22 minutes ago, Loss said:

Supposedly, he asked for time off because he doesn't want to risk COVID right now.

Ahh, that makes sense. Tbanks!

47 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Instead of doing it exactly the same way every single time, like they do in WWE to the point where it doesn't feel natural anymore & starts just feeling like a video game. Music starts - come out & stand here - do a pose - move to there - do a pose, etc. It feels inorganic & doesn't leave any room for spontaneity. 

The one thing that has played a part is this form of presentation, that is never talked about, is the RAW stage. It's not called a stage for nothing. Before that point, the entrance was just an entrance leading to the ringside arena, with more or less decorum around the gate. Sure, you got the big stage at the Tokyo Dome, but it was only for special occasions. When WWE began to make it a permanent thing, it changed the way wrestlers would enter the arena, especially as the stage became more and more grandiose. You could not just walk to the ring doing nothing, there was a stage right there to present yourself, you character, to the public.

And with the idea of personal branding, what you did on the stage was more and more a matter of branding itself. Likewise the appearance and the name, the way they move would be part of the brand too, so it had to be immediately recognizable and reproductible to be sold (like, well, a video game entrance). To me it was even more noticeable at first with the women, since they had the added "bonus" of being very sexualized, so there had to be some funky little sexy move executed on the ramp (there was this period in TNA when seemingly every women, even those who weren't very sexualized as characters at first, like Taylor Wilde, had to do a little dance routine). Of course this went beyond and to the inside of the ring (again with women, often toward the ropes in front of the hard cam in moves that were reminiscent of pole dance routine sometimes), but the adding of the big stage certainly played a big part is that kind of presentation.

Video games have also meant that consistency in mannerisms and moves make wrestlers more marketable too, I suppose.

12 minutes ago, Loss said:

Video games have also meant that consistency in mannerisms and moves make wrestlers more marketable too, I suppose.

I haven't played a wrestling video game since that Mania game in the 90's that had Razor & Bam Bam & Luger and such. And they had all the same moveset I think . But you may very well be right about that with more modern games.

Reminds me that whenever that AEW game drops, I totally play it now that I've bought an X-Box One (to endure the third lockdown last year).

That's a pretty cool article :

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/aew-mikey-rukus-interview

 

That's cool, I'm glad that he's getting some recognition because the fact that AEW have come out of the gate with some great entrance themes for their talent has been a big boost IMO. Adam Cole's theme has legitimately broke over to the regular rock charts to some extent, I believe but the likes of Hangman, Danielson and Britt Baker, to pick three off the top of my head, all have the JIm Johnston hallmarks that get a crowd popping. Get that hook in early and listen to them go. 

Is Page “handling his high” since winning the belt?  I wonder if they’ll tone down that part of the gimmick with Mox’ real life issues being entered into kayfabe.

So there seems to be a pretty clear divide happening in talent that makes me think there’s going to be a large swath of folks that will be relegated to Dark or not renewed when their contract comes up. The last couple weeks on Dynamite have shown a pretty stark difference in folks they’ve tried to bring along and succeeded in presentation and others who are pretty obviously floundering, and I can’t imagine it’s by design. A TON of squash matches, and really, you should be having a bit more variety on those shows than you have been. 

7 hours ago, El-P said:

The one thing that has played a part is this form of presentation, that is never talked about, is the RAW stage. It's not called a stage for nothing. Before that point, the entrance was just an entrance leading to the ringside arena, with more or less decorum around the gate. Sure, you got the big stage at the Tokyo Dome, but it was only for special occasions. When WWE began to make it a permanent thing, it changed the way wrestlers would enter the arena, especially as the stage became more and more grandiose. You could not just walk to the ring doing nothing, there was a stage right there to present yourself, you character, to the public.

And with the idea of personal branding, what you did on the stage was more and more a matter of branding itself. Likewise the appearance and the name, the way they move would be part of the brand too, so it had to be immediately recognizable and reproductible to be sold (like, well, a video game entrance). To me it was even more noticeable at first with the women, since they had the added "bonus" of being very sexualized, so there had to be some funky little sexy move executed on the ramp (there was this period in TNA when seemingly every women, even those who weren't very sexualized as characters at first, like Taylor Wilde, had to do a little dance routine). Of course this went beyond and to the inside of the ring (again with women, often toward the ropes in front of the hard cam in moves that were reminiscent of pole dance routine sometimes), but the adding of the big stage certainly played a big part is that kind of presentation.

WCW had the real stage for PPVs in the late 80s with the logos and pyro and rehearsed entrances. Even prior to the real stages, most wrestlers did pretty much the same thing for every entrance anyway. I wouldn't put that on WWE or Raw having a stage, which it didn't even have until 1997. 

19 minutes ago, strobogo said:

WCW had the real stage for PPVs in the late 80s with the logos and pyro and rehearsed entrances. Even prior to the real stages, most wrestlers did pretty much the same thing for every entrance anyway. I wouldn't put that on WWE or Raw having a stage, which it didn't even have until 1997. 

Nothing even close to the WWE style entrance from 00's and onward. It's totally been a WWE thing to have wrestlers do video-game style, exactly the same pre-planned moves and gestures at the top of the stage and then inside the ring, all the time in the exact same way, to the point of coming off completely inorganic like it's been said. 

Dynamite beat Raw in the demo.

24 minutes ago, El-P said:

Nothing even close to the WWE style entrance from 00's and onward. It's totally been a WWE thing to have wrestlers do video-game style, exactly the same pre-planned moves and gestures at the top of the stage and then inside the ring, all the time in the exact same way, to the point of coming off completely inorganic like it's been said. 

Nitro also had an actual stage before Raw and most people had the same pre-planned and timed out entrance every week. 

13 hours ago, Jmare007 said:

I asked this in the Dynamite thread but....what's the status on Lio Rush? Is he gone or something? I was eager to watch him with Dante as tag team and eventual rivals and shit didn't even last a month.

 

11 hours ago, Loss said:

Supposedly, he asked for time off because he doesn't want to risk COVID right now.

He worked NJPW Strong last weekend and is working the upcoming GCW Hammerstein show this Sunday. 

Oh. I had read on Twitter that he was just gone because he didn't want to risk Omicron.

He seems to still be on good terms with AEW. https://www.pwmania.com/lio-rush-speaks-out-on-working-for-aew-and-njpw

Yeah after all that went down he posted on Twitter that he went to Tony and they worked things out.

 

Lio Rush tweeted that his AEW contract expires February 14th and will be a free agent.

Wild guess, people on Twitter already have : made the never unfunny joke about retirement / made the expected Swole reference to earn their cookie point of the day.

Seriously though. The guy said it on the interview just above, he likes his independence. More power to him if that's make him happy. Kinda hard to book around him apart from a few matches here and there though. Would certainly love having him show up in IMPACT now, even for a short stint.

Definitely a shame as I really enjoyed his work with Dante and they were a killer tag team (was already fantasy booking him and a reunited Top Flight as trios champions). Will be interesting to hear if there was still tension with TK or if it's simply a matter of wanting to do his own thing. Either way, more power to him.

Bummed about this, really wanted to see him & Dante for the next 5-8 months, they were the most exciting part about the shows to me after Danielson.

2 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

Lio Rush tweeted that his AEW contract expires February 14th and will be a free agent.

Just saw this too. Hopefully he can do whatever makes him happy. 

He had an unusually short contract, if that is the case.

 

Also

Petty asshole Punk is the best

Why are we assuming he is not re-signing with AEW? His contract expires soon, putting that out there helps him increase some leverage for the new deal, but is it known that there's no way he's coming back? It would be a damn shame if so because his stuff with Dante was really good. 

He said he wants to work with other places and doesn't want to be tied down to one with a contract.