Paid Members RedTwoster Posted February 5 Author Paid Members Posted February 5 (edited) For me, the problem lies with Darby. The common thread linking most of the daft angles in AEW as of late has been him. You had Darby trying to murder Moxley and vice versa, the latest nonsense with Gabe Kidd and a good portion of the Death Rider stuff. Basically everyone attacks Darby in the same Jackass-style stunty way and doesn’t treat anyone else like that. Even if he were to turn heel as @LaGoosh suggested, I’d worry that we’d end up getting essentially a one man version of the worst of what the Death Riders did, it would just give him another way of performing insanely dangerous and/or stupid stunts. Whatever they do with him, I think he needs to be told that less is more. If this was a once-in-a-blue-moon type thing you could probably accept it in a ‘Hangman burns Swerve’d house’ type-way. Doing it every bloody week becomes boring and eye-rolling. (and I don’t necessarily disagree with LaGoosh on the merits of a heel turn for Darby - I think that could work, but he still needs to tone it down.) Edited February 5 by RedTwoster Quote
Merzbow Posted February 5 Posted February 5 (edited) Just make Brody King champion at this point, I don't believe for a second that the plan is for him to win but if there was ever a time to just change things up on the fly it's now. Doesn't feel like there any remotely long term plans anyway... It's a big statement for AEW to make and he's more than good enough. Edited February 5 by Merzbow Quote
The Gaffer Posted February 5 Posted February 5 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Merzbow said: Just make Brody King champion at this point, I don't believe for a second that the plan is for him to win but if there was ever a time to just change things up on the fly it's now. Doesn't feel like there any remotely long term plans anyway... I agree. I don't think I've been generally fond of treating the top prize as a grattitude award/flavour of the month/chance to capitalise on something likely to be quite short lived - not that Brody would nessacerily end up as any one of those things - but fuck it. Especially with Hangman cooling off, AEW's fan culture is pretty much the number one babyface in the company now. I know some might think that's a problem, that any fan culture has toxic elements to it etc, but I believe that's been the case with AEW since the start. As someone who lapsed with the Punk debacle, nothing's made me feel remotely close to that early spirit of AEW as watching those Fuck ICE chants. Crown the active performer who has encapsulated it the most. However sparse they are to the bottom line, a few outside interest clicks because some 'rassling promotion has an anti-ICE champion can't hurt either. And it's not like we're talking about David Arquette. It helps that he's a massive scary bastard that looks like how most people assume wrestlers still all look. Edited February 5 by The Gaffer Quote
Paid Members Supremo Posted February 5 Paid Members Posted February 5 The beauty of weekly pro-wrestling is that you can chop and change as things heat up or cool down. A largely-panned Rock vs. Roman announcement can be instantly pivoted to a universally-acclaimed Wrestlemania 40. I assume Hangman vs. MJF was the planned main event for Revolution, and they can do their match as intended earlier in the show. It just won’t be for the World Title. That match will be contested between the Champion Brodie “Fuck Ice,” King and the Challenger Andrade “Pure Sex,” Almas. Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted February 5 Author Paid Members Posted February 5 1 hour ago, Merzbow said: Doesn't feel like there any remotely long term plans anyway... I reckon there is and that’s part of the problem - I think the plan is to give MJF a lengthy reign before having a returning Will Ospreay win his first AEW World title at All In. If MJF was at his best as a character it would be a sound idea, but they really do need a new top heel. It’s not MJF and it’s not Joe. Maybe Swerve is the one to go with? Quote
Snitsky's back acne Posted February 5 Posted February 5 2 hours ago, LaGoosh said: Ospreay went the brilliant route of just deciding to be a normal person rather than the usual Am Dram cliche shite unconvincing character most British wrestlers do. It's a huge breath of fresh air. Is it him or Zack Sabre Jr that has a move called "The Cheeky Nandos"? Whoever it is, that can fuck all the way off. Quote
DavidB6937 Posted February 5 Posted February 5 7 minutes ago, RedTwoster said: I reckon there is and that’s part of the problem - I think the plan is to give MJF a lengthy reign before having a returning Will Ospreay win his first AEW World title at All In. If MJF was at his best as a character it would be a sound idea, but they really do need a new top heel. It’s not MJF and it’s not Joe. Maybe Swerve is the one to go with? I can get the Ospreay part but I really don't think it even matters who he's against at that point, so dragging on with the MJF stuff feels completely pointless. At least give us something good in the lead up rather than sticking with some plan that obviously isn't working. Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted February 5 Author Paid Members Posted February 5 (edited) 4 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: I can get the Ospreay part but I really don't think it even matters who he's against at that point, so dragging on with the MJF stuff feels completely pointless. At least give us something good in the lead up rather than sticking with some plan that obviously isn't working. I totally agree - but my guess is they probably want to recreate what worked so well with Moxley by really building that centrepiece heel. At the moment at least, I don’t think that’s MJF - and the more I think about it, the more it might make sense for it to be Swerve given his connection to Ospreay and the storytelling opportunities it presents. Plus, I don’t think they got anywhere near as much out of Swerve as a heel as they could have. Understandably though - given how over he became in a positive way. Edited February 5 by RedTwoster Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted February 5 Paid Members Posted February 5 it's amazing how in the past two weeks my mood has almost completely shifted on Dynamite, from "I don't know what the direction is here, it feels like everyone's just filling time" to "I don't know what the direction is here, and I'm excited to find out". And that's almost entirely down to them putting Andrade over for two weeks in a row! We had weeks of four people bickering over who the next champion was going to be - without the champion themselves ever getting involved - and now one of those men is injured, and two have lost big matches to Andrade. We had Kenny Omega saying he was going to challenge for the belt, that he needed to string the wins together, telling MJF they were going to have a match...and then he lost. Swerve lost. So even though it looks like the plan is obviously Hangman vs. MJF, there's a non-zero chance that Hangman just gets booked against Andrade next week and also loses. Plenty of lowlights too, though. The Death Riders need getting out of this heel/face mess as soon as possible - it's ridiculous that they're booked as babyfaces in one segment, then heels the next. And that Takeshita is just back to wrestling in Don Callis B-Team trios matches, and that they think the big match for him is Mox and not Okada, is insane. They brought that feud up to a boiling point, and now they're simmering it off again, and I have no idea why - it will never be as hot again as it was at World's End. No interest in Gabe Kidd and Clark Connors being mad lads together. Bullet Club War Dogs are a dead faction in NJPW, so bringing them in as War Dogs to AEW is rubbish. Darby finally finished feuding with the Death Riders, and got thrown right back into a feud with a bloke who has basically been a Death Rider every previous time he's been on AEW TV. And it's the reason why I don't think Darby Allin will ever make a good World Champion - every idea they have for him is him getting the absolute shit knocked out of him, and they've never quite got the balance right between "takes a beating but keeps on fighting and coming back for more" and just "is a victim of attempted murder on a fortnightly basis". Big bumps in a match is one thing, but stunt show stuff like that is nonsense, and anything involving cars just makes me think of the worst excesses of the late Attitude Era. Quote
Paid Members Supremo Posted February 5 Paid Members Posted February 5 Brian Pillman Junior watching Dynamite, truly believing he can, “do an Andrade,” and if bounces back between AEW and WWE two or three more times he might finally get over. (He won’t). Quote
Justin Breeding Posted February 5 Posted February 5 29 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said: Is it him or Zack Sabre Jr that has a move called "The Cheeky Nandos"? Whoever it is, that can fuck all the way off. Think that’s Osprey. ZSJ names a lot of his moves after references to Stewart Lee stand-up, which is just one more reason why he’ll always be superior to Will. Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted February 5 Author Paid Members Posted February 5 Just now, Justin Breeding said: Think that’s Osprey. ZSJ names a lot of his moves after references to Stewart Lee stand-up, which is just one more reason why he’ll always be superior to Will. I’d love to see AEW sign ZSJ. Out of all the male wrestlers they could possibly sign, he’s the one I think would make the biggest positive difference. He’s brilliant. Quote
abucalves Posted February 5 Posted February 5 1 hour ago, RedTwoster said: I reckon there is and that’s part of the problem - I think the plan is to give MJF a lengthy reign before having a returning Will Ospreay win his first AEW World title at All In. If MJF was at his best as a character it would be a sound idea, but they really do need a new top heel. It’s not MJF and it’s not Joe. Maybe Swerve is the one to go with? I've seen discussion (and hope) that it might be Kenny Omega against Will Opreay instead at All In, which I would much prefer. Quote
Chili Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Darby at the moment almost feels like a cross between being in his own Codyverse and when Jericho started to have a bit of stench incorporating attitude era backstage stunts and skits that felt jarring to the rest of the content. If you're going to heel Darby, I think it'd be nice to do what inspired Sting to be the crow. So Darby is possibly heel but he's eyeing up who believes him or what not. ACTUALLY, could have done that with Death Riders post Hangman winning the belt. Nevermind, I dunno. Quote
abucalves Posted February 5 Posted February 5 I like Darby Allin, but I still can't believe (and maybe it wasn't true) that the plan was for him to beat Moxley for the belt. Like I just can't see it. I know the Hangman reign wasn't great, but the moment of him winning the belt was. I can't see Darby doing the same thing. Quote
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