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The AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite Thread


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Seemingly going against the general consensus on here, I've got a real soft spot for Matt Cardona. He's a total man-child and a dreamer, but I think that is what endears him to a lot of his fan base, which I'm sure will have a large crossover with AEW's core demographic. He's probably a valuable signing even if they barely put him in the ring. It won't hurt AEW to have a another guy on the roster that really looks the part too, there's still too many on their show that just don't look like stars to the casual viewer. For what it's worth I don't think Cardona is much, if any, bigger now than he has been in a couple of years- he got jacked a while ago but just never got on TV to show it off. 

I do hope he does well. Having said that, I know he's had knee issues and it shows in his movement. I have no idea how much he's capable of any more. He's probably not had a match go more than eight minutes in the past few years. It'll be interesting to see how he does once he's in the ring with the workrate types. Maybe it will actually suit him and he'll be able to get away with working a slower big man style.

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Next week’s lineup looks great, and I’m really excited by Darby Allin vs. Moxley, but how the hell do they improve on their last TV match, which had the best finish ever?

I worry what Darby has planned to top that incredible top-rope DDT.

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Mid Cardona is tremendous. 

I watched an Observer/F4W clip where they talked about him, and pointed out that his entire career has been spent working for a company that never saw him as worth anything, even after he got himself over. 

It's a fair point, and that makes me more interested in him being given a second chance. What can a more serious Zack Ryder, with something to prove, show? Were WWE wrong with him?

Cody is clearly rooting for him, and is hopefully working with him on a tryout basis (while he shills their toyline). 

Fuck it, that makes me intrigued. Let's see if there's anything there with him that we've not been able to see. I'm not going to claim I'm optimistic, but I am intrigued.

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I don’t believe the 5 appearances deal, as tapings are fortnightly so it’d be 3 dates really. Seems like something leaked to throw off the scent. 

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Matt cardona was so far ahead of the game when it came to social media and self advertising. When z true story came out, I remember all my mates girlfriends being obsessed with it, the likes of bte wouldn't exist without it. He also did a release party for his post wwe merch where he phoned everybody who bought merch, and it took him something like 6 weeks to get through all the calls. 

 

I'd imagine his aew 5 appearance deal might also be because he knows there's money to be made on the indy scene as well, and he will shift ridiculous amounts of merch. 

He's a good get in a self promotion way, both sides benefitting the other, and doesn't his wrestling figure podcast do good numbers, which helps aews launch. 

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He got over as a comedy geek though. That’s what always seems to get lost in the discussion. Me and my flat mates loved, “Z! True Long Island Story,” as much as anyone, but how exactly do you make a proper star coming off a show like that, when the absolute best part every single week was the running joke that his Dad preferred John Morrison?

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19 hours ago, RedRooster said:

AEW is inconsistent. When it’s good it’s really good and when it’s bad, it’s horrendous. I suspect if you’d watched last week’s show you’d feel very differently.

I’d suggest trying it again, next week’s show looks like it could be a lot of fun. 

The "girl with a little curl" of wrestling promotions, for sure. 

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9 hours ago, Supremo said:

He got over as a comedy geek though. That’s what always seems to get lost in the discussion. Me and my flat mates loved, “Z! True Long Island Story,” as much as anyone, but how exactly do you make a proper star coming off a show like that, when the absolute best part every single week was the running joke that his Dad preferred John Morrison?

Stick him in a wheelchair and have Lance Archer push him off the stage.

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10 hours ago, Chris B said:

What can a more serious Zack Ryder, with something to prove, show?

Having "something to prove" seems to be the big phrase whenever a small fish leaves the big pond, but I don't know what that means. Like someone said earlier, it must be years since Cardona had a match longer than 8 minutes, so does having "something to prove" mean having matches 15-20 minutes? He's been working in front of arena crowds for his entire career, of course he can have solid TV matches. Solid entertaining 15-20 minutes? AEW's already got dozens of wrestlers who can do that. This isn't Moxley turning up at the G1. 

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Don't know if anyone else has noticed, or agrees, but Shida's facial expressions are really poor. I never got what she was about, in Japan. She's competent enough, but I rarely know what she's trying to convey facially. It never looks convincing. Taken in isolation, it'd be difficult to tell whether she's just baked a lovely cake, or taken a particularly awkward shit, based on her expressions.

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50 minutes ago, KingofSports said:

Don't know if anyone else has noticed, or agrees, but Shida's facial expressions are really poor. I never got what she was about, in Japan. She's competent enough, but I rarely know what she's trying to convey facially. It never looks convincing. Taken in isolation, it'd be difficult to tell whether she's just baked a lovely cake, or taken a particularly awkward shit, based on her expressions.

She's okay but definitely feels like another "she's Japanese so she must be good!" type deal unfortunately.

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12 hours ago, Supremo said:

He got over as a comedy geek though. That’s what always seems to get lost in the discussion. Me and my flat mates loved, “Z! True Long Island Story,” as much as anyone, but how exactly do you make a proper star coming off a show like that, when the absolute best part every single week was the running joke that his Dad preferred John Morrison?

Yeah I've really mellowed about WWE's treatment of Ryder in the past few years. At the time I was raging that they cut the balls off someone who, at the very least, could've been a decent upper-midcarder but, realistically, the reactions he was getting were overshadowing everything else on the shows. Even The Rock had to stop and acknowledge the "We Want Ryder" chants. Their options were to either bury him, and stop the chants, or run with it and risk him failing miserably.

Looking at what he did afterwards, it's hard to argue that they made the wrong decision. He didn't freshen up his gimmick, come up with some new moves (the Rough Ryder is a really shit finisher) and generally make himself impossible to ignore. He just coasted, doing the exact same thing for nearly a decade. He's a naturally likeable guy but if he has anything else to offer beyond that then he hasn't shown it. Can anyone think of a single memorable Zack Ryder match?

His big problem now is that he's got "WWE Jobber Stink" on him and it's going to be hard to shake that off. I'm not too keen on him coming in as Cody's "close friend" either. That seems well worn territory already, and AEW's only been around for a year.

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Im calling it now. Zack Ryder will have Cody's back in a fued vs the Dark Order, and during a title defense against Brodie Lee, it'll turn out Ryder was with the Dark Order the whole time and screw Cody out of the belt.

"Blah blah... Brodie Lee promised me the spotlight if I joined Dark Order... spots lights now on me... blah blah", Ryder vs Cody at a PPV.

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14 minutes ago, unfitfinlay said:

Yeah I've really mellowed about WWE's treatment of Ryder in the past few years. At the time I was raging that they cut the balls off someone who, at the very least, could've been a decent upper-midcarder but, realistically, the reactions he was getting were overshadowing everything else on the shows. Even The Rock had to stop and acknowledge the "We Want Ryder" chants. Their options were to either bury him, and stop the chants, or run with it and risk him failing miserably.

Looking at what he did afterwards, it's hard to argue that they made the wrong decision. He didn't freshen up his gimmick, come up with some new moves (the Rough Ryder is a really shit finisher) and generally make himself impossible to ignore. He just coasted, doing the exact same thing for nearly a decade. He's a naturally likeable guy but if he has anything else to offer beyond that then he hasn't shown it. Can anyone think of a single memorable Zack Ryder match?

His big problem now is that he's got "WWE Jobber Stink" on him and it's going to be hard to shake that off. I'm not too keen on him coming in as Cody's "close friend" either. That seems well worn territory already, and AEW's only been around for a year.

Most memorable Ryder match I can think of is the Get Everyone On The Card Ladder Match at WrestleMania 32 (could be 32) where he won the Intercontinental Title. Mainly memorable in that he was the last person I'd have thought would win it!

Well, maybe second last, Sin Cara was in that match too I think.

Beyond that, I can remember him and Hawkins winning the Tag Titles on the Mania pre-show last year, a match with Kane that might have involved him being chucked down stairs and something to do with Eve Torres, and maybe an Open Challenge match against Cena that involved the cast of Entourage when their film came out. Does him running in at WrestleMania 24 during Edge vs. Undertaker count as a memorable Ryder match?

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