Paid Members Supremo Posted June 24 Paid Members Share Posted June 24 Surprised so many people still think Ospreay has a chance of winning the belt at Forbidden Door. I thought their promo on this week’s Dynamite made it extremely obvious Swerve is winning, likely due to Don Callis Family shenanigans. I’ll be stunned if it’s all a red herring and Ospreay leaves with the belt. Hangman vs. Swerve, Ospreay vs. MJF and Danielson vs. Big Nige would be my guess for All In. Chris Jericho in some bullshit nobody wants to see, too. The rarified air of Jericho is a rotten stench you absolutely cannot get rid of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Duke Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 10 hours ago, Supremo said: Surprised so many people still think Ospreay has a chance of winning the belt at Forbidden Door. I thought their promo on this week’s Dynamite made it extremely obvious Swerve is winning, likely due to Don Callis Family shenanigans. I’ll be stunned if it’s all a red herring and Ospreay leaves with the belt I mean yeah, I agree completely with this. The cut to the Family after Osprey completely dismissed them telegraphs that. But that would lead to Osprey Vs Trent Baretta, so, erm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 Some of the matches this company puts on at times boggles my head. Okada hasn't interacted with 90% of the AEW roster yet, but instead they have him in a match against an out-of-shape 50 year old bloke with a dodgy mask from a completely different promotion*. They've got a million face wrestlers they can use but instead they're having Christians lads do awkward heel vs heel stuff against the Iron Savages (who are completely dead by the way - everytime they do their savage sauce/titty city shtick to no response I feel embarassed). Those two matches plus a 20 minute Jericho match added up to a pretty shite Collision. I've really enjoyed AEW so far this year but the past few weeks I've been struggling. I just wish they'd pack Forbidden Door in now to be honest, the novelty has gone and it always feels like AEW vs NJPW stuff gets in the way of their ongoing storylines. That's not to say they can't still bring in outside wrestlers to add some intrigue to the show every now and again, they just don't need to dedicate a month to it. I'm sure things will pick up after the PPV with the conclusion of the Owen and the build-up to All In, but I wouldn't be upset at all if they knocked Forbidden Door on the head. *I know Último Guerrero is much more than that but if this was your first exposure to him it really wasn't a good look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 17 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: I just wish they'd pack Forbidden Door in now to be honest, the novelty has gone and it always feels like AEW vs NJPW stuff gets in the way of their ongoing storylines. I would agree with this. Especially as it feels like New Japan and CMLL guys have been coming and going regularly throughout the year anyway so it doesn't really feel special anymore. On top of that, I may be wrong as I don't watch it, but it feels like the New Japan side is kind of bereft of top stars or their top stars are all pretty old and banged up and seen better days. Their younger guys don't seem hugely exciting either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted June 25 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 25 Just now, LaGoosh said: I would agree with this. Especially as it feels like New Japan and CMLL guys have been coming and going regularly throughout the year anyway so it doesn't really feel special anymore. On top of that, I may be wrong as I don't watch it, but it feels like the New Japan side is kind of bereft of top stars or their top stars are all pretty old and banged up and seen better days. Their younger guys don't seem hugely exciting either. I don’t think it should go away completely, but I don’t think it needs to be an annual PPV, especially as they also have Wrestledream to come as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TildeGuy~! Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 AEW have snapped up New Japans top stars and New Japans non ability to build anyone up apart from those who have left for AEW over the past 5 years has the company just looking like an aging mess. They tried with Evil and Sanada and failed miserably and now they have more and more NOAH lads filling up shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 It doesn’t even make sense as a concept now that AEW has essentially raided New Japan of all their top talent. The entire selling point of the first shows was seeing the likes of Okada, Ospreay and Jay White against AEW guys. That’s just Dynamite now. Other than maybe a Hiromu Takahashi vs. Darby Allin, there aren’t many AEW vs. NJPW dream matches left. Frankly, the whole thing is just embarrassing for New Japan. Them still participating in this show is like if your best mate stole your girlfriend, then you continued to hang out with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 it's pretty telling that they're referring to "Forbidden Door Season" as well, rather than the show itself being the big one-time only opportunity to see these matches. Though honestly that probably works better - less pressure to come up with "dream matches" that there isn't the actual talent there for, more of an opportunity to just book the talent in fun matches on TV, and do whatever they want at the PPV. If it ended up as latter day Survivor Series with the "brand warfare" gimmick of just AEW guys vs. NJPW guys for the sake of it, it would get old fast. Adding CMLL to the mix has definitely made things interesting, but they need to book CMLL better. The Blackpool Combat Club "feud" has given us some fun matches, but hasn't genuinely made anyone bar Hechicero look like a threat, and that's been diminished by making him a hanger-on for Cage of Agony for some reason. The only CMLL guy to really get any wins on TV has been Mistico, but none of them have mattered. The BCC feud has always been going on in the background while they have other shit happening too, so it's never felt like their focus, which doesn't help CMLL either - and I know part of that was visa issues. The thing with NJPW is that there's always a bit of a lag between who they're presenting as top stars and who the western audience want to see - most western fans want to see someone they remember watching a couple of years ago and being impressed by, the people who got them into NJPW in the first place, and will see them as the bigger names. That's only intensified when NJPW haven't done a good job of building anyone else up to that level anyway, and when Tony Khan (and this isn't necessarily a criticism) seems to prioritise booking NJPW wrestlers who were part of earlier boom periods, who have been on US TV before, or just that he's a fan of from his tape trading days - it means we've seen Yuji Nagata in AEW twice and Satoshi Kojima three times, but we've never seen Yota Tsuji. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 (edited) 17 minutes ago, BomberPat said: Adding CMLL to the mix has definitely made things interesting, but they need to book CMLL better. The Blackpool Combat Club "feud" has given us some fun matches, but hasn't genuinely made anyone bar Hechicero look like a threat, and that's been diminished by making him a hanger-on for Cage of Agony for some reason. The only CMLL guy to really get any wins on TV has been Mistico, but none of them have mattered. I've never seen CMLL and one of the things that stands out to me with their involvement in AEW is that I'm not sure who the top stars are. With NJPW I don't watch that either but the way they were presented on AEW TV it's always been obvious who the top guys from there are but with the CMLL stuff I'm clueless. Saying that though, with the NJPW top guys I've always been a bit underwhelmed by them. Tanahashi and Naito for example, I knew their names, and it's clearly a big deal for them to be involved but they always just seem so old and knackered. I'm guessing they were amazing in there hey day but I don't think they've offered a huge amount to new fans. Edited June 25 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 17 minutes ago, LaGoosh said: I've never seen CMLL and one of the things that stands out to me with their involvement in AEW is that I'm not sure who the top stars are. AEW have done very little to present them as anything other than a mass of interchangeable luchadores, which doesn't help, though CMLL doesn't make it easy to keep track of either! Mistico is by far the biggest CMLL name that AEW have brought in but, outside of the gauntlet he was in, he's been fairly self-contained in matches designed to showcase him, he's not been given a shot against a bigger name AEW guy; and that's because he (and CMLL) probably wouldn't agree to lose the match. But Tony needs to be content to let some of his guys lose to the CMLL and NJPW crew in bigger matches to establish why we should care about them. It wouldn't hurt to get one of AEW's many title belts on to one of them. But the other bigger CMLL names that AEW have booked have been Ultimo Guerrero, and by all accounts that match was a bit of a shambles, and Volador Jr., who's just been hidden away in multi-man tags.  For NJPW, the appeal of Tanahashi is being able to see someone who was arguably the best in the world. But he's absolutely knackered now, and if you come in with none of that history, he's difficult to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted June 26 Paid Members Share Posted June 26 I think we can all agree there’s only one Forbidden Door that still needs to be opened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Nick James Posted June 26 Paid Members Share Posted June 26 Whilst Jarrett is often the comedy bad guy these days, there really is legs in him having a Dustin Rhodes style 'one last shot' arc where he desperately tries to become world champion one last time. He doesn't need to win the title, but there is a genuinely good story in there and Jarrett is a fantastic character guy that he could really pull it off. Joe, Hook and Shibata are a fantastic trio and Joe's continuous astonishment when Hook or Shibata pull of the 'walk away' spot is fantastic. Is Joe perhaps the only one from the main run of ROH to never really have a bad run? (Dick face paint aside). Danielson is another, but outside of the two of them, I can't really think of anyone else that you can't say had a bad run in their career. Even in a waterproof poncho, Joe was brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted June 26 Paid Members Share Posted June 26 Joe is definitely one of the best to ever do it for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 Joe had many shit years in TNA though, he never really got back on track (brother) after his lackluster single World Title reign. He had both Russo and Hogan/Bischoff undervaluing him completely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted June 30 Paid Members Share Posted June 30 Goddamn, that Hidden Blade was a pretty brilliant way to finish off an angle and build anticipation for the World title match. Excellently done segment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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