AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I'm a bigger fan of the Callis Family than most even though they're booked very inconsistently (like pretty much everything else). The current line up is the best its been and I'd like for them to do more. I wouldn't be adverse to them bringing Blood and Guts forward this year and doing the Don Callis Family vs Team Omega/Ospreay. 

Yeah, agreed with this. Fletcher's turn, bringing in Cage and Archer have all helped after the recruitment seemed random and disparate for too long. Now there's a good direction for them, with Takeshita having gold and Murderhawk machiens pursuing it.

[Lorne Malvo]

I reckon us lot on here could come up with about 50 different ways of doing the 'Toni Time becomes Timeless Toni' angle and having it happen right after shes got her arse kicked and been made to look like a mug would be right at the very bottom of the list. Absolute shite.

[Supremo]

Good Collision.

Audio problems during the opening promos. How is this still a thing five years in?!

Daily’s Place with JR on the call gave me some serious nostalgia. This company, in this setting, saved my sanity during the pandemic. Just a shame they returned in the dark, cold January. Hopefully they go back in the Summer, so we can see the matches backdropped by the beautiful sunset again. Nothing better.

Fun opener. Great dynamic having a destroyer like Joe smash up a snivelling little prick like Nick Wayne. However, wasn’t it Chris Jericho who put Samoa Joe out in storyline? Good for Joe fucking that all off. The, “Get Out of the Vortex Free,” card must be one of the most prized possessions in the game right now. I bet guys ask for that before they ask for Creative Control.

Most notable thing about the Okada match was JR’s bonkers response when asked if he had any memories of classic Okada matches. Instead of just saying, “he had a good match with Shinsuke Nakamura,” he started rambling on about someone who dressed like Freddie Mercury, but, “wasn’t with us,” and, “had passed to the other side.” Poor Nigel and Tony seemed completely lost as to what he was going on about. I swear Jim quietly vanished from the broadcast not long after this, like the stress of it made him fall off his chair or something. 

Do you think AEW have a rule about mentioning WWE talent? Or was Jim just displaying PTSD from all those years under Vince? Just felt really weird and out of place, especially considering how much WWE has softened on featuring and discussing AEW talent.

Nice to see Cool Hand Ange again. Nice to see a Trios match between some Trios. They even had another Trios watching at ringside! Enough to make you think there might be an actual Trios division! Shame about the actual Champions, though. I saw a note recently that the Trios belts haven’t been defended in over eleven weeks. Fucking ridiculous. Does anyone have Gorilla Monsoon’s email address?

Hounds of Hell looked good. Never come back, Malakai. Okada vs. Buddy in Australia is good match making. What was that insanely good Cruiserweight Title match Buddy had in WWE during one of those Australian shows? I remember him randomly feeling like a Main Event superstar for one night only, before he returned to the Purple Rope Purgatory.

Great MEAT BRAWL with Hobbs and Big Bill. Hoping this leads to us finally getting MEAT MADNESS.

Anyway, on to the main topic. Add me to the list of people who enjoyed the Toni Storm angle. I understand everyone’s criticisms, but it wasn’t what stuck with me at all. All I’ll remember it for was the amazing crowd reaction when she transformed. I got genuine goosebumps. She’s so fucking good. She’s so fucking clever. I love that almost no-one guessed this could have been Timeless Toni, “performing,” the role of Rockstar Toni.

My favourite angle ever is Mankind whipping the mask off and becoming Cactus Jack to fight Triple H. This was the closest anyone has come to it in twenty five years. And the same logic applies. Sit down and give it the hyper-critique and hyper-discussion everything now gets, dissected to fuck, and the whole thing falls apart. It’s just Mick Foley in a different T-shirt. If this, “metamorphosis,” can be so effective, why has Mick wasted two months as the loser in a work shirt and sweatpants, getting beaten up by DX? But none of it matters in the moment. If they sell it, and the crowd buy it, it works. I felt the same magic here. Rip her tits off!

Plus, quite similar to the character of Mick, Timeless Toni is a raving nutcase. Nothing she does makes sense. She thinks she’s a Hollywood actress from the 1920s! She hangs out with Luther out of choice! Complete fruitcake! So trying to pick it apart and argue it was dumb that she took the beating first, or didn’t use it to gain some advantage, ignores everything that’s come before it. She was doing it for the sake of art, darling! She’s an artist!

It’s a huge shame I had this spoilt ahead of time because I’d have loved to have experienced it blind. Watching it and knowing it was coming, there was a moment just after Mariah attacked Toni, where she turned around to argue with Schiavone. For a split second, I thought they were going to have Toni switch character off camera, so when Mariah turned around she was now in her Timeless gear, with the makeup smeared. That would have been cool. Like Clark Kent switching to Superman in an instant. But yeah, I’m genuinely surprised people didn’t enjoy this. I loved it! It’s easily angle of the year thus far. Toni Storm is so fucking great that I’m genuinely hoping they give Luther a Paul-Bearer-at-Wrestlemania-20 moment at Grand Slam. Lights go out before Toni’s entrance and then Luther comes out first to the big pop.

Really positive stuff almost everywhere at the moment. If you ignore the Death Riders, this is a company building some real momentum. And that’s before they even release this new season of The Traitors! It looks great!

Edited January 27, 2025 by Supremo

[BomberPat]

There's a risk it would turn into those interminable Adam Cole & Undisputed Kingdom skits, but I really want to see more of At Home With The Don Callis Family. The sheer child-like Saturday morning cartoon logic of acting like all the baddies live together in a big house really appeals to me.

[HarmonicGenerator]

31 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Great MEAT BRAWL with Hobbs and Big Bill. Hoping this leads to us finally getting MEAT MADNESS.

 

Don’t get my hopes up like this!

 

On the JR Freddie Mercury call, to me it sounded like he said Okada reminded him of Freddie Mercury, but then remembered Freddie was dead, but hadn’t realised he’s been dead for over 30 years, and it all just got a bit messy.

[DavidB6937]

Knowing how confused JR gets he probably meant Joey Mercury.

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Don’t get my hopes up like this!

 

On the JR Freddie Mercury call, to me it sounded like he said Okada reminded him of Freddie Mercury, but then remembered Freddie was dead, but hadn’t realised he’s been dead for over 30 years, and it all just got a bit messy.

No Nigel asked him who he’d seen Okada wrestle and he clearly started to mention Nak and then probably wondered if he could say his name and then said the one who looks like the singer from Queen. 
 

Which is ridiculous because wrestling only has one roya… sorry, Freddie Mercury inspired wrestler

I genuinely don’t think Tone and Nice had no idea what he was going on about and thought he meant Freddie for some reason.

Edited January 27, 2025 by Hannibal Scorch

[Chili]

Will Ospreay dropping Brian May on his head in the Tokyo Dome. 

[WyattSheepMask]

7 minutes ago, Chili said:

Will Ospreay dropping Brian May on his head in the Tokyo Dome. 

The Chia Pet-headed motherfucker wouldn’t feel it

[Statto]

Fond memories of JR wondering aloud if Freddie Mercury was watching the show as the Young Bucks made their entrance dressed as him at All In 2023, and Excalibur reminding him that was kind of unlikely. 

[Daaaaaad!]

37 minutes ago, Statto said:

Fond memories of JR wondering aloud if Freddie Mercury was watching the show as the Young Bucks made their entrance dressed as him at All In 2023, and Excalibur reminding him that was kind of unlikely. 

Honestly, reading this thread I was thinking this all sounded familiar and if I was having some sort of bizarre 'Mandela effect' situation where I believed JR had confused himself over Freddie Mercury before, so thank you for confirming that this did happen. What a strangely specific blank spot for JR to have in his memory.

[WyattSheepMask]

Didn’t Taz forget that Prince was dead too? I can remember Schiavone getting a bit annoyed about it

[TheBurningRed]

Tbf, Prince wasn’t exactly that long ago. Easy to think he’s still alive. But Freddie Mercury is an odd one to forget. 

[Chris B]

I thought that was as good and as easy a Collision as I've seen in a while. Everything felt like it was happening for a reason and moving stuff along. And Joe being Joe is always good. That Nick Wayne is as good as he is at that age is impressive - and a match with Joe on TV felt like a great learning experience too. Fair play.

Watching the Toni thing again, I liked it even more (as did my partner). Partly, Mariah has had all the momentum. And with this reveal, she's taken that momentum back, and turned the spotlight onto her. And it rattled Mariah. It also showed that Toni got under her skin - we got the moment of the hug and the bosom and Mariah enjoying it. And, again, she shrugged off the attack. And the crowd absolutely lapped it up, which was the most important  thing.

[Chili]

It's less on indictment on how AEW is in 2025 but I rewatched some 2021 recently when AEW was pissing must see '97 style TV every week when they went back to the live crowds and this still might be one of my favourite match openings in years. That incredible shit eating grin to camera that Kingston pulls is an all-timer. Top class sell from Punk. Absolutely incredible this was at a push a two and bit week feud and yet I felt completely satisfied by it. Proper big fight feel. God I cannot wait for Eddie Kingston to come marching back out on TV bellowing all sorts of obscenities. 

 

Edited January 28, 2025 by Chili