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The AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite Thread


MPDTT

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I think it’s more to do with him no longer being a wrestler. His last match was in 2007, which the ‘casual’ viewers that they have probably won’t even know. If he was still wrestling it wouldn’t matter, but to most people he’s just some guy, some guy who looks a bit of a pillock 

It would be like Pele turning up to do punditry in his Brazil kit

Edited by WyattSheepMask
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2 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

It would be like Pele turning up to do punditry in his Brazil kit

Hardly. More like Edgar Davids doing it in them big glasses.

The mask exists for a reason. A masked wrestler becoming a masked commentator makes perfect sense. Or at least as much sense as a white american wrestling in a mask ever makes.

Maybe the mythical non-wrestling fans will find it embarrassing when they don't watch?

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I've worked a few shows were guys did double duty - working one match unmasked, one in a masked gimmick later on. I've done it myself - refereeing a show, then entering the Rumble later on under a mask.

Early on, a few of the guys involved were convinced that people in the crowd would be spending all their time trying to work out who was under what mask. But they don't. Because when "casual" fans see someone on a wrestling show under a mask, they don't say, "I wonder if the guy in the mask is the same guy who worked the opening match, or the bloke who took our tickets on the door", they just think, "oh, he's wearing a wrestling mask, because that's what wrestlers do".

I don't think the distinction of him not being a wrestler any more matters in the slightest. He's still a character on a wrestling show. It's no weirder than having the mild-mannered, suit-wearing babyface announcer use the name "Gorilla Monsoon" from when he'd worked a wild-man gimmick twenty years earlier that none of the contemporary audience had seen, or Jerry Lawler sitting at ringside in a singlet and crown even when he hadn't wrestled on TV in months or even years. 

If someone's going to get turned off a wrestling show the moment they see someone dressed weird, they're not going to last very long. 

The idea that it's "embarrassing" suggests that someone is embarrassed by it. Why, what for, and on who's behalf? 

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I kind of agree.  I think he'd look a bit more professional without the mask.  Has he really not had a match in over a decade?

Joe wears a bad boy suit when he commentates, and he's an active wrestler.  Be more like Joe  :)

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The commentator wearing a mask isn’t great, but it’s not AEW’s biggest problem - although it is a symptom of AEW’s biggest problem, which is assuming everyone watching has already watched all the indies and NJPW shows over the last decade.

It looks shit, but no more shit than half the roster.

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You don't need to know who Excalibur wrestled in PWG in 2006 to understand why he's wearing a mask, though. I think it does even the dimmest of wrestling fans a disservice to suggest that without an extensive knowledge of his wrestling career, they wouldn't be able to understand why a man on a wrestling show would be wearing a wrestling mask.

Again, I think it's no less egregious than having "Gorilla Monsoon" on commentary decades after he stopped working a gimmick in which that name made sense.

It's mad that we near constantly bemoan how wrestling needs more characters, yet a retired wrestler still wearing his mask as an announcer is apparently wholly unacceptable for reasons that still no one's really managed to explain, beyond "it looks bad". Why does it look bad? What's wrong with it? 

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Plus for years in WWF you had a sleazy old man in a crown commentating, wearing a suit jacket over his bare flesh. I thinks it's a plus to have a masked commentator. Wrestling is weird and it should have some weird elements. My problem with Excalibur is he's not that good, and he's not got a voice for broadcasting (he sounds like a nerd). 

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Great Sasuke as an MP in the Japanese Parliament. That's about as far from bush league as it gets. Also, I don't see how it's unprofessional - Excalibur's profession is in wrestling, which says wearing a mask is acceptable. Don't they have masked commentators and even refs in lucha?

 

great-sasuke mp.jpg

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Excalibur saying "it's the Blade! The Blade!" was one step away from sounding like he was playing with action figures. He's alright at calling matches, but anything else he's the worst. Excitement, shock, selling an angle, running down the card etc. He's horrible wrestling storyteller.

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