AEW 2023: Scissor Me Daddy!

I do love these random Dynamites though. Accidental champ Fenix v Jeff Jarrett? Great stuff. A Young Buck v Brian Cage v Cesaro? Tony picked this out of a hat and I love it.

Nothing would make me happier than Edge joining AEW under his Sexton Hardcastle moniker.

Wait is that a possibility? Because that might finally make me care about Edge

There’s no way in hell he’d do it, but one can always dream….

When the hell did MJF start referring to the crowd as his “poors” and why the hell do people cheer it?

Glad to see him against Jay White, hoping Cardblade takes the title

I’m not excited for WrestleDream at all. Currently all of their champions are weak because they have no real competition. MJF especially should be pretty upset by it, but he’s over so maybe that’s enough for him, I don’t know.

Can’t help but notice there’s only one women’s match on the card. At the same time, you’ve got all but one of the ROH belts on main-roster people but never do any recaps of what’s happening on the ROH show so I have no clue what’s going on there. You could give Athena a PPV match (I mean an AEW PPV) but that must never cross their minds.

I really hope BD-ZSJ isn’t a stinker like when Bryan and Jericho tried to have a technical match and just bored me to tears. Of course they have it set up that it could be my favourite match ever, but I do worry about the memory of that Lionheart Jericho match.

oh come on, that match is going to rock

What do people think of the Start Of A New Era branding around this week? They’ve never really done anything like this that I can think (maybe the start of Rampage/CM Punk?)

I can’t imagine the shows change look. Other than Edge or maybe some returning New Japan names (Okada could challenge Bryan to a rematch maybe?) there won’t be a big roster change. Storylines already look to be in place (like Jay White v MJF or the continued rise of the Callis fam) for what happens going forward to Full Gear.

So what makes Wrestle Dream the start of something new? Hopefully it’s not just hot smoke and Tony has something exciting planned.

(Obviously as a non American I won’t care and will be a bit disappointed if it’s just something to do with a streaming service or whatever)

it’s probably a streaming service!

it was not a streaming service

it was honestly just edge, but the crowd losing their minds was worth it

great show. another ppv plagued with innumerable issues that they just knocked out of the fucking park. anytime someone here posts "i'm not excited for [aew ppv] at all" i'm gonna be reflexively like "that means it'll be stupid awesome"

hangman/swerve was a classic, put a belt on swerve within the next year pls

anytime someone here posts “i’m not excited for [aew ppv] at all” i’m gonna be reflexively like “that means it’ll be stupid awesome”

I feel seen. I wasn’t saying it to be contrary or to moan for the sake of it, I genuinely wasn’t feeling this. But the more I thought about Swerve/Hangman, the more I wanted to see it and they really delivered. It felt like a dry run for a future title-on-the-line main event.

It did! Kind of like Rock-Trips matches in 98.

This has been a good show but nothing has really grabbed me tbh. I think I’m not in a great place to concentrate though, someone starts selling and I start looking at my phone. Swerve-Hanger, DBry-ZSJ and the 6 man have been enjoyable though.

Just started the main event and I just love Christian giving us the gun show in his sleeveless turtleneck. Hope Nick Wayne’s mum gets a Karen Jarrett esque role.

I have never cared about Edge and him not being called Sexton Hardcastle isn’t helping. I wonder what youngster he gets put with, if they follow the way they’ve gone with other “legends”. Feel like he could do well with the Martin brothers at his sides, or maybe 2.0

Wait holy fuck this main event has suddenly turned into something absolutely brutal. All I’ve seen people talk about is the Edge reveal, I really wasn’t expecting this! MOTY right here, possibly liking this more than Omega-Ospreay.

Aaaand Edge has gone and ruined it.

Absolutely hate this. Sting is about to be murdered and you need a video, some pyro and to take in the crowd? What a Babyface! Save him already!

that whole last 10 minutes was all over the map, kinda felt like they needed more time in the writers' room to figure that finish out.

AEW = Adams Every Where

this should probably go in the wwe thread but since it was brought up during the Hardys Hey-EW interview i'll post it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX1TLMNaONk

Ummmm wtf to Max Caster celebrating their win with miming opening up and eating ass?

fka bear country did it first tbf

i like everything about the iron savages gimmick except the name. finally, two wrestlers who drink cum and eat ass

I didn’t know that about Bear Country. Tbf it made me laugh my ass off, I was just very thrown off.

I adore Timeless Toni Storm.

Fascinating to see Jay White’s name has been put on the white board where Punk’s has been wiped off. The bang bang gang are one of my favourite things going at the moment, and I’m getting bored of face-mjf already, so I hope they push Jay to the moon.

toni storm is the most brilliant wrestler in the game rn

I have to hand it to AEW - that is the kind of ending to a ratings war episode that would've made Vince proud.

shida!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shida!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i did not intend that double post but it reflects my enthusiasm

i was super excited to see the next Toni Storm segment and it just played silent in the background over commercials. idk if that happened to anyone else but that sucked.

it was a silent fillum

Looking forward to catching this Dynamite

Watching DBry v Swerve and it’s brutal. Def worth seeing. It’s not ended yet and it’s already one of my favourite TV matches of the year.

Wow collision looking good too, can't believe the most preternaturally gifted wrestler of the last several decades and possibly ever is going to go one on one with the American Dragon Bryan Danielson

yeah this is really something. two absolute masters of the craft

has Dustin Rhodes retired now? i wanna see both of those guys vs Dustin before they collectively hang it up, itd be the peak of tv wrestling

dustin was in a team with keith lee pretty recently but idk. he might be gradually drifting toward more backstage/production stuff

Only this week I’ve picked up where I left off watching all WWE ppvs in order and I’m in 2003. My second show Judgment Day, was god awful but the end of the battle royal had Goldust v Christian go at it for a bit. Feels like it might be a mid card feud from that time I might see a lot of, unless that’s when Dustin got sacked for loving the drugs too much. Will report back if I see them have a banger.

Danielson and Dustin wrestled on Dynamite in 2021 and it was pretty good iirc

Dustin I think said 2023 would be the last year of his in ring career but he hasn't had that many matches, not sure if he's been hurt or just not featured in plans much

I would have liked to see him work in the flesh at Wembley, but I guess he was never getting squeezed onto that card. Will settle for the Stinger

This Ric Flair thing is fucking gross. What an awful decision

Disgusting behaviour. Hilarious that people are sad that the billionaire doesn’t have a moral compass. But also who the fuck wants to see sex criminal 700 year old Ric flair on their tv in 2023?

Honestly might be the worst move Tony has made since starting the company, at a time when people already seem down on the product and they aren’t getting crowds in.

I’m not sure he’ll care that much though while he is busy marking out

and doubling down with whatever Flair's energy drink brand.... absolute braindead decision.

Agreed. I do not want to see the sex pest Mumm-Ra on my screen, ever.

idk why AEW is running Ibushi out there - he's performing worse than the Jay White cardboard cutout.

Holy shit this Hangman v Swerve match is not for the weak of heart.

Ok the spot that happened after I wrote that just made me shout FUUUUCK so loud that i made the dog jump out of his sleep. This is beyond gnarly. I think it’s the most violent match AEW have had so far.

8 stars.

I can’t stop thinking about Hanger Swerve. I have to rewatch it but it’s up there with some of my favourite AEW matches of all time.

I’ve seen some people talk shit about the main event storyline but as someone who has watched 1996-2004 WWE recently, it all seemed like normal sport entertaining. The Attitude era would have been shot to pieces so badly if the internet existed in the same way. It seemed like every other week Austin or Goldberg would do the “go away in an ambulance/police car and cast doubt on whether they would make the main event” spot. Wrestling fans need to chill, states captain obvious.

Quite a good PPV with one perfect match and some more characters elevated. Big Bill continues to impress, they seem to have really turned around the women’s division quickly, Swerve looks like a real contender, they got Ospreay to sign… all good stuff.

As some older stars are obviously look to wind down, it is great to see them building up across the roster. There has been times in the past where they have looked uncertain what to do going forward, but now I’m excited I don’t know. The internet crowd may love arguing about ratings and crowd attendances - which seems an incredibly boring waste of time - while I’m just excited that this roster of mostly u35 stars has many directions to go.

Just wish they had less titles and got Eddie (pre show), Takeshita (not on the card) and Kenny (even more unfortunate, Jericho’d) back into the main event scene.

the tbs title threeway was huge for me. they pushed the hell out of skye and julia and they've both been killing it

Are we watching the same shows? Julia is doing great but Skye is a waste of space. She’s had many, many months to get a handle on the basics of portraying a character on TV (let alone put things together in the ring) but you can practically see the cogs moving in her brain. There’s a wealth of talent far more deserving of her spot.

I was lukewarm on the PPV overall. I never really bought into the MJF/Adam Cole thing so the main event didn’t have anything for me (it maybe would have if they turned Bay Bay heel and did a Fingerpoke of Doom angle, but that’s just me fantasy booking a more exciting show for me).

I loved Swerve/Hangman 1 but 2 was not my thing. It’s not 1997 anymore, I don’t pop for real-life gore, especially at those extremes, sorry not sorry.

Can’t stand Will Ospreay, “bruv”, but I suppose I’d rather see him there than Ric Flair.

I’m tired of Orange Cassidy right now. Ditto Jon Moxley. That doesn’t have to be the case. Give me more of a reason to care. I mean, they finally turned MJF around from his weak-champion status a couple of months ago (even if I don’t care for the shtick).

As for the attendance issue, I don’t think it’s a boring waste of time to point out how desperate it looks on TV. Especially the weekly ROH shows, which arguably are stronger than the main roster week to week but there’s clearly fuck-all people there, and it’s frankly embarrassing.

no i don't think we are watching the same shows, and all of these lines of criticism are why i don't talk about wrestling on the internet very much anymore. "i don't pop for real-life gore" ok cornette

"can't stand will ospreay" you can't stand the best wrestler alive? i'm so tired, stop watching the product

skye had the best spot in the three way match! she is weak on the mic but has been radically improving since julia misted her! idk try to enjoy things