-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
AEW Dynamite |OT5| Hello again mother fuckers.
- Thread starter Naijaboy
- Start date
- Status
- Mei vs Yuka was good once they started clicking. I doubt it's the last time we see of Mei.
- Veny vs Sakura was my MOTN. Veny should be a high priority signing if she's interested.
- Itoh vs Mizunami was good and laid out to show off their big personalities. I marked out for Maki performing her entrance in front of an AEW banner.
- Kadokura vs Kong was solid.
Everyone came out of the show looking strong. The commentary helped add backstory to the wrestlers for unfamiliar viewers. I'm not surprised they went with experienced winners early on. I predict Yuka & Mizunami to upset the veterans.
- Veny vs Sakura was my MOTN. Veny should be a high priority signing if she's interested.
- Itoh vs Mizunami was good and laid out to show off their big personalities. I marked out for Maki performing her entrance in front of an AEW banner.
- Kadokura vs Kong was solid.
Everyone came out of the show looking strong. The commentary helped add backstory to the wrestlers for unfamiliar viewers. I'm not surprised they went with experienced winners early on. I predict Yuka & Mizunami to upset the veterans.
I wasn't expecting Aja Kong to pull out a Ganso Bomb of all things in The Year Of Our Lord Twenty Fucking Twenty One, but here we are! Holy Fuck!
Yuka Sakazaki vs. Emi Sakura
Ryo Mizunami vs. Aja Kong
Somebody in AEW better be buying Maki Itoh a plane ticket and writing up a contract, but I'll be happy to see Ryo make it back to AEW as a full timer too, she's really got something that women's wrestling in America lacks. I'd like to see more of Mei and Veny (and all of these ladies really) in a AEW ring again some point soon too!
Or logically the more experienced wrestler won...
The vaugely familiar winners also happened to be the most experienced wrestlers on this side of the bracket. Them losing in the 1st round would have been a huge upset.
In Japanese wrestling experience usually trumps popularity, especially compared to typical American wrestling. Even AEW tend toward that style of booking. Jericho, SCU, Riho and Cody were first Champions.
Last edited:
I think another factor is that this is for a title and the likes of Mei and Maki shouldn't be anywhere near that level right off the bat IMO. Veny would've been a good dark horse pick but looks like they wanted a way to Legitimize Emi Sakura to the AEW audience (which worked IMO). She needs her theme to be trimmed cause it sounds like 3 mashed together tho
I'm gonna root for Rio.Wasn't it mentioned before but she was just about to retire before she did AEW for that POV match? Seemed to really revitalize her and her character work is much stronger than I anticipated. Has a cool look too and more hosses the better
I'm gonna root for Rio.Wasn't it mentioned before but she was just about to retire before she did AEW for that POV match? Seemed to really revitalize her and her character work is much stronger than I anticipated. Has a cool look too and more hosses the better
I really want Yuka to beat Britt in the final. Shida retains against Yuka on PPV and Britt attacks after the match. After a bit of build Shida loses the title to Britt on Dynamite in the main event.
How about a one hour Saturday show? It could be used as a lead-in to their PPVs when they have them and showcase talent otherwise. Maybe on TBS, for the classic WCW connection.
SHE. IS. OUTSTANDING.
Let's email TK and say we'll pay for part of her contract to see her full-time in AEW.
The show was great last night. We've really been missing out with this joshi stuff. I think it was intended to be a pretty major part of the women's division but before they could fully get that going, the pandemic hit. I don't think this is the last we see of any of them.
Re: the booking, I think it's just a combination of keeping established talent strong and some of them they've already had formal working arrangements with. So in hindsight not really a surprise who won. I doubt Emi or Aja win the whole thing but they typically keep veterans like that booked strong so that it means something when they lose rather than job them inmediately and kill all credibility. I saw this as an intro for the newcomers and I fully expect to see more of them in AEW later
Re: the booking, I think it's just a combination of keeping established talent strong and some of them they've already had formal working arrangements with. So in hindsight not really a surprise who won. I doubt Emi or Aja win the whole thing but they typically keep veterans like that booked strong so that it means something when they lose rather than job them inmediately and kill all credibility. I saw this as an intro for the newcomers and I fully expect to see more of them in AEW later
My only note to Maki is that she should do her diving headbutt from the second rope because it would sell how hard her head is that she doesn't even need to go to the top rope to finish fights with it.
You can't be serious on both of those statements right???
Hopefully Sakura has dropped the Freddie Mercury character. She looked so much more of a threat and legit in last night's match. I'm not sure what her gimmick is in Japan, but hopefully how she was in the first round of the tournament is what we get moving forward. She was even unrecognizable at first.
That is awesome news if we do see Muta make it back over to Impact for a few matches, just sucks that his knees are bum as fuck.
That is awesome news if we do see Muta make it back over to Impact for a few matches, just sucks that his knees are bum as fuck.
Really nice to see the real Emi Sakura on the live chat for the Japanese commentary version of the tournament. Do any wrestlers drop in the live chat during Dark?
My issue with the booking of the Japanese bracket is nothing major and mostly nitpicking, but it's that of the four matches none of them had one of the debutants as the winner. One of the four that won was obviously going to win that side of the bracket so nothing really changes, but it just feels wrong that there wasn't one single surprise out of four matches.
Regardless, I feel like they all showed enough that there will be interest to bring them back so it shouldn't matter much really. Especially Veny. They should be priority number 1.
Regardless, I feel like they all showed enough that there will be interest to bring them back so it shouldn't matter much really. Especially Veny. They should be priority number 1.
Regarding the practicability of the
That King attire is a Mercury staple though, she also still has the mic stand, but hey, as long as the moustache is gone and she sticks to the script of not employing face moves when she's booked as s heel, it's all good. That was the only thing that annoyed/confused a lot of people in the early AEW days. She was more often in heel teams or roles so her fishing for a "We Will Rock You" clap along with a cheerful attitude never made sense. As a pure wrestler she was one of the best in early AEW, but the character work was questionable.
That King attire is a Mercury staple though, she also still has the mic stand, but hey, as long as the moustache is gone and she sticks to the script of not employing face moves when she's booked as s heel, it's all good. That was the only thing that annoyed/confused a lot of people in the early AEW days. She was more often in heel teams or roles so her fishing for a "We Will Rock You" clap along with a cheerful attitude never made sense. As a pure wrestler she was one of the best in early AEW, but the character work was questionable.
Gonna watch the show for a third time later on, but with Japanese commentary. I need more of this stuff. <3
If you ask me, people need to get over the heels should work one way, faces should work another way idea. You can want the crowd to cheer for you but also want to win at any cost. Those aren't contradictions in the real world. We get real athletes like that all the time. Does heel Kenny Omega not still do stuff that the crowd chant along with?
That said, I also love that they have a defined heel tunnel and a defined face tunnel that they actually use for story telling purposes, and I'm not 100% sure I can claim those two feelings aren't somewhat contradictory... but I love that we have some faces that can do heelish stuff in the ring, and heels that wrestle like they want the crowd to like them, etc. It bothers me more when someone completely changes their wrestling style when they turn. Face Lance Archer isn't any different in the ring to heel Lance Archer really. He just now beats up bad guys instead of good guys. I still want him doing the same stuff.
It would be nice if AEW occasionally did one of these. I'm fine with booking being predictable 80% of the time: it means you've set a story that the viewer can logically follow. Random swerves for the sake of a swerve means you don't know what you're doing, or you don't care.
So, fuck. If we're going to have a championship match at Revolution, there are a lot of women's matches left to do before then. The Japanese bracket actually works out perfectly smoothly, with shows on upcoming Mondays and then the finals on the Dynamite go-home show. But the US block is much more rushed, since we're still not even halfway through the first round.
We have five US matches (two first-round, two quarterfinals, and a semifinal) left to schedule and only one week of Dynamite. So what does AEW do? Put the quarterfinals on TV and the semifinals on Youtube, or rush four matches between this week and next to do a seminal on Dynamite? This is a real fuckin' mess and a lot of people are going to be angry as a result.
Potential schedule --
Japan
Mon. Feb. 22 - Japan Women's Quarterfinals (Youtube)
Mon. Mar. 1 - Japan Women's Semifinal (Youtube)
Wed. Mar. 3 - Women's Finals (Dynamite)
US
Wed. Feb. 17 - US Women's First Round - Riho vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite)
Mon. Feb. 22 - US Women's First Round (Youtube)
Wed. Feb. 24 - US Women's Quarterfinals (Dynamite)
Mon. Mar. 1 - US Women's Semifinal (Youtube)
Mar. 3 - Women's Finals (Dynamite)
We have five US matches (two first-round, two quarterfinals, and a semifinal) left to schedule and only one week of Dynamite. So what does AEW do? Put the quarterfinals on TV and the semifinals on Youtube, or rush four matches between this week and next to do a seminal on Dynamite? This is a real fuckin' mess and a lot of people are going to be angry as a result.
Potential schedule --
Japan
Mon. Feb. 22 - Japan Women's Quarterfinals (Youtube)
Mon. Mar. 1 - Japan Women's Semifinal (Youtube)
Wed. Mar. 3 - Women's Finals (Dynamite)
US
Wed. Feb. 17 - US Women's First Round - Riho vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite)
Mon. Feb. 22 - US Women's First Round (Youtube)
Wed. Feb. 24 - US Women's Quarterfinals (Dynamite)
Mon. Mar. 1 - US Women's Semifinal (Youtube)
Mar. 3 - Women's Finals (Dynamite)
the schedule i posted is what i'd consider the ideal. gives the illusion of rest time between matches. builds up to revolution at a steady pace. two women's matches on dynamite is just what makes sense.
i expect aew to do something much more stupid instead.
Four very entertaining matches, I enjoyed them all even if I didn't agree with all the winners.
Out of the AEW debutants I was most impressed by Suruga and Itoh, Suruga for her smooth ring work with only 2 years experience (and yes she does have a lovely smile) and Itoh for her personality.
In terms of production levels, it was a mixed bag, the video quality was very impressive, super clean and clear but the whole thing was filmed in a building even smaller than the one NJPW used for Strong or AEW used in Atlanta for a few weeks, so I can understand why they didn't want to put it on Dynamite for that reason. I thought Excalibur did a good job of introducing the wrestlers and explaining their back stories and characters and such.
As much as I'm pulling for Yuka to win I think it's gonna go to Aja. No offence to Mizunami but she just comes across as a smaller version of Aja and why bother when you have the real deal available. I think Aja is gonna take it all. The only others I see with a chance are Britt and Yuka and I don't think Britt should be beating Yuka again after she left her injured last time, if it's gonna be Britt/Yuka in the final then it should be Yuka getting revenge.
EDIT: I forgot to note Veny who was also very impressive in the ring, athletic but also snappy. Sometimes you watch women's wrestling, mainly in the US and the inexperience is on full display, it looks like they're always struggling to be in the right position and nothing is done smoothly. Veny was the opposite of that, they looked like they'd had a thousand matches and wasn't doing anything they weren't easily capable of doing.
Out of the AEW debutants I was most impressed by Suruga and Itoh, Suruga for her smooth ring work with only 2 years experience (and yes she does have a lovely smile) and Itoh for her personality.
In terms of production levels, it was a mixed bag, the video quality was very impressive, super clean and clear but the whole thing was filmed in a building even smaller than the one NJPW used for Strong or AEW used in Atlanta for a few weeks, so I can understand why they didn't want to put it on Dynamite for that reason. I thought Excalibur did a good job of introducing the wrestlers and explaining their back stories and characters and such.
As much as I'm pulling for Yuka to win I think it's gonna go to Aja. No offence to Mizunami but she just comes across as a smaller version of Aja and why bother when you have the real deal available. I think Aja is gonna take it all. The only others I see with a chance are Britt and Yuka and I don't think Britt should be beating Yuka again after she left her injured last time, if it's gonna be Britt/Yuka in the final then it should be Yuka getting revenge.
EDIT: I forgot to note Veny who was also very impressive in the ring, athletic but also snappy. Sometimes you watch women's wrestling, mainly in the US and the inexperience is on full display, it looks like they're always struggling to be in the right position and nothing is done smoothly. Veny was the opposite of that, they looked like they'd had a thousand matches and wasn't doing anything they weren't easily capable of doing.
Last edited:
Yuka beat Britt in the match so I can get behind the Britt wants to avenge her loss and Yuka wants revenge for the after match assault storyline.
143,000 views in 17 hours for the women's round 1 tournament on YouTube. Barely half as high as the women's tag team cup, but decent either way, I suppose.
I'm thinking the schedule probably works out as:
Mon 2/22- Japan second round, and the last two US first round matches on YouTube (alternately the US matches could be on Dark)
Wed 2/24- US second round on Dynamite
Mon 3/1- US and Japan finals on YouTube
Wed 3/3- tournament finals on Dynamite
That seems like a fine compromise to me. The reality is, with two hours of TV per week, the only way they could do a tournament this size and have it all play out on TV is to either dedicate most of an entire month of TV to it, or let it play out over like three months. If this makes people really mad, they need to lighten up IMO. The only other option is to have a smaller tournament like they have for the men on a few occasions.
Mon 2/22- Japan second round, and the last two US first round matches on YouTube (alternately the US matches could be on Dark)
Wed 2/24- US second round on Dynamite
Mon 3/1- US and Japan finals on YouTube
Wed 3/3- tournament finals on Dynamite
That seems like a fine compromise to me. The reality is, with two hours of TV per week, the only way they could do a tournament this size and have it all play out on TV is to either dedicate most of an entire month of TV to it, or let it play out over like three months. If this makes people really mad, they need to lighten up IMO. The only other option is to have a smaller tournament like they have for the men on a few occasions.
Last edited:
- Status