Aew tag tournament

So it was mentioned numerous times on the smackdown review how convoluted the 3-way tag match stipulations(win the match at fytre fest to earn a match at all out to earn a bye in the tag team tournament that will air on tnt) is. Although a little wordy I think this stipulation follows two aspects wrestling fans have been wanting. First, this is showing aew is starting out with some long term booking as a storyline can be established for one of the winning or losing teams months out from the actual tournament. Next its showing that wins and losses matter not just for the fact that a team will be earning a bye in the tournament but also get onto all out card in a featured match. The criticism of the team needing to win 2 matches to get a 1 match bye is legitimate but with the kayfabe logic that they get paid for being on cards and winning matches I think that can be put aside. Either way excited for fytre fest, all out & the new TV show.

The trouble AWE are having at the moment is that they are making things a lot more complicated than they need to

With this and that Battle Royal they had at Double Or Nothing, they are in danger of being compared to TNA/Impact, where they were routinely criticized for complicated gimmick matches/storylines

John, most sports have weird rules/stipulations, I think these “bye” qualifiers work well because if you lose, you’re going to have to win one extra tournament match, and in kayfabe the fact that they have some of the best tag teams in the world, it is of great importance to try and get a pass to the second round and not risk losing in the first round.

Idk that’s just how I see it

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I don’t see a problem with needing to win 2 matches to get a first round bye. Losing these matches does not result in being eliminated from the tournament, so essentially having 2 matches used to determine the number 1 seed in the tournament makes sense to me given that they have not had a “season” of games to determine who gets the bye.

It’s cool to make things “sports like”, but maybe Khan should take a page from the NFL and have a single elimination tournament to crown its first champions?

That’s exactly what they are doing.

That sounds like what is happening, but I guess they have an odd number of teams so one is getting a bye.

Ah ok thanks for the clarification. Haven’t had time to listen to any podcasts and just read the information online. Would still make more sense to me to have a straight up 4 or 8 team tournament without the bye situation but it’s good to know it’ll be straight forward. Thanks!

That would make sense I just don’t know if they have 8 teams on the roster, and I’d rather see a bye than just sticking 2 singles guys together to fill space. Looking at the roster I am only seeing 6 teams (SCU, Best Friends, Lucha Bros, Young Bucks, Private Party, Dark Order) which means in a single elimination event they would need 2 first round byes. Now they could throw Cody and Dustin in for a 7th team. But generally I like keeping your tag teams separate from your singles guys to some extent otherwise you can end up where WWE is with 2 singles guys randomly pairing up are a better tag team than your established teams. Or you book it so those teams just lose anyway, so why use your talent that way.

Angelico & Evans
Strong Hearts

They could use Angelico and Evans though they are not listed as a team, they were at DoN. They may use them instead of Cody and Dustin which still leaves you at 7. The strong Hearts are not part of the AEW roster, so it will be interesting to see how they use OEW talent in relation to weekly programming and the title picture.

Luchasaurus & JungleBoy
Glacier & Tommy Dreamer
No legs & Zach Gowan(This would be a good team)

I’m reaching now.

Yeah you can make teams, I just don’t like teams that are 2 singles guys thrown together as it tends to either devalue the tag division or be a throw away.

Either they
1.) Beat a bunch of established teams, and make it look like those teams are just teams of weaker wrestlers (The WWE model)
2.). Lose and are essentially there just to fill space, in which case why are they in a tournament to win the tag titles, just give a bye.

IMO I’d like to see this tournament be dedicated tag teams, that will have that division be their focus. Rather than a bunch of pairings just to fill out space.

The good thing about AEW though, is that they have a lot of guys that arent over exposed. So they can throw guys together and build them up. Luchasaurus & Jungleboy have been showcased recently on BTE. I dont know if they will go with them as a team, but I’ve been enjoying them together on the show.

Yeah I’d be ok with some makeshift teams. And a bigger tournament for that matter. Maybe 16 teams minus a couple due to some teams getting a bye.

My 2 cents:

They haven’t had matches where it would make sense who gets Byes yet. So they are doing matches before TV to determine who is worthy of a Bye. These aren’t tournament matches but they want you to know these are what will determine who gets Byes instead of assigning random teams the advantage.

In a way, a team that goes 2-0 will get a Bye come tournament time.

If they had a year of matches to use as a basis, it’d probably be more simple.

While it reads as convoluted it’s not awful if you break it down in a way that is them simply telling you:we’re having a 3 way and the winner matters because they are now in contention for a 1 seed.

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This could shake out to be fine, but I think the approach is what doesn’t make much sense. It’s a tournament and bracket that don’t really exist yet, so we don’t really know how valuable a BYE is. So even if it does turn out to be a great thing, it doesn’t help much today as far as the stipulation selling the match, which should be the point of any stipulation.

I mean assuming it is single elimination a bye is very valuable. It is one less chance to lose. Now it may be more valuable in say a 7 Team tournament than one with 15 teams. As then the Bye puts you into the Semi finals, rather than just the quarter finals. It is still desirable though.

I’m also not sure I agree that the only point of a stipulation is to sell a match. The point is to create the idea of the match having stakes more than just “These teams are fighting because the card says so.” IF they know they are going to have the tournament, and will have an odd number (or at least not an even bracket, 6 teams or 10 teams still need byes for instance) of teams then having a match (or series of matches) decide who gets the bye makes sense.