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Lets Discuss All Things Wrestling - Even The T-Shirt Company AEW!


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On 9/23/2019 at 3:12 PM, JoshstraDaymus said:

Face Seth isn't a good front runner. He's a good chaser. Heel Seth does both well and that's why he's stale right now.

I don't necessarily disagree with this in general because heel Seth was bad *** before his injury but face Seth is still pretty good. He plays both roles pretty well, IMO.

I think it's become stale for the same reason @Deadpulse pointing out. It's like the old saying goes-- too much of one thing is never a good thing-- and over 2-3 years we have watched him "slay the king", "slay the monster" and "slay the beast". At this point, It's like OK he's great we get it...can we move on now? That's my perspective, anyhow.

8 hours ago, The LBC said:

It depends on how quickly this Rowan/Harper/Roman/DB stuff drags out.  If Rowan and Harper are drafted over to RAW, with Heyman pretty much getting free reign (no Vince, no Hunter, no Kevin Dunn on the RAW before this last one, from everything I've heard), I can see Heyman actually doing something with Harper - 1, because he was a huge Bruiser Brody fan and 2, because he has the misfit type that Paul gravitates towards.  (Maybe it's just a gut feeling I've been having, but I feel like with FOX wanting to present Smackdown in more of a sports vein, they're going to make a point of seeking more guys in tights and traditional ring gear, less guys whose ring attire is jeans, tank tops, etc)

Some very good thoughts and observations here, LBC. While it had never really crossed my mind about FOX wanting to have a more traditional sport-like feel being presented, I can def see it now that you brought it up because that is certainly right up their alley. 

Keeping with the idea that Rowan and Harper being drafted to RAW, then yeah you're right, the Roman/DB stuff and how long it's carried out for certainly does muddy the waters a bit. I mean, they're going to need 2 baby faces who bring in ratings for each brand and I can't think of any better options that they would consider other than Roman and Bryan for those roles. So this begs the question, can they really continue this 3-way feud between Rowan, Bryan and Roman throughout the draft while also putting Roman and Bryan on different brands? I mean, I guess they could still use the (silly) wild card rule, but is that how they really wanna begin the fresh start? It'll be interesting to watch for sure. 
 

9 hours ago, The LBC said:

I think if you don't put The fiend over Seth you kill the character - and considering it's the hottest character they've had since, arguably, Bryan during the Yes! movement, possibly even Punk during the Summer of Punk, to the point where fans are hijacking other matches to chant for the Firefly Funhouse act, you have to just throw gasoline on the fire.  And that means put the title on him and keep it on him for a while (think of it this way, if the character is "on the show" regularly in Bray's FF segments, but rarely actually in the arena unless it's on his terms (sneak attack), then you can break free of the stale "want a title shot, jump the champion" bit they've been running for years.  If it was me booking this, I'd put the title on him, keep it on him till Mania, and have Balor return to either win the Rumble or to earn the title shot at Mania and have the Demon finally conquer his own demons to confront and beat the Fiend.

I'm with you a 100%. They need to do a really good job of protecting the Fiend character at this point regardless if they try to portray him as a heel or a face.

And I absolutely LOVE your ideal build up of a Balor vs Fiend match for a title at WM! Build up that match old-school style. No single matches until WM. No tag-team matches. Nothing. If they wanna throw in a surprise attack every now and then, fine, but take the time and let the anticipation marinate for a couple months and not one of those terrible 3 week build-ups that we see. It would be huge.

Just thinking out loud here. Have Wyatt continue playing his usual mind games and sneak attacks on Balor and others once and while, and have Demon Balor trying to use the same tactics against the Fiend. 

This had me thinking too. IMO, Balor's image also needs a reset. With Wyatt becoming more of a baby face or a hybrid and Balor not gaining any traction....what do you think about turning Balor heel? This would be a great setup if they wanna reunite him with the club, depending on how the draft shakes up. 

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31 minutes ago, JustAnotherFan said:

I'm with you a 100%. They need to do a really good job of protecting the Fiend character at this point regardless if they try to portray him as a heel or a face.

And I absolutely LOVE your ideal build up of a Balor vs Fiend match for a title at WM! Build up that match old-school style. No single matches until WM. No tag-team matches. Nothing. If they wanna throw in a surprise attack every now and then, fine, but take the time and let the anticipation marinate for a couple months and not one of those terrible 3 week build-ups that we see. It would be huge.

Just thinking out loud here. Have Wyatt continue playing his usual mind games and sneak attacks on Balor and others once and while, and have Demon Balor trying to use the same tactics against the Fiend. 

This had me thinking too. IMO, Balor's image also needs a reset. With Wyatt becoming more of a baby face or a hybrid and Balor not gaining any traction....what do you think about turning Balor heel? This would be a great setup if they wanna reunite him with the club, depending on how the draft shakes up. 

I think the important dynamic they need to maintain with Bray - and ultimately it really won't matter whether he's a face or a heel, he can be booked as book interchangeably - is also the thing I'm the most worried they'll deviate from.  He needs to only compete in the ring at PPV's - and if he shows up otherwise it's in FF vignettes and very sparse long distance shots that are akin to sudden/shock reveal scares in horror movies (The Strangers is the best example).

I'd just as soon they not flip Finn heel because no one in that company knows how to book a smaller-than-normal heel without making him dependent on being the ring leader with heavies to do his heavy lifting for him; AJ is doing great as a heel right now, but he's getting that same booking.  And Heyman is no different - he booked smaller guy heels like Justin Credible, even arguably Raven, the same way..

I'd much rather it play out neutral versus neutral where in the feud Bray just happens to play the heel and Finn plays the face, but neither is really playing to the crowd as much for their heat and instead are getting it purely off their interaction and relationship within the storyline.  Get the pair of them to sit down and story-map everything out with, likely, Matt Hardy and Joseph Park/Abyss as the agents (being real, probably Jeremy Borash too because he was a big driving force behind the early Woken Hardys versus Decay stuff in TNA which was dark, but captivating.  He hasn't been given the best opportunity to show it on the main roster (thanks Kevin Dunn!), but Finn, in Demon persona, can do A TON with non-verbals, to the point where you'd swear he was a raptor from Jurassic Park or something similar.  What you basically can create is almost something like a clash out of a monster movie or Kaiju/Godzilla movie.

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I don't know how strongly they want to book Finn because he has a real chance at bolting in 2020. 

I really hope they do something good with the draft. 2019 has easily been the least watchable year for me as a wrestling fan. Plus AEW has been generally good so far.

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Heard ratings for the shows are dipping to the low 2 millions which is crazy back when the ended the brand split the first time it was because the ratings were dropping below and alarming 4 million iirc. Now they can barely hit 3 million with a loaded Raw Reunion show which I don't even think hit 3 million. Just goes to show wrestling isn't what it once use to be mainstream and that's really sad. 


This is what happens when match quality takes precedence over story telling. Now I'm not saying good matches are bad god no, AJ Styles is my favorite wrestler because of what he does in the ring. However, look at the AE the quality of matches really wasn't that great story-lines were the main focus. It's why Vince called it Sports-Entertainment and I agree with him if you don't have the entertainment aspect of it the matches are not that intriguing. Nowadays with all this focus on in ring you see only people that are real hardcore raslin fans are watching.

What people want is story-lines and entertainment along with the great matches. For example I always rate Shawn/Taker at Mania 26 higher not just because I believe the match was more crisp than the previous one but because of the story-line that preceded it. It was crazy so many people went to Mania that year just to see that match, the hype and build around it was amazing. We need more of that. Even AJ's best work in WWE you can say has come against Cena. Now ask yourself what was AJ's best feud. Hopefully WWE rectifies this and start producing more enticing story-lines.

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10 hours ago, JohnCena said:

The one thing I gotta say and give props to WWE for is the repackaging of Bray Wyatt. The way they built his FIEND character man don't think anybody could of done a better job it's just been brilliant. Hope they cement his push by giving him the win at HIAC.

I disagree with putting the belt on him as I don't think he NEEDS to have the belt, based on the Fiend's character development, I think he's a bigger presence without having the strap.

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6 minutes ago, MakeDenverGreatAgain said:

I disagree with putting the belt on him as I don't think he NEEDS to have the belt, based on the Fiend's character development, I think he's a bigger presence without having the strap.

He can't lose to Seth though. It would be his second ever match and it would torpedo the character, especially since its based on being feared. 

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2 hours ago, MakeDenverGreatAgain said:

I disagree with putting the belt on him as I don't think he NEEDS to have the belt, based on the Fiend's character development, I think he's a bigger presence without having the strap.

He's not in a position to lose either and they can't go the Braun way with him either. You can't push a guy till the Title match and then have them lose. Especially the Fiend if he starts losing this early he'll start losing credibility. 

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5 hours ago, MakeDenverGreatAgain said:

I disagree with putting the belt on him as I don't think he NEEDS to have the belt, based on the Fiend's character development, I think he's a bigger presence without having the strap.

He doesn't need the belt, but he can't afford to take a loss the Seth.  I'll say that with one caveat, but it's a caveat that does damage to A LOT of guys just for the sake of not putting the belt on Bray: You have the Fiend just not give a flying flip about the rules and beat the everloving crap out of Seth, going way past when the ref has tried to pull him and disqualified him.  Because we haven't gotten a ton of exposure to what motivates the Fiend, the question really ought to be why does he want the title?  Bray himself, sure, I could buy that.  But this Fiend is supposed to be a splinter-off of Bray's own consciousness - to the point at least that Bray's referring to it in a schizophrenic type manner (similar to James McAvoy's Kevin Crumb character in Split and Glass).  Vaulting the Fiend into the title picture feels like a Vince move ("He's hot, man!  We've got to push him to the moon.  Because EVERYONE wants the title!").

I feel like the Fiend is in a similar state to how the Road Warriors were in NWA/Crockett - sure, they don't need the titles, but there becomes a point where they just flat out shouldn't have had them because at some point you have to beat them for the titles, and that does damage to their mystique and aura.

In that same vein, if you push the Fiend into the title picture here and beat him (in what will be only his 2nd match as the character), you're basically Ryback'ing him.

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