Mootinie
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Posts posted by Mootinie
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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.
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I'm pretty sure Hiroshi Tanahashi is winning the interim championship just because Tony Khan planned to do Punk vs. Tanahashi. I think he will still do that match and then he'll just carry on with whatever he had originally outlined for Punk in July.
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I thought Dynamite was a great show. The only real lull moment was the Miro vs. Johnny Elite match that dragged a bit. Otherwise, it was one of the bestest, fastest two hours they've put on yet.
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On the whole, I thought Double or Nothing was okay but that middle period was a real struggle to get through.
1. Wardlow vs. MJF: glorified squash, more of an angle. **
2. The Young Bucks vs. The Hardys: fine TV match, good carry job from The Bucks. Jeff looked ballooned off his tits on something. No need for this to be on PPV. **1/2
3. Jade vs. Anna: bit clunky but it was fine. Got in, did their stuff, went home. Both debuts seemed random. **
4. House of Black vs. Death Triangle: this rivalry has helped nobody but the action was perfectly acceptable. ***
5. Adam Cole vs. Samoa Joe: this tournament has been a bust and I didn't care. Judging by the audience, they didn't care either. **
6. Britt Baker vs. Ruby Soho: a foregone conclusion that Britt was winning when she came out in pink. Zero drama to this match. *
7. Mixed Trios Tag: a fine showing from VanZant on debut and some moments with Sky and Kaz were fun, but again, this feud has helped none of them. Watching Sammy G's star fall this quickly from main eventing TV has been quite something. *
8. Darby vs. Kyle: they had Darby beat Andrade just to have him lose clean here? The action was fine, they worked relatively hard but nobody cared and the booking is awful. *
9. Rosa vs. Deeb: this was more like it, a decent and competitive match here that put the champ over strong. ***
10. Anarchy In The Arena: the clear match of the night, an all-action 23 minuter that gave all 10 talents involved a chance to shine. ****
11. Three Way Tag: the teaming of Lee & Swerve helps both talents so much. Starks is top heel material, Hobbs remains underrated. It was shy of being a great match but effective enough not to wind up as a buffer between the two main event presentations. ***1/4
12. Hangman vs. Punk: the first 10 minutes were fine but the rest was a drag. I kept waiting for them to get started, they never did and then it ended. Punk is not a main event level wrestler now. Page beating himself is, and always was, a lame story. **1/4
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yea it just seems like you need to pull the trigger on Jade facing someone up the roster a bit. I get slow builds and bringing her along but everytime now they are like "AND SHE'S 30-0!!1" I'm just like "can she wrestle anyone above the lower mid card?"
They don't really have anybody she can wrestle though...
She's already beat Ruby Soho. Mercedes Martinez is hardly pushed at all having lost three of her four TV singles matches. Tay Conti doesn't wrestle now. Toni Storm has just undergone the standard come into AEW just to lose to Britt Baker treatment that never seems to work out for anybody and will probably now be a regular fixture on Dark. Statlander aside, who have they built to be a credible contender?
Perhaps Riho or Yuka? If they're sticking around of course.
Jade's problem is that AEW yet again has a babyface on their hands who they are desperately trying to push as a heel. I've no qualms with The Baddies as a thing, it looks like a good move for Red Velvet and Kiera Hogan, but Jade was so good it was only a matter of time until they were gonna cheer her. Now she's leading a heel group. Huh?
They did the exact same thing with Britt Baker. They kept her with Rebel and Jamie Hayter and had her winning matches with nonsense finishes when the fans wanted to cheer her. And now, here we are, with a roster that desperately needs babyfaces and has none worth a damn.
The women's division is just made up on the spot every single week, there's no long-term booking or long-term planning. They have a face champ who isn't going to fight Britt Baker any time soon, but they're keeping Britt Baker strong, even though she probably isn't going to fight the heel midcard champ. So what's the point? Either put the TBS title on Britt Baker or use her to elevate others into title contention. And start pushing some other ladies for gods sake. Jamie is right there, the best damn women's wrestler in the entire company, and she's going out in the first round of your tournament? Makes little sense to me, I must admit.
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Also, why have they rebranded Pete Dunne as Butch? That is such an odd thing to do, taking a heavily featured NXT wrestler and giving him a new name and gimmick on the "main roster". As if we can forget all that he has done in NXT.
It's part of a company-wide effort to reinvest in characters over wrestlers that has begun to trickle down even into development now. I don't necessarily blame them with Pete Dunne as he always struggled to gain any significant traction even in NXT despite the obvious that the talent is there. I don't really know what you do with "The Bruiserweight" character once he loses, are there other layers to that you can work with? I feel like the Butch character takes his smaller stature and makes it a part of who he is instead of some kind of fighting disadvantage.
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First time I've ever had this note of being over with the young females.
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The problem with Mercedes Martinez is that AEW have had her lose to Thunder Rosa, lose to Thunder Rosa, and lose to Jamie Hayter in her three TV singles matches so far. Then they put her in the main event and expect the audience to care.
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Aside from all those times they've acknowledged their existence.
AEW do it as a fundamental part of their creative, WWE do it on conference calls. The brass ring, for example, for the winner of the Face of the Revolution ladder match... I just think it's low hanging fruit and I would rather they put on better shows than try to pop the marks.
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I wouldn't have had Nick Comoroto pinned in the trios match. I think he's got some upside as a big man. BCC need a storyline and should be feuding with the Best Friends over Yuta, not just winning meaningless trios matches.
I don't like JAS being an inside, or rather, outside joke towards WWE. I think it's minor league to do that when the competition aren't even acknowledging your existence.
Wrestler stands backstage and watches a TV at an awkward angle was something I never wanted AEW to steal from WWE but here we are. They once took the piss out of that. I'm sure they could put their heads together and shoot something superior that's also an original convention.
Second half of the ladder match main event was good, it's just a real shame about the first half. No idea what Sammy G was even doing with that 630 thing. Very Jack Evans of him to just shoot and do a dive that nobody is going to catch you on.
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Nyla Rose has wrestled numerous good to great matches in AEW against a variety of opponents. Versus Riho when she won the belt, versus Shida when she dropped the belt, both the semi-final and final in the Eliminator Tournament, another great match beating Shida in the TBS tournament and I thought her match against Thunder Rosa was okay too. I think she's good. And in her role as the resident monster heel, she's great.
As far as criticisms about AEW women's division go, the one about Nyla is low on the totem pole for me. I'm far more critical of the episodes that feature only 2 to 3 minutes of women's wrestling, like the other week's overrun where the only women's match was a squash match with a talent making their TV debut against a talent that never wins. Marina Shafir and Skye Blue, bless them, they were hung out to dry. Or the weeks where we only got Serena Deeb winning squash matches against rookies, a whole deal they just unceremoniously dropped with no explanation or pay-off. You can't tell me the conclusion to the Rookie Challenge was just Shida beating seven bells out of her with a kendo stick? They couldn't have Willow Nightingale last the five minutes and get put over by virtue of not losing? They just had Deeb get belted with a stick and that's... it?
On a different topic, AEW had Malakai Black beat Cody twice just to wrestle on the PPV pre-show and do pretaped vignettes targeting Fuego del Sol. Amazing how fast he and his silly little dark boi stable have fallen down the pecking order. They really should have elevated Malakai into a title match, if for no other reason than to ensure his two victories over Cody counted for something.
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I'm sensitive that is might actually be some kind of disorder or whatever... but has anybody else noticed that Adam Cole always makes an ennunciation, a random noise, at the start of most sentences when he's cutting a promo?
Like, in this video here...
The way he stutters at 1:10, the way he falls over the word On at 1:20, the way he goes a-a-two of... at 1:29. Again at 1:37, the uhh before the next bit at 1:42.
He's always such a smooth and clear talker once he gets rolling but that vocal inflection is something I've noticed recently and, just like Lex Luger's noises during a match, I'll probably never not notice it now haha.
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I'm really struggling with the Jericho Appreciation Society in that it feels like Inner Circle 2.0 but now with inferior talents. I watched that Trios match and its aftermath and knew I had seen this all before, not even in other wrestling promotions but in this one and not even that long ago.
I thought Marina Shafir was perfectly okay. I saw the match get a lot of criticism but it was 3 minutes long and nothing was overtly bad about it. She's obviously a work in progress but for her first proper gig on live TV it was perfectly fine. People still don't take enough time to appreciate how different it is working the Dark tapings and then going out there live. That's a beast you have to learn how to tame.
Everything was wrong in the aftermath of Joe vs. Suzuki. It would have been better had Lethal or Dutt given Satnam a verbal introduction and put him over, just to explain it to the audience. Or brought him in through the crowd to put over his stature. They may have gotten away with this whole deal earlier in the card but it was a flat note to close the show on. Perhaps they should have put Punk vs. Penta on last just to send everybody home happy?
The All Elite Wrestling Discussion Thread
in The Dog Pound
Posted
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.