Jan 30, 2022 20:50:40 GMT Ed said:

Jan 30, 2022 20:46:00 GMT NATH45 said:

You've summed up the complaint perfectly. Rapid-fast build with little depth and blown off within a few weeks with a forgettable gimmick match even Hangman won't remember he was in.

Page just went to war with Danielson. What would you have him do next?

The problem isn't Archer, it's how quickly it escalates to a Texas Death Match, with no pay-off.

There's a magnitude of complaints that " WWE can't build new stars " neither can AEW. Rather than build a rivalry over a few months, and perhaps put the champ in some peril to perhaps sell the obvious height, weight and power disparity between Page and Archer, and put over Archer as a killer instead of a midcarder.. and heighten the emotion with some dirty fighting during a traditional 1v1 encounter first, they instead go for broke and book the gimmick match out of the gate.

Page beats Archer, yes. But it's back to the lower card for the big man because the threat has been neutralised far too quickly and no one cares.

If Omas dropped Lashley tomorrow on RAW and they threw the two into an Extreme Rules match at Elimination Chamber. The world would up in arms about how Vince has lost his mind, and how a lack of long-term storytelling is what's missing in WWE today, and this is why they can't build new stars...

You see AEW is stupid for catering to their fans. They should cater to people who do not like the product and open in as many markets as possible until they can sell the company to Disney. Disney does not want a company doing death matches though, they are off brand. And cowboy shit? That is not PG. AEW needs to stop being an alternative product and just do whatever WWE is doing or they will never be successful. I mean how else will they be able to put on PPVs that have the universal acclaim that the Royal Rumble did?

Jan 30, 2022 21:34:07 GMT NATH45 said:

Jan 30, 2022 20:50:40 GMT Ed said:

Page just went to war with Danielson. What would you have him do next?

The problem isn't Archer, it's how quickly it escalates to a Texas Death Match, with no pay-off.

There's a magnitude of complaints that " WWE can't build new stars " neither can AEW. Rather than build a rivalry over a few months, and perhaps put the champ in some peril to perhaps sell the obvious height, weight and power disparity between Page and Archer, and put over Archer as a killer instead of a midcarder.. and heighten the emotion with some dirty fighting during a traditional 1v1 encounter first, they instead go for broke and book the gimmick match out of the gate.

Page beats Archer, yes. But it's back to the lower card for the big man because the threat has been neutralised far too quickly and no one cares.

If Omas dropped Lashley tomorrow on RAW and they threw the two into an Extreme Rules match at Elimination Chamber. The world would up in arms about how Vince has lost his mind, and how a lack of long-term storytelling is what's missing in WWE today, and this is why they can't build new stars...

Agreed. This is all true. You've turned me onto your side.

AEW does this "Monster of the Week" booking a lot. Every major Lance Archer feud is the same. He wrecks some jobbers, looks like a beast, then loses to some top star in a predictable match. Why is it predictable? Because he never wins a big match. There's no peril whatsoever. But I don't know how you can force peril in a Lance Archer vs Hangman Page feud. The result is always going to be obvious. So they're booking to have a good old hardcore rules match instead of booking a match with any jeopardy.

I guess you don't book Archer vs Page in the first place. I've been ranting about AEW being too predictable, and this is one of the most predictable matches you can have. So what's the point?

Jan 30, 2022 22:25:19 GMT c said:

You see AEW is stupid for catering to their fans. They should cater to people who do not like the product and open in as many markets as possible until they can sell the company to Disney. Disney does not want a company doing death matches though, they are off brand. And cowboy shit? That is not PG. AEW needs to stop being an alternative product and just do whatever WWE is doing or they will never be successful. I mean how else will they be able to put on PPVs that have the universal acclaim that the Royal Rumble did?

How's that going?

Rampage has been bleeding viewership for the last 6 months, and is barely scrapping past NXT 2.0 these days.

AEW fans aren't even watching AEW like they used to.

Talk to me when AEW puts 40-something-thousand in an arena catering to its key demo.

Jan 31, 2022 0:08:04 GMT NATH45 said:

Jan 30, 2022 22:25:19 GMT c said:

You see AEW is stupid for catering to their fans. They should cater to people who do not like the product and open in as many markets as possible until they can sell the company to Disney. Disney does not want a company doing death matches though, they are off-brand. And cowboy shit? That is not PG. AEW needs to stop being an alternative product and just do whatever WWE is doing or they will never be successful. I mean how else will they be able to put on PPVs that have the universal acclaim that the Royal Rumble did?

How's that going?

Rampage has been bleeding viewership for the last 6 months and is barely scraping past NXT 2.0 these days.

AEW fans aren't even watching AEW like they used to.

Talk to me when AEW puts 40-something-thousand in an arena catering to its key demo.

I don't believe it would matter. You'd still find something to chastise AEW valid or not.

It's always open slather on WWE, I'm just balancing out the bullshit.

If WWE put on a show that people enjoyed they would not have these problems. Looks like new management is coming in the near future so maybe this will not be a problem much longer.  Sure the hardcore WWE fans will enjoy Disney Presents WWE.

Jan 31, 2022 2:22:58 GMT NATH45 said:

It's always open slather on WWE, I'm just balancing out the bullshit.

You opine on the shortcomings of AEW constantly. Every once in a while you say something positive not to sound as angry or cheeky about the product. Not solely but, primarily to combat loyal extremists on Twitter. Take a fair number of those views and drag them here and throw them in the pot and act like everybody in the AEW audience has rose-colored glasses with hive minds. Almost anything good said about AEW is deemed as many fans drinking the TK Kool-Aid. That's what I call overcompensating, bud.

I've just written a post gushing over AEW's booking so here are three things I don't like so much about AEW.

1. The commentary. Well, the commentary as a whole is pretty good. But their obsession with nagging wrestlers about how to pin other wrestlers in the correct way is infuriating. As if a near fall would have miraculously been a three count if the pinfall was a little more snug. That's not how it works. Normally I wouldn't care but literally every single near fall in every single match, Tony or JR makes a little snide comment to this effect. It's irritating.

2. MJF's feuds. Cody Rhodes. Chris Jericho. CM Punk. Now Wardlow. Four big feuds in a row dragged out with MJF's enemy running the gauntlet, MJF's enemy predictably destroying everyone, then MJF giving them a match. Is it a winning formula or lazy writing? I'm leaning more towards the latter. Although to give some credit I think this Wardlow version is more logical and more over than the previous three.

3. Overuse of dated heel tactics, such as predictable gang beatdowns, and the interference-low blow-finisher method of winning matches.

May 7, 2022 13:45:08 GMT Emperor said:

1. The commentary. Well, the commentary as a whole is pretty good. But their obsession with nagging wrestlers about how to pin other wrestlers in the correct way is infuriating. As if a near fall would have miraculously been a three count if the pinfall was a little more snug. That's not how it works. Normally I wouldn't care but literally every single near fall in every single match, Tony or JR makes a little snide comment to this effect. It's irritating.

I think they're going for two things here:

1) They're trying to protect the legitimacy of the move. By pointing out a flaw in the cover, it takes the focus away from them kicking out of a potential finisher.

2) They're trying to make it like a sports like coverage where they analyse why certain plays aren't as effective as they ought to be.

The commentary is a real mixed bag. JR is one of my all-time favourite callers but he's all about selling the story and emotion of the show and AEW is dripping with so much irony and fan-service that there's seldom few talents JR can really get behind. Excalibur works better as the voice of AEW but he has the tendency to talk too much which is an issue all the commentators have. I find Schiavone kind of pointless on commentary and the less said about Jericho the better...

May 7, 2022 13:45:08 GMT Emperor said:

2. MJF's feuds. Cody Rhodes. Chris Jericho. CM Punk. Now Wardlow. Four big feuds in a row dragged out with MJF's enemy running the gauntlet, MJF's enemy predictably destroying everyone, then MJF giving them a match. Is it a winning formula or lazy writing? I'm leaning more towards the latter. Although to give some credit I think this Wardlow version is more logical and more over than the previous three.

Yeah, it's pretty lazy booking. Still, outside of the Jericho feud, those maybe the best feuds the company ever put together. It's an issue across the board where rivalries rarely get the time or memorable creative to really get over. The only other feud I can think of is Page/Omega and that had so many false starts and slow boring bits that it didn't quite come off as a home-run for me.

May 7, 2022 13:45:08 GMT Emperor said:

3. Overuse of dated heel tactics, such as predictable gang beatdowns, and the interference-low blow-finisher method of winning matches.

Is it that big a problem? I can really only think of the Britt Baker/Thunder Rosa match which indeed sucked. I think the worst instance was actually at Revolution '21 when Moxley/Omega killed themselves in that Barb Wire match only for The Good Brothers to shuffle out for a really underwhelming finish.

Can someone point a non-viewer into what they are mentioning with the pins? Is it bullshit WWE does with hooking the leg?

Yep, exactly. Not hooking the leg. The other big one is if they spend more than a second making a cover after hitting a move, Tony will jabber on about how it would have been three if they didn't spend that time.

May 7, 2022 15:44:18 GMT Big Pete said:

1) They're trying to protect the legitimacy of the move. By pointing out a flaw in the cover, it takes the focus away from them kicking out of a potential finisher.

2) They're trying to make it like a sports like coverage where they analyse why certain plays aren't as effective as they ought to be.

I understand the rationale, and it would be fine if they did it once in a while, maybe once or twice a show, but it's literally every near fall, because they can't think of any other way to talk about a near fall.

If it's a deliberately lazy cover like the ones Lance Archer does, I would completely understand, but if it's a normal cover where they didn't hook a leg, or hooked one leg instead of two legs, then shut the hell up. They would have kicked out no matter how they covered.

May 7, 2022 15:44:18 GMT Big Pete said:

The commentary is a real mixed bag. JR is one of my all-time favourite callers but he's all about selling the story and emotion of the show and AEW is dripping with so much irony and fan-service that there's seldom few talents JR can really get behind. Excalibur works better as the voice of AEW but he has the tendency to talk too much which is an issue all the commentators have. I find Schiavone kind of pointless on commentary and the less said about Jericho the better...

Pretty much agreed. I do feel JR's struggle to latch onto anything, most of the product is simply too new-school for him. Excalibur is great in that Michael Cole voice of the company type way. Punk and Regal are great when they commentate. Regal really does bring that sports like coverage and he even provided a fresh take on sloppy pinfall covers in his last visit.

May 7, 2022 15:44:18 GMT Big Pete said:

Is it that big a problem? I can really only think of the Britt Baker/Thunder Rosa match which indeed sucked. I think the worst instance was actually at Revolution '21 when Moxley/Omega killed themselves in that Barb Wire match only for The Good Brothers to shuffle out for a really underwhelming finish.

Just in the past week you had Jay White interfere so that Adam Cole could low blow Ishii and hit his finisher. Which is the finish of almost every Adam Cole match, just replacing Jay White with some other member of his group. Then on Dynamite, Jericho did exactly the same thing to Santana. We haven't seen it in a while but before Wardlow left MJF won every match with the Diamond Ring punch. That's just off the top of my head.

Not only is it lazy to book the same finish for every heel win, I don't subscribe to the rationale that heels have to cheat to win all the time. Heels can be great wrestlers who break the rules during the match to help them get that extra edge, but can also win without the direct result of a cheat. Jade Cargill wins clean all the time and she doesn't lose any of her heel-ness for doing so. Ideal heel booking is how Jay White was booked in NJPW. He only cheated to win one time, pinning Ibushi with his foot on the ropes in a high stakes match, and that was a big fucking deal because it was the only time he blatantly cheated to win, and it was awesome because it was a surprise.

Clearly that's a point where the old school guys like Jericho, JR, and Sting disagree.

Too many big landscape changing debuts that Tony has no idea what to do with after the initial debut. It doesn't matter how many major people you sign if you don't have any plans for them in atleast one month preferable three months don't hire them.

You got Keith Lee a person a lot of people though was going to a big deal in WWE but was missed handled on the main roster. He is book in a tag team with a more charismatic partner on the B show sometimes. And while I like them booking wise against low midcarders in Team Taz. One of the greatest world champion in a promotion that you now own in Jay Lethal barely gets on tv and when he does he loses. Ruby was the talk for a few weeks before she disappeared to dark. Toni buzz lasted one week.

Tony is a great promoter because he makes you excited on their debut. But a weak booker because the longer they are there the least you care.

Fair enough on all the other replies, I just wanted to respond to this in particular:

May 7, 2022 17:01:17 GMT Emperor said:

Just in the past week you had Jay White interfere so that Adam Cole could low blow Ishii and hit his finisher. Which is the finish of almost every Adam Cole match, just replacing Jay White with some other member of his group. Then on Dynamite, Jericho did exactly the same thing to Santana. We haven't seen it in a while but before Wardlow left MJF won every match with the Diamond Ring punch. That's just off the top of my head.

This reminds me of a discussion we had years ago when FTR debuted. The story they were trying to get across is that FTR were this amazing tag team but that was in direct conflict with their matches where they constantly relied on Tully to bail them out. Now the reason they did that was to get over as heels, but I don't think fans respond to that anymore. So they essentially just buried themselves and failed to create interest in their own act. Now that they've moved on from Tully, there's suddenly interest in FTR again and they're generating all this buzz online.

Similarly with Cole and while I think the Ishii finish was done to placate NJPW, you're right as far as him doing these heel bits from time to time. The problem is I don't think it really generates any heat and if anything fans are constantly looking forward to him getting kissed on the cheek or doing the 'bay bay' pose.

I think it's done out of this sense that they have to follow this old school mentality, but they break so many rules it feels pointless. It's like having a feast of KFC, McDonalds and Pizza Hut but you ordered a Diet Coke so that means you're on a diet...

May 7, 2022 17:20:26 GMT X-zero said:

Too many big landscape changing debuts that Tony has no idea what to do with after the initial debut. It doesn't matter how many major people you sign if you don't have any plans for them in atleast one month preferable three months don't hire them.

You got Keith Lee a person a lot of people though was going to a big deal in WWE but was missed handled on the main roster. He is book in a tag team with a more charismatic partner on the B show sometimes. And while I like them booking wise against low midcarders in Team Taz. One of the greatest world champion in a promotion that you now own in Jay Lethal barely gets on tv and when he does he loses. Ruby was the talk for a few weeks before she disappeared to dark. Toni buzz lasted one week.

Tony is a great promoter because he makes you excited on their debut. But a weak booker because the longer they are there the least you care.

It has to come down to their booking process.

The way that I imagine it, they have a pretty good grasp of their World, Tag and Women's Championships. Everything outside of that, the talent is pitching to TK and he's trying to fit it all in two week lots. Then in the back of TK's mind, he's keeping note of who is off contract and who he can bring into the company or the next venture and he'll jump towards that. Then when there's about four weeks until a PPV, he'll start assembling the best card he can get.

That's not a knock, but I don't think he's sitting there thinking about the finer points about what Ruby Soho's 2023 is going to look like.

May 7, 2022 17:20:26 GMT X-zero said:

Too many big landscape changing debuts that Tony has no idea what to do with after the initial debut. It doesn't matter how many major people you sign if you don't have any plans for them in atleast one month preferable three months don't hire them.

You got Keith Lee a person a lot of people though was going to a big deal in WWE but was missed handled on the main roster. He is book in a tag team with a more charismatic partner on the B show sometimes. And while I like them booking wise against low midcarders in Team Taz. One of the greatest world champion in a promotion that you now own in Jay Lethal barely gets on tv and when he does he loses. Ruby was the talk for a few weeks before she disappeared to dark. Toni buzz lasted one week.

Tony is a great promoter because he makes you excited on their debut. But a weak booker because the longer they are there the least you care.

I disagree.

The fact of the matter is, not everybody can be a star. Not everyone who walks through the door can be a main eventer, it doesn't work like that. If everybody is treated like they're special then nobody is special. I don't think there's a real problem with hoW AEW books new talent.

Keith Lee has been booked just right. He's nowhere near a CM Punk or Brian Danielson star. He's not even on Adam Cole's level. And quite frankly, I think Mr. Lee has been underperforming compared to how he was in NXT/WWE. Not just in the ring but on the mic. He seems to be phoning it in a little. I know he's had his health issues and that surely impacts his performance, but I think he's in the right place on the card.

He came in like a semi-big deal, qualified for that Ladder match, then lost. Now he's in an interesting midcard feud teaming with Swerve against Team Taz. Not a bad gig. It's not AEW's fault that Swerve is more interesting in every way. Also for what it's worth, Starks/Hobbs vs Lee/Swerve is the best AEW match I've seen for several months.

Jay Lethal...yeah, he's not been treated so great, but at least he's in a storyline with the tall Indian guy as opposed to doing nothing like Tony Neese.

Toni Storm. They're deliberately keeping her cool until her match with Hayter. I expect her to go far in the tournament, she might even win it. Personally I don't see anything special in Toni Storm but she's always been booked very strongly in past companies and I expect no difference here.

The problem is the fans. Fans talk themselves into thinking every mid carder in WWE is held back by creative so that expect different things when they go AEW. Aleister Black, Keith Lee, Ruby Soho, are examples of this. It isn’t really Khan’s fault, he’s going to hype everyone up as he should. I think wrestling fans are starting to realise not everyone can carry the star power of Roman Reigns, CM Punk, etc.

May 7, 2022 18:40:55 GMT Todd said:

The problem is the fans. Fans talk themselves into thinking every mid carder in WWE is held back by creative so that expect different things when they go AEW. Aleister Black, Keith Lee, Ruby Soho, are examples of this. It isn’t really Khan’s fault, he’s going to hype everyone up as he should. I think wrestling fans are starting to realise not everyone can carry the star power of Roman Reigns, CM Punk, etc.

To an extent, but there's definitely what I like to call a 'new toy' issue with AEW where they'll often sign talent only to forget about them in favour of their new signing. So what you end up with is a roster that isn't as hot as it should be.

The House of Black is a great example of this. Not only with Malakai, but then Brody King followed by Buddy Murphy. I'm not sure about you guys but this Varsity Blondes storyline is dire.

The Varsity Blondes storyline is not bad on paper, the only problem is that Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison are awful and don't have a shred of credibility. However I am really intrigued by the Julia Hart arc which is the main purpose of the Varsity Blondes storyline. It's a slow burn that's running in the background while House of Black have their real feud with Death Triangle. Hart is doing great in this role, especially considering how young she is. Personally I hope she goes to the dark side and becomes evil Julia Hart.

Speaking of which, that's one really uninteresting rivalry, which is shocking considering I like or love most of the talent involved. Now that Fenix is back they really need to have the blowoff trios match and move on.

Emperor that was a point I raised with NXT talent debuting on the main roster. The expectations were, every one from NXT was destined for the main roster main event. And for a while there, the quality and the level of talent was incredibly high to the point where this expectation wasn't far from reality.

But the point being, certain guys are only ever going to be, and were only ever planned to be mid-card guys. And there's nothing wrong with that.

I think Lee is perfectly positioned in the mid-card. He's not nearly as talented as suggested. If he were 250lbs working the way he does, he'd barely get a look in. And that's probably the biggest issue. He's popping the crowd with a few 'athletic' spots when he should go back to the comment Big Show made about Undertaker chewing him out for not 'working like a giant' and learn something here.

A guy his size shouldn't be running the ropes and hitting crossbodies, he should be smashing and stacking corpses. He needs to watch some Brock matches.

Similarly, Wardlows hitting huricarannas and swanton bombs.. man, hes 270lbs, this guy is your Roman Reigns/Drew McIntyre/Randy Orton type - he shouldn't need to throw his body off the ropes with a leap of faith to get a pinfall even against a bigger opponent.

May 7, 2022 19:29:22 GMT Big Pete said:

May 7, 2022 18:40:55 GMT Todd said:

The problem is the fans. Fans talk themselves into thinking every mid carder in WWE is held back by creative so that expect different things when they go AEW. Aleister Black, Keith Lee, Ruby Soho, are examples of this. It isn’t really Khan’s fault, he’s going to hype everyone up as he should. I think wrestling fans are starting to realise not everyone can carry the star power of Roman Reigns, CM Punk, etc.

To an extent, but there's definitely what I like to call a 'new toy' issue with AEW where they'll often sign talent only to forget about them in favour of their new signing. So what you end up with is a roster that isn't as hot as it should be.

The House of Black is a great example of this. Not only with Malakai, but then Brody King followed by Buddy Murphy. I'm not sure about you guys but this Varsity Blondes storyline is dire.

I can only imagine, the second someone signs, they're sent to Yukes for a body scan to fill the video game roster.

A theory as to why AEW is signing so many guys is to get notable and recognisable talent into the game.

May 7, 2022 21:57:47 GMT NATH45 said:

I think Lee is perfectly positioned in the mid-card. He's not nearly as talented as suggested. If he were 250lbs working the way he does, he'd barely get a look in. And that's probably the biggest issue. He's popping the crowd with a few 'athletic' spots when he should go back to the comment Big Show made about Undertaker chewing him out for not 'working like a giant' and learn something here.

A guy his size shouldn't be running the ropes and hitting crossbodies, he should be smashing and stacking corpses. He needs to watch some Brock matches.

Similarly, Wardlows hitting huricarannas and swanton bombs.. man, hes 270lbs, this guy is your Roman Reigns/Drew McIntyre/Randy Orton type - he shouldn't need to throw his body off the ropes with a leap of faith to get a pinfall even against a bigger opponent.

I agree to an extent. Keith Lee just does it for the sake of doing it, to pop the crowd, just to show he can. There's no purpose beyond that.

Wardlow doesn't do it because he can, but because it's a way for him to catch out opponents who he can't overpower. Lance Archer, Morrissey, and so on. Against smaller guys he doesn't do that, he just beats them up then hits a few powerbombs. Also his Hurricanrana, Swanton and Moonsault all look really good, it's great to watch, when it makes sense. But I wouldn't want him doing it every match.

I honestly think Wardlow is one of AEW's absolute best assets, who has purposely been kept under the shadows until now. He has it all. He's a star in the making. The promo he cut after turning on MJF shows that he can talk well. The MJF feud should elevate him to the top of the card. It's his Batista/Triple H moment. I'm sure he'll deliver.

May 8, 2022 0:37:21 GMT Emperor said:

May 7, 2022 21:57:47 GMT NATH45 said:

I think Lee is perfectly positioned in the mid-card. He's not nearly as talented as suggested. If he were 250lbs working the way he does, he'd barely get a look in. And that's probably the biggest issue. He's popping the crowd with a few 'athletic' spots when he should go back to the comment Big Show made about Undertaker chewing him out for not 'working like a giant' and learn something here.

A guy his size shouldn't be running the ropes and hitting crossbodies, he should be smashing and stacking corpses. He needs to watch some Brock matches.

Similarly, Wardlows hitting huricarannas and swanton bombs.. man, hes 270lbs, this guy is your Roman Reigns/Drew McIntyre/Randy Orton type - he shouldn't need to throw his body off the ropes with a leap of faith to get a pinfall even against a bigger opponent.

I agree to an extent. Keith Lee just does it for the sake of doing it, to pop the crowd, just to show he can. There's no purpose beyond that.

Wardlow doesn't do it because he can, but because it's a way for him to catch out opponents who he can't overpower. Lance Archer, Morrissey, and so on. Against smaller guys he doesn't do that, he just beats them up then hits a few powerbombs. Also his Hurricanrana, Swanton and Moonsault all look really good, it's great to watch, when it makes sense. But I wouldn't want him doing it every match.

I honestly think Wardlow is one of AEW's absolute best assets, who has purposely been kept under the shadows until now. He has it all. He's a star in the making. The promo he cut after turning on MJF shows that he can talk well. The MJF feud should elevate him to the top of the card. It's his Batista/Triple H moment. I'm sure he'll deliver.

Wardlow could be a massive deal. He's a " WWE type " guy - big, impressive, athletic dude with presence. Exactly who AEW needs to build.

If in 18 months, Wardlow isn't the World Champion and the belt has just been passed around by The Elite, then they've missed a massive opportunity.

May 7, 2022 19:53:11 GMT Emperor said:

The Varsity Blondes storyline is not bad on paper, the only problem is that Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison are awful and don't have a shred of credibility. However I am really intrigued by the Julia Hart arc which is the main purpose of the Varsity Blondes storyline. It's a slow burn that's running in the background while House of Black have their real feud with Death Triangle. Hart is doing great in this role, especially considering how young she is. Personally I hope she goes to the dark side and becomes evil Julia Hart.

Speaking of which, that's one really uninteresting rivalry, which is shocking considering I like or love most of the talent involved. Now that Fenix is back they really need to have the blowoff trios match and move on.

It comes across like The Undertaker feuding with Deuce and Domino for months and barely doing anything else all to get Cherry to join his posse. If they did it over the course of a few weeks it would be fine but it's been allowed to meander and it's done nothing for Black.

I legit thought they dropped the angle and forgot to tell Julia Hart.

May 7, 2022 19:29:22 GMT Big Pete said:

May 7, 2022 18:40:55 GMT Todd said:

The problem is the fans. Fans talk themselves into thinking every mid carder in WWE is held back by creative so that expect different things when they go AEW. Aleister Black, Keith Lee, Ruby Soho, are examples of this. It isn’t really Khan’s fault, he’s going to hype everyone up as he should. I think wrestling fans are starting to realise not everyone can carry the star power of Roman Reigns, CM Punk, etc.

To an extent, but there's definitely what I like to call a 'new toy' issue with AEW where they'll often sign talent only to forget about them in favour of their new signing. So what you end up with is a roster that isn't as hot as it should be.

The House of Black is a great example of this. Not only with Malakai, but then Brody King followed by Buddy Murphy. I'm not sure about you guys but this Varsity Blondes storyline is dire.

I agree, I guess my point is that they’re two separate issues. The main issue is the roster is too big and he keeps adding to it, so most people coming in end up irrelevant quickly because they aren’t part of the immediate plans. Khan needs to reassess recruitment because it’s at loggerheads with his booking approach. He books long segments and mostly singles feuds, this is not conducive to maximising a large roster. The roster is way too big and there’s no doubt that the big AEW debut spot has been bastardised and lost its effectiveness.

Looking at it from their perspective they would probably consider this a transitional period. Not only with the talent that they've signed but the deals they've made with the Owen Hart Foundation, Sinclair and NJPW. So not only do they have to promote all their talent, they also have to promote those ventures as well so some talent is going to get lost in the shuffle and mistakes will be made. I don't think they'd view it as a problem but in six months time they're going to look at this period and wonder how they were able to juggle all that stuff. Hopefully by then ROH has a deal, the NJPW-AEW relationship is strong and the talent is connecting more and more with the audience setting up some more Danielson-Page and Punk-MJF style must-see matches.

What is Tony Khan trying to do on the ropes? :laughy:

Probably gonna do a terrible job of articulating this, but I think AEW is hitting the point where it needs dedicated bookers/some sort of creative who aren't part of the locker room.

I'm thinking of the backstage stories where talent basically has to pitch their own angles and for the most part wrestlers seem to be in charge of their own careers which is great and awesome and all, but there's also a risk of stagnation. Jericho is happy to reinvent himself every like four years but Adam Cole is still doing his BayBay schtick (didn't he have that pre-NXT?) and for being one of the young developing Pillars Jungle Boy should have grown more than he has IMO.

I dunno if I really like super-Karen Bayley but for better or worse you had an outside opinion telling her when it was time to switch up and try something new. She probably would have been perfectly content being Hugger Bayley forever but hard to say that would have been best for her career. Sometimes you need someone to shake you out of your rut.