AEW 2022: The year of the bloody bunny

The ladder match was really fun. I liked Wardlow and Hobbs pulling one apart. They need to get rid of the piles cushion sonic ring though. It looks so dumb. Excited for Wardlow as Diesel in 94.

the sonic ring was perfect imo bc that ladder match looked like a video game

Had to stop for work, now back to it. The dog collar match was perfect. Really brutal stuff. I liked them keeping it simple and using the ring ropes and posts for leverage. Wardlow is a star but I hope someone tells him to stop dressing like Finlay.

Might skip the Baker Rosa match. Really not feeling the feud and heard it was a bit of a stinker.

:|

wrestling fans get what they deserve when they skip women's matches just sayin

i also thought the match was good and everyone saying it sucked has been an asshole about it

also idk the feud is the most interesting storyline the women's division has had, i'm not really sure why everyone is turning on it

tbf it's getting to the point where the less i know of what other wrestling fans think of wrestling, the better

motherfuckers are so quick to call a whole match a dud when they don't like the finish :)

Ok I’ll give it a go.

i will cop to criticisms of the build, the booking has been awkward, but i chalk that up at least partially to how little airtime women have in aew to really shape their stories. i am also deeply invested in rosa taking the belt and khan's got me stressed out about it (remember when page/dark order lost the match so that he could go on parental leave? getting those feelings again lol)

but if this is building toward a huge match in san antonio then i can respect the ride

Yeah wrestling fans as a species have a real problem with playing out match results in their head and then throwing their toys out of the pram if there is any deviation from that.

Must admit that I didn’t particularly enjoy the Baker / Rosa match, too many interference spots to really be enjoyable in a difficult spot on the card, and I do basically agree with the nerds that this Baker title run has gone on waaaay too long now. Idk why people are crying about it so much though, it’s perfectly obvious where this is going.

TK still needs to work on giving the women’s roster generally more interesting storylines and angles I think

On that though - the rate at which Jade Cargill is putting it all together is completely thrilling, she is going to a HUGE deal

it's nice that i rarely have to wince through jade matches anymore

i sort of agree about the interference spots, when that started my brain immediately knew rosa was losing, but i think rosa and baker have such great ring chemistry, i was glued to every shift in the match. crowd was dead though (i think this also unduly influences whether wrestling fans think a match sucks)

also, again, i'm hugely invested, so of course i was glued to the match. but i also think.... the way women's wrestling is viewed by fans is so fucking distorted and the deck is so stacked against the wrestlers themselves that i sometimes wonder how the lights out match would've gone over with a crowd present

I would like to say it isn't because its a womens match that I wasn't interested. I loved the Jade squash. But I also don't particularly care for the title match with Adam Cole. I have a bit of a time limit before I have to go out and knew I'd have to skip out on 1 or 2 matches. I think going back to this, I'm gonna have to skip the tnt guys match. Might actually just stop before that and the title match and get them later in the week.

The crowd is absolutely dead but you can tell they are really trying to get it going. You can hear Rebel trying to get chants going to silence and its really awkward. Whatever went after Punk-MJF was going to suffer, it should have been the main event.

Crowd reaction definitely make or break for a lot of fans. This usually plays in AEW’s favour compared to modern WWE cause for the big shows at least the fanbase is absolutely rabid.

But no crowd is going to sustain the heat across 5 hours of wrestling (I actually thought this lot did themselves proud by being as up for the main event as they were). They need to give some thought to breaking these shows out over two nights if they want to keep putting 13 or 14 match cards on. WWE used to do one night shows like that back in the 80s but the matches weee only 3-10 minutes long each back then.


Also ahoyhoy you are soooooo wrong about Wardlow’s gear, the low cut singlet accentuates his magnificent muscle tits beautifully.

Intrigued to see what they can do with him now - he feels so much more WWE than AEW, he’s got that Batista vibe, but it has never done a wrestling company any harm at all to have a gigantic handsome muscle monster with the fans behind him, I think they need to seriously consider giving him a concerted push now rather than cooling him off after the MJF feud

yeah i wasn't trying to insinuate anything about your priorities a hoy hoy xp

By which I mean heat it up some more for a few months and then give the War Dog a title run xp

I just dont like the irish green. His beautiful boobies do need to be on show, you are right. He's got such potential to be a mega star. Supposedly he has a lot more experience from the indies than his squash matches let on to, so if matches get longer and need more story, he really might be ready.

Ooof. They actually were getting into it and pulled the crowd into it! I think you are right Brad about the finish. It does seem both like the Hangman-DO loss and like we should trust them to have a killer cage match next time. They do need to heat Rosa up though, maybe have her totally wreck Hayter and Rebel on Dynamite. Glad I took your advice and watched it, but also think the criticisms are valid and not just people being weird about womens wrestling. They need more TV time and to use it wisely. Like after watching that whole match, I just remembered BB's 'sensei' that turned up for 2 weeks and wasn't here or mentioned by the commentators. What was the point of that?

A really beautiful belt.

One of my least favourite wrestling tropes is babyfaces being left alone to have a group of heels make them look stupid. I feel like it took them a million years to figure out that the Usos or Ambrose could possibly run in to help Reigns. Cena would supposedly be mates with someone like Zach Ryder and happily sit in catering instead of helping him get obliterated by Kane. Hasn't Rosa spent weeks earning Martinez's respect, teamed with her on Dynamite etc. only to be left alone to be played by the DMD crew? Outsmarted by Rebel isn't a good look for a babyface.

I just remembered BB's 'sensei' that turned up for 2 weeks

cobra kai cross-promotion, also it was only the one week iirc

also yeah i'm being extremely defensive here.... hoping for more over the next two weeks

also i'm so glad they changed the women's belt, i was just thinking the old one looked... not good next to the world champ/tnt/tbs belts

Ah ok. I've never watched Cobra Kai and presume I missed a concise Excalibur explanation.

Has Tony Khan all but confirmed that a trios belt is coming? Feel like I remember this from somewhere but possibly I daydreamed it?

I have most certainly daydreamed about a tournament with Omega and the bucks, Cole and redragon, Mox/Danielson/a.n.other (make it claudio to complete the Regal connection ffs!), house of black, death triangle, Jurassic express and Christian, sting/punk/Darby, dark order, MJF and FTR, team taz, Eddie and P&P, Garcia and 2.0, a million others who I’ve forgotten

Surely they’ve gotta go down this route now?!

The last time WWE felt like it was worth watching was when they were running Shield and Wyatt Family 6 mans, it’s impossible to fuck up 6 man tags

i heard from somewhere myself that tk is considering adding a trios belt when omega returns

Yeah that’s the rumour, with the Elite spinning their wheels up until they can split Omega and the Bucks/Cole and red dragon

Trios belt would be great and especially if they start to incorporate more ROH guys, it would work well. ROH had the 6-man tag belts for a while. NJPW has the NEVER Openweight 6-man tags as well, and there are so many good trios to be able to do it, especially if they allow it to be intergender, like how it was in Lucha Underground. I wouldn't mind seeing Ivelisse team back up with Angelico (and Jack Evans), and go after a trios title.

The thing that I think most people hold against the women's match is the finish, which was the most surprising outcome to me from the whole show. Thunder Rosa felt like the opponent most primed and ready to finally end Britt Baker's streak. Nobody else really feels as close, but I guess it's good that there's some time for that build.

It’s been quite a few hours out but I’ve gone back to the show. This match, Danielson v Mox, could have been a WM main event and the crowd is possibly as silent as the womens title. They are throwing everything at each other and people barely give a fuck. Only when someone jumps through the ropes or something do you hear a reaction. Really puts the reaction to the womens title match in perspective. The dog collar has killed the heat for both of these.

Also in watching these guys, it is so noticeable the face/heel divide. If they become a tag team, I want 100% sting/Luger baby face friends with a heel storyline.

When was the last time someone did a move off the top rope, like a super plex or their avalanche finisher etc and actually got a three count?

Seeing Mox thrown off the top to a 2 count must have been like the 7th time tonight

Well presumably Rosa still wins it? Don’t think they’re looking to build anyone else to that spot, they’re just building to the cage

Don’t see TK allowing intergender tags, he’s on record as absolutely hating that stuff

That was an xpost to hourspass

Yes, as noted above, they are burning out their crowds and should do something about it. I had to do the show in two sittings, I got burnt out just watching from my sofa

dynamite has been so good oh god

As I’d hoped, the interference spots in Rosa/Baker on the PPV were a set-up for a rematch in a cage. In San Antonio. If the dentist wins we riot. (My fantasy booking outcome: Rebel and Jamie try to interfere anyway but they’re thwarted by a debuting Athena. Rosa gets her rightful crowning, and then backstage they film a faceoff between her and Athena. Maybe they’ll even reference the indie match they had a few weeks ago. I won’t be upset if this doesn’t happen, but it’s what I would do.)

Only caught a few little clips of Dynamite and won’t be able to watch the show til later but man I am *unreasonably* into Wardlow right now. Big, handsome, amazing look, great facial expressions, can talk, can work, has an actual character with clear motivations and is on fire with the fans right now.

AEW has done really well getting people like Hangman, MJF, Darby etc over as big stars by featuring them heavily and giving them consistent steady pushes but no one has suddenly caught fire like this in AEW yet.

Strap a rocket to him imo

renaming this thread the wardlow appreciation society

feel like britt must read the wrestling internet a lot, her whole promo after the rosa match was a summary of the talking points i've read from everyone criticizing the build

XP

I was thinking “WardLOW: Classic or classic?”

lol

I love Wardlow too guys, I wanna join your club.

wwe-induced traumatic skepticism had me primed to hate wardlow, sometimes i forget that you can just trust the tv to be good sometimes

Generally even at its very worst, AEW has still been well meaning, attempted to be entertaining and get people over. And Wardlow is a big part of their current hottest storyline, not some throwaway mess like Americas Top Team, so I presume everyone is primed to get the most they possibly can out of making him a star.

errrr America Top Team is good actually, or at least it's not bad. Dan Lambert can push the chuddy Jim Cornette shit too far at times but he always kills it on. the mic and idk i think you can probably just toss a coin as to what we're gonna get from Paige Vanzant? she might turn out to be really good! (she might also kind of suck but crucially she is hot and legitimately tough and that's more than most ppl have to work with)

not everything needs to be a huge deal, sometimes having giddy MMA fighters who gleefully enjoy themselves while trying not to accidentally kill their opponents in not-great midcard matches is enough. anyway i liked all of that in the end

Will don't sleep on Wardlow, i won't repeat myself by enumerating his many virtues but he's in that exact sweet spot which occasionally happens for a well-booked wrestler of being on the very verge of blowing up in a big way. the most exciting thing when it actually happens, which is usually only once every year or two

That you really liked ATT is actually a testament to how good AEW is. I honestly struggled to come up with a proper example. My other potential examples were the start of the Dark Order, Brandi’s promos and Cody v Ogogo? There honestly haven’t been many bad moments in these 3 years!

Wardlow reminded me in his promo that he's been in AEW since 2019, which blew my mind, but then I realized that it's probably a good thing that he doesn't feel like he's been around forever. I thought he would blow up upon arrival, and I had seen him a bit in the indies before he got signed. It took me a minute, but I've really liked him as MJF's muscle, and feel like they did a good thing with pairing him with MJF, because nobody will get him over as a babyface as well as MJF right now.

I didn't get it until last night, why they held off on Thunder Rosa, but I imagine that pop when she wins in San Antonio will blow the roof off the place.

xp I would think the original roll-out of Miro as the best man gimmick was a flop.

baker/rosa revolution finish already works so much better knowing we're getting the steel cage match. has AEW even done a bad cage match yet?

on paper the Jericho Appreciation Society looks like it could be a dud but Jericho is one of the few wrestlers who will be able to bring it to the next level.

Will don't sleep on Wardlow, i won't repeat myself by enumerating his many virtues but he's in that exact sweet spot which occasionally happens for a well-booked wrestler of being on the very verge of blowing up in a big way. the most exciting thing when it actually happens, which is usually only once every year or two

oh don't worry -- i'm already sold! i was just READY to dislike him, because wwe/nxt has a long line of big built up protected guys who end up having the org drop the ball on them (baron corbin, bull dempsey, big cass, killer kross, the red trunks guy whose name i already forget who was racist online, even to an extent strowman and big e)

the red trunks guy whose name i already forget who was racist online

Lars Sullivan, the latter-day Snitsky.