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AEW Double Or Nothing 2023 discussion


LaGoosh

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1 hour ago, RedRooster said:

That was…boring. I wouldn’t have watched this PPV if not for the bundle deal, but there was little to love from my perspective.

Criticising AEW on here can be a dangerous thing to do, but I say what I’m about to say as someone who really wants the company to succeed.

AEW is ice cold right now, and has been for some time. This show felt like the culmination of that coldness - a mostly dead crowd, visible empty seats in view of the camera and the weakest AEW card to date.

Perhaps Tony Khan is over-stretched. Perhaps he’s used up his best ideas. Whatever the case, I think the best thing he can do right now is draft in some new faces to help book storylines. 

I’m not saying AEW is bad right now…it’s just a bit underwhelming, and far less exciting than it once was, or could be given the talent they have on their roster. 

100% agree with this post. I only watched it because of the bundle deal too! AEW just feels very flat for me at the moment. The big BCC push is certainly not helping from my personal point of view, I just don't like them as a group and they're the most featured act right now.

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2 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Criticising AEW on here can be a dangerous thing to do, but I say what I’m about to say as someone who really wants the company to succeed.

AEW is ice cold right now, and has been for some time. This show felt like the culmination of that coldness - a mostly dead crowd, visible empty seats in view of the camera and the weakest AEW card to date.

Perhaps Tony Khan is over-stretched. Perhaps he’s used up his best ideas. Whatever the case, I think the best thing he can do right now is draft in some new faces to help book storylines.

Haven't most of us been saying this for awhile? Hardly dangerous.

I thought the show was a mixed bag. Commentary all night was atrocious which didn't help.

Battle Royale - this was actually fun and I was hooked by the end. Great ending.

Jericho/Cole - absolutely fucking awful in every way. Sack Cole off.

FTR vs Jarrett/Lethal - too long. First 2/3rds was ropey as fuck but the final third with all the ga-ga was a good laugh and won me over.

Ladder match - I really liked this, shame the build for it was so short and Wardlow has lost so much momentum because it deserved a better reaction.

Storm/Hayter - eh, it was fine. Basically a necessary angle. Hope Hayter is ready for Wembley!

Trios - an actual feud between these acts has real potential but just throwing it out like this is very short sighted. Felt weird, hate the stupid lights and I barely paid attention. 

I skipped Jade/Taya but very pleased Statlander is back because she's great and I fancy her loads. 

Title match - didn't really feel like a main event level match but it was full of creative, bonkers fun stuff so it delivered for me. The ending made me laugh out loud.

Anarchy in the Arena - first half didn't really feel like it clicked at all but the second half was top notch drama. Feel like it should have had more blood but there you go. Danielson clearly working hurt, he barely did anything which was a shame. He looked rough. Great final stretch.

Definitely overall not their best effort but a decent amount of good stuff.

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I actually enjoyed it mostly, but I did feel it was a bit off and the crowd being all Corpus Christi for a lot didn't help matters.

The table smashed into JR's leg so I'm not surprised given recent recoveries he was absolutely fuming for a sec. He was still rank shite all night mind.

The main was really great, Orange Cassidy as the road runner who finds a way is so brilliant, usually crowds would end up detesting a guy who constantly wins because meta fans, but it's great that he just keeps finding a way to pull it off.

Jeff Jarrett is the best at a dog and pony show. Just great at it, pure carnival bollocks, none of them EVER SHUTTING UP mouthing with the crowd. Davey Boy would be proud. Karen clanging Aubrey was absolutely brilliant. 

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31 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Trios - an actual feud between these acts has real potential but just throwing it out like this is very short sighted. Felt weird, hate the stupid lights and I barely paid attention.

Rather annoying thing with this is that it wasn't thrown together. It had been obvious when the Acclaimed & Billy started teaming regularly it was going to lead to a title challenge. It was like the rankings era where they needed to pad their stats to get to no. 1.

In that month plus of TV did anyone bother to have them interact? Of course not.

----

Went back and checked. They won the most recent Trios battle royale. I thought they had lost in that one to derail challenging for the title that early.

Edited by Infinity Land
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It speaks to the standard they’ve set and where pro-wrestling is in 2023 that a show can start with that brilliant Battle Royale and close with those final two matches, yet still be considered a disappointment. Super frustrating that they can never complete the set though. They either have a ropey build up and then a killer show, or a brilliant build and then a show that under-delivers. 

Battle Royale was one of the best they’ve ever done. Loads of fun threads and cool spots, with an inspired closing stretch. I would’ve been happy with Swerve winning, but Cassidy living to fight another day was the perfect finish. I punched the air. My man! Get in! 

Fair play to them showing some restraint, too. A year ago Swerve vs. Keith Lee and Starks vs. White would’ve featured on this show, adding another hour to the run time. It was much better having them all feature in the one, fun match.

I’m an idiot. For as good as this Jericho vs. Cole feud has been, somewhere along the way I’d convinced myself Cole was going to be different when it came to the big match. A big fat nope. He sucks. This was a really bad version of the NXT plunder match he made famous. Awful stuff, with a finish that killed the show dead. I can see what they were trying to achieve - two Shawn Michaels marks out there trying to replicate the Jericho vs. HBK feud from 2008, where Chris eventually gets murdered for his sins. Problem is that neither of these men are Shawn Michaels. Just two idiots doing spots. The catharsis wasn’t there at all.

Lord, giving me the confidence of a 52 year old Chris Jericho thinking he has the ability to replicate the Ricochet moonsault-superkick spot. Get real, Chris. The only positive I can say about this match is that Jericho’s idiot wife didn’t get involved. After showing her in the front row, I was convinced she was going to storm the ring like it was the Capitol on January 6th. Funny that her husband got punched to death and she didn’t try and help. Maybe she’s seen the same photos of him cheating on her that we all have.

Tag Title match went on far too long. On any other show it might have worked, but coming off that terrible Adam Cole match they needed to play the hits and get out of there fast, rather than try and build a Revival-style epic. Jeff was still funny though. Some great spots at the end. They should’ve put the belts on him.

Ladder match was good, but it was in this match that it became really noticeable how quiet the crowd were. They need to stop going to Vegas as tradition. It seemed to be like pulling teeth getting people into the building, and then those who came didn’t seem to care about anything until the nutters went nuts in the final two matches. Arn Anderson biting off Luchasaurus’ finger would’ve been a funny spot if he didn’t look so absolutely fucked. Don’t be asking Arn to do any spots going forward. Looks like he’s going to have a heart attack out there.

Hated the Storm/Hayter match. I know they didn’t have much choice, and the only other option was more tournaments and/or interim titles, but it’s impossible to enjoy a match when you know everything is being informed by backstage stuff rather than the story itself. Hayter returning at Wembley is going to fucking rule though.

Six man tag and TBS title matches were boring. I couldn’t even get that excited by Statlander. I think I was in such a bad mood at this point that only a miracle was going to save the show.

Luckily, the Four Pillars pulled out a miracle. Absolutely stonking spot fest. Almost a good enough match to forgive the build up. Almost.

Incredible main event. I don’t think it was as good or as wild as last year’s Anarchy in the Arena, suggesting they saved some stuff for Blood and Guts, but still a complete blast, with a fantastic closing angle. Don and Takeshita standing together in black was the absolute business. Can’t remember the last heel turn that hurt this much! Soup! No! Not you!

The Elite’s entrance gave me goosebumps. Danielson being slid down the banister into a bin really made me laugh. I’m fascinated by the exploding superkick. How do they even do that? Is Matt running down the ramp with a fucking bomb in his shoe?!

But yeah. Put the bat signal out for Kota Ibushi. Can you even imagine the Blood and Guts match? Blows my mind.

Great weekend to be a fan. Never would have imagined the blood money show would be the best of the lot, but here we are.

Edited by Supremo
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27 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Rather annoying thing with this is that it wasn't thrown together. It had been obvious when the Acclaimed & Billy started teaming regularly it was going to lead to a title challenge. It was like the rankings era where they needed to pad their stats to get to no. 1.

In that month plus of TV did anyone bother to have them interact? Of course not.

----

Went back and checked. They won the most recent Trios battle royale. I thought they had lost in that one to derail challenging for the title that early.

It was odd from the get go - they ran the vignette in which the House of Black outlined their new rules, one of which was that the titles are now effectively a permanent open challenge. If there's 3 of you, you're welcome to come have a go, whoever you are.

They then followed that IMMEDIATELY with the trios battle royal, in which the only stakes (judging by the announcers) was climbing some kind of unseen rankings in order to be granted a trios title shot. A trios title shot that the champions had literally just told us any 3 blokes off the street could have if they wanted, cos they just like fighting. The Acclaimed and Billy win.

The payoff to this, of course, is The Acclaimed & Billy getting their title shot by just answering an announced open challenge at the PPV. Where they find themselves on the end of what was pretty much a lengthy, ponderous squash.

I was actually quite excited when HoB announced the Open House concept as it suggested they'd be having loads of those frantic, intense 6 mans like they had with Death Triangle. But it seems to have gone the other way.

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One of my constant frustrations with AEW is they miss easy to tell stories. A House of Black/Acclaimed feud is pretty easy. You have the super serious and uniquely dangerous HoB get offended by an Acclaimed rap/their fun antics so they want to murder them, The Acclaimed then have to step it up and find a different gear to deal with their biggest threat to date and survive. That's it, a simple, logical and engaging story that fits the characters. Booking half decent wrestling is fucking easy.

Instead we get endless battle royals, open challenges, title eliminators, tournaments etc. instead  of It's lazy and uninspired. 

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37 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

I'm being %100 serious when I say that I want OC to have a Bruno style run with the International Title. 

Hell have him hold it until he retires and rides off into the sunset in Sue's van. 

i'd love for this too, he's not stale at all and continues to impress every week

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2 hours ago, Supremo said:

How do they even do that? Is Matt running down the ramp with a fucking bomb in his shoe?!

There's a very brief glimpse of a tech rigging it up backstage after the truck spot shown on the latest BTE. A white pack was taped round his shin and the wiring went into his shoe. You can see it be tossed once Claudio starts working on his foot.

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I've just remembered another thing about Adam Cole that annoys me, he wrapped his knee in a chain and knee'd Jericho, why did he have to slap his leg when he did it? It's so insanely shit.

Enough bitching lol

4 pillars match was amazing, loved the headlock takeover shenanigans, and I wouldn't be super shocked if they went with Darby Vs MJF in a singles match when they finally take the title off of MJF, they have wonderful chemistry.

Omega mentioned after the show that he might have a friend or 2 ready to help him, Ibushi is one for sure, is he also talking about Okada?!!

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It's strange what lack of investment can do sometimes. I don't doubt it was in the bottom tier of AEW shows, but I watched it having only half followed the build and with zero expectation this evening, and had a real good time. There was something either daft or brilliant every half hour or so, and as ropey as the commentary was Schiavone and Taz got plenty of laughs out of me, especially with the latter's proper "What the fuck?" reaction to the Manny Puig lookalike Anthony Bowens was doing the scissors shtick with in the aisle. 

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