The AEW Society

We've got a WWE Society, which seems to be pretty dead these days. But now there's a new Wednesday Night War, with AEW (All Elite Wrestling) debuting its brand-new show Dynamite on October 2, 2019.

Will you be watching?

In the UK, AEW: Dynamite will air on a four-day delay, on ITV4. On the same night it airs in the USA, AEW goes head-to-head with WWE's NXT, which airs a two-hour show on the USA Network, with Dynamite on TNT, the home of WWE's long-time rival and Monday Night War opposition Nitro.

At the time of writing, Chris Jericho is our AEW Champion, with AEW Tag-Team Championships and AEW Women's Champion still to be crowned.

Reply 1

ozzyoscy

I watched the first 2 episodes in full, then skipped through the next one or two as the TV routine set in.

I'm going the same way as WWE in that I'm only getting interested in the PPVs where things actually happen, but at the moment I'm not even watching those. Certainly the latter half of the events are worth watching from the little clips I saw, but I can't say that's a £15 value and the first few matches look like pap. I mean they might've been good matches, but they seem randomly put together.

They want Hangman Page to be a big face but when I've watched him he's got zero reaction (entrances, hot tags) and no character. All the talent is in the bad guys and ********s (I won't say 'heels' because they're definitely not using face/heel).

The matches have been different and entertaining at first, but I bet I'd get sick of the kickouts and flippity flops quickly. I hate seeing a devastating combo get kicked out of. Tag team wrestling is a big culprit of this.

I'm glad we finally have a #2 that isn't (yet) self-destructively idiotic. TNA did everything right, then they hired dozens of old guys, turned it into WCW and challenged WWE during WrestleMania season. But I hope in future we get a partnership rather than a war. WWE and AEW don't need to be enemies.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 2

Mackay

There's obviously clear issues with AEW - the tag division is a mess, in my view, and their women's division is non-existent - but they have goodwill for the moment, simply because they haven't chalked up the same years of underwhelming us as WWE has. You're right, ozzy. The presentation of Hangman is a big issue. Similarly, JR is burying more things on commentary than elevating, which is a massive issue. I think the Dark Order are ****ing woeful, the women's division is a mess aside from the Kong/Brandi co-alliance, and the Librarian gimmick is an utter joke - probably the worst of any major wrestling promotion in the US.

But MJF is a star, Jericho keeps reinventing himself, Cody has become the biggest babyface in North America and there's an exciting batch of undercard talent threatening to burst out (Luchasaurus, Scorpio Sky, Darby Allin etc).

One more thing: I think the W/L record thing needs clarifying, as does the AEW rankings. But I loved Full Gear & I'm loving Dynamite.

Reply 3

ozzyoscy

MJF reminds me that I hate the music. Only a couple have decent themes, but the rest sounds like MIDI files. Riho hurts the ears and MJF is so low-key.

When I saw Dark Order I thought it would be cool if they got rid of the one normal guy and just had it like the gimp leader dude and all the other gimps were his tag team partners. I was thinking it could be like Bray's Wyatt family even.

I think / hope AEW is smart enough and the execs don't play favourites, and they'll push who gets over and keep back those that aren't working out. As well as guys yo umentioned, Orange Cassidy is utterly stupid and probably wouldn't be a long-time world champ, but the fact remains I want to watch anything he does. Pentagon and his tag team also stood out to me.

I know they're a bit old school but my concern is their risks. If Moxley wants to get barbed wire cuts all over himself, that's fine, but I literally saw Daniels get legit piledrived on a ramp, and there have been a lot of bumps like that.

Reply 4

Mackay

Original post by ozzyoscy

MJF reminds me that I hate the music. Only a couple have decent themes, but the rest sounds like MIDI files. Riho hurts the ears and MJF is so low-key.

I know they're a bit old school but my concern is their risks. If Moxley wants to get barbed wire cuts all over himself, that's fine, but I literally saw Daniels get legit piledrived on a ramp, and there have been a lot of bumps like that.

These are two very valid points.

The audio mixing on Dynamite sounds unbelievably poor compared to WWE's slick approach. To be fair to Kevin Dunn, you can actually see his qualities when compared with AEW. The backstage skits are extremely problematic - the sound is often so low I find myself having to turn it up to a silly level. The chants in the crowd suggest these aren't coming across in the arena, either.

The bumps are also an issue, you're right. Sure, not working house shows is great on their bodies - but, Christ, when they're *******ising huge spots and blood every single week, it rapidly loses its allure.

One more thing I didn't mention: Excalibur. Jesus. The guy's the best commentator in the business. Mauro's shtick has quickly grown tiring on NXT. Everything seems scripted - and his once-loveable explosions of energy ("mamma mia!") now seem worn and shoehorned in.