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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 23, 2024 11:38:55 GMT -5
This is likely the 1st of at least 2 or a trilogy of matches between Danielson & Ospreay. I'm not sure it's fair to compare the 'story' to something like Flair/HBK. What we got Sunday was Act 1 Which is admittedly why I'm a bit surprised Ospreay won; I thought they might have Danielson win to build to a rematch where the story is how Ospreay's able to adapt his game to win. Then again, if they want to hold off on Ospreay winning the big one at Wembley until next year, they could have a rematch in early summer, have Danielson win, then have the rubber match in London, I suppose. And yeah, the match was fantastic. I can't say it surpasses some of my favorite NJPW ones over the past near-decade, but it was excellent and left me wanting more.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2024 14:46:57 GMT -5
He and Vader did have some decent chemistry, I thought; a lot of that trilogy holds up well.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2024 11:46:49 GMT -5
League office watching that game in Winnipeg last night and loving all the offense.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2024 11:27:09 GMT -5
Joe is a perfect heel world champion. Instantly believable, delivers constantly, charismatic and smug. When in doubt, break the Joe glass and give him the strap. I'm glad he got a world title after all these years. Dude never stopped being "the champ" to me after his ROH run, but sheesh, crazy to think how long ago his TNA world title run was (and how poorly his reign was booked there).
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2024 11:25:46 GMT -5
I'd say maybe he should just go back to WWE, where crowds won't care that he's not a great human being, and overexposed all to hell. But I think the clock is rapidly ticking on even that. Hes under contract till the end of December 2025 so that isn't an option anytime soon. Tony seems to love Jericho like he did Punk, so he's seemingly not going to step in and say he needs a long break from all things AEW. So I'm expecting him to be all over TV till his contract is up, and even then I wouldn't be surprised if Tony gives him a new deal.
Actually, if there's going to be a time when his TV time reduces, it'll likely be once the new media rights deal is finalized. Again, a major reason he gets used is because he does move numbers for them with regards to TV ratings; he and the Bucks tend to be the guys who book themselves to go on during the toughest quarters (i.e. when the most commercials/wraparounds are going to happen) because they know they can eat it if the numbers dip, but they tend to keep numbers fairly steady during those stretches. Plus, he's also just a name executives would know, and that helps the general "we're a serious operation and you should pay us like one" deal. Once the new deal's locked in, though? Not saying he's going to vanish, but it likely eases the perceived need to feature him as much.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2024 6:20:00 GMT -5
Yes Mone is likely going to win the TBS title, but I'm happy that Willow still got her moment Thinking there'll be some weirdness involved, and Willow will be chasing to get it back from her.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2024 5:50:50 GMT -5
They're in a weird spot with him; for as worn out as he is for many regular AEW viewers, he's apparently still valuable when it comes to maintaining ratings during tougher quarters when Dynamite's on, so they want to use him, and he does want to put newer guys over...but it doesn't change that he's stale, and a lot of his angles drag on past their expiration date. So you want him around for the former, but need to fix the latter.
This new bit he's doing could be the reinvention he needs, but he'd also benefit from some time away; fans got used to him dipping out for awhile over the years, but he's been a pretty steady fixture in AEW since day one at this point.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2024 4:45:30 GMT -5
If he comes back to a great reaction and is in a better place than he was on the card, the latter or which almost feels like a given at this point given he's likely to do something with the Elite, would we say airing the footage worked out pretty well? There seems to be a lot more interest in Jack Perry than I can ever remember, I know I'm looking forward to him coming back a lot more than I was before, and he seems to be doing well on the merch sales front if that floats your boat. Obviously it was more Windy City Riot that got everyone a bit more hyped about him, but a lot of the reactions he got there were surely enhanced by the footage having aired. Wonder if that's what Tony Khan meant when he said it was interesting timing, Punk talking shit about them, that maybe they always planned to air the footage right before what was pencilled in as Perry's final NJPW appearance, in Chicago of all places, and Punk just happened to run his mouth around the same sort of time. I know a few places said it was done with the primary idea being to embarrass Punk but they focussed so little on him and so much more on Jack Perry and FTR that I don't know if I buy it. I'd say that, most likely, both things are true: "maybe this'll finally shut that guy up" but with a clear goal of "let's establish the return of one of our longtime wrestlers off of this". The legacy of showing the footage very likely comes down to how they follow up on this; if Perry really cements himself as a top guy moving forward and the crowd's more invested in what he does now, then it'll have been worthwhile. People can talk about how it confused motivations for the crowd (e.g. the "why are the heel Young Bucks airing this when it's very likely to get them babyface reactions against Punk's real life friends" argument) to some degree for the match, but it's a case where the long term benefit may far outweigh any initial weirdness, if they play their cards right.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2024 4:39:18 GMT -5
I've said a bunch of times that given how big a fan I've been of the guy for 20 years, I'd have been thrilled with him holding the belt for a year.
But they got it right, here; the most you could've pushed Swerve's coronation off to was Double or Nothing, but doing it last night worked, and Joe still walks away from the belt feeling like a legitimate champ who had a solid run. Not a "transitional" champ, I agree, but it did have that air of "thank you" run to it, and ain't nothing wrong with that.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 20:13:04 GMT -5
Mercedes kind of slaying it in that dress.
And you know I'm serious because "slay" is not at all in my vernacular.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 20:09:22 GMT -5
If I understand correctly, Julia's been nursing an injury; if so, that match solidly covered it while still keeping her protected.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 20:04:27 GMT -5
AEW, get your people watching monitors like normal people, pls.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 19:58:15 GMT -5
ADAM GOT MISTED WE'RE GONNA GET BROOD COPELAND! This time Gangrel can introduce him ...how had I not even thought of that possibility? Ok, get to a Christian face turn (even a temporary one) and go full reunion, let's do this thing.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 19:56:28 GMT -5
Black mist!
Malakai about to unlock Brood Edge in AEW.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 19:52:58 GMT -5
Time to get the Trios division back to being like this.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 19:50:54 GMT -5
We're getting Black vs. Copeland in Vegas, aren't we?
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 19:43:19 GMT -5
There's an alternate timeline where Brody is a bouncer at a dive bar getting into a hellacious brawl with a belligerent Kingston.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 19:41:44 GMT -5
Weirdly enough the face team here is extremely well balanced. Copeland's veteran guile, the wild devil may care style of Mark Briscoe, and the sheer grit of Eddie Kingston. Have to say, recent Copeland and Christian are two of the best I've ever seen in North American wrestling at playing up that they're super experienced vets who know their limits but adapt and work within them.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 19:40:15 GMT -5
Briscoe Brothers shoulder block...with Adam Copeland?!
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 21, 2024 19:36:21 GMT -5
CHICKEN!
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