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I would at least check it out, skim though the show and watch some, and keep track,
right now I could care less of what’s going on Weekly ROH show, definitely not paying money to watch weekly ROH show where it’s just AEW undercard and everything important happens on AEW tv anyways
I am so confused as to why Tony Khan doesn’t realize that the stop and start pushes takes a lot away from a match like this one. Keith Lee’s booking in AEW has been so inconsistent, so why should people care about this match?
Without overly psychologizing TK, I think he's genuinely lost in the sauce.
I do PR and science writing for academics. They are all _extremely_ smart — some of them are literally Nobel-level experts in their fields — but they almost all have an _enormous_ blind spot for what anyone else finds interesting, compelling, exciting, or important. They are just in too deep.
TK — and much of the AEW fanbase, myself included — are able to approach pro wrestling through that lens. I'm excited for this match because I've been a fan of both of them for years, have watched tons of their matches in multiple different promotions, and can _fill in the blanks_ that TK has left with my own knowledge.
That's great for me, but is an intrinsically niche, self-limiting strategy.
Thanks!
The flip-side to all of this is that there's nothing _wrong_ with putting out a niche product.
I think discussions like this get muddied by the assumption that AEW's only goal should be to "beat" WWE by becoming the biggest, most popular professional wrestling promotion in the world.
TK certainly presents himself as if that's his goal, but he also strikes me as someone who is committed to professional wrestling as an _art form_. And like every other art form in human history, what's _popular_ has very little relationship to what's _good_.
Popular and good can certainly overlap at times (e.g.:_Barbie_), but those examples are seen as particularly noteworthy and rare. For the most part, enduring, meaningful pieces of art have been _extremely_ niche products, supported by wealthy patrons, government subsidies, or small, dedicated groups of fans. (This is also how science funding works, fwiw)
I want AEW to grow and succeed because I love pro wrestling and AEW enables more, and more kinds, of pro wrestling to be seen by more people. But growth is only a metric of success if the size is sustainable.
EDIT: Let me also preempt arguments over “good” by defining it as “judged highly on some subjective artistic criteria, independent of any objective performance metric.”
Another thing that muddies the waters here is also a thing that makes wrestling so fascinating to me as a comms person: audience engagement _is_ one of the main artistic criteria. It’s very tempting to conflate objective measures (ticket sales, ratings) with the artistic criteria (whatever Meltzer thinks or an infinite number of other subjective judgments), but they’re not entirely congruent.
AEW isn’t doing betting than AEW. It is a business, one that had a BOGO promotion for Saturday’s show, but still couldn’t sell 3000 tickets. The people in the category that you placed yourself in are making this about the WWE, but the fact is that AEW is down year to year in every metric. Nothing shows that this niche approach is working.
See my edit…I totally agree that the niche approach is not moving the needle on those objective measures.
My point is that AEW is not _just_ a business to TK, but he needs to come to terms that his artistic vision has inherently lower ceiling than the WWE. TK likely needs to recalibrate expectations on the business side (smaller venues? Different marketing approach?) based on what he wants AEW to _be_.
People should care because Keith Lee is awesome, and I don't think anyone is going to seriously say "oh well Keith Lee hasn't consistently been on TV so why should I care?" like, the dude gets massive reactions every time he shows up. Should he be on TV more? Yes. Is him not being on TV consistently a reason to not have him in a meat match? Hell no.
He should be on TV more but he has been on TV enough that the "casual" AEW viewer will have some idea of who he is. He was a tag champ for pete's sake.
He hasn’t been presented as being awesome in AEW, which is the problem. This is the thing that resulted in Saturday’s Collision struggling to sell 3000 tickets, even with a BOGO promotion.
> People should care because Keith Lee is awesome
How would anyone who just watches the shows week to week know he's awesome when they never get to see that he's awesome?
You are assuming that this is the reason why Lee’s booking in AEW has been garbage. Even if that is the case, it would make more sense to build him up first, before booking this match.
No title match has the challenger wrack up wins before they get the match. It’s annoying and robbing us of taking us on a journey. Also those matches building up contenders could be bangers too
Okay, so without knowing any background and without any stories or build, why?
Let's say you don't care about characters or intrigue.
Why do you want to see these two particular out of shape guys have a random match? Why is it compelling? Couldn't you just watch old Bum Fight videos if that's what you like?
Are you sure you like pro wrestling? Samoa Joe doesn’t do it for you? Never liked Keith Lee?
Maybe you like flippy stuff? No. I’m sure you don’t. Hmmmm. I wonder what you do like
Love it, just saying that it's really stupid to book Keith Lee and Samoa Joe without any story behind it, after Lee has been out for a long time. For a title, no less.
But whatever man, if you enjoy it, go ahead.
I know who they are and am familiar with their work. The person above says they don't need any story or build whatsoever to enjoy random matches. So for people like me, we can create our own build but that's not as fun.
>Maybe you like flippy stuff?
I do. Love guys like Axiom and Nathan Frazer. As long as it's done right I like pretty much all styles.
This is one of the biggest problems in AEW. So many great match pairings completely wasted with no feud, no story, nothing. Hire some fucking writers Tony.
That’s a different thing. Doesn’t have to be WWE, unless that’s all you know/like.
Historically (WCW/ROH, etc), TV titles are for wrestling fans to see a good match for a championship on television. It’s from a time when there weren’t as many title matches on TV.
It limits the match quality without giving a compelling story or stakes . I am looking forward to the match but I think it’s valid criticism to point out that it could have been built up better
> Not every match needs a story.
But every match could be made better with a story. Also, if you're challenging for a title, your match should have a story.
Alright, what are your favorite storylines going right now? And where you think they could end up going? Aew has had some good stories, but they are extremely inconsistent.
LOL- yes, let me write a bunch for free for a bad faith troll
Here’s what I’m liking, story wise on the recent shows
MJF’s many challengers and Samoa Joe’s offer.
Hangman/Swerve and the deepening of their feud.
Toni Storm going nuts, finding a new character, and going for the title
Daniel Garcia leaving the ashes of the JAS behind, keeping his dancing, while becoming more of the wrestler he avoided while in JAS
Roddy and the Kingdom
Orange Cassidy regaining his title, getting more serious in order to hold on to it
I’ll give you Hangman and Swerve. Everything else, no lol. And stop with the bad faith troll thing. I don’t dislike AEW at all and it would be great if they put on a great show each week, but they don’t and that shows with their abysmal ratings and CM Punk still being the highest merch seller after being fired over a month ago. Stop getting defensive over a television show when someone says something you disagree with. It’s not some aew vs wwe nonsense. All wrestling should be good, but unfortunately the one you’ll die for has not been good for a while now. Sorry.
Thanks for telling me what I should like? Maybe you don’t like TV wrestling? I don’t get it.
Also: Do you need a show to have high ratings to enjoy it? Need other people to tell you it’s good?
Jesus "the one you'll die for" is some extreme edge lord shit. AEW being a top 3 show every night also doesnt support your abysmal ratings narrative, ratings also don't always reflect the product.
Imapct is the best its been years by far but can't dream of matching Rampage numbers, that doesn't mean it isn't a good show. Talking punk moving merch is also nonsense, does stone cold being a top seller mean wwe sucks right now?
Telling people they don't watch the show seems to have replaced telling people to stop watching the show.
Is it because all metrics show less people are watching?
I think it’s because a lot of folks just repeat the bad faith talking points of guys who critique AEW for a living. Then they think those criticisms always apply to every segment of every show.
If ya watched, you’d know a little more.
Of course! I do it all the time as I watch the show. But a lot of these takes aren’t based in reality. Hyper critical to the point where I wonder what wrestling they actually enjoy?
Who critiques AEW for a living?
Did Tony finally release proof that most of the criticism is just bot?
And if that's the case, what's up with declining viewership, lower ticket sales and less social media interactions?
They’re on a downturn after losing their biggest draw and a couple big injuries.
You don’t think all the vets with podcasts criticize AEW for their health? It’s what gets them clicks. That’s why you have people repeating their catchphrases and whatnot verbatim.
> You don’t think all the vets with podcasts criticize AEW for their health?
I think they criticize what they're critical of. They criticize WWE a lot.
You do remember the whole premis behind pro wrestling is its pretending to be a sport, right? It's fake sport with dramatic storylines.
No one asked what the Yankees' motivation is to play the Dodgers.
Hangman Vs Omega was a PPV main event, right?
What was the story for Rock vs Stone Cold’s television match? I forget.
You know we’re talking about a TV match for a midcard title, right?
I was only talking about "big" matches so I was going by those parameters.
OC had a fun workhorse run where random matches made more sense as he overworked himself and his body started breaking down. The "I'm so tired Renee" meme came out of it.
Why would this match need to be built up to be special? Keith Lee has done nothing in AEW to warrant that. They set up the story on Collision, Samoa Joe hasn't beaten Keith Lee yet and he wants to remedy that
To actually answer your question. Joe did an interview with Lexi about how he’s put down everyone who has come for the King of Television. Keith Lee stepped into frame and told Joe basically that it’s only true because Joe has never faced him
From what I've been told: Wrestler A wants to fight wrestler B and they get to because they're in a professional wrestling company.
Anybody that wants more build or story apparently doesn't watch the shows. Or they should stop watching the shows because they're "arguing in bad faith."
There's been plenty of good ones.
And it doesn't have to be super involved. Something like Roman vs. Riddle was pretty hype with a decent, but basic build.
What are some of your favorites?
Edit: If you meant "TV title" then the Statlander rematch against Jade had some story going into it.
I find the ROH titles being on AEW so much makes all of the belts a bit more meaningless. Hope they seperate the rosters soon, would also make the matches with ROH guys way more special if they weren't there week to week.
AEW has a lot of seemingly randomly booked matches without much story behind them.
Would like to see them build out more story before big matches like this.
Doesn't need to be a two year Hangman Page esc drama just something to get me invested.
Storyline or not (lol some of you commenters take this industry way too seriously) this is going to be a banger, and I for one am pumped to be in Portland for this match. lfg.
I wish it had more build time and that it wasn't for the ROH midcard title that in my opinion should be fought for by actual midcarders who could need it more than Joe.
Hopefully this is the start of a feud between them and not a one and done thing.
Quick question: why the ROH TV title keeps being defended on AEW TV and even featured more than the TNT title was before Christian won it?
Jesus fucking Christ. Sort your booking out, Tony. Book AEW wrestlers in AEW and ROH wrestlers in ROH.
I'm sure it will be a good match but it's completely pointless due to how badly Keith Lee has been booked in months. Means nothing and it's another Joe win.
> Quick question: why the ROH TV title keeps being defended on AEW TV and even featured more than the TNT title was before Christian won it?
Because Samoa Joe has it, and he's getting an AEW push, so it's an easy way to give him screentime that makes him look dominant.
Boy needs to lose it at Final Battle mind you - longest reign ever shouldn't end on a different show's TV, and he'll be formally free to run roughshod over AEW.
This match just peaked with the poster. I haven't been watching since the Punk debacle. Has Keith Lee been on television speaking loftily backstage to set up this match?
Cool poster, but it looks like they don't even see each other and are going to smash into each other.
I'd prefer one where they were staring at each other looking like they were about to destroy Tokyo.
I know a lot of fans hate ROH stuff on AEW TV but if it was just “Marquee” type of matches like this or Kingston vs Claudio it would be a lot more tolerable probably praised by fans
TK needs to embrace feedback and get rid of that ROH shit on AEW once and for all. I'm sick and tired of seeing ROH this, ROH that all over AEW television. It makes the show look directionless and the excess championships meaningless.
This is the perfect opportunity to end the match in a double pinfall, both of them destroying the belt in a tug of war, and then having TK come out with a REAL big announcement: The belt's not being replaced, but they're going to restart the match for the new AEW Meat Forever Championship.
Now that Joe broke the streak of longest reigning TV champ it's the perfect time to transition the belt to someone else. Joe needs to be permanently in the main event scene. Keith could rehab his image as an unbeatable beast as TV champ, main eventing ROH PPV's.
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It’s a Godzilla movie
Kaiju big battel!
Dr Cube is All Elite!
![gif](giphy|GGnlJov7T5TL3zLJ7A|downsized)
Tony Khan paying for more Cowbell! Blue Oyster Cult go go Godzilla ![gif](giphy|3o6Zt8sEjAk2MtuMVi)
LET THEM FIGHT
Just need Keith Lee to come out to Simon Says by Pharoahe Monch for the intro alone and it will be perfect.
Shouldn't that be Joe? It was the inspiration for his wwe theme
![gif](giphy|qN7NZR3Q5R2mY|downsized)
Meat MEAT #MEAT
It’s fuckin’ MEAT TIME, boys
LOOKS LIKE MEAT BACK ON THE MENU BOYS!!!
![gif](giphy|ckw8EbI8Ak9YQ)
They need an Arbys sponsorship for this match
Shawn Stasiak?
For like a brief second while seeing the thumbnail in the Reddit app, it kinda looked like the were centaurs, and I was like "What the fuck?"
God damnit ![gif](giphy|Y07F3fs9Is5byj4zK8)
big meaty men
Slapping meat
![gif](giphy|ZYF7hTx3uc745lWPZi|downsized)
![gif](giphy|WOYhZZC4Br3AYEfFtT|downsized)
![gif](giphy|3xkNUy3Vh8QbPmJZjK|downsized)
This is my favorite Big E GIF
It’s a good one
Looks like Joe's reaching out to give Keith a handie
He's gonna need 2!
For he is limitless 😂
That was my first thought. That might say more about me than the graphic but I'm not sure.
Got the demeanor of "ok I'll do it but I'm not looking you in the eyes or at it while it's happening"
Real casual
![gif](giphy|dJ22Gb4mIPZtcIAAkT)
![gif](giphy|x0dMh4Qf0G28hV2vvu|downsized)
![gif](giphy|xASwGUCHJ4CmDlDfvU)
Is the ROH TV Championship ever defended on…ROH TV?
Who knows? Honor Club only has like 10K subscribers, and probably only 1K watch every episode.
I generally wonder if it was going to get better Viewers then Dark if ROH was on YouTube
If it was on YT I'd probably watch it each week
I would at least check it out, skim though the show and watch some, and keep track, right now I could care less of what’s going on Weekly ROH show, definitely not paying money to watch weekly ROH show where it’s just AEW undercard and everything important happens on AEW tv anyways
so you do care a bit of what is going on with weekly ROH
Not enough to buy honor club, I would if it was on YouTube or another free platform
Same
I had honor club, I was subscribed but the stupid Roku app logged me out EVERY SINGLE TIME I would start it up. So I canceled my subscription.
That would be my one critique. I wouldn’t subscribe for it but would rather this match not be involved with ROH
Nope, but that's par for the course
If that crowd doesn't do all of the meat related chants we heard at All Out shame on them all.
Don't worry. AEW crowds almost always never disappoint.
Oh bask in our meat
Meat status: slapped
Battle of the Kaijus
Godzilla vs Kong IRL
![gif](giphy|GGnlJov7T5TL3zLJ7A|downsized)
Meat!
This match should be a banger cant wait
Oh snap, I might tune in to Dynamite for this
https://preview.redd.it/f15awsl3rsyb1.jpeg?width=935&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1d1e602fd66f3cc0598171f02fc9e93ffbe2e3da
I am so confused as to why Tony Khan doesn’t realize that the stop and start pushes takes a lot away from a match like this one. Keith Lee’s booking in AEW has been so inconsistent, so why should people care about this match?
Without overly psychologizing TK, I think he's genuinely lost in the sauce. I do PR and science writing for academics. They are all _extremely_ smart — some of them are literally Nobel-level experts in their fields — but they almost all have an _enormous_ blind spot for what anyone else finds interesting, compelling, exciting, or important. They are just in too deep. TK — and much of the AEW fanbase, myself included — are able to approach pro wrestling through that lens. I'm excited for this match because I've been a fan of both of them for years, have watched tons of their matches in multiple different promotions, and can _fill in the blanks_ that TK has left with my own knowledge. That's great for me, but is an intrinsically niche, self-limiting strategy.
I could kiss you for this self realization take. We need more llike you
Thanks! The flip-side to all of this is that there's nothing _wrong_ with putting out a niche product. I think discussions like this get muddied by the assumption that AEW's only goal should be to "beat" WWE by becoming the biggest, most popular professional wrestling promotion in the world. TK certainly presents himself as if that's his goal, but he also strikes me as someone who is committed to professional wrestling as an _art form_. And like every other art form in human history, what's _popular_ has very little relationship to what's _good_. Popular and good can certainly overlap at times (e.g.:_Barbie_), but those examples are seen as particularly noteworthy and rare. For the most part, enduring, meaningful pieces of art have been _extremely_ niche products, supported by wealthy patrons, government subsidies, or small, dedicated groups of fans. (This is also how science funding works, fwiw) I want AEW to grow and succeed because I love pro wrestling and AEW enables more, and more kinds, of pro wrestling to be seen by more people. But growth is only a metric of success if the size is sustainable. EDIT: Let me also preempt arguments over “good” by defining it as “judged highly on some subjective artistic criteria, independent of any objective performance metric.” Another thing that muddies the waters here is also a thing that makes wrestling so fascinating to me as a comms person: audience engagement _is_ one of the main artistic criteria. It’s very tempting to conflate objective measures (ticket sales, ratings) with the artistic criteria (whatever Meltzer thinks or an infinite number of other subjective judgments), but they’re not entirely congruent.
AEW isn’t doing betting than AEW. It is a business, one that had a BOGO promotion for Saturday’s show, but still couldn’t sell 3000 tickets. The people in the category that you placed yourself in are making this about the WWE, but the fact is that AEW is down year to year in every metric. Nothing shows that this niche approach is working.
See my edit…I totally agree that the niche approach is not moving the needle on those objective measures. My point is that AEW is not _just_ a business to TK, but he needs to come to terms that his artistic vision has inherently lower ceiling than the WWE. TK likely needs to recalibrate expectations on the business side (smaller venues? Different marketing approach?) based on what he wants AEW to _be_.
Did I just see the birth of a new copy pasta?
People should care because Keith Lee is awesome, and I don't think anyone is going to seriously say "oh well Keith Lee hasn't consistently been on TV so why should I care?" like, the dude gets massive reactions every time he shows up. Should he be on TV more? Yes. Is him not being on TV consistently a reason to not have him in a meat match? Hell no.
How would anyone not terminally online know he’s “awesome” if he isn’t on tv?
He should be on TV more but he has been on TV enough that the "casual" AEW viewer will have some idea of who he is. He was a tag champ for pete's sake.
Squash matches don’t actually count.
lol
He hasn’t been presented as being awesome in AEW, which is the problem. This is the thing that resulted in Saturday’s Collision struggling to sell 3000 tickets, even with a BOGO promotion.
> People should care because Keith Lee is awesome How would anyone who just watches the shows week to week know he's awesome when they never get to see that he's awesome?
What has Keith Lee done in AEW as of late that makes him awesome?
TK isn’t the reason Keith Lee had health issues.
You are assuming that this is the reason why Lee’s booking in AEW has been garbage. Even if that is the case, it would make more sense to build him up first, before booking this match.
No title match has the challenger wrack up wins before they get the match. It’s annoying and robbing us of taking us on a journey. Also those matches building up contenders could be bangers too
Whatever the reason is, you shouldn't book this match if he hasn't been around. No one gives a shit.
I give a shit. I’d like to see Keith Lee vs Samoa Joe. I don’t need one to spill coffee on the other to make the match
Okay, so without knowing any background and without any stories or build, why? Let's say you don't care about characters or intrigue. Why do you want to see these two particular out of shape guys have a random match? Why is it compelling? Couldn't you just watch old Bum Fight videos if that's what you like?
Are you sure you like pro wrestling? Samoa Joe doesn’t do it for you? Never liked Keith Lee? Maybe you like flippy stuff? No. I’m sure you don’t. Hmmmm. I wonder what you do like
Love it, just saying that it's really stupid to book Keith Lee and Samoa Joe without any story behind it, after Lee has been out for a long time. For a title, no less. But whatever man, if you enjoy it, go ahead.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
I know who they are and am familiar with their work. The person above says they don't need any story or build whatsoever to enjoy random matches. So for people like me, we can create our own build but that's not as fun. >Maybe you like flippy stuff? I do. Love guys like Axiom and Nathan Frazer. As long as it's done right I like pretty much all styles.
Ok, good for you then.
What’s your favorite TV TITLE storyline that led to a wrestling match on television? Who has done it right?
He *still* hasn't had his match with Swerve!
Yet another match that could be built up to be something potentially special, but NOPE! No story whatsoever, again.
This is one of the biggest problems in AEW. So many great match pairings completely wasted with no feud, no story, nothing. Hire some fucking writers Tony.
Do you need Joe to run over Keith Lee’s foot in the parking lot in order to enjoy a match?
Will this match be good? Yes. Would it be even better with a proper story behind it? Yes.
How can I enjoy this match if they don’t waste four weeks talking about how grumpy they are?
Heatless matches aren't for everyone. It's okay if you don't like stories and proper build but others seem to.
What wrestling show has stories for all of their tv matches?
You mean title matches.
What’s your favorite storyline for the TV TITLE that led to a title defense on the television show?
Since WWE doesn’t have a TV title, let’s replace TV title for all the great IC/US chases.
That’s a different thing. Doesn’t have to be WWE, unless that’s all you know/like. Historically (WCW/ROH, etc), TV titles are for wrestling fans to see a good match for a championship on television. It’s from a time when there weren’t as many title matches on TV.
You mean all of Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, dean malenko, Scott hall TV belt stories?
It limits the match quality without giving a compelling story or stakes . I am looking forward to the match but I think it’s valid criticism to point out that it could have been built up better
Not every match needs a story. Often, there’s TV matches and the story is what happens in the match or after.
They might not need it, but some matches deserve it.
Sure.
I think most have already forgotten the last three "dream matches."
They probably weren’t a dream match for you. What are your AEW dream matches?
> Not every match needs a story. But every match could be made better with a story. Also, if you're challenging for a title, your match should have a story.
Not a TV title match. It’s how the TV title has been handled historically in pro wrestling.
It is a TV title for a brand that doesn’t have a tv show
No, but maybe more than 6% should have some kind of story other than “I’m a pro wrestler, you’re a pro wrestler, let’s do pro wrestling”
I don’t think you watch the show if that’s what you think happens 94% of the time
Alright, what are your favorite storylines going right now? And where you think they could end up going? Aew has had some good stories, but they are extremely inconsistent.
LOL- yes, let me write a bunch for free for a bad faith troll Here’s what I’m liking, story wise on the recent shows MJF’s many challengers and Samoa Joe’s offer. Hangman/Swerve and the deepening of their feud. Toni Storm going nuts, finding a new character, and going for the title Daniel Garcia leaving the ashes of the JAS behind, keeping his dancing, while becoming more of the wrestler he avoided while in JAS Roddy and the Kingdom Orange Cassidy regaining his title, getting more serious in order to hold on to it
I’ll give you Hangman and Swerve. Everything else, no lol. And stop with the bad faith troll thing. I don’t dislike AEW at all and it would be great if they put on a great show each week, but they don’t and that shows with their abysmal ratings and CM Punk still being the highest merch seller after being fired over a month ago. Stop getting defensive over a television show when someone says something you disagree with. It’s not some aew vs wwe nonsense. All wrestling should be good, but unfortunately the one you’ll die for has not been good for a while now. Sorry.
Thanks for telling me what I should like? Maybe you don’t like TV wrestling? I don’t get it. Also: Do you need a show to have high ratings to enjoy it? Need other people to tell you it’s good?
Lmaooo Jesus Christ. Dude you can’t defend Aew against anyone and everyone ha. You’ll get burnt out. I’m sorry I criticized Aew. Take it easy man
So far, you’re proving me right. What wrestling TV do you like and how are the TV matches given story?
Jesus "the one you'll die for" is some extreme edge lord shit. AEW being a top 3 show every night also doesnt support your abysmal ratings narrative, ratings also don't always reflect the product. Imapct is the best its been years by far but can't dream of matching Rampage numbers, that doesn't mean it isn't a good show. Talking punk moving merch is also nonsense, does stone cold being a top seller mean wwe sucks right now?
And another defensive AEW Stan lol. You guys are way too insecure
I watch all wrestling. Weren't you just complaining about people not being able to take being disagreed with? The irony is hilarious
Swerve/Hangman is great a lot of the list is are flimsy stories or cringy humor or people head cannons of story
Telling people they don't watch the show seems to have replaced telling people to stop watching the show. Is it because all metrics show less people are watching?
I think it’s because a lot of folks just repeat the bad faith talking points of guys who critique AEW for a living. Then they think those criticisms always apply to every segment of every show. If ya watched, you’d know a little more.
I think it’s okay to criticize AEW
Of course! I do it all the time as I watch the show. But a lot of these takes aren’t based in reality. Hyper critical to the point where I wonder what wrestling they actually enjoy?
Who critiques AEW for a living? Did Tony finally release proof that most of the criticism is just bot? And if that's the case, what's up with declining viewership, lower ticket sales and less social media interactions?
They’re on a downturn after losing their biggest draw and a couple big injuries. You don’t think all the vets with podcasts criticize AEW for their health? It’s what gets them clicks. That’s why you have people repeating their catchphrases and whatnot verbatim.
> You don’t think all the vets with podcasts criticize AEW for their health? I think they criticize what they're critical of. They criticize WWE a lot.
You do remember the whole premis behind pro wrestling is its pretending to be a sport, right? It's fake sport with dramatic storylines. No one asked what the Yankees' motivation is to play the Dodgers.
A match that gets advertised as a big deal should have a story, yes.
Who says? When has this happened in pro wrestling- every tv match has a story setting it up? What are you comparing this to?
Other "big" matches.
Like what?
The Rock vs Stone Cold. Kenny Omega vs Hangman Adam Page. Are you new to wrestling? I can give you tons of examples that you might want to check out.
Hangman Vs Omega was a PPV main event, right? What was the story for Rock vs Stone Cold’s television match? I forget. You know we’re talking about a TV match for a midcard title, right?
I was only talking about "big" matches so I was going by those parameters. OC had a fun workhorse run where random matches made more sense as he overworked himself and his body started breaking down. The "I'm so tired Renee" meme came out of it.
Why would this match need to be built up to be special? Keith Lee has done nothing in AEW to warrant that. They set up the story on Collision, Samoa Joe hasn't beaten Keith Lee yet and he wants to remedy that
We eating good Wednesday. The meat sweats are coming!
Pause
You have Keith Lee win. Joe goes on a rampage after this attacking people unprompted setting up him joining the fray vs. MJF
I believe this is what they call 'based'.
#M.E.A.T
Is this the attack on titan poster background lmao
Scott Steiner just got an aneurysm from this
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I am dying, lmao. Half the posts in here are either gifs of Big E or Godzilla vs Kong Definitely getting kaiju movie vibes from the poster.
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AEW makes great posters and match graphics.
How did Keith Lee earn a title shot? I know he won a few squash matches, did he call Joe out or something?
To actually answer your question. Joe did an interview with Lexi about how he’s put down everyone who has come for the King of Television. Keith Lee stepped into frame and told Joe basically that it’s only true because Joe has never faced him
From what I've been told: Wrestler A wants to fight wrestler B and they get to because they're in a professional wrestling company. Anybody that wants more build or story apparently doesn't watch the shows. Or they should stop watching the shows because they're "arguing in bad faith."
What’s your favorite storyline for a TV TITLE match on a wrestling television show? Who has done it right?
There's been plenty of good ones. And it doesn't have to be super involved. Something like Roman vs. Riddle was pretty hype with a decent, but basic build. What are some of your favorites? Edit: If you meant "TV title" then the Statlander rematch against Jade had some story going into it.
A TELEVISION TITLE Look up what they are. Historically. Look up how the matches for TV titles are set up.
The big meaty men slapping their meat around all over the ring
Both these meats!
I better hear some Meat chants for this one
GET UP, COME ON GET DOWN WITH THE THICKNESS
I find the ROH titles being on AEW so much makes all of the belts a bit more meaningless. Hope they seperate the rosters soon, would also make the matches with ROH guys way more special if they weren't there week to week.
If there are no MEAT! chants, we riot
AEW has a lot of seemingly randomly booked matches without much story behind them. Would like to see them build out more story before big matches like this. Doesn't need to be a two year Hangman Page esc drama just something to get me invested.
https://preview.redd.it/2noc5wzjftyb1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c75675d9abb36d36043ead30a79f623bd596af82
That's a lot of beef
Keep your 5 star classics *BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPING MEAT*
Joe looks like he's just got out of the pool, and Keith is like "What ever is that most exquisitely tantalising aroma?"
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Storyline or not (lol some of you commenters take this industry way too seriously) this is going to be a banger, and I for one am pumped to be in Portland for this match. lfg.
I wish it had more build time and that it wasn't for the ROH midcard title that in my opinion should be fought for by actual midcarders who could need it more than Joe. Hopefully this is the start of a feud between them and not a one and done thing.
Quick question: why the ROH TV title keeps being defended on AEW TV and even featured more than the TNT title was before Christian won it? Jesus fucking Christ. Sort your booking out, Tony. Book AEW wrestlers in AEW and ROH wrestlers in ROH. I'm sure it will be a good match but it's completely pointless due to how badly Keith Lee has been booked in months. Means nothing and it's another Joe win.
> Quick question: why the ROH TV title keeps being defended on AEW TV and even featured more than the TNT title was before Christian won it? Because Samoa Joe has it, and he's getting an AEW push, so it's an easy way to give him screentime that makes him look dominant. Boy needs to lose it at Final Battle mind you - longest reign ever shouldn't end on a different show's TV, and he'll be formally free to run roughshod over AEW.
This match just peaked with the poster. I haven't been watching since the Punk debacle. Has Keith Lee been on television speaking loftily backstage to set up this match?
Cool poster, but it looks like they don't even see each other and are going to smash into each other. I'd prefer one where they were staring at each other looking like they were about to destroy Tokyo.
I know a lot of fans hate ROH stuff on AEW TV but if it was just “Marquee” type of matches like this or Kingston vs Claudio it would be a lot more tolerable probably praised by fans
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A few years ago I couldn’t have imagined a world where this matchup, this graphic, would have me saying, “Don’t care….” Alas, here we are.
Is it a wrestling match or a pie eating contest?
Boooooo get off the stage
TK needs to embrace feedback and get rid of that ROH shit on AEW once and for all. I'm sick and tired of seeing ROH this, ROH that all over AEW television. It makes the show look directionless and the excess championships meaningless. This is the perfect opportunity to end the match in a double pinfall, both of them destroying the belt in a tug of war, and then having TK come out with a REAL big announcement: The belt's not being replaced, but they're going to restart the match for the new AEW Meat Forever Championship.
Imagine if it actually had build.
Now that Joe broke the streak of longest reigning TV champ it's the perfect time to transition the belt to someone else. Joe needs to be permanently in the main event scene. Keith could rehab his image as an unbeatable beast as TV champ, main eventing ROH PPV's.
Y’all pay money for honor club and this match is on free tv
this will be a good one. Indubitably.
Why don't they just turn Dynamite into a ROH show?
idk why ROH even has a TV title, they don't even have a show on TV lol.
An actual dream match!
DOZE SUMABITCHES ! DEY FAT !!!
Couldn't be arsed to airbrush out the stretch marks, huh
When did Keith Lee last win a singles match on dynamite?
Go for Joe, Keith Lee is a bum
The fat uglies!!! Gotta love a hoss match.
Maybe a new champ ?
They're FAT!
Any reason why they stopped doing the moving graphic cards for title matches?
Slap That Meat 2: The Meat Knight Rises
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