could list plenty of other minor things but the biggest to me are as follows: Everyone is a mark for themselves. The crowd loves themselves and feel this sense of superiority. An army of Meltzer inspired smarks. They think they’re smarter than your average wwe fan and the AEW product suffers. Every wrestler is over as a babyface, and even when the supposed heels do heel things they get a pop for it. There’s no chance for classic storytelling when the crowd is just there to pop for everything they see. Part of this is appreciation, and that’s not a terrible thing judging by virtue, but me personally as a fan cannot get into it. This has been a problem since day one where they kind of expected a new audience to be aware of all the talent and gimmicks.

Conversely, the talent whether consciously or not believe themselves to be more over than they are or allow themselves to ditch their role in the story in favor of playing to the crowd adulation.

Lastly, 90% of everything is played up for comedy. Wwe does this to but more-so in a bad dad joke way. In AEW it’s more of an annoying break the fourth wall and wink at the audience type way.

In conclusion, I want to clear as day that wrestling is better with AEW in it than without. I just believe right now they are on the path of Impact. Their target audience may be a large audience, but their execution is going to lead to (appears it has already plateaud) a very niche audience and will be very hard to grow that audience. I understand some people are really into it and that’s cool with me. I hope they flourish. I’m personally just not interested in seeing Indy shows with a budget on television. Not for me.

[Coach Smiley]

My biggest complaint is that they're so wwe-lite with their production. Big fancy entranceway, "4th wall" skits, scripted bad acting dialogue, weddings and kidnappings, they're actually not very creative but very formulaic to WWE's template. Make it look like an actual sporting event and not a soap opera if you really want to be different. Production has not changed in wrestling since Vince Russo, that's a long f'n time!

And the matches are just spot fests with no psychology. I really wish wrestling was just a more entertaining version of MMA.

[Amare_1_Knicks]

Why was Lee Johnson 0-29 in his career before that tag team win with Cody ? He’s a good looking guy with some impressive high flying moves, looks like an athlete — and this is the guy, out of all the scrubs and jabronies on their roster that was 0-29? I suppose some kind of ‘payoff’ is coming with this, but still.

[Dominator83]

Why was Lee Johnson 0-29 in his career before that tag team win with Cody ? He’s a good looking guy with some impressive high flying moves, looks like an athlete — and this is the guy, out of all the scrubs and jabronies on their roster that was 0-29? I suppose some kind of ‘payoff’ is coming with this, but still.

They could be just setting the stage to build him up. He keeps gaining confidence, starts winning, and people get behind him.

[Amare_1_Knicks]

Why was Lee Johnson 0-29 in his career before that tag team win with Cody ? He’s a good looking guy with some impressive high flying moves, looks like an athlete — and this is the guy, out of all the scrubs and jabronies on their roster that was 0-29? I suppose some kind of ‘payoff’ is coming with this, but still.

They could be just setting the stage to build him up. He keeps gaining confidence, starts winning, and people get behind him.

That’s what I’m thinking the payoff is. I read that Cody allegedly has a feud/endgame in mind for himself and Lee — and obviously that would be a big deal for him. I don’t think he’s necessarily the guy that they should’ve done this angle with , though (in this fashion, anyway).

But either way, I hope it culminates in a rewarding way. Like I said, I think he clearly has potential.

[heatwillbeback]

Spoiler:

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Going to be interesting to see what they do with him.

[Stanford]

What do you think they'll do with him?

[Scott Hall]

What in the world??

[improper]

I hope they rib on his WWE tenure by having him turn from face to heel multiple times in the same show.

[The_Brecht]

This is funny as hell.

[Amare_1_Knicks]

What do you think they'll do with him?

Apparently he’s going to do commentary for their new “Elevation” show, but he’s also expected to wrestle at some point as well (from what I’ve read).