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Post by rybackrulez on Aug 23, 2013 10:35:51 GMT -5
It made no sense. He hated kurt angle, so he takes his place in a group he didn't want to be in?
It was the only time i sort of liked aj because he wasn't "generic good guy who flips", now he won't talk, and now he just fades into the background as the same guy he was two years ago.
Eh.
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Post by A Platypus Rave is Correct on Aug 23, 2013 10:41:42 GMT -5
That's the thing, though: the image of Aces and Eights seeming like an unbreakable bulwark defending champion Bully Ray, with other TNA forces (even the MEM) unable to get rid of them, with only "lone wolf" AJ Styles as the savior...it's a good, effective, climactic image. It's such a big reason why "Crow Sting" worked so well when WCW did it, because from the ashes of a fallen army, a lone hero stood up to defeat ultimate evil (let's ignore the botched ending for the time being, shall we?). With this, the tension is gone. If this carries over to next week, and AJ is siding with the Mafia...then what makes him any different from them? What would be the difference between AJ, Magnus, or Joe getting the title shot? It'd be the same storyline for all three of them, with some minor differences around the edges. . Yeah, I've got to agree with this. Though they also partially screwed up the Crow Sting story they were building already by having Bully lose to Sabin. Not unrecoverably so. But the lone hero build works better when no it looks like no one can stop the bad guy.
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Post by TK The Friendly Robot on Aug 23, 2013 10:44:42 GMT -5
Or maybe his contract was up, he didn't like the direction TNA were taking his character and he negotiated his way into ending it? I think that's probably the more likely story here as AJ has a high moral fiber and probably wasn't into "Loner" AJ all that much. I thought it was great by the way, they built it a little over the past few weeks and while it came a bit too soon I marked anyway and my fiancee who isn't all that much of an AJ Styles fan marked the hell out and enjoyed it as well.
Should they have waited? They should have if they could have but it still came across well and I have a sneaking suspicion TNA might have been pressured into the move in a bid to re-sign Styles.
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Post by rybackrulez on Aug 23, 2013 10:59:41 GMT -5
That's the thing, though: the image of Aces and Eights seeming like an unbreakable bulwark defending champion Bully Ray, with other TNA forces (even the MEM) unable to get rid of them, with only "lone wolf" AJ Styles as the savior...it's a good, effective, climactic image. It's such a big reason why "Crow Sting" worked so well when WCW did it, because from the ashes of a fallen army, a lone hero stood up to defeat ultimate evil (let's ignore the botched ending for the time being, shall we?). With this, the tension is gone. If this carries over to next week, and AJ is siding with the Mafia...then what makes him any different from them? What would be the difference between AJ, Magnus, or Joe getting the title shot? It'd be the same storyline for all three of them, with some minor differences around the edges. . Yeah, I've got to agree with this. Though they also partially screwed up the Crow Sting story they were building already by having Bully lose to Sabin. Not unrecoverably so. But the lone hero build works better when no it looks like no one can stop the bad guy. When Luger beat Hogan i marked so much. More then when sting beat Hogan later on. Instead of being a loner bitch. Lex and DDP took on the nWo head on every nitro. Lex finally winning the belt off hogan was great. Then he lost at road wild because of the nwo again. When AJ beats Bully and is deemed "the future of wrestling" again i will be apathetic.
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Post by sunnytaker on Aug 23, 2013 11:37:45 GMT -5
part that got me was right when he tossed his hood back and switched back to his original music the lights went out so all you could see was an outline of AJ throwing his arms up in celebration that he's back only, to have them down again when the lights went back on and he was rushing to the ring. yeah the crowd still popped but i personally though it would have been nice to see his facial expression turn from emo to phenominal once more.
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Post by JTG Fan on Aug 23, 2013 12:02:02 GMT -5
I'll give TNA this much, it was kind of a cool moment. Too bad it completely negates nearly a year of storyline build and happened on a taped show.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2013 12:04:06 GMT -5
Or maybe his contract was up, he didn't like the direction TNA were taking his character and he negotiated his way into ending it? I think that's probably the more likely story here as AJ has a high moral fiber and probably wasn't into "Loner" AJ all that much. I thought it was great by the way, they built it a little over the past few weeks and while it came a bit too soon I marked anyway and my fiancee who isn't all that much of an AJ Styles fan marked the hell out and enjoyed it as well. Should they have waited? They should have if they could have but it still came across well and I have a sneaking suspicion TNA might have been pressured into the move in a bid to re-sign Styles. That is an interesting take on it. I think it is definitely possible that AJ's impending contract talks lead to this move at his request, much like TNA had Hardy win the BFG Series and World Title seemingly out of no where when they wanted to re-sign him last year.
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Post by Banjo Is Broken on Aug 23, 2013 12:58:01 GMT -5
They shoulda got Bob Holly.
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Post by ________ has left the building on Aug 23, 2013 15:37:13 GMT -5
We reached the destination of the EMO AJ storyline but missed most of the journey because of outside factors (Style's contract expiring, Angle's latest battle with sobriety). There was no hard sell for the turn. No one tell AJ "Do the right thing". It was just random as hell. One moment AJ hates the sun. The next he's happy and smiling. TNA got a lot of work filling in the giant blanks.
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Post by grunt on Aug 23, 2013 20:00:14 GMT -5
Also, you can point the finger at a certain twitter crowd for constantly blaming TNA for the transformation of AJ into "NoOne AJ" & for the alleged absence of reaction of the crowd to this new character (the AJ chants whenever he was on screen kinda contradict that POV, but whatever ; also, he's a tweener with heelish mercenary tendancies, why in the hell would they expect him to get cheers ?) : there's a certain group of people that frequently interact with Lagana & al. on twitter (and by interact, I mean "both ways conversations", not just "smark who are readily ignored by the people they're tweeting to"), that clearly hated that EmoAj persona right from the start, and that let Dixie & co know their opinions every single time AJ was on screen.
That, added to the outside factors previously listed, just led to that mess.
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Post by Magic knows Black Lives Matter on Aug 24, 2013 18:31:01 GMT -5
Or maybe his contract was up, he didn't like the direction TNA were taking his character and he negotiated his way into ending it? I think that's probably the more likely story here as AJ has a high moral fiber and probably wasn't into "Loner" AJ all that much. What problem would he have with the character though unless he thought it flat out sucked? It's not like the loner was walking around kicking puppies and punching babies. He was walking around with a jacket talking about how he didn't need anybody. That's it.
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Post by Djm Doesn't Find You Funny on Aug 24, 2013 18:33:12 GMT -5
For all the griping there was about the change in AJ's character, the griping about it seemingly ending is fascinating.
I suppose it's because TNA did something, so TNA therefore did something stupid and wrong.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2013 18:48:11 GMT -5
For all the griping there was about the change in AJ's character, the griping about it seemingly ending is fascinating. I suppose it's because TNA did something, so TNA therefore did something stupid and wrong. Yeah... that's gotta be it. Or you know... not right at all.
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Post by HMARK Center on Aug 24, 2013 18:56:46 GMT -5
For all the griping there was about the change in AJ's character, the griping about it seemingly ending is fascinating. I suppose it's because TNA did something, so TNA therefore did something stupid and wrong. As I said before, speaking for myself, I never really agreed with the griping people had over the new AJ character. I thoroughly enjoyed it. That said, it's fine to look at the execution of something and point out it's shortcomings. Wanting original AJ back is fine, but it's not inconsistent to say "I wanted it done better", especially given how TNA did nothing to build this up.
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Waffel113
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Ain't no Rap Mobile with his Waffels
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Post by Waffel113 on Aug 24, 2013 19:16:27 GMT -5
I liked the Lone Wolf character, I really did, and as such it's a shame that it's over. I liked what I saw out of AJ during this run and I really hope this isn't a permanent shift back to Phenomenal.
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Post by Magic knows Black Lives Matter on Aug 24, 2013 19:26:31 GMT -5
For all the griping there was about the change in AJ's character, the griping about it seemingly ending is fascinating. I suppose it's because TNA did something, so TNA therefore did something stupid and wrong. Yeah... that's gotta be it. Or you know... not right at all. Shh...we all hate TNA. Kayfabe, brother. Kayfabe.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2013 19:35:37 GMT -5
Yeah... that's gotta be it. Or you know... not right at all. Shh...we all hate TNA. Kayfabe, brother. Kayfabe. My bad. I missed the last couple of TNA Haters meetings, so I'm not up on what we're currently ripping for no reason.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
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Post by chazraps on Aug 24, 2013 20:28:29 GMT -5
Honestly, I liked the moment and now that I've had a bit to reflect on it, approve.
Now hear me out...
I've enjoyed the loner AJ character, but between him losing to Angle, making him talk out of nowhere and really diluting the mystique, I really didn't see any satisfying end game, even if it meant the super-predictable "hero rises from the ashes to win back the title" storyline which, by this point, has the character AJ would have to be too-meddled with to be as satisfying as "Crow Sting" against the nWo.
This seemingly came out of nowhere and was very last second, as it was in real life due to Kurt's absence. However, speaking in kayfabe, such a moment of clarity for AJ to come fight might have been as much of a last second thing as well. The Main Event Mafia were ready to go to war with only four members, if only because it was "right." AJ, even loner AJ at his core, has been morally conflicted about the "right" thing, something that the regular AJ we've known for years has been very steadfast about. With loner AJ lurking in the shadows and seeing how the odds were stacking up, to perhaps loosely paraphrase a theory already mentioned in this thread, this was the breaking point that snapped him back. Was he really going to let this happen?
The music changeover was cool, AJ retiring Devon (as mentioned) adds a new powerful to the dynamic of his return and feud with Bully/Aces, and really the moment/match was fun enough for me to forgive that we wouldn't be seeing an overly drawn-out predictable point-by-point return of the old AJ to save the day.
I was not only surprised, I was pleasantly surprised. While I think I'd still prefer seeing loner AJ as a character and wishing he was still around for a while, I'm kind of happier to have that feeling for once, rather than "On man, did loner AJ get STAAAAAAAAAAAALE, why didn't they drop him sooner?"
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2013 20:32:02 GMT -5
I just hope that we get an explanation from AJ that is half as good as some of the explanations in this thread.
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Post by HMARK Center on Aug 25, 2013 5:40:55 GMT -5
I just hope that we get an explanation from AJ that is half as good as some of the explanations in this thread. Indeed. All I ask for is the MEM calling him out to thank him, AJ walking in, but then just saying something along the lines of "Don't think this means I'm on your team now" or whatever.
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