Paid Members Nick James Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 I'm in agreement with @RedRooster in that Malaki Black is an upgrade. Tommy End is an awful name and screams 'Johnny Kickpadz'. I actually really liked the backstory video in isolation, but agree if this is woven into his AEW character, then it swings more towards The Fiend than anything, and that's not a good thing. Do we think he may be the last debut now for a while? I think they have more than enough going on to keep things ticking over nicely until the new show debuts. I can't really think of anyone outside of Daniel Bryan that would actually add anything further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 7 minutes ago, Nick James said: Do we think he may be the last debut now for a while? I think they have more than enough going on to keep things ticking over nicely until the new show debuts. I can't really think of anyone outside of Daniel Bryan that would actually add anything further. Probably not, given their track record - I imagine they'll continue to expand their roster. As far as adding anything further goes, I think they could do with some new female wrestlers - Ruby Riott and The Iiconics would be nice additions. Riott in particular has more potential than WWE allowed her to show, and I think she has a real chance of becoming a top level star in AEW's Women's Division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 14 minutes ago, The King of Old School said: I genuinely don't think they are bothered. What I like about AEW, is that Miro, Andrade, and now Black look like huge stars in this promotion, something TNA could never quite do when signing anyone released by WWE. TNA used to have this weird obsession with any WWE signee coming in and immediately cutting some really bitter sounding promo about never getting a chance "up there" or "in the other place" when we all knew the reason they were released was because they weren't particularly good, and it immediately puts TNA into second place as the place people go when they can't cut it in the big leagues. AEW doesn't seem to do this and just brings people in and lets them get on with it. The only one that mentions WWE is JR (Kingston's promo notwithstanding) and even then it's a slip of the tongue as opposed to any direct references. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 (edited) Dan Lambert cuts a better promo than 90% of the roster, that was good stuff. Edited July 8, 2021 by Egg Shen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 One thing I forgot to mention was Ethan Page - he's impressing me far more than I thought he would. The feud with Darby is really entertaining, and Page seems like a very competent mid-level heel. Sky and Page have turned into an unexpectedly entertaining act. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 (edited) Absolutely, unashamedly love this show every week. It's completely rekindled my interest in current wrestling, which was dying/dead on the vine. Just so much to look forward to while enjoying the now. I'm not gonna say it's booked perfectly but it suits me down to the ground. None of it is perfect. JR called Excalibur "Mark" at some point (which is either a slip or a brilliant dig), the Tommy End debut had the Gorilla Monsoon from Survivor Series 1990 feel about it - we've never seen this guy before and we're completely surprised but he's called The Undertaker and his finish is the Tombstone, with Ex suddenly knowing his Impact Zone name. Andrade's debut match was a bit clunky too, though all I'll take away is that great spot where he rolled away from the moonsault and he landed and then hit a standing one. Great spot and brilliantly caught on the replay. Jericho/MJF has proper Nitro feels. No-one ignored the obvious and worked with it. Just proper live wrestling. Jericho's "yer Mam" stuff went down a storm. Just so simple. Hangman/Omega was a brilliant tease. Crowd ate it up. Opener was decent, crowd got into it and hopefully it puts that to bed. Main event was chaotic. I'm sulking that the good guys didn't win, AGAIN. Love that little touch of showing Jungle Boy being honoured for his 50 wins. Britt Baker promo with Reba in the background contradicting her was great. Trios match was fun. Not really a fan of Lance Archer being reduced to doing the 911 spot but Dan Lambert sure can cut a promo and hit all the points you need for an AEW crowd. Will reevaluate this if it leads to him bringing in someone against Lance. I like how many guys either didn't appear, appeared briefly or were just recapped. That brings such freshness. The only real criticism I have on the show was the lack of emphasis on the Jon Moxley title defence next week. The promo video for Anderson was good but it was out of nowhere and the announcers didn't sell it. It's fucking Jon Moxley coming back. It should have been huge news. That IWGP US Title feels like a hindrance to them too. I know some will find this blasphemous, but the title defences should be on Dark. On the Tommy End video, which I haven't seen yet, that's the advantage of this stuff just being on social media. I know people hate when good stuff isn't on TV but the advantage is plenty of bad stuff isn't on either. Like loads of the nonsense aspects of BTE. Great if people want to seek it out, but not necessary to have on TV. I saw someone respond to @Chris Bgreat tweet about the Hangman/Omega stuff saying you shouldn't need a crib sheet to follow a wrestling storyline. The simple answer is you don't. if you want to look, these layers are all there but the heart of the story has been on TV and has been pretty straightforward, Hangman didn't think he could live up to the Elite so he quit, Kenny stuck with his friend him but then slowly turned his back on him. Hangman has been hanging around the Dark Order, they've helped build him back up and now he's ready to avenge his former friend and win the big one. Edited July 8, 2021 by tiger_rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 54 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: Dan Lambert cuts a better promo than 90% of the roster, that was good stuff. He did some stuff with Impact a few years ago which was great, had a great segment where he pulled out a load of old title belts and calling the so called smart fans out on not knowing their history. Just got finished with the show proper, and it was really good for the most part. Wasn’t fussed about the strap match, it’s hard to care when one of the competitors gets a jobber entrance for the blow off match. Andrade’s debut wasn’t great but wasn’t bad either. He got off to a dodgy start in NXT too from what I recall but then turned in some great performances. One thing that annoys me, and this isn’t exclusive to AEW, is the crowbarring in of a wrestler’s past just for the sake of it. No-one cares if Excalibur wrestled Tommy End in Germany 15 years ago, and it means even less if a minute later you start calling him Malakai Black only for confused old codger JR to keep calling him Tommy End. Just call him one thing or the other. Black needs to start taking whatever Brian Cage is having, because he looked small compared to Cody. Good segment overall though Has Penta lost all of his other gear? He’s been wearing that shit Joker outfit for weeks now. Mad main event, but very entertaining and I don’t often think that about The Bucks. Im struggling to see who could potentially take the belts off of The Bucks down the line. The only team I think could come close to doing so would be Santana & Ortiz, which is what I imagine they will go with for Full Gear towards the end of the year. Its great that crowds are back, but if I went to this was behind that guy holding up that yellow square for the whole show I’d be fucking fuming  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members mim731 Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 1 hour ago, tiger_rick said: the Tommy End debut had the Gorilla Monsoon from Survivor Series 1990 feel about it - we've never seen this guy before and we're completely surprised but he's called The Undertaker and his finish is the Tombstone, with Ex suddenly knowing his Impact Zone name. That is my only gripe about an otherwise brilliant segment. Everyone in the building knew who he is, but for Excalibur to go from "WHAT IS HE DOING HE? I WRESTLED HIM 15 YEARS AGO AS TOMMY END" to trotting out Black's new name just cut the legs out from under it. Why try and crowbar that in? Why not let the segment breath a bit and later have it revealed that is his new name? It feels so rushed. It was otherwise a top, top segment and I have never thought about Cody vs Black but that could legitimately be a great feud and produce some very compelling television if Excalbur can chill the fuck out and let these big moments have some time to soak in. That video is the absolute shits though. Looks like a student film and I hope they keep that shite well away from the TV audience.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrodyGraham Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 I don't know how much of that video is meant to be Easter Egg for future AEW stuff but it's worth noting that the inmate who injured End by pushing his eye into the stairs was called Matthew. Buddy Murphy's name on the Australian Indies, was Matt Silva. Murphy and End are mates by all reports. Could be something, could be nowt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winston Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 'The eyes of a trained killer if you ask me' was a pretty good line from JR to be fair to be him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 Introducing a new name on the surprise debut of a wrestler everyone knows is a minefield for sure. I actually liked Excalibur referring to wrestling "Tommy End" 15 years ago then stating "but that man is NOT Tommy End" or whatever he said to indicate that he's changed & is more evil/dangerous/whatever, as that also hints that he's different to what we saw in WWE too (which always goes over well with the segment of the audience who are convinced everyone is restricted/neutered/ruined by WWE). But then having him immediately know his new name was odd. Could easily have been done as one of those things they like where they put up a graphic after the break and tell us that during the ads Tony Khan had confirmed to them that he was now signed to AEW and was going to be known as Malakai Black or whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 @WyattSheepMaskPenta has been wearing different gear on the b shows, so I’m guessing he just wants that to be his TNT gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 2 minutes ago, Statto said: But then having him immediately know his new name was odd. I don't mind this at all - End put up a video on his Instagram that apparently explained the change, and why wouldn't someone in Excalibur's position have watched that video? It's always a bit clunky and awkward when someone changes their name either coming in to or out of WWE and the audience are still expected to know who they are, because there's an elephant in the room aspect to it - "it's that guy you know, but he's called something else now for reasons" - that no one's really figured out how to present properly yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted July 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2021 3 minutes ago, BomberPat said: I don't mind this at all - End put up a video on his Instagram that apparently explained the change, and why wouldn't someone in Excalibur's position have watched that video? Ah fair play, didn't know that. If video went up beforehand stating he was going to be Malakai Black in future, it does indeed make sense that Excalibur would know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 Yeah it was a touch clunky but otherwise grand. JR has an alright night actually, he was great in the Ethan/Darby sit down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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