AEW 2022: The year of the bloody bunny

I genuinely don't know wtf is going on, and I kinda love it. I also kinda hate it.

Is Punk injured still? Is he being punished for backstage shit? Or neither of these things? Whats happening with the Cabana rumours? Is MJF alive? Who does Mox face at All Out? Hangman still needs something too, they've shit the bed with him since he feuded with Punk and lost the title.

Generally AEW is very good, so I'm pretty happy to give them the benefit of the doubt. And I don't really gaf about internet rumours, backstage dealings etc. But I feel if they get this wrong, it could leave quite a sour taste with fans. And they don't seem to get away with shit anywhere as easily as WWE, who regularly book shows this badly.

Perhaps the most truly baffling outcome coming out of AEW this week is that the video game looks...fun?

I like AEW but I do think Tony's lost the plot a bit, I want a weekly wrestling programme not an erratic machine that randomly shits out indie dream matches, blood-drenched garbage brawls and New Japan crossovers, its like eating the resultant paste of several different desserts all the time, just let some of the guys who know how to work have some three star matches for ten minutes on the undercard til things settle down, grab a damn hold

Bring back 2015-17 NXT basically

i find the backstage drama intolerable to read about, much prefer when the locker room was all good vibes

mjf’s disappearance from this layer of reality is maybe the only thing i’ve sort of enjoyed, like, he’s been gone for months and no one’s said anything, it’s like he’s poochie

the video game was always going to be good imo, omega was drawing from the right inspirations

still so glad kenny is back, the trios match with ospreay is gonna whip

i think punk jobbing to mox is like directly addressing the rumor mill but who knows. like everything it seems like a work/shoot ouroboros, reality influencing fiction influencing reality

Hangman still needs something too, they've shit the bed with him since he feuded with Punk and lost the title.

my feeling is that the trios tournament is gonna bring him back toward the elite’s orbit but admittedly this is wishful thinking

i also think despite mox unifying the title…. it isn’t over

i’m actually into this twist in the storyline tbh, mox’s promo after getting the win (“oh, was that not how it was supposed to go???”) was all-time great

just let some of the guys who know how to work have some three star matches for ten minutes on the undercard til things settle down, grab a damn hold

Gotta give the belated nod that they in fact sent Uncle Dax out to do exactly this last night

Re: MJF, I am not into the lazy cheap heat edgelord end of his promos but I became a total convert of his in-ring after that great PPV match with Darby Allin; I guess with him and Punk being off TV for a while the slowed-down maximum-heat storytelling style I enjoy most got de-emphasised for the hurriedly booked dream matches

did you tune out when christian was on tv or

also aew is p chaotic right now but i don't think it's because they're staging constant underbuilt dream matches (and if they were, forbidden door was proof of concept)

but i did misread your post bc i'm just realizing you're referring to mjf and punk's in-ring action, which yes is a more patient and intense genre of wrestling

i would just like to register that i was fucking right

all the punk/mox stuff last night was masterful

my feeling is that the trios tournament is gonna bring him back toward the elite’s orbit but admittedly this is wishful thinking

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, August 25, 2022 10:10 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

it wasn't wishful thinking at all :))))))

If the yesterday’s 4-way was any indication, the casino ladder match is going to be nuts.

Maybe mine is a minority opinion, but I think AEW could probably do the two-day PPV thing and give everything some space to breathe. This card is so stacked and compressed I just know it’ll exhaust me.

i'm starting a campaign for forbidden door to be two days

on the other hand, i know aew could pull it off, but two-day mania always felt so unfocused to me

I’ve tried to not really look at wed spoilers so this is encouraging.

As dumb and chaotic as AEW is, I still expect something good and not 99wcw

i think the last four dynamites have been truly awesome. punk and kenny returning gave the whole thing a shot in the arm

mox getting to unify the title also clearly unlocked something in mox

best friends, dark order and the commentary delivering an absolute gem performance

imo: somewhat messy but fun ppv with dizzying highs, like that acclaimed/swerve in our glory match during which my heart just about stopped

punk apparently going scorched earth on the presser :(

Just watched clips of him going off and think “fair enough lad, get it off yr chest” more than the internet acting all maude flanders about it. It’s pro wrestling, maybe people are supposed to talk shit about each other. Who gaf about how professional it is or whatever, let’s build to a proper Punk-Hangman 7 star ugly ass brawl.

appreciate that punk is still bitter about the penguins sweeping the blackhawks in 1992

In the most unsurprising turn of events, the Elite v the DO was really good.

The ladder match shit the bed though, what a mood killer finish.

Lol at Jade running out of Hulk paint, she just looks mouldy. When cosplay gets embarrassing.

Wtf are they thinking of

The Punk shit is so, so embarrassing. Repeatedly going after Colt Cabana for taking care of his mom(?!); he’s a gigantic fucking baby and it’s pathetic that Tony Khan didn’t pull the plug as soon as things started going off the rails. He should never have been out there

There have been a lot of high points this year still but overall the company is a mess rn compared to where it was

not sure why he is intent on destroying the locker room that made him return to wrestling but it sucks ass

way to poison the air in the room after a good match and ppv too lol, just a great way of making me not want to watch the product

way to poison the air in the room after a good match and ppv too lol, just a great way of making me not want to watch the product

If the yesterday’s 4-way was any indication, the casino ladder match is going to be nuts.

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, September 1, 2022 10:25 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol that finish was dogshit

I’m just sad we will never get Punk v Cabana out of it. Tony is a coward if he doesn’t make a Boom Boom main event.

cm punk scrum bullshit has me like: it's stilltoo real tofor me, dammit

God damn Punk, Luchasaurus is the true most evil heel bastard man.

Wait no even worse is the backstreet boy playing AmDrag out

that was prob the only time i yelled “this is horrible” during the show. danielson cornier than i even knew possible

I hadn’t even seen the majority of quotes that Punk scrum, only the headline bits. That fucking PWG dig Christ you cuuuuuunt who do you think you’re working with. Bet Excalibur loved that line

Punk's existence is just kind of a downer to think about at this point, he is doomed to this Groundhog Day of suddenly deciding everyone is a cunt and scorching the earth. How much longer before his ire is turned FTR, Tony, April, Larry, the good folks at Marvel Comics even

The show wasn't bad, the standard now seems to be "you could make a brilliant 2.5 hour card out of it if you have the energy to watch it all". I don't mind screwy finishes to dangerous ladder matches because I'm burnt out on dangerous ladder matches anyway; no problem with them sticking with the Acclaimed losing as long as they recognise they're made now and book them accordingly.

Dynamite is going to be a weird vibe, the MJF angle feels a bit "ehh what's even the point", to say nothing of death triangle vs best friends and such, through no fault of their own

Hopefully the successful completion of the video game isn't in anyway impacted by this ongoing series of venomous public declamations, violent brawls and legal recriminations

lol that finish was dogshit

The whole match was dogshit. Not a slight on any of the wrestlers involved, but who the fuck booked that? The rules didn’t make any sense: it was basically a gauntlet that could be won any time, so if someone from the first two in grabbed the token, then what’s-his-face doesn’t get his stupid moment at the end. Honestly it annoyed me so much. It’s the worst thing AEW has done. Worse than the exploding ring. Worse than the Librarians.

I said on Twitter that I graded the whole show as an A+ for effort but a D for the booking. Someone I follow there suggested last week that AEW is a ‘pop’ promotion compared to WWE being a ‘heat’ promotion but all the booking on Sunday was for heat.

The Punk shit is so, so embarrassing.

OTM. If it’s a shoot, it makes him look like a fucking whiny baby-man. Like, whatever happened between the podcast and that email in 2016, here’s facts: Colt hasn’t said a word about it ever, but Punk won’t fucking let anyone forget it. Then on the other hand, if it’s all part of some elaborate shoot? then they all look like dickheads and I’m out.

*elaborate work, I meant.

that ladder match was not worse than the owen

The more details that come out, the more embarrassing it looks. Like that no one asked Punk about Colt, he made a journo bring up he was friends with him and used that to start ranting about him. Or that Ace Steel seemingly bit Kenny Omega.

Finally getting around to the main event. This is brutal, brutal stuff. It’s not ended yet and maybe the afters will have ruined it for a lot of people, but this is honestly looking like one of my favourite AEW matches since Hangman-Bryan

it was great. i’m so mad at punk

Putting my “the Montreal Screwjob was a work!” hat on, this whole thing reads as sus to me. Until a few months ago, AEW kind of had a reputation as a place where stuff didn’t leak to the dirtsheets. Then from out of nowhere TK makes a statement about putting an end to leaks (which didn’t exist, and which is rich coming from a guy who’s been an Observer subscriber for decades) and suddenly they’re ‘leaking’ like sieve. And then we get this whole… mess. It’s fish four days old, I won’t buy it.

Idk man, making the company look like it's abysmally run and most of its top stars are terrible, unprofessional people so they can randomly start an out of nowhere worked shoot angle at the expense of the major MJF angle they just presumably spent huge money getting a Stones song for?

is someone who believes everything is a work in fact the ultimate mark

It's still kayfabe to me dammit

Didn’t TK say something during a pre-All Out scrum about a good way to settle personal lockeroom could be in the ring? Kinda felt like foreshadowing at the time.

punk is also... injured... again.... lmao