@trunks3540 I think it's important to keep in mind when watching or talking about these types of spots that glass is glass. It's either completely fake - i.e. not glass, or it's real. But in case you're curious, 'Safety' glass actually refers to glass that's designed to be more resistant to impact, not less, and is designed to break into cubes when shattered to reduce shards and jagged edges. It's still glass and can cut you, it's just -safeR- to put a body part through it than regular glass. Your car windows are made of this kind of glass. Make it thin enough, and it will break pretty easily, but will avoid the big shards that could kill you.
Laminated safety glass also exists - that's what your windshield is made from - and it's designed to be more impact resistant so that you really can't easily put a body part through it at all (or other objects) as it 'spiderwebs,' dents, and caves in way before it reaches the point of shattering.
But both types of glass are glass. Basically all the stuff you see on TV and most of what you see in wrestling run by legitimate promotions that don't want people seriously injured, is sugar. Way safer, but harder to hide that it's fake without camera tricks and CGI.
I'm only bothering to point all this out because I do think it's important to nip in the bud the idea that safety glass is 'safe for performance uses.' That's not what the 'safety' part means. It just means 'if there's an accident and you smash your body into this, you're less likely to die or be seriously injured than if it were a different form of glass.' It's still not intended to be used as a prop like sugar-glass. And that's why CM Punk objected to its use on Collision (and seemingly over-ruled Tony Khan himself and wouldn't allow Perry to use it).
@fac Totally agree. If you're creating contingency plans based on whether a performer will be able to carry on with their match before the match even starts, then you're starting the conversation from a pretty disgusting and dangerous perspective. I mean, sort've. Personally, I think it would be smart to -always- have contingency plans in place for if a worker gets hurt in pro-wrestling. It happens all the time. Freak accidents, mistakes, whatever. Having everyone know what to do in that event would help alleviate some of the people doing stupid shit and carrying on just because they need to do the correct finish or whatever.
BUT, lacking that as a standard for all matches, if you need to think about it for a -specific- match, then you need to rethink that match entirely.
I actually re-watched the Sting match to see if I was being unfair. I wasn't. That spot was bullshit and definitely had all the logic and safety problems I noted previously. Absolutely idiotic.
Glad the House of Black won their match but I actually think it might be too late for them. AEW has shit all over them. Fucking toothless wonder beat up like all three of them the other night by himself. Not sure how anyone expects HOB to come back from that and seem like a legitimate threat again. They need to start dominating matches again - against major players - not being 50/50 booked with the Ring of Honor charity case.
I wish I knew what was going on with AEW lately. There seems to have been such a massive downslide in quality of storytelling and booking over the last year, year-and-a-half. I went from watching pretty much everything they put on TV to watching a couple of matches a week, if that. So many people now that I either don't care about, are being used so poorly it's not worth watching them, aren't wrestling right now, are in shitty storylines and/or are up against awful wrestlers I don't want to watch. Granted, a lot of that is totally personal taste. But AEW used to be pretty bang on with what I wanted to see happening and it's not that way anymore. Sucks for me, but hey - maybe it's great for someone else that's really into the product they're putting out right now.
I like it better then WWE. WWE still kinda bores me. I'm not invested in most of their stories yet and the matches are subpar on TV and decent to good on ppv. The only thing about WWE I like right now is the Rock storyline because I wanna see who turns on who and the banter is funny. And Randy Orton, cause his time is probably winding down and I kinda wanna watch his last couple years or whatever he's got left. AEW stories aren't the best, but most of their matches are really good to fantastic. And now they have Will Osprey. And he's just amazing.
Anyone looking forward to WrestleMania?
I am enjoying the build quite a bit. Really enjoying Drew, enjoying egomaniac heel Rock (so far), and despite that taking up so much of the storytelling I feel like they have planted good stories for almost all the matches - I also like that there is enough uncertainty in many of the title matches that they can go in a lot of directions.
I could see Seth retain, Drew win, a Priest cash-in... I think a Priest cash-in to do to Seth what Seth did to Brock and Roman at a past WM is the most fun outcome.
I could see them have Cody pin the Rock so that Roman blames the Rock for not having the Bloodline with him if he loses, or I could see the Rock pin Cody so that if Cody wins against Roman, the Rock can start the control of the Bloodline Civil War. I do expect Cody to win, because it is time for more Bloodline vs Bloodline, and because the goal is to get to Roman vs Rock, which doesn't need the title. But Cody losing would not shock me...
Lots of good matches, feels like a strong card.
Random AEW thoughts.
I do enjoy watching Danielson work, but at some point, he needs to win for these dream matches to matter. Have Danielson say he is only staying for 5 more losses or something, so each loss feels big, and makes each win matters as Danielson gets more desperate to stay around... End it with Danielson gaining a title shot with only 1 loss left, so if he loses it is his full-time career, and if he wins, then when he loses the belt it is also his career.
I like Samoa Joe, but he should not be your top champ for too long, not when you have the AEW roster and young guys to build up. Time to move on to someone else - and I don't get why you spend 30 minutes at a PPV to have Wardlow get his shot, then the shot becomes little more than a squash on regular TV on a random episode. The battle to get the shot should be regular TV, then have people want to tune in for the PPV. Anyway, I don't see some of your top belts being on Samoa Joe and Eddie Kingston draws fan interest. (RE Kingston - they somehow managed to find a guy that has replaced Mox on the top of my "why give this guy so much screen time" list. Wasn't sure that was possible.)
Introducing Mercedes, and then focusing on her talking instead of in-ring skills, is a choice.
Mercedes never moved my needle. Well, I mean she does, but not in wrestling way. And she's probably a C U Next Tuesday irl. She seems that way. Uptight, and just unpleasant. And honestly, her song makes my head hurt a little. She was cool in Mandalorian though. I like her figure.
Idc what anyone says. The Rock segments are the best thing to happen to WWE in years. I was still on the fence when I came back about still watching it. But these Rock segments have me hooked. I wanna see how it plays out. And Rock is being the perfect villain. Like he's just doing everything right. And I'm 90% expecting him to turn on Roman at or right after Mania.
Drew is funny, but I haven't seen any matches that were even close to AEW caliber since I started watching again. Some of them were ok. Most were mediocre. And a couple downright awful. And I legit fast forward through most of the shit going on with Bobby Lashley and his story. It's boring. Scarlets hot though. LA Knight seems like something I can get behind but he hasn't wrestled all that much yet. And while I like Orton, I can see them trying to protect him a bit cause of his injuries, and it makes his matches less then what they used to be. I get why, just, is something I noticed. So I will watch Mania. But I have a feeling I may be scrolling through Facebook or something half the time. I care about some of the title matches. But some of the rest idc.
I'm not really looking forward to WM. It's not because I think it will necessarily be bad, but rather just the natural course of me having not really watched almost any WWE lately. I'm aware of the storylines and I've watched a few choice segments of matches. But I'm not emotionally invested in any of what's going on at this point. I don't care about Cody's story. I don't care about Roman apparently being champion for 5,622 years. I just don't care. So WM for me would be entirely propped up on how the match quality will be. And based on the card.. I mean.. average? It'll be about as good or bad as any PLE they do, I guess. Which is to say equal to a couple of episodes of any random Dynamite.
They also took too long and too many diversions on the Bloodline storyline so I flat out don't care about it anymore. The implosion should have happened when the Usos broke up. The Rock being here is less 'amazing' and more just... weird. Is anyone buying into the most arrogant megastar since Hulk being the right hand of Roman? Not in a 'ooh, interesting storyline' kind of way, but in a 'this isn't believable and I already know how this will play out' kind of way. Especially bad considering they already played their hand in what they want to do and the fans rejected it outright. So you KNOW that's still where they're going with this once the Cody fans get their way with WM. So... boring.
I wanted WWE to go back to long-form storytelling and respect the audience's attention span, but they kind of went off a little far with that. I also, famously, don't think the Rock is a very good wrestler OR promo guy. He's fine. I'd honestly rather watch an Ospreay or Jay White promo than fucking Rocky rambling on for 45 goddamn minutes to say the same seven sentences over and over again with different words. And I -like- Rocky. Just not as much as apparently everyone else. To me he's fun to watch, but very much mid-tier.
I have no idea why anyone would have a problem with who Mercedes is as a person. I've never heard or read anything to suggest she's not perfectly decent outside the ring. She's also a great talent. One of the rare ones that can wrestle and talk in relatively equal measure.
Joe shouldn't be AEW champ ever. It was a mistake to put it on him. It was a bigger mistake to let him take a steaming shit all over the ROH title on his way there. What's fucking gross is watching a bunch of limpdick neckbeards blaming Adam Copeland's treatment, and guys like Ospreay, for low ratings. Those same shitstains have ALWAYS blamed 'small guy' champions for WWE's ratings problems (like when Daniel Bryan was champ, or even going all the way back to Bret Hart) specifically because 'the champ is the draw.' But when Joe is champion .. oh no.. CAN'T be that he's the reason for weak viewership. It must be all the other incredibly talented people on the roster getting 'this is awesome' chants every week. Fuck off. Joe sucks and he is the reason people don't stay tuned in. Sorry not sorry.
He's a shitty champion and no one cares about him. He doesn't even have a storyline of his own. The whole title picture has been based around who's going to get a shot and who is currently champion is basically incidental and barely important besides letting him get a shitty tough-guy promo out once in a while. He should feud with Eddie Kingston over who can be the fakest tough guy on the fake fighting show.
As for Danielson winning matches - yeah, he needs to. So does Jay White. So does Shibata. So does Malakai. Etc. There's a lot of guys that should be winning a LOT more than they are right now and I'm more than willing to call it just bad booking. Too much talent they're trying to push all at once to everyone's detriment. Not to mention a few guys that are getting pushed to the moon for no good reason. Straight up - Kingston shouldn't be beating anyone. He's terrible. The Janetty of the Briscoes is also on the list of 'why is this guy always on my fucking TV?'
There's SO many talented people on the AEW roster, as I've said many times, that it hurts extra bad to see so many of the wrong ones getting constant TV time.
They also took too long and too many diversions on the Bloodline storyline so I flat out don't care about it anymore. The implosion should have happened when the Usos broke up.
I agree, the Bloodline story has been pretty directionless since Jey finally walked out, which is a shame given it was pretty much must see for awhile. I am hoping post WM they can reinvigorate it with Roman fighting for control/power without his title and with competition for leadership from the Rock, or Solo, or someone...
The Rock being here is less 'amazing' and more just... weird. Is anyone buying into the most arrogant megastar since Hulk being the right hand of Roman? Not in a 'ooh, interesting storyline' kind of way, but in a 'this isn't believable and I already know how this will play out' kind of way. Especially bad considering they already played their hand in what they want to do and the fans rejected it outright. So you KNOW that's still where they're going with this once the Cody fans get their way with WM. So... boring.
That's fair, but I think the fans rejected doing the Rock v Roman thing instead of Cody more than rejecting Rock v Roman as a thing. They have two storylines that shouldn't have converged - Cody chasing the title, Roman keeping the head of the table role against a legit contender for that role. I've felt for awhile the main reason to get the title off of Roman is that you can actually make him stronger if he wins it back without the Bloodline 6 months later. The character he has developed needs to have the unhinged "my empire is falling apart" story come next where he seems desperate and dangerous.
But I have enjoyed the more brutal heeling of the Rock the last couple of weeks. I agree his segments have gone on too long, but he has enough charisma that it still holds my attention.
I have no idea why anyone would have a problem with who Mercedes is as a person. I've never heard or read anything to suggest she's not perfectly decent outside the ring. She's also a great talent. One of the rare ones that can wrestle and talk in relatively equal measure.
I concur, I suspect like most of the best characters her in-ring version is her amped up to 11, so I wouldn't be surprised if she does have quite a bit of that cockiness/arrogance in real life - but that's a pretty common trait for celebs. But like you with the Rock, I have never been that enthused with her promos - they seem the same to me, and really only shine when she is full on heel "I'm the best" mode - she's good on the mic but has a narrow lane I guess?
He doesn't even have a storyline of his own. The whole title picture has been based around who's going to get a shot and who is currently champion is basically incidental...
To me this is AEW too often in a nutshell - I get what Tony wants to do, which is have the matches and wins and losses be an end to themselves in terms of motivation and I think there is value in that. The problem is that story motivation is so different than what 90% of the wrestling audience was groomed on, which is that wrestlers fight over interpersonal conflict and good vs evil, with titles being an extra prize in some ways. None of the wrestling promotions, to me, have ever really talked enough about how being a title holder means extra money, or perks, or whatever. They kind of lean into this at times but not enough. And if you want the titles to be motivation, you actually need less titles to fight over I think.
I get why many fans like AEW given the roster, but you don't have to sacrifice good stories for good matches - you could do both - but it seems like it has come down to some weird either/or thing as many fans fight about it. Its fun that he is willing to put something like a Shibata vs White on regular TV just to have a good match, but seems to miss that it would be even more fun if you tease it for awhile, let it build, and so when they tear the house down it is for a reason. As much as I thought Swerve v Hangman was too gross as a match, at least they had upped the stakes enough prior that it was plausible. But then he went back to that well again too soon and wasted their next battle in the triple threat, instead of having it linger for 6 months and flare up again.
The irony is that AEW's biggest home grown star is MJF who got over doing long promos and building a clear character more than in-ring performance. I think the lack of more folks on the roster like him is an issue.
Too much talent they're trying to push all at once to everyone's detriment. Not to mention a few guys that are getting pushed to the moon for no good reason. Straight up - Kingston shouldn't be beating anyone.
Kingston just isn't believable to me as the elite athlete that can win a title - he isn't huge enough to be a monster, he doesn't come across as powerful or quick. He seems to go against what AEW is trying to sell.
I'm also over Timeless Toni Storm, a gimmick that also seems out of place at this point.
Drew is funny, but I haven't seen any matches that were even close to AEW caliber since I started watching again. Some of them were ok. Most were mediocre. And a couple downright awful.
I do think WWE tends to hold back its talent on TV, the idea being that you show out on the PLEs. It makes the talent hard to compare as I know many WWE guys can go, but they don't for most regular TV.
@fac I think WWE holding back on TV is probably very accurate. But it's also indicative of WWE very much coasting on their existing popularity, which I'm not sure is wise. Despite their fake numbers, they're not exactly blowing up records for PLE attendance. While WWE's schedule is more demanding and so I think it's wise to not LET your guys go full hard in every match, you also don't necessarily want your guys putting their weakest performances out there where the MOST eyeballs are.
With the Bloodline - I just don't think they can actually save this storyline (for me). Once I don't care anymore it's very hard to get me back. It just hasn't really made sense since Jey left and dragging it out so long after that was a mistake.
What I meant about the Rock issue is just that there's zero tension over what's ultimately going to happen. It's not that fans rejected that -idea-, it's that the idea was already presented for them TO reject. So we already know it's -going- to happen. There's no shock value here. It's just a 'Rock is pretending to be on Roman's side for now because fans didn't want to see him take Cody's place.' That's it. We know the ultimate goal from WWE is Rock v Roman, so we also know all this stuff between them is filler. It's the narrative equivalent of a squash match.
I think the issue with Sasha/Mercedes promos comes down to two things; the first is that face promos are -usually- kind of boring, especially when there's no narrative impetus for them to be worked up. The second is that her best and most popular runs were as a heel or semi-heel. So it's hard to judge her ability to put out a good face promo.
Because, straight up, who does really enjoyable good-guy promos? They're all the same. I love this town. You guys are great. I'm here to fight and entertain you. Ooh, bad guys are the worst - they're so naughty, but I'll win. It's the same promo all the time. From EVERYONE.
Face promos are only actually good when there's a lot of narrative drama going on for them to talk about. Like Adam Copeland going off about Christian. I don't believe Mercedes has ever really been given that kind of fuel for her promos. Hence her best promos being just her being a bitch at everybody. It's easier to be a heel against everyone than a face FOR everyone, I guess.
Like, when I think back on the more popular good guy promos - they were things like Rock insulting everyone (but as a good guy this time), Cena insulting everyone (but it's okay because he's a good guy insulting bad guys), Austin yelling and screaming and flipping off Vince McMahon - who everyone kind of hated even before it was public knowledge that he's a sex trafficking rapist. No one is fondly remembering that time Randy Orton came out and cut a promo about how great it is to be in Charleston, South Carolina.
Totally agree that AEW (and WWE, if I'm honest) need to pay more attention to telling us why titles matter. Whether it's money and prestige, whether it's just bragging rights over the rest of the locker room, whether it has other perks, etc. If the title is a goal unto itself and doesn't need story (which I agree should be the case), then you gotta tell us what that title MEANS.
But also, champions should get storylines that aren't solely and entirely about the person trying to take their title. Joe's entire storyline right now is really just about how hard Swerve has fought to fight him. It says nothing about Joe at all. Joe is incidental to the entire narrative. Put the title on a mannequin out back and the title -story- doesn't change. That's a problem.
Decided to resurrect this thread just in case anyone is interested...
Because the end of Roman's story needs to be his redemption and return to humility, and he comes out of this a face.
Quoting myself from a few months ago, as I thought that the Bloodline had stagnated a bit, but the slow burn of Solo taking over, adding in his own henchmen, and now excommunicating Paul with extreme prejudice has engaged me again and I think the reaction when face Roman comes back is going to be huge. I figured this was the long-term plan, to get Roman over as I am sure WWE wants him to retire a face.
I assume the next step will be Sami, Jimmy and/or Jey stepping up to Solo et al and getting beat down, and or Paul getting threatened again, for Roman to make the unexpected save at some point - I'm guessing Summer Slam. Then Roman can go through the henchman, eventually beat Solo, only for final boss the Rock to his opponent at the next WM.
It is kind of amazing to me that they are likely going to end up with both Rhea and Roman as top faces, both with the turns happening while off camera for months.
I think WWE is presenting some good stuff these days, a variety of good stories at different levels of the card and for almost all the titles (tag team titles are again a bit on the back burner). We will see where the Wyatt Sicks goes, I generally dislike that stuff - even if done well, it just seems out of place. But the Judgement Day stuff/Liv's Revenge Tour and Drew vs Punk and what I assume will be Randy's betrayal of Cody at some point and Chad Gable - a lot of good basic wrestling storylines and nicely done feuds.
I think AEW is a at an interesting point where they need to reset the product somehow - I don't think current AEW is that different than peak AEW, but it has just gotten a bit stale and repetitive and I think the fans are getting tired or restless with it - it is like a lot of TV shows where things seem a bit like a rehash of past glories as you hit later seasons and the best stories seem to have been told. They need something big and unexpected to happen to flip that - not sure what that is though.
I am definitely still interested.
I get the impression with the Solo thing that the original intent was for The Rock to be the new HotT and Solo to be his enforcer in a betrayal of Roman, and Paul was supposed to refuse to acknowledge The Rock. That makes way more sense. Solo just doesn't have the presence or star power for this yet, nor is he charismatic enough. It very much feels like a role shifted onto him because the story needed to move on and Rocky went and hurt himself training like a twenty-year-old because he thinks the steroids made him invincible.
Not sure where Roman comes back in this. I can see a case for the Usos and Sami in that usual way of wrestling storylines just bouncing people around as friends and enemies and barely paying any attention to like.. why someone would team up again with the person that treated them like dogshit. But it happens all the time so it wouldn't surprise me. But it feels really hollow unless they do some good storytelling with it. We'll see.
Other than that, I'm not finding much compelling about WWE product right now. I miss Demon Balor a lot. His Judgement Day run has just felt really directionless - like he's the least important thing about the group. Drew was finally given a chance to be interesting again here, but I definitely feel like he deserves better than a feud with a currently injured guy that has spent more time out with injuries in the past 3 years than he's spent in a wrestling ring.
AEW needs to make some changes. Tighten the whole show up. Make wins and losses actually matter again. Figure out why so much of your talent is regularly injured and deal with it. Etc. I still think the programming is actually better than what WWE is doing - but it's falling on its face a little more often than it should. The hardest part is the roster bloat not being dealt with. We've all talked about this before, but with the roster they have there's no reason we need to see the same few guys on every show for what feels like years at a time (realistically, probably several months at a time).
Forbidden Door was pretty good but man.. I'm pretty sick of AEW's need to cram as many people on the card as possible. I want guys to get paid. Don't get me wrong. I know they all want to be on the show. I know being on the show matters to their finances both in terms of merch sales and actual payday. I get it. But if Tony cares so much about that - then cycle the talent more so different guys feature on different shows and leave it at that. You can't have everyone on every big show or it's a complete fuckshow.
The goddamn PRESHOW.. the fucking PRE-FUCKING-SHOW had 5 matches. Literally half the number of matches the entire main card had. That's crazy. Moreover, those five matches featured 22 performers. FUCKING TWENTY TWO PEOPLE in FIVE matches. Fuck sake. 32 performers. That's how many were in the main card. Which had twice as many matches. And one of them was a six-man ladder match. RIDICULOUS.
Just fuck off with this.
Speaking only of the main card, I feel like it was a real mixed bag. MJF was only on this show because he's MJF. This match meant nothing. I didn't get the impression anyone really cared about it beyond 'it's nice that MJF is back.' He did typical MJF things. This was a Collision match at Forbidden Door. The Elite match was something I've bitched about at previous Forbidden Doors; they decided they -had- to further the ongoing AEW storyline at Forbidden Door. It's a bad decision that just ends up with Daddy Ass replaced by an NJPW guy for NO discernible reason. It's dumb. It's bad booking. No reason for this match to exist or to be on the big show. Put the Elite versus the actual Acclaimed (i.e. with Billy) on a different big show, or on Dynamite. It doesn't need to be here. And it was fine. Nothing particularly exciting about the match, but it was good.
I'm torn on Bryan's match. It was really good, of course. But it was a first round match in a tournament and the ONLY first round tournament match on the card, so it feels like there's practically zero stakes AND makes no sense here. It's just, again, 'we threw an NJPW guy in here you knew wouldn't win just to make it fit the PPV.' Love seeing these two guys go at it, but why was this part of the Owen Hart Cup? Why weren't any OTHER Owen matches on the card, then? Just doesn't make sense here.
Maybe if they'd dumped the Elite or MJF and used that spot for a second Owen match this would have made way more sense. Good opportunity to get an NJPW guy into the next round of the Owens, as well.
Toni/Mina was fine. Ending seemed weird and rushed. I dig the idea of them all teaming up. But I didn't see anything leading up to this to imply they might join forces, nor was there anything -in the course of the match- to suggest it. No growing respect. No 'almost' moments of hitting their friend and realizing they were causing her problems. Just suddenly they like each other now. Weird.
ZSJ/Cassidy was excellent. One of the few matches on here that really feels like a big moment for us to see and like it belongs here. This feels like what Forbidden Door exists for.
I feel bad that Shibata is involved in matches with people like Hook and Joe. Terrible storyline. Terrible match. And again.. why is this at Forbidden Door? Because Jeff Cobb is there? C'mon. See my comments about Tanahashi replacing Billy Gunn. It's dumb. Stop this. Save it for a regular AEW show and give this spot to showcasing some AEW talent up against some NPJW talent we wouldn't normally get to see.
Jack Perry - not only a very obvious ending but another match that should be just on an AEW-only show. Throw in like one random dude from CMLL and now it's a Forbidden Door special event? Fuck off. Good match, though.
Mone/Vaquer was disappointing. I love Mone. I also love Vaquer. But Mone was way off her game on this one. She slipped or botched a few times - seemed to struggle to lift Vaquer a few times and couldn't get to her feet or move quickly other times. Not sure if she's nursing some kind of small injury or what, but Mone looked bad in this match. And the crowd noticed because, as you will have seen, they turned on her. By the end of the match, that crowd belonged to Vaquer.
As is proper. She's amazing. I've liked her a lot for a while and I REALLY hope she comes back to AEW as frequently as possible.
It's weird.. it's almost perfect how Mone managed to turn heel by accident right before the return of fan-favorite Britt Baker. I wonder what the original plan was - because before the show I couldn't imagine the crowd booing EITHER lady. But this is even more interesting because it's going to be a face Britt against a probably heel Mercedes. Very interesting. Hopefully whatever is going on with Mone gets sorted out. She's looked GREAT in her matches since returning. This bad showing was very unusual.
Mox still fucking sucks and can fuck off and suck forever in the deepest hole of off-fucking. I hope him losing is a prelude to him taking that vacation he talked about but never went on because I would honestly celebrate him being gone for a good while.
Strickland/Ospreay was excellent and ended exactly how I expected it to. That being said.. again.. this is Forbidden Door and both of these guys are in AEW so it feels a little hollow. If this were the only match that didn't feel like it belonged, that would be different. AEW is the lead on this show, so it makes sense to have SOMETHING that's just theirs, and if anything I'd say this should be the thing. But that would feel better if half the matches on the show didn't feel like just AEW people doing AEW feuds sometimes with somoene else thrown in for appearances' sake.
Yeah, I don't know. A lot of bitching, I guess. I just would prefer this show to be more of a showcase of talent and the possibilities that we have when a company isn't xenophobic. This one, of all three we've had so far, just felt a bit like AEW was steamrolling everyone else. It had like WWE vs. WCW after the buyout vibes.
I get the impression with the Solo thing that the original intent was for The Rock to be the new HotT and Solo to be his enforcer in a betrayal of Roman, and Paul was supposed to refuse to acknowledge The Rock. That makes way more sense. Solo just doesn't have the presence or star power for this yet, nor is he charismatic enough.
I doubt they ever expected The Rock to be around enough so Solo was going to be the day to day leader with questions about whether anyone is pulling the strings. I figure Jimmy is the first to come back and maybe push back against Solo, which will result in a beatdown, and Jey will intervene, which results in a beatdown, and maybe Sami before Roman.
Other than that, I'm not finding much compelling about WWE product right now. I miss Demon Balor a lot. His Judgement Day run has just felt really directionless - like he's the least important thing about the group.
I think that will come to a head soon with Finn and Liv orchestrating a coup against Rhea and Priest. I think they want both Rhea and Priest to be faces going forward. I like the Gable story until the Wyatt stuff as Gable is way underappreciated, I think Gunther will eventually be positioned as the main antagonist for Cody and that could be a multi-year feud really, Drew is great right now and honestly Punk as the thorn in his side works for me even if he can't wrestle.
Forbidden Door was pretty good but man.. I'm pretty sick of AEW's need to cram as many people on the card as possible.
It actually really hurts the overall show I feel - 1/3 of those matches may be great as they happen but will be overshadowed and forgotten. I have no interest (here on the US east coast) watching this until midnight when work comes Monday morning. Its like being given a 15 course meal - at some point the fact that the third appetizer and second side dish was pretty good gets lost when the second desert comes out.
I think Forbidden Door is an example where it should be against one rival promotion only for overall bragging rights - then you could do heel vs heel and face vs face or a mix and have every match be between the two promotions. And it is also a case where WWE's video recaps and production would help to build up the stakes. To me it's a bit like a crossover episode of a TV show with one I don't watch - if you are a fan of both its great, if not its just a bunch of new guest stars.
I'm torn on Bryan's match. It was really good, of course. But it was a first round match in a tournament and the ONLY first round tournament match on the card, so it feels like there's practically zero stakes AND makes no sense here.
Agree 100% - and Danielson teasing the neck injury is like Mox bleeding - it pops up too often.
Mone looked bad in this match. And the crowd noticed because, as you will have seen, they turned on her. By the end of the match, that crowd belonged to Vaquer.
...
It's weird.. it's almost perfect how Mone managed to turn heel by accident right before the return of fan-favorite Britt Baker.
I think Mone works best as a heel. I was surprised they turned on her (never underestimate Boston vs NYC rivalry). I will say this - I think it is too early to do Baker and Mone, that seems like the biggest money feud and I think you should have them circle each other for a while, especially let Mone become more heelish over time, maybe more disparaging of AEW on the sly, so Baker as the OG for AEW women has to step in. Maybe they want it for Wembley...
Strickland/Ospreay was excellent and ended exactly how I expected it to. That being said.. again.. this is Forbidden Door and both of these guys are in AEW so it feels a little hollow.
Agreed, I think you hold that off for a different show - and I will really think that if they run it back at Wembley.
A quick Money in the Bank prediction - the Seth vs Priest match has the stipulation that if Priest loses, he leaves the Judgment Day. If in fact Balor wants him gone, and is mad that Priest thinks they need him more than he needs them, maybe Balor interferes to help Rollins get the win, imploding one part of the JD by forcing Priest out, and starting on a heel Finn vs face Priest program.
Then when Rhea comes back later this year, she dumps Dom (instant face move) and feuds with Liv, getting her title back but leaving Judegment Day as Balor, Morgan, Mysterio, McDonough and Carlito...with Balor and Morgan as the leadership, and Priest and Rhea as faces/tweeners in solo action.
Watched the last few weeks of AEW off and on. MJF vs Osperay was as good as a one hour match can be, hard to sustain interest that long for me at least, and I was surprised it didn't go to the time limit draw. It is a little weird to me the rematch will be at All In - not because it shouldn't be, but hard to follow that. Much like when he faced off against Danielson, I did not expect MJF to deliver, and he did.
I thought Mariah May turning on Toni Storm was well done also.
Watched Blood and Guts - two spots stood out. One was Bowens in the "barb-wire sandwich" spot - now I don't actually want the talent to get stuck with barb wire, but if you are going to do that spot, you can't have the guy get up from it and appear to have almost no cuts on his body. If that was real barb or razor wire they would be half shredded - but at least it was safe in reality so that's fine. Two was the headshot with the chair to Perry when handcuffed to the cage. I don't get that at all, even with a gimmicked chair. Spots like that just frustrate me with AEW, makes me regret watching them at times. Like the glass spot with Darby, somebody needs to say no.
in WWE, Enjoying the soap opera with Rhea, Liv, Dom, Priest, Finn et al - I assume that Finn will cost Priest the title, Dom will cost Rhea the victory, we will learn Finn and Liv are in cahoots, and the new JD will be them, Dom, JD and you get face Priest and Rhea....
I hope they keep Roman away longer. Solo et al need to kill Jey and Jimmy first so that Roman makes the save as 100% the face to avenge the Wise Man and the Usos.
What's worse about the chair shot last night is that AEW has had Chris Nowinski come in and talk about concussions and the effects they have on people, yet they did it anyway.
Kahn had a standard non answer when he was asked about the spot on a call this morning. (per a post on Cageside Seats)
Powell: “[There have been] unprotected chair shots to the head in pro wrestling lately, including one on last night’s Dynamite show. And I know you’ve had Chris Nowinski in to deliver seminars about head trauma. And I’m sure you’re aware of the damage of CTE given your status as a member of an NFL ownership family. So, what is your stance on unprotected chair shots? Is there something being done to gimmick these chairs that in your mind makes it okay?”
Khan: “It’s a great question, and it was a very nuanced question. There’s a couple of different things in there, and I think the nuance you added to it made it an even better series of questions.
...I love that we analyze the mechanics of pro wrestling and the things going on. I do like to leave some of the art of this and some of the kayfabe of this in the wrestling, and I think that’s the best way to do it.
But I thought it was a great match. Everybody came out of it in great shape, all things considered. I mean, everyone is beat up bad, but to be honest, this is probably the least major injuries we’ve ever had coming out of a Blood & Guts match, or one of these very brutal multi-man death matches. And I’m glad everyone’s gonna be okay. It’s a really beat up group, but all things considered, came out very well.
I think it’s a great question. I don’t think all these spots are created equal. There’s different spots, different ways to do things. I don’t want to compare apples to oranges, necessarily. I think it’s a great question. There’s definitely some mystery to be left to how things are done, and how things might be done now might not be the same way they would be done 25 years ago, just to do the same spots, for example. But I think it was a great nuanced question, and I appreciate you asking. Thanks, Jason.”
Even if I give them the benefit of the doubt that the chair was totally gimmicked and totally safe, it still takes me out of enjoying the match because in real time I question if it was safe.
Blur the lines between work and shoot with promos, work real injuries into storylines after the fact, sell well during matches and do a stretcher job here and there, add some color in rare instances - but only do spots where the performer can be protected from harm - if I am concerned about the performer's health and not the character's health, that hurts "kayfabe".
Too many sad stories of older wrestlers struggling with health issues to support truly dangerous spots.
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