Dynamite!

[Azmodeous]

Am I the only one who thinks it's kind of lazy to have 2 major babyfaces in concurrent gauntlet angles? I'm fine when it was just Danielson, but to throw Ricky Starks in one just to stretch out this Jericho feud at the same time is a bit much. It's especially worrisome to think that Jericho is probably gonna want his heat back soon as well..

Excellent point. I'm also not pulling as bad for Starks as I should as he already beat Jericho.

If it was Action Andretti I would get it as Jericho underestimated him the first time but Ricky has proven he can hang with the best of them and has beaten enough people to be considered a star at this point. He hangs around feuding with Jericho too long and loses and he's lost all the momentum he had gained. The JAS really does seem to be good at killing folks momentum lately.

[Puns]

That’s what Jericho does, he leeches off whoever is hot at the time and leaves them worse off afterwards. Orange Cassidy, Eddie Kingston, MJF…none of them were better off for dealing with him in any capacity. Where the fuck is Kingston at these days, anyways? He fell off so hard after Jericho it’s almost like he’s dead. When was the last time he was on Dynamite? I can’t be arsed to watch Rampage. It’s a terrible, wannabe WCW Thunder level show.

[Iamspiderman]

That’s what Jericho does, he leeches off whoever is hot at the time and leaves them worse off afterwards. Orange Cassidy, Eddie Kingston, MJF…none of them were better off for dealing with him in any capacity. Where the fuck is Kingston at these days, anyways? He fell off so hard after Jericho it’s almost like he’s dead. When was the last time he was on Dynamite? I can’t be arsed to watch Rampage. It’s a terrible, wannabe WCW Thunder level show.

Kingston has been featured on Rampage weekly and if you don't wanna watch it that's on you, not AEW. When is the last time you watched it to know it is as bad as you think? His story has been ongoing on Dark/Elevation as well with his anger getting the best of him (like it did to end the Jericho feud) where he couldn't control it. Ortiz was helping him get balanced again. HoB stepped in and have now nudged Kingston back over the edge of controlling it and he took it out on Ortiz. I get not having time to watch it all but as someone who has been, the story is there.

MJF benefitted from the Jericho feud because it got him to putting together the Pinnacle and having a new stage in his career. For me as a viewer, the feud w Jericho elevated Cassidy from a comedy attraction to a main event caliber talent. Kingston I can kinda give you from an optics standpoint of seeing him on TV post feud, but character wise, its all still in motion as a result of his temper vs JAS.

All that being said, I get your point on Jericho seeming to get the last laugh/win in the feuds being the wrong calls. And Ricky is even mentioning it as being sucked into this web of jericho, so he acknowledges he doesnt want to be involved with them on screen cause he knows he is better than it and HAS already beaten him. SO it isn't being ignored. I don't really see where else this story can go right now however, unless Garcia is leaving soon (which he should soon).

[Puns]

I dvr’ed and watched Rampage since it started. It is absolutely on AEW for not giving fans anything to watch. I stopped watching probably 3-4 months ago because there was no reason to watch. It’s sucked. There are only about 300,000 people who watch Rampage weekly. It is bad. There’s a reason so few people watch. We, the ones who wanted to watch, who wanted for the show to be good, we’ve been run off by lack of star power, terrible hot and cold booking where you see someone and then without explanation they’re gone for 2 months, bloody as shit women matches, etc. If they can give me a reason to want to watch again, I’ll watch. But I’m not gonna waste my time watching a terrible show like Rampage. Might as well be 2010 TNA.

Edit: since this is a mostly negative post, I will say I am really enjoying Bryan Danielson, MJF, Takeshita, Samoa Joe and Darby. Asp Timothy Thatcher is great. I hope they sign him. And Jade Cargill! She’s gotten so much better in a relatively quick period of time. And Jamie Hayter. She’s great.

[Iamspiderman]

Not sure if you are familiar with Nielsen ratings and how they work but the system is so archaic and not accurate at all. It may be how they gauge ad revenue $$$ but the sample size is NOT the full US. It is only a fraction of the population and they use that sample to estimate who else is watching.

For context there are about 120 million homes with a TV. Nielsen tracks only about 42,000 of them. They use a formula to then assume the rest. Not to get all TV nerd on ya.


And in general, Fridays at 10pm and being pretaped most weeks does not do it any favors either. It is a good complimentary show to Dynamite but its more of a 2 show than a 1B for sure.

[Puns]

I’m just going by what is reported by the reporters who report these ratings and only about 300,000 people watch Rampage weekly per these reports. AEW doesn’t give their fans, lapsed fans and potential fans reasons to watch by catering to only hardcore wrestling fans who are willing to watch anything that’s called wrestling. I’m willing to give as much time as I can to a product that is worthy of my time and Rampage just isn’t. I can’t justify spending an hour watching sloppy women do dangerous moves and guys I’d only know if I watched everything out there. I’d absolutely love it if Tony Kahn could lay off the booking style where he forgets to put good wrestlers and the wrestlers fans want to see on his wrestling programs to get people to tune in. It isn’t a me problem, it’s a problem with AEW’s booking philosophy catering to only the hardcores. Why would someone only want the fans that they have instead of trying to get more eyes on the product? It doesn’t make sense to me. That’s why the audience isn’t growing and why they can’t break 1.3 million viewers on their main show and can’t hit half of that for their secondary show. They just don’t have wrestlers on the shows that casual fans wanna see and when someone like FTR gets wildly over by having actual wrestling matches, you have the Young Bucks there to make sure to sabotage them. Of the people watching weekly it’s fans of the Young Bucks who will praise any and everything they do because they don’t understand what wrestling is supposed to be. Doing the same flips and over-choreographed tricks isn’t wrestling to me. That’s the reason I always hated the SAT and Amazing Red, the flagrant over-choreographing. Yeah, the Bucks are more athletic and definitely more crisp and do more fancy moves, but they look like teenagers, have no physique whatsoever, don’t look like they could beat anyone up legitimately and they can’t have a match with a referee who will enforce the rules of professional wrestling. They aren’t able to have a match within the confines of the rules of professional wrestling, therefore to me, they are not good professional wrestlers. They’re excellent gymnasts.

[-mp-]

Just a reminder that Jim Cornette hasn’t actually done a thing in the business for well over a decade, after he flamed out of ROH and nearly killed it. Wrestling changes.

[Roxxxas]

Just a reminder that Jim Cornette hasn’t actually done a thing in the business for well over a decade, after he flamed out of ROH and nearly killed it. Wrestling changes.

To be fair, he was proven right on some accounts, ie changes and things Owens and Zayn have made after making it to WWE. And AEW is proving that you can’t cater to a niche/hardcore audience and expect any significant growth.

[Send Hook]

Just a reminder that Jim Cornette hasn’t actually done a thing in the business for well over a decade, after he flamed out of ROH and nearly killed it. Wrestling changes.

To be fair, he was proven right on some accounts, ie changes and things Owens and Zayn have made after making it to WWE. And AEW is proving that you can’t cater to a niche/hardcore audience and expect any significant growth.

He also said AEW be closed down within the first 2 years. He makes money off of being the angry old schooler.

[Puns]

I don’t have to like the changes that happen just because they happen. I don’t like most wrestling these days because it’s phony. It’s a gymnastics routine. These guys plan out every single moment of every single match in the back step by step by step. Boom boom boom, go the the corner, boom boom boom, go to the outside, dive, boom boom boom on the outside brother. It’s like the difference between someone who can play music by ear and someone who has to read the notes on a page. There is a different feeling to it and you know who is who. Someone who can only play notes on a sheet can’t freestyle and go with their gut feeling and improvise. These guys can’t get over with fans who aren’t hardcores because they don’t appeal to all the millions of fans who want a realistic wrestling contest. They’re doing over-choreographed routines and normal people see it and don’t like it because it’s phony. And Cornette might be an out of touch old asshole, but he’s right. Especially when he says “for the kind of people that like that kinda thing, that’s the kinda thing those people are gonna like.” But nobody else does, because there is no appeal. The company will never grow the way it’s being run.

[Puns]

I do wanna say it’s completely cool if you don’t agree with me. I’m not trying to argue, only to present the way that I feel about a product that I wish was much better than it is. The wrestling business is in a much better place with AEW around. It gives wrestlers another regular place to work and gives loads of people the ability to feed their families.

When I got trained to wrestle I lost the ability to suffer foolishness in my wrestling. I took it extremely seriously. I didn’t want to look like a phony, and for the little bit I wrestled I never looked like a phony. I never sold a punch that didn’t connect or danced with my opponent or ever had a spot where I was obviously working together with my opponent. That’s all I want from wrestling, for it to be realistic. That’s my particular philosophy on it, and no one needs to subscribe to my way of thinking. I just wanna put my opinion out there because I feel strongly about what is right and wrong about a business that I cherished more than anything.

[Roxxxas]

Just a reminder that Jim Cornette hasn’t actually done a thing in the business for well over a decade, after he flamed out of ROH and nearly killed it. Wrestling changes.

To be fair, he was proven right on some accounts, ie changes and things Owens and Zayn have made after making it to WWE. And AEW is proving that you can’t cater to a niche/hardcore audience and expect any significant growth.

He also said AEW be closed down within the first 2 years. He makes money off of being the angry old schooler.

He also doesn’t understand the effect of streaming and other new things that have kept ratings overall down

I don’t take him as the gospel on what does and does not work but he usually makes some valid points within some of his more hot takes.

[Puns]

How does DVRing effect ratings? Does a recording count as a view? If I am the only one in my home watching and there are four people would they count it as four views if I DVR the show? Can they tell when/if I fast forward once I record the show? I honestly have no clue how it works!

[Iamspiderman]

How does DVRing effect ratings? Does a recording count as a view? If I am the only one in my home watching and there are four people would they count it as four views if I DVR the show? Can they tell when/if I fast forward once I record the show? I honestly have no clue how it works!

If you dont have a Nielsen box in your house, anything you watch isnt really tracked or counted.

They only look at live viewings of a “Nielsen family” which like I said is only 42,000 out of 1,200,000.

They do track live +3 days and live +7 days as well but again only if you have Nielsen.

And in the end networks only care about the live numbers because thats what they. can sell to advertisers yo get them to buy spots on their network

Truthfully the overall viewers doesn't even matter. The big number is the 18-49 demo rating and even if its “low”, if its #1 on the night or in the timeslot, thats a huge Win

[Puns]

Thanks, Spidey.

Since I’ve been such a negative Nancy, I need to point out how hot this crowd is tonight. They’re on fire. Really helps the show. Also, wanna point out the spot where Ricky Starks and Daniel Garcia were fighting on the top rope. It looked fucking great. There was no point where it looked like they were working together trying to get their balance together. It looked like they were battling for control the entire time. That’s exactly what I want from my wrestling, realism and believability. Really enjoyed that.

[Iamspiderman]

Thanks, Spidey.

Since I’ve been such a negative Nancy, I need to point out how hot this crowd is tonight. They’re on fire. Really helps the show. Also, wanna point out the spot where Ricky Starks and Daniel Garcia were fighting on the top rope. It looked fucking great. There was no point where it looked like they were working together trying to get their balance together. It looked like they were battling for control the entire time. That’s exactly what I want from my wrestling, realism and believability. Really enjoyed that.

I get your point on that btw. I think some of it is chalked up to in ring safety to protect each other these days but as much I do like high flyers, I don’t like it looking like cirque di soleil. I can suspend enough disbelief at this point as a fan, but it still is a lil lame.

My biggest issue these days w the state of wrestling is how finishers cant finish a match anymore for the sake of as many kick outs as possible along with a lack of selling in alot of spots/exchanges.

[Puns]

Holy crap Rush and Danielson put on a BANGER tonight! I haven’t seen a lot of Rush, but he looked awesome here.

[Puns]

Thanks, Spidey.

Since I’ve been such a negative Nancy, I need to point out how hot this crowd is tonight. They’re on fire. Really helps the show. Also, wanna point out the spot where Ricky Starks and Daniel Garcia were fighting on the top rope. It looked fucking great. There was no point where it looked like they were working together trying to get their balance together. It looked like they were battling for control the entire time. That’s exactly what I want from my wrestling, realism and believability. Really enjoyed that.

I get your point on that btw. I think some of it is chalked up to in ring safety to protect each other these days but as much I do like high flyers, I don’t like it looking like cirque di soleil. I can suspend enough disbelief at this point as a fan, but it still is a lil lame.

My biggest issue these days w the state of wrestling is how finishers cant finish a match anymore for the sake of as many kick outs as possible along with a lack of selling in alot of spots/exchanges.

Does the finisher kick outs stuff happen because the wrestlers are chasing star ratings? That kinda stuff didn’t use to happen, right? Am I misremembering Ring of Honor, that wasn’t the case there back in the 00s, right? Kick outs for the sake of doing everything? More isn’t always more…

[Iamspiderman]

Thanks, Spidey.

Since I’ve been such a negative Nancy, I need to point out how hot this crowd is tonight. They’re on fire. Really helps the show. Also, wanna point out the spot where Ricky Starks and Daniel Garcia were fighting on the top rope. It looked fucking great. There was no point where it looked like they were working together trying to get their balance together. It looked like they were battling for control the entire time. That’s exactly what I want from my wrestling, realism and believability. Really enjoyed that.

I get your point on that btw. I think some of it is chalked up to in ring safety to protect each other these days but as much I do like high flyers, I don’t like it looking like cirque di soleil. I can suspend enough disbelief at this point as a fan, but it still is a lil lame.

My biggest issue these days w the state of wrestling is how finishers cant finish a match anymore for the sake of as many kick outs as possible along with a lack of selling in alot of spots/exchanges.

Does the finisher kick outs stuff happen because the wrestlers are chasing star ratings? That kinda stuff didn’t use to happen, right? Am I misremembering Ring of Honor, that wasn’t the case there back in the 00s, right? Kick outs for the sake of doing everything? More isn’t always more…

I only remember kick outs of finishers in huge Mania matches like Rock/Austin. I don’t remember it bleeding that badly into every Monday night. Same with ROH. Even if they did embrace the japanese fighting spirit it wasn’t like it is today. Boils down to Evolution of the business I get it.

Me personally, I think it all dates back to HBK/Taker at Mania 25/26. It was something special but it became so special that wrestling chases that feeling ever since. NXT Takeovers went nuts w it too.

[Azmodeous]

Dynamite review: MJF vs Takeshita was incredible.
Jamie Hayter vs Bunny was sloppy as heck. I hope Allie is okay after being dropped wrong.
I wasn't a fan of the gauntlet concept and hated the ending but once Garcia and Starks got going it was a lot of fun until Jericho appeared.
Danielson vs Rush was just awesome.
Same with Elite vs Top Flight/AR Fox, great stuff
The main event was the definition of overbooked.

Overall I enjoyed this week, when the action was on it was incredible but it feels like Tony Khan realized h w has 3 weeks until a PPV and needs to start shaping the card so things are feeling rushed and overbooked at times.