A trust fund kid might steal a car on a lark, but they are actually going to try and steal a car. And if they spend even a night in prison and are attacked by an unsavory character, they are not going to defend themselves with soft kicks to the thigh with their hands in their pockets.

Holy shit, I cannot believe I am engaging on this ridiculous point.

An Irish whip is "less silly" than an aluminium garbage can used as a weapon.

But here we are now.

Actually I may be wrong there. That was a bad example. I once saw a guy get knocked out with a half empty can of Coke...

I don’t like Bray Wyatt or Undertaker either. At least they try to win their matches too.

Nobody disagrees

This is the above match I was talking about. OC does his schtick early on and then transitions into being a normal wrestler and actually busting out some decent moves and some ring psychology (hooking Starrs leg after having him block a suplex twice)

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He also did it all with a legit looking busted nose very early on.

I like OC

I like his look

I like his gimmick

I think he's a good wrestler too

Lol, you do realize that you are talking about psychology in regards to a guy who “doesn’t try.” It’s nonsense. You don’t start properly working a match ten minutes in or whatever.

And to the people who say “well, it just depends on what your threshold for silliness is,” why are they even gambling with that in the first place? And why test the suspension of disbelief of lapsed fans who suspended their watching because they couldn’t suspend disbelief anymore?

Fact: the more an audience is required to suspend its disbelief the less the show draws.

According to the Observer, Tony Schiavone has recently signed a deal with AEW.

Yeahhhh!

Niceeee

Too true.

I fully expect Joey Janella to last one episode of the TNT show before he sees a camera in his face and decides to yell "FUCK JIM CORNETTE" loud enough for Tony Khan to fire him to save face with Standards and Practices.

How long til he goofs and welcomes everyone to Nitro on TNT

I would love a Tony - Jim Ross - Excalibur commentary team

Locations 4 & 5 will be revealed Monday for AEW's weekly show

That was seriously low-rent shit. You’d think someone would have given him a talking to about that one, but who knows? If you were doing a play and you stopped in the middle of it to cuss out a critic, you’d be fired. People who bought tickets would be outraged. Only in wrestling, lol.

I like Tony, but there’s something a bit WCW about him calling a wrestling show on TNT. They’ve already got JR. Excalibur is fine (not great). Just let him call it with JR.

Going to be so weird hearing JR trying to get around Orange Cassidy’s stuff. Cody hires this guy and calls him “Jim fucking Ross,” but then you trot him out there to call joke stuff? This project is VERY schizophrenic. I am trying to detach myself so I don’t get heartbroken if this ruins alternatives to WWE with networks. The cynic in me is morbidly curious to see how people take it.

Weeks 4 & 5 of AEWonTNT will be:

Pittsburgh, PA (10/23)
Charleston, WV (10/30)

Pittsburgh should pack 'em in. West Virginia might be their first test.

Agreed

Richmond Coliseum should be set up for 10-12,000 I would think, and Pittsburgh maybe 8-10. They could easily do what WWE does and cut the arena's in half but I'm hoping they don't. I hate how WWE's big screen cuts off so much arena. Every arena has a screen, and the entrance ramp could be a lot more "sports authentic" than we've seen in the past. But considering Fyter Fest, I doubt it.

$80 front row for Richmond. Amazing.

Most of the fully invested are the Hipster marks who think Cornette is an old man yelling at a cloud instead of someone who is actually giving feedback that would benefit them, if they would listen.

All In worked because there was only one moment of cringe in it. It was one more moment than necessary (Seriously, I had to explain Joey Fucking Ryan to my Dad.), but didn't bring the whole show down. AEW thus far looks more like a big budget PWG than a big budget All In, and that is going to cause them problems in the long run.

Probably not going to be a commentator for AEW at least for the first couple of years due to his current commitments with college sports and MLW.

I'd assume he's going to be their newsroom recap guy for shows until his other stuff is done. Could probably buy out his MLW deal if MLW is interested and the money is right.

Just want to put my two cents on Orange Cassidy.

I saw him at Lost In New York, I had never herd of him. He certainly made me laugh in a gimmick ladder match. But when you watch him you do have to shift your focus to "the fun bullshit" part of the show. And tbh that's not something I really care to see on AEW. It's fine when you are doing a rebel show like Spring Break but on a mainstream network to take the piss out of everything like that...

Now like I said I do enjoy Cassidy, so I'm curious to see what happens. When I hear Tony talk about AEW I like everything he's thinking and planning. It seems to me that the Bucks and Kenny have an obsession with that DDT style and are going to incorporate it. I guess we shall see how it goes. Still very excited for AEW.

But I guess my impression was that AEW was going to be sold as a sport. I hope they stick with that.

The sports stuff was mostly about presentation and how wins-losses would matter more than how its handled in WWE and everything changing on a whim based on Vince's mood that day.

Like think more towards NJPW for a reference on what they are going for on paper. They already do post-match press conference and try to frame the action as more pro wrestling/sports-oriented than WWE's theatrical and promo-based style. You still get your share of comedic stuff and character-based talent since you need that variety in the roster to keep things fresh and interesting in the long run.

That’s a good spot for Tony.

People like to mock when people take wrestling seriously (imagine being passionate about your pastime), but I seriously don’t understand the logic behind trying to present serious acts and angles at the same time as “exposing your business” (I hate that phrase, because the meaning often just gets ignored, but it fits).

Like, Shawn Spears hitting Cody with a chair was brilliant. He has great motivation too. He doesn’t want to just be a solid hand. He’s a main eventer (in his eyes) that has just never had the shot. So fuck Cody and over a decade of friendship, he’s going to take the advice of a legend who made some real money in wrestling. It’s immersive and has years of history. Then, in the most show conference, two of your EVPs talk about how the chair was gimmicked.

What is the point of trying to create this tension for a pay-off if the bosses are just going to try and snap you out of it? I actually don’t understand it. It’s like flipping the lights during an intense play.

According to PWI, TNT is going to air a one hour AEW special on August 30th at 10PM EST as both an introduction to the company and as the final hype for AEW's All Out event.

I know! I got marks on my head from scratching so much after that. I don't think in industry as whole can totally align through kayfabe the way it once was. But at least holding up the truth to a story (line) instead of pulling back the curtain constantly is much more entertaining. Look at Austin, even in his podcast (and yes he does pull the curtain but you can tell it's still a little weird for him) sometime's he'll have a wrestler guest on his pod and they end up cutting promo's at each other. You know it's not real but it's still so fun because Austin is one of the best characters there is so to hear a promo by him is going to be better than 99% of the active wrestlers.

When it comes to wrestling on TV I want them to keep kayfabe. Simple as that. And yeah I'd prefer they keep kayfabe in the presser and not pull back the curtain to say things like "oh that wasn't supposed to happen" or "What happend wuz" or "the gimmick didn't work as planned" etc...

No you won't be able to convince me wrestling is legit competition but you can make me believe even for a moment (and it's worth it) that someone went too far, went into business for himself, you can through confidence and commitment make stories seem real. Real enough so that you don't feel the need to expose that they are fake.

As I mentioned earlier I was looking to that sports element talked about for AEW. But in all likelihood it won't be stronger than NJPW's presentation. I just don't see how it can be. Maybe it's because it's in a language I can't understand but it's quite easy to suspend your smarter belief and buy into moments (many) of realism regularly produced by NJPW.

The thing with New Japan's backstage interview press scrum is that the journalists are in on the act, they aren't asking questions about the production aspects, spots, botches or how they safely land on their necks so often. Most of the time they don't ask any questions at all, they just let the guys do their promo and play along. You're not going to get that with the western dirt shirt guys because they're all about scoops and getting themselves over.

Great point!

I don’t watch a lot of NJPW but the bits I’ve seen (Including The Recount recap videos on their YouTube channel) have some great little nuances that add to the presentation, and their long form storytelling is superb. I like their presentation.

I get the Orange Cassidy gimmick but from that match shared earlier it’s shit. There’s a way to present a “rich kid waster” and it’s not with those fucking “chops”.

They’re not going to keep kayfabe. It’s a dirty word to those guys.

Well said, Mantis.

Why haven't they announced a match for MJF at All Out? If he doesn't cut a promo I'm going to ask for a refund.