The OtherArena

[corrado]

I actually think that while Moxley is one of the best parts of AEW, I actually prefer him in New Japan. His presentation is better. His music. His entrance.

And also a better roster. I enjoyed his bond with the Shooter. And his role in the G1 where he faced a block that featured diverse wrestlers from Jay White to Yano. And there's a whole bunch of wrestlers he hasn't faced yet. Im looking forward to the inevitable match with him and Suzuki. That would make most of his AEW matches look like mild school-yard scraps.

[corrado]

Some more live thoughts:

They're slowly starting that push to the February PPV with Moxley being faced with a decision to join the Inner Circle. Moxley's facial expressions were great here. Its going to be fun to see when he rejects them.

I think the best part about the Cody tag match, was that they developed some sort of storyline with QT, and that the crowd really seemed to get behind him. Between that, and the Beaver Boys getting the recruitment from the Dark Order, it seems they're developing storylines for the bottom of the roster. Good to see Darby resurface.

The MJF promo was great. Such a natural heel.Seems the February PPV is when they'll meet.

More development of some who haven't been developed yet. With Kip Sabean and Penelope Ford. The backstory was based on last night's AEW Dark. And they're slowly starting to tease something with Adam Page and Omega. I guess this is backup in case Marty Scurll doesn't sign with AEW.

Oh Man, the Brandi stuff. That was terrible, just terrible.

And we finally learn the details of the February PPV. it takes place on the date of February 29th, and it has the generic name "Revolution" and it's another PPV in Chicago. Quite underwhelming name. I would've gone with "Leap of Faith" since its on leap Day.

And next week the Bucks will face SCU for the tag titles. Im getting a little concerned that aside from Jericho, the Inner Circle have been jobbers as of late. They've lost a lot of matches as of late. Not a good way to push a top stable.

[Yakuza Rich]

I’m pretty much done with Dynamite. As Yohe has mentioned, it’s turned into Nitro. Or something close to it. It feels like all they know is a WWE-style product and think the ‘good’ WWE stuff is the way to produce a TV show and book wrestling. It’s not Patterson/Prichard insulting your intelligence bad. It’s not Vince McMahon ‘you’ll take what I give you and like it’ bad. And it’s not Russo-level awfulness. But, it’s really not that good and it’s certainly not the alternative I was hoping for.

For example, I think Guevara shows a ton of promise as a true heel that can work the modern style of wrestling. But, he’s now doing the live vlogger gimmick in his matches. It’s somewhat over, but that’s with fans that will always dig that stuff because it’s wrestling. It reeks of something that we’ve seen from WWE and WCW over the past 30 years (has it really been that long?)

And nobody likes the ‘no rules’ matches where the heels get their buddies to attack the faces. It just doesn’t work well anymore because it makes the faces look stupid and it takes away the heat from the faces and heels and their grudge against each other.

I thought there would be some growing pains with the company from a booking perspective, but I didn’t think they would mimic the WWE.





YR

[Steve Yohe]

"And nobody likes the ‘no rules’ matches where the heels get their buddies to attack the faces. It just doesn’t work well anymore because it makes the faces look stupid and it takes away the heat from the faces and heels and their grudge against each other. "

It never worked with WCW or anywhere else. Major faces shouldn't be punked. It's just bad booking, that with time, will kill your company.

John wrote 20 years ago that it wasn't bad talent missing, it was bad bookers. There is a whole generation that only knows WWE & WCW. Even the wrestlers.---Yohe

[Yakuza Rich]

I think the roster is moderately talented. They've got experience, but it's mostly indy experience with indy level training.

For instance, one of the big issues I see as far as execution goes is how they do confrontations and brawls. On the indie scene that usually doesn't happen much because it's more about athleticism and acrobatics. In AEW the brawls are pretty bad as they can't handle a simple attack.

The tag team scene is filled with similar styles and they are very limited. When the Young Bucks vs. the Lucha Bros faced each other for the second time in AEW, they had to make it a tables, ladders and chairs match because nobody would care otherwise. This ain't Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue or the RnR Express vs. the Midnight Express where they could wrestle standard wrestling matches over and over and the fans would still dig it. There's a lack of talent, training and experience there and they can't make standard tag matches exciting to watch, particularly doing that repeatedly.

Janela has some athleticism to him and can do certain things well, but he lacks the talent and skill to go beyond that. In one match vs. Omega he started off by doing some catch wrestling spots and in his mind he things that is showing he can work. But, much more goes into the catch wrestling style than tumbling out of an arm bar.

The Dark Order is putrid. Grayson can go, but Evil Uno is the shits. The women's division is filled with overrated gals (the Joshi talent and Baker). They are noticeably worse than the NXT gals.

There's certainly enough talent to make a much better product. But, they mistakenly overrate the talent they have and how much it will get over with the audience.





YR

[corrado]

Well this was a show which I felt was hot in the beginning, then started to slowly dissipate into a flat at times finished product.

Opener was good. I was surprised that Omega got pinned instead of Page. Obviously the Lucha bros needed a tag win, but I would've went with Page taking the loss adding to more tension.

At least Darby didnt get pinned in his tag match.

Jericho/Jungle Boy was fine too. I would've went with just ending it after the first ten minutes and not go with another few minutes, but at least that's something to build on for the future. At least they also didnt make Jungleboy a geek afterwards as well.

Now after Statlander's big win, this is where the show started to go down, IMO. Brandi's group coming out, and now a carbon copy of Jericho giving Moxley an ultminum to join his Inner Circle. With Brandi giving Statlander a chance to join her group. I believe this at least the 2nd time that her group caused the show to never recover the heat it had early on. I can understand if people switched the channel to USA after that.

And the main event was kind of flat for me. Here's where it gets interesting. The Dark Order came out and attacked all the teams in the ring. At least though, despite the other programs the top faces are involved, they came out to make the save. That was a good touch. I would've went with this type of ending to introduce a "leader" which would be like Adam page etc. Save this ending for that and not a massive beatdown.

So maybe this will be the week that the coveted 18-34 or 18-49 demos go to NXT for good perhaps. I can't see endings like that help AEW's cause.

[Yakuza Rich]

I'm at the point where I will only watch AEW if I'm not doing something else and nothing else is on or if there's a great match that I want to see On Demand. I only watched Dynamite half-heartedly as the weather was crappy. But, I was working on some other things and wasn't going to pay too close of attention to it.

I thought the Jericho vs. Jungle Boy segment was good for what it was. I was curious as to how Jericho would play this angle and I thought it was a good, smart finish that kept the heat on both guys and Jericho did a nice job of carrying Jungle Boy as at one point I thought AEW may be crazy enough to put Jungle Boy over and Jericho made it look like such. Appears they finally listened to Cornette and did a serious interview segment helping create a profile for Jungle Boy. It's amazing how that stuff works because it gets the audience to identify with the wrestler.

But as mentioned, the Brandi Rhodes segment brings things to a skreetching halt. One person mentioned that they have too much of an affinity for cult like gimmicks and I agree. Probably not the best time to do the cult thing unlike the 90's when you had cult leaders like David Koresh, the Scientologists and a growing divide between Republicans and Democrats. It's old hat by now.

But more importantly, it comes off as too WWE-ish and Brandi comes off like a heel authority figure that is shoehorning this stuff in because she has to be involved. And as I've mentioned numerous times...her husband is a face and her doing heel things makes no sense. And I think it hurts Cody in the end because nobody cares for this segment and sooner or later fans are going to see this as Brandi getting an undeserved push due to her husband.

I also have a problem with the Brandi stuff because she is in charge of the AEW branding. Even though I 'get' wrestlng, if I were a CEO interested in sponsoring AEW and dealt with Brandi in an office setting and then saw her doing this stuff, it would be a turn-off to me because it's so goofy. Joe Schmoe the CEO who is the occasional fan or not even a fan will probably see this and pass on sponsoring.




YR

[corrado]

Yeah this is basically a reboot of the past several weeks with their homecoming. I would've gone with Darby winning, but I guess they need to establish Cody's coach Arn Anderson helping him.

Best AEW women's match in a while. Rhio/Statlander should be great next week. And now Britt Baker is starting a heel turn, chiding Riho for not appearing on AEW that much.

So we get more Dark Order but they mentioned a "Exalted One" I hope this means they got one of the free agents to be part of the group. Like I said before, they need a payoff to this is the form of a top free agent. And not an "It was me Austin" reveal if the free agent backs or is forced to back out.


Moxley-Trent was very good. Good to see Mox interact with Orange. Still no mention of Tanahashi who challenged Jericho for the AEW title, and which NJPW has mentioned on their social media.

Sammy was great here tonight. his new sign gimmick is hilarious. Like him egging on Moxley too.

Another fantastic MJF promo. it's going to be interesting to see how Wardlow fares in a very high-profile match. Let alone a steel cage match.

So they're doing a drunk gimmick with Adam Page, stemming from his recent in-ring woes. Drunk gimmicks usually are bad and I don't have high hopes for this.

But they needed a show like this with NXT not having a live in-ring show this week, and it delivered. Very little of the negatives that have plagued this show for the past month or so. No Brandi crap. They just focused on their strengths, and hopefully it can maintain tonight's strong outing, as NXT returns to its usual format next week.

[corrado]

They did have their highest ratings in a while, albeit with the non live NXT.

I do understand more the Cody win over Darby. It ties in to the Elite winning the main event, in that they beat foes that they have had trouble with in the past. So anyone except for Adam page is on the right track.

[corrado]

Well hour 1 was the worst hour so far. Mainly for how shitty the women's match ended up. With Brandi Rhodes' Nightmare group ruining what was going to be a great match. Worse of all Brandi doing what Stephanie did, and emasculating the male talent. Poor Excalibur.

I also had a problem with the established tag teams losing to the stars. They have the best tag division in the business and it doesn't look good when they lose to makeshift type teams.

I did enjoy a YOGA chant when DDP came out. He's wrestling next week.

I did like the 6-man matchup. Both local star Marko Stunt and Orange Cassidy had their moments. And got the crowd up as well. You can always count on those two to liven things up crowd wise

Well at least they didnt make Moxley out to be a geek and have the Inner Circle attack him. A very Stone Cold sequence segment as Moxley becomes the #1 contender to Jericho's title. At least they referenced the events at the Tokyo Dome a little, for those who want to keep that dream alive.

So that God-awful 1st hour really really was bad, and although the 2nd hour was a little better, still a huge step back from last week's great show.

[Yakuza Rich]

I watched part of the show and then turned it off to watch a Dateline re-run. Oh, I did watch NXT for the first time and liked some of what I saw, but the 4-way match stunk with overly contrived spots. Then…I went to a Dateline re-run and a Mobster documentary on REELZ

I didn’t really care for the Rhodes Bros vs. Lucha Bros match. Dustin was showing more daylight than a Icelandic summer day on his punches. Dustin has been great in AEW so far, but this was bad and I know the AEW style is taxing…but they’re wrestling 1x per week and if you can’t work punches better than that, stop throwing punches. Some of the selling was goofy as well and the Lucha Bros, like the Young Bucks, are limited and have a lot of holes in their game.

The DDP vs. MJF segment didn’t work. Mainly because you just had Cody call him out and then MJF is in the next segment calling Cody out. This is just mind-numbingly bad booking. DDP came out to no response. I almost felt bad for him. He then cut a promo that was suited if he was over like the Rock in ’99. The brawl between DDP and Butcher and the Blade was weak and they need to stop with so many confrontations and brawls each episode. Then there was a botch of a spot with DDP and Wardlow. In essence, it wasn’t good and it’s killing MJF’s heat.

Then the clowns came out. Cornette said it best…they don’t understand that if you want to be viewed as a revolutionary product and compete with the WWE and get fans that won’t watch WWE, you can’t get away with the silly comedy stuff. The WWE can. Orange Cassidy gets a pop, but he’ll just get a pop with that audience that will pop for whatever AEW does. Weird booking of face vs. face as well. Marko Stunt is not only tiny, but he’s not even in good shape. Comparing him to Lyger and Mysterio is ridiculous.

Midway thru this match is when I flipped the station and didn’t care anymore.






YR

[Yakuza Rich]

Dynamite beat NXT in the ratings. I don't watch NXT, so I don't know what's going on other than the previous week off hurt them and Dynamite supposedly had a strong show on New Years Day.

I think it will be interesting to see what next week looks like. If Dynamite beats NXT solidly then I would think NXT really shot itself in the foot with not having a New Year's Day show and will likely have to bring in RAW and Smackdown stars to jump their ratings for the foreseeable future. It would also indicate that what I find appealing in a wrestling show doesn't match modern day fans :(

Still, it's not like Dynamite's ratings are strong, so I may be right afterall :P




YR

[corrado]

Well it did get a renewal today. A renewal through 2023:

https://www.f4wonline.com/aew-news/aew-dynamite-extended-through-2023-warnermedia-adding-second-show-301771

Well that's great news. Hopefully they can sustain their momentum and not double down on the wacky cult storylines.

And whenever this 2nd AEW show arrives, you can guarantee WWE will counter it with NXT UK or NXT Japan or NXT whatever.

[corrado]

onto tonight's show. And Unexpectedly Page/Omega face SCU for the tag team titles next week, to further that angle. Fun match.

Sammy continues to be one of the best AEW wrestlers. His signs bit during the commercials are hilarious. Good match between him and Moxley. great beatdown angle afterwards.


6-man match featuring DDP wasn't bad at all. DDP's still got it.

Main event was fun. Moxley/Pac should be great next week. Nice post-match shenanigans as well.

Well they didn't coast this week after the renewal announcement, that's for sure.

[Yakuza Rich]

I only watched small parts of the show, like Guevara vs. Moxley. I'm glad they've ditched the live vlogging gimmick for Guevara. You can do that stuff on a run-in and maybe the occasional squash match, but doing it every match was stupid. My only nitpick with the match is the finish. Guevara doesn't do a moonsault press which is difficult to make not look convoluted in the first place. But at this point, I think he's performed better than MJF. Of course, they need to get MJF wrestling more.

I liked the Jericho beatdown segment and then the promo backstage...and then the audio went in and out. I think it's a TNT issue, but it drives me nuts.

I wasn't into the 6 man. Dustin is hard to watch because he's still working WWE style and showing miles of daylight on his punches. And DDP is good for a 65-year old man, but he's still a 65-year old man. Not sure why QT Marshall is out there and that's how the match lost me.

I still see struggles the promotion has with some basic westernized booking concepts and having the WWE rule the wrestling world for so long that they think they need to do certain things like the WWE does it.

It needs to be worked more like if they were going to Japan in the 80's and 90's where workrate matters more and the strikes are more snug. Or if you have a legend like DDP come back, work it like they would work those matches in Japan. In DDP's case, make the Diamond Cutter a major threat that he could hit at any moment and only he can hit the Diamond Cutter like he does. Stop letting the rest of the roster use the cutter to protect DDP and eventually have DDP 'teach' how to execute the Diamond Cutter to a young lion.

The ratings appeared to stay the same with AEW beating NXT handily. I think AEW will have the comfortable ratings lead over NXT for the foreseeable future unless Vince inundates NXT with the main roster for a bunch of shows.

The next step for AEW should be to get over 1 million viewers and slowly demolish NXT and try to compete with RAW and Smackdown in the ratings. The TV contract extension should free some things up for them, but I don't think they have the booking nor do I think Tony Khan is willing to tell them 'no' in order to progress the product.








YR