AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[RedTwoster]

Looking away from the wrestling for a second - Nigel McGuinness might be my favourite colour-commentator in wrestling right now. WWE made a huge mistake in parting ways with him, he’s really proved his worth in AEW, and he was as great as I’ve come to expect on this show. 

Edited February 16, 2025 by RedTwoster

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Not bad for an old fella having the crowd sing like this!

 

https://youtu.be/vA7JGf8K6HQ?si=dGQBggNPasesojXe 

Edited February 16, 2025 by Tim Healys Chutney Spoon
Carlos Kickaball

[Doog]

Was decent enough but nothing special. Crowd weren't half as hot as I expected them to he either, they had their moments; Edge's entrance and a couple bits in matches but the pops for Storm, Harley and Buddy coming out were pretty tame.

Some good stuff going on and I'm definitely following AEW more than WWE now (aside from PPVs don't really watch WWE but watch every AEW show) so I'm into it but this was just sort of there.

Dynamite looks good and Revolution should be alright, would take Edge winning the belt too as it'd hopefully mean they decided Darby won't.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Very good show albeit with predictable results. I enjoyed this one start-to-finish, even the Death Riders weren’t that rubbish on this one. Really nice that AEW showcased their Aussie talents across the card, even if only one of them won.

Speaking of which, I’m very happy to have Timeless Toni back on top of the women’s division. 

[Supremo]

Grand Slam Australia was brilliant. This is what Battle of the Belts should have always been. A mini pay per view on free TV. A great time. Exactly the type of show AEW needed, and exactly the type of show they deserved after their recent return to form. Always satisfying watching good shit pay off in real time.

It speaks to how much of this bollocks I watch that it was immediately noticeable they weren’t using the normal AEW ring. Super jarring how small it looked once the opener got going. Checking online, it seems rather than shipping their normal ring over, they just borrowed a ring from Kyle Fletcher’s mate. It took a while to get used to it. In reality, it was probably only a couple of inches smaller, but it might as well have been the ring Andre the Giant used to make his entrance at Wrestlemania 3.

Crowd looked and sounded amazing. I know it was a bit of a stick to beat them with when they had to downgrade the venue, but it was absolutely the right call. This was infinitely better than the same amount of people in a half empty stadium. Felt big time.

Great opener. Will Ospreay looked like he was having the time of his life. Bit worrying that Omega looked a step off on a few spots, not sure if he was genuinely knocked loopy or is still insisting on selling his comeback by screwing up on purpose. Hopefully it’s the latter. This was amazing by the end though and the Hidden-Blade-One-Winged-Angel is instantly the greatest Tag Finisher of all time. Hurt Syndicate better watch out!

Ospreay vs. Fletcher in a cage and Omega vs. Takeshita at the pay per view? Fucking hell. Puts the proposed Wrestlemania lineup to shame!

Prophecy starts here. Omega needs to go on a new Belt Collector run and start unifying these titles. Start with the International Title, then go from there. Gotta catch ‘em all, Cleaner!

The perfect example of why pro-wrestling is the best form of entertainment; in one moment, Omega and Ospreay are dazzling me with their athleticism, and then ten minutes later they’re being completely overshadowed by this. 

The way the puppet looks like she’s smiling! Pure talent, right there. Imagine not loving Harley Cameron with all your heart. She’s the best. Was gutted she didn’t win here, but I think everyone knows they’ve found something truly special with her. The puppet thing could be huge. The next Mr. Socko.

Mini-Moné currently on track to win this year’s Best Non-wrestler Award. What a performance!

Genuinely lovely moment watching the crowd sing Copeland’s song. Good for him. No idea what the fucker is thinking doing balcony dives on that ankle though. Calm down, you nutter!

Another good night for Moxley and The Death Riders. This is it. This is what they should be doing. Smashing fuck out of people, leaving them lying, walking off through the crowd, flipping everyone off, blood everywhere, your back torn to shreds from barbed wire. Super interesting finish though. Something like that , it’s enough to suggest Copeland is winning the Title at the pay per view. Wouldn’t be my call when Hangman is so obviously rising from the ashes as World Champion Elect, but maybe everyone’s just decided enough is enough and it’s time to send the Death Riders to the Big Plastic Bag in the sky. Wouldn’t blame them.

However, on the off chance Cope doesn’t win the Title at the pay per view, his future seemed clear watching this finish. Moxley smashing up his surgically repaired neck? No-one coming out to save him? Imagine if Christian’s music hit. That’s all it would have taken. No elaborate story. No huge, overly-plotted turn. One day, whenever they fancy cashing in, they just need to push the danger of someone breaking Cope’s neck again, send Christian out, and you’ve got the best Retirement Run imaginable. The Chris n’ Cope Connection!

Okada vs. Murphy was good. Always nice when Okada puts a shift in. I was trying to pinpoint exactly where Okada’s AEW run sits on the Nakamura Scale. It’s a similar run, in that it’s obviously him cashing in his chips and taking the big money for a much easier ride. But unlike Nakamura, who pretty much just had the Sami Zayn match before doing mostly fuck all for years on end, Okada has proven he can still go when he wants to. Omega vs. Okada at All In Texas should be great. Especially when Omega wins and unifies the belts.

Hilarious that they announced that daft, over complicated International Title Series after already having Omega challenge Takeshita at the pay per view. Never change, AEW. I reckon Tony Khan is the only person who watched this and rather than laugh, he completely understood it and charted it out.

Good main event. Proper stiff knockabout. I liked that Toni won with a roll-up. Gives Mariah ammo for them to eventually have a third match, maybe at All In Texas. That’s the real quiz! I’m excited to see what else they can do with this story. I’ve clearly been watching too much 1996 WWF recently. Seeing Luther running around celebrating at the end, I could smell a Paul-Bearer-turns-on-The-Undertaker angle coming. At least that justifies his existence. If not, it borderline annoys me how he’s globbed on to all this. He adds almost nothing.

Peak AEW though, isn’t it? Nice things happening to talented people. I was buzzing for Toni here. Well deserved. Twice in one week an example has emerged. If you’re a fan of this nonsense and you ever wish for the death of either company then you’re an absolute moron. Tuesday night Ricky Starks jumps ship and instantly revitalises his career. And then on Saturday you see someone who was once a complete nothing in WWE, saddled with that dog shit, “Wild Child of the Eighties!” gimmick, and now she’s one of the best characters in the business, getting all her flowers. We’re living in the best Timeline. Enjoy it. Road Dogg will ruin it soon enough.

Edited February 16, 2025 by Supremo

[Kamran]

I really liked what they did with Okada's entrance with the lasers, I think it looks better than his usual walking through the middle of the stage.

 

Overall it was a good show, I thought they would have had more shots of the arena lit up as it looked like their biggest attendance for quite a while. 

[Chili]

I thought our Harley put in a real shift given that she's not fully there yet in ring. A real coming out party for her. If she disappears now for like 3 weeks I'll be fuming.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Edge's injury seems to have aged him a decade, but I maintain he's Big Tone's best non-Bryan WWE signing. He fully threw himself into the AEW ethos, and even though I don't love GRITTY Cope and its not fully clicked since his return, I'd take a mid-length title reign where he wrestles loads of people you never thought you'd see him wrestle before dropping the title to Hangman.

I don't know how they'd get there, but for some reason Edge/Christian v Hangman/Swerve sounds brilliant.

[The King Of Swing]

Good show but I would have liked a few more non wrestling segments. 

Thought Toni winning with the small package was a great touch since she's already established it as a finish, and it gives May some protection. 

Please keep Toni the fuck away from Mone. I don't give a shit if they produce a seven snowflake masterpiece, I'm sick and tired of Mone's act, her shit running knees and shit finisher.

[Carbomb]

They should have Omega, Okada, and Ospreay team up in a trio. Then have their entrance music be:

"O, O, O, it's magic"

[LaGoosh]

Fuck me, that ring was janky as hell.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

I'd like to see things build to a moment where Shafir, Pac, Claudio and Yuta are stuck backstage and Mox is in the ring on his own but the ring gets surrounded by the likes of Cope, Swerve, Hangman, White, Omega, OC, Allin, Danielson etc and it's a massive beatdown in the ring. Death Riders manage to get out to help, with one or two others helping even up numbers, and manage to drag the guys away. Christian then pops out of nowhere, gets the pin and title. He claims he engineered the whole thing and Mox has an out of 'it took 8 of you to take me down' and gives him and DR a bit of time off to reset or split up and opens up a whole new title picture.

 

Not sure how and why you'd get there, but that's how I'd like to see Mox hand it over and keep everyone protected 

[HarmonicGenerator]

OC’s been away for about two months now, and while I can’t remember how they wrote him off (did he get Death Ridered or just disappear?) I thought his return would get slightly more fanfare than “this week on Dynamite, a rematch from a year ago with Roderick Strong”.

[tiger_rick]

23 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

I really enjoyed that, in spite of not giving a crap about Buddy Matthews or Adam Copeland

Agreed on Copeland right up to this show. That crowd serenading him and him being genuinely touched by it was incredible stuff. Made me a fan again, for one night anyway. 

14 hours ago, Supremo said:

Grand Slam Australia was brilliant. This is what Battle of the Belts should have always been. A mini pay per view on free TV. A great time. Exactly the type of show AEW needed, and exactly the type of show they deserved after their recent return to form. Always satisfying watching good shit pay off in real time.

Somewhat disagree. I think this show felt incredible because of how different it was. Regular shows like this would dilute that.

Agree in general though. Great show. Delivered the best feeling in the opener and main event. I think the D-Riders match was the only one I wouldn't have comfortably predicted the outcome but the action was excellent. Only minor complaint, and it's a quality control issue again, is the Okada finish being exactly the same as the Yuta finish last week.

Noticed the small ring right away too. That took a while to get used to. I think the fact that ringside set up didn't take it into account was the bigger issue. Crowd seemed miles away.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

Agreed on Copeland right up to this show. That crowd serenading him and him being genuinely touched by it was incredible stuff. Made me a fan again, for one night anyway. 

Yeah, that was really nice to see - Edge is one of my favourite ever wrestling characters; even if I’m not enormously invested in this second run. I think that’ll change once he starts feuding with wrestlers that I couldn’t have seen him feud with in WWE. I’m certainly interested in seeing him work with the likes of MJF, Hangman and Omega.