The Wednesday Night War

[whlineup]

Truly enjoyed the first AEW TV show. Loved the chaotic ending.........just like old times.

[pikemojo]

I didn't see NXT so I can't comment on that show tonight. I was pretty impressed with AEW though. I thought Cody & Sammy Guevara started the show really strong. Pac/Page had a solid match. Riho won. The main even wasn't necessarily a great match but it was really fun and had some really nice surprises. I mean, Moxley could have been expected but I certainly was surprised by the DDT through the glass table. THAT was a great spot! Then Jake Hager, who I had heard rumored but kinda forgot about... He looked like a giant next to those guys and then JR said he was 6'5" tall. I know that's tall for a guy but it's not HUGE. Just random thoughts at this point I guess. Anyways... fun main event. It also clicked how great the announce team was together. They're really like a dream team. JR from WWE, Schiavone from WCW and Excalibur from the indies. I thought they sounded great together and would expect them to get even better with time and getting a better feel for each other's rhythm. Overall a really solid first show.

[MonkeyDBain]

NXT was great. Nothing changed just because they are on USA. Balors is back in NXT and Ciampa returns, both focused on Adam Cole.


I will watch AEW tomorrow.

[Swarm]

I switched over to Madden 20 on Xbox after about 45 minutes so I didn’t see everything but what I did see wasn’t bad. I prefer the AEW look and feel to NXT (has a very WCW vibe to it). Cole vs Riddle was superior to Cody- Sammy. The main event of NXT really dragged on I thought. Great seeing Swaggee but here is yet another WWE guy being thrust into the main event. We will see how that goes. Ending had a real TNA vibe to it. Problem w AEW (at least right now) is they don’t have a roster I’m interested in. Cody vs Jericho (who looks bad) does nothing at all for me.

But I really liked the overall look and feel to the show and booking from the stuff I saw.

NXT is NXT. I didn’t see anything incredible. Lots of good work rate but guys like Balor do nothing for me.

Overall I’d say AEW won week 1. Neither show was amazing but neither was bad either. Best part was just flipping channels again hoping to catch something special. So that was fun in a nostalgic way.

[ajcostello]

I had everything from last night on my DVR as Wednesdays are one of the two nights a week I get together with people on Discord and Roll20.net to play the World Wide Wrestling RPG and I wasn't about to miss gaming with the guys and being involved in wrestling action that I actually like (for the most part) rather than risk my mental and emotional health watching stuff that I quite possibly wouldn't like at all.

So, I watched everything this morning.

Here are some thoughts about last night's shows and on pro wrestling in general.

There's no mistaking that WWE has the greatest collection of talent in the business right now. No argument. At this time last year, there were actually a good number of wrestlers in WWE that I liked watching and enjoyed. In the time that's gone by since then, for whatever reason(s), I've actually lost interest in almost all of them. Be it their matches, the storylines they were in or personal interactions on social media or whatever, I just stopped caring about them in most cases. In a few cases, I've gone beyond just mere "meh" apathy (which I think is worse than disliking them... not caring at all either way is way worse than hating someone) to actively disliking them so much that I actually change the channel or find something else entirely to do when they are on my TV. That sucks for me as more than a few of those wrestlers are heavily pushed by WWE right now. I won't name any of those wrestlers because I'm sure a lot of my fellow promoters here actually like them and I don't want to get into arguments about personal tastes.

I've been a fan of NXT for some time, but for most of this year, I've felt that the quality of the show has steeply declined. I've pretty much already stopped watching it already but I wanted to watch last night's show to see if there would be anything that might get me to change my mind.

SPOILER: There really wasn't.

Now, I've also watched the debut of AEW Dynamite and I have to say that I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I was going to. I liked pretty much all the matches until they got to the main event. And even then, I was really into it until things happened to change the dynamic of the match and then the post-match stuff. That part of the show actually left me cold. I thought it was pretty predictable and actually kind of boring. And the 'big reveal of the night' being... imagine my lack of surprise... a former WWE guy actually made me roll my eyes. The fact that it was a former WWE guy that I actually never gave so much as a wet fart about, let alone an entire s**t, didn't help things out at all, either.

On the positive side of things, I think the reuniting of Tony and JR was really, really good. Tony is such an incredible upgrade from the other guy that it isn't even funny to me.

I was super happy that the women's title match proved me wrong, too. I had gone into it thinking... maybe erroneously... that AEW had definitely put the wrong women into that match based on the other women that they have on the roster who I was more familiar with. I saw it as an obvious (to me) attempt to get the drama of a David-v-Goliath match. It was and I'm surprised to say that it actually delivered. I really liked the match. But I was almost positive that Nyla was going to win. If for no other reason than the fact that I wouldn't have been at all shocked that the company would go with the trans performer winning to earn some sort of PC Brownie Points or whatever. Make no mistake, though, please: I couldn't care any less about anybody being trans. I was just of a mind that Nyla seems super green to me still and didn't think that she really was ready for the spot that they put her in. It was a good match, though. I really enjoyed it. If I had to critique it at all, I'd say that I don't really get why they had Baker on commentary as she didn't really seem (to me, anyway) of contributing much to the story at all.

I miss the days when pro wrestling was a little unpredictable just a little bit and thanks to, well, everything these days... it seems like pro wrestling is all too predictable. Case in point: everyone I know who watches wrestling is already getting the headstone ready to mark the end of Kofi's run as champion on Smackdown simply because he's in a match with Brock... and we all know how Brock is used these days for the most part. Sure, WWE could swerve us because we'd all be expecting the other result but that, too, is kind of predictable. Isn't it?

There's an amazing amount of interesting things going on in pro wrestling today and that's cool. WWE on TV three nights a week, Impact on Tuesdays, the NWA studio show, AEW debuting. And I get ROH and CWFH on NESN every week, too! I'm spoiled!

It's just... there's not a whole lot of folks in WWE these days that I actually like. There are some folks in Impact that I like. There are some folks in the NWA that I like. There are some folks in AEW that I like. Every promotion has somebody that I like. My issue, I guess, is that there isn't a single roster that wows me to the point where I feel that I need to watch any of it. Maybe I'm just too picky? I don't know.

For years now I've mostly been in a love-hate relationship with WWE. For the most part, I absolutely hate their product and I don't really watch much if any, of it at all these days. However, because they own literally all of the pro wrestling that I grew up watching and have made it so that I more or less need to pay for the Network to watch any of it. And I do like watching the old stuff. So despite mostly hating WWE I feel compelled to keep giving them money and I feel dirty and ashamed because of that. What can I do?

I'm probably not going to bother with any of the WWE on Fox stuff at all because... I just... I'm not interested.

I'll give AEW some more episodes a watch before I unleash my full, overly critical eye on it.

One week is just not enough to go on to make any informed decisions.

Like watching a three-minute trailer/commercial for a movie and deciding right away that you'll like it or hate it of like judging the new Joker movie for promoting/glorifying gun violence when no one has actually seen it, yet, you know?

Anyway, I guess a bit of a TL;DR is that I might not really be much of a pro wrestling fan as I used to be these days but thankfully I still have Filsinger Games for LoW and the WWWRPG that I play with the guys every week.

[aceldamas]

Well put, ajcostello . I have to say your thoughts reflect mine in almost every way. I watched AEW last night. I did not and will not watch NXT. So here is a compilation of my thoughts on Dynamite:

Commentary team:
First, I am not a fan of a three person booth besides the occasional guest. It just leads to a lot of people talking over each other. I also like my commentary team to be a more traditional play-by-play/color duo. Where the roles are defined by each person's strengths.
There was quite a bit of referencing prior AEW matches and some matches outside of the company. This does nothing for the casual fan.
I'm sorry but I can't listen to JR any more. Just the way it is.
Tony was good and conveyed a lot of enthusiasm without going overboard.
Excalibur... Why is he still wearing the mask? The first thing people see when they tune in is him looking like a doofus and credibility takes a hit. At least he restrained himself from trying to talk over everyone's head like he usually does. I was afraid he was going to be like Dennis Miller was on Monday Night Football. Time will tell, I suppose.

Roster:
I'll get this out in the open: I have had my fill of Cody, the Young Bucks, and Adam Page. Their two years in ROH was more than enough. The rest I will get to in their matches.

Cody vs Sammy Guevara
So it seems like they are presenting Cody as the big babyface of the company. If that is the case, why is his wife cheating for him by hitting Guevara with her shoe? Whatever.
Sammy is a stud but what the hell was he wearing for his intro? He looked like a fool.
Brandi is like Michelle Obama - the only reason anyone cares about her is because of who she's married to. I have no use for her.
Otherwise this was a good match.

MJF vs Brandon Cutler
Nice to see the Bucks throwing their buddy a bone jobbing to MJF. Is it just me or is MJF the only guy these days who can get genuine heel heat?

Jay & Silent Bob - How stale was that? A WWE style has-been celeb appearance. No point.

Adam Page vs PAC
Adam Page is unconvincing as a tough guy and boring as a babyface. At best he should be the number two guy in a good tag team. But he has a good look so I guess that makes him a top guy.
This was my first time seeing heel PAC. I like it. Not a bad match and I'm glad PAC went over.

Nyla Rose vs Riho
All I could think about during this match was did Nyla Rose commit to the bit. I mean really commit.

Jericho, Santana & Ortiz vs Young Bucks & Omega
This was underwhelming.
Santana & Ortiz were excellent as always.
The Old Bucks are the John Cena of tag teams. They just go through their usual routine. They are good at their shtick but it's played out. For a couple of years now.
I almost forgot that Jericho was in this match. Oh well.
Omega and Moxley looked like they were having a slap fight up until the DDT spot. I think they were just thinking about getting to that rather than look convincing otherwise.
All of the chaos at the end was just the same ol' sh**. Jack Swagger as the big reveal. Ok. He's big...and...? Guevara should not have been part of this but predictably they couldn't help themselves and had to form the NWO/BC type group. Again, same ol' sh**.

The overall production was good but for me it was overproduced and there was too much pomp. Like they were more concerned about looking good rather than being good. Which is probably how it should be done. It's just not to my taste. I'm the kind of guy who would rather see a band play a club than an arena. I am more about quality of content than presentation.

I think if AEW's goal was to bring something different to the table, then they failed miserably. This show looked, felt, and played out just like a WWE show. Just a different logo and different faces. There was nothing here that would make me want to watch this for two hours every week.

At least we can be thankful that, so far, their wasn't any stupid sh** like Joey Ryan and his ilk. They did deliver on serious wrestling.

It seems like a lot of folks seem to like the nostalgia that this show invoked. If I wanted nostalgia, I think I would prefer what NWA Power has coming our way. I want to see something new. Something going to the next level. This wasn't it.

I think the only thing I will get out of this endeavor is that in some small (or maybe big) way, they are sticking it to Vince. Otherwise, I kinda doubt I will watch much more of this.  At least not on a regular basis.

[on_the_edge]

Oct 2, 2019 21:48:34 GMT -5 pikemojo said:

I didn't see NXT so I can't comment on that show tonight. I was pretty impressed with AEW though. I thought Cody & Sammy Guevara started the show really strong. Pac/Page had a solid match. Riho won. The main even wasn't necessarily a great match but it was really fun and had some really nice surprises. I mean, Moxley could have been expected but I certainly was surprised by the DDT through the glass table. THAT was a great spot! Then Jake Hager, who I had heard rumored but kinda forgot about... He looked like a giant next to those guys and then JR said he was 6'5" tall. I know that's tall for a guy but it's not HUGE. Just random thoughts at this point I guess. Anyways... fun main event. It also clicked how great the announce team was together. They're really like a dream team. JR from WWE, Schiavone from WCW and Excalibur from the indies. I thought they sounded great together and would expect them to get even better with time and getting a better feel for each other's rhythm. Overall a really solid first show.

I thought the same about Jake. I mean he is not a 7 footer but he towered. Thus I was fine with him giving beat downs as he looked like a beast size wise. It's a nice group Chris has assembled. Covering all bases minus a female wrestler. Put Allie in that group and it will be amazing. Unfortunately I think they are booking her as a face right now.

[Vegas]

I had to work late yesterday (first Wednesday of every month is usually a long day for me at work,) but thanks to my DVDR I later saw both shows and overall I enjoyed both shows.

The numbers I saw for last night were NXT having 891,000 viewers and AEW having over 1.4 million viewers.

[Swarm]

I hope WWE puts a stop to booking their world champions as curtain jerkers. Cole vs Riddle went on first when it should have gone on last. They routinely do this w Kofi and Rollins too. Then trot them all out later in the show a second or third time anyways. Your champ should be special, on last and on only once.

[MonkeyDBain]

Just watched AEW... .... very disappointed. Looked and felt live WCW in the '90s. Completely underwhelmed. The opening match is Cody "No lat name needed" vs a no-name wearing a panda head??? Bad way to start off. Pac and Page was alright, women's match was OK, glad Riho won, the other girl is not "TV-friendly", MJF and the bald guy was ok. The constant attacks were pointless and way overused.


Honestly... I am just so let down. I hope next week is better.