All Elite Wrestling Thread

[kovs27]

I want to get other opinion that watched the show last night did it feel like a lot of the matches went too long and most of the matches being spotfests with no psychology

The matches were far too long. I would say no psychology but far too many broke down into big moves and kick outs for reasons beyond me. I did like the 3 way tag and the 6 man tag told a good story between Darby, MJF and Spears.

[dhads7161]

I actually liked last night's show more than DON and Fyter Fest. Liked the Women's tag on the pre-show that was my favorite match. The Young Bucks showed a different side that's not all highspots last night. Three way tag, six man tag I liked too. The singles matches seemed to lack a lot of reaction. Thought the Lucha Brothers had an off night they seemed clunky at times.

[Thelone]

Liked the Women's tag on the pre-show that was my favorite match.

Really? That started out ok with Riho eating heat for a while and Priestley looking like a star, then turned into a complete mess when they stopped. Britt Yankem desperately needs an actual gimmick and the Japanese girls just aren't believable in that setting.

[monster mafia]

Bea Priestley is bad, she gave britt baker a concussion with a kick.

[Thelone]

It's a botch, that happens. It doesn't change the fact that Priestley looked like an ass kicker out here while Baker comes off as a budget version of Tessa Blanchard without anything that makes Tessa stand out.

It won't matter anyway because it'll be the Stephanie Rhodes show and it's all about her.

[Wilson]

For whatever reason, wrestling in bigger arenas in the States tends to have this bad problem in losing the crowd's attention and it was bound to happen to AEW as well. I only watched the interminable main event and Omega/CIMA, but the show from all I've seen was a definite miss. Hopefully I listen to my common sense sooner rather than later that if I don't like the majority of the Elite guys then I should cross AEW as even a peripheral interest.

On their women's division, given that the women are basically never on BTE and that no one in the core Elite group is there, I'm surprised that it's anything above match segments designed to be the crowd's attention break. Or just pitch to the women that they should do their own BTE where they crib from Young Bucks and Cody stuff so it's surface level mark meta all the way down because I think that's the way things get over with their audience.

[monster mafia]

It's a botch, that happens. It doesn't change the fact that Priestley looked like an ass kicker out here while Baker comes off as a budget version of Tessa Blanchard without anything that makes Tessa stand out.

It won't matter anyway because it'll be the Stephanie Rhodes show and it's all about her.

yeah but she botchs a lot...just look stardom.

[Thelone]

For whatever reason, wrestling in bigger arenas in the States tends to have this bad problem in losing the crowd's attention and it was bound to happen to AEW as well. I only watched the interminable main event and Omega/CIMA, but the show from all I've seen was a definite miss. Hopefully I listen to my common sense sooner rather than later that if I don't like the majority of the Elite guys then I should cross AEW as even a peripheral interest.

On their women's division, given that the women are basically never on BTE and that no one in the core Elite group is there, I'm surprised that it's anything above match segments designed to be the crowd's attention break. Or just pitch to the women that they should do their own BTE where they crib from Young Bucks and Cody stuff so it's surface level mark meta all the way down because I think that's the way things get over with their audience.

I don't know, Page is a mainstay of BTE and was greeted with tepid cheers at best yesterday. Even worse when Jericho beat him up afterwards and the crowd was cheering him instead of booing him out of the building.

Schtick won't work forever and I'd say FftF was the first time schtick and goodwill weren't enough to mask the myriad of issues AEW has right now. To put it more bluntly, the hype is fading out fast and they have built zero intriguing storylines to grab people's attention. Kevin Steen's Friends are doing bad spooky shit to crickets, the women's division is a total mess with Brandi Rhodes doing her best Stephanie McMahon impression as the top star, Page is tanking horribly and will have to go back to the midcard as soon as he loses his match against Jericho, the tag division is just a plethora of flippy teams doing the same thing over and over, and they have three singles stars + very few real prospects complemented with bland cruiserweights and bad indy/schtick wrestlers that have no place in a national/global promotion.

[AnHonorableMention]

It's a botch, that happens. It doesn't change the fact that Priestley looked like an ass kicker out here while Baker comes off as a budget version of Tessa Blanchard without anything that makes Tessa stand out.

It won't matter anyway because it'll be the Stephanie Rhodes show and it's all about her.

Jesus. She had one match, introduced Kong and set up Kong vs. Kong. Britt is very young, she's been in the business 4 years, if that. She's got a long way to go for sure but comparing her to Tessa is just reaching for a way to complain.

[Thelone]

Bea Priestley is bad, she gave britt baker a concussion with a kick.

Yeah, I've seen the spot now after a second viewing. The weird thing is that the part of the match that I liked (the heat segment on Riho) probably wasn't meant to happen in the first place since they were basically stalling until Baker was okay to continue. Of course we will never know what was planned originally, but that's a bit concerning that the improvised part blew away whatever they did afterwards.

[Big Red Machine]

I want to get other opinion that watched the show last night did it feel like a lot of the matches went too long and most of the matches being spotfests with no psychology

The matches were far too long. I would say no psychology but far too many broke down into big moves and kick outs for reasons beyond me. I did like the 3 way tag and the 6 man tag told a good story between Darby, MJF and Spears.

I'd mostly agree with this, although the only match I felt really went too long was the main event.

[AnHonorableMention]

I want to get other opinion that watched the show last night did it feel like a lot of the matches went too long and most of the matches being spotfests with no psychology

The matches were far too long. I would say no psychology but far too many broke down into big moves and kick outs for reasons beyond me. I did like the 3 way tag and the 6 man tag told a good story between Darby, MJF and Spears.

I'd mostly agree with this, although the only match I felt really went too long was the main event.

I thought the psychology of the main event made it feel like it went twenty minutes. It went a little over 30. A smartly wrestled match with impeccable selling and call back spots. Outside of Cody & Dustin, Cody & Darby, I thought this was the smartest match AEW has done.

[Montana]

I want to get other opinion that watched the show last night did it feel like a lot of the matches went too long and most of the matches being spotfests with no psychology

The matches were far too long. I would say no psychology but far too many broke down into big moves and kick outs for reasons beyond me. I did like the 3 way tag and the 6 man tag told a good story between Darby, MJF and Spears.

I'd mostly agree with this, although the only match I felt really went too long was the main event.

I also felt like all the matches went long too and lacked psychology/chemistry. I try and watch with unbiased eyes, but i keep noticing the flaws. I hate the whole Brandy Rhodes segments drawing sympathy to her backstory, only to turn heel as the match starts... WTF. I thought the main event was bad. It was slow, mismatch of styles. Overall i thought that show was alright, but nothing special. Not sure if i'd say any of the matches were even 3.5 stars, let alone better than that. I preferred the Evolve show, but i've also been able to attend the last 5-6 Evolve shows locally... so familiar with the product.

I do think AEW has done a great job of marketing the product, as well as establishing people like MJF, Jungle Boy, Luchasaruas, Sammy Guererra, etc. I'm excited to see how they do their midcard title.

I'm no financial expert... so this is just my opinion, but feels like AEW is bleeding money.... and if they aren't yet... they might be in the next 12 months. They've probably already spent close to the 100 million in the company. WWE is clearly trying to overpay for talent, to hold them away from AEW. Assuming AEW's gameplan will be to continue trying to get some "big" names, and become a competitor to WWE. I just have my doubts. I imagine the medical bills in the first few shows alone, weren't cheap. Talks of AEW making a video game after like 2 shows. Just seems like they are trying to do too much, too quick. Obviously, we'll see where they land rating wise on TNT first, but will likely need to continue to acquire "names" to keep the product fresh.

[kovs27]

I want to get other opinion that watched the show last night did it feel like a lot of the matches went too long and most of the matches being spotfests with no psychology

The matches were far too long. I would say no psychology but far too many broke down into big moves and kick outs for reasons beyond me. I did like the 3 way tag and the 6 man tag told a good story between Darby, MJF and Spears.

I'd mostly agree with this, although the only match I felt really went too long was the main event.

I didn't mind the main event but after 5 hours I just was uninterested. You didn't think Page/Sabian was too long? I couldn't wait for that match to end.

[Wilson]

For whatever reason, wrestling in bigger arenas in the States tends to have this bad problem in losing the crowd's attention and it was bound to happen to AEW as well. I only watched the interminable main event and Omega/CIMA, but the show from all I've seen was a definite miss. Hopefully I listen to my common sense sooner rather than later that if I don't like the majority of the Elite guys then I should cross AEW as even a peripheral interest.

On their women's division, given that the women are basically never on BTE and that no one in the core Elite group is there, I'm surprised that it's anything above match segments designed to be the crowd's attention break. Or just pitch to the women that they should do their own BTE where they crib from Young Bucks and Cody stuff so it's surface level mark meta all the way down because I think that's the way things get over with their audience.

I don't know, Page is a mainstay of BTE and was greeted with tepid cheers at best yesterday. Even worse when Jericho beat him up afterwards and the crowd was cheering him instead of booing him out of the building.

Schtick won't work forever and I'd say FftF was the first time schtick and goodwill weren't enough to mask the myriad of issues AEW has right now. To put it more bluntly, the hype is fading out fast and they have built zero intriguing storylines to grab people's attention. Kevin Steen's Friends are doing bad spooky shit to crickets, the women's division is a total mess with Brandi Rhodes doing her best Stephanie McMahon impression as the top star, Page is tanking horribly and will have to go back to the midcard as soon as he loses his match against Jericho, the tag division is just a plethora of flippy teams doing the same thing over and over, and they have three singles stars + very few real prospects complemented with bland cruiserweights and bad indy/schtick wrestlers that have no place in a national/global promotion.

They are being very ambitious/optimistic booking Page like they have. I think he's really risen to the occasion since two years ago when he saved his career by making a balcony moonsault, but he's for the most part unproven as a main event star. I'm 90% positive that the All Out crowd won't turn on him or be quiet for him in his title match. Jericho on the other hand, without his really fresh deconstructed outsider gimmick that he's been using in New Japan, seems like the bigger question mark to me. A Jericho title reign to me at this point sounds totally unappealing.

From what I understand it was hot and uncomfortable in that ampitheater, I wouldn't judge the future of the promotion on what they were signalling would be a B show. In terms of it as a wrestling show I want to see, I really don't care for any combination of the current main event scene that doesn't involve Kenny, Moxley, or maybe Page. Also, their main event hierarchy so far involves too many white people: Jericho, Kenny, Cody, Moxley, Young Bucks, Dustin, Hangman, Lucha Bros., Shawn Spears, MJF, and it can probably keep going down from there until we reach the undercard.

[Lynx]

I think that crowd would be receptive for Page, but problem is that they'll have to follow Lucha Bros vs YBs ladder match and Omega/Moxley. Crowd is likely to be burnt out by that point.

I really don't understand why they didn't go with Omega/Mox as the title match. Is it due to NJPW putting USA title on Mox?

[kovs27]

I think that crowd would be receptive for Page, but problem is that they'll have to follow Lucha Bros vs YBs ladder match and Omega/Moxley. Crowd is likely to be burnt out by that point.

I really don't understand why they didn't go with Omega/Mox as the title match. Is it due to NJPW putting USA title on Mox?

Unfortunately Page had a hard time following Luchasaurus. Not a good sign for All Out.

[Thelone]

They are being very ambitious/optimistic booking Page like they have. I think he's really risen to the occasion since two years ago when he saved his career by making a balcony moonsault, but he's for the most part unproven as a main event star.

I haven't seen him since like 2015-16 and he comes across as the same guy he was in ROH frankly. Page would be perfect to hold a midcard/secondary title and see how it goes because it never happened anywhere for him yet. Of course it doesn't help that he earned his title shot in a freakshow battle royale on the pre-show of DON, had a mediocre 4-way where MJF was the star, then took almost twenty minutes to beat a random lower midcarder.

I'm 90% positive that the All Out crowd won't turn on him or be quiet for him in his title match.

Like Lynx said, the crowd will be burned out for the main event with the ladder match and Moxley vs. Omega.

Jericho on the other hand, without his really fresh deconstructed outsider gimmick that he's been using in New Japan, seems like the bigger question mark to me. A Jericho title reign to me at this point sounds totally unappealing.

Jericho is very obviously a place holder for Omega and have a familiar face for the first few months of TV. I don't expect him to hold the title for more than 4-5 months.

From what I understand it was hot and uncomfortable in that ampitheater, I wouldn't judge the future of the promotion on what they were signalling would be a B show.

It's not like they were untaped house shows either. Again, I saw those as more of a test run for what TV will be when they'll have to draw mostly a local crowd because people won't fly in from all over the globe (or even the US) for a random TV taping in some secondary market.

[Wilson]

The biggest difference between Page from now and then is that he knows that the crowd is behind him enough that he can heat them up taunts or calls to the crowd. It felt like during the G1 there was a flip switched between the Page that would base his matches on the SSP, moonsault, and somersault lariat in a row to being actual matches that fit to more what a New Japan crowd could buy into. He also has a disarming charisma that works in BTE and, to me, seems like the only person in that circle to be actually likeable. For his match against Jericho, it'll probably be a super enthusiastic crowd, there'll be a video package introduction, maybe elaborate entrances, and a slow-build main event. When they want the crowd to react they'll get it.

It feels like we all know that the TV show will inevitably suck out the parts that make AEW feel special (because it'll be real and extremely accessible) and that dissections of its direction feel toothless until we know their TV formats.

[Thelone]

To be fair, I'm not sure the plan was to have Jericho vs. Page for the belt judging by the timeline of events. I'd say they were going for PAC vs. Omega for the title, Jericho vs. Moxley because they have history and could have done an actual grudge match without potted plants or whatever the hell that was, and Page vs. MJF.

This push exposed two things though : Page isn't seen as part the group on BTE but more like a hanger-on, and they shouldn't use BTE as some sort of evaluating grounds for gimmicks/pushes. I'm sure people thought this librarian shit was hilarious on BTE, but it's utter death on the show and should be scrapped before they go on TV.