Matt D

They just responded with this: so, something to learn certainly, but don't think we'll be getting any full gems here. I mean, every moment of Johnny Valentine footage is worth having so I won't complain.

Hopefully something substantial.

Cage doesn't carry himself as anything other than a random meat heat Pretty sure Meat Heat is what Stasiak got for secretly recording people backstage.

It was maybe nine months and Pillman spent the first few of those learning how to be a heel so that tracks.

You could do a medium length Danielson reign with the Elite as a unit being too much for him, leading to Omega getting it back. The story could be that Danielson might have had Omega’s number but it’s Page who has the Elite’s.

Given the pace of the shows and how quickly the announcers move on to the next thing, I think it’ll be subconsciously obvious to most viewers that if someone or something is getting that TV time then they matter. I do think they should be using their YouTube channel to get people up to speed on some things right now though. Have a familiar guy like Wight or Henry or Christian (but obviously not Punk or Bryan) create a minute or two intro bumper for some of the best and most important matches/moments in company history and make a curated series out of it to on-ramp interested new fans.

I’m not super worried about it either. I’m just thinking that for the chosen one, he’s extremely absent and the top of the card is filling up with superstars. It’s hard to say how to fix that when they’re already overpacking their shows though.

Not derailing the thread but this is fun:

Uh oh. More cuts coming.

One thing with Page. They've picked up a bunch of new fans over the last two or three weeks I imagine. I doubt any of them even know who Page is since he's been totally off TV and not referenced and isn't any sort of national name. I mean, I barely have any real idea of who Page is. He's sort of like a modern day Cowboy James Storm that drinks and hangs out with the Dark Order?

I was talking to Loss about this and his feeling is that in AEW the people make the belts as opposed to the belts making the people. That said you can only end Miro's dominant reign for the first time once. If they were to have Kingston beat him and then him win it back, the way to do it would be to add something to his act in that second encounter to heat him back up (akin to how Diesel debuted to help Michaels retake the IC belt from Jannetty), like, I don't know, CJ Perry.

I think the way to go is having some sort of unsanctioned “lights out” match where the title isn’t on the line and put Kingston over. That’s how they used to end feuds when they wanted the babyface to go over but not take the belt off the heel.

I just don’t see Eddie as the guy they want to take the belt off Miro. It would be a good moment but he doesn’t need the win and the belt as much as someone else on the roster might.

The good thing is that 18-49 year olds know how to find shows on TV.

If that challenge is to Mox and Kingston, that’s one I’m excited for.

Give it two days and we'll either know or we won't.

Been working through Elevation. The Tony/Kingston/Wight team reminds me in spirit (if not in specifics) of a Tony/Dusty/Zbyszko sort of team. More references to old wrestlers and playing around with actual names instead of Dusty making shit up, but still that same sort of fun dynamic. I like @Goodear's All Wrestling (No Elite) strategy in consuming A(E)W and the webshows feels the best way to really lean into that.

And Embry!

Only person to get actual heat and not “supportive heat.”

Hansen is entirely dependent upon his opponent for a match to be good. Lawler can make anything work.

Having spent so long in 89 AJPW now, I don’t know if I’d feel the same. I’d rewatch at some point. I will Say that what makes Hansen special isn’t always good for his matches.

More of a Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon gimmick then.

I thought Hardy looked pretty good in there considering what I was expecting. I mean other than getting his face crushed. That match was about my speed.

Hey this is a favorite of mine:

Let me tread carefully as I'm only casually following all of this, but one of the greatest strengths of AEW is the use of enhancement talent on their youtube shows to help build their midcarders and the sheer variety of talent they have either at their fingertips or under contract in order to keep match-ups fresh. If they can afford it, they're much better off cycling wrestlers off in an "off-season" sort of format or using them in non-wrestling/promotional roles (like how Kingston announces). There are probably some other things they could do, like create six-man belts, but in general, they're far, far better off using a large roster to protect talent and keep talent fresh.