AEW 2022: The year of the bloody bunny

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.

Just watching Dynamite. Loved Regal, he made the episode a must watch.

Why tf is Wardlow “Mr. Mayhem” and not “Mr. Reapectful Nice Promo Guy”? Never have I heard a wrestler so perfectly pleasant and reasonable despite being treated like shit for so long.

"wwe-induced traumatic skepticism" is such a great phrase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHLrwNn-nQI

the sky/wardlow and britt/rosa promos in this are SO GOOD

I’ve had really shitty news today and found out we have to move house v quickly. Whenever I have to put up with stuff like this, I get mad anxiety and can never sleep, so I’ve already told myself not to get drunk and just know i Should wake up at 2am and watch dynamite, see the TNT slugfest and calm

<3

prob my favorite episode of dynamite, every match delivered

jericho appreciation society is not for everyone but i find it unbelievably hilarious

Good luck to anyone getting their teeth seen this week. Britt’s hand got beat to death on those thumb tacks!

Pro tip: don’t count pins in a pile of tacks #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/awNtLA9P2X

— Aubrey Edwards (@RefAubrey) March 17, 2022

Damn!

I feel like I need rewatch some of that. I’ve never cared that much about Wheeler Yuta but that slap! Monday Night Jericho for a modern age! Triple moonsaults!

Wheeler is great! He's also still young, so lots of upside potential. He had some great matches in MLW and in ROH (Pure Tournament).

his broadway with garcia from last year is good too

yeah i gotta see that 60 min yuta/garcia iwtv match

Rewatching Dynamite and I can’t believe how good the tag team roster is. They have MoxIelson, the Bucks, FTR, the Harry’s, JE, P&P, Red Dragon, the Lucha Bros, Top Flight, Team Taz, 2.0, Best Friends, Private Party, the Ass Boys, Hager & Jericho have teamed before, Sting & Darby, the Dark Order and I still feel like I’m missing some names.

Some of these names are jobbers/Mid card and yet better than I’ve seen in the past 20 years. But those first like 10 or so team genuinely has to be the best tag team roster ever assembled.

You need skilled midcarders/jobbers to flesh things out; otherwise you get Usos vs New Day for the umpteenth time past the point anyone cares beyond saying ‘they put on a good match’.

Amen. Also most of them could be built into credible players in the next couple years. I missed the House of Black too.

Just watched last weeks Rampage (not this Fridays, its not on itv until Tuesday). Swerve hads bags of charisma but watching him fight Tony Nese had me falling asleep. Interested to see what happens with him though. Could be a good ROH type if Tony moves people around.

Watching Dynamite. Mostly amazing, no one has jizzed on anything, although Kyle O Reilly got that go home heat with a promo up there with Yip Jumping Jeff.

All I can think though is what happened to Ruby Soho? She went from being mega over to being on the same Miro/Marko Stunt milk carton missing list.

ruby's been wrestling dark matches but i feel like it's not long before we see her again (idk anything)

miro is injured(? i don't actually know) and marko's contract was not renewed

concur that dynamite was amazing

Loved the debut of Toni Storm and I hope that she is able to gain more traction in AEW than in WWE, even though the roster is stacked right now.

I agree with your sentiments on Ruby; I love her so much, and it's been cool to see her with Anna Jay on Dark, but MAN I wish that there was more of a push for her. Hopefully soon.

Also loved seeing Roppongi Vice on Monday. The true kings of the night.

Can I comment on The Bunny vs REDACTED yet or would it be too spoiler-y? I have thoughts.

Dynamite is tonight, so I imagine it's fine. I think that it's been difficult to avoid spoilers this long, with how much Wrestlemania weekend has been talked about for wrestling in general.

I'm hyped for the matches tonight. Max Caster is going to get crushed.

technically-not-aew-but-related: the roh ppv from last weekend was fucking glorious

ROH is the outlet theyve been screaming for. not just pumping more aimless Dark content out into the ether to the benefit of no one (one of the two Dark shows should have actual lower-card storylines imo) but a whole other brand with titles and a history and its own presentation etc. etc.

so much you can do with that with young guys, vets, guys like Cage who are in their "prime" but are never gonna cut it in AEW. it's extremely exciting

give Lance Archer the title run he'll never have in AEW

which reminds me, Minoru Suzuki is the fucking TV champion lol. that's not a bad opening hook if they're looking to drag viewers into another weekly tv show

Can I comment on The Bunny vs REDACTED yet or would it be too spoiler-y? I have thoughts.

Toni’s still wrestling Performance Center style, and that match was structured like a WWE special (one side dominates 99%, other hits their finish out of nowhere for the win).

It was pretty obvious from even the pre-show that the ROH show was being filmed/directed by the AEW crew. They’re not perfect but they generally have the hang of how to make wrestling look good on TV. It was a fun show and I think everyone is energised about what will happen next, which can only be a good thing.

Toni’s still wrestling Performance Center style, and that match was structured like a WWE special (one side dominates 99%, other hits their finish out of nowhere for the win).

Man they are still going hard for the John Cena format, huh?

Seems like a big wrestling week with Joe, ROH, WWE having to fire a champion for abuse/Hitler pictures and umm I guess Weestlemania. But I’m moving house/work from London to Brighton and def don’t have time to watch any of it. Such a shame, cos I love Dax Harwood now, I want to make tumblr esque word art dedications to him with love hearts and xoxoxos and lyrics to the many songs they dedicated to bret hart around wrestlemania x

dynamite was really awesome this week

as usual i guess! ftr/bucks 2 was a sight to behold

Yeah, very good stuff. Nice to see FTR finally getting the front-and-centre "holy shit these guys are the best tag team working" treatment for a sustained period.

I'm going to just skip forward 15 minutes any time a Hardy Boys match comes on I think. Just not a good idea for anyone involved at this point

Looks like another good rampage coming up too, good women's match and a lovely hoss fight last week

I got the chance to watch Lee-Hobbs and it was great. Would love to see them get a proper PPV 20 minute match in a year or so, maybe for the TNT title. Absolute beasts. I loved seeing Lee being able to yeet Hobbs like he was a cruiserweight.

Good promo from Hobbs too! He's looking like he should be pushed as a bigger star ASAP imo

Satisfying Dynamite debut for Joe. I'm so glad to see him again.

It was pretty obvious from even the pre-show that the ROH show was being filmed/directed by the AEW crew. They’re not perfect but they generally have the hang of how to make wrestling look good on TV.

agreed. lord knows AEW has had its production issues and i didn't watch any ROH at all really in the 2010s so i'm completely bullshitting but surely ROH with AEW production is gonna be a step up.

it's important imo that they maintain largely separate crews with a bit of crossover / promotion of important ROH stuff on AEW tv. I get making the Joe / Lethal / Gresham[ /Bandido] a cross-promotional thing at this stage, both because it's important to try to convince AEW viewers to check out reborn ROH if you can and because clearly there are plans or wishes to use all of those guys on AEW tv. But once it's up and running they should try to maintain a bit of a Chinese wall imo.

v excited for Rampage - Mox vs Yuta feels like a pretty big stakes match. one thing AEW hasn't been great at for a bit is the jeopardy in these tv matches. they run lots of cool matches but you can see the winner coming a mile away. this is a star vs young talent match where it's a bit more up in the air. I still expect Mox to win but i think it's at least possible that Yuta steals an upset here and gets accepted into the Combat Club. such a great, simple angle.

Danielson / Moxley / Yuta vs Trent / Chuck / OC is a match i would watch

the hapless loser fantasy booker in me still wants Cesaro to join up to complete the Regal-adjacent triumvirate.

Yuta rules. That match was also incredible on second viewing.