Infinity Land Posted January 18 Posted January 18 18 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said: Same. There’s a lot I liked about that episode. Groundwork laid for Death Riders against the DCF, and Takeshita being back again. Eddie/Ortiz vs GYV was better than I thought, though I’m not sure where it leads. New trios champions might lead somewhere but you never know with those titles. If that was the last we see of Hobbs in AEW, he looked good in defeat, even if commentary seemed at pains to avoid saying his name unless they absolutely had to. He's already off the roster page. Quote
Paid Members Statto Posted January 18 Paid Members Posted January 18 9 hours ago, LaGoosh said: That segment was my first time seeing The Rascals and I think I hate them more than anyone else on the roster right now. Awful. Good wrestlers, but the annoying stoner gimmick sucks IMO. Outcome of the main event was never in doubt, nor was Hobbs taking the pin - but a little surprised they did it as an 'upset' roll up rather than having him pinned decisively. Was also expecting a public dismissal/beat down from the Opps. Think Speedball might be best to retire that moonsault kneedrop on the apron. Someone's going to end up with properly hurt off that. Didn't hate the new theme, but it's not Elton. I still hate everyone who cyberbullied TK into dropping the Ponter Sisters. Quote
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted January 18 Paid Members Posted January 18 Of course, after bringing in the National title with the USP of 'it can be defended in any promotion!' (which was the USP of the International title in the first place anyway), they're now having MJF do a touring champion gimmick which will involve him defending the World title in other promotions... This fucking company, man. Quote
The King Of Swing Posted January 18 Posted January 18 I thought Collision was pretty shit. Not something I say about AEW TV, very often. Every Dax promo feels 3x longer than it actually is. Jungle Jack Vs. Anthony Bowens, was more fun than I expected. Main event was fine. Shit finish though. Everything else was really boring, imo. Even Toni Storm has seemingly lost a step. Quote
Merzbow Posted January 18 Posted January 18 43 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said: Even Toni Storm has seemingly lost a step. When did she last have something to *really* bite her teeth into? Quote
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted January 18 Awards Moderator Posted January 18 5 minutes ago, Merzbow said: When did she last have something to *really* bite her teeth into? I will continue to blame the team with Mina. It’s not working for me and it’s dragged Toni down. Quote
Paid Members ReturnOfTheMack Posted January 18 Paid Members Posted January 18 Agreed, I like Mina but its just not working. Ortiz seems to have lost more than one step, hopefully its just ring rust. Sure as shit shows why he wanted to keep together with Santana though. Dude knows his limits, and fair play to that Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted January 18 Author Paid Members Posted January 18 41 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said: I will continue to blame the team with Mina. It’s not working for me and it’s dragged Toni down. Completely with you here. They have no chemistry, and I can only hope that the current storyline with OC/Mina getting flowers leads to them parting ways. The problem for Toni really is that there aren’t enough female performers at her level, and that’s not an easy fix. Quote
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted January 18 Paid Members Posted January 18 Quite enjoyed Jack Perry vs Anthony Bowens and the GYV tag match and even though I usually hate heel vs heel stuff I'm really digging The Family vs Death Riders so far. Thought everything else was a big pile of nothing, to be honest. This may have been the most inappropriately named episode of AEW ever. What exactly what 'Maximum Carnagey' about this show? Andrade looks in great nick but christ that was a dull debut/return. I liked the FTR promo but it's impossible to care about them vs Doyle/Davis. Much like @LaGoosh it's my first time seeing the Rascalz and I hate them. You can tell they're cool though, they spell it with a Z! Bored of this SkyShite mini-push already. Timeless Love Bombs are crap and a waste of Toni. Takeshita's back, except I don't care because they've made him eat shit from Okada for 6 months and not retaliate so I'm just thinking he's a mug. The booking as a whole just feels so lazy right now. How do the Opps get heat? Sneak attacks after matches. How do the Family get heat? Sneak attacks after matches. How do FTR get heat? etc and so on and so forth for the entire heel roster. It just seems TK is stuck in a massive rut booking-wise. I suspect after the Swerve/Omega and Knight segments this week (and him leaving down the heel tunnel) that a Swerve heel turn is their next big story, but I don't know how wise that is so soon after him and Hangman joining forces. That turned into more of a moan than I thought, sorry. Just to finish on an up note, at least the new theme wasn't wrestle-metal! Quote
Paid Members Statto Posted January 18 Paid Members Posted January 18 14 hours ago, RedTwoster said: It’s interesting that Trey Miguel wasn’t with them. Did he not sign? Apparently he did, but has since asked for and been granted a release - and has now posted on Instagram that he's taking a break from wrestling. Quote
Paid Members DEF Posted January 18 Paid Members Posted January 18 1 hour ago, RedTwoster said: The problem for Toni really is that there aren’t enough female performers at her level, and that’s not an easy fix. IMO they need to get her away from Mina and have her chase the title again. However I'd also get the women championship off Stat and onto Marina Shafir. Marina is never going to be more over than she is now not is she going to get better in the ring. Use all the Death Rider smoke and mirrors to keep her strong as a dominant champion and build to our girl Toni eventually beating a heat machine monster villain. Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted January 18 Author Paid Members Posted January 18 (edited) 14 hours ago, RedTwoster said: It’s interesting that Trey Miguel wasn’t with them. Did he not sign? To answer my own question, turns out he’s been released from his contract already and is taking a break from wrestling. Hope it’s something as simple as wanting to try something new rather than a medical discovering something serious. EDIT: I took so long to actually post this (thanks to my toddler waking up mid-post) that @Statto beat me to the punch! Edited January 18 by RedTwoster Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 19 Paid Members Posted January 19 On 1/18/2026 at 7:58 AM, LaGoosh said: I don't think it's possible to have both Trios and Tag titles at the same. One division always ends up gutting the other. thing is, with AEW's roster it doesn't need to do that at all. They just seem fixated on keeping the Trios Title as a prop in main event feuds; since 2024, it's been on the Death Riders while Mox was champion, then the Opps, and now Hangman & JetSpeed, all teams where the individual singles pushes are more important than the Trios belts. The maddest part was that the belts went undefended for months when the Death Riders had them, The Opps won them and promised to be babyface defending champions, only to defend them even less, and then when Shibata got hurt they had the perfect opportunity to vacate the titles and move them over to somebody else - like, say, The Hurt Syndicate or The Demand, who were in a months-long Trios feud at the time. The only Trios feud in the company, and it was nowhere near the sodding belts! I bang this drum a lot, because I think Trios wrestling is where AEW can really stand out from WWE and have its own identity. They are really good at these big mad feelgood multi-man tag matches, and there's no reason why that can't be the backbone of the Trios division, and there's enough groups they could put in the division that wouldn't take away from the tag ranks; on top of that, having the Trios division is a good way to keep a tag team busy if they're a bit tired in the tag division, say they were champs for a long time and they don't want to just get back to them challenging for the titles again too soon. There are factions that have formed, had full runs, and broken up without ever getting a sniff of the Trios Titles. The Conglomeration have never held them. The Learning Tree never even challenged for them. It's an easy problem to fix. Just looking at the current roster, you could easily get a Trios division out of the following, without cannibalising the tag division too much (as well as cycling in tag acts when needed): Bang Bang Gang - depending on injury/booking, any combination of The Gunns/Jay White/Juice Robinson/Ace Austin Dark Order - Alex Reynolds/Evil Uno/John Silver Death Riders - Claudio Castagnoli/Daniel Garcia/Wheeler Yuta (or PAC) Don Callis Family A - Andrade/El Clon/Hechicero Don Callis Family B - Brian Cage/Lance Archer/Josh Alexander Don Callis Family C - Trent Baretta/Rocky Romero/Wardlow Don Callis Family Stars - Kyle Fletcher/Kazuchika Okada/Konosuke Takeshita Shane Taylor Promotions - any combination of Anthony Ogogo/Shane Taylor/Carlie Bravo/Lee Moriarty/Shawn Dean Skyflight - Dante & Darius Martin & Scorpio Sky LFI - any combination of Rush, Sammy, Mortos & Dralistico The Frat House - Griff Garrison/Preston Vance The Conglomeration A - Kyle O'Reilly/Mark Briscoe/Orange Cassidy The Conglomeration B - Hologram/Tomohiro Ishii/Roderick Strong The Demand - Ricochet & GOA MXM TV - MxM & Johnny TV The Opps - Shibata/Joe/Hook Then with tag acts you could add in - Hurt Syndicate + either MVP or a new member, Jake Doyle & Mark Davis + another Don Callis Family member, Kenny Omega + The Young Bucks, and then a revolving door of guest teams from CMLL and NJPW, or just local indie acts, and there's no reason it needs to be an afterthought. It should be the division AEW hang their hat on, and I've been screaming into the void about that since it started. Quote
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted January 19 Paid Members Posted January 19 (edited) On 1/18/2026 at 7:58 AM, LaGoosh said: I don't think it's possible to have both Trios and Tag titles at the same. One division always ends up gutting the other. I don't agree with that. If any company has enough talent and stables to have a tag division that doesn't need to bleed into the trios titles unnecessarily, it's this one. They have FTR, JetSpeed, Acclaimed, Young Bucks, Brodido, Hurt Syndicate, Jurassic Express, GYV, GOA and Private Party, whatever their status is. Without even touching that division, they have had The Opps, Death Riders, 8,578 combinations of the Callis Family, Conglomeration, Dark Order, Paragon, STP, Frat House, Bang Bang Gang and probably more I've forgotten. Then they've got a bunch of guys hanging about doing nothing who can form trios. Then they've got a bunch of massive stars who have enough history to come together to make mega-trios for fun runs. It's only lack of focus that stops them doing anything good with it. I liked the thought of Trios titles because the company naturally had a bunch of three man groups for a while - TK copying Vince McMahon, maybe? But half of their champs have just been teams who've held the tag belts with an addition. They had broken that cycle with the last few, Patriarchy, Death Riders and Opps but then the belts were secondary to all of those groups which is why they rarely ever defended them. Definitely come under the bracket of "If you can't do it right, don't do it at all" for me at the moment. Like half their booking. Edit: Pat beat me to it! Edited January 19 by tiger_rick Quote
organizedkaos Posted January 19 Posted January 19 Will withold from more complaining for the moment so I'll say this. If TK can book Don Callis Family vs. Deathriders weaving in and progressing the Okada/Takeshita/Fletcher rivalry and the Moxley exit from Deathriders that would be some excellent storytelling. He better not just make the Deathriders temporarily face so he can put on more banger matches whilst ignoring the two best (by a country mile) storylines AEW has Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.