The All Elite Wrestling Discussion Thread

[The Blonde Bomber]

To me he’s a comedy gimmick and the joke isn’t funny anymore. He’s the same thing he was four years ago. It was funny a for a bit but it’s been the same thing for so long it’s stale to me.

[The Blonde Bomber]

If we’re gonna see someone wrestle every week I’d wanna see FTR in tag matches week after week. 

[Jaysin]

Jade and Taya was so bad. Thankfully Statlander is the new champion at least. 

[The Blonde Bomber]

50 minutes ago, Jaysin said:

Jade and Taya was so bad. Thankfully Statlander is the new champion at least. 

Why they didn’t just set up Statlander vs Cargill before the ppv idk. But atleast Cargill finally lost the strap.

[Matt_Black]

9 hours ago, The Blonde Bomber said:

Why they didn’t just set up Statlander vs Cargill before the ppv idk. But atleast Cargill finally lost the strap.

Which is the EXACT same question I had last year.

As it stands, however, this marks the least unsatisfying ending to an undefeated streak in professional wrestling.. Damning with faint praise, admittedly.

[Mootinie]

The Jericho match was absolutely awful in my opinion. It was low energy unconvincing tripe with a weak finish. I don't think they were even trying out there. As a performer, Jericho is simply pathetic. Nothing he does look good. The fans were laughing at this match. The less I say about Cole's "punches" at the end the better. Garbage. A total DUD.

Wardlow was brilliant, that was a main event performance in my opinion. Dude went out there and wrestled like he had a point to prove. Great stuff from the big man.

I have an issue with Hayter dropping the belt if she's hurt but if you're gonna do that just have her get pinned. They had to do loads of crap outside the ring with run ins and weapons first. There's so many gimmicks. Her shoulder is hurt, that should be the story. But we get Britt Baker running in again, we get Shida with the stick, we get Ruby and Saraya interfering, we get an exposed turnbuckle, we get a false finish, all on top of an injury angle in a match that was THREE MINUTES LONG. Why on earth did they turn Ruby Soho heel if her role is now to play cheerleader? I thought they were turning her so she could fight Jamie for the belt without their being an odd face vs face dynamic but instead, she's now doing basically nothing. What was the point in turning her then? She could be fighting Storm for the belt now. Terrible booking all round there. And why promote a match if you can't do one? If Jamie is hurt then vacate the belt. We didn't get a proper match and on a PPV that's unforgivable. I'm reliably informed this is a STACKED roster, that's what you guys keep saying. What's the excuse here? Running a three minute crapshoot on a show your fans are paying for just to get the belt off Hayter is not good business. I love Jamie, she's my girl, we're the same age, I've followed her career for a while and I think she's fantastic, one of my favourite wrestlers period. But if she went through with this nonsense because Britt has been running her mouth about Thunder Rosa not wrestling hurt then hopefully she has a word with herself. They easily could have vacated and ran Shida vs. Storm and given us an actual match.

Four Pillars match was excellent. Wrestled like they were the best damn four guys on the roster, gave it socks and took it home. I watched guys on this card who turned up like they were wrestling a house show on Monday and then I saw MJF, Jack, Sammy and Darby giving it 110% to entertain this crowd and all of us at home. Breathless for 27-odd minutes. A five star classic. MJF is seriously one of the best wrestlers I have ever seen, he's so good at absolutely everything. 

The Blackpool Combat Club are so much better now Regal has hit the bricks. 

All in all, pretty good show. 7/10. But time to scale back the overbooking.

[milamber]

- The Firm vs Hardy Boyz & Hook - Rampage level match. - ***

- International Title - Above average Battle Royale. I hope Swerve beats OC soon. - *** 3/4

- Jericho vs Cole (Unsanctioned) - Too tame for the stipulation. Didn't need Sabu. *** 1/4

- Lethal & JJ vs FTR (c) - I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this match. *** 3/4

- Christian vs Wardlow (c) Ladder Match - Wardlow channeled his inner daredevil. - ****

- Storm vs Hayter (c) - Better than just stripping Hayter I guess. Wembley rematch hopefully. - N/R

- Scissor Crew vs HoB (c) - I want to see Bowens in more singles matches. *** 3/4

- Taya vs Jade (c) - Special entrances. Statlander FTW! - *** 1/2

- Jack vs Sammy vs Darby vs MJF (c) - Baby Melo-Guevara! Darby's entrance video lol. Rukus needs to turn that into a full PPV theme for MJF. A+ chemistry all round. MOTY Contender. - *****

- BCC vs The Elite (Anarchy in the Arena) - Singer's mask and face paint were bad. Wish they would do PIP camera shots for these types of matches. Exploding boot spot was awesome. Tack spots made me wince. Takeshita noooooo! Elite need Ibushi. **** 1/2

Below average PPV. It was underwhelming on paper and most of the matches turned out as expected. Crowd sounded too quiet for much of the PPV. Wardlow stepped up. The timing of Hayter's injury was unfortunate with the big women's storyline dragging on. Stat's return was hype. Last 2 matches were fire.

Edited May 30, 2023 by milamber

[Dawn]

Those are some fat ratings for below average lol unless you mean below AEW's average, then it makes more sense.

I watched the final two matches, they were definitely worth it. The other pillars rose to MJF's level even if for one match.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Dawn

[milamber]

3 hours ago, Dawn said:

Those are some fat ratings for below average lol unless you mean below AEW's average, then it makes more sense.

I watched the final two matches, they were definitely worth it. The other pillars rose to MJF's level even if for one match.

Below average for AEW but still enjoyable. There's usually more 4 stars or better matches.

[Matt_Black]

A few people on twitter took exception to my claim that Jade doesn't make her opponents look good. Not that they could refute that claim, directly, with one person saying it's not her job to make people look good. I thought her job was to put butts in the seats, and you can't do that if you think one of the two people in a match has absolutely zero chance and you're not at all invested in the odd event they might win.

[milamber]

1 hour ago, Matt_Black said:

A few people on twitter took exception to my claim that Jade doesn't make her opponents look good. Not that they could refute that claim, directly, with one person saying it's not her job to make people look good. I thought her job was to put butts in the seats, and you can't do that if you think one of the two people in a match has absolutely zero chance and you're not at all invested in the odd event they might win.

To be fair, there's only so much Jade can do to make her opponents look good while being booked strong in squash length matches. She's no ring general. That's on TK and the match agents.

It's funny that people like to complain about Cassidy still constantly winning on TV but he's a veteran in longer matches and they range from solid to great. Like night and day with Jade.

Edited May 30, 2023 by milamber

[Matt_Black]

24 minutes ago, milamber said:

To be fair, there's only so much Jade can do to make her opponents look good while being booked strong in squash length matches. She's no ring general. That's on TK and the match agents.

It's funny that people like to complain about Cassidy still constantly winning on TV but he's a veteran in longer matches and they range from solid to great. Like night and day with Jade.

Jade doesn't even make people look good in promos. When told she has to wrestle a baby face who's built up momentum, she just looks bored. Whereas MJF or Heel Britt would have a meltdown. 

[Jaysin]

Jade shouldn't even be on TV yet. 

[Matt_Black]

5 hours ago, Jaysin said:

Jade shouldn't even be on TV yet. 

She shouldn't be wrestling on TV yet. I have absolutely ZERO problem with just watching Jade Cargill stand around.

I feel bad, because in all the AEW promotional stuff, she seems very nice and warm and charismatic. Jade Cargill the person is someone I could get behind. Jade Cargill the CHARACTER is absolutely dull. Like, someone saw 2002-era Triple H, doing all the cool heel stuff but never suffering any comeuppance, and said, "Let's make Jade like that, but even more so."

[milamber]

Wouldn't be surprised if she comes back as a babyface later in the year and they feature her on All-Access if it's renewed.

[milamber]

 

[Matt_Black]

The feel good moment that Kris Statlander should have had last year at Double Or Nothing, but AEW decided it would be better for Jade to beat Anna Jay AGAIN while Kris was going into a tournament to job out to Ruby who jobbed out to Britt Baker who didn't really need the win anyway.

[ColdBloodedSausageMaker]

I have to think, at this point, Tony's experiment with Jade Cargill probably has failed. The fans know she can't work in the ring, which is a shame, because she's got a ton of star quality and a great look.

I hope she gets her release and ends up with WWE -- with some time in developmental, Jade could be a real star there. WWE also has the TV Time and enough emphasis on women's talent that Jade could work as an enforcer: either in a women's group or like Rhea Ripley does in a heel mixed gender faction. 

Jade would do well to sign for WWE and spend some time in NXT. She could be a huge star there.

 

 

[ColdBloodedSausageMaker]

AEW set the expectation early on that the Women's division would focus on smaller talent -- STARDOM Joshis like Hikaru Shida and Riho -- and Jade both didn't fit that mold and also would be expected to sell for workers way smaller than her. I think that made it difficult for Jade to get over even with the consistent push. 

Tony pushing Britt Baker as the main women's division star really reinforced fan expectations to see smaller women in the ring.

To their credit, WWE has done a better job recently pushing and developing larger women's talent -- albeit, more because their audience responded to strong women's characters like Rhea Ripley than for any other reason. 

Edited May 31, 2023 by ColdBloodedSausageMaker
switched larger for bigger because it worked better in context

[Jaysin]

It's clobberin time! 

[The Blonde Bomber]

Like Mussolini…

[Matt_Black]

I wouldn't say Jade can't work. She's still not GREAT, but she's come a long way. Her matches the past few months have been watchable, albeit predictable. I think the thing that really hampered her is they kept putting her in the ring with talent who were about the same as her experience wise. They should have had her in programs with Shida, Emi, Deeb, or Martinez, to name a few.

Overall, good show with a lackluster main event. I'd like Adam Cole a lot better if he played up the pirate gimmick more.

[aXminster]

Jade reminds me of Cody and all the Codyverse stuff. He was just there every week completely detached from everything else that was happening on the show.

She was with Mark Sterling, then dropped him to go with that other guy, then went back to Sterling. Then Kiera Hogan was there for a while, now it's Leila Grey. Just facing a bunch of jobbers and mid to lower card women every other week. They randomly decided to give a 1 week push to Marina Shafir, with a hype video and all that, to try to make her credible as a contender, and of course she lost in a terrible 10 minute match and was never to be seen again.

It's really weird in that sense. She has the star power like nobody else in the division, but they make her feel directionless. Six months training in Japan would do wonders, but she has a kid and a husband, doesn't look like it would be worth for her.

[Matt_Black]

4 hours ago, aXminster said:

She was with Mark Sterling, then dropped him to go with that other guy, then went back to Sterling. Then Kiera Hogan was there for a while, now it's Leila Grey. Just facing a bunch of jobbers and mid to lower card women every other week. They randomly decided to give a 1 week push to Marina Shafir, with a hype video and all that, to try to make her credible as a contender, and of course she lost in a terrible 10 minute match and was never to be seen again.

 

Oh, I wish we never saw Marina Shafir again. As it stands, she's been on AEW television more often the past year and a half than Riho.

I really hope that Tony Khan doesn't try to be cute again and have Roderick Strong win the male side of the Owen and Shafir win the women's side, like how he had Cole and Britt win last year and I threw up in my mouth a little. This is a wrestling tournament, not prom night!

[milamber]

- BCC vs Lucha Bandits was my MOTN. Suplex spot was cool. Yuta is on a roll.
- Dark Order still jealous. BC Gold need a 3rd member.
- TK with the expected announcement.
- Trent vs Big Bill vs Swerve was good.
- Statlander hype video
- Don "The Heat Magnet" Callis. Glorious crowd reaction. Love the idea of Takeshita spearheading a new faction.
- The Embassy vs Darby & Cassidy was good. Building to Swerve/OC. Stang!
- Jungle Hook feuding with LIJ is interesting.
- Fun Outcasts promo.
- Nyla vs Statlander (c) was good. Taya heel turn incoming.
- Rampage is stacked!
- DMD & Cole vs Saraya & Jericho was good. Should have been on PPV and Cole vs Jericho here.