I don’t disagree. But everyone feels uncomfortable. At the event they played a hardcore metal song and the guys in front of me (who thought Cassidy was will Osprey which was funny and how we started talking) booed the music choice. Someone yelled at them to goto a WWE event if they like rap music or something so he turned to me and said that.
Everyone has different experiences. My wife isn’t into wrestling. But she goes to WWE events and will find a similar wife that’s been dragged there and chat or something. This time there was literally a handful of females and she didn’t feel as comfortable.
I realize there are places where you expect there to be more white people (I have leafs season tickers for instance). But it’s usually an older crowd and friendlier and lots of women and kids and I know that going in. I’ve been to a ton of wrestling and it’s always more mixed of a crowd. This was much more a hardcore younger white male audience. It
Jericho vs Darbi is completely different than any of the WWE patterns we see each show. We speak about an underdog going for a World Title match, on the third show of a new promotion. Match was a showcase with the goal making the younger star getting the rub from the veteran and getting over. Guess what - it worked. In WWE, please tell me how feuding with Baron Corbin helped Cha… SHORTY Gable get over and when will we see him in the main event in any of their main shows on television. When this happens, come back to me again.
The Riho match there was actually some uncertainty there, because they look at Brit Baker as someone who would be a big star. Guess what - match got over at the end. And you could see the crowd getting rabid, despite being sort of sitting on their hand before that. On the other side: how over is Lacy evens after feuding with Becky for moths? How many of her matches you saw and the crowd going crazy towards their end?
I would say that Lucha Bros vs. Jurassic Express was 50/50 for me before Luchasaurus got hurt. When I heard of the injury I knew the JE had no chance of winning, but I was curious to see how the match will turn out and guess what - it was entertaining as hell and made Marko Stunt over (to the part of the crowd that will allow to accept him). I can’t even give an example from the WWE tag division here, cause, oh, well, it is non-existent.
Lastly, I was speaking about THE PATTERN of the WWE pushing certain guys with certain looks and certain dimensions and this is something I am watching for over 30 years with them now, so I am pretty sure I know what I am talking about. Combine this with the overall presentation of the product, the WWE speech (there is such thing even in NXT right now, yes), the way they make everybody wrestle pretty much the same match in 90% of their matches and you get the WWE Stench, and I’m tired of it.
I don’t know about your personal experiences with crowds, but from what I can see from TV there are always a nice chunk on ladies on the AEW shows. To further: this comment of yours speaks more for yourself, than anything else.
Crowds everywhere in the USA can be really annoying, but I find the Full Sail degenerating really bad the last year or two. Maybe the biggest problem for me is that I can actually HEAR that those constant chants are coming from a handful of guys, which annoys me even more. And for a matches or move that are actually mediocre and nothing special.
Sorry but when you are using your main roster examples for NXT that shows you bias. Which is what that whole thing comes across as.
Darby vs Jericho is ok because Darby gets a run but putting Priest over the more established Dunne is predictable because Priest is the larger wrestler. Ignoring the fact the Dunne was a champion for like 2 years, has been in NXT main events etc. saying they always put over larger superstars when if you look at the history of the NXT title that isn’t the case at all.
Sorry but to me I new JE was losing when they booked the tournament, just as I was pretty sure Private Party was going over. If we did a prediction contest for the tag tourney I would be 100% on my picks. Maybe if the Bucks won last week and Luchasaurus was healthy it might have seemed 50-50 but with the Private party win it was obvious that Lucha Bros would win. Same with Britt vs Riho. You don’t put the belt on Riho and have her lose her first defense 2 weeks later.
So I get it you hate WWE, I don’t love main roster much it even in your examples you show bias. Lacey is way more over than she was after her Becky feud. The problem is they had no follow up after that, because their booking destroyed the depth of their women’s division. You Bring up Shorty Gable but leave off Roman vs Murphy, Bryan vs Murphy, Bryan vs Ali. All of which got newer guys a rub. But we are talking about NXT and all I’m getting FB is you don’t like full sail and the WWE logo, because otherwise your criticisms don’t really hold up.
Based on looking at Physique who should have won Roddy or Dream? Cole or Riddle? Who is winning th NA title next week Dijak? He has the look after all. Looking at the title history most champs don’t have the typical WWE look.
Lastly you talk about mediocre matches and moves when those same things on AEW you laud as “getting over by the end.”
I like AEW but your take on NXT vs AEW is very indicative of a significant portion of the AEW fan base where AEW makes mistakes the same way as WWE and one gets killed for it and the other cheered. AEW has plenty of flaws, they are not as obnoxious as main roster WWE flaws, but in some ways they may be more costly long term, as they need to be better not the same with a different logo.
As to crowds no idea, but TV can easily distort your view of crowd composition depending on where they focus.
It is less Predicatable going forward than the first round as I’m not sure how they see Dark Order.
The first round was predictable largely because I don’t think they wanted round 2 to be Bucks vs Lucha Bros round 2, and Best Friends Vs Dark Order Round 2.
A month ago I wrote the following
So even the. I was leaning towards a Private Party win.
But if I had to predict going forward
Lucha Bros won a close match with Private Party
SCU beats Dark Order
Setting up that grudge match for the tag titles. Lucha Bros go over winning the titles.
However the first match of the semis will determine the second of Private Party wins Dark Order will win and SCU with Fight Luchas in a separate feud. (Or Vice Versa)
Part of this week being predictable with JE vs LB was that the Bucks were already upset and it would have been bad to go to that well twice, further if you want to push either PP or JE having them go over/ have close matches with more established teams is better than having them face one another.
The creation of the Inner Circle also gave Bucks a Program if they were eliminated so that was another reason I expected their loss.
Also being predictable going into any week or at the time of the match is different than predicting months in advance.
If you want that At Full gear
Jericho retains
Santana and Ortiz beat Bucks
Moxley wins
Riho retains
Lucha Bros won tag titles
There are 5 predictions let’s see if I am say 80% on those in about a month.
For what it is worth I was arguing it wasn’t less predictable than NXT this week. Not that I can predict everything. In some ways I would be happy with being able to predict because I find Main roster to be unpredictable because I predict what I think are good booking decisions , and WWE confounds me regularly.
WWE main roster has Lesnar - TBH straight up no one should be able to beat him without using an advantage. Kofi agaisnt Brock was predictable but it would be stupid to have Kofi straight up best Brock. Seth besting Lesnar at WM was believed moreso bc its a blitz attack. A long 15/20 match win is unbelievable and didn’t do Seth any favours.
Prediction if logical = perfect sense.
Prediction if only based on years of exposure to WWE “logic” and booking patterns = only makes sense to us due to our WWE-watching Stockholm syndromeness level of acceptance of the product.
Yes. We often say “predictable” as wrestling fans when we mean “logical”.
Sometimes logical feels predictable in hindsight because we all spent too much of our time thinking about it. For example, even the best Royal Rumble typically has only about 4-5 guys who might win it, so it occasionally feels predictable when one of them does, even though it would be stupid and illogical if the winner was a random midcarder with no story behind it.
My issue with that view of Lesner is that Wrestling is scripted not a real fight. We are basically watching a competition between super humans, not a real fight. So the idea that because Lesner is a real fighter he should always wins is a boring premise to me. That is not to say Lesner should lose often. Having a monster for faces to overcome has merit and his losses should mean something, and get the face over. That was my issue with Seth and Mania. He won by cheating so that win meant nothing and hurt Seth as a baby face. If it had been a blitz attack without the cheating and that was a strategy he used to overcome the champion, he looks well prepared and clever.
Such was the same reason I had an issue with the Kofi match. It did not send the message that Brock is a monster and Kofi just couldn’t get past him. It sent the message that Kofi is an idiot who jumps into a knockout shot.
No, this Threeway will go in the following pattern I’ve seen maybe every couple of months on WWE programming: the two big guys will beat each other and Roddy will steal the victory after one of them hits his finisher on the other, so we can get one more go at them and mostly likely the winner of the bout between them will beat Roddy for the title. Or the one that does not get pinned will get the shot, one of both. Point is, they’ve told this story 10 000 ties already and they do not offer any new spin to it. It’s monotone. I’m fed up.
They’ve been around for almost 40 years they’ve told most every story. AEW isn’t telling new stories either. If you don’t like the story that is fine, but it isn’t because AEW is telling a different story, they are telling the same story with a different name. Veteran Heel champion with a faction of younger stars, wins matches through nefarious means. Isn’t a new story and it is the main story in AEW.
As for the triple threat Roddy will win likely through interference as he is part of a heel faction and he is in a non-DQ match. This is one thing that made the Street fight dumb to me. Why didn’t the inner circle just maul Darby? No DQ after all. Or was it explained that weapons were ok but like rope breaks interference would be a DQ?
Lesnar vs Kofi - should it have gone longer? Probably.
But for those thinking Kofi should have won let’s break it down:
Kofi wins
Lesnar is now a chump who has lost to both champs. He has to go away for a while
Kofi gets a small push but to face who ? He’s already champ
Lesnar wins
Lesnar gets back some mystique from loss to Seth. Sets up rematch with Seth at SS here he can win and both keep titles
Kofi can have a redemption arc. Loses to lesnar and fights back to win later
Lesbar is champ heading into Fox which wants more sports based show
It is the way they are telling those stories, dude.
For Darbi - I can assume that he does have FRIENDS backstage (you know, like the Bucks and Cody), something that WWE babyfaces do not know the concept about. Still Jack Hager came out of nowhere and cost him the match, to get the heat on him Jericho. Was it an original story? No, but the way was told had different vibe from WWE. Everything made too much sense, I could not fathom it.
My personal booking would have been, Brock loses due to Cain interference (or wins by DQ it match never even happens). Goes into a feud with Cain without the title (I think that feud doesn’t need the title). Wins that feud at Crown Jewel, comes back around to the Kofi feud and beats Kofi for the title in a longer squash style match similar to Cena vs Brock 1.
There has been no establishment for Darby having friends behind the scenes. He had a match with Cody which was brutal and not friendly. So where would his friends be coming from? Other people feuding with Jericho?
You can prefer how a story is told, but that doesn’t make it a new story, or not predictable. You don’t like the story you perceive happening with Roddy, because you feel it is predictable or simply because it is WWE and not AEW