AEW TV 2025 Discussion

[The King Of Swing]

Mostly filler but entertaining filler.

[Hannibal Scorch]

44 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Mostly filler but entertaining filler.

Go home Dynamite. Some fun matches, some progression towards the PPV on Sunday. What else do you expect really?

[Chili]

1 minute ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Go home Dynamite. Some fun matches, some progression towards the PPV on Sunday. What else do you expect really?

They weren't slagging it off, hold your horses!

[HarmonicGenerator]

I loved that Hangman/Swerve segment. I wasn’t going to buy Dynasty, but that moment might be enough to convince me. Absolutely thrilling.

 

Edited April 3, 2025 by HarmonicGenerator
The single best use of the phrase “you deserved it” in wrestling history

[Hannibal Scorch]

7 hours ago, Chili said:

They weren't slagging it off, hold your horses!

It was a legit question not criticism 

[RedTwoster]

On reflection, I don’t think Swerve is going to win the belt this weekend. I think what’s more likely is that Page comes out to intervene as he’d vowed, and Moxley does something so horrific that a disturbed Page instinctively stops him instead and then gets subjected to an attack himself - or some version of that.

It’s too close to All In, and they’ve invested a lot of time in the Death Riders. I think Moxley is dropping the title there. I really want Swerve to win, but I’m not sure it’ll happen. I think we’ll get Moxley in his title match, and possibly Swerve and Hangman teaming up to take down the remainder of the Death Riders, ending that group permanently.

[LaGoosh]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

Moxley does something so horrific

Considering all the dumb stuff with plastic bags, kidnappings and kitchen cleaner they've been doing I dread to think what lame, goofy bit they could have lined up if they followed your scenario.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Considering all the dumb stuff with plastic bags, kidnappings and kitchen cleaner they've been doing I dread to think what lame, goofy bit they could have lined up if they followed your scenario.

Moxley's buying a massive vat of acid to slowly lower Swerve into. Strap him to a table with a buzzsaw slowly climbing. Sharks with fricking laser beams coming out of their heads.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Maybe Mox will force Swerve to watch a compilation of Marina Shafir matches.

[BomberPat]

the plastic bags and kitchen cleaner stuff I don't actually mind as much because the point was finding ways to transgress beyond what's acceptable heel behaviour in wrestling, it was about making us think that the Death Riders are something uniquely cruel and sadistic, compared to just putting people through tables or beating them up backstage, which is apparently a perfectly fine thing to do at your place of work. The problem is that you can't be all that transgressive on television compared to PPV, so rather than come up with interesting ways to make them seem more chaotic, or going down a route of alluding to horrible acts without showing them, the Death Riders have just been a generic heel stable doing run-ins and beatdowns every week on TV instead, and that undermines the genuinely nasty stuff. That the best they can manage now is "Jon Moxley hit Willow Nightingale, a wrestler, with a wrestling move", and this is apparently completely beyond the pale shows there's nowhere left to go. The whole story also leaves me feeling like every PPV has to end with a big angle, and it usually just ends with you feeling sad that Moxley won again after yet another Wheeler Yuta run-in. It's an angle that has never lived up to its promise, because it arguably never could, and is long past its sell-by date.

 

Speaking of beating people up backstage; I guess Jay White is legitimately injured, and presumably wasn't even at the show to film an angle, and that's why they wrote him off with an off-screen beatdown. That's not the worst thing they could have done - it's actually quite refreshing in wrestling to say, "yeah, the heels did a horrible thing even when the cameras weren't rolling", rather than the usual trope of hated rivals who will do anything to get at each other, but only during a two hour window every Wednesday night (or Monday, or Friday, or whenever, this is far from unique to AEW). What I didn't like about it is that the only focus was on what it meant for the Owen Hart tournament to have Jay White replaced in it, or how getting rid of Jay White meant Adam Copeland had one fewer ally. Absolutely no mention of any kind of punishment or repercussions for the Death Riders for putting somebody on the injured list. I know this is wrestling and backstage fights and beatdowns have been commonplace forever, but there should at least be a nod to the fact that they're not supposed to happen. 

Say that none of the Death Riders have been permitted to enter the Owen Hart cup because of what they did to Jay White. They're not in it anyway, but this gives that fact context. If you don't want it to tie into anything else, just say that they were fined by AEW management - particularly because a few segments later we saw Dax getting fined, so we know this is an in-universe punishment for breaking the rules. Though even that was ruined by Dax trying to apologise for hitting Cash by saying, "I thought you were a security guard", as if just blindly punching security guards at your place of work is so ordinary and acceptable as to be an argument for your innocence - again, I know this is AEW and security guards do get beaten up by wrestlers every week, but maybe at least pretend that isn't their entire purpose, and that wrestlers shouldn't be beating up random employees?

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

Considering all the dumb stuff with plastic bags, kidnappings and kitchen cleaner they've been doing I dread to think what lame, goofy bit they could have lined up if they followed your scenario.

I think they’ll want to pay-off this story (Moxley’s title reign) at their biggest show, rather than do at least a partial-reset beforehand, but I hope I’m wrong. I’d like the Death Rider angle to wrap up as soon as it possibly can.

[LaGoosh]

8 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I guess Jay White is legitimately injured, and presumably wasn't even at the show to film an angle, and that's why they wrote him off with an off-screen beatdown.

Things like this is where wrestling promotions being a bit lazy bothers me. Everyone has a mobile phone these days - couldn't they have Jay White film a 45 second video on his phone at home pissed off, screaming bloody revenge that the Detahriders injured him and now he's out the Owen Cup? Or when Renee announced it backstage couldn't they instead of had Wheeler Yuta or Pac take the camera and say something along the lines of "oh, if you're wondering where Jay White is we've put him on the shelf, you won't see him for a long time!" All these small things you can do that take minimum effort but combined just make the experience so much richer and more satisfying.

[The King of Old School]

2 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

It’s too close to All In, and they’ve invested a lot of time in the Death Riders. I think Moxley is dropping the title there. I really want Swerve to win, but I’m not sure it’ll happen. I think we’ll get Moxley in his title match, and possibly Swerve and Hangman teaming up to take down the remainder of the Death Riders, ending that group permanently.

Could Moxley retain against Swerve, Hangman wins the Owen to set up Moxley/Hangman at All In?

Maybe we'll get Swerve actually helping Hangman to win the belt there rather than the other way around this weekend?

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

25 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:

Maybe Mox will force Swerve to watch a compilation of Marina Shafir matches.

Even Moxley wouldn't sink that low. 

This time there will be fire involved and Hangman will run out to save Swerve because he knows he went too far when he burned the house down. That will be the catalyst for Hangman to take out Moxley and the rest of the Death Riders. As has been pointed out Swerve and Hangman should never be friends but Hangman's journey to the world title should involve redemption for the burning of the house. Or not, you know Moxley he might just hammer a spike in his own arm or something. 

[LaGoosh]

I remember a PROGRESS angle where Jimmy Havoc tried to cut off Will Ospreay's head with an axe. That was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen at a wrestling show, I'd like to see Mox try and out do it.