JWeinCom said:
Runa216 said:
It's almost like AEW knows how to utilize and respect its performers. There's not a lof in AEW that aren't living up to their potential or otherwise doing a damn good job. Christian in AEW has been more compelling than Edge in WWE since their returns, which is weird because I - like most people - always liked Edge more. I bet CM Punk and Daniel Bryan and Kenny omega will also all continue to be megastars.
Oh, and AEW seems to know how to properly utilize aging talent. Jericho isn't the spry young fox he once was, but try telling him or his fans that. He can still go at 50, and he's not overdoing it by being forced to do a dozen things at once. Christian, CM Punk, and others are in their 40s and still likey to be kicking ass.
The talent is there, but a huge factor in all that is that...well, AEW and Tony Khan seems to actually respect his people and get the most out of his performers. I haven't felt like 'man, they're really wasting that guy' in AEW like they have with like 90% of the roster in WWE.
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Errr... have you been... watching AEW? Apparently, you haven't. Otherwise, you'd know why some of these guys aren't on the card.
Not wasting talent... Here are some of the people who won't be wrestling at All Out. Adam Page (Paternity Leave), Andrade (travel issues, remember he's also working for AAA), Brian Cage, Brian Pillman Junior, FTR, Joey Janela (for the best in that case), Lance Archer, Malakai Black (because why would you want to push these recent signings on PPVs) (They're taking their time with him. He's being featured on TV in a major storyline and he's being booked to look dominant.) PAC (who honestly should have been fired for that match with Orange Cassidy) (travel issues, and if you're talking about the match at Revolution 2020, you have some ridiculous standards and zero tolerance for comedy because that was one of the best matches on the card.), All of the Inner Circle guys besides Jericho, all of the Pinnacle besides MJF, Sonny Kiss (which I'm fine with, but apparently Cody was trying to make him a star), and so on.
(These guys don't have to be featured every. Single. Week. They can rotate and help keep them fresh and not overexpose them. That's one of the things that made NXT so awesome when it was on the Network for 1 hour. You were given just enough to where you still wanted more. Plus, they're giving some of these guys proper time off and willing to meet them in the middle when they need it, because unlike another promotion, they actually give a damn about their talent. That's why CM Punk signed there in the first place.)
And of course not everyone could be on a PPV, but some of these really stick out. Malakai Black was supposedly a big signing, but couldn't make it on the card.
(They're taking their time with him. He's mowing down Cody's gang and being built up. He'll get to the point where you expect him to be. But these things take time.)
Andrade signed three months ago and is already lost in the shuffle
(Again, he also works for AAA and at the moment, either he or Pac are dealing with travel issues, otherwise he'd be fighting Pac on the card tomorrow. And their match has already been advertised for Rampage next week and this is all while building up an angle involving Penta and Fenix where they may join Andrade and Chavo and ditch Pac. They have plans for Andrade and just like with Black, he'll get to the point where you expect him to be. But again, these things take time.)
There are a ton of people who are not being used while QT Marshall gets a spot (Big Show is a legend who could be useful in getting a young big guy over and Cody's little buddy is the one you're going to book him against? FFS)
(Big Show needs a win to establish himself in AEW and QT is an ideal opponent for him to beat and build some momentum that can help give the rub to another young guy. Are you going to put him in there with Miro, or Archer, or Powerhouse Hobbs, or Brian Cage, and have them lose? Let's be real here. And you can't have Big Show lose EVERY match or else after a while, beating him won't feel special anymore. So he needs opponents to beat like QT Marshall, or Dustin and Cody Rhodes, or Sting. Guys who can take the losses and won't be effected by it.)
And they have guys coming in from New Japan (no offense to them, but get your build your own guys first.)
(Yes, they do. And it's fucking AWESOME! Sooner or late, we're going to have Hiroshi Tanahashi coming in and they're already building towards a match with Jon Moxley. (You don't think Moxley is pumped for that match? It's fucking Tanahashi, of course he is.) We could get Okada vs. Omega again. Omega vs. Ibushi. Darby vs. Naito. Miro vs. Ishii. Punk vs. Ospreay. Bryan vs. JUST ABOUT ANYBODY! When you have inter-promotional programs and storylines like this, which creates buzz for both promotions, that's good for EVERYONE. And they ARE building their own guys first. Jericho made Tanahashi tap out at Wrestle Kingdom, now he's on the losing end of the feud with MJF. Moxley beat Kenta in Japan and Yuji Nagata on Dynamite, and will most likely beat Kojima tomorrow night to set up his match with Tanahashi. Moxley ALSO lost to Omega, who will eventually lose to the title to Hangman when HE comes back. And it's not like these New Japan guys are main eventing the shows, and when they are, it's to put over the AEW guys. At the end of the day, the faces on the billboards, the guys who are promoted to sell the PPVs, and advertised for Rampage and Dynamite are still their own guys.)
Aside from that, the people on the card are at least mostly decent (aside from Statlander who I initially she liked because hot, but she is going to hurt someone, Jericho who is getting sad to watch (He's freaking Chris Jericho and he was in there with Nick Gage not too long ago, how many 50 year old guys can do that? He may not be what he used to be, but he can still go.), and Orange Cassidy who is literally a joke (Still over.), but most of those guys were treated as big deals when they came in (And the vast majority of them still are), and now are doing nothing but being in the background in one of AEW's 15 different factions. Tony's daddy needs to tell him he won't buy him any new toys till he plays with the ones he has. (Tony's daddy is looking at all the money his boy is starting to make for the family between TV deals, returning ticket sales, rising PPV buy rates, and skyrocketing merch sales, and saying "Keep doing what you're doing, son!")
Speaking of Jericho, yeah someone should tell that. His match with Juventud was a reminder that time comes for us all (So he has ONE bad match out of how many good to great matches? He wasn't the only old guy in that match either. You gotta hold Juventud just as accountable as well.)
Almost as embarrassing as his epic fall onto a pile of pillows with cardboard on top of them (That one was on the production crew, not Jericho. What was he supposed to do? Fall on to concrete straight from the top of the cage? You want him to end up crippled or dead? You could have put Darby Allin in that spot and it would've been just as bad.)
The Inner Circle looked like a way to get some young guys over, but it turns out it was actually a vehicle to prop up Jericho, which becomes a taller task each week as the Covid God is enjoying a little bit too much of the bubbly.
(Considering how everyone sings along to his theme song even when there's no music, doesn't seem like the task is very tall at all, is it? And Sammy Guevara just won his feud with Shawn Spears (I know it's Shawn Spears, but still, a win is a win.) And before long, HE'LL be the one feuding with MJF. Which makes sense, since he was the one who actually was smart enough not to trust him when he was in the Inner Circle, and it turned out he was right! And PnP are even with FTR at 1 win a piece. And there's a good chance that once they're done with FTR, they're next in line for a shot at the Tag Team titles, assuming the Bucks retain - And if they do, PnP could very well be the ones who take the belts off them. The Inner Circle HAS gotten the young guys over. It's also gotten Jericho to a higher level as well. Who says it couldn't do both?)
And, I'd have to ask who is really significantly more over in AEW than when they came in? Darby Allin for sure, maybe Jungle Boy
(Maybe? He's one of their main, young stars who is always positioned strongly and the fans dig him. Every time he comes out, he gets a reaction.)
Britt Baker, and that's probably about it. Omega and the Young Bucks are still over with the people who already liked them, the ex WWE guys are more or less at the same level they were (Moxley was doing well at first but has cooled down significantly), and so on.
(Question: How many people knew who MJF, Wardlow, Rey Fenix, Penta, OC, Sammy Guevara, and PnP were before AEW? These guys are being featured in major storylines and being promoted on a major TV network in front of a mainstream audience, which is FAR more exposure and more chances to be over than they were wherever they were previously, AND they're being presented as great wrestlers, some of whom can be great stars one day, if they aren't already in the cases of MJF, Britt Baker, Darby Allin, and Hangman Page. They're significantly more over by default.)
For the great writing... you'll have to explain that one to me. I watch sporadically (Yeah, that's evident.) In the time I have watched I've seen a feud start because one person broke another's arcade machine (which they were playing at ringside for some reason..?) which led to Miro being leg cuffed during a promo without noticing (wtf?), then a match where Kris Statlander coming out of a claw machine (cause it's a UFO catcher get it? Haha...), and Miro hitting someone with a clearly fake arcade cabinet (it didn't even have a screen or buttons).
(And what's Miro doing now? Kicking ass and looking dominant. After that feud, he realized Kip and Penelope were holding him back and he dropped the dead weight. Now he's on an unstoppable monster.)
The story with MJF and Jericho is that the Inner Circle were being total dicks, then MJF was added to the group, and then he was a bigger dick, and then while he was trying to take over that group he was secretly building another group (what was he going to do if he succeeded? Just be like "Hey Inner Circle, now that I'm your leader, here's the guys I was also forming a group with to kick your ass if this didn't work!")
(Which would have made him the KING of all dicks and instantly made him an even bigger Heel than he already is. (Which is saying something because even now, he's one of the biggest Heels in the entire industry.) It also would have buried Jericho, PnP, and Hager into the ground, but it would've elevated Sammy because he would've gotten to say "I fucking told you! I told you not to trust him! I was right!" and you know what? Yeah, he was! He was absolutely right! They should've listened to him! And guess what? If they didn't do that, then he would've convinced them to let these other guys into their group and they would've been one giant, dominant faction with him as the leader. They could've gone a multitude of ways with that, but they went with the one where it's two factions feuding directly with each other and you give 10 guys + Tully a high profile feud and something big to do for the next few months.)
And now I'm supposed to like Jericho because after he was being an asshole (What?) and jumping people and beating them down, (What?) the same thing happened to him? (What?) Didn't he just beat the fuck out of an old man a few weeks ago? (What?) Why the fuck am I supposed to be rooting for him? (What?)
(Because he's fucking Chris Jericho. Steve Austin used to do the exact same shit you just described back in '96-'97, when he was still a Heel, before he REALLY took off. He beat the shit out of a man in crutches in '96, multiple backstage personnel in late '96-early '97, beat the shit out of Lita - who was beloved - in 2001. That entire Stone Cold character was a colossal jackass. He was a HEEL right to his very core, yet he went on to become the biggest Babyface in the history of the business. Why? Because he was motherfucking Stone Cold Steve Austin!!! With the beer, the middle fingers, the catchphrases, the "I don't give a fuck" attitude, the Stone Cold Stunner. He was fucking cool! Jericho - With the music, the jackets, the promos, the bubbly, and the way he carries himself, is fucking cool! Even when he's a giant asshole, just like with Austin, he does it in a way that's so entertaining and fun to watch, you can't help but cheer for him. Same with The Rock. The NWO. Eddie Guerrero. Shawn Michaels. The Undertaker. CM Punk. That's pro wrestling in its purest form, dude.)
Cody was beat up by some British guy. Then he cuts a promo about how great America is because he had a half black baby with Brandi so racism was over I guess? Although the guy he was fighting was mixed race? So... ummm... huh? (Yeah, I don't get it that much either. Ever since the feud with MJF, Cody has been very lackluster.)
And then there was the story with Don Callis and Kenny Omega. According to them they spent months preparing their dastardly plan to help Kenny Omega overcome Jon Moxley. Their plan was that Callis distracted the ref and passed a microphone to Kenny. So he could hit Moxley with it, which would create an audible THUNK that the ref somehow didn't notice. As good of a plan as George's Twix set up (IYKYK). (Alright, I'll give you that one.)
If there are some really good stories, you'll have to explain which ones those were, because I must have just been really unlucky and only seen the bad one. (Moxley/Kingston; MJF/Cody; Baker/Rosa; The Bucks/Kenny and Hangman; And most recently, Punk/Darby.)
And I completely don't get Kenny Omega. Like, I don't mean I don't like him (I don't), I mean I don't get why I'm supposed to like him, or dislike him, or feel any particular way about him. He's like a create a wrestler in a video game and the game asked "What traits should this character have?" and the Player said "Yes". He's supposed to be a threat, but he's also goofy and making crayon drawings of Wile Coyote Plans, and he's sometimes tough but also sometimes gets knocked on his ass by a little person... I really don't know what he's supposed to be.
(The flat-out best wrestler on the planet. That's what he's supposed to be. Did you get Kurt Angle in 2000? Shawn Michaels in '97 when he was drugged up, formed DX, and playing strip poker in the ring with Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna? Despite their goofy, bizarre, and even controversial mannerisms, you still took them seriously. Why? Because despite all the comedy crap, the oddities, and the humiliating stuff they were doing outside the ring... INSIDE the ring, once that bell rang, and it was 'GO' time, they were the REAL DEAL and I dare you to find anyone, in the ring, who was better. Omega is the same thing. He's the Otaku of pro wrestling, right down to his finishing move. A stereotypical anime villain, who acts odd, does funny or weird crap that sometimes makes you go "Really?" But when that bell rings, and it's 'GO' time, he is THE MAN. (Becky Lynch, change your catchphrase.) He's in a league all on his own and nobody can touch him. (Which can sometimes lead to him letting his guard down and get too cocky which ends up being his downfall - Like a certain white and purple tyrant from Dragon Ball Z.)
And the wrestling is... kind of bad. It's a sequence of spots with little rhyme or reason. I tuned in for Punk and tuned out when Luchasaurus helped perform a double team Canadian destroyer on his own partner, which in addition to breaking all suspension of disbelief and being stupid unsafe, did not even end the match.
(So you completely missed the spot where Marq Quin did an enziguri kick right on Luchasaurus's head, stunning him, which set up the Canadian Destroyer spot for Isiah Kassidy? And when Luchasaurus regained enough of his bearings, he broke up what would've easily been a 3 count. You make it sound like Luchasaurus was in it with Private Party saying "Hey guys, I'll set up my own partner for the Destroyer so you can almost beat us, but I'll break up the count at the last sec, Ok?! TEEHEE!)
This is typical of an AEW match, I'll watch and start getting into it, and something will happen to completely ruin the illusion (like Riho doing a snap suplex on Nyla rose for instance).
(That's how the business is now. That's not just an AEW problem, that's a WRESTLING problem. It was 11 years ago John Cena got DDT'd on fucking concrete and came back and beat both men, made Wade Barrett tap out, effectively burying the Nexus. Or Big Show and Braun Strowman moving around like cruiserweights in their match in 2017. We just saw Bad Bunny do a Canadian Destroyer at WrestleMania. Back in the 70s and 80s, Rocky Johnson's (The Rock's dad, RIP) finisher was a drop kick. Hulk Hogan - One of the biggest stars in the history of the business, maybe even THE biggest. His finisher was a fucking leg drop. Jake Roberts' finisher was the DDT. Now EVERYONE does a DDT. Arn Anderson's spinebuster. Randy Savage's elbow. Curt Hennig's Perfect Plex. The superkick (Good God, the superkick.) The list goes on. That's just how it is now.)
As for building talent, idk. Pretty much everyone on the all out card got over elsewhere and are at the same level as they were at best. On the card, the only people who really got over in AEW are Darby, Britt Baker, and maybe Orange Cassidy
(Maybe? I've lost count how many times in an arena with 5-10-12k people, the crowd was chanting "FRESHLY SQUEEZED! FRESHLY SQUEEZED!" Clearly you didn't watch Double or Nothing earlier this year when he was in the Triple Threat with Omega and Pac for the AEW title and the crowd was RED HOT for him, thinking he might actually win the title.)
The rest of the people were about as over wherever they were as they were now.
(Again, tell me how many people knew who MJF, Sammy Guevara, Wardlow, PnP, and Jade Cargill were before AEW. They're more over by default and the former two are two of the youngest rising stars in the company that is going to help carry them in the next 5-10 years. What were Malakai Black, Andrade, and Miro doing before they went to AEW? Malakai is on his way to being as dominant as he was on NXT, but in front of a much larger, mainstream audience now. Once Andrade starts being featured more in the ring, and he will, he'll also eventually get there as well. And this is the best Miro has looked since his feud with John Cena leading up to WrestleMania 31.)
AEW has what I will dub the Tem-tem effect. Where people are so upset with a franchise/company that they will completely ignore that the alternative sucks. 99% of the time when I hear praise about AEW, it's always in relation to WWE. I'll just grant for argument's sake that AEW is better than WWE. That doesn't mean it's any good, that just means there are two very sucky wrestling promotions. And as much as I love Daniel Bryan and CM Punk and think they'll do well there (I think they're smart enough to lay out their feuds and matches properly) I can't stomach 2 hours of Dynamite to see them, much less pay $50. AEW has foundational problems to work out that even signing guys like that won't help.
(The reason why people in general are more accepting, forgiving, and well receptive towards AEW in relation to WWE is because they actually have plans with their talent that prioritize trying to get the best out of ALL of them, and not just a few chosen ones, even if the crowd isn't behind said chosen ones. But because they have so much talent and so little programming, they sometimes have to cut or leave stuff out for the next show or for Dark or Elevation. But at the very least, they try to do right by them. Tony Khan is actually trying to put on a show that the fans will like. Is every show a home run? No, of course not. There are going to be stinkers and whiffs. But at least he tries to do right by the fans. Whereas Vince either has no idea what the fans want or just clearly doesn't give a shit and at times seems to put on a bad show to SPITE the fans. And you may not be willing to invest in the product despite the arrivals of Bryan and Punk, but there are A LOT of other people that will. Their foundation is perfectly fine. A few hiccups here and there, but nothing significant that will hinder the growth of the company, which they've steadily been doing since they've gotten out of Daily's Place and gone back to live crowds again. If you're not sold on it or don't like it. Then, maybe pro wrestling is just not your thing anymore. Because many of the issues you have with AEW are issues that span across the entire industry.)
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