Mootinie
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Posts posted by Mootinie
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Wardlow needs a dance partner as much as AEW needs credible heels. I like Jay Lethal as a talent but he went into the Wardlow feud off the back of a defeat to Samoa Joe, the ROH TV Champion. He was never beating Wardlow. I knew it, you knew it, Larry knew it.
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Legend has it that if AEW does not have a tournament running at any given time, that supervolcano at Yellowstone National Park will erupt and turn the entire United States into ancient Pompeii.
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2 hours ago, Makhai said:
Buyrates are up overall, this will be the best revenue year for the company, and they will finish with 5 100k+ PPVs for the year. Ratings have gone down at the moment, but that has more to do with scattershot booking, and the WWE getting its crap together more than anything they are doing. Raw rating is up like 50% or something like that since HHH took the book. Only so much wrestling people will tolerate.
I think the ratings decline is a bit more longer term than you're letting on here. They haven't done a 0.45 since September 2021. They were doing 0.30's in November and December 2021. I think this has been an issue with the company for longer than say, the last PPV cycle, the last 3 months y'know? It's been happening to them for a while.
The MJF drama gave them a 0.40 for the post-Double or Nothing drama. As soon as it was obvious there was not going to be a follow-up on that particular story, the ratings were straight back to the same level they were before Double or Nothing. The week after, they did something like a 0.28, a positively awful rating. And now, days after MJF's big PPV return, everybody is talking about CM Punk's media scrum and the backstage fight. The audience has moved on.
If Tony Khan booked Austin vs. McMahon, he would have had Steve Austin get work fired by Vince and then he would have pulled him from TV for 3 months to make the story believable. This is wrestling, it's not a prestige HBO drama. People tune in to see the talents they want to see, you put them on the show. People wanted to see MJF and see how the story played out. AEW denied them of this, they stopped caring.
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Tony Khan said that the buy rate for All Out 2022 will be in the Double or Nothing region, which did 155,000 buys. All Out 2021 did 205,000 buys. At this time last year, they were doing 0.45's and 0.50's for Dynamite. Now they're doing 0.35's.
However you slice it, this is it a work, is it a shoot era of AEW is not conducive to generating good business. I sincerely hope his blaming of WWE's "counter-programming" is just an elegant spin and not an opinion that he genuinely holds.
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Sheamus getting a standing ovation was lovely and very well deserved. For a 16 year veteran who has won every belt but the one he was fighting for to put on that performance in defeat speaks volumes about the man behind the character.
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17 hours ago, Jaysin said:
I know it won't happen, but I hope Hayter wins the Interim(stupid) women's title at All Out and have Toni chase go on the chase. I just don't want to see Shida or Baker getting another title run yet.
Toni is probably the best idea. I would have her beat Baker and Hayter in her two title defences and then unify the belts against Thunder Rosa when she's back.
I wouldn't be booking Rosa against Baker or Hayter any time soon if the SHEETZ are right about the backstage heat.
But, even so, there's no getting around it that Toni Storm feels cold. She's not especially over. They should have done this title switch at Forbidden Door instead of having Toni get beat.
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On 8/25/2022 at 3:54 PM, CGN91 said:
There is some rumbling that Rosa isn't injured and she's just doing a break to cool things off after a dispute with Hayter and Britt. I have the feeling that he backstage atmosphere during the last months went from very good to abysmal. Fingers crossed things will get better tho
I have read that, but there is a noticeable downturn in the amount of matches she has been wrestling recently.
3 in August, 3 in July, 3 in June, 1 in May, 3 in April, 5 in March, 6 in February, 7 in January, 8 in December, 7 in November...
And her last match was that trios match on Dark that ran like 3 minutes. It's intriguing too that she hasn't been on Mission Pro cards either and I remember her being very passionate about working there, it is pretty much her promotion and they just run shows without her booked now.
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1 hour ago, John Lions said:
It was a great line - every single point Punk made was a lie. If you listen to the promo, Punk repeatedly said "stop me if I'm telling any lies". The whole point is that everything he said WAS a lie. Hangman's not a coward, and Punk knows he's not there to say anything back. Punk is very clearly the heel so him telling Mox that he's a nobody is just another lie. He went full heel in this promo. No one who watches AEW would remotely think that considering how revered Mox is in AEW - he's been the top guy since Day 1.
People convince themselves that AEW is on some different plane when it comes to wrestling storytelling like this company isn't just the inmates running the asylum and doing whatever they please. When your World Champion is telling you that wrestlers in the other company are better than the wrestlers here, I'm not like "oh what a heel", I'm like "wow, this company is moronic, why would you air that on your show?"
My Dad, who hasn't watched WWE since like 1999, had absolutely no clue what CM Punk was even saying and I had to explain to him that Jon Moxley used to be in a stable called The Shield and it consisted of three members. That he once wrestled Eddie Guerrero, and that he worked with a dude called Kofi Kingston. Why do I have to explain AEW's promos to AEW's audience?
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I hated Punk's line about Moxley being the third best in his group and that being a recurring theme. Jon Moxley is the AEW World Champion and all Punk did there was tell us that WWE's World Champion is better. That's an objectively stupid thing to air on your television show when you're attempting to compete. Just telling your audience that Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins are better. Okay, I'll go watch their show instead of yours then. It's silly.
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I don't think AEW have the roster for 3 hours of A-show tier television every single week.
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Long ass post but here's my thoughts on what I thought was a good 4 hours of AEW TV last week.
Dynamite
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Cassidy vs. Lethal: I much prefer Jay Lethal as a heel in this group. OC is just bulletproof over and a perfect curtain jerker babyface. **1/4
HayterBaker vs. ThunderStorm: This was good during the Hayter and Storm bits, and not so good during Baker and Rosa bits. I loved Jamie getting the win and hope it's the start of a prolonged push. **1/2
Christian vs. Hardy: I don't need to see Matt wrestling and they should have him doing character work to lift up talents who need the help. Bring back the Hardy Family Office! *
Promos: Shouting doesn't automatically make it good, Ethan Page. Can he get a character beyond angry perennial loser? Total goober this guy.
That Team Everybody Loves vs. Trash Boys: It was fine for what it was. Quite a bit of walking and brawling but it picked up at the end. The dumpster spot looked bad and they could have gotten seriously hurt there. if you slow it down, you can see it nearly land on Colten's ankle. Yikes. Like a lot of spots, I questioned whether this was rehearsed. **
Whatever Nickname Jericho Is This Week vs. Wheeler Yoots: I'm still not sure what the internet sees in Yuta, he doesn't do anything special and personifies average to me. I don't know what to say about this match. It happened and it was perfectly acceptable. **1/4
This company has a main event problem. Recycling back to Mox vs. Jericho after a signing spree. Why haven't they put Darby, Jungle Boy, Miro, Malakai, Andrade in the title scene? What's going on with Hangman? Maybe they weren't booked right to make it credible but these guys should always be there or thereabouts. This was the time to inject new life into the World title and this company has been reasonably good when their backs have been against the wall. They did great during the pandemic, I considered the TNT title tournament a resounding success and they had some awesome matches. But I think they have failed here. Punk's injury was a problem but Jericho should be nowhere near the title and this whole programme feels like a step backwards.
Rampage
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Mox vs. Mancer: This was my first time seeing Mance and I don't think he exactly showed out. Not that Moxley was much better. He just does really weak looking strikes, hits the guardrail, blades, and does his finish to win. This whole Interim title run has been poor to me. *3/4
Takeshita vs. Nemeth: Konosuke just has star written all over him in a way that none of the younger guns in this company do. **
Rayne vs. Leila: I know that Grey lacks experience but she didn't really show anything here and the only good part of this match was Madison's finisher. I don't think Leila is ready for this level but it's odd, she gets a match like this but they have given nothing to Madi Wrenkowski, Kilynn King or Ashley D'Amboise even though all three seem much further along than Leila. DUD
Lee/Swerve vs. Woods/Nese: This was really great. I loved Smart Mark going through the table. Josh Woods looked awesome here, talk about maximising your minutes. That German through the table was brutal. Swerve and Nese have amazing chemistry but they're also both so giving to their opponents. Strickland taking a goddamn rotating brainbuster into the steps looked nasty but it put over Woods so much as a killer. Big fan of the protein powder spot too haha, that got a laugh out of me. I never do that stuff dry but I am obviously not a Premier Athlete. Yeah, this was awesome, it was loads of fun. ***3/4
BOTB III
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Lethal vs. Wardlow: A bit shorter than I expected with a slightly too long post-match as Matt just said. But I get the impression they did this to run it back at All Out. **1/4
Rosa vs. Hayter: It was fun to see Jamie getting an opponent she could proper slug it out with but, even so, it felt like Thunder had a hard time keeping up. I don't know if Thunder Rosa "sandbags" or just isn't prepared for the pace the other ladies want to move at when they're wrestling. Jamie had to power her up for the backbreaker on the knee because I don't think Rosa was ready for it, that seems to happen with her quite a bit. I still think Thunder Rosa's title reign was about the journey and the destination hasn't been that exciting. ***
Castagnoli vs. Takeshita: Basically two great athletes doing a prolonged showcase of how fast, strong and impressive they are. This reminded me of Cesaro's awesome matches with Zayn and it still didn't look like he had even broke a sweat out there. Some good near falls but they never quite got me believing Takeshita would win and I almost would have preferred this if it wasn't a title match to help suspend my belief further. ***1/2
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Ideally a 2nd hour of Rampage and shift some fringe talent to ROH when they get a TV deal.
Last week's Rampage did 375k live viewers and a demo of 0.11. It's getting to the point where I'm starting to wonder if that show is going to be outright cancelled, let alone be given a second hour.
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Two years and three months in as TNA, I just had my best match to date.
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Since we're about a month away from this year's All Out, did anyone expect that when Ruby Soho came out to a thunderous ovation as the Joker for the Women's Casino Battle Royal just how badly AEW would drop the ball with her? She's been used to put over Jade, Britt (TWICE), and now Tay & Jay. I don't think she's come out on the winning end of a single storyline since she's been in the company.
She did reach the final of the TBS Championship tournament and the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. I don't know if they've dropped the ball on her, she seemed rusty when she came into AEW and I don't think she was wrestling particularly good matches at first. I think the combination of injuries and being one of those shelved talents in WWE meant it was always going to take a while for her to get back in ring shape and find her game. I have been a bit more impressed with her recently though and I think she should be back in the hunt when the title next changes hands.
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Darby vs. Brody: the best thing on the show by some distance. It ebbed and flowed, the crowd got in behind Allin and both guys worked with intensity. Probably the best match I've seen on Dynamite since Jericho vs. Ortiz. ***1/2
BCC vs. Best Friends: As a match, this was perfectly okay. As a presentation, I thought it was weird. No build for Yuta vs. Chuck & Trent felt like an odd booking move given the history. OC was on comms but I don't recall much mention of the Wardlow match last week and the TNT Champ wasn't on the show altogether. Mox didn't feel like the World champ here. I don't know, am I being overly critical? The work was fine and the match was entertaining enough. **3/4
Cageasaurus vs. Varsity Blonds: a nothing match. Cool to see Jungle Boy back but what exactly was the point of the last few weeks building Lucha as a badass heel if he's still mates with Jungle Jack? I feel a bit sad seeing the Blonds as jobbers, I don't watch Dark but I like Griff and think he has potential. *
Starks vs. Karter: okay match, shame the fans booed Cole working underneath as the babyface, I think that took the legs away from this particular deal. He looked alright but I don't think he really showed out and wowed me. I guess the Danhausen match will be fun but he lost in 30 seconds to jobber Nese so why am I supposed to believe he will give Ricky a contest? Starks is top heel material though and I feel he has really come into his own in the last 3 months. **1/4
The Baddies vs. Athena/Willow: somebody needs to sign Nightingale, she's got all the tools. The match was pretty okay. I'm not sold on Kiera as a wrestler in AEW, seems green but her character work is solid. Not sure why this was changed from a trios match where I thought the finish would have been Jade losing but not being pinned. This worked out fine, let's get on with Athena vs. Jade now. **1/2
Jericho vs. Kingston: not big on these sorts of matches as the barbed wire is obviously gimmicked, it should be a gritty hardcore match but it instead looks hokey and fake. Jericho looks silly as The Painmaker. It was bang average walking and brawling and then it went full Vince Russo. Tay Conti jobbed to a padlock. I have no idea what the fallout from this will be but I hope they had a shouting match backstage because I thought the second half was really poorly planned and shoddily executed. I think they tried to do too much here. The post-match felt like one of those deals where somebody agrees to lose provided they get their heat back after the match. If Kingston was standing tall, he should have just won the match. -**
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I'm sure Castagnoli is winning because they have to be shopping RoH out to potential venders and Claudio is a bigger star than Gresham.
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I think Jade just needs to wrestle more. 35 matches in the 16 months of her career so far doesn't sound like nearly enough, especially when you factor in the match times. She's okay at what they ask of her but she's been pretty exposed in the longer match format because she has no experience in that environment. I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes but I think she needs to get out of the AEW bubble, go to Mission Pro, go to CCW, see if Beyond will book her, try and get some bookings from Zelo Pro. Get some reps, work with some different styles, get under the learning tree and come back to global television with a more diverse skillset.
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le Dynamite star ratings and thoughts! We all love these.
OC vs. Page: I want to like ALL EGO but he is such a boring wrestler that never tries to win a match when getting the heat, there's just zero urgency or intensity to this guy. He gets overwhelmed by Dan Lambert and they are not a good pairing. Makes sense that he's losing to a body slam. *3/4
Luchasaurus vs. Serpentico: Christian's promo was strong stuff but the match was a waste of time if we're being totally honest. Not even a good squash match and it did nothing to really showcase the new Dark version of Lucha. DUD
FTRHausen vs. Assclaimed: A reasonably solid match. Colten is better than Austin, that neckbreaker bit on Dax looked rough. FTR are great. It would be a shame if they split the Assclaimed up now as they're plenty fun as a group. **
Jade vs. Leila: I have no idea why this company continues to hold off on putting Jade in the ring with Athena or Kris Statlander. It's been 4 weeks now, Athena debuted for this company in May and they have done nothing with her. Her music hits, she runs down, sometimes she gets the upper hand, sometimes she gets beat up. 4 weeks of this, what on earth are they waiting for? People talk about this company signing Io Shirai or Sasha Banks or whatever but why do they even have faith that this company would know how to use them? This division is awfully booked. Years ago, the problem was talent, it needed bodies. Now there's no excuse. We've been out the pandemic for a good year now and here they are, putting a squash match on TV and spinning wheels with the talents. Jamie Hayter never wrestles. They bring in Riho and Yuka, what do they do with them? The will is just not there and I wonder if it ever will be with the AEW's Women's Division. This match was nothing, the post-match was nothing, will they even follow up on it? Is Leila Grey signed? Probably not. I have no idea. Just put the goddamn talents in the goddamn ring and let them wrestle, why is that so hard? It just sucks. It really sucks. -** for wasting my bloody time.
Blood & Guts: I kept waiting for this match to have some sort of rhythm to it and it never did, I don't know if that's because of Santana's injury but it didn't flow very well and it felt really messy and disjointed. They tore up the mat but I missed the move that was done on it because the camera was focusing on some action in the other ring. A few times the camera caught some really weak looking strikes. Claudio did a big boot near the ropes that missed by inches but the other wrestler sold it anyway. Looked so bad. Just poor production at times here, a really sloppy presentation that erred between being the sort of knock down drag out affair these matches are supposed to be or just amateur hour pro wrestling. It was a perfectly acceptable WarGames match but it was leagues away from any of the truly great matches. Dave giving it such a high rating is hilarious. This was fine but, really, nothing special. ***
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Uh... what? She was pretty much always a heel. Before the Baddies, she had Smart Mark Sterling distracting people and would constantly run down her opponents (I think; she once called Anna Jay "Anna Banana" which is maybe an insult a 5-year old would use), and insult whatever town they were in.
She won the TBS title clean in front of her daughter in the crowd and celebrated with her afterwards. It felt pretty babyface. That, and, I always thought the Smart Mark thing was him trying to impress her and not them being in cahoots. He's a klutz and she didn't need him but he was always trying to prove his value. I don't know, we're trying to make sense out of AEW's storylines and this feels like an exercise in futility.
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In Jade's defence, they started turning her into a babyface because she went on a good run for several weeks and had good matches. The first one against Anna Jay was very good. The one against Julia Hart was decent. I liked the Tay Conti match on PPV. She was looking every bit like the star they presented her as. She was getting more positive crowd reactions and it felt like she had turned a corner and put it together. Then they put The Baddies on her, effectively making her a heel women's wrestler with two lackies who help her out. Does that sound familiar to anybody?
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Dynamite this week was a slightly familiar tale of wrestlers outperforming shoddy creative and making it work.
- Ortiz vs. Jericho: This was pretty good! It was a heated, slightly old school professional wrestling match that went back and forth and had the crowd following along for all of it. We can be critical of how long this story has been going on but if you get a guy like Ortiz in there and he has a good showing against a veteran like Jericho, there's no complaints. This story has legs and this was one of the better AEW matches I've seen recently. ***3/4
- I suppose it's only right that Guevara be put back with Jericho but it's a bit of a shame that AEW cannot seem to get the original Inner Circle crew away from Jericho's stratosphere.
- Wardlow vs. the Plaintiffs: This died really quickly didn't it? First, Dasha says that 4 of them were eliminated by being knocked off the apron and even the commentators seemed confused since it had been promoted as pinfall and submission only. This sucked. Thankfully it was short. If they want to kill Wardlow they're absolutely going the right way about it. DUD
- Ospreay vs. Dax the Ax: There was some good action here, even with the lull in the middle of the match, they picked it back up and we got some drama towards the end. If you like big moves, near falls but no story and no selling, you might like this one. I can see why people dig Ospreay and throw the stars at him but this sort of match isn't my bag and never really has been. ***1/4
- Miro vs. All Ego: Ethan Page is odd in that the upside is there but I don't think he's put it together in AEW so far. I think he's a WWE talent just waiting to be signed. It was always obvious The Redeemer was winning here. Practically no drama and it being heel vs. heel meant that the live crowd didn't know who to root for. **
- Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker: I felt like Toni gave this socks and tried her best but getting a good match out of Britt Baker at the moment is like milking blood from a stone. It's so weird how the commentators put the DMD over so strong yet she never wins without interference, it's a presentation that seems to be put together by somebody who knows nothing about wrestling. It's time for the Jamie Hayter turn, do it ASAP and give the DMD a new coat of paint. *1/4
- Jurassic Express vs. Young Bucks: This was an entertaining plunder brawl ladder match but I feel like these talents didn't need the smoke and mirrors to wrestle a good match. I don't know why it was a ladder match either. Christian turning is at least a story but The Young Bucks have gone from losing on PPV to The Hardyz to being tag champs within like 2 and a half weeks. The rankings don't matter and I guess they shouldn't get in the way of creative but what's the point having a story device if you continually insist on not using it? This hasn't been built up over a number of weeks, I would rather they put these belts on Hobbs & Starks at Double or Nothing as it just felt like their time. ***1/4
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Rampage was a breeze as usual. I much preferred just Excalibur and Taz on commentary, it was loads better without Jericho shouting.
- Kingston vs. Hager: perfectly solid, competitive opener here and one of Hager's better showings in AEW. Good story with Kingston fighting from underneath and picking up the win at the end. **1/2
- Lethal & Singh vs. Job Squad: Satnam did more in a minute than I ever saw Great Khali do.
- Velvet vs. Statlander: another decent match between these two, even if it did hit a lull in the middle. It feels like Kris has found her game again after such a long lay off. Time to get on with Jade vs. Athena, or Jade vs Statlander though. **3/4
- FTrentR vs. UE: Aussie Open have been making waves for a while and recently had a critically acclaimed match against The VeloCities in RevPro. I wouldn't mind if they got to fight FTR for those ROH Tag Titles. This was a relatively standard trios match with all six guys getting time to strut their stuff even if it was relatively by the numbers. It heated up at the end but fell short of being a great match. ***
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- Casino Battle Royale: went from 0 to 100 real quick, with eliminations being missed and moments that had to be explained to the audience. Fenix, Swerve, Darby and Andrade all had good showings and it picked up nicely at the end. **1/2
- PAC vs. Buddy: not the most excited crowd for this rivalry that feels like it should be over now but both guys got it over and the right guy won. **3/4
- Hangman vs. Finlay: great for Dave to get Page in his first AEW match and this was a perfectly solid outing, if a little predictable. I have no interest in them running any sort of variation of Page vs. Cole again though, it's been done. **1/2
- Rosa vs. Shafir: there is a ways to go before Marina is ready for this kind of spot, she's too green and too inexperienced but it feels like this is just the status quo in this division now. *
- Moxley vs. O'Reilly: a perfectly good wrestling match with a predictable result that detracted from any of the drama or excitement they may have been able to conjure. ***
As an aside, I found JR to be particularly loathsome on this show. He called David Finlay "surprisingly good" as he made his entrance. He described the Rosa vs. Shafir match as "awkward" live on the air. I get that his part of this show is more a marketing tactic than anything else, it's so AEW can say they have JR on commentary but it's jarring to watch a product that you know the announcer doesn't enjoy watching.
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Was that a TEW 2013 diary? I'm pretty sure all those got removed from the forum but I couldn't tell you the reason why.
The All Elite Wrestling Discussion Thread
in The Dog Pound
Posted
Marina Shafir getting all the hate and Stokely Hathaway getting a free pass for his tedious monologue on Wednesday should tell you everything you need to know about the Dub's basement dwelling online fanbase.