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Now, I'll preface by saying the answer to a lot of these are "it's how Tony does business". I ask these questions more out of frustration. I will always hope that AEW does better, and can get back to where they were selling out 10,000 seat buildings for TV every week. I would really enjoy that. Hell, it might even re-ignite the spark HHH has been missing if it were to happen.
I am with you on that. A stronger AEW will make HHH and WWE have to up their game (even though HHH would probably tell you there is no reason he needs to, just as Tony Khan would say about his product).
Ciampa vs. Fletcher - a marquee match up, could have been on PPV, but here we are. And Ciampa lost, clean. Sigh.
1. A one week title reign. Why bother? Just have Fletcher win the title back from Jay Briscoe, and go from there. Unless Ciampa comes out and immediately does something major, he's already unpacking his bags into the Just Another Guy clubhouse.
That was my take too. Khan wanted to give us the “WWE guy debuts and wins on his first night” story. There’s a few problems though. One, as much as I love Ciampa, he was a tag team guy who didn’t even have the Title recently in WWE. Then he comes in and wins one of AEW’s top singles belts on night one. HUH? Tony probably thinks, “My sickos know how great he is” but if a non-sicko tunes in, they see a lower card WWE guy win a Title on his first night in. And yes, to then lose it right away? What was the point? I don’t know either.
2. Fletcher completely no-sold a brainbuster and won the match 20 seconds later. The "fighting spirit" trope has worn out its welcome. It's a head shaker when pretty much every guy does it at some point, and someone does it every week. Thoughts?
Part of why I can’t watch AEW is this exact thing. When moves that look like they should kill a person are no-sold, they are telling me I am watching a performance of moves. I can’t get invested in that. I want the wrestlers to get me into the story of them having a fight and having issues with each other. No-selling big spots has been an issue I have had with AEW from day one. I get that a lot of people like that style. I do not. I am not an Olympic figure skating judge that needs to see mandatory things in order to give a match a good rating.
3. With Ciampa's injury history, did he really need to take a brainbuster as the finish? I'm amazed that he even puts himself in a position that could accidentally result in him being dropped on his head. I cringed when I saw it.
I am with you 100 percent. I don’t understand how anyone who has had serious neck and spine issues work that kind of high impact style. I know that I wouldn’t.
Stalander vs. Thekla - I find it a real turnoff to see women blading. I don't like the guys to do it, but it hits different when they do. I'm not a fan, at all. And with the knowledge of blood borne diseases nowadays, do you really wanna take that chance?
I hate it when anyone does it, male or female. It’s barbaric and actually takes away from a match for me.
From a visual standpoint, why would any major, well known sponsor want to do business with AEW? I'd have to guess it would be a hard pass from most of them, when you tune in and see a woman's forehead coated in blood.
I can’t speak for all companies but yes, if it were my call as to whether to work with them seeing things like that it would definitely make me think twice.
Death Riders/Don Callis Family - We have yet another tag match, this time using what I'd call the A squad of the DR. So the DR win, and Josh Alexander, who could have been a big deal, gets beat....again. I can't recall the last time I saw him win. What are the actual stakes of this feud, which seems to be them trading wins with no real advancement? Moxley cut a good promo at the start of the rivalry, saying that they had given them their space out of respect, "Live and let live" I believe he said. I thought that was something to build on, kind of like a turf war where one side didn't do business on the others'.
That’s Tony Khan booking in action, for sure.
And all these questions are again, wrapped in this observation; we all know the roster can go out and have "bangers". I need a reason to invest, and TK rarely gives it to me.
You and I see the business the same way. Bangers are great but great characters and stories that I can invest in are better to me.
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