BRM's Thoughts on Some Recent AEW Stuff

[Big Red Machine]

Hi all,

I haven't watched much in the way of full episode of AEW recently. There are several reasons for that. The (lack of) quality of the product is a big one, as is the additional time commitment that is Collision. There are other non-AEW-related reasons, too, such as work ramping up, my aunt dying, and my first serious relationship in quite a while, and those things all eat into my wrestling time, so I doubt I will be doing TV reviews on a regular basis anymore. I will try to keep up with the PPVs.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on some of the bigger recent happenings and angles in AEW:



THE IMPENDING BREAK-UP OF THE JAS:
This won’t surprise anyone, but I don’t like this at all. The execution has been quite poor. Only Sammy (and thus Tay) and Garcia have a real reason to be upset with Jericho, and yet all of them are abandoning him. The anger of the others comes across more as them being afraid that without Jericho they will be irrelevant (in 2.0’s case because they are irrelevant losers, and in Anna Jay and Jake Hager’s case, because of how infrequently they are on TV).
Even worse, though, is what they are squandering. Coming out of Double or Nothing, there was a huge groundswell of desire from fans to see Sammy Guevara turn babyface. Instead, AEW has opted to either 1) keep Sammy heel and turn Jericho babyface or 2) more likely, turn Sammy babyface… in the midst of turning five other people babyface at the same time, for the same reason.
Most of those others (everyone but Anna Jay) can disappear and never be seen in AEW again for all I care, but turning Garcia face as well causes major problems for a newly babyface Sammy, Garcia is also at mostly the same level as Sammy Guevara, so turning them at the same time and for the same reason means that unless they’re doing a three-way feud with Jericho (which I’m certain they won’t be), both of them will be competing for the same spot on the card, while one of them (or possibly even both) will inexplicably never have the natural feud with Jericho that should come out of this turn.
And what will happen in that feud with Jericho, anyway? Either Jericho wins the feud against up-and-coming newly-turned babyface, cutting off said rising star’s momentum… or Jericho, who is joining up with Callis because he thinks he needs a change because he keeps losing feuds… proceeds to go and lose his first feud after making said change.

Jericho can join with Callis and the JAS can dissolve, but Garcia should be staying with Jericho. Jericho was his hero, to the point where he (supposedly) changed his style to be a “sports entertainer” just to stay with Jericho. A Callis-managed Jericho will likely be much more of a serious character, and thus will essentially be Garcia finally getting to be mentored by the Chris Jericho he looked up to. Garcia is the guy Sammy needs to feud with first to make it up to Jericho (while Jericho establishes himself by winning a feud or two for Callis’ faction) so that Jericho is at a point where Sammy winning a feud against him will really mean something for Sammy.

And I wrote all of that before last night’s Dynamite… and other than the last paragraph of fantasy booking (y’all know I can’t help myself), it’s all still relevant, because the way they did the segment last night means that the JAS still must break up. The beef the others had with Jericho was that he was willing to abandon them and align himself with someone else. Last night on Dynamite, Jericho proved that he was 100% willing to do so. The fact that the other person wasn’t expecting him to say yes and thus it wound up not working out is irrelevant to that fact.

MJF-ADAM COLE SILLINESS:
This is so dumb. First of all, this is the second world title feud in a row where MJF has been pretending to be his challenger’s friend.
Secondly, it’s just dumb comedy that doesn’t belong anywhere near the world title.
Thirdly, even if it winds up going in the less expected direction of MJF turning babyface and then being betrayed by Cole (with Roddy and the Kingdom), is that really where we want to be? Adam Cole as a heel again? Remember how hot Cole was as a babyface when he came back in March? What a waste that would be.

CM PUNK BACKSTAGE SHENANIGANS:
At this point, Punk is getting in the way of the business functioning. Punk reportedly wants to use Collision to show that he knows how to be a leader and how to run a show (as compared to the EVPs). He is generally showing that he has the boking skill, but in attempting to bar anyone from the locker room he even thinks might cause drama, he is showing that the way he goes about things is no better than Kenny, Hangman, and the Bucks.
Tony Khan needs to be a leader and say something to Punk. Or if he’s not going to do that, he needs to at least know who is on Punk’s no-no list and not book them on a show where Punk won’t let them in the door. The fact that Nemeth had to fly to a show and was then told he wasn’t needed and should fly back home is horrible. That should not have happened.
And also on the Tony Khan front:
When Punk first returned earlier this summer after his hiatus dating back to the prior year’s All Out media Q&A, Khan stood up backstage in the gorilla position with his headset on and started pumping his fist and chanting “C.M. Punk!” enthusiastically as Punk walked by.

Yeah. That doesn’t look good at all.

RICKY STARKS HEEL TURN:
This feels like turning someone heel because you think that will make an impact, but in doing so, you are fighting the fans in a way that won’t be good for him later on. Shane Strickland would have been a much better choice for a top heel on Collision.

BCC-ELITE BLOW-OFF:
Are you telling me that the BCC, who talk about proving that they are the best, are satisfied with losing a match (and thus a feud) because two members of their team turned on them? And that the BCC, who have made a habit of going around assaulting people for no reason, are happy to just let these turncoats go free instead of hunting them down and trying to kill them?

THAT IDIOTIC CHAINSAW MASSACRE ABOMINATION:
Yeah. You all know I loathed this. I just felt the need to mention that fact so that no one would think I forgot about it.