Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 5 Paid Members Share Posted January 5 I think the issue with the Continental Title is that, once the tournament was over, there was a bit of a question mark hanging over it in terms of what it's for, and how to distinguish it from the TNT Title, the International Title, or indeed the ROH Title and NJPW Strong titles. I don't think the Four Way did anything to address that. And to be a stats nerd about it, and to back up the "why bother going through a tournament when you could just win one match for a title shot?" side of the argument, Eddie Kingston had to win a series of gruelling matches across the tournament, while Bryan Keith got a title shot despite never winning a match in AEW. They could have made something of Vikingo coming in with his AAA Mega Title, and wanting to add yet more gold to the mix, but they didn't. Trent Beretta's last singles win in AEW was to earn a TNT Title shot, which he subsequently lost, and then he lost a Battle Royal for another TNT Title shot, yet he was able to walk right into a chance to win a shot at the new belt. Brian Cage won a jobber squash on Collision but, before that, he'd not won a singles match in AEW since March, on Dark: Elevation. His last win on Rampage was almost a year ago, and his last win on Dynamite was in 2021. It's gone from a tournament featuring the company's biggest names and former World Champions, to that. There's nothing inherently wrong with having multiple singles titles, but they should have some distinguishing feature, because at the moment I don't know how a Continental Title differs from an International Title, what makes the International Title "levelled up" from the All-Atlantic Title, whether they're more or less prestigious than the TNT Title, and so on. It doesn't need to be micro-managed down to "this style of wrestler challenges for Belt A, another for Belt B, and if you challenge for one you can't challenge for the other" or anything like that, but there needs to be some sense of purpose or direction beyond yet another trinket to put on TV, especially when they're following on from something as strong as the Continental Classic was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted January 5 Paid Members Share Posted January 5 My head canon has to be that all other CC participants are shunted to the back of the line. A Otherwise Brody King might bring up the fact that he beat Eddie Kingston clean quite recently, and didn’t follow that up with a loss to Eddie like that bum Danielson either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
organizedkaos Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) TNT title = Prop for Christian's character International title = Good matches on dynamite (currently featuring Orange Cassidy) Continental title = Good matches on collision (currently featuring Eddie Kingston) World title = I think people care about this one? That about sums up the divisions. Regarding tag title/trios title. I thought initially the plan (with Elite, Death Triangle etc) was the trios title would generally be fast paced flippy matches. Even people who don't like that style should be able to see it adds some value to shows if kept to one or two matches (it has it's fans, it's very palatable to casuals and can be deployed like caffeine to a live crowd). Having trios as a workhorse/fun style match sort of made sense with the tag belts supposedly being like the world title (more varid uses; prestigious, can be used in storylines or defended in big showoff matches). Now the Acclaimed have it because Billy Gunn got suprisingly over. The idea of which is fine but they should've lost them asap after the nice Wembley moment. Now instead of 15 minutes of high octane, scrambly wrestling we have Billy Gunn doing a hot tag then the Acclaimed win. It's not just the Acclaimed's fault. The House of Black seemed pretty set on having plodding TV matches with the trios belts too. If wrestlers don't think they can keep up the pace then maybe have Trios only defended once a month, or on PPVs to open or something.  There's a really obvious use here and it's definitely not house show grade "I saw the people from TV doing their signature moves!" matches Edited January 5 by organizedkaos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew "the ref" coyne Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 On 1/6/2024 at 1:43 AM, Duke said: The tag belts have been very much the dominion of collision lately. While they were clearly intending to feature Starks and bill on dynamite with the golden jets things, they're now stuck in Jericho's quagmire. There was something strangely amusing about the fact that Le Sex Gods title shot is happening on Battle of the Belts, which is the AEW equivalent of being on modern day WWE Main Event. It's almost like Tony Khan wants to quietly move past this fued and forget about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King of Old School Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Suprised they didn't make it an "Empty Arena" match. Jericho is going ro get pelters isn't he. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted January 7 Paid Members Share Posted January 7 1 hour ago, The King of Old School said: Suprised they didn't make it an "Empty Arena" match. Â That's every match in AEW. AM I RIGHT GUYS!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 11 Paid Members Share Posted January 11 On 1/4/2024 at 11:54 AM, Supremo said: New Continental Classic, but it’s just Takeshita and Darby wrestling each other on every single show for the whole month. Yep. Anyway, all these know-it-alls, coming up with rubbish lists on how to improve AEW the past six months to a year, and yet no-one stumbled upon the stuff that really matters. Give HOOK his own Bat Signal. Have Hangman Adam Page grow a moustache. We’re back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted January 11 Paid Members Share Posted January 11 (edited) Man that World Title segment was electric, loved every second of it. Joe dripping with swagger and confidence, the BUZZ when Swerve’s music hit and he comes out looking and sounding like a megastar.  Very wise to let Hook have his moment separately from Hangman and Swerve, great reaction for him too and, much like last week, not the first opponent I had in mind for Joe but I think it’s a brilliant call.  Hope they do go with the 3 way to give Swerve an out and let Joe put a run together. It’s Swerve’s year but let Joe cook for a while first please. Nice intense opener between Hangman and Claudio. Important statement win for Hangman but I hope Claudio gets some kinds of direction after his CC performance, really been enjoying his work lately. 8 man tag was good fun with an entertaining sprinty closing stretch. I appreciate the Brodie tribute but man Preston Vance still has nothing about him. Do not care about Bill and Starks vs Le Sex Pest at all. I am so cold on Sammy Guevara right now. Bill and Starks are totally wasted on this rubbish, as are the tag titles. Another hilarious promo from Toni Storm. Killing it every week at the moment, also consistently popping Taz, which makes it even better. Briefly joining the wrong team for the suplex spot aside, Julia Hart really is a star. Comfortably the most over woman in that tag match. Just need to make sure her future title defenses are shorter and/or against opponents who can help cover her weaknesses. Guess at Battle of the Belts they’ll have to go with the short option. Same as the other 8 person tag, the closing stretch with everyone taking everyone out was fun. Definitely the best format for the likes of Saraya and Anna Jay, thought they both looked better than they have in some time. Nice moment for Anna. Bit sad for Silver and Reynolds they didn’t appear at all. I love the idea that Yuta’s highlight reel he made himself still includes the low blow he used to win the pure title. At least he’s honest. Pretty weird that Deonna Purrazzo’s first Collision appearance is going to be a cooking segment. Seems a bit regressive. In all seriousness I’m looking forward to it, she’s great, but she’s being set up to fail as a babyface challenger to Toni Storm. She needs heel challengers. Do something like Serena Deeb challenging Toni and doing a Gunther-style dismissal of the gimmick. Tell her she’s delusional and she’s not a movie star etc. I’d certainly boo her for it. Main event was batshit. Takeshita and Darby is guaranteed magic, Hobbs and Darby also amazing. In truth I’d rather them run this back for Stinger’s last match than Sting/Darby vs The Bucks. They will be able to provide many bells and whistles for it though and it is a very AEW send off with them involved. I’m really really gonna miss Sting, the utter lunatic.  Edited January 11 by JLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Nick James Posted January 11 Paid Members Share Posted January 11 I would not be unhappy if AEW just decided to stay at Dailys Place, phenomenal venue. Always looks great and different to everywhere else and they will never have another place with more history for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Healys Chutney Spoon Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Bit confused with the dynamics of the 8 person matches - Â Preston Vance has been on a heel side for a while, yet tag's with the face team Same with Anna Jay in the women's match, although I'm not convinced the former JAS are actually heel anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 11 Paid Members Share Posted January 11 11 minutes ago, Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete said: Bit confused with the dynamics of the 8 person matches -  Preston Vance has been on a heel side for a while, yet tag's with the face team Same with Anna Jay in the women's match, although I'm not convinced the former JAS are actually heel anymore. They were Brodie Lee's handpicked apprentices (or something) so in tribute to him in Dailys Place they were babyfaces for this episode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted January 11 Paid Members Share Posted January 11 4 hours ago, JLM said: I hope Claudio gets some kinds of direction A career, in summary. When he hasn't been tagging with Chris Hero or Sheamus, I feel like I've permanently been wondering where any booker has been going with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 11 Paid Members Share Posted January 11 Two decent Dynamites in a row? Practically unheard of. I'm assuming they're just going to go full New Jack and play Judas through all of Jericho's segments now to cover up the boos. I love how much Ricky Starks obviously hates working with him. You can feel his lack of interest. Didn't care much for the match with Sammy. Sammy is just SO shit. I always love it when they go to Daily's Place. Gives me weird COVID nostalgia. Also just nice to see a unique venue on TV rather than the same identical arena's every week. I wish they went to more venues like this just to mix up the visuals. Sting is a maniac. Darby is a maniac. The Young Bucks are maniacs. It's the perfect final match, really. But separately let's hope Darby and Takeshita haven't had their last match together. They're like a modern day Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka combo. Have them murdering each other all year long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members I Bent My Wookie Posted January 11 Paid Members Share Posted January 11 33 minutes ago, Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete said: Bit confused with the dynamics of the 8 person matches - Â Preston Vance has been on a heel side for a while, yet tag's with the face team Same with Anna Jay in the women's match, although I'm not convinced the former JAS are actually heel anymore. Pretty sure LFI had a somewhat face turn recently, regarding Vance, and that Rush isn't really either, just a vicious bastard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverYield Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Solid singles matches, always like the feel of the venue aswell as mentioned above, that Death Drop though.. good grief Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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