All Elite Wrestling - Discussion

[Stanford]

Yeah, it's free again

[iMoreland]

Spoiler:

WrestleVotes says anything WWE planned before hiring Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff to run Raw or SmackDown is “subject to change” to ensure a legitimate fresh start.

There’s been increased speculation, apparently stemming from Dave Meltzer riffing on Wrestling Observer Radio, that NXT could move to FS1 to compete directly with AEW’s TV show on TNT.

Both good news. Hopefully that's the end of the wild card and they do another draft. Also, if they make NXT live on Wednesday nights that could really hurt AEW.

[Stanford]

Spoiler:

I would miss NXT as a low-stakes Network program. It was nice having a wrestling show that didnt need to get television ratings.

[Scott Hall]

AEW Fight for the Fallen will take place tomorrow from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida - Anyone going to watch?

Cody and Dustin Rhodes vs. The Young Bucks

Kenny Omega vs. CIMA

Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie

"Hangman" Adam Page vs. Kip Sabian

Pentagon Jr. and Fenix vs. Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian

Dark Order vs. Jack Evans and Angelico vs. Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus
Winners advance to All Out for an opportunity at a first round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Titles tournament.

The Buy In
Britt Baker and Riho vs. Bea Priestley and Shoko Nakajima

The Buy In
MJF, Shawn Spears, and Sammy Guevara vs. Joey Janela, Darby Allin, and Jimmy Havoc

The Buy In
"The Librarian" Peter Avalon (with "The Librarian" Leva Bates) vs. Sonny Kiss

Chris Jericho scheduled to appear.

You guys looking forward to any of the matches?

Is this on B/R live for free again?

If it's on B/R live free again then it will be going up against the Evolve 10th Anniversary show on WWE Network.
I'm guessing the Network will be replaying the Evolve show throughout the week and the AEW show will be
up on Daily Motion in a couple of days.

Tough call but I'm leaning towards watching the Evolve show only because I've never watched them before
so I'm curious to see what its like. As for AEW I wasn't overly impressed with Fryter Fest outside of the Moxley
vs. Janela match so I can wait a few days or later in the week to watch it on Daily Motion. I still need to check
out Slammiversary from Sunday as well. It's amazing how much wrestling is on during the week now lol

[Dominator83]

AEW Fight for the Fallen will take place tomorrow from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida - Anyone going to watch?

Cody and Dustin Rhodes vs. The Young Bucks

Kenny Omega vs. CIMA

Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie

"Hangman" Adam Page vs. Kip Sabian

Pentagon Jr. and Fenix vs. Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian

Dark Order vs. Jack Evans and Angelico vs. Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus
Winners advance to All Out for an opportunity at a first round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Titles tournament.

The Buy In
Britt Baker and Riho vs. Bea Priestley and Shoko Nakajima

The Buy In
MJF, Shawn Spears, and Sammy Guevara vs. Joey Janela, Darby Allin, and Jimmy Havoc

The Buy In
"The Librarian" Peter Avalon (with "The Librarian" Leva Bates) vs. Sonny Kiss

Chris Jericho scheduled to appear.

You guys looking forward to any of the matches?

Is this on B/R live for free again?

If it's on B/R live free again then it will going up against the Evolve 10th Anniversary show on WWE Network.
I'm guessing the Network will be replaying the Evolve show throughout the week and the AEW show will be
up on Daily Motion in a couple of days.

Tough call but I'm leaning towards watching the Evolve show only because I've never watched them before
so I'm curious to see what its like. As for AEW I wasn't overly impressed with Fryter Fest outside of the Moxley
vs. Janela match so I can wait a few days or later in the week to watch it on Daily Motion. I still need to check
out Slammiversary from Sunday as well. It's amazing how much wrestling is on during the week now lol

Unless I'm missing something, I don't even see moxley on the card.

And speaking of impact wrestling, theyre finally coming back here to Chicago area for Bound for Glory. I'm planning on being there for sure

[Wo1verine]

Is this on B/R live for free again?

If it's on B/R live free again then it will going up against the Evolve 10th Anniversary show on WWE Network.
I'm guessing the Network will be replaying the Evolve show throughout the week and the AEW show will be
up on Daily Motion in a couple of days.

Tough call but I'm leaning towards watching the Evolve show only because I've never watched them before
so I'm curious to see what its like. As for AEW I wasn't overly impressed with Fryter Fest outside of the Moxley
vs. Janela match so I can wait a few days or later in the week to watch it on Daily Motion. I still need to check
out Slammiversary from Sunday as well. It's amazing how much wrestling is on during the week now lol

Unless I'm missing something, I don't even see moxley on the card.

And speaking of impact wrestling, theyre finally coming back here to Chicago area for Bound for Glory. I'm planning on being there for sure

Moxley won't be on tonight's show, he's currently working in Japan.

[Wo1verine]

Preview of the stage - Going to be different compared to the last 2 shows.

Read on Twitter

[Scott Hall]

Loving this stage/setup for AEW tonight has an old school Nitro in Universal Studios vibe

[Spens1]

The company is still going through growing pains as FFTF showed. Marvez downright sucks as a commentator and JR clearly is passed it. They need to get Excalibur as their full time play by play and find a good colour guy (honestly, Goldenboy was actually really good at it).

Their are other production issues and honestly the womens division still is a bit rough (idk, the joshi side is fine, its the other side that's rough, Bea Priestley was good as was Britt and Rose can go but they'll need a lot more then that).

Brandi needs to stay out of the ring, i gave her the benefit of the doubt at Fyter Fest cause she was going up against Bates (who, as unfortunate as it is, really isn't good at any element of wrestling, as harsh as that sounds) but she also didn't do herself any favours here. She needs more training or should stick to a managerial role (she's great on the mic after all), at least until she gets said training.

Speaking of Leva Bates, the Librarian gimmick, i'm not going to say get rid of it, but its rough viewing, really rough. Avalon is doing it well enough i think (at least to an acceptable lower card level) but the Bates side is rough. On the other side, Sonny Kiss is entertaining as hell and a really fun wrestler (pretty decent in the ring as well surprisingly enough), i think he could be a really good lower card act once they go to TV.

The mid card is great as well but i'm worried they're going too hard and too fast with Page. He's very good but he's not really in the same tier is guys like Moxley, Omega or even Jericho for main eventers. He really should be fighting in the mid card for now (i mean he had a good match against Sabian however but guys like him, Havoc, MJF and Page all are midcarders to upper midcarders, at least for now).

The tag team wrestling on this show was great, i'm loving the newer teams that we haven't really had much exposure to before, guys like Dark Order (formerly known as 3.0) seem to be great acts. Private Party as well are enjoyable. I kind of hope they go the All Japan route and create two tag team titles (a world tag team title and a mid card tag team title). at least for western wrestling, it would set them apart and really accentuate their strengths.

Speaking of titles, we need details i think, other than the world title, we know theirs a womens title and a tag team title (with a tornuament) but nothing else. We need title details and tornuament details (they had better run tornuaments on an annual basis).

Kenny vs Cima was enjoyable. Cima can still go really well and Omega is Omega. Crowd did not seem into this as much as i would have thought but to me it was enjoyable (it was different from New Japan Kenny, which, especially towards the end, was downright formulaic).

Main event matchup was really good, the psychology was top notch and you can trust Dustin and Cody on that at least. Its clear all 4 men sat around a table (or wherever) and discussed what they wanted to do and general points/story they wanted out of the match and went out their and did it. This is the type of match that gets the best out of both rhodes brothers (that old, NWA style, in fact, almost 90's kings road in a way as well). Now, it could have been 5-10 minutes shorter but i understand why they wanted to draw it out a bit more (mainly for the purpose of the story).

They also need to bolster their main event scene a bit (that may come from guys from the WWE who are underutilised like Sami Zayn, Finn Balor/Prince Devitt etc), i still think right now, its Omega, Moxley and Jericho who are the names and if they want to be a properly national company, at least now, they're going to need a few more names in that main event scene otherwise that will get stale fast, at least in the short term until you can build up Page, MJF and a few others to that level. Now, they have the option with Pentagon Jr to make him a main event singles star (he is at that level) but you'd be sacrificing one of your top tag teams to do it.

So overall, main event aside and the Kenny vs Cima match aside, it was a bit of a meh show but i think that comes with growing pains of a new, international promotion. If they have these problems by the time October comes around and they're on TV, then i'd be worried.

[Dominator83]

The company is still going through growing pains as FFTF showed. Marvez downright sucks as a commentator and JR clearly is passed it. They need to get Excalibur as their full time play by play and find a good colour guy (honestly, Goldenboy was actually really good at it).

Their are other production issues and honestly the womens division still is a bit rough (idk, the joshi side is fine, its the other side that's rough, Bea Priestley was good as was Britt and Rose can go but they'll need a lot more then that).

Brandi needs to stay out of the ring, i gave her the benefit of the doubt at Fyter Fest cause she was going up against Bates (who, as unfortunate as it is, really isn't good at any element of wrestling, as harsh as that sounds) but she also didn't do herself any favours here. She needs more training or should stick to a managerial role (she's great on the mic after all), at least until she gets said training.

Speaking of Leva Bates, the Librarian gimmick, i'm not going to say get rid of it, but its rough viewing, really rough. Avalon is doing it well enough i think (at least to an acceptable lower card level) but the Bates side is rough. On the other side, Sonny Kiss is entertaining as hell and a really fun wrestler (pretty decent in the ring as well surprisingly enough), i think he could be a really good lower card act once they go to TV.

The mid card is great as well but i'm worried they're going too hard and too fast with Page. He's very good but he's not really in the same tier is guys like Moxley, Omega or even Jericho for main eventers. He really should be fighting in the mid card for now (i mean he had a good match against Sabian however but guys like him, Havoc, MJF and Page all are midcarders to upper midcarders, at least for now).

The tag team wrestling on this show was great, i'm loving the newer teams that we haven't really had much exposure to before, guys like Dark Order (formerly known as 3.0) seem to be great acts. Private Party as well are enjoyable. I kind of hope they go the All Japan route and create two tag team titles (a world tag team title and a mid card tag team title). at least for western wrestling, it would set them apart and really accentuate their strengths.

Speaking of titles, we need details i think, other than the world title, we know theirs a womens title and a tag team title (with a tornuament) but nothing else. We need title details and tornuament details (they had better run tornuaments on an annual basis).

Kenny vs Cima was enjoyable. Cima can still go really well and Omega is Omega. Crowd did not seem into this as much as i would have thought but to me it was enjoyable (it was different from New Japan Kenny, which, especially towards the end, was downright formulaic).

Main event matchup was really good, the psychology was top notch and you can trust Dustin and Cody on that at least. Its clear all 4 men sat around a table (or wherever) and discussed what they wanted to do and general points/story they wanted out of the match and went out their and did it. This is the type of match that gets the best out of both rhodes brothers (that old, NWA style, in fact, almost 90's kings road in a way as well). Now, it could have been 5-10 minutes shorter but i understand why they wanted to draw it out a bit more (mainly for the purpose of the story).

They also need to bolster their main event scene a bit (that may come from guys from the WWE who are underutilised like Sami Zayn, Finn Balor/Prince Devitt etc), i still think right now, its Omega, Moxley and Jericho who are the names and if they want to be a properly national company, at least now, they're going to need a few more names in that main event scene otherwise that will get stale fast, at least in the short term until you can build up Page, MJF and a few others to that level. Now, they have the option with Pentagon Jr to make him a main event singles star (he is at that level) but you'd be sacrificing one of your top tag teams to do it.

So overall, main event aside and the Kenny vs Cima match aside, it was a bit of a meh show but i think that comes with growing pains of a new, international promotion. If they have these problems by the time October comes around and they're on TV, then i'd be worried.

Great post pretty much spot on. Now speaking of adding to their main eventers, is Neville still slated to join the roster?

[Spens1]

The company is still going through growing pains as FFTF showed. Marvez downright sucks as a commentator and JR clearly is passed it. They need to get Excalibur as their full time play by play and find a good colour guy (honestly, Goldenboy was actually really good at it).

Their are other production issues and honestly the womens division still is a bit rough (idk, the joshi side is fine, its the other side that's rough, Bea Priestley was good as was Britt and Rose can go but they'll need a lot more then that).

Brandi needs to stay out of the ring, i gave her the benefit of the doubt at Fyter Fest cause she was going up against Bates (who, as unfortunate as it is, really isn't good at any element of wrestling, as harsh as that sounds) but she also didn't do herself any favours here. She needs more training or should stick to a managerial role (she's great on the mic after all), at least until she gets said training.

Speaking of Leva Bates, the Librarian gimmick, i'm not going to say get rid of it, but its rough viewing, really rough. Avalon is doing it well enough i think (at least to an acceptable lower card level) but the Bates side is rough. On the other side, Sonny Kiss is entertaining as hell and a really fun wrestler (pretty decent in the ring as well surprisingly enough), i think he could be a really good lower card act once they go to TV.

The mid card is great as well but i'm worried they're going too hard and too fast with Page. He's very good but he's not really in the same tier is guys like Moxley, Omega or even Jericho for main eventers. He really should be fighting in the mid card for now (i mean he had a good match against Sabian however but guys like him, Havoc, MJF and Page all are midcarders to upper midcarders, at least for now).

The tag team wrestling on this show was great, i'm loving the newer teams that we haven't really had much exposure to before, guys like Dark Order (formerly known as 3.0) seem to be great acts. Private Party as well are enjoyable. I kind of hope they go the All Japan route and create two tag team titles (a world tag team title and a mid card tag team title). at least for western wrestling, it would set them apart and really accentuate their strengths.

Speaking of titles, we need details i think, other than the world title, we know theirs a womens title and a tag team title (with a tornuament) but nothing else. We need title details and tornuament details (they had better run tornuaments on an annual basis).

Kenny vs Cima was enjoyable. Cima can still go really well and Omega is Omega. Crowd did not seem into this as much as i would have thought but to me it was enjoyable (it was different from New Japan Kenny, which, especially towards the end, was downright formulaic).

Main event matchup was really good, the psychology was top notch and you can trust Dustin and Cody on that at least. Its clear all 4 men sat around a table (or wherever) and discussed what they wanted to do and general points/story they wanted out of the match and went out their and did it. This is the type of match that gets the best out of both rhodes brothers (that old, NWA style, in fact, almost 90's kings road in a way as well). Now, it could have been 5-10 minutes shorter but i understand why they wanted to draw it out a bit more (mainly for the purpose of the story).

They also need to bolster their main event scene a bit (that may come from guys from the WWE who are underutilised like Sami Zayn, Finn Balor/Prince Devitt etc), i still think right now, its Omega, Moxley and Jericho who are the names and if they want to be a properly national company, at least now, they're going to need a few more names in that main event scene otherwise that will get stale fast, at least in the short term until you can build up Page, MJF and a few others to that level. Now, they have the option with Pentagon Jr to make him a main event singles star (he is at that level) but you'd be sacrificing one of your top tag teams to do it.

So overall, main event aside and the Kenny vs Cima match aside, it was a bit of a meh show but i think that comes with growing pains of a new, international promotion. If they have these problems by the time October comes around and they're on TV, then i'd be worried.

Great post pretty much spot on. Now speaking of adding to their main eventers, is Neville still slated to join the roster?

Yes but i'd imagine they're either holding out till he drops the Dream Gate championship or for TV to debut. He was meant to be in Page's spot in the main event iirc so he'll be a main eventer for sure and he is a legit name so that helps. They'd still need one more name after that i'd think.

[Arsenal]

From my perspective, AEW FFTF was my first ever exposure to AEW, or to guys like Kenny Omega, or any indy wrestling in general. I'm a lifelong (30+ year) wrestling fan who has been totally disgruntled with WWE for many years now.

The in-ring action was great and exciting, especially in the Omega/Cima match. However I have a hard time suspending disbelief when guys are taking huge impact moves like brainbusters 5-10 times in a match, then just walking around a few minutes later like nothing happened.

From my understanding this is the indy style, but I guess I'm just too old school. Still going to give AEW a try as we NEED competition since WWE has become a joke for other obvious reasons.

[Stanford]

From my perspective, AEW FFTF was my first ever exposure to AEW, or to guys like Kenny Omega, or any indy wrestling in general. I'm a lifelong (30+ year) wrestling fan who has been totally disgruntled with WWE for many years now.

The in-ring action was great and exciting, especially in the Omega/Cima match. However I have a hard time suspending disbelief when guys are taking huge impact moves like brainbusters 5-10 times in a match, then just walking around a few minutes later like nothing happened.

From my understanding this is the indy style, but I guess I'm just too old school. Still going to give AEW a try as we NEED competition since WWE has become a joke for other obvious reasons.

Have you watched anything from NXT?

[Arsenal]

From my perspective, AEW FFTF was my first ever exposure to AEW, or to guys like Kenny Omega, or any indy wrestling in general. I'm a lifelong (30+ year) wrestling fan who has been totally disgruntled with WWE for many years now.

The in-ring action was great and exciting, especially in the Omega/Cima match. However I have a hard time suspending disbelief when guys are taking huge impact moves like brainbusters 5-10 times in a match, then just walking around a few minutes later like nothing happened.

From my understanding this is the indy style, but I guess I'm just too old school. Still going to give AEW a try as we NEED competition since WWE has become a joke for other obvious reasons.

Have you watched anything from NXT?

I used to watch it a several years ago, back when they had Emma, Paige, Summer Rae, Bo Dallas, etc. Liked it better than the main roster product for sure, mainly because they allowed the wrestlers *ahem* sports entertainers to actually cut promos, and develop a character and personality. All things that are totally missing on the main roster.

That's the problem w/the main roster. No characters, no storylines, and absolute trash scripted promos that make everyone sound the same because the same group of writers is writing for everyone.

[Spens1]

From my perspective, AEW FFTF was my first ever exposure to AEW, or to guys like Kenny Omega, or any indy wrestling in general. I'm a lifelong (30+ year) wrestling fan who has been totally disgruntled with WWE for many years now.

The in-ring action was great and exciting, especially in the Omega/Cima match. However I have a hard time suspending disbelief when guys are taking huge impact moves like brainbusters 5-10 times in a match, then just walking around a few minutes later like nothing happened.

From my understanding this is the indy style, but I guess I'm just too old school. Still going to give AEW a try as we NEED competition since WWE has become a joke for other obvious reasons.

Have you watched anything from NXT?

I used to watch it a several years ago, back when they had Emma, Paige, Summer Rae, Bo Dallas, etc. Liked it better than the main roster product for sure, mainly because they allowed the wrestlers *ahem* sports entertainers to actually cut promos, and develop a character and personality. All things that are totally missing on the main roster.

That's the problem w/the main roster. No characters, no storylines, and absolute trash scripted promos that make everyone sound the same because the same group of writers is writing for everyone.

I think you basically put into words my main issue with WWE in general. Nothing about the promos or character work feels authentic and even when you get flashes of brilliance (Becky Lynch pre mania, Kofi Kingston this year), its then shortly watered down by Vince and his team of hollywood writers. It feels more like they're getting wrestlers to play actors, often with disasterous results.

I think in that way, AEW can certainly set themselves apart if they can provide authentic promos that sound like two people are feuding or are fighting each other.

[Stanford]

I used to watch it a several years ago, back when they had Emma, Paige, Summer Rae, Bo Dallas, etc.

It's improved 100x since then. Check out some of the Ciampa-Gargano matches. You could pretty much pick a Takeover at random and land on a great show.

[improper]

I used to watch it a several years ago, back when they had Emma, Paige, Summer Rae, Bo Dallas, etc.

It's improved 100x since then. Check out some of the Ciampa-Gargano matches. You could pretty much pick a Takeover at random and land on a great show.

There literally is not a bad Takeover from the past few years. Every single one is good to great.

[Arsenal]

I used to watch it a several years ago, back when they had Emma, Paige, Summer Rae, Bo Dallas, etc.

It's improved 100x since then. Check out some of the Ciampa-Gargano matches. You could pretty much pick a Takeover at random and land on a great show.

I've seen parts of it here and there, including a couple of Takeovers since then.

Again, better than the main for sure. I don't have the network so I don't watch anymore. I just get it for WrestleMania once per year and that's it.

What's the point when all these talented kids will just get ruined on the main roster anyway?

[jakecronus8]

CM Punk confirmed for starrcast 3. I’m thinking it’s more and more likely that he makes an appearance at All Out in some capacity. Rumors state that he basically has a blank check waiting for him at AEW.

[Arsenal]

CM Punk confirmed for starrcast 3. I’m thinking it’s more and more likely that he makes an appearance at All Out in some capacity. Rumors state that he basically has a blank check waiting for him at AEW.

Huge move to get much needed publicity right before the TNT debut. The only names which would help more are Cena, Batista, or The Rock, none of which they're likely to get.

I bet at ALL OUT they make an announcement of CM Punk to return to wrestling on the 1st episode of Wednesday Dynamite.