LOL I love that AEW banked on their fans to be able to sing Jericho's theme and they did.

I can’t stand that song, but damn did it get the crowd riled up. 

I am HERE for Miro-Kingston. Mox's promo was also very intriguing. Sort of called out both Punk and even Hangman. 

I see MJF-Jericho are ripping off Austin-Rock camera spots

Jericho has gotten really bad about unnaturally getting into position for things. Like after the top-rope rana, he switched sides on the cover so MJF could reverse into the armbar. It just looked awkward. He does that kind of thing a lot lately. 

3 minutes ago, Log said:

Jericho has gotten really bad about unnaturally getting into position for things. Like after the top-rope rana, he switched sides on the cover so MJF could reverse into the armbar. It just looked awkward. He does that kind of thing a lot lately. 

Yeah. He has also basically started to drop his selling just to get into position and into the next spot. It's been a massive decline since the Mox feud ended for him. He was good here when he was just selling and screaming, but not for much else.

Match was fine I thought, and the right man definitely won. Wonder what's next for MJF. There are so many moving pieces here in AEW right now. It feels like a genuinely hot promotion. 

I’m happy with the booking, at least, as having MJF go over clean like that was better than the alternative. But it does leave Jericho without much to go on going forward. Not a bad thing. 

Jericho as the gatekeeper young guys beat to get to the next level isn't the worst thing they could do with him. 

That was the best Jericho performance in AEW.  Looked invigorated.  A nice surprise. 

19 hours ago, MoS said:

Do they officially announce CM Punk tonight? Or will they just be cute about it until Friday? 

They chose to be too cute about it. Not announce him, but tease him, so it's not a true surprise. I don't know, one of my issues with AEW is they are too cute (too sweet?) too often 

I think it’s pretty incredible that they’ve had the restraint. I suppose it helps that all the shows are pretty much sold out anyway but has anyone ever built to a debut in such a fashion?

Fun show, all in all but I’m definitely ready for the Bucks to lose their belts now and I’m leaning toward Jurassic Express being the ones to do it since the cage seems designed to book a title change. Wight/QT seems a thrown together match for his return but I’d bet money on Shaq showing up to run it at Full Gear. Miro/Kingston promo battles should be all that program needs to heat it up. Finally, I’m loving the focus on Daniel Garcia and 2.0 recently; just a fantastic way to debut them, feature them and make them TV acts within a month. Great stuff and the fantasy Booker in me is wondering if they’re positioning Garcia for a showcase match with one Bryan Danielson in the future.

All these mat workers being brought in and given a push right as Danielson's debut looms imminent is definitely not a coincidence in my book. 

Historically the only two options in wrestling were to promote the shit out of a debut to maximize the TV rating, or to keep it a complete secret and not even hint about it. AEW taking the stance of "you know who's coming, we know you know who's coming, we don't need to beat you over the head with it" seems to be working since there's been CM Punk chants every time they mention the show. Same thing with the deal about Jericho not being allowed to use Judas last night. They never said they want the crowd to sing the song, but everyone knew what the deal was and it happened. The whole "don't assume your fans are idiots who need their hands held through everything"  approach seemed risky but so far it seems to be working. 

And I think this works because of the nature of who AEW targets first and foremost with their audience; diehards. They always know they're in to what's about to happen so once they realize what's about to happen, they know their part and what they gotta do to make the moment feel special. We saw that again last night.

It should be remembered that TNT is vehemently opposed to surprise debuts for obvious reasons. After Sting made a surprise debut at Winter is Coming, they told AEW to never do that again. The diehards may know the score, but there are plenty of people who would likely tune in to see Punk who don't fall into that category. I'm sure there'll be some kind of official announcement even if it's only on Twitter.

Kenny wearing shirts referring to things Punk has said "CM" has stood for the past (Cookie Monster, Chick Magnet) has been the best low key trolling. 

Also it's going to be wild how much of a surprise this is going to be to the "normies" while everyone in the building has known for weeks.

I don't think there are "normies" watching at AEW shows or probably even watching it on TV. You have to be already in the know enough to be watching AEW to start with, imo. But their handling of Punk is certainly very interesting and I can't really think of another debut quite like this. 

I dunno, I saw a lot of people at the Rampage taping that were at their first ever wrestling show (not just kids either, although there were plenty of them too), I think we sometimes underestimate the non hardcore portion of AEW's audience. Clearly they're aiming for the hardcores but it does seem that they are bringing in more new fans too. 

From a business point of view, they should announce he's going to be there on the Friday, to get as many new eyeballs on the product. Not sure if it's possible but I would have ran adverts during Raw breaks to promote him on Rampage.

But from a fan's point of view, I love the fact you got the anticipation and not knowing what's going to happing on the night. Maybe it's a swerve and Bryan Danielson turns up instead lol

9 minutes ago, ragemaster said:

From a business point of view, they should announce he's going to be there on the Friday, to get as many new eyeballs on the product. Not sure if it's possible but I would have ran adverts during Raw breaks to promote him on Rampage.

There were tons of ads for the Dynamite/Rampage tapings here during Raw on the local buy in slots. A lot of smaller wrestling companies around here buy local ads to air during WWE programmings. 

As long as Punk's been out at this point, I don't think working him this way makes a huge difference to non-hardcore fans.

I think Bryan is more the guy to use to attract newer, casual fans.

With "Ride of the Valykries" being public domain, I would run commercials during Raw and Smackdown for weeks with that song playing, and the words He's Coming in maroon letters. Then end it with All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite, the date of the show, and Only on TNT.