The AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite Thread

[RedRooster]

50 minutes ago, Chili said:

It really isn't though, it was apart of his fabric in WCW and they're gonna do it here, because its just a simple reputation, it's a catchphrase and it really isn't that annoying. Sting isn't your time is it? You said you were a newer fan didn't you. If you take 'It's Stinnnng' away from Schiavone you might as well have Alex Marvez and his blank 'bad man being shown evidence blank stare' conduct the interviews. I do get its a personal gripe. But it's literally never going to go because its been their before a fair wedge of us were born. 

Sting being interupted isn't too bad now either, I quite like that it's now almost an inverted trope that actually HAS had a point in the last fortnight. During that Team Taz run I'd have skipped a few more weeks though lads. 

I missed the WCW/ECW era - I started watching in late 2002, which means I've been watching for almost 20 years...so I guess, technically, I'm not a newer fan. But I did miss several key eras as a result of when I started watching. 

The reason I dislike it is that, according to Tony Schiavone, Tony Khan has told him to do it every time Sting makes an appearance.

It's not some weird defiance against a decision on my part though. Or at least, I wouldn't frame it as that. The original call was really memorable - it was, or seemed to be, genuine emotion from Tony Schiavone. Every time I hear it, I know he's saying it because he has to. Whether there's genuine emotion behind it or not I don't know, I just know that he's saying it because he's supposed to. 

And every time he says it, it takes away from that original moment - it's just what Schiavone says, rather than something he said in a specific, memorable moment - and you lose how special that original call felt, honestly, it gave me goosebumps at the time. 

I suppose the best comparison I can give it "as God as my witness, he is broken in half" - as soon as you read that, you probably know when it was said. But imagine if Vince McMahon had then told Jim Ross to use it every time there was a mad high spot? 

(Yes, I know that this is far too much analysis of something that is, at the end of the day, a simple catchphrase...)

 

[WyattSheepMask]

I’ve not watched Dynamite for a few weeks, only bits on YouTube, so maybe there’s been an answer for this already, but why are they having the Blood & Guts match on TV and not at the PPV? Is it purely to avoid potentially dragging it out for the extra 3 weeks of TV?

[Chili]

I think it might be hearing Schiavone say it on and off since I saw Sting from about 1992 onwards so it's just part of the fabric for me now. It's just 'The Champ is Here' or 'Here Comes the Pain'. Great analysis though. But it's never going away. Plus the smart folk would just skip his entrance like I've done since week four of it haha.

EDIT: @WyattSheepMask not a clue, might be something big in America with TV that week (are there more sweeps style things I don't know of, like the thing US TV does in Feb) or they want a Stadium Stampede on the PPV with The Dark Order and The Hardy Family Office and having both is too much. The first one was going to be on TV as well.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Chili

[WyattSheepMask]

Yeah I remember the first being advertised for TV, which would’ve been fine as it was March and it might not have had the legs to be held off on until the PPV 2 months later, plus it was still the early days of Dynamite v NXT.

But now that ‘the war’ (such as it was) is over, surely that’s the kind of match you get people to part with their money for. Unless, as you said, it’s something to do with Sweeps, which is something I’ve heard but I’ve no idea what it actually entails 

[BomberPat]

I wonder if they promised that match to TNT in some capacity, and it's about keeping a positive relationship with them. I don't really understand how "sweeps" works, but May is one of the key months for that, so that's a good shout too.

It may be that they've already committed to something else for Jericho and MJF (or others involved) at the pay-per-view, too. 

 

In terms of ratings in general, it's going to be fascinating to see next week's. This week's show really was a bit of a perfect storm - they were running unopposed by NXT, they had the Jericho interview on WWE Network, Wrestlemania weekend likely had a knock-on effect of people still interested in any wrestling content, and you had the Tyson appearance. I don't think either one of those in isolation would be enough to lead to such a significant increase - Tyson has appeared before and hot had much impact, and I doubt there are many Chris Jericho fans who would pay for the WWE Network, sit through a lengthy interview with him and Steve Austin, but not already be aware of AEW; and the interview barely touched on AEW anyway, behind the bullet points of how it got started. That said, could it be that people who subscribe to Peacock, but hadn't previously subscribed to the WWE Network, got curious about what wrestlers they used to watch were up to now, and either watched the interview or just Googled Chris Jericho and discovered AEW and thought they'd give it a shot? 

[LaGoosh]

54 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

I’ve not watched Dynamite for a few weeks, only bits on YouTube, so maybe there’s been an answer for this already, but why are they having the Blood & Guts match on TV and not at the PPV? Is it purely to avoid potentially dragging it out for the extra 3 weeks of TV?

AEW is primarily a TV wrestling company as that's where most their money comes from so getting big ratings and making TNT happy is probably more important to them long term than a one off big PPV buy rate it seems.

[Supremo]

I think Tony Schiavone screaming, “It’s Sting!” every week is a valid thing to complain about.

The reason it worked that first week, and the reason Tony is otherwise the best announcer in the business, is because of authenticity. Tony’s career resurgence hinges on the way he acts like he’s been thawed out of ice after twenty years and absolutely everything is fucking amazing to him. Whether it’s ultimately an act or not, the entire crux is that everything he says sounds one hundred percent heartfelt.

That they’d then direct him to repeat a fucking catchphrase every week, a trope straight out of WWE, is crazy. They’ve got a real gem with Tony. As both an announcer and an interviewer he’s got more credibility than pretty much anyone else currently employed in those roles throughout the industry combined. I wish he was my dad. It breaks my heart that they think Michael Cole’s lifeless, forced-at-gunpoint “it’s boss time!” is something to aspire to, rather than avoid at all costs.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Supremo

[Chili]

I really think it is really being overthought and in the grand scheme of things is really forgotten about 30 seconds later. It's one-line, not a slippery slope. 

It's a tag-line, it means about as much as his chin to me. Just part of the whole act for 30 odd years.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Chili

[JNLister]

[quote]I don't really understand how "sweeps" works, but May is one of the key months for that, so that's a good shout too.[/quote]

The daily/weekly TV ratings come from the panel of people who have a box attached to their TV that measures what's on, and then individual householders press a button to show when they are watching. Nielsen extrapolate this data to provide a nation audience estimate and then estimates for viewership in the 25 biggest cities, but doesn't try to get any more locally specific than that.

Sweeps happens four times a year for one week and involves a much bigger panel of people who don't have a box but during sweeps week will keep a diary of everything they watch. Nielsen uses this to estimate both the general viewership of individual local stations and the local performance of different shows. The bigger panel size means they can do specific results for around 150 cities.

The sweeps week data is used much more for local decisions such as stations deciding what to show and advertisers deciding where to put ads locally rather than nationally. It's still somewhat important for national cable shows as it should be a more accurate data than the regular ratings. However, it used to be really important in wrestling when you had syndicated shows like Superstars of Wrestling (sold/programmed to individual local stations) and wanted accurate estimates of both your local and total national audiences that you could use to sell ads.

[wordsfromlee]

I liked the opening match and didn't think they length of it took anything away. There were a few spots where the complete lack of selling annoyed me (like the sequence on the outside after the double reverse hurricanrana), but that's a problem I've always had with The Young Bucks. The Superkick really is dead as a finisher these days.

Justin Roberts being referred to as "the dapper yapper" pissed me off way more than it should have. 

Mike Tyson has been doing way better than I expected him to.

I was probably being worked but Christian seemed to strike a nerve with Taz during that promo.

[The King Of Swing]

Taz is just so good at being a miserable old prick. 

[Statto]

I always find it odd when wrestling chooses to tell the truth about people's careers in 'real' sports being cut short though injury, as they did with Ogogo. Surely it implies that wresting is easier/less risky/less taxing on the body?

In the case of Ogogo, he's debuting as a heel with boxing as a big part of his presentation, so just say he chose to move into wrestling because he wasn't getting challenged enough in boxing.

If it's some no-name offensive lineman who spent 3 seasons floating around the fringes of NFL practice squads (or a lower league goalkeeper...) before doing their knee in one time too many, maybe just don't mention it at all unless "former pro athlete" is actually their gimmick.

Or say they were kicked out for being too violent like The Goon/Top 14 rugby star Antonio Cesaro.

Sure people can find out the truth with a quick Google, but that's true of most everything.

[Project Nim]

Anyone else think JR was grumpier than usual this week? 

[Merzbow]

I think it says a lot about how good the show was because JR being shit hadn't crossed my mind for one of the few times.

[Guest]

I have hardly noticed JR lately, things move so quick what he says rarely registers.