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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2022 14:40:23 GMT -5
It's indicative of multiple problems. The main one being that if you want talent from overseas, you should probably provide some means of assistance in helping them procure the essentials, like a place to live, English lessons (or an interpreter), assistance with paperwork, etc.
The other one is that, let's face it, AEW has more talent than they have hours of TV every week. You can either deliver longer and better matches, or everyone gets 5 minutes. AEW wisely opted for the former, but it's taking its toll, especially on the women's division.
I don't have an easy solution, short of just accepting the growing paints and cutting bait on talent who did nothing wrong short of not being a high enough priority and then hopefully never doing it again. The whole product suffers if you jam more matches into the 3 hours of TV a week (I do not count Dark), and more hours of TV is just going to lead to hot-shotting and fatigue like it has with WWE.
What I will say though, is that since TNT now gets the quarterly "specials", it REALLY wouldn't kill AEW to make at least one a year be an "All-women" card, so that the ladies that aren't Thunder Rosa, Jade, and Britt a chance to show off and be in primetime.
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Post by mistery on Feb 10, 2022 14:50:41 GMT -5
Yeeeah AEW needs to be supporting their international wrestlers A Lot better than that, cause that bit about Emi is f***ing depressing as hell. It's even more depressing when you realize that WWE, who really do not treat their talent well, still do better than AEW when it comes to getting foreign talent all settled in and on their feet. Kairi, Io, and Sarray have all mentioned that Funaki, Robbie Brookside, and Norman Smiley have all helped them out tremendously, and that WWE helps them get housing and transportation. WWE also hired on ESL teachers for the foreign talent.
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Post by thatloser on Feb 10, 2022 15:06:21 GMT -5
If I remember right the only reason Emi Sakura, even came back over to the US was because she asked Michael Nakazawa about it. No one from AEW reached out to her to bring her back, it was all her. Yuka Sakazaki someone who holds a win over Brit and owes her for that whole knocking her tooth out after a match segment, returned during Britt's reign to pretty much nothing. But at least she got 1 tv match It was truly unfortunate that it happened around the time Omicron appeared and perhaps the reason why Mei never decided to stay 90 days in the US like Lulu did(both never had work visas), they were building up the whole Killer Queens stuff in twitter vids after Dark finished airing then it was abruptly dropped.
It feel's bad that while Mei has had quite a lot of matches since returning, LuLu has had none.
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asuka007
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Post by asuka007 on Feb 10, 2022 15:08:12 GMT -5
It also doesn’t help that TV time for the women is still pretty limited most weeks.
And they have their favorites, most notably Britt and Jade, who get featured pretty consistently. So there is not much time for the others unfortunately
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Post by BlahBlah on Feb 10, 2022 15:09:02 GMT -5
I don’t know about writers, definitely a booking staff to at least get some more people involved. I can understand in a place where you are expected to come up with your own stuff, and if you’re not comfortable with that, then it can be easy to slip threw the cracks. So eventually, Tony might need to do that, but still be able to keep the creative process. Because I don’t want to do WWE level scripting, I don’t think the majority would want that, I sure don’t. I wouldn’t mind someone close to the top who has ideas for people so they aren’t forgotten. I don't really understand the booking vs. writing distinction, so I can't really comment on what you're saying here. They already are BOOKING the shows, in the sense that they're filling them up with matches. That is not enough. Like, Emi Sakura gets a contract and comes in and she's there and being actively involved more than a lot of other wrestlers I can think of (she's got a clear character, a stable of retainers, a relationship with Vicki and Nyla) and it's very obvious no one behind the scenes has any intention of featuring her in any real storylines or angles. It's not because she's doing a bad job or she slipped through the cracks, it's because they write one angle for the women at a time, and it involves the championship, and that's it. No one else gets anything. This "we don't need writers; push your own angles, wrestlers!" is just a recipe to have a huge bloated roster where nothing adds up to anything, and where everyone's treading water except the small number of people you actually write angles for. Your last sentence is dead on and why I've had a hard time getting fully engaged with the product.
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Post by rnrk supports BLM on Feb 10, 2022 15:24:16 GMT -5
This "we don't need writers; push your own angles, wrestlers!" is just a recipe to have a huge bloated roster where nothing adds up to anything, and where everyone's treading water except the small number of people you actually write angles for. It's worse than that, it's a format that's going to favor the people with the most in common with the bosses, in terms of interests and background. That doesn't even require conscious bias, it's the inevitable end result of booking that prioritizes performers good at talking with and pitching ideas to one of a handful of VPs who all themselves are a pretty homogeneous group. It's probably the single biggest factor in why AEW's top tier of featured talent is exclusively nerdy white men.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2022 15:49:04 GMT -5
That hurts to read. I figured with Omega and his push of the Joshi wrestlers we'd see some major strides as that was one thing he's said he was pushing towards these past few years but I guess it's sorta like Cody Rhodes and his diversity talks. They can say they wanna do something all they want but at the end of the day that doesn't always work out like they want it to. They need to be better about this.
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markymark
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
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Post by markymark on Feb 10, 2022 15:55:32 GMT -5
If I remember right the only reason Emi Sakura, even came back over to the US was because she asked Michael Nakazawa about it. No one from AEW reached out to her to bring her back, it was all her. Yuka Sakazaki someone who holds a win over Brit and owes her for that whole knocking her tooth out after a match segment, returned during Britt's reign to pretty much nothing. But at least she got 1 tv match It was truly unfortunate that it happened around the time Omicron appeared and perhaps the reason why Mei never decided to stay 90 days in the US like Lulu did(both never had work visas), they were building up the whole Killer Queens stuff in twitter vids after Dark finished airing then it was abruptly dropped.
It feel's bad that while Mei has had quite a lot of matches since returning, LuLu has had none.
Lulu is currently busy with her other job.(She works for IGN Japan)
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Dub H
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Post by Dub H on Feb 10, 2022 15:57:19 GMT -5
Honestly AEW doesnt need writers.
But they definitely need Creative Consultants/ Assistants and support for international talent
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2022 16:14:00 GMT -5
Honestly AEW doesnt need writers. But they definitely need Creative Consultants/ Assistants and support for international talent Hit the nail on the head. AEW doesn't need soap opera storylines and sub-community-theater monologuing during matches, but the current "everyone fends for themselves" approach is clearly leaving some talented people in the cold. And support for international talent should be a given; again, you don't gotta go the WWE route and pressure Yuka Sakazaki into buying a McMansion in Jacksonville that she can't afford, but you should at least have a couple people on staff who can help the overseas talent integrate into a foreign locker room (and it kinda saddens me that something like this wasn't already in place).
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Post by Cyno on Feb 10, 2022 16:15:28 GMT -5
Agreed. AEW clearly has some structural problems they need to address. But stripping creative freedom from wrestlers in favor of WWE-style scripting isn't one of them.
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Post by mistery on Feb 10, 2022 16:23:47 GMT -5
Honestly AEW doesnt need writers. But they definitely need Creative Consultants/ Assistants and support for international talent Hit the nail on the head. AEW doesn't need soap opera storylines and sub-community-theater monologuing during matches, but the current "everyone fends for themselves" approach is clearly leaving some talented people in the cold. And support for international talent should be a given; again, you don't gotta go the WWE route and pressure Yuka Sakazaki into buying a McMansion in Jacksonville that she can't afford, but you should at least have a couple people on staff who can help the overseas talent integrate into a foreign locker room (and it kinda saddens me that something like this wasn't already in place). I mean...WWE isn't forcing their foreign talent to buy large houses. Like I said, they have a decent apartment complex that is low cost. And if the talent doesn't want to stay there, WWE will help the talent find a place to live.
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Post by carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) on Feb 10, 2022 16:28:16 GMT -5
Honestly AEW doesnt need writers. But they definitely need Creative Consultants/ Assistants and support for international talent I'm always bemused by people's resistance to the idea that wrestling shows should have writers. I think it's just, they're imagining someone forcing badly written promos to be delivered anemically by bored wrestlers... but hopefully it's obvious that is not necessarily the way it would be to have a writing team.
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Zone Was Wrong
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
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Post by Zone Was Wrong on Feb 10, 2022 16:32:51 GMT -5
Yeah, they've done such a bad job of rotating people. Something I keep going on about is establishing stables for the women. I know people think there are too many, but stables really help keep people on TV and stablemates can be a good gauntlet for current story leads to go through and what not. More women's tag matches or multi-person matches on Dynamite/Rampage could help as well. Obviously doesn't solve every problem but at the very least it could seal up some holes.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2022 16:34:43 GMT -5
Writers won't fix organizational issues.
To put it bluntly, most would agree that AEW has very little problems with creative and booking. What they really need more than anything else, it seems like, is a very good HR department and a realization that maybe it's best to do a "per appearance" deal with a lot of talent.
The Joshi wrestlers could easily have had a short term deal the same way Suzuki did.
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Post by Cyno on Feb 10, 2022 16:43:17 GMT -5
Honestly AEW doesnt need writers. But they definitely need Creative Consultants/ Assistants and support for international talent I'm always bemused by people's resistance to the idea that wrestling shows should have writers. I think it's just, they're imagining someone forcing badly written promos to be delivered anemically by bored wrestlers... but hopefully it's obvious that is not necessarily the way it would be to have a writing team. We're imagining that because that's the only experience we have with wrestling shows having writers.
And again, how would they address any of the issues Shida brought up? WWE's as scripted as you can get and they still have these same issues.
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Post by carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) on Feb 10, 2022 16:58:20 GMT -5
I'm always bemused by people's resistance to the idea that wrestling shows should have writers. I think it's just, they're imagining someone forcing badly written promos to be delivered anemically by bored wrestlers... but hopefully it's obvious that is not necessarily the way it would be to have a writing team. We're imagining that because that's the only experience we have with wrestling shows having writers. I mean "writer" is a very ambiguous term, and so I think what people are imagining here is a little too specific. If all you're going by is the WWE, there's a pretty obvious confound there: they have SHITTY writers (or at least writers who are forced to be shitty by McMahon and the way he works). Having writers isn't the same thing as having shitty writers. The thing people keep mentioning is scripted promos, but... hell yes, have people backstage scripting promos! Some people work better with scripted promos. Why watch a mediocre ad-libber do something that'd be better if they had a script? It's the exact same reason you don't force a GOOD ad-libber to stick closely to a script. Anyway, if the word "writer" is kryptonite for some weird reason, call the job of "person who creates stories for a television program" whatever you want and then hire that.
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Post by Cyno on Feb 10, 2022 17:02:28 GMT -5
Outside of coaching and working with people who can't ad-lib (which I'm fine with), isn't that what bookers already do?
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Dub H
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Post by Dub H on Feb 10, 2022 17:03:46 GMT -5
We're imagining that because that's the only experience we have with wrestling shows having writers. I mean "writer" is a very ambiguous term, and so I think what people are imagining here is a little too specific. If all you're going by is the WWE, there's a pretty obvious confound there: they have SHITTY writers (or at least writers who are forced to be shitty by McMahon and the way he works). Having writers isn't the same thing as having shitty writers. The thing people keep mentioning is scripted promos, but... hell yes, have people backstage scripting promos! Some people work better with scripted promos. Why watch a mediocre ad-libber do something that'd be better if they had a script? It's the exact same reason you don't force a GOOD ad-libber to stick closely to a script. Anyway, if the word "writer" is kryptonite for some weird reason, call the job of "person who creates stories for a television program" whatever you want and then hire that. Thata the thing they dont need someone to create the stories , but someonw that could help guide and work with the less creative or communicate wrestlers. Maybe that is technically a writer but leaa so than the expected use of it.
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markymark
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Post by markymark on Feb 10, 2022 17:06:45 GMT -5
Writers won't fix organizational issues. To put it bluntly, most would agree that AEW has very little problems with creative and booking. What they really need more than anything else, it seems like, is a very good HR department and a realization that maybe it's best to do a "per appearance" deal with a lot of talent. The Joshi wrestlers could easily have had a short term deal the same way Suzuki did.
But that has already started with Avalon and Marko
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