AEW - All Elite Wrestling (*Spoilers for Latest Show*)

CastorTroy

What was the reason for Lio being let go by WWE? Attitude, comments or accusations?

Headshot

You know I'm so happy for Kingston, this guy toiled and grinded years in the indies and finally getting his chance at a major company during pandemic and it's the first time since been with AEW to have such a big crowd and boy did they love him

So happy for Kingston, one of my favorite guys in AEW

Agent Coulson

Cody's open challenge gave use Ricky Starks and Eddie Kingston and both grabbed that chance.

J. Marston

CastorTroy wrote: »

What was the reason for Lio being let go by WWE? Attitude, comments or accusations?

Supposedly attitude.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2895024-lio-rush-posts-email-he-sent-to-wwe-management-about-hazing

I'd have doubts about it being racially motivated but I can understand both sides. It's no harm to help out a bit as the new guy and make a good impression and carrying some stuff really shouldn't be a big deal.

However, he's a young guy probably on a low end NXT contract with 3 kids, paying for travel and accommodation so being expected to buy rounds and rounds of drinks for the senior wrestlers is probably gonna sting him a little more than the big earners.

Could he have sucked it up, bought some drinks and played nice? Probably but I also admire him a little for telling them to go and shíte.

Lithium93_

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

But ... and I might as well spoiler it

Is Mark Henry great talent?

:pac:

Well that depends on the person's perspective. Not everyone's going to set the wrestling world alight are they?

Though his power & weight lifting far outweigh what he's done in WWF/WWE. But that's my opinion.

Lithium93_

It ran with me watching last night, Brodie Lee should've been around to experience Double Or Nothing with a crowd, seeing as he was robbed of it when he debuted last March.

beakerjoe

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

But ... and I might as well spoiler it

Is Mark Henry great talent?

:pac:

I suppose how to define talent.

I'll tell you one thing, hes an asset behind the scenes. Hes responsible for finding Jade Cargill, Braun Strowman, Montez Ford and Bianca Belair.

The man is a fairly good talent spotter. It wont hurt to have him around in a Paul Wight type role.

Headshot

What I really appreciate, AEW keeping new signings a secret

I never saw Mark Henry or Lio Rush coming, just blows my mind how secretive they are.

I'm always really exciting to see who'll come out from the tunnel

Headshot

https://twitter.com/i/status/1399174415422742545

So smooth

The White Wolf

I liked how Caster didn't have the neck to diss Willie Hobbs.

ThePott

Ooof Mark Henry and Lio Rush in the same company again. I do like some Lio Rush though, interested to see what they do with him.

Really solid PPV. Opener was great, interested to see where Team Tazz goes now and hope this is the start of Hangman moving towards taking the title of Kenny. Bucks match for me was a bit much, too much shenanigans but it did have it's moments. Happy that Jungle Boy won, they have someone there they can strap a rocket to whenever. Glad Max Caster is getting pops, I mentioned not too long ago that the Acclaimed will be over AF with crowds. Miro and Archer was great and well paced, hope they don't forget about Archer again though. Sting/Darby match was all about seeing that the man can still go and he could which is awesome. That being said kinda feel like the Darby and Sting stuff has run it's course imo. Title match was excellent overall even thought I thought all the interference ruined it a little. When OC does eventually get the title the place will explode.

Quibbles and complaints.
Cody match was muck. Found the Shida/Britt match underwhelming unfortunately. Stadium Stampede was decent but way too long and I feel like we've moved on from cinematic matches a bit, definitely as a closer it left a lot to be desired. Felt bad for the crowd who really only got a short Spears/Sammy match.

I'm also not sure how I feel about how many false finishes there were on the show, a lot of finisher spamming. Normally that doesn't bother me but it did bug me a little at times here. I'm also not sure about having all the champions be heels, not sure how it will work even though I could see a turn coming for Britt.

Monokne

Enjoyed this show.

Bucks are so much better as heels. They are naturally unlikable so not having to sell and generate sympathy is a huge improvement. Real good match.

Enjoyed the opener. The heat of a real live crowd was so novel.

Cody-Ogogo was about as good as could be expected. Right man won.

Battle Royal finished well. Nice match.

Womens title match was a little flat, nothing special. Britt feels like a star coming out of it.

The three way was nice for what it was but much too long. I know most don't feel this but I just can't take anything with Orange Cassidy seriously so it's hard to watch him in such a long match.

I hated stadium stampede. It was so tone deaf. War Games was so gritty and real feeling, there was a sense of genuine hate. To have the same guys doing comedy sketches for half an hour was stupid beyond belief. MJF & Jericho especially felt like such geeks during this. I can't believe Max allowed himself be presented like this. I knocked it off before the end.

Sting & Darby tag was probably the highlight. Really good match.

titan18

After watching it, that was great. The only poor/meh match was Cody - Ogogo imo but everything else was fantastic or had some fantastic moments.

The crowd really helped here too as they were so pumped for it. The reactions to Sammy and Jungle Boy were huge. Crowd singing Judas like that with The Inner Circle after Sammy wins was just electric imo.

I'd see last night as a huge positive for AEW and their future. I know you have people going TNA with the Mark Henry signing, but last night you had Sammy, Jungle Boy, Hangman Page, Darby and Orange Cassidy getting huge reactions and outside of that you have Starks, Ethan Page, MJF, Max Caster who are all young, talented and being given great opportunities here. They are building an insane amount of talent to carry this company imo and have the vets to help them (Jericho, Sting, Christian, Henry are all great people to learn from). Their women's division is picking up too and doesn't need to rely on Shida carrying it like during the pandemic anymore.

Enjoyed the show overall but thought stadium stampede was muck. I understand doing the match last year with no fans but doing it as the main event in the first show back with a full crowd? I was just so bored watching it after a really enjoyable show up until that point.

Page Vs Cage match of the night for me.

Also it was great seeing Sting in the ring again and moving around well.

Sirsok

Best PPV I have seen in years.

Loved Stadoum Stampeded

Loved Sting

Some matches sover delivered.

After the damp squib of last few ppv for me,this well and truly was excellent and what wrestling is all about.

Maybe too much interference. Most matches had a run in or someone on the outside, but when you build up factions you can kinda understand it.

RollieFingers

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Ye... This is proper pro wrestling again.

Great to have it back, pro-wrestling always trumps sports entertainment.

Cage/Page, the tag titles and the world title match were the highlights for me, everything else was very solid too.

The crowd, some wrestlers having licensed music, the rough around the edges, anything can happen WCW feel to proceedings makes AEW a very enjoyable watch for a pro-wrestling fan, it feels real and not sanitised and in it's own stupid universe like other companies. Easy show of the year so far.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

Great to have it back, pro-wrestling always trumps sports entertainment.

Cage/Page, the tag titles and the world title match were the highlights for me, everything else was very solid too.

The crowd, some wrestlers having licensed music, the rough around the edges, anything can happen WCW feel to proceedings makes AEW a very enjoyable watch for a pro-wrestling fan, it feels real and not sanitised and in it's own stupid universe like other companies. Easy show of the year so far.

Man I'd say combined level of sleep over the weekend was about 6 hours, the show didn't end til 5am, up for work Monday morning, but I was on an absolute high all day. It barely seemed real, that an actual real wrestling show happened the night before, with fans, with reactions, with wrestlers trying to outperform each other to pop the crowd, and the show itself was tremendous! It was like after 15 months of making the best of a bad situation, that the show was almost a fever dream.

And the show was a reward, a reward for everyone who stuck with it during the pandemic. A reward for the wrestlers who can't have had it easy performing in front of no, or limited, fans and a reward for Tony Khan who has somehow managed to get a bunch of guys over despite there being no crowd to react to them on a weekly basis, the reactions those guys got at DON will have been sweet vindication of his booking.

And according to Meltzer, the ppv has done well. He's indicated it outdrew last years DON (which was one of their highest ever drawing ppvs).

Agent Coulson

https://twitter.com/TheLionelGreen/status/1399470129839177729?s=20

Really think Cody needs to turn heel. He was booed at revolution (when he did the injury sell on the ramp for ages) and there was silence for most of his match on Saturday. I think people are finally starting to turn on him.

CastorTroy

Some post Double or Nothing comments/interviews on Elevation.

Best thing about the episode was Jungle Boy's reaction to the live crowd. Could tell he was also wishing his dad could see it.

Rosa got a good reaction as well. And Tay who just looked delighted.

beakerjoe

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Man I'd say combined level of sleep over the weekend was about 6 hours, the show didn't end til 5am, up for work Monday morning, but I was on an absolute high all day. It barely seemed real, that an actual real wrestling show happened the night before, with fans, with reactions, with wrestlers trying to outperform each other to pop the crowd, and the show itself was tremendous! It was like after 15 months of making the best of a bad situation, that the show was almost a fever dream.

And the show was a reward, a reward for everyone who stuck with it during the pandemic. A reward for the wrestlers who can't have had it easy performing in front of no, or limited, fans and a reward for Tony Khan who has somehow managed to get a bunch of guys over despite there being no crowd to react to them on a weekly basis, the reactions those guys got at DON will have been sweet vindication of his booking.

And according to Meltzer, the ppv has done well. He's indicated it outdrew last years DON (which was one of their highest ever drawing ppvs).

Man I had to skip work, I was wrecked..... was ok by about 2am but still catching up on sleep.

Was it worth it? Just about.

But what did you make of Hook being boo'd.

grames_bond

CastorTroy wrote: »

Some post Double or Nothing comments/interviews on Elevation.

Best thing about the episode was Jungle Boy's reaction to the live crowd. Could tell he was also wishing his dad could see it.

Rosa got a good reaction as well. And Tay who just looked delighted.

Tay seems to relish the live crowd - completely bounced off them and I think it elevated (no pun intended) her in ring too performance!

LineOfBeauty

beakerjoe wrote: »

Man I had to skip work, I was wrecked..... was ok by about 2am but still catching up on sleep.

Was it worth it? Just about.

But what did you make of Hook being boo'd.

I will say because I'd been drinking during the day and took an hour nap before the show (missed the pre show) I anticipated disaster and that I'd have to watch it the next morning but I swear once I turned it on and that crowd was so hot for everything, I was engaged like the entire way through it, it literally gave me life.

Who boos the cute twink in the tank top? What are these people doing? Do they not realise the complete dearth of cute guy wrestlers on the North American scene like him? Bloody Florida.

Agent Coulson

Jericho say they brought in one of the stunt coordinators from the John Wick movies to help put Cinematic parts of Stadium Stampede together.

realhorrorshow

Was hoping Double or Nothing would be my first time watching AEW live but I had to be up at 6 the next day for work and so cooler heads prevailed. I did get to watch it in full and unspoiled the following morning which is nearly as good. While Dynamite has been consistently good to great, they haven't out on a banger PPV since I started watching (August 2020) IMO, but this very much hit the mark. I do think the amount of offence wrestlers are absorbing is silly at times and I wish they'd slow do a bit and sell, but this was so much fun it didn't bother me too much.

First match was great. Makes sense to put your most over wrestler out there immediately to hype the crowd. They put on a good match while being aware that they were there to build to a peak, not reach it straight out of the gate. Small thing but i like that Cage had a custom attire, made it feel like a big fight (see also Britt's custom glove). Not a fan of the story progression for Team Taz but if it gets them on TV and gets Ricky some promo time I'll live with it.

Thought the tag match was decent, nothing incredible. Really cool to see how over Eddie was in a tag team where he would on paper be the Jannetty.

Battle Royal was extremely meh until the final two, glad they gave us a satisfying conclusion to Jungle Boy's always the bridesmaid mini arc. Wanted Christian to go full heel at the end, his gimmick is boring and I think crowds will grow tired of him if he doesn't do something interesting with it soon.

Cody match was fine, Ogogo is honestly incredible for someone wrestling his fourth (?) match.

TNT title match was fun, Miro can get me to suspend my disbelief for long enough to believe that he is truly unhinged. So entertaining.

Women's title match was good but I thought it could be great, Britt deserves the title and should breathe life into the division. Shida is excellent but has been handled really badly by AEW tbh, you wouldn't see any other champ in the crowd beside Austin Gunn cheering for the face like a jabroni.

Sting/Darby Vs Men of the Year was better than I expected. Sting was clearly out to prove a point, put in a very good performance all things considered. Wasn't too bothered with Page previously but thought he was really good here, he and Darby have excellent chemistry. I assume they've worked together a lot on the Indies, I'd like to think Darby wouldn't let just anyone chuck him into the crowd like that.

Enjoyed the AEW title match, plenty of good spots and a just about tolerable amount of Good Brothers involvement. Omega was getting quite a few cheers so screwing over two well liked faces in that fashion should get him a bit of proper heat.

Stadium Stampede had its moments but I did find myself tuning out a bit. PnP and FTR brawling in a weird empty nightclub was brilliant in the most silly wrestling way. I think this sort of thing is best suited to a pre show but I understand why it went on last given the names involved and their obvious desire to send the crowd home happy. Bringing it back to the arena for the finish was a good decision.

All in all, a great PPV with no filler that never felt like a chore to watch (I gave Wrestlemania a chance but turned it off after 20 minutes of night 2). A definite raising of the bar from the pandemic era efforts.

Cherry_Cola

What a weekend, I am absolutely broken after it. 3 flights to get home yesterday and the final leg between Portland and Seattle (a 30 min flight) was delayed by 6 hours!

Anyway, before I make my AEW Dark debut tonight - here's some random thoughts!

The atmosphere and vibe at the shows overall was amazing, made tonnes of new friends and the craic in the bars near Dailys before the shows was great. One place had wrestler theme tunes looping and the whole place singing along.

There's so much that happened it'd be impossible to capture it all so will throw out the main things that stood out to me over the weekend.

Miro, the mad bastard - what a turnaround in general and I don't think people have seen half of it yet. At the Fan Fest there was a live version of the podcast and Kenny was in the last segment doing his bit. Completely unplanned, Miro comes out of the door that Mox enters through and ****s all over Kenny - with no mic or anything. It was def not planned as initially they thought it was a heckler as there was no mic for Miro Miro said how can a 160lb boy hold a heavyweight belt, repeatedly called him a bitch and said he'll take that belt too. It was amazing as Kenny had no idea what he was saying and it was kinda awkward but the crowd loved it. Also at the end they did a press conference and he cut a vicious promo on Archer and Jake. His promos are amazing and there's def a hint of Scott Steiner coming through them also. Looking forward to seeing what he does next and this is from someone who never cared much for him.

Leyla Hirsch - she is one of the soundest people and it's amazing how her character is as she's literally beaming all the time. She's a little tank. For a lot of them, particularly her, Max Caster and Bowens, you can see it's their dream playing out in front of them and they are relishing it. Met them all and they were great to chat to.

The reactions for Jungle Boy, The Acclaimed and Eddie Kingston were amazing live, JB was pretty emotional at the response on Dark elevation.

I ended up chatting to Darby for about 30 mins, we really hit it off and our discussion centered around.....Seattle property prices haha. He asked where I live in Seattle and when I told him he was like ****, that's a pricey place so he was interesting in learning what I do etc. Showed him by band and was asking if he directs any music vids as we're hoping to do something in Seattle once the restrictions are lifted for travel and he gave me his number and email and we agreed to follow up on it and chat more in the coming months so that was super cool of him.

I spoke to Shida in Japanese entirely and she was so excited! Talked about living in the US (as we both moved around the same time) and she was interested in my opinion of Tokyo from when I lived there. She's super happy in the US anyway and finds it more relaxing than chaotic Tokyo so it's a nice change of pace for her. She complimented my Japanese and she looked like a boss in the white suit.

I met Tony Schiavone! Absolute legend of a man, kinda cranky old man vibes off him when dealing with some of the creatures that frequent these things which made the wait kinda entertaining :pac:.

I got a tap on the shoulder at one point and turn around, it's -1! He said he would like me in the Dark Order - so I guess it's official now?! Preston was with him and he was just going around chatting to random people and viewing the memorabilia set up they had for Brodie.

Miro and I talked video games for ages and he said I should be a wrestler which was cool! He gave some workout and diet advice and said I had a perfect look for wrestling. I told him I had a bucket list item to do one match at some point so I'll look into it more for the laugh.

Riho/Deeb was a great match and was cool to see them both enjoy the reaction they got.

Some of the finishes were hard to follow from a crowd perspective - the world title match was one. They don't use the screen a whole lot to show the crowd what's going on which was a little weak.

One major area where the ball was dropped was merch - there was feck all specific wrestler merch - most was generic event shirts. The amount of money left on the table there was astounding. I was ready to drop coin on a whole bunch of stuff but there really was nothing worthwhile. The only wrestler specific shirts they had were Brodie Lee, and then the Big Show shirt (which was selling for a tenner as it's like UHT milk - no demand for it cos it's ****e!)

Flying back yesterday morning - Hangman as mentioned was on my flight and we had a brief chat, he's super sound and approachable. He said he was delighted to have the crowds back and he was very happy with the match with Cage but was feeling it a little. Mark Sterling was sitting next to me at the airport and we talked figures and the podcast for a while. Nice guy. Isaiah Cassidy and Solow were on my flight also but didn't chat to them.

Regarding Dark tonight, I'm front row next to the entrance on the stage - Colt chats to me during the DO entrance and Jack Evans screams at me to cut my hair - a chant I turned against him when he loses. Hopefully they captured it well!

Tonnes I'm probably missing but if anyone has any questions, let me know. Blast of pics here too:

https://i.imgur.com/TjVj3bZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/i8kbpyi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/woC4F15.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lWKfzLl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/btfplIc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/K235nYv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/vAyWRZa.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DhAtIKx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jXRCvyu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5d3cncy.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/USEgpL6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/BUAUa7E.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Q7mVuiK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6uHHE0z.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Iq1clRt.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OZMeAf3.jpg

Lithium93_

Was the pop for Hangman as loud or louder in the arena, compared to those watching at home on TV?

Whenever AEW do get to running shows around to world, it's definitely top of my bucket list.....

Cherry_Cola

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Was the pop for Hangman as loud or louder in the arena, compared to those watching at home on TV?

Whenever AEW do get to running shows around to world, it's definitely top of my bucket list.....

Watching the show back, everything was way louder in person. It wasn't for lack of trying either, there was at least 6 different crowd mics set up (that weren't there for Dynamite). The pop for Sting diving off the stage was insane also. Hangman did get a huge reaction for sure.

CastorTroy

You got a Hook photo for LOB, but did you tell Tay I was asking for her?

I'm curious what kind of reaction did Abaddon get?

Glad you enjoyed it anyway and seemed to make the most of it.

Now the question is, will you be one of the Dark Order minions we don't see any more, masked like 5 and 10 or unmasked like the others?

Cherry_Cola

CastorTroy wrote: »

You got a Hook photo for LOB, but did you tell Tay I was asking for her?

I'm curious what kind of reaction did Abaddon get?

Glad you enjoyed it anyway and seemed to make the most of it.

Now the question is, will you be one of the Dark Order minions we don't see any more, masked like 5 and 10 or unmasked like the others?

I sadly did not get a chance to meet Tay this time around! Abaddon was out for a segment on the podcast, she got a very good reaction and her theme is a banger and so heavy live.

Let me just say you'll see my hairstyle on Dark and it's not very conducive to a mask haha.