I honestly haven’t watched enough to say. My understanding is they do a lot of leagues, tournaments, and long term builds. Right now most of the characters in AEW don’t have “in universe” storylines, and nothing (other than maybe Mox and Omega) really seems to be building to a head. I don’t need complicated stories just something to get behind. So when we have a tag team tournament going and the people have a goal to progress towards, stakes for the match etc, or some personal reason to fight. For example why am I supposed to care who won the 6 man tag “main event”. Does the winner get something? Is there a personal feud? They apparently all have some history from other promotions but I shouldn’t need to have followed other promotions to understand/care about the feuds.
Bucks and lucha fought on last PPV.
Not every match needs a gimmicked story. When you watch WWE what was the reason for HHH vs Orton at supershowdown? It’s just crazy wonderful wrestling. They did an angle at the end for Omega
What reason did Riccochet and Cesaro have for their matches?
What reason does the Undertaker have for saving Reigns?
My big takeaway from the show was the unprotected headshot to Cody, which was more dangerous than anything done in the Moxely /Janela match.
Even though it looked like they tried to gimmick the chair, the fact that it still cut open Cody goes to show why it shouldn’t have been done in the first place. It also unfortunately sends a message to indy companies that unprotected headshots are “cool” again.
Yes they fought last PPV so they are fighting again why? Why is Kenny in there? On weekly TV you don’t need a story for every match at larger events I think you should have it. Why HHH and Orton? Saudi Money…I hated that show so not really a great example. I also don’t claim WWE does a great job in this arena for me. I think they often rush into feuds and screw up their long term story telling (See women’s main event at Mania for an obvious example of botched story telling ruining what could have been a great match)
On weekly TV I have no problem with matches happening without a ton of build up, but I don’t think they have done a good job building up Ricochet. Taker showing up made no sense to me. I never claimed WWE does a good job with this stuff (I mostly follow NXT honestly), but is WWE really the low standard I should hold a new promotion to? WWE for better or worse though also has history to work with. So I have reasons to care who wins because they are established in a certain light. As I said I am giving AEW time to build things, but right now the matches lack stakes for me and so are lacking something that puts them over the top.
So…I thought this was a really good show.
Really enjoyed the triple threat tag and I’m getting into the Best Friends a lot since AEW started, so I’m glad they went over. I may be the biggest fan of the Dark Order stuff. I’m not getting the hate people seem to have for it, whining about the lights off stuff. They are one of the very few different acts in AEW. Not everyone needs to just have a basic first and last name and be a regular guy. There is room for stuff like this and I’m enjoying this and I hope the finals of the tag tournament is Best Friends vs Dark Order.
Rest of the preshow sucked, but the Nakazawa match wasnt as bad as I expected. Leva Bates is terrible and they need to get rid of her. I see potential for Peter Avalon as a manager.
The triple threat womens match was fantastic and one of my favorite womens matches in recent memory. For my taste, I’d even put it above the much loved Becky vs Charlotte last woman standing. Though I do think Nyla Rose should have gone over.
Wasnt a fan of the Cody/Allin match. I dont get the people saying how impressive Allin looked. He got his ass kicked and did next to nothing in the match. I do like the time limit draw though if they are going to push him like they. The unprotected chair shot, it made me cringe, but I’m not going to complain. If Cody wants to do it, gimmicked or not, its his choice. People do a lot of dumb shit in the world. For me personally though, I liked the angle and it instantly made me more interested in a Spears/Cody match.
6 man tag was great, fast paced action. Moxley/Janela was actually not as violent as I thought it was going to be. I thought for sure we were going to see much more blood, but a couple barbed wire spots and thumbtack spots were not too bad. I thought Orton/Foley was much more brutal and nasty looking, so people in 2019 are just getting weak.
What I loved most was that there was something for everyone. That is what I want in my wrestling. Not for every match, to be the same basic style.
Overall AEW seems like a collection of all different types of indie wrestling and crazy indie wrestling antics that they’re going to put on a bigger stage.
The idea of this being a much more serious and a much more sports based promotion seems to have been thrown out the window. Was always skeptical about that as the people involved love being goofballs.
Not saying there’s anything “wrong” with the type of wrestling they want to put on but it’s obvious now that a lot of what they said was just for PR purposes. “Sports centric alternative”. WWE level of nonsense talk.
I fucking love Luchasaurus and MJF.
Really fun show.
Now give me Jimmy Havoc vs Moxley.
This is more sports oriented. It has elements of all indie wrestling and NJPW. NJPW Is
more sports oriented and this will have elements of that as well.
WWE had a women announce she was pregnant and emasculate her husband who was pinned by a women. It has tag team women’s champions that never wrestle and win.
You may seem some baby oil undercard silliness but it’s still going to be a more serious sporty product overall
AEW overall has been a lot more silly and ridiculous than WWE. Not even close. WWE’s issue is that none if their angles have been interesting for months. Nothing AEW has done has been “sports centric”. I don’t think even they’d claim to be aiming for that anymore. They’ve been a regular wrestling show with slightly sillier nonsense. NXT, Impact and ROH/NWA are trying to do things more seriously.
WWE has enough money to do whatever they want. They can do crap one day and flip the switch the next.