AEW Full Gear 2024 Discussion

[Hannibal Scorch]

3 hours ago, MachoLibre said:

That's to say there was any genuine major interest in signing him to begin with. I don't believe for a second there was.

Do you honestly think there wasn’t? The who made plays for Cody and Jade wouldn’t have snapped up one of the only talents WWE fans go crazy for? I mean they got Brian Pillman Jr, Dragon Lee, Shawn Spears and Ethan Page. If you don’t think they’d have made a play for MJF just to stick it to AEW, you’re in denial

[Devon Malcolm]

3 hours ago, MachoLibre said:

That's to say there was any genuine major interest in signing him to begin with. I don't believe for a second there was.

Why not?

[Supremo]

Yeah, say what you want about MJF, but the idea that WWE wouldn’t be interested in signing him in late 2023/early 2024 is madness. For optics alone, they’d have loved for him to jump ship straight after being AEW’s World Champion and headlining their biggest show ever. They took Pillman Junior, for fuck’s sake!

Also, he’s fucking great and ridiculously young. He’d have been a huge success there. Frankly a much bigger success than he ever has or likely will be in AEW. That’s the frustration with MJF; the problem is never the talent, delivery or wrestling ability. It’s always the material that lets him down. When the character and the story are cooking, he’s one of the best in the world. The problem is that in AEW he, along with many others, are seemingly given enough freedom to write themselves into corners of absolute bullshit.

In retrospect? Looking at the mess we’re currently all suffering through? I wish Max had gone to WWE! He needs reigning in. He needs a script to adhere to. Imagine where he’d be now. Likely near the top of the card on either Raw or Smackdown. Feuding with Cody, Punk, Owens, etc.

In other news, they've sold nearly10,000 tickets for this show. Get the belt on the Costco guy! Booooooom!

Edited November 23, 2024 by Supremo

[I Bent My Wookie]

It does feel like tonight they need to end with something big as would this be the last PPV for them before the WWE move to Netflix and the hype around that/The Rumble/WrestleMania? Even possibilities of Rock returning next weekend they need to strike while the irons hot to stay in conversation. 

If Shane O'Mac is involved tonight's the night to bring him out. Mox takes out one of the AEW originals and one that stands for what Mox believes is wrong in wrestling and AEW, Shane comes out (Here Comes The Money was once used in an episode of The Simpsons so does WWE own its rights?) and you can lead into a storyline where McMahon is looking to gain control as his family once built an empire, now he wants to take over another etc etc.

It's not the most wonderful booking, but it'll grab mainstream attention on the week his mothers returned to the US government that he is the first McMahon to enter AEW since the TKO sale. Weirdly I've always seen someone like Shane probably more suited to AEW programming and style after all his years of jumping off high things into crash mats and tables so maybe having his knowledge and business savvy backstage could have a good impact on TK too.

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Shane fucking McMahon. Just what this company needs right now.

[I Bent My Wookie]

19 minutes ago, Mr Butternut Squash said:

Shane fucking McMahon. Just what this company needs right now.

I did say its not the most wonderful booking, but after those photos of him and Khan a few months back and it feeling like Moxs group is being led by a higher power, the only two options I can think of is it being Shane or Tony himself (and that would be even worse).

Mox came in at the start as did Pac as they made their names on TV elsewhere but weren't appreciated, Claudio the same, Yuta is being bullied throughout by all 3 to be bitter and go against what he has been.

It's very much the Outcasts storyline from before Toni Storm became Timeless all over again. Came from up North, after being underappreciated, don't like that new stars have been or are being made instead of them. Except this time I don't see Mox rolling around on the map and screaming for his close up in black and white 6 months later.

[BomberPat]

There is no "higher power" in the Moxley storyline, that's not remotely what's going on. 

[DavidB6937]

It's Renee.

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

There is no "higher power" in the Moxley storyline, that's not remotely what's going on. 

Yeah, Mox rambled in a way that made it sound like that early on so Excalibur shut it down hard.  

When Moxley did his "hard reset" interview he said

Quote

"things might not look much different right now, but it will, and things are accomplished by small incremental steps, doing little things consistently. And that is how big changes are made over periods of time.”

From a creative perspective,  I think there's a lot of treading water waiting for the reset to kick in with them, but as we've gone over here loads of times, that's partly because the earth-shattering angle, erm, hasn't. I realise the nwo weren't on every angle immediately, and when they were it got bad really fast, but the sense around them was different.  I'm hoping they can ramp it up tonight and they can take a slightly bigger incremental step. I'm hoping it's a good direction, because it's hard to see the vision he's talking about from here.

[I Bent My Wookie]

Have been dipping in and out and using highlight packages so I wasn't aware of the Excalibur comments or the hard reset from Mox so apologies on that.

Have somewhat been working off what happened when they turned on Danielson with mixes of online reports and clips on YouTube

 

[Hannibal Scorch]

Hyped

 

[Jesse]

1 hour ago, Duke said:

From a creative perspective,  I think there's a lot of treading water waiting for the reset to kick in with them

I think one of my problems with long-term investment in AEW is that this is something it feels like we say multiple times a year. There are always bright spots, always something I think it's worth tuning in for. But when it comes to the idea of watching even a whole Dynamite every week there's far too much wheel-spinning, waiting for the next thing to get going when they could just be continuing the focus on stuff that was working for me or getting moving on things that have some promise rather than waiting for the right time (and ditching stuff that isn't working, like MJF/Cole).

There was a time in their history where I felt rewarded for tuning in weekly and following everything. Now I feel punished when I don't just dip in and out for the good stuff/PPV's

Edited November 23, 2024 by Jesse

[FLips]

They seem to all have a glass ceiling of how over you can be, or how hot your storylines can be before you smack right off it and they cool you down for months and start again. Hangman Page has hit it numerous times but many others have fell victim to it.

[Guest]

I've always assumed that the disappearing act guys pull on the regular isn't that Tony doesn't want to book them anymore, but so they can take time off, go elsewhere etc. That's obviously not universal, but for Hangman in particular,  even on his way up there were loads of times he'd disappear. Just assumed that was having young kids and being given the time.

I have absolutely no proof of this, obviously, and there's been stop start stuff for guys who haven't then disappeared, gotten injured etc. 

[Jesse]

Yeah, I've never minded the time off for injuries/kids. I'm more talking about how the focus of the show seems to move so rapidly off of things I care about. With Hangman it's coming off this can't miss feeling with Swerve into something with Jay White that isn't bad but feels completely missable. I'm not feeling the pull to tune in to see what's next for Hanger, it's more like I'm waiting to see what's next for him maybe after this? Flat.