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Clearly AEW is doing alright without the Best Bout Machine or the Cleaner. And when Kenny finally does turn, it'll be cathartic to a lot of the folks that have been following for a while. Long term storytelling isn't possible if you have to cater to the people that flip channels and end up on AEW - and in spite of that, they've done a pretty good job of getting the point across for anyone coming late to the party or missing a few episodes (which I have missed quite a few, and still follow what's going on pretty well). We know what happens when you try to satiate the person flipping through channels, and you end up with Slap Jack, T-Bar & Mace.
Bottom line - someone watching that doesn't know who Kenny is SHOULD NOT take him seriously as a competitor, that's part of why his heel run will be fantastic, it will catch those folks by surprise, and it will give the die-hards what they've wanted. And he will be an excellent foil to Hangman.
I have to ask why do you care if Kenny garners new fans, because it kinda sounds like concern trolling at this point?
It's too late for that, wheels are already in motion.
I'm planning out the T-shirts for SHART now.
Not trying to derail the discussion more but that's just LOL. All I'll say about that whole mess - once again, thank GOD for AEW.
Anyway, with the Kenny thing I trust that there's a long term plan and story building here so I'll let it play out. Everything about the Omega/Page thing has been fantastic over the past year so I have no reason not to believe that will continue. Everything seems to strongly suggest that this is building to the type of singles run people want from Omega. It seems it was a conscious choice from the start not to present him as that right out of the gate, probably for a variety of reasons- give his body a break after a likely brutal run in NJPW, allow other known stars to shine brighter and help build an immediate audience (eg Jericho, Moxley, and Cody), and slow build the groundwork for the eventual run we're about to get. This whole thing has done wonders for Page as well, who was starting to border on Roman Reigns forced push levels of fan resistance but is now on track to be a full fledged star.
Not concern trolling. I'd like to see AEW succeed off their merits and be a viable competitor and grow their audience because I can't stand the scripted sanitised WWE stuff. The closest thing I've seen to what I like is NXT but even that suffers from the fact that it's made by WWE.
I was really looking forward to seeing Kenny Omega because of what I'd heard about him from Japan (I didn't follow that closely other than to read about what was going on over there from time to time and seeing some of his matches). What I'm seeing is not what I expected at all and he hasn't grabbed me as a character that I should either root for or hate. For me at least, I'm not invested in his character. Sound like I need to be patient.
While there's quite a lot I dislike about AEW, there's also some things I think are very good.
Stuff I like:
I think FTR are magnificent and they should stick to their gimmick and have tag matches with proper rules that make sense and that they can break to win, and build the division around them. The problem is they are expected to do matches with guys who just want to get all their moves in.
Moxley has been decent as champion but I think he suffers with the no audience thing going on. I hope the MJF feud continued because I enjoyed that and I wanted to tune in to see what happened next.
MJF is money and if he had a good long feud with a babyface champion it could draw new viewers in.
I think Ricky Starks is great and I hope they use him well - another guy like MJF who you'd tune in to see get his comeuppance.
Jungle Boy - his size can be used to book him as an underdog. Held back by the other two in that team in my opinion. I think Luchasaurus is awful.
Adam Page - could be the top babyface if they book him correctly and if the plan is him vs Kenny then that would be a great feud if Kenny holds up his side of it.
I won't list all the stuff I don't like because I'm probably not the target audience for the comedy stuff like Orange Cassidy etc.
Overall I think they maybe need a few more strong babyfaces because I think there are more good strong heels in the company who need equivalent babyfaces to feud with.
BTE was fucking gold this week. I could watch Brodie Lee + Silver & Reynolds for hours and not get bored. Poor Sue just could not keep it together during her segment with DO, and that whole skit was heartwarming to me for some reason. Like I really do wonder if she's considered to be mom to everyone backstage. If so, that's really sweet. Also, no one can sell like Ortiz.
How do you feel about the Joshis? I've been missing them especially Yuka and Riho. For the longest time I thought they were the best part of the women's division but now it's taking shape without them. Yeah a lot of their matches with the non-japanese wrestlers could get a little on the sloppy side but that's something that could've improved with everyone working together over time.
Thank god for Hikaru Shida. She's been put in a horrible situation where her entire championship reign has been in the pandemic era but she still puts out consistently good to great matches. Her feud with Penelope Ford was explosive and now the thing she has going with Thunder Rosa is some of the best stuff the women's division has had in a while. Can't wait to see where it all goes.
Also is it true that travel restrictions are being loosened? I saw something about Shanna being able to return soon. With Will Osprey going back to NJPW does that mean maybe some more returns in the not too distant future for AEW?
Admittedly I don't follow the women's division that closely.
I didn't think much to Riho tbh, I didn't think she looked believable as a champion, especially when against Nia Jax.
Shida looks good and she has some fire so is more to my liking.
That said, the Thunder Rosa vs Serena (who they've just signed) was the best non-NXT women's match I've seen in a good while. Everything looked good and believable. If they get Serena involved in coaching some of the more inexperienced women, that will be a plus for them.
On the other side of the coin, Big Swole might well be the worst performer of any gender I've seen, tied with Janela.
I'm not up to speed with travel restrictions and they seem to change quite often. PAC/Neville is a big victim of that here in the UK and is a big loss in my opinion.
Both her and Nyla got the screw because of it. Nyla would have been a great heel champion to eat up the babyfaces in front of the crowd. Shida brings the same sort of energy Asuka has in her matches as well.
Thunder Rosa has future champion written all over her, more than anyone else.
Nia could be booked against any of the fiery babyface women similar to how Awesome Kong was against Gail Kim.
In hindsight I wish they would have held off on crowning Nyla so early. I love Riho and thought she was a great champion but she has definite credibility issues with a portion of the audience who don't buy her being able to beat anyone much bigger than her. Shida can believably beat anyone, and she can have a good match with pretty much anyone. I want her to have a long reign but Nyla really needs to have a dominant heel type of reign. Not sure if it was always the plan for her to drop the belt that soon, or if they made the decision due to the relative lack of babyfaces available due to the pandemic. Shida has been a better champion for the current state of the division.
Having Nyla eventually get the belt back from Shida and having a good run seems like a good path, then you can eventually build somebody to bring her down and be elevated.
Having Nyla eventually get the belt back from Shida and having a good run seems like a good path, then you can eventually build somebody to bring her down and be elevated.
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I thought you were all meme-ing and making stuff up because I don't follow WWE at all but omg this can't be real. Maybe some of them can overcome the stupid names but this silliness is getting out of hand. The idea that they pay people to come up with this shit and someone thinks it's good is hilarious and kind of sad.
God I'm ready for AEW tonight. They're already putting Deeb against King so that should be decent enough.
God I'm ready for AEW tonight. They're already putting Deeb against King so that should be decent enough.
Slapjack, T-Bar and Mace.
Honestly, it's still beter than their old RNG names.
Butcher & Blade could head a stable with them and it'd be fine.
Butcher and Blade are early 90's WWF bad but at least they've embraced the gimmick fully. Especially that Butcher. I'll never forget those considerate geeks washing their hands before the fight with the Bucks only to have those dastardly man-children smack them in the face with raw beef.
I get the 'tude they're going for w/ Slapjack and Mace, but WTF are they doing with T-bar!?! Is he a bartender at a ski hill lounge by night?
He should, he made that look really good.
Cutler is low-key one of my favorite AEW hires. He's that eternal underdog but he's also the kind of guy you keep around because he's dependable and a good worker.
I also love how she's embraced being involved in all this.
The voodoo segment even ties together why Sue might actually be cool with hanging out with Dark Order
I can already see it now. Dark Order feuds with Santana and Ortiz. They tease that one of the Dark Order's elders put a hit out on those guys and at the end the elder is revealed to be Sue still pissed off about not getting an apology.
Even better, Santana & Ortiz keeps losing due to random aches and pains during their matches until they find out its Sue and won't stop until she gets her apology.
I laughed hard when Ortiz threw up the "X" while choking.
I laughed hard when Ortiz threw up the "X" while choking.
Benjamin Carter Reveals Which AEW Wrestler Got Him On Tony Khan's Radar
Before he makes his AEW Dynamite debut on a special "Late Night Dynamite", Benjamin Carter made a stop on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast to…
www.wrestlinginc.com
Thank you
Britt Baker
Benjamin Carter Reveals Which AEW Wrestler Got Him On Tony Khan's Radar
Before he makes his AEW Dynamite debut on a special "Late Night Dynamite", Benjamin Carter made a stop on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast to…
Thank youBritt Baker
Imagine not liking Britt Baker.
Benjamin Carter Reveals Which AEW Wrestler Got Him On Tony Khan's Radar
Before he makes his AEW Dynamite debut on a special "Late Night Dynamite", Benjamin Carter made a stop on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast to…
Thank youBritt Baker
Remember back when everyone hated Britt, and she turned into a gem seemingly overnight?
Imagine Carter vs. Fenix. Just imagine how hype that will be.
Late Night Dynamite will be at like 1am EST tonight. LOL. Not staying up for that. Will watch tomorrow morning.
Tony Sleep -Joey Janela wrestling at pretty much every GCW show, even booking plenty of matches and entire shows from time to time. Definitely has a list of the top talent available to call on for any given weekend.
Tony Awake - Britt Baker watches one GCW show, tells Tony this one dude seems pretty talented.
Tony Awake - Britt Baker watches one GCW show, tells Tony this one dude seems pretty talented.
A big part of it was it really felt like her presentation was all wrong. Then Britt and AEW went the Roll Model route and it just clicked. Sometimes it's just finding that right gear to get in.
She stopped wrestling, which helped
Sounds cruel but...gave her time to find her character a little better.
Britt's biggest problem was that she was playing a straight-laced babyface character that was being presented as an elite wrestler, but she couldn't come close to living up to that with her current abilities. That was always a set up for failure because you really need to be an ace in the ring to make that sort of character work. Being a heel works better for her limited in-ring skills because it's more about getting over a character for her now, plus she just seems a lot more natural for this role, if I had to guess it probably fits her actual personality more? Now she has a strong character that is over and can work on improving her in-ring.
I think there was a pretty healthy dose of backlash over incorrect assumptions too. People assumed every step that she was going to be crowned as the top of the division but they always stopped short of that. I think they put her in prominent spots to make people take notice because they see her as a building block, but it was always going to be about Riho and the joshi early on. That didn't do her any favors because of the fears that they were doing a Roman Reigns push (Adam Page had to deal with the same thing).
I think there was a pretty healthy dose of backlash over incorrect assumptions too. People assumed every step that she was going to be crowned as the top of the division but they always stopped short of that. I think they put her in prominent spots to make people take notice because they see her as a building block, but it was always going to be about Riho and the joshi early on. That didn't do her any favors because of the fears that they were doing a Roman Reigns push (Adam Page had to deal with the same thing).
Yep, won't deny that this helped. Gave Britt time to develop her character better.
Also I've been catching up on Ben Carter and man, he's good for someone so young. I don't think it's wrong to think he might be a bit similar to Will Ospreay but hopefully minus the absolute garbage personality. He might be a steal for AEW.
He must know about Calvin Tankman. Quick! Make sure Britt watches For The Culture!
Welcome to me every week.
Welcome to live wrestling in the UK for forever.
Would you listen to a unwashed backpacking-through-south-america spring breaker or a board certified dentist?
If anyone wants to make a NJPW G1 thread I would loooove that. I posted a tiny bit in the Wrestling hangout over the weekend but every moment I was worried I'd see a Jinder Mahal post out of nowhere and be temporarily blinded
It's WWE shit
I know. They can always get his contact info, tho! 👀
Oh don't be so dramatic. Juicy Jinder is a GOOD post to see, pal.
Empyrean Cocytus has the G1 topic ready to go. Just needs a few more adjustments.
More things awesome to know bout Megabyte Ronnie. Besides bein ranked 18 pro eater he is also a helluva LOL and WoW dude.
Do I know what any of this means? No.
Does this make me like Ronnie even more? Yes.
We're different breeds of dork he and I, but dorks all the same and we love our own.
He's also an Army veteran and recently dedicated an entire tweet thread on how Trump doesn't care about vets and not to buy his bullshit. So I think he checks out alright all around.
EDIT: Yeah, based on his retweets, I think he and Hangman would get along well.