BRM Reviews the 3/16/2022 Dynamite

[Big Red Machine]

ADAM COLE & reDRagon vs. A BOY& HIS DINOSAUR & ADAM PAGE- 7.5/10
The heels won clean when Cole pinned Jungle Boy after Jungle Boy got hit with a bunch of stuff.

TONY SCHIAVONE IS BACKSTAGE WITH KEITH LEE AND TEAM TAZ- stupid
It was agreed that there would be “no physicality” during this interview. Keith Lee has an issue with Team Taz, so of course Tony Khan has booked Lee against… Max Caster. What?
Ricky Starks warns Lee not to show up for his scheduled match on Rampage, or else he and Will Hobbs will beat Lee up. This was non-sensical kayfabe booking from Tony, and Starks acting like a cartoon.

BRYAN DANIELSON & JON MOXLEY vs. WHEELER YUTA & CHUCK TAYLOR (w/Orange Cassidy, Trent, & Danhausen)- 6.5/10
William Regal was on commentary for this match. Dragon and Moxley jumped the bell on Wheeler and Chuck. They build up to YUTA showing his toughness and the crowd getting behind him. He was defeated after Dragon’s stomps and a Bulldog Choke from Moxley.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great
Regal got in the ring with his guys. YUTA went back to the ring and offered him a handshake. Regal slapped him, and YUTA just got right back in Regal’s face. Regal approved, and told YUTA they would talk later. Hooray! Wheeler YUTA will have his career rescued from the Goof Patrol!

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS FTR- bad
They say that they fired Tully because he “lost focus.” When was there ever any evidence of that?
Then the Young Bucks, who have seemed to be in the middle of a babyface turn, showed up just to be assholes.

THE ACCLAIMED’S PROMO IS INTERRUPTED BY RICKY STARKS AND WILL HOBBS- snore
Bowens was terrible but Caster was good. Starks gave them a pep talk about how they need to stop these new people from coming in and stealing their spotlight. Shane Strickland happened to be walking by, and took offense to this.

JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY PROMO- HORRENDOUS CLOWN-SHOW BULLSH*T
2.0 are lackies, to the point where they make the whole group feel like a cartoony joke. Then Jericho started talking about not just having “five-star matches” but also about “angles” and “storylines.” Because this sh*t has worked SOOOO well in the past. Jericho says that he has become rich and successful by being a “sports entertainer” rather than by being a “pro wrestler.” This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping Tony Khan would be smart enough to not do.
And now we’ve got Daniel Garcia doing the painfully obvious and pointless swerve.
Jericho then decided that some sort of loyalty between him and Garcia needed to be established for the storyline, so he said that a few years ago, Garcia was badly injured in a car crash, and Jericho donated thousands to help pay for his medical bills. That might be true, but that doesn’t mean you need to put it in the story, especially if it makes the guy you just turned heel look like a nice person, giving thousands of dollars to a total stranger to help with his medical bills!
Jericho then moved on to 2.0, saying that that was “a stupid name from bad creative, and you’ll neve hear it again.” Does someone want to tell him that they wrestled as 2.0 on the indies for years before coming to AEW? He said that his Jericho Appreciation Society won’t use fake names. They will use their real names… like “Chris Jericho.”
Jericho says that 2.0 are loyal to him because he (at Kevin Steen’s request) put them on Talk is Jericho to help them get a job somewhere, and Jericho liked them, so he got them jobs in AEW. Again… Jericho seems like a really nice person.
Yeah… this was just horrible. Even if it didn’t come off like such a clown show, it would still be a terrible creative direction.

SERENA DEEB PROMO ON HIKARU SHIDA- TREMEDOUS!
That being said, I still contend that this “professor” nickname doesn’t work for her at all.

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Scorpio Sky(c) (w/Dan Lambert, Paige VanZant, & Mr. Paige VanZant) vs. Wardlow- DUD! (Or maybe it should be “no rating, very bad segment.” I’m not really sure.)
I’m not trying to say that the fact that Sky is “the first man to ever hold the AEW TNT Title and AEW World Tag Team Titles” isn’t an accomplishment, but when you make a big deal about it while not having commented on Kenny Omega having been the first person to do so with the tag titles and WORLD title, it makes this feel like the announcers were desperate for an accolade that they could slap onto Sky, and any time you do that, it actually makes the person you’re trying to talk up feel less important because it exposes that the person doesn’t have the star-power or built in caché that someone in that position should.
Wardlow, who left MJF because he was upset about being disrespected, started this match off by disrespectfully turning his back on his opponent. Then, when PVZ stepped in his way to stop him from getting at Sky on the outside, Wardlow responded to this by flexing his pecs at this married woman, whose husband is right there. Wardlow as just turned babyface, and so far in this match, all he has done is act like a douchebag.
The referee saw PVZ and then her husband get in Wardlow’s way and cause a distraction, which allowed Sky to take control, but did not eject them from ringside. It’s utterly ridiculous to me that you can have a show where the main event is taking place in a steel cage to prevent any interference, and yet on the undercard, the referees don’t do obvious things to preemptively prevent any interference. That’s like having a house with a big whole in the roof that you didn’t know about, and then it gets flooded in a rainstorm, and you buy a pump to help get the water out of your basement, and then patting yourself on the back for now being prepared in case it rains again because you have a pump to get the water out, while making no effort to fix the roof and prevent the future flooding from happening in the first place.
Oh. And look at that. When Wardlow was going for the fourth powerbomb, Lambert jumped up onto the apron to distract the referee.
This allowed Sky to roll to the floor. Wardlow eventually followed him out and went to powerbomb him on the floor, but Shawn Spears showed up on the ramp, so Wardlow turned his attention to Spears. The referee was nice and didn’t count him out. Instead of doing that, after going out to Wardlow and directing him back to the ring, the referee went to order Spears to the back. Unfortunately for Wardlow, he decided to take a pointlessly circuitous route to the ring, which put him right into position for MJF to hop the barricade and run him into the ringpost. This knocked Wardlow loopy. Not loopy enough to not be able to get back into the ring, but loopy enough to not be able to kick out when Sky rolled him up.
Where to start:
1. Scorpio Sky, your new champion and guy with a supposedly impressive streak, was made to look like absolute sh*t here. Other than a big distraction allowed him to cut Wardlow off, he was dominated every step of the way.
2. The way this was done makes it nearly impossible for me to have any sympathy for Wardlow. If you want me to feel like a guy got screwed out of a win, don’t have him f*cking showboat for a while after hitting his finisher, and don’t have him hit try to hit his finisher when it seems completely unnecessary! Even the Lambert distraction unwittingly played into this. It didn’t happen while Wardlow was pinning Sky. It happened while he was picking Sky up for yet another powerbomb. If Wardlow had hit his move and just pinned Sky, this wouldn’t have happened. He never would have been on the outside for MJF and Spears to cause trouble for him.
3. The set-up for MJF’s interference was just terrible. Wardlow walking around to a different side of the ring made the whole thing feel set-up. He felt like an actor finding his mark, and thus the whole thing felt fake.

POST-MATCH SEGMET- snore
Mr. VanZant, whose name is Austin Vanderford, attacked the downed Wardlow. On the one hand, this not cool, but on the other hand, Wardlow flexed his pecs at his wife when he could have done any other number of things (like, say, just get back into the ring and ignore her). I appreciate that Wardlow doing that created a reason, for Vanderford to attack him after the match, but you could have gotten to the same place by not having VanZant get involved at all during the match and just having it be Vanderford who got in Wardlow’s way, and Wardlow’s justifiable attempt to powerbomb him be the thing that causes him to attack Wardlow after the match. That gets you to the same place, except it doesn’t require babyface Wardlow to act like a douche.
Wardlow tried to fight back, but the heels all beat him up. You’d think that Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti (who are now presumably feuding with Lambert’s crew) or CM Punk (who was helped by Wardlow at the PPV, and who the fans were chanting for, by the way) would come out to help Wardlow, but apparently not. J.R. tried to explain that Wardlow has being doing terrible things, so no one in the locker room likes him. I have the following issues with that idea:
1. While you can argue that that is true for most of the locker room, I think CM Punk certainly owes Wardlow enough that he should have tried to make the save.
2. The same should theoretically be true for Matt Hardy, but Sting and Darby Allin had no issue coming out to help him last week.
And this is coming from someone is actually sympathetic to J.R.’s logic. I’ve been saying something similar since this whole storyline started kicking into gear, except that instead of saying that the wrestlers have no reason to like, trust, or accept Wardlow as a babyface, I’ve been saying that we fans have no reason to, because everything he has don has been self-serving. He had no problem helping MJF commit heinous assaults on people even during the turn. His tension with MJF came only when MJF or Spears bothered him, and often over petty things (like Spears attacking his downed opponents after his match). And Wardlow’s behavior in this match prior to the beat-down reinforces that. The dude was a douchebag and a show-boater.

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS JADE CARGILL & MARK STERLING- snore
Hey… isn’t Jade’s streak just as long as Scorpio Sky’s?
Anyway, this was more of Jade and Sterling asking “who is ready to step up to Jade Cargill.” I feel like that has been going on for months.

THE HARDYS vs. PRIVATE PARTY- 7/10
Wasn’t the original angle with Matt and Private Party that he had signed them to an unfair contract? So aren’t they the babyfaces for taking the first opportunity to get out of? Seriously. What is different between what they did and what we’re supposed to cheer Wardlow for having done to MJF? Yes, obviously MJF’s mistreatment of Wardlow was more physically and verbally abusive, but both Wardlow and Private Party were aspiring young wrestlers looking for someone who could help them, and wound up signing unfair contracts, so why is Wardlow lauded for breaking from MJF, but Private Party are heels for dumping Matt in favor of someone who they think will pay them more fairly/perform the agreed-upon services better?

Anyway, the Hardys won an exciting match cleanly, which I really didn’t like. You just did this big turn, and you’ve already put the babyfaces over clean in what should have been one of the two big grudge matches created by this turn (the other being a Matt vs. Andrade singles match), and you’ve had the supposed up-and-coming stars lose to a pair of men in their mid-forties.
I know what you’re saying: “So what would you have liked them to do, BRM? Have the Hardys lose in their AEW debut?”
Yes. That’s exactly what I would have liked to see happen. Almost every team in the vision if a good seven or eight years younger than them (using the average of both wrestler’s ages). Sting and Darby might not be, but that’s because Sting skews things quite a bit. The only person in the division who is of even a comparable age to them (ignoring Sting, of course), is Bobby Fish. The Hardys are old and we all know it… so turn that weakness into a strength, and make that the story.
Have them lose cleanly to Private Party here (with Matt getting pinned). Have them beaten down after the match and Sting and Darby make the save, setting up an eight-man tag where Matt once again gets pinned (maybe by Butcher or Blade this time). Then do the Matt vs. Andrade singles match where Matt loses clean.
Then they keep losing. To reDRagon and to the Bucks (you can work it into their story with one team beating them and then the other saying that they will one-up them by trying to beat the Hardys quicker). To FTR (FTR can show them respect after the match to continue their babyface turn). To the House of Black (who can cut a promo about “relics of the past). I’d even have them lose to 2.0 to give 2.0 a bit of credibility (I’d probably do it by roll-up, but if you think having them lose cleanly to 2.0 is too damaging, you could have them lose via interference, and then be upset at themselves afterwards for not seeing the oldest trick in the book coming). I’d have them lose clean even to teams who are barely past the undercard like Varsity Blonds and Top Flight and Gunn Club, or to a “team” who are really more of a stable of two singles guys who don’t actually team up that much (Ricky Starks and Will Hobbs being a great example).
We need to have them keep some credibility, so in addition to occasionally beating jobbers on Dark, you could have them beat a team like the Factory or Brock Anderson & Lee Johnson, but even then, you have it take a lot longer than it “should” (and out of kayfabe, this would be a great test to see these youngsters will do when given some time, but put in a TV environment). You can also give them some credibility by giving Jeff some singles wins (maybe they lose to Gunn Club and Billy taunts them about it, setting up Jeff vs. Billy. You could do a similar thing with Q.T. if you have them lose to the Factory).
The idea here is to make them really question if they can keep up anymore, because they just keep losing. You can also have certain mouthy heels (the Acclaimed, Ricky Starks, the Bucks) needle them on this either before or after their matches. Jeff picking up some random singles wins and Matt taking most of the falls will set up Matt telling Jeff that he will retire and Jeff will be better off a singles wrestler, but Jeff will push back, and you tell a big story about them getting their confidence back and getting some wins and going for the tag titles. You don’t even have to put the belts on them. Earning a title shot by racking up wins, then having a very competitive match against the champs and having the champs put them over on the mic afterwards would be enough. The champs here would probably need to be a certain mold of team (a babyface Young Bucks, or perhaps Top Flight if they reach that level, or a babyface Private Party), but AEW has enough teams that like that you can make it work with a lot of different teams, so they probably wouldn’t even have to bend whatever they have planned for the tag division to make this work. The point is that they have the opportunity to tell this very different and emotional story, with the added bonus being that the way this story would start off actually puts over a bunch of young teams now, rather than making them look like guys who are stuck on the bottom of the card like they have been for years already, and just got pushed down yet another rung so that you could push a team in their forties.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- snore
The rest of the AFO- conspicuously absent from ringside during the match- came out to menace the Hardys, but Sting and Darby Allin showed up to provide back-up for the Hardys. This told us nothing new, and if the idea was to set up some sort of bigger match, I think an actual brawl would have been more effective, with the Hardys getting beaten down by the heels (who would have been at ringside for the match), and Sting and Darby coming out, weapons swinging, to make the save.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVEWS RED VELTVET- fine
She is out for revenge against Leyla Hirsch.

Tony Khan has decided to replace the women’s title belt, even though it’s not even two-and-a-half years old. ROH kept doing this with their belts in their last five or six years, too. It strikes me as a bad idea, as even if it’s not a waste of money because you’re getting them free from some beltmaker who wants their work shown on TV as free advertising, it makes it feel like management can’t make up their mind on something as relatively inconsequential as what a title belt looks like.

STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE: Dr. Britt Baker, DMD(c) vs. Thunder Rosa- 7.25/10
They had an all-female mariachi band play before Thunder Rosa’s entrance. That looked really goofy, as it didn’t fit her personality at all. I’m not saying she’s not a proud Mexican-American, but that doesn’t mean that all of Mexican culture will feel like it fits her personality. To give a similar example, it’d be like playing klezmer music before Goldberg came out. He’s obviously Jewish and proud of it (he easily could have come up with a fake last name, but didn’t), but klezmer doesn’t fit the vibe he has given off.
Britt’s lackeys didn’t come out with her. Sure, there’s a cage, but as we’ve seen from years of watching pro wrestling, if you really want to get in, you can, and there are even ways to get involved in the match without getting into the cage. It is completely out of character for Britt and her lackeys not to be ready to try something like this.
This cage match has no escape stipulation (I don’t remember if Cody vs. Wardlow had one, and I’m pretty sure all of AEW’s others haven’t). It was also more of a Hell in a Cell-like cage, with room on the floor.
They did cage match stuff for a while, running each other’s faces into the cage and making each other bleed. They also got some chairs to use. Then referee Paul Turner took an errant superkick… and got up to sell his face. DUDE! You’re a referee. I’ve seen you go down for much lighter touches than that there full-on kick to the face! Just stay down!
Then he got knocked out of the ring, and we got a pinfall with no ref. All this spot did was tell us viewers that this match which is supposed to finally give us a definitive winner in this feud (and thus a deserving champion, whoever she may be) could very easily not do that.
Britt turned things around and hit a Super Air Raid Crash onto a pile of chairs for a visual pinfall of her own. Then she demanded that a referee come out, and apparently you need to ask for one instead of them just sending one automatically. That’s kind of stupid.
Anyway, out came Aubrey Edwards, and we got another big stunt bump onto chairs. The fand were pretty much 100% behind Thunder Rosa, which was good… and then Britt went and got thumbtacks from under the ring… and the fans all cheered. Idiots.
Thunder Rosa went into the tacks but kicked out of a pin. Britt went for the Lockjaw, but Thunder Rosa countered it by biting Britt’s hand… which makes you wonder why everyone doesn’t do that all the time?
Britt got powerbombed into the tacks, but rolled to the outside, and was hitting Thunder Rosa in the head with a chair five seconds later. That kind of kills the thumbtacks there, no? Both made it back into the ring, Thunder Rosa blocked a punch, then hit Britt with the Fire-Thunder Driver onto the tacks to win the title.
This match wasn’t bad or anything (it was on the low end of TV main event quality, IMO, but still hit my minimum threshold to be a passable main event), but it absolutely was not what it needed to be for the big title change and “one year in the making” blow-off match it was billed as.
For reasons I don’t understand, Dustin Rhodes came out to celebrate with Thunder Rosa.


This was an okay episode of AEW. The wrestling was good and so were some of the promos, but the booking continues to be shaky at best, and certain things on the show ventured way too far into the realm of either cartoonishness or Russo-ism.

[Thelone]

TONY SCHIAVONE IS BACKSTAGE WITH KEITH LEE AND TEAM TAZ- stupid
It was agreed that there would be “no physicality” during this interview. Keith Lee has an issue with Team Taz, so of course Tony Khan has booked Lee against… Max Caster. What?
Ricky Starks warns Lee not to show up for his scheduled match on Rampage, or else he and Will Hobbs will beat Lee up. This was non-sensical kayfabe booking from Tony, and Starks acting like a cartoon.

Already on the Team Taz treadmill after five seconds. GAME-CHANGING SIGNING INDEED!!!

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS FTR- bad
They say that they fired Tully because he “lost focus.” When was there ever any evidence of that?
Then the Young Bucks, who have seemed to be in the middle of a babyface turn, showed up just to be assholes.

Allegedly, they're teasing Bret Hart "managing" them.

JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY PROMO- HORRENDOUS CLOWN-SHOW BULLSH*T
2.0 are lackies, to the point where they make the whole group feel like a cartoony joke. Then Jericho started talking about not just having “five-star matches” but also about “angles” and “storylines.” Because this sh*t has worked SOOOO well in the past. Jericho says that he has become rich and successful by being a “sports entertainer” rather than by being a “pro wrestler.” This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping Tony Khan would be smart enough to not do.

Are you really surprised? Again, the whole Dub identity is "we're professional wrestling, not this sports entertainment shit from up north", so of course they'll take potshots every two seconds at the EVIL EMPIRE and mention snowflakes and "stealing the show" to please the 60yo wrestling """reporter""" in California.

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Scorpio Sky(c) (w/Dan Lambert, Paige VanZant, & Mr. Paige VanZant) vs. Wardlow- DUD! (Or maybe it should be “no rating, very bad segment.” I’m not really sure.)

I'd say it was a horrendous segment just for the fact that they kept the title on the young, 38yo upstart with twenty years of experience who's about as interesting as paint drying instead of *gasp* using it in a storyline for a change. Of course we already have excuses like "BuT wArDlOw wAs PrOtEcTeD iN tHe LoSs" and "MjF iS aBoVe ThE tNt TiTlE aNyWaY", but they lost something like 150k between this match and the Hardys, so something tells me it was a stupid idea to keep the belt on Scorpio Abyss here and/or didn't give a shit about the 600th Hardy Middle-Aged Men reunion.

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS JADE CARGILL & MARK STERLING- snore
Hey… isn’t Jade’s streak just as long as Scorpio Sky’s?
Anyway, this was more of Jade and Sterling asking “who is ready to step up to Jade Cargill.” I feel like that has been going on for months.

[Insert recently released WWE wrestler here] will challenge and beat Cargill for the title, any day now. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Van Zant beats her because "she's legit" or she's beating Rosa for the main belt and vacates the TBS one in the process (before losing to the golden girl because Tony has a crush on her).

Tony Khan has decided to replace the women’s title belt, even though it’s not even two-and-a-half years old. ROH kept doing this with their belts in their last five or six years, too. It strikes me as a bad idea, as even if it’s not a waste of money because you’re getting them free from some beltmaker who wants their work shown on TV as free advertising, it makes it feel like management can’t make up their mind on something as relatively inconsequential as what a title belt looks like.

Didn't they change it at the PPV though? Also I believe it's the third iteration of the belt already, although I guess the second one was just a bigger version of the first because it looked tiny not around Riho's waist.

STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE: Dr. Britt Baker, DMD(c) vs. Thunder Rosa- 7.25/10

I've only seen clips of this match, but this seemed really fucking bad, like it was just a hardcore match in a cage with sloppy action and some blatant no-selling.

Anyway, hope Rosa can enjoy her reign on Rampage facing nobodies while Yankem still gets the lionshare of TV time for her feud with Hayter and the very few new names they might bring in.

[Big Red Machine]

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS FTR- bad
They say that they fired Tully because he “lost focus.” When was there ever any evidence of that?

Allegedly, they're teasing Bret Hart "managing" them.

Bret doesn't feel like anywhere near as good of a fit.
Also, I think Bret has the "too many WWE reunion shows" stink on him that makes him feel a lot less fresh than Tully.

JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY PROMO- HORRENDOUS CLOWN-SHOW BULLSH*T
2.0 are lackies, to the point where they make the whole group feel like a cartoony joke. Then Jericho started talking about not just having “five-star matches” but also about “angles” and “storylines.” Because this sh*t has worked SOOOO well in the past. Jericho says that he has become rich and successful by being a “sports entertainer” rather than by being a “pro wrestler.” This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping Tony Khan would be smart enough to not do.

Are you really surprised? Again, the whole Dub identity is "we're professional wrestling, not this sports entertainment shit from up north", so of course they'll take potshots every two seconds at the EVIL EMPIRE and mention snowflakes and "stealing the show" to please the 60yo wrestling """reporter""" in California.

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Scorpio Sky(c) (w/Dan Lambert, Paige VanZant, & Mr. Paige VanZant) vs. Wardlow- DUD! (Or maybe it should be “no rating, very bad segment.” I’m not really sure.)

I'd say it was a horrendous segment just for the fact that they kept the title on the young, 38yo upstart with twenty years of experience who's about as interesting as paint drying instead of *gasp* using it in a storyline for a change. Of course we already have excuses like "BuT wArDlOw wAs PrOtEcTeD iN tHe LoSs" and "MjF iS aBoVe ThE tNt TiTlE aNyWaY",

I'm fine with the booking ideas here. My issue was the execution, both in terms of the contrived movements required to get Wardlow in position for MJF to interfere, and in terms of not giving Sky enough shine if he is going to continue on as champion.

As for the whole "MJF is above the TNT Title" argument, I don't think that's incorrect, and having him try to screw Wardlow out of the title allows them to avoid the issue of the contract where MJF is supposed to get any title that Wardlow wins. I think that, given MJF's personality, if Wardlow won the title, MJF would still demand that he be given it, and even if there were some legal ruling that MJF telling Wardlow a few weeks ago that he could keep the title if he manged to win it ("because you're not going to win it") legally counts as MJF relinquishing that part of the contract, MJF would feel a need to then take the title from Wardlow to prove something, and MJF eventually losing the title to someone at the TNT Title level would feel like a step backwards for him. Even if there were some sort of "Last Chance" stipulation, I don't see MJF as the kind of person who wouldn't just try to screw Wardlow out of the title anyway and keep feuding with him.

[Insert recently released WWE wrestler here] will challenge and beat Cargill for the title, any day now. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Van Zant beats her because "she's legit" or she's beating Rosa for the main belt and vacates the TBS one in the process (before losing to the golden girl because Tony has a crush on her).

Who is the "golden girl" in question?

STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE: Dr. Britt Baker, DMD(c) vs. Thunder Rosa- 7.25/10

I've only seen clips of this match, but this seemed really fucking bad, like it was just a hardcore match in a cage with sloppy action and some blatant no-selling.

I am a lot more lenient on "sloppy" than other people. Things not looking crisp or almost dropping people doesn't bother me because it's a supposed to be a real fight. People are going to slip sometimes. I just care that you make enough contact to be believable.
The amount certain things we sold certainly could have been better, but I factored that in.

[Thelone]

Bret doesn't feel like anywhere near as good of a fit.
Also, I think Bret has the "too many WWE reunion shows" stink on him that makes him feel a lot less fresh than Tully.

FTR has been going really hard with the Bret love on Twitter recently and I guess they'll do that Owen tournament... some day, so it's a possibility. Not saying it's any good or makes any sense, but hey.

I'm fine with the booking ideas here. My issue was the execution, both in terms of the contrived movements required to get Wardlow in position for MJF to interfere, and in terms of not giving Sky enough shine if he is going to continue on as champion.

As for the whole "MJF is above the TNT Title" argument, I don't think that's incorrect, and having him try to screw Wardlow out of the title allows them to avoid the issue of the contract where MJF is supposed to get any title that Wardlow wins. I think that, given MJF's personality, if Wardlow won the title, MJF would still demand that he be given it, and even if there were some legal ruling that MJF telling Wardlow a few weeks ago that he could keep the title if he manged to win it ("because you're not going to win it") legally counts as MJF relinquishing that part of the contract, MJF would feel a need to then take the title from Wardlow to prove something, and MJF eventually losing the title to someone at the TNT Title level would feel like a step backwards for him. Even if there were some sort of "Last Chance" stipulation, I don't see MJF as the kind of person who wouldn't just try to screw Wardlow out of the title anyway and keep feuding with him.

I mean, this whole "Wardlow is signed with MJF, not AEW" mess could easily be dismissed with him signing a contract as soon as he's champion and AEW threatening legal actions (or just termination) if MJF does anything about it. Or maybe just don't have such a stupid plothole in your storyline in the first place, whichever.

I actually agree that MJF is above the TNT title (he should be the next world champion quite frankly and save the dubbalos from Page's boring reign), but this match becomes an example of "just don't book it then". What Tiny did here is the same kind of shit Russo would do to "protect both guys" : make the champion look as weak as humanly possible, and the challenger an idiot. It doesn't help that the loss was against Scorpio fucking Sky of all people, a bland and boring guy who only got out of the west coast indies because he's good friend with the Bucks.

The issue with this MJF/Wardlow stuff is that it took so long to get there that they're not on the same level anymore. I said a while ago that this feud was going to be on Rampage or something and to be fair, Wardlow kinda got over since then by becoming Sid Jr and powerbombing jobbers into oblivion, but it's a feud that neither guy can lose. Of course, the short answer to that problem is another "lights out match that doesn't count", because originality.

Who is the "golden girl" in question?

I'll give you a subtle hint : she's a dentist.

It was pointed to me a few weeks ago that despite signing countless people, AEW isn't bringing any women even though a bunch of them are available right now (Athena, Yim, Storm). Worse, they're "losing" young promissing talent who appeared a bunch of times on Dark to WWE (Cora Jade, Tesha Price, Notorious Mimi, Xtina Kay) and someone like Rok-C sure dodged them during her last few appearances. Look at Soho, her run was a) lose to the dentist, b) lose to Cargill and c) welcome to Dark purgatory.

Speaking of Cargill, I wanted to make a point last week about how the whole "randomly kissing Conti at the PPV" and "PVZ signing her contract on Tay's ass" was some kind of lame attempt at HLA or whatever, but then this happened yesterday :



So... yeah, that's not like desperate or anything. Also "NXT is pretty much porn" because they have hot women flaunting it and people kissing each other, so icky and gross!!!

I am a lot more lenient on "sloppy" than other people. Things not looking crisp or almost dropping people doesn't bother me because it's a supposed to be a real fight. People are going to slip sometimes. I just care that you make enough contact to be believable.
The amount certain things we sold certainly could have been better, but I factored that in.

I understand what you're saying about "sloppy" not always being bad, but I wouldn't call a "good sloppy match"... well, sloppy. I remember a Charlotte vs. Banks match in NXT (their last one there) that was what you're describing, but I called it back then "a bit rough, but looked like a fight".

[Big Red Machine]

I'm fine with the booking ideas here. My issue was the execution, both in terms of the contrived movements required to get Wardlow in position for MJF to interfere, and in terms of not giving Sky enough shine if he is going to continue on as champion.

As for the whole "MJF is above the TNT Title" argument, I don't think that's incorrect, and having him try to screw Wardlow out of the title allows them to avoid the issue of the contract where MJF is supposed to get any title that Wardlow wins. I think that, given MJF's personality, if Wardlow won the title, MJF would still demand that he be given it, and even if there were some legal ruling that MJF telling Wardlow a few weeks ago that he could keep the title if he manged to win it ("because you're not going to win it") legally counts as MJF relinquishing that part of the contract, MJF would feel a need to then take the title from Wardlow to prove something, and MJF eventually losing the title to someone at the TNT Title level would feel like a step backwards for him. Even if there were some sort of "Last Chance" stipulation, I don't see MJF as the kind of person who wouldn't just try to screw Wardlow out of the title anyway and keep feuding with him.

I mean, this whole "Wardlow is signed with MJF, not AEW" mess could easily be dismissed with him signing a contract as soon as he's champion and AEW threatening legal actions (or just termination) if MJF does anything about it. Or maybe just don't have such a stupid plothole in your storyline in the first place, whichever.

The latter, not the former, as allowing someone to even challenge for a title with a stipulation like that in their contract is a plot-hole.

And, by the way, they also used the "I brought you in" thing with Butcher & Blade (brought in by MJF) and with Mercedes Martinez (brought in by Dr. Baker), and both of them were still around after breaking up with their respective bringer-in.

I actually agree that MJF is above the TNT title (he should be the next world champion quite frankly and save the dubbalos from Page's boring reign), but this match becomes an example of "just don't book it then". What Tiny did here is the same kind of shit Russo would do to "protect both guys" : make the champion look as weak as humanly possible, and the challenger an idiot. It doesn't help that the loss was against Scorpio fucking Sky of all people, a bland and boring guy who only got out of the west coast indies because he's good friend with the Bucks.

The issue with this MJF/Wardlow stuff is that it took so long to get there that they're not on the same level anymore. I said a while ago that this feud was going to be on Rampage or something and to be fair, Wardlow kinda got over since then by becoming Sid Jr and powerbombing jobbers into oblivion, but it's a feud that neither guy can lose. Of course, the short answer to that problem is another "lights out match that doesn't count", because originality.

You can't just "not book it," though. It wouldn't make sense to not book it.

I don't think the Russo comparison is fair because it misdiagnoses the issue. With Russo, I don't think his intention was ever to protect anyone. He thinks that you need to have an angle, or else people won't be interested, and he thinks that if a match goes more than five minutes, people will get bored and change the channel, and those two things resulted in short matches where one person dominated and then lost via interference.
The issue here is much more a WWE-style desire to protect Wardlow in defeat, combined with the way they have chosen to push Wardlow (i.e going all in the powerbombs) and the specific finish they chose. Thinking about it a little harder, the problem was the choice to use the ringpost. If Wardlow gets back into the ring and Spears distracts the referee so that MJF can just run in and hit Wardlow in the back of the heard with a chair or something, then you don't have to have Wardlow look like an idiot by walking to a certain corner of the ring so that he can get run into the post.
Russo's problem was that he didn't understand the business at all. Tony's problem is that he doesn't dot his "I"s and cross his "T"s. If, in the course of thinking about an angle, he realizes something that doesn't make sense, he'll solve that problem, and then just assume that that was the only problem, and he won't think about any other problems that his first solution might open up; or he won't ask himself how something he establishes in this one angle affects his overall universe.

Who is the "golden girl" in question?

I'll give you a subtle hint : she's a dentist.

Someone in AEW is a dentist? Who? That's pretty impressive. They should bring that up on the air.

I am a lot more lenient on "sloppy" than other people. Things not looking crisp or almost dropping people doesn't bother me because it's a supposed to be a real fight. People are going to slip sometimes. I just care that you make enough contact to be believable.
The amount certain things we sold certainly could have been better, but I factored that in.

I understand what you're saying about "sloppy" not always being bad, but I wouldn't call a "good sloppy match"... well, sloppy. I remember a Charlotte vs. Banks match in NXT (their last one there) that was what you're describing, but I called it back then "a bit rough, but looked like a fight".

It could be that I missed something here, but nothing to me felt particularly egregious.