BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 26th, '20, 00:53

LUMBERJACK MATCH: Wardlow (w/MJF) vs. Luchasaurus (w/Jungle Express)- 1.5/10
So they’re doing a Lumberjack match… except they have no one standing on the side of the ring with the ramp and the stage. If someone wanted to run out that way, there are no lumberjacks there to stop them, completely undermining the point of the stipulation.
Luchasaurus wound up getting throw to the outside and of course all of the heels start beating on him… right in front of the referee. Knox… you’ve been doing this for how long? When the babyface gets thrown to the outside in a lumberjack match, go get yourself distracted by the heel!
They were having a fine hoss-fight until we got a spot where Jungle Boy went to check on Luchasaurus after a big move on the ramp, so Wardlow grabbed him and threw him to the heel side. Personally, Jungle Boy shouldn’t have gone to check on Luchasaurus with Wardlow right there. It’s tantamount to interfering in the match by blocking a competitor’s way to his opponent.
As you would expect, the heels all started to beat on Jungle Boy. Marko Stunt ran across the ramp and did a dive onto the heels and started brawling with them. This led to the rest of the babyfaces slowly ambling around the ring to break up this fight instead of doing their job of keeping the wrestlers in the ring (well, all of them but Brandon Cutler and Marko Stunt, anyway. Tony Kahn should reward them with more bookings and fine the rest of these idiots for dereliction of duty).
So, of course, we wind up with the wrestlers in this lumberjack match brawling on the stage with the lumberjacks who are supposed to keep them in the ring nowhere in sight and Knox is just following them around, making NO EFFORT to actually enforce the rules and count them out, the moment they went onto the stage you know where this is going and it drives me f*cking nuts because they actually took the care to come up with a logical reason for why everyone would all be in that one corner and thus in position to catch whoever went flying off the stage, but it didn’t occur to them that they needed to distract the referee so the wrestlers wouldn’t get counted out!
Then there was the execution of this, which was actually worse. We didn’t get one person going off the stage and getting caught; we got FOUR. First Cutler got thrown off by Luchasaurus, then Mark got thrown off by Wardlow, then Wardlow fell off after taking the Tail Whip from Luchasaurus… and then Luchasaurus randomly decided that he was going to put his life on the line doing a high-risk maneuver jumping onto a pack of people, half of whom would try to beat him, when could have easily just walked to the ramp and hopped down.
First of all (or maybe second, because I guess my first point is that Luchasaurus diving onto the lumberjacks just to do a dive was f*cking moronic), diminishing returns are a real thing. The first time someone gets thrown off of a stage and lands on a pile of people it’s cool. By the third time I happens in ninety seconds, it’s not that exciting because I already know that he’s going to land on the big gaggle people. The fourth time it’s almost boring, and especially when it’s not even surprising because he stood at the edge of the ramp in front of the gaggle and carefully measured his distance and stretched like an Olympic jumped before jumping. Making this even worse was the fact that half of the time you could see the gaggle of wrestlers getting up and then all moving back towards the stage to get into position for the next catch. This was especially bad during Luchasaurus’ dive, because it made them all look like f*cking idiots moving into position so this big f*cker could jump and land on top of them instead of doing what any sane person would do and MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!
After doing their big spot on the outside, they stumble towards the ring and then go right into their finish. I HATE this sort of sh*t because it makes the whole thing feel like a performance begging for snowflakes and “THIS IS AWESOME!” chants rather than a professional fight between two opposing parties. They did a lumberjack match, and the only time the wrestlers tried to leave the ringside area, the lumberjacks were off doing something else, making no effort to stop them, and later reappeared solely to act as willing human crash-pads for an overkill series of stage-bumps, culminating in a dive that only done for the sake of doing a dive off the stage, and after the big spot (which required the referee to completely ignore the rules so that they wouldn’t be counted out while doing their big spot) was over, they went right back to the ring and went straight to the finish, with the stipulation of the match not mattering once.
Hell… now that I think about it, this whole stipulation was idiotic. During the hype package, Excalibur pushed that this was going to be a lumberjack match because “last week’s brawl took twenty men to break it up.” Okay… but the lumberjacks’ job isn’t to break a fight up, so why is that relevant? Their job is to stop a coward from running away, but we never got any indication that either of these men was interested in running away from the other.
And, of course, to set it up they had all of these wrestlers jump the guardrail and/or pour out from backstage… which is the first time that has happened in AEW during the COVID era. Why did the wrestlers feel a moral imperative to run out and break that fight up, but didn’t, for example, stop Jake Roberts from molesting Brandi Rhodes, or save SCU from an eight-on-three mugging at the hands of the Dark Order the night Brodie Lee debuted, or save Orange Cassidy from the brutal beat-down he suffered at the hands of the Inner Circle a few weeks ago? The answer, of course, is “because we needed to the big gaggle of wrestlers to run in to break this fight up so we could set up the lumberjack match we wanted to do,” and as I’ve said many times before, if the best answer your have to “why did X act this way in one situation but not another analogous situation?” is “because that’s what the plot needed to happen,” you need to go back to the drawing board with your story, because it’s got a big giant hole in it.
I also hated the actual finish here. Said finish was Luchasaurus hitting two Tail Whips and then a chokeselam on Luchasaurus and going for the pin but MJF distracted the referee to break It up. Wardlow recovered and hit a low blow (which Tony Schiavone seemed to have no problem with, even though he’s supposed to be a babyface), then hit the F-10 for the win. Wardlow is supposed to be a big, scary monster, but in the three matches he has had against non-jobbers, he has lost cleanly to Cody, lost a battle royale cleanly, and now been pinned but was only saved because his pal distracted the referee, then had to cheat in addition to using his finisher to pick up the win. The dude has NO CREDIBILITY ANYMORE. Did you really need to protect f*cking Luchasaurus here? Really? Let the big scary heel win clean! Luchasaurus is a tag team guy and not even the biggest star in his trio. He’ll be fine getting pinned cleanly.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
MJF attacks Jungle Boy, the Jurassic Express and MJF/Wardlow are fighting again, and lo and behold, now that there is a fight to break up, the lumberjacks have suddenly recovered and are breaking it up. In other words, WE’RE IN THE EXACT SAME F*CKING PLACE WE WERE LAST WEEK! Why did you even book this match when you could have given seven of it’s nine minutes to a different match to let it really stand out, and given each team one minute each to cut a promo building up to the match they’re going to have at Fyter Fest (which Schiavone announced at the end of this segment)?

TECHNIQUE BY TAZ- I’ve loved these in the past, but for some reason Taz sounded a lot more robotic here than he ever has before.

BRITT BRAKER HAS A SECURITY GUARD NOW, AND HAS ADDED A POPEMOBILE-STYLE PLEXIGLASS SHIELD TO HER VEHICLE- Um… shouldn’t the security guard be by the door to the thing? That was what happened last week, right? That Big Swole just hopped into the driver’s chair? Seems to be to be pretty hard to defend the driver’s seat if you’re standing by the trunk on the passenger’s side.
Also, the top is open, so you know that if Swole doesn’t steal the thing again, she’s either going to jump into it and scare Britt or dump something on top of her (I’m guessing the latter, as if she jumped in to scare Britt, it’d be kind of hard to get back out).

HIKARU SHIDA vs. RED VELVET- no rating, mixed segment
Shida got into an argument with Penelope Ford and Kip Sabian at ringside. Paul Turner tried to get her to go to the ring, but Penelope used this distraction to grab Shida and slap her in the face. Shida decided she had had enough of this sh*t and went to hit Penelope with her Kendo stick but Turner stopped her. Fine. Turner wants to make sure the advertised match takes place. But in that case, eject Penelope from ringside!
Shida got in the ring, hi a running knee, hit the Falcon Arrow, then got the pin. Then she went over to Penelope and attacked her. This was a case where I had no problem with the fact that the babyface attacked the heel from behind, because the heel had just done essentially the same thing to the babyface.
The two then started brawling. Paul Turner and one guy from the crowd tried to break it up, but that failed. Oh. I guess Leva Bates is trying, too, but she’s not doing anything helpful like trying to restrain one of them. She’s just telling them to stop, like she’s just holding her arms out and telling them o stop over and over again, like a referee in a New Japan match. Shida went after Sabian as well when he got in her way. Remember last week…or even TEN MINUTES AGO- when Wardlow and Luchasaurus were having a brawl and all of the wrestlers felt compelled to run in and break it up? Well why aren’t they doing that now?
I’m sorry if you think that’s a nit-pick, but these things leap out at me because they’re inconsistent. This was actually a pretty good brawl little brawl, but that one thing bugs me. And it’s not even like having the wrestlers run in and brake this brawl up would stop them from doing something they want to do for then storyline. This is just a simple post-match brawl to build up heat for the title match. Like I said, this was a good brawl, the unnecessary logical inconsistency in the overall universe makes it a little harder for me to enjoy it (I will also point out that we’ve had two matches so far on this show, and both have had post-match brawls to build up to a match at Fyter Fest.

CODY VS. HAGER PRESS CONFERENCE- F*CKING ATROCIOUS!
Hager’s an MMA fighter and Cody wants to come off like a star. We get it. They’ve got the f*cking tables and the Cody side is all there- including Allie for no reason (remember, Q.T. isn’t here), and some geek they have hired just to stand behind Cody and hold the belt up, which such a douchy thing and makes Cody look like a total heel.
Hey, anyone remember the show two weeks ago when Brandi made this big f*cking stink that Q.T. had given Allie one of their cool Team Rhodes jackets? Well there are SEVEN PEOPLE on Cody’s side there (Cody, Brandi, and Arn seated at the table, and Allie, Dustin, the human belt-stand, some other geek behind them)… and the only one of them wearing this official team jacket is Allie. This just makes Brandi look even worse, as either she really was overreacting to something that wasn’t actually a big deal to her just so she could have a reason to yell at Allie, or these f*cking jackets were such a big deal to her and she is SOOOOOOO petty that Team Rhodes isn’t going to wear them anymore and she didn’t tell Allie.
Hager’s side isn’t here, but they’re going to start with the questions from the press. Using columnist names was cute PWI. I guess to prove they weren’t in an empty room, they cut to a shot from an angle that no professional filming crew would ever use unless the specific purpose was to get the rear-facing view of a female head and shoulder into the shot with all of the VIPs on the dais, specifically to prove to us that there actually was a woman in the room who had just asked that question.
They also appear to have completely forgotten the storyline, as Arn said Hager came out and purposely kept himself fifty feet away and said he wanted a shot at Cody. Hager never said that. Cody just figured that coming out and attacking Arn was a sign that Hager wanted a title shot (as opposed to just a member of the Inner Circle attacking the coach of a member of a stable they are feuding with). Arn also said that he was the one who made the call to wait on giving Swagger a title shot because “the time wasn’t right,” but what actually happened was that Cody immediately said “so I guess you want a title shot at Fyter Fest?”
He was also talking about Cody going over to him to ask “you don’t think I can beat that guy?” thirty seconds after Arn supposedly made this call to hold off on a title shot… which would have been in the middle of a big brawl. Is Arn going senile? How the f*ck did anyone in AEW let this air with so many inconsistencies?
Then Cody got to speak. He told us that last week, when Ricky Starks showed up to Dynamite, “he had $3.67 in his checking account,” but now AEW has given him a job. Didn’t this guy tell us he was some sort of champion in the NWA for a while? Either Cody is lying, Starks lied to Cody for sympathy and Cody bought it, or Starks is f*cking terrible with his money. And I know that’s an odd thing to get annoyed about, but there NO F*CKING REASON for Cody to bring it up other than so he could subtly indicate to everyone how generous he and AEW are.
The question was “how does it feel to be the first AEW TNT Champion?” which is an odd question for a noted wrestling columnist like Matt Brock to be asking over a whole month into a title reign (that’s a week one question), and Cody is going off on these stupid pointless tangents to fill time, saying nothing of any importance.
Scratch that. He’s showing us all how full of sh*t he is. He said “I take wrestling very seriously,” and reinforced to us that he doesn’t like “meta-wrestling,” “cosplay-wrestling” or “play-wrestling.” Do you, Cody? Because I have very vivid memories of you and Frankie Kazarian interrupting a CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH the two of you were involved in against each other in ROH in 2018 to advertise the f*cking cigar company the two of you had started together (Glory By Honor XVI). I also remember you doing a segment in ROH where you claimed you were running for senator and pretended your wife had the power to cancel a match for no reason and everyone was supposed to go along with it (State of the Art 2018: Dallas). I also remember you getting screwed out of getting your revenge on MJF after he made you go through so much pain just to get the match set up, and then coming out the next week on Dynamite and not really giving a sh*t other than that you lost out on the winner’s share of the purse. So pardon me if I don’t believe you when you say you take wrestling seriously.
We got a total of FOUR STRAIGHT MINUTES OF CODY AND ARN RAMBLING ON ABOUT NOTHING before Hager and his wife finally showed up. Hager just looked at Cody and said “you ready?” Cody said yes, so Hager summoned the cameraman and they got together for the posed picture like you see in UFC. You hate “play-wrestling,” Cody? Well here’s a dude who attacked your mentor from behind, two weeks ago, and is part of a stable that has been feuding with you and your buddies for nine months now. Remember when he broke your brother’s arm by slamming it in a car door? Apparently not, because here you are, posing for a publicity photo with him.
They do the bit we’ve seen a million times in MMA by now where one guy is purposely a dick and putting his fist in the other’s personal space, and while Hager doing that undisputedly makes him a dick, I can’t help but notice that Cody has brought a whole entourage with him for this, while Hager has only his non-wrestler wife. Hager is a dick, but being willing to risk starting a fight with you here when it’s basically going to be five of you (Cody, Arn, Dustin, Brandi, and Allie… and that assumes the other two geeks don’t jump in) against one of him makes him look like something of badass.
The picture finishes without any further incident. Hager heads off, at which point his wife throws water on Cody. Again, a dick move, but it’s not Cody’s the Wicked Witch of the West or anything, so I don’t think this is really worth getting that angry about. The Hager’s leave… and that’s it. Jim Ross kept building this up as being “controversial,” and this is what you give us? Really?
This was a COMPLETE AND TOTAL WASTE OF TIME. This was about six or seven minutes of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and two thirds of it was spent with either Arn or Cody rambling on about nothing. Throw in the fact Arn’s promo showed that he seems to have completely forgotten the segment that kicked this storyline off and the fact that AEW let that air, and you have what might be the single most annoying thing AEW has ever done.
Sh*t like this is why I find Cody so G-d damn grating. This segment SUCKED, and anyone with a brain knew it was going to suck from the get-go with such weak-ass non-climax planned, but we’ve got to go through the effort of setting up this special set and getting the podium and fancy glasses and setting up the chairs and finding people to play the AEW spokeswoman and the belt-geek and the other geek and the fake press and making fans sit through four minutes of people blabbing on about nothing, just to get the visual out there that Cody thinks will make him look like a star. And this isn’t the first time he’s done it, either. Remember the episode of Dynamite with his contract-signing with Jericho where Schiavone picked him up at the airport in a limo and we broadcast the two of them chatting in the limo even though there was no logical reason to air it and every reason not to (such as the fact that Cody broadcasting his secret strategy to get into Jericho’s head out on national television where Jericho or some other ally of his could see it)? This is that happening again.

JOEY JANELA & SONNY KISS VIGNETTE- meh
Some hooligans attempt to carjack Sonny at a gas-station while Janela was in a convenience store. Sonny was able to hold them off despite being outnumbered four to one, and once Janela got out of the convenience store and realized what was happening and went to join the two wrestlers made short work of the four ne’er-do-wells
I guess this did a fine job of showing a growing mutual respect between the two to set up an odd-couple tag team (which is something that AEW doesn’t actually have at the moment, so that will be something fresh), but I was put off by the fact that this was a Lucha Underground-style vignette (complete with music and some slow-motion action shots) in the middle of a show with an otherwise live and real presentation. It was only made even more weird by the fact that our next match featured…

SONNY KISS & JOEY JANELA vs. COLT CABANA & BRODIE LEE (w/the Dark Order)- 4.25/10
Someone has to come up with a clever nickname for Kiss & Janela.
I’ve seen a lot of wrestling in my life, but Cabana being laid across the ropes in the corner and Sonny Kiss basically doing a front handspring into a cappo kick to Cabana’s gut was something I had not seen before. Props.
This did its job well, with the Dark Order only cheating behind Colt’s back (other than the time when they pulled him out of the ring so that Sonny Kiss couldn’t hit a 450 on him), and Brodie doing the work for the finish but allowing Cabana to get the pin (though, as Ross pointed out, that was also the best move for the team, as Colt was the legal man at the time). The only reservation I have here is that I’m not really sure I would have put Kiss & Janela in this spot where they had to take a loss.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Lance Archer shows up and attacks Kiss. Janela tries to make the save but gets laid out as well. Archer blocking the chair being thrown at his face kind of exposes the whole “throw the chair at your face” spot unless you’re going to have the wrestlers who get hit with it not put their hands up, which I absolutely would not recommend. Jake pulled Archer off of Janela and told him to not waste his time with this.
Anyone remember when Jake molested Cody’s wife? Is Cody ever going to try to get revenge on Jake for that (and no, beating someone’s crony in a match doesn’t count as getting revenge for molesting your wife)? That seems like something he should be doing.

During the previous match, they told us about some Dark results, including telling us that Shawn Spears is winning matches now that he has his black glove. If this was important enough to put the segment where he got the black glove on Dynamite, you should be showing us him getting his wins with it (or at least the first one and then some others) on Dynamite.

RECAP OF SHAWN SPEARS WINNING WITH THE BLACK GLVOE-
I stand by my criticism, simply because it would have been less awkward to not talk about Spears’ winning with the black glove before airing this.
The way they AEW has chosen to do this angle is to have Spears wear the glove the whole time, and have Tully pass him the metal ingot to load it with. The problem with doing it this was is that we definitively know from the get-go that the glove is loaded, and if the referee is checking him at the beginning of the match, he needs Tully to pass him the thing to load the glove with (and if the referee isn’t checking him at the beginning of the match, why doesn’t he just come out with the glove loaded?)… and AEW clearly knows this, as they have just produced a video package calling attention to it, so there is absolutely no reason why from now on, Tully shouldn’t be preemptively barred from ringside for every one of Shawn Spears’ matches. A better way to do this would have been to do it the way ROH did the angle with Chris Hero’s “lucky” elbow pad, where the manager hides it on his person until Spears is ready to use it, he uses it while the referee’s back is turned, and then quickly hides it before the referee turns around. This way there is no definitive proof that the glove is loaded (even though we all know it is), so there is no reason ban the manager from ringside.

FTR vs. SCU (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)- 6.5/10
I guess pulling into the parking lot is part of FTR’s normal entrance. That’s a little weird. As they walked past Britt Baker, I can confirm that no one is guarding the driver’s seat of her vehicle, so Big Swole could just show up and do the exact same thing again if she wanted to.
Props to AEW for actually explaining to us why the originally advertised match isn’t happening. Showing Dustin, Brandi, and Allie at ringside to scout an opponent they will likely have to face at some point soon was a good touch, but they should have had the camera linger on them a little longer. Certainly at least long enough to let us see Allie’s entire “I miss my Q.T.” sign.
FTR won clean.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
FTR cut a good promo on the Bucks. Then The Butcher & The Blade showed up and threated to destroy their truck. Meanwhile, the Lucha Bros. made their big return by sneaking up behind FTR… and then just standing there and waiting for The Blade to finish his speech, challenging FTR & the Young Bucks to an eight-man tag at Fyter Fest. Cue standard Lucha Bros. fare with the hand-signals in the opponents’ faces leading to shoving and then a brawl, which the Lucha Bros. won. The bucks eventually came out to chase the Lucha Bros. off. The Lucha Bros. ran off to FTR’s truck, and all of the heels left on the stolen truck.
My main quibble with this was that the inclusion of the Lucha Bros. felt completely out of nowhere and came off very forced. It felt like AEW wanted to book an eight-man tag at Fyter Fest that forced FTR and the Bucks to team up (which is the natural thing to do at this point with the story they’ve been telling) and they knew The Butcher & The Blade had to be in it because of the role they’ve played so far, but they were worried that the work-rate wouldn’t be high enough so they needed to put in a team in the match that the Bucks could do their flips and superkicks with, as well a team that had some star-power because The Butcher & The Blade are the bottom of the midcard at best. That sort of thing should never feel like it’s a kayfabe consideration.
I also think that putting the Lucha Bros. in here feels like it’s wasting the first meeting between them and FTR. That feels like something that could have been HUGE, but doing it this way makes it feel so small.

TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH VIDEO PACKAGE- both teams came off far too goofy, and I did not care to see them fight.

WORLD TITLE MATCH VIDEO PACKAGE- good

BRIAN CAGE (w/Taz) vs. A JOBBER- squash
Taz cut yet another FANTASTIC promo after the match.

COLT CABANA & BRODIE LEE MEET IN AN ODD, BLUE-LIT STONE ROOM- excellent
Brodie gives Colt a nice speech. Colt admits that it felt good to win. Brodie asks Colt to team with him against Fyter Fest against SCU. Colt was on board with this, but got nervous when the opponent was revealed via Brodie cutting a promo making the challenge. Colt was GREAT in the background, being uncomfortable while Brodie was cutting a promo that got more and more evil-sounding, but without actually saying anything morally wrong; just sending up red flags… but because there was nothing morally wrong, Colt seemed to come to the decisions that he’s willing to team with Brodie against SCU. I’m sure he’ll be on the lookout for warning signs that Brodie Lee isn’t what he seems, but until he actually sees something wrong, he’s willing to keep working with him.

They ran down the card for both weeks of Fyter Fest. Excalibur blatantly lies and tells us “we saw a lot of action in that press conference earlier today.” Week 2 of Fyter Fest really feels like the lesser show. Other than the world title match, it feels like most of the stuff on that show is stuff that would be matches 1-4 on a usual show, as opposed to the other title matches.

BRITT BAKER ORDERS TONY SCHIAVONE TO READ A STATEMENT ABOUT BIG SWOLE- whatever
As you can probably guess, the statement was very mean. Britt continues to be a clown, with the number of hours she spent in that dumpster Big Swole then came over to Britt and they argued a bit. Swole went around to the front of the vehicle, climbed on top of it, and dumped garbage on Britt (Britt’s statement had called Swole a “piece of trash,” so this is poetic). So much for Britt’s security guard. And Rebel, too. The moment she saw Swole heading toward the front of the vehicle, she should have rushed to the driver’s seat to try to get it away so Swole couldn’t kidnap Britt again.
I don't see what this segment did for anyone. Swole humiliated Britt last week, and she got the better of her again this week. The story needs to move forward.


MATT HARDY vs. SANTANA (w/Ortiz)- 6/10
Matt wins clean in an eleven-minute match that, while passable, didn’t really give me any hope that we’re going to get much out of Matt in terms of singles matches in AEW. His just comes off very meh.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Ortiz jumps Matt and hits him with his sock full of baseballs or whatever that is. They beat Matt up and lay him out with their finisher. Private Party eventually came out to chase the heels away.

CHRIS JERICHO AND ORANGE CASSIDY COME FACE TO FACE- a good brawl, but…
Jericho cuts a promo on OC. OC does his stupid light kicks to Jericho’s shins. Jericho took OC’s sunglasses off and stomped on them, which set OC off and he dropped the comedy and started fighting for real. They brawled all over the place and it was very good. OC put Jericho through a table to win the brawl.
I have three problems here. The first is that OC got the best of Jericho last time and now he’s gotten the best of him again, so where’s the heat? Isn’t this enough revenge for the attack? The second is that OC shouldn’t be doing his stupid shtick with someone who BRUTALIZED HIM JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO.
Third, and most importantly, Orange Cassidy is, at this point, a one-trick pony. He does his dumb gimmick until some heel jumps him and beats him up. He comes back the next time we see him and he has a brawl or a match with said heel, then moves on to the next feud which progress the exact same way. He doesn’t develop or do anything new. He’s either the goofball we’re supposed to like and laugh at because having zero kayfabe drive to compete and making a mockery of the business are apparently babyface traits in 2020, or he’s just another angry, wronged babyface out for revenge. There are plenty of angry, wronged babyfaces out for revenge in the world of pro wrestling, and 99% of the rest of them actually give a sh*t in matches that aren’t blood feuds, too, and are thus a lot more worthy of my cheers and interest.

A bad and frustrating episode of AEW, with Taz’s promo and the Cabana/Dark Order stuff being the only highlights.





STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Tony Schiavone said that FTR and Daniels & Kaz “have held virtually just about every tag team title you can hold in the world.”
For these two teams, that would be a grand total of FIVE different tag team championships, and across three companies (four if you want to consider WWE and NXT different): The Revival have held all three sets of tag titles in WWE, and Kaz & Daniels won the belts in ROH and TNA. That’s it. That’s not even half of the tag titles in companies most people would consider to be mid-sized or larger (NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, AAA, CMLL, DRAGON GATE, MLW, wXw, PROGRESS, RevPro) or promotions that are otherwise of note (PWG, EVOLVE, CHIKARA, IWA-MS, CZW).
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
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ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

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Thelone
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Thelone » Jun 26th, '20, 11:47

Ratings took a pretty big hit, so looks like people don't wanna see Cody the pseudo top star, goofy Jericho slumming it down with a lower midcarder, seemingly hotshotting everything with the """best""" team in the world, pummeling this Baker thing into the ground, and trying with Shawn Spears for the billionth time.

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cero2k
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by cero2k » Jun 26th, '20, 12:24

Thelone wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 11:47 Ratings took a pretty big hit, so looks like people don't wanna see Cody the pseudo top star, goofy Jericho slumming it down with a lower midcarder, seemingly hotshotting everything with the """best""" team in the world, pummeling this Baker thing into the ground, and trying with Shawn Spears for the billionth time.
i think it's more of people really really want to see Moxley. AEW still won in the categories that would like Jericho and Cody. The ones that they lost are women and old people, two prime demos that probably follow Moxley more than young men.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 26th, '20, 12:44

cero2k wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 12:24
Thelone wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 11:47 Ratings took a pretty big hit, so looks like people don't wanna see Cody the pseudo top star, goofy Jericho slumming it down with a lower midcarder, seemingly hotshotting everything with the """best""" team in the world, pummeling this Baker thing into the ground, and trying with Shawn Spears for the billionth time.
i think it's more of people really really want to see Moxley. AEW still won in the categories that would like Jericho and Cody. The ones that they lost are women and old people, two prime demos that probably follow Moxley more than young men.
I don't think anyone cared about seeing Moxley face some jobber.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by cero2k » Jun 26th, '20, 13:09

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 12:44
I don't think anyone cared about seeing Moxley face some jobber.
you overestimate how much people care for wrestling over just seeing the person appear.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 26th, '20, 13:19

cero2k wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 13:09
Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 12:44
I don't think anyone cared about seeing Moxley face some jobber.
you overestimate how much people care for wrestling over just seeing the person appear.
Possibly, but doesn't that basically mean that Moxley is the draw for this show rather than Cody, Jericho, FTR, Matt, or any of the other big-name talent who were in advertised matches or segments tonight?
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by cero2k » Jun 26th, '20, 13:42

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 13:19

Possibly, but doesn't that basically mean that Moxley is the draw for this show rather than Cody, Jericho, FTR, Matt, or any of the other big-name talent who were in advertised matches or segments tonight?
hence being the undefeated champion. it's a team effort to bring in the fans, and Mox is a big component, doesn't mean the rest are useless.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Thelone » Jun 26th, '20, 14:59

Moxley has been a complete afterthought since he won the belt, only facing "flavor of the month" since then. The guy is at best the third most important thing on the show behind the Cody wankfest and whatever Jericho/Bucks/Omega are doing on a particular week. I might even put the Dark Order stuff above him at this point.

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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 26th, '20, 16:13

Thelone wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 14:59 Moxley has been a complete afterthought since he won the belt, only facing "flavor of the month" since then. The guy is at best the third most important thing on the show behind the Cody wankfest and whatever Jericho/Bucks/Omega are doing on a particular week. I might even put the Dark Order stuff above him at this point.
I'd mostly agree with this. I've enjoyed the way he has been used, but it's quite annoying to see him getting less TV time than the clown-show that Britt Baker has turned into.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by cero2k » Jun 27th, '20, 08:36

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 16:13
I'd mostly agree with this. I've enjoyed the way he has been used, but it's quite annoying to see him getting less TV time than the clown-show that Britt Baker has turned into.
the clown-show has made Britt one of the most over acts in the company
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Thelone » Jun 28th, '20, 05:22

They've been overdoing it (I'm pretty sure she didn't miss a single show since she got injured) and is veering towards complete comedy, because Kenny l'artiste doesn't get the difference between a good quip once in a while and constant goofball shit like being pelted with garbage.

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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 28th, '20, 09:53

cero2k wrote: Jun 27th, '20, 08:36
Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 26th, '20, 16:13
I'd mostly agree with this. I've enjoyed the way he has been used, but it's quite annoying to see him getting less TV time than the clown-show that Britt Baker has turned into.
the clown-show has made Britt one of the most over acts in the company
Hasn't the big lesson of the past twenty-two years of the wrestling business been just because something gets a big pop doesn't mean it's good for business?

What's going to happen when Britt comes back? AT BEST, you'll have the crowd cheering her when they're supposed to be booing her, in a division that has a grand total one ONE strong heel. And worst, she won't have her goofy contraptions with her anymore and no one will care about her again. It's not hard to get over doing goofball horsesh*t, but you can only get to a certain level. Look at New Day. Years of being "over" because of their goofy crap didn't lead to anything other than trading tag titles back and forth. When Kofi seized an opportunity in which he was booked like a heroic and valiant competitor, that was what got him over to a level where he was an actual player.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 28th, '20, 09:54

Also, Jake Hager is 0-2 since losing his world title shot to Moxley, yet here he is, getting a TNT Title shot. So much for wins and losses mattering.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by cero2k » Jun 29th, '20, 09:15

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 28th, '20, 09:53
Hasn't the big lesson of the past twenty-two years of the wrestling business been just because something gets a big pop doesn't mean it's good for business?

What's going to happen when Britt comes back? AT BEST, you'll have the crowd cheering her when they're supposed to be booing her, in a division that has a grand total one ONE strong heel. And worst, she won't have her goofy contraptions with her anymore and no one will care about her again. It's not hard to get over doing goofball horsesh*t, but you can only get to a certain level. Look at New Day. Years of being "over" because of their goofy crap didn't lead to anything other than trading tag titles back and forth. When Kofi seized an opportunity in which he was booked like a heroic and valiant competitor, that was what got him over to a level where he was an actual player.
And hasn't a big lesson in the last 10 years been that when something organically gets over, let it bloom before you go against the fans?

We don't even know when fans will be back, or when she'll be able to wrestle. They'll cross that bridge when they get here, they've made someone who everyone found boring and bad into something that most people except you two want to watch on a weekly basis.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 29th, '20, 10:06

cero2k wrote: Jun 29th, '20, 09:15
Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 28th, '20, 09:53
Hasn't the big lesson of the past twenty-two years of the wrestling business been just because something gets a big pop doesn't mean it's good for business?

What's going to happen when Britt comes back? AT BEST, you'll have the crowd cheering her when they're supposed to be booing her, in a division that has a grand total one ONE strong heel. And worst, she won't have her goofy contraptions with her anymore and no one will care about her again. It's not hard to get over doing goofball horsesh*t, but you can only get to a certain level. Look at New Day. Years of being "over" because of their goofy crap didn't lead to anything other than trading tag titles back and forth. When Kofi seized an opportunity in which he was booked like a heroic and valiant competitor, that was what got him over to a level where he was an actual player.
And hasn't a big lesson in the last 10 years been that when something organically gets over, let it bloom before you go against the fans?
These two lessons are not mutually exclusive.
cero2k wrote: Jun 29th, '20, 09:15 We don't even know when fans will be back, or when she'll be able to wrestle. They'll cross that bridge when they get here, they've made someone who everyone found boring and bad into something that most people except you two want to watch on a weekly basis.
I think Alvarez said she'd be back within two months... and that's where the problem lies. The people are going to want to see Britt be a clown with Rebel and Tony. They're not going to want to see her wrestle any more than they did before. As we've seen time and again, just because the crowd cheers your goofball act promos doesn't mean they start to care about your wrestling.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by cero2k » Jun 29th, '20, 10:30

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 29th, '20, 10:06
I think Alvarez said she'd be back within two months... and that's where the problem lies. The people are going to want to see Britt be a clown with Rebel and Tony. They're not going to want to see her wrestle any more than they did before. As we've seen time and again, just because the crowd cheers your goofball act promos doesn't mean they start to care about your wrestling.
Everyone's opinion prior to this was that Britt's wrestling was shit and now we want to clamor for it? Doing her comedy right now, which is not even that far away from what she was doing after turning heel, doesn't need to affect the way she wrestles anyway. I don't understand why comedy is such a terrible thing for you guys.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 29th, '20, 12:18

cero2k wrote: Jun 29th, '20, 10:30
Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 29th, '20, 10:06
I think Alvarez said she'd be back within two months... and that's where the problem lies. The people are going to want to see Britt be a clown with Rebel and Tony. They're not going to want to see her wrestle any more than they did before. As we've seen time and again, just because the crowd cheers your goofball act promos doesn't mean they start to care about your wrestling.
Everyone's opinion prior to this was that Britt's wrestling was shit and now we want to clamor for it? Doing her comedy right now, which is not even that far away from what she was doing after turning heel, doesn't need to affect the way she wrestles anyway. I don't understand why comedy is such a terrible thing for you guys.
Depending on the type of comedy it:
1. Makes the wrestler look like he/she doesn't care about winning the match, which either makes it hard to take he wrestlre seriously or makes the match look unimportant.
2. Makes things look like everyone (including the referee) is working together and in on it and thus not an actual competition, damaging suspension of disbelief.
3. Makes the wrestler look like an idiot, and thus as a babyface not someone I want to get behind at a high level (in most cases, though exceptions are rare) or as a heel not someone who can be a real threat to hour heroes (again, in most cases).
4. Can often result in the wrestler being turned into a one-dimensional goof, destroying any chance at having an interesting or complex character.

Not all comedy is bad, but it has to be done in certain ways, and certain people have a level of it they shouldn't be engaging in.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by cero2k » Jun 30th, '20, 08:10

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 29th, '20, 12:18
Depending on the type of comedy it:
1. Makes the wrestler look like he/she doesn't care about winning the match, which either makes it hard to take he wrestlre seriously or makes the match look unimportant.
2. Makes things look like everyone (including the referee) is working together and in on it and thus not an actual competition, damaging suspension of disbelief.
3. Makes the wrestler look like an idiot, and thus as a babyface not someone I want to get behind at a high level (in most cases, though exceptions are rare) or as a heel not someone who can be a real threat to hour heroes (again, in most cases).
4. Can often result in the wrestler being turned into a one-dimensional goof, destroying any chance at having an interesting or complex character.

Not all comedy is bad, but it has to be done in certain ways, and certain people have a level of it they shouldn't be engaging in.
ehh, so it's just your personal taste that you want wrestling to be a court room. We don't even know what she'll be like in the ring, i'm sure i'll enjoy it
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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Thelone » Jun 30th, '20, 08:34

cero2k wrote: Jun 29th, '20, 10:30Everyone's opinion prior to this was that Britt's wrestling was shit and now we want to clamor for it? Doing her comedy right now, which is not even that far away from what she was doing after turning heel, doesn't need to affect the way she wrestles anyway. I don't understand why comedy is such a terrible thing for you guys.
Her wrestling really wasn't the problem initially (it's nothing amazing, but not offensively bad either, just eh I guess), it's the fact that she had no character to speak off and no, being a dentist doesn't count. They clearly wanted her to be the big star of the division and that flopped massively because no one gave a shit about her no matter how many times they told you she's a dentist.

The heel turn took a few weeks to really get going, but yeah that was getting her over, but that didn't translate into a bigger push or anything. Hell, she lost twice to Shida and once to Sakazaki (gee, I wonder who's booking the division, probably the same guy who's pushing cosplay girl Abadon right off the bat), and only gets wins over jobbers and in meaningless tag matches. Now she's "feuding" with Big Swole (over who's the most overrated husband I'm sure) and comes off as an ineffectual buffoon who should be a random one-off villain in an ATHF episode.

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Re: BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 AEW (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 30th, '20, 10:32

cero2k wrote: Jun 30th, '20, 08:10
Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 29th, '20, 12:18
Depending on the type of comedy it:
1. Makes the wrestler look like he/she doesn't care about winning the match, which either makes it hard to take he wrestlre seriously or makes the match look unimportant.
2. Makes things look like everyone (including the referee) is working together and in on it and thus not an actual competition, damaging suspension of disbelief.
3. Makes the wrestler look like an idiot, and thus as a babyface not someone I want to get behind at a high level (in most cases, though exceptions are rare) or as a heel not someone who can be a real threat to hour heroes (again, in most cases).
4. Can often result in the wrestler being turned into a one-dimensional goof, destroying any chance at having an interesting or complex character.

Not all comedy is bad, but it has to be done in certain ways, and certain people have a level of it they shouldn't be engaging in.
ehh, so it's just your personal taste that you want wrestling to be a court room. We don't even know what she'll be like in the ring, i'm sure i'll enjoy it
It's about not losing the premise, and your characters coming off as real people and not cartoons. I don't think I'm alone in wanting these things, seeing as how those (and especially the second one) have been major criticisms leveled at WWE"s product over the past twelve years of its major decline.
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