AEW Discussion for 4/10: That Young Knockout Kid Chris Hero

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > AEW Discussion for 4/10: That Young Knockout Kid Chris Hero

MOTN This poll is closed.
COPE VS PENTA	44	59.46%
LIONHOOK SHIBATA VS STP	4	5.41%
OKADA VS A GUY	6	8.11%
MAY VS JAY	6	8.11%
JOE VS RHODES	14	18.92%
Total:	74 votes

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

Jiro: Jan 13, 2004

Dax's promo after the footage is very much what FTR say and do after a show ends. Really smart to basically put a Dusty Rhodes' working man blue collar spin on it to get a crowd from West Virginia behind them. Really good poo poo.

FOLLOWED by that absolute barn burner of a promo by Will Ospreay, you want that LORE? We getting that LORE people, and it's so so good.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2024 21:49

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 15:27

Jiro: Jan 13, 2004

King Of Coons posted:

Id like lee v shibata to be pure rules

It WILL rule, purely. :v:

# ¿ Apr 11, 2024 23:47

Jiro: Jan 13, 2004

illcendiary posted:

He’s gonna run Corpus Christi and do big numbers

Pass, that hellhole is cursed. Edinburg already proved we are top notch Colliders, we deserve the pape. :colbert:

# ¿ Apr 12, 2024 01:13

Jiro: Jan 13, 2004

Pylons posted:

https://x.com/AllEliteKeeks/status/1778792310571979225

The comments in this Defector article: https://defector.com/aew-still-isnt-over-cm-punk about the footage shown and Bucks/FTR 4

is SO WEIRD, like I know SA is this isolated echo chamber, but at least there's, what I feel like, is a healthy amount of discourse and different opinions that to read elsewhere is just :psypop:

. And that's also because Riccaboni will sometimes poke his head in there to chime in on stuff.

For those that don't know Defector now only show's partial of the whole article.

Defector's Lauren Theisen posted:

In August of last year, during All Elite Wrestling's biggest show ever, the wrestler CM Punk got into a backstage fight with his coworker, Jack Perry, at Wembley Stadium in London. The fight led to Punk's firing from the promotion and his subsequent rehiring by WWE. In April of this year, this remains one of the biggest stories in wrestling�at least for AEW, which tried to steal back some attention after an all-consuming WrestleMania weekend by airing legitimate security footage of the Punk-Perry altercation on its flagship TV show, Dynamite, on Wednesday.

The storyline justification for airing this tape was flimsy. It was meant to further a tag team feud between FTR, good friends of Punk, and the Young Bucks, who've been completely swallowed by his drama for the past year-and-a-half. It also presumably set the table for the return of Perry, who's been exiled from the company ever since that Wembley show. The real reason for airing it was a recent interview Punk did with WWE hypeman Ariel Helwani. That interview was notable mostly for being very long, but it also featured some pointed criticism of AEW president Tony Khan as a pushover boss and Punk's own self-aggrandizing account of the Wembley confrontation with Perry, who'd made a little insider dig at him in the previous match.

The idea behind showing the clip on TV, presumably, was to ensure that Punk's portrayal of himself as the badass locker-room cop wasn't the only one on the public record. To some extent, I guess it accomplished that feat. AEW already seems to be trying to scrub it from the internet, including their own YouTube video of the segment, but here it is: a tense discussion, an attack by Punk, and then a quick separation.

The magic of internet tribalism and Wrestling Mindset have allowed fans to see whatever they want to see in the video. For those who dislike Punk, it's him being a petty little jerk with a short fuse, and trying to hurt a co-worker for no good reason. For his devotees, it's Punk behaving like a superstar by asserting his privilege after he was called out unscripted on camera by Perry. What everyone should be able to agree on is that nobody in All Elite Wrestling is helped by this footage airing on TV, over seven months later.

Wrestling's on-screen conflicts are often rooted in real-life stories known to the audience, but while Punk stays untouchable in WWE�he's making all these waves without even wrestling, due to injury�anyone interacting with him in AEW storylines is fighting a ghost. No sellable, tangible match can come of it, because Punk doesn't work there anymore. Tony Khan, meanwhile, looks like a goofball, because he said after Punk's firing that he feared for his life at this show, and the footage he's now chosen to air doesn't remotely support that. Plus, the whole fictional kayfabe universe of AEW has taken a hit, because Dynamite and their other programs include backstage attacks all the time. To call attention to the artificiality of those performances by contrasting them with a real fight only gives fans less of a reason to care. (Yes, people know pro wrestling is "fake," but they hide the wires and the green screens in movies for a reason. There are rules, or anyway best practices, to all this.)

A lot of wrestling history/mythology is based on the idea of The One Moment That Changed Everything�something like Austin 3:16, or Tony Schiavone's "butts in seats" remark�that caused audiences to shift their allegiance in droves and at once. That kind of storytelling glosses over how television usually works. It's a medium built on the comfort of habits and routine�of football on Sundays and Raw on Mondays and, for the last four-and-a-half years, Dynamite on Wednesdays. It's also a medium built on forgiveness; rarely does one bad episode cause a fan to swear off a show for good.

Change doesn't typically happen at that mythic scale and speed. But every measurable number points to the fact that AEW has gradually lost support since its peak in late 2021/early 2022, and especially over the last several months. It's still a huge success by the standards of a No. 2 wrestling company, or cable television in general in 2024. But as WWE's line goes up, AEW's is going down, and there's no guarantee that it'll stop at some floor. Everyone who cares about this stuff has their own explanation for why, which includes some mixture of inconsistent long-term storytelling, burnout brought on by expansion, and WWE fixing its flaws enough that audiences no longer demand an alternative.

But the decision to show footage of the Punk fight is both novel enough and stupid enough that, if the decline continues, it could rise above all explanations and become, symbolically if not actually, the decision that brought about AEW's downfall. I don't think that's the case, but I do know that, even if the promotion of the footage brought in curious viewers for a night, it won't make them stick around to see what comes next without Punk actually there to participate in any storylines. If AEW can't stop the bleeding, it won't be because of CM Punk. It'll be because nobody telling AEW's stories could come up with anything more compelling than talking about a thing that a former employee did last year.

Jiro fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Apr 12, 2024

# ¿ Apr 12, 2024 21:11

Jiro: Jan 13, 2004

Pylons posted:

https://twitter.com/TonyKhan/status/1778878796600353170

I'm always down for Red Velvet doing cool rear end poo poo and selling everything like Death, but I am really ready for her to start really winning and getting a belt, more than Queen Aminata.

illcendiary posted:

The top-level comments are pretty well thought-out and reasoned, and are willing to call out Lauren Thiesen (who is a very good writer across multiple sports and topics). Obviously the replies to those comments are going to be mostly drivel. But if you sort by Most Replies it�s a decent set of discussion points (a lot of which I disagree with, but at least they�re well-articulated and non trolly).

Yeah that's what I appreciate about Defector for the most part, they just really need like two dedicated writers that are pro wrestling fans that are all about good analytical pieces about Pro Wrestling.

Jiro fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Apr 12, 2024

# ¿ Apr 12, 2024 21:24

Jiro: Jan 13, 2004

The_Rob posted:

I need a return of the queen of strong style Nikkisawa

I mean if she really wants to mess up her neck THAT badly...... Also what the hell is Saraya doing these days?

# ¿ Apr 15, 2024 19:43

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 15:27

Jiro: Jan 13, 2004

Pylons posted:

https://twitter.com/stholeary2/status/1780691181233672294 TW: Transphobia

Oklahoma would have been better off being run by the First Nation tribes that were forced there by a still poo poo US Government. At least in Native American cultures they recognize a being of either a third gender, or a person of two-spirits. The state legalized pot and persecute Chinese immigrants who moved there to start business in and around the Marijuana industry only to get blanket labeled as Chinese spies.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2024 23:24

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > AEW Discussion for 4/10: That Young Knockout Kid Chris Hero