{"id":47783,"date":"2021-03-26T19:47:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T00:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=47783"},"modified":"2021-04-05T19:48:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T00:48:09","slug":"moar-aew-observations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=47783","title":{"rendered":"Moar AEW observations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As my schoolwork has begun loosening up a little bit, I began trying to play catchup on all of the wrestling that I\u2019d missed throughout the last month.\u00a0 Naturally, this would include TNAEWCW, and I got many a great chuckle out of the unimpressive fireworks display they constituted as an exploding ring at their last pay-per-view event that also makes me wonder how their PPV buyrates are in a day where so many people are now used to basically getting PPVs for free through the WWE Network.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway that said, I blew through four episodes of <\/span>Dynamite<\/em> just because I wanted to see how a couple of things that I\u2019d heard happened, happened, and as much as I clown on AEW for being TNAEWCW, I still like some of the things that they\u2019re doing, and always do hope that things will eventually get better . . . someday.<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of things really stood out when watching a whole bunch of TNAEWCW at one time, and I will disclaim that I fast forward through a whole bunch of the matches themselves, because for a smark like me, the matches themselves don\u2019t always matter so much as I like to see how storylines progress, guys cutting promos, and general flow of segments.<\/span><\/p>\n

First<\/strong>: AEW really does operate like two separate promotions under the same umbrella.\u00a0 You have one chunk of the roster all in this weird sub-promotion within AEW that revolves around the TNT Championship, and then you have another chunk of the roster that\u2019s entirely focused around Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, the Elite, and any and all remnants of any sort of Bullet Club\/New Japan talents, even if they are Impact guys like Carl Anderson and Luke Gallows, and whomever they\u2019re feuding with at the time, which appears to be Jon Moxley, Christian and for some reason, Eddie Kingston.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There practically no crossover between the two sub-promotions, and the show might as well swap out ropes and mats between segments, they\u2019re so diametrically different from each other.\u00a0 The nepotism that AEW fought in year one is clearly no longer being held back, and now that the inmates run the asylum, they\u2019re letting all their fantasy ideas come to fruition, even if it means lots of actual AEW talents are getting their TV time usurped by guys from other promotions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>: Rey Fenix and Britt Baker are the MVPs of AEW, hands down.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been high on both of these talents pretty early on, because it was pretty prevalent that the two of them, regardless of their actual win-loss records or active storylines, are the top male and female talents on the roster, in terms of consistency, workrate and screen impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fenix has been padding his resume over the last few months with easy stand-out matches with anyone, from his own brother Pentagon, to the big oaf Lance Archer, and to a more recent four-star match against Matt Jackson.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear he can work with just about anyone, and brings a speed and intensity not seen in a luchador since like, a prime Juventud Guerrera.<\/span><\/p>\n

AEW\u2019s women\u2019s division is often compared and falls flat against the WWE\u2019s, but none of is by any fault of Dr. Britt Baker DMD, whom it\u2019s abundantly clear is bigger than the promotion\u2019s women\u2019s title.\u00a0 Not lost is the irony of how she is a former WWE talent, and with her relationship to the WWE\u2019s Adam Cole, it\u2019s clear the overlap of movesets between the two.\u00a0 But she\u2019s been a consistent force since the dawn of the promotion, and is as good in the ring as she is out of it, and it speaks volumes of any wrestler, regardless of gender, if they can get over and stay over without actually wrestling, which Baker did for months on end, doing the Role Model gimmick better than Bayley was doing concurrently in the WWE.<\/span><\/p>\n

And few women\u2019s matches in the history of women\u2019s wrestling will probably ever come close to the hardcore brutality and memorability of Baker\u2019s match against Thunder Rosa, which was the only match from four weeks of Dynamites, that I didn\u2019t fast forward any bit of.\u00a0 It was a pretty legendary match, that probably will be like their equivalent to Foley vs. Funk in IWA Japan, and probably should be AEW\u2019s match of the year, already.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>: when will TNAEWCW introduce ten-man tag team championship belts?\u00a0 I rolled my eyes a long time ago when I found out Ring of Honor had a six-man tag team championship, but frankly AEW seems pretty destined to have to do ten-man blets, based on how many 5+ man factions that have emerged, especially with the introduction of MJF\u2019s new faction, I guess they\u2019re called The Pinnacle?<\/span><\/p>\n