RedRooster Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 25 minutes ago, Yakashi said: Seems a little like Christian was a spite signing. I think that's a bit of an overstatement. Whether it is or it isn't, I've no doubt that Tony Khan views signing Christian as something of a coup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Christian is a solid signing, and as many others have said - it would've been a nice surprise randomly. It was pointless hyping him though. He has a lot to offer any company and not everyone needs to be a game changing top tier signing. But yeah no one gives a fuck about Christian or 99% of whatever else happened on that show because of the shitty ending. I know it'll die down but yeah gutted for them really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theringmaster Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 I find it interesting Christian has now jumped to both TNA & AEW, kinda feels like if you wave a bit of cash and main event slot in front of him he jumps. He is a lot of things but loyal isn't one of them😅 I have always liked Christian but it's a let down, when he went to TNA it felt like a big deal, it felt like he was underused in the E but now, over a decade later and several world title reigns, it feels like he's had his lion's share of success and doesn't really bring much to the table. I mean can anybody think of a match that excites them involving Christian v AEW Roster? As for the finish to the main, I have always got the impression the idea was for this match to be the swan song for Moxley as he disappears for a few months to become a father and then makes a surprise return later on this year, so basically he get's 'injuried' from the explosion....it's a very hard sell now isn't it? This was one of the most hyped AEW shows in a long time but it misfired, WWE will enjoy looking over social media today as they march towards Mania. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) 23 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: But yeah no one gives a fuck about Christian or 99% of whatever else happened on that show because of the shitty ending. I know it'll die down but yeah gutted for them really. It is a real shame, up until that point, even with the let-down of the Christian signing, I had really enjoyed the show. Clearly it'll have happened before, but I can't remember the last time the ending to a strong PPV completely overwrote what came before it. I feel really bad for Moxley and Kingston in particular, as had the explosion been more dramatic than it was, the visual of Kingston protecting Moxley in the way that he did, as others have stated, could have been a career-making moment for him, the kind of thing they'd play back in highlight packages for years to come. 4 minutes ago, theringmaster said: This was one of the most hyped AEW shows in a long time but it misfired, WWE will enjoy looking over social media today as they march towards Mania. On the whole it didn't. The only thing that really misfired - quite literally - were the explosives at the end. The problem is it was so unspectacular that it's overshadowed what was actually an excellent show. Sure the Christian signing was a little underwhelming, but had the ending come off (presumably) as planned then people would have forgiven it. Edited March 8, 2021 by RedRooster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) I can only imagine how hard the laughter was at Titan Towers at the ending. I was weak with laughter myself. The noise, the visuals. Everything. It was maybe the worst thing I've ever seen in pro-wrestling. I assumed at first that it was going to be a big Kenny Omega con job to humiliate Moxley, but Kingston selling it made it clear that wasn't the case. The poor twat was literally selling nothing. Nothing went near him. He was absolutely fine. I've been closer to bigger fireworks displays. You can't even say it was a misfire or an accident, as Khan has basically said that was what was planned and people need not expect the world from these spots. They should have just cut the feed, like the explosion took the broadcast off air. Soprano'd the ending. They'd have got some stick, sure, but it'd have been better and less humiliating. Currently, Moxley and Kingston look like the biggest laughing stocks in wrestling. TNAEW seem to have gotten ahead of themselves with overhyping things they couldn't deliver on. I said the new signing was going to be Christian right away, but as the week went on the hype grew so big that it felt it couldn't be Christian. It was. They fucked it. Poor Christian has to now deal with a hell of a hospital pass. Whoever booked the Cody Rhodes injury angle in the ladder match wants shooting. If it was Cody then I'll stop defending him, as that was way worst than anything Triple H has ever done. And he didn't even win the match. If you're going to do the 'hero returning from injury' spot, at least leave the fucking venue and allow people to let you drift to the back of their mind. As it is, the stupid twat was in the far right of the screen for a good 10 minutes rendering all action in the ring moot as you were just wondering when Chekhov's Cody was going to come back. Horrible, horrible attention sapping spot. Man alive, they flubbed all the big moments on that show. Like, they didn't just drop the ball... they popped it with a stanley knife and blew it up in a more spectacular way than they did the ring. There was some very good wrestling on the show, and Max Caster is quietly becoming one of the most exciting acts in the company, but it was overshadowed by just how horrendously booked it was. Fucking hell. Edited March 8, 2021 by d-d-d-dAz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members quote the raven Posted March 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 8, 2021 So what do we think, the ring didnt work. Or that they wanted it to look that shit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted March 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) Yeah. It’s a bit much to go, “well what do you expect us to do?” when you’ve sold the explosions for weeks using clips that were far superior to what you delivered, despite what I imagine is far more money and much better technology at your disposal. Between the way that he overhyped Christian and then got all shitty about the reaction to the final explosion, I wonder if the cracks are starting to show with Tony Khan. The way he’s banged on about winning all the Observer Awards on Twitter, put that “BEST TV SHOW OF THE YEAR 2019 2020,” plaque on Dynamite and even appeared on Observer Radio to discuss the awards with Dave, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it’s all gone to his head a little bit. If I’m not mistaken, isn’t this essentially a life-long Observer subscriber winning both Promoter and Booker of the year in his first full twelve months in the job? It’s not a stretch to imagine him feeling untouchable. Don’t get me wrong - unlike all the mutants online who lost their mind the other week I actually think AEW’s clean sweep in the Observer Awards was completely deserved. Still though. It’s not a big jump to imagine a dorky smart mark thinking he’s Billy Big Bollocks when Big Dave starts laying it on thick. Thankfully, whenever AEW have ever had these misfires they’re usually quick to correct them, but fuck me. What a misfire. Easily their biggest yet. How do you simultaneously blame Omega for being a shit engineer whilst not making Mox, Kingston and the commentators look like complete twats for selling it as if their careers could be over? Edited March 8, 2021 by Supremo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 1 minute ago, quote the raven said: So what do we think, the ring didnt work. Or that they wanted it to look that shit? Tony Khan said afterwards 'what do you expect? we can't just blow these guys up'. That was what was planned, they just didn't stop and think that how bad that might look. They need to retcon the whole thing, say Kenny was trying to humiliate Mox and pretend Kingston didn't get knocked out by being a nice guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members quote the raven Posted March 8, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 8, 2021 Just now, d-d-d-dAz said: Tony Khan said afterwards 'what do you expect? we can't just blow these guys up'. That was what was planned, they just didn't stop and think that how bad that might look. They need to retcon the whole thing, say Kenny was trying to humiliate Mox and pretend Kingston didn't get knocked out by being a nice guy. That makes it 10x worse. They must have tested it before and decided "yup that looks great" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 There's no way they didn't run it through beforehand and see how it looked. Maybe, just maybe, they only checked it in the arena rather than via a video feed but they can't have been that stupid can they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briefcase Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 4 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said: They should have just cut the feed, like the explosion took the broadcast off air. Soprano'd the ending. They'd have got some stick, sure, but it'd have been better and less humiliating. Currently, Moxley and Kingston look like the biggest laughing stocks in wrestling. Basically this is the only way they could have saved this. I've not seen much AEW and after that I probably won't for a little while, not that it matters to anyone what I do/think but others watching the show may do as well, especially casual fans tuning in to see what the fuss was all about. Christian as the BIG surprise also pretty poor after that much hype, the funny thing was that most of us here on the forum knew it would be a Christian or Angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) Another thing that irks me about Khan saying "you can't expect the world, lads" is that every other spot with the pyro, particularly the punched-in shots, looked ten times better. Also, the guys were always way closer to the explosions than they were at the end. The worst spot was the finale. That's inexcusable. The 'explosion' looked like they were doing a make-a-wish ring entrance for a sick kid whose dream was to be Kane for a day. Edited March 8, 2021 by d-d-d-dAz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yakashi Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) Ive finished the whole show now and think, even without the shitty ending, it was one of the worst (although the bar is high so worst is still good) shows they’ve ever done. It was too long and I thought only the main event (up until the shite) and the opener was very good. I should hate the Bucks but I really like them. Especially Matt. Bad storytelling aside, they’re almost always tremendous. Christian, a career mid carder that has only ever been pushed because of his fake brother, as the “Hall of fame worthy, huge, huge star in the world of wrestling” was not only disappointing but also an outright lie. The best thing about the show for me was Miro, who has been a complete failure so far, looked great killing geeks. It’s time for him to move up and away from these comedy dorks. PAC is my favourite wrestler so I’m happy he will be moving on to a series with the bucks. That should be great. Couldn't care less about Scorpio Sky. I can’t believe how tired I am of Cody. At the start of AEW I thought he was the best babyface in the world. It’s all just a big mess now. And that match was a slog. Matt Hardy in the only normal men’s singles match on a PPV in 2021 is absurd. Hangman deserves better. They’ve really, really cooled him off. Women’s match was good but no one will remember it tomorrow. They need to get Brit involved in the title picture as these matches have no character. They’re just matches designed to be good matches. Brit seems to have improved enough where it isn’t an embarrassment anymore having her wrestle. And her character work is tremendous. She’s the real star of the division. A million run ins. Like, this was 90s level. Tony Khan trying to get out of the bad ending by saying it was the plan all along while Eddie is still probably dead in the ring was carnying at it’s finest. If he can make the AEW superfans believe that then he can do anything! Overall, good show but far too much overbooking and a terrible ending and surprise. Edited March 8, 2021 by Yakashi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 23 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said: Tony Khan said afterwards 'what do you expect? we can't just blow these guys up'. That was what was planned, they just didn't stop and think that how bad that might look. They need to retcon the whole thing, say Kenny was trying to humiliate Mox and pretend Kingston didn't get knocked out by being a nice guy. I can't believe that this is what was planned. There's no way people with the creative pride that Moxley or Kingston have would have let that slide, if they knew it was going to look that bad. Khan seems to be kayfaybing during some interviews these days (listen to the most recent AEW Unrestricted podcast, for example) - that's how I'd account for that comment. If this actually was what they intended to do, and only they'll know for sure, it's one of the most baffling things I've ever seen on PPV. Whatever the case, if anything beats the ending of this PPV in the "Biggest Letdown" category at the 2021 UKFF Awards I'll be absolutely amazed/horrified at whatever moment is deemed worse than this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Everything went off though. There were no trigger points in the centre of the ring. The best you could say is ‘maybe there was more smoke planned’, but the ring was only rigged for Kane corner pyro, rope triggers and the 2 landmine bases on the floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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