All Elite Wrestling - Discussion

[The_Brecht]

Ken Shamrock?
His deal with Impact is done.

[tugs]

"Monday on EVOLUTION..." -Paul White

I'm guessing,

"YEEEAAAAHHHHHH!!!
I'm sick of all these people talking out their heeeeaaaddssss"

[Scott Hall]

To me it comes down to 5 guys that it can possibly be...

Angle
RVD
Punk
Brock
Bully Ray

I think everyone else is preoccupied or committed to retirement and if they were to come back their first choice
would be go back to WWE.

I came in here to type I think it's Angle a lot of things add up. He wasn't happy that Baron Corbin was his retirement match,
he was released like a piece of crap during a global pandemic, he said on an episode of Table for 3 that he wasn't treated
the same when he came back or something to that effect. He's been committed to his new supplement business and AEW
seems like the type of place to promote it if he wants. I don't think he has anything left in the tank wrestling wise but
listening to him talk he always thinks he does. He also sent out that teaser video yesterday but wrestlers love messing
with the fans and driving up interest like that can also drive up your price tag with promoters.

Buuuuuut....

There's 2 things throwing me off one is that Big Show said "Hall of Fame worthy" now that can have a double meaning to some
people but I'll take Paul Wight meant it how it's said and that they are not in the Hall of Fame yet but are worthy of it.

Also I listened to that Tony Khan clip from Busted Open again and he emphasized that they are "committed" there's only
2 guys that you would even have to mention that word to fans and that's Punk and Brock maybe RVD fits in that category
because he's a bit of a free spirit.

Khan also said it's one of his favorite all-time wrestlers of that group Punk and Angle only strike me as guys he would
classify as that although apparently he listed Brock vs. Orton or one of the Brock vs. Cena matches as one of his favorites.
The thing with Brock though is the travel across the border is still dicey and him going back and forth between Saskatchewan
and Jacksonville doesn't seem likely to me, either is getting a place in Jacksonville and leaving Sable alone with the kids
at the barn. Tony Khan being a Chicago guy I could see him being a huge CM Punk fan.

Going up against the NBA All-Star Game... Wrestlemania coming up in just a few weeks AEW is gonna want to swing for the
fences I'm leaning towards Punk over Angle now. I know Punk has denied it on Twitter but I'm not gonna read to much into
that because if he went AWOL on twitter or just ignored it all completely it would be to obvious.

[The_Brecht]

Angle posted a video on Twitter.
Looked like an announcement.

[Dominator83]

Christian it is

[bondom34]

Match was insane, story telling with Kingston awesome, and I'm just howling now because the ending did this to it

Read on Twitter

[Scott Hall]

Read on Twitter

[Coach Smiley]

Oh man that was bad, they could have saved if if they said they disabled the bombs when the match ends (isn't that what they're supposed to do?) but KIngston selling it like death ruined any chance of that

[bondom34]

lol Love Mox throwing shots and owning it afterward. Such a great match too.

[jakecronus8]

I wonder how many people are like me that gave AEW another shot tonight out of intrigue and are laughing their asses off. Never again. Take away the ending which is the hardest I’ve laughed at wrestling maybe ever, and it was a show full of disappointment and botches galore. They went past full tna and are now their own carny category. Oh lord was that bad. I wonder what Amir Khan’s # is as far as how much money he’ll allow Tony to lose on his toy before he pulls the plug.

[Amare_1_Knicks]

Did anyone watch the buy-in? What the hell was that with Maki Itoh(I think that’s her name) just getting free reign to sing for 3 minutes ? It was cringe worthy. I have zero problem with Japanese wrestler, male or female, but it feels like a bit much to have them littered throughout the women’s division the way they are. It would be one thing if they were being organically built, but they get these prime time spots with minimal or literally no previous exposure in the US.

Thought Jericho/MJF should’ve went over but I guess it’s for the greater good since they teased an IC break up this week.

Im cool with the Christian signing. Looks great, he’s experienced, and will add more legitimacy to their weekly program.

Sting/Darby vs Team Taz was pretty good for what it was. Sting moved surprisingly well.

Main event fell flat, for me. That kind of match was never going to be five stars, but it wasn’t even good for what it was. The exploding barbwire wasn’t believable (not saying it didn’t hurt) and looked low budget/amateur-ish. The dud at the end was just the icing on the cake. Kingston selling it like he got gunned down was pretty funny though. It was pretty good storytelling though, to have Kingston come out as the one guy that cared to save Mox, despite their history.

[heatwillbeback]

Such a mess up at the end.

They tried to mitigate it with Mox joking that Omega doesn’t know how to rig a place but that is laughable with the sell Kingston did.

Kingston did his job perfectly btw. He was supposed to sell the hell out of that and he told a terrific story. Sucks that the tech stuff didn’t play out as intended.

[heatwillbeback]

Did anyone watch the buy-in? What the hell was that with Maki Itoh(I think that’s her name) just getting free reign to sing for 3 minutes ? It was cringe worthy. I have zero problem with Japanese wrestler, male or female, but it feels like a bit much to have them littered throughout the women’s division the way they are. It would be one thing if they were being organically built, but they get these prime time spots with minimal or literally no previous exposure in the US.

Reading up on her it makes perfect sense. She was in a j-pop idol group in Japan and that’s how she got her start. It’s an integral part of her persona.

But even though it makes sense, most American fans would have no freaking idea. And so yes, I agree, they need to do a better job introducing these Japanese stars to the American audience. You can’t just throw them in there and expect people to understand.

[Coach Smiley]

Such a mess up at the end.

They tried to mitigate it with Mox joking that Omega doesn’t know how to rig a place but that is laughable with the sell Kingston did.

Kingston did his job perfectly btw. He was supposed to sell the hell out of that and he told a terrific story. Sucks that the tech stuff didn’t play out as intended.

I know it's easy to armchair quarterback but that was anything but perfect IMO, he (or someone... anyone!) should've called an audible. I'm sure Kingston could clearly hear the fans groan and boo when nothing happened. Anyone around ringside could've said something. Kingston could've just done a tearful "thank the heavens" gesture and it would've got the same point across. I don't think wrestlers are really taught to improvise these days since everything is so scripted, but I'm surprised with Kingston since he's supposedly so experienced.

[Dominator83]

Such a mess up at the end.

They tried to mitigate it with Mox joking that Omega doesn’t know how to rig a place but that is laughable with the sell Kingston did.

Kingston did his job perfectly btw. He was supposed to sell the hell out of that and he told a terrific story. Sucks that the tech stuff didn’t play out as intended.

I know it's easy to armchair quarterback but that was anything but perfect IMO, he (or someone... anyone!) should've called an audible. I'm sure Kingston could clearly hear the fans groan and boo when nothing happened. Anyone around ringside could've said something. Kingston could've just done a tearful "thank the heavens" gesture and it would've got the same point across. I don't think wrestlers are really taught to improvise these days since everything is so scripted, but I'm surprised with Kingston since he's supposedly so experienced.

For sure. Watch Chris Jericho show an example of how to improvise in his match with Neville about 5 years ago on RAW.

[heatwillbeback]

Such a mess up at the end.

They tried to mitigate it with Mox joking that Omega doesn’t know how to rig a place but that is laughable with the sell Kingston did.

Kingston did his job perfectly btw. He was supposed to sell the hell out of that and he told a terrific story. Sucks that the tech stuff didn’t play out as intended.

I know it's easy to armchair quarterback but that was anything but perfect IMO, he (or someone... anyone!) should've called an audible. I'm sure Kingston could clearly hear the fans groan and boo when nothing happened. Anyone around ringside could've said something. Kingston could've just done a tearful "thank the heavens" gesture and it would've got the same point across. I don't think wrestlers are really taught to improvise these days since everything is so scripted, but I'm surprised with Kingston since he's supposedly so experienced.

That is fair, but from his perspective on the ground (and facing down) it was probably difficult to tell how said pyros went off and how they looked to a crowd/tv audience. There was a bang, and he sold it as he was supposed to do.

[Scott Hall]

Christian it is

I'm "somewhat" surprised because I felt like if Christian was to comeback to be an active wrestler again that Vince
would willingly take him back and sign him and that Edge with his influence would be enough to get a deal done.

But now that I think about it Vince has never been that high on Christian. Anyone remember that story where
Vince hated his face and wanted to put a red dot on it every time he came out for his entrance? Then he let
him go to TNA.

What's fascinating about Christian is to see how everybody views him. Some people think he's awesome and get
really excited to see him and a lot of other people think he's meh and could careless about him. I don't think
anyone thinks he sucks but it's either you think he's awesome or just solid/decent. But he's always been one of
these guys that has people split on how much they enjoy his work.

Was I really hyped to see him? no Did he break the internet? not really but after thinking about it I really like it
and I think it's a good get by AEW because he's not a guy who's gonna be doing a bunch of high spots with no
psychology like most of the younger guys they have. They are gonna have to adjust to his style and with that learn
better pacing and psychology to their matches.

[AirCanadaMouse]

This PPV was awful, poor production, a lot of fake spots...Lance Archer conveniently bent down inbetween a ladder waiting to be suplex, and the ending was really bad.

But i really don't get why some of you even bother watching with how often you complain about the show.

I wasn't a fan of the build up to the PPV, or the event itself, so the criticism is valid, but it's like every time I lurk here it's negative, negative, negative. Again, I get why that's the case here, but sometimes it's overboard.

Why even bother watching at that point? Especially after this last event, you have all the more reason not to. I certainly couldn't blame you. I'm even a bit down on the product myself, not as excited on Wednesday nights anymore. It's getting a bit too carny for me, but you have to really ask yourself, why am I watching this product?

[AirCanadaMouse]

Did anyone watch the buy-in? What the hell was that with Maki Itoh(I think that’s her name) just getting free reign to sing for 3 minutes ? It was cringe worthy.

I'm actually going to stand up to this point for example, I love her entire gimmick, I love the song, and I love the entrance. It's not for you, I get it, but she seems to have a lot of internet hype and it totally clicked for me upon watching the tournament. Her entrance honestly stood out to me a lot, and it fits her gimmick entirely.

Sadly, the entrance was tarnished by poor production, lots of trouble with the mic and its levels, as was the case for most of the event. But there are some people who actually enjoy it, and I am one of them. I hope you also understand this side of it. Moving on now....

[Scott Hall]

This PPV was awful, poor production, a lot of fake spots...Lance Archer conveniently bent down inbetween a ladder waiting to be suplex, and the ending was really bad.

But i really don't get why some of you even bother watching with how often you complain about the show.

I wasn't a fan of the build up to the PPV, or the event itself, so the criticism is valid, but it's like every time I lurk here it's negative, negative, negative. Again, I get why that's the case here, but sometimes it's overboard.

Why even bother watching at that point? Especially after this last event, you have all the more reason not to. I certainly couldn't blame you. I'm even a bit down on the product myself, not as excited on Wednesday nights anymore. It's getting a bit too carny for me, but you have to really ask yourself, why am I watching this product?

What you said kind of applies to me with WWE. It's like watching your favorite sports team go through a bad rebuild
or make bad decisions you love or you're a fan of that team so you're gonna voice your displeasure if you think the
product sucks or management is making bad decisions.

I was just thinking the other day when was the last time I enjoyed the WWE or thought what was the beginning of the end
at first I thought it was the Benoit incident in June 2007 but then I remember Royal Rumble 2008 and Wrestlemania 24
were good but after that nothing that I remember so sometime in 2008 it died for me. CM Punk and NXT (2015-2018) have
been the only bright spots for me and the CM Punk era was also botched and could've been so much better.

For years I (and many others) would go on forums like this or use Social media to complain about how awful the
product is as ratings continue to hit rock bottom year after year. Now going on 13 years it's become a lost cause.
Vince thinks he's a genius and we are all his puppets. He's learned to make money by putting out a garbage product.
He's destroyed so many guys who could've been big stars since the Ruthless Aggression era. Nothing will change until
he's gone and I've finally come to terms with it. I accept the WWE product is garbage to what it was and we currently
live in a crappy era. Complaining about it online is pointless so now when I watch I accept it's gonna be boring when it's
over I don't want to read about it or discuss it or watch podcasts about other people dissecting it. If there is something
I like it's almost surprising and I'm probably more compelled to go online to compliment and talk about it.

As for why do I still watch? I've watched religiously since I was 5 or 6 years old just like my favorite sports teams. Quitting
must be like trying to quit smoking. What I've learned to do is multi-task while watching shows so I don't feel like I'm
wasting time.

As for AEW...

I'm not to hard on them because I'm sympathetic to them. They came into the marketplace during an era with one of
the biggest talent droughts in history in terms of stars. A few months in to their existence a worldwide pandemic hit.

A lot of the top non WWE Wrestlers in the world were signed to contracts with Impact, ROH, NJPW, NWA etc when they
entered the marketplace. So some of these Indy guys they have and their style are not resonating with a lot of people
and I think cheapens the product to a lot of fans.

But it takes time to build up a roster and I at least give Khan props he's really trying to improve the roster and pour
money into the product with guys like Shaq and Snoop and signing guys like Sting, Big Show, Christian, Ethan Page etc.
He's also letting other wrestlers from other promotions work for them and he's probably financially helping Impact
on the down low right now.

Even as bad as the Womens Division in AEW is like what's the point of even complaining about it. When they started up
the WWE Womens revolution was in full effect and the majority of top Womens wrestlers were signed with WWE and
Impact and that talent pool was way more shallow then the Mens division. The alternative is not to have a Womens
division at all if it's gonna be awful but in todays sensitive society they would probably get to much bad PR if they
completely shelved it for now.

But the Honeymoon with AEW is starting to end for some fans rightly or wrongly and if you charge people $50 for a
PPV like any type of product if you don't deliver you're gonna hear the backlash about it.