AEW: The Early Years

[BrodyGraham]

Didn't OWE go under cos the owners were ropey as fuck? A cursory Google says that most of the Chinese lads were on 10 year contracts that were basically idol factory deals and have left wrestling.

I believe that Sunny Daze was a video editor/producer for DDP's production company back when that was doing all the Codyverse content. Quite a lot of the early roster had those kinds  of 'added value' deals. I know that Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc had office jobs. Obviously Havoc doesn't but I think Kip still might and Nakazawa still pops up from time to time so I assume he still has a day job.

[Merzbow]

16 minutes ago, BrodyGraham said:

Didn't OWE go under cos the owners were ropey as fuck?

Yeah that was it, some really dodgy dealing going on. The Japanese lads like CIMA and El Lindaman that helped start it all went to GLEAT soon after, a weird hybrid company mixing UWF-i matches and more normal high flying stuff. Not as good as it sounds on paper, sadly.

[LaGoosh]

Was CIMA the one who got caught torturing a monkey?

[Merzbow]

1 minute ago, LaGoosh said:

Was CIMA the one who got caught torturing a monkey?

He was one of many named in that IIRC, even now bigger names like Shingo Takagi and WWE guy Akira Tozawa were linked to it.

[LaGoosh]

Jesus.

[JLM]

There was a pet monkey in the Dragon Gate dojo and lots of the trainees did awful awful things to it. CIMA was not accused of any of the abuse but he brought the monkey into the dojo and clearly did nothing to stop it. He may well have participated too but he wasn’t in the photos that came out. 
 

Tozawa was not named as a direct abuser but was also there and also didn’t do anything about it. Shingo was actually pictured with the monkey while they were abusing it. 
 

Wrestlers are, as ever, the worst. 

Edited August 20 by JLM

[gmoney]

Fucking hell!

[Chili]

Yeah that shit was absolutely mindbogglingly inhuman behaviour. 

[NeverYield]

Quite frankly they all need a serious fucking hiding for what they done, absolute bunch of wrong'uns and cowards, that sort of carry on to an innocent animal is outrageous.

Bunch of fucking weirdos, and the people not intervening, or better still, weighing them all in with a scaffold tube or something similar are no better either. Two wrong's don't make a right but fuck that sort of behaviour. 

[TheScarlettChad]

I didn't know any of that. And I wish I still didn't. Horrible bunch of cunts. 

[SoloJones]

Yeah it kind of always surprised me that Shingo basically gets a free pass from that, I remember it coming out and its always stuck with me. He was out of the scene for ages though if I recall, but cynically I wonder if he would have come back/been allowed to come back at all had he not been a fantastic wrestler, and/or if it had happened in North America or the UK.

[Lorne Malvo]

Fyter Fest 2019:

- Man, the preshow for this is bad. Michael Nakazawa vs a non-wrestler videogame guy (Alex Jebailey) in an absolutely terrible hardcore match (but fair play to them, the crowd are into it). Leva Bates, who I've never rated as a worker and lumbered with the awful Librarian gimmick, against Allie in a shoddy match. And a few hideously unfunny BTE-esque backstage skits which play on the Fyre Fest theme. 

- They do a spot where Nakazawa tries to drown Jebailey in the inflatable paddling pool, which gets no reaction at all. Years later Darby Allin/Mox will recreate this iconic spot and Helen Lovejoys around the world will lose their heads.

- Maybe your second ever show, where you're already under scrutiny from the wider wrestling landscape who are looking for any reason to slag you off, isn't the ideal time to do 'comedy' skits about the ring not turning up, the band not turning up and blowing the budget. 

- As soon as the main show starts it settles down into something resembling a half-decent wrestling show again. Thank god they kept the BTE shit to the pre-show as I was ready to go on another 6-month hiatus if I saw one more shit Young Bucks interview. 

- There's an Alex 'Goldenboy' Mendez alongside Excalibur and JR who I have no memory of at all, but at a time when pro-wrestling commentary is pretty bad overall, he's quite competent! I'm surprised he didn't stick around but it seems he does a lot of eSports stuff.

- Jungle Boy/MJF/Hangman/Jimmy Havoc is a fun time. Jungle Boy was a really good fiery underdog babyface back here, it's a shame he stagnated in recent years as I'm loving him in these early shows. You can already tell Hangman and MJF are several levels above the rest of the undercard.

- I remember hating Riho back when I first watched these shows. I was very harsh as I've quite enjoyed her so far, but I still don't know why they made her the first star of the womens division as Yuka Sakazaki is more over and better in-ring. There are some guys and girls like Riho and Janela that I hated in 2019 but I don't mind now on a rewatch, and I can only put it down to 2019 me being conditioned by years of watching WWE as to what a wrestler should look and move like.

- Thank god for Darby Allin. On a show with a lot of rough edges, he turns up fully formed, instantly watchable and believable and just has an intense unique quality to him that most of the roster lack. Him vs Cody is a pretty good match which never quite reaches 'great' status, but Darby comes out of this show as the one talent to keep an eye on. Him getting a time limit draw with Cody is pretty big when you consider he was a relative unknown back then, and you can tell Excalibur and JR have bought into him too as they put him over a lot on commentary. 

- This was the show with the infamous Shawn Spears chairshot to Cody. It was meant to be a gimmicked chair and they accidentally used a real chair, so Cody gets split open hardway. It's a very early example of AEW being slack when it come to safety, and how sometimes they don't help themselves in giving the pitchfork-wielding mob ammunition against them. 

- I couldn't get on board with the Bucks/Omega vs Lucha Bros/Laredo Kid - these mad multi-man sprints have to tread a fine line between exciting fast-paced spotty athleticism versus A Bunch Of Stuff Happening, and this match strayed into the latter category for me. 

- Joey Janela vs Mox in an unsanctioned match is your main event. It's actually quite tame and basic but I remember losing my head for it at the time, again that WWE conditioning has a lot to answer for! It's not bad but they would easily surpass this match in future. Joey Janela being Mox's first AEW opponent and main-eventing the second ever AEW show feels like it should be a pub quiz answer somewhere.

- The show ends with a Mox/Omega brawl to build up their match at All Out. Making the first proper main-event storyline of AEW a battle between these two ideologically and stylistically contrasting guys was a really smart move looking back, and helped in making the promotion feel fresh and different. 

- Overall it's a very mixed bag, much like Double or Nothing, with the caveat that the lows on this show are much lower than DoN but it doesn't reach the highs of that show either. Coming up next is a show with Brandi Rhodes vs Allie and Young Bucks vs Cody/Dustin on the card, so I'm sure this theme of 'utter shit followed by a cracker' will continue!

[Hannibal Scorch]

@Lorne Malvo great thread idea and loving the reviews this far.

I remember buying Double or Nothing and Fyter Fest via the short lived ITV PPV thing they had (I assume that was one of the reasons Jack Whitehall was initially involved. Is he on the main broadcast on MyAEW?). My memories of that show was that it felt quite fresh and new. And I think maybe the reason for Hangman and MJF on the pre-show was because of trying to get people to see them on that free to watch bit to get people to pay for the main show?

But my memory from that casino gauntlet was seeing this guy wrestling in Sunglasses, doing really weak kicks and looking like he didn’t want to be there. It frustrated me because I thought they could have brought in someone else who actually DID want to be there and not waste the spot. It wasn’t until the first 6 months or so of Dynamite that I got the gimmick of Orange Cassidy and really started to love the guy.

I didn’t really remember anything from Fyter Fest 2019, but I feel intrigued to go back and watch it again now. Great work, look forward to more.

[The King of Old School]

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Fyter Fest 2019:

 

- The show ends with a Mox/Omega brawl to build up their match at All Out. Making the first proper main-event storyline of AEW a battle between these two ideologically and stylistically contrasting guys was a really smart move looking back, and helped in making the promotion feel fresh and different. 

 

I think Mox/Omega happened later than All Out, pretty sure that was headlined by Jericho/Hangman to be the first champ?

[Merzbow]

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

but I still don't know why they made her the first star of the womens division as Yuka Sakazaki is more over and better in-ring.

Riho was Omega's girl and he was seemingly booking the women in the early days, not in that way but they'd had a friendship and working relationship since she was really young. I want to say they first worked together in 2010 but it may have been even before that when they first met.