I might buy those ROH DVDs tooReprise wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2024 4:11 am I am still a sucker for physical media. I just ordered these two ROH sets. The AEW era of ROH still confuses the hell out of me, particularly as there is a whole bunch of talent that seems to wrestle for both promotions, but their PPVs seem to be consistently very good, even if the weekly shows and the poor builds are a common complaint. Final Battle also seems to have like a billion matches on the card and it seems pretty fucking random, like Tony Khan's critics might be half right that he just throws a bunch of random matches together. For example, Nyla Rose has a random squash match on the main card, which was apparently a late addition. Why, when you already have about 5 matches on the pre-show and like 10 or 11 matches on the main card?
I also ordered WWE MITB 2016 and Payback 2016 on blu ray. I know that seems pretty random, but 2016 is the final year I was really watching WWE consistently. Even though I got pretty bored of WWE, I still have a bit of nostalgia for 2015 and 2016. AJ Styles debuted in 2016 and had a bunch of great matches. Guys like KO, Sami and Balor also moved up from NXT around 2015-2016ish, I think.
I sort of hate how some really good talent is stuck in ROH. People we think fell off of the face of the earth, really just ended up in ROH. It's part of the reason some people hated Punk, they think Colt Cabano got demoted to ROH because of him.
I may hate WWE right now, but there's ton of stuff from their past I would gladly buy on physical, like ALL of Black and Gold Era NXT and the Mae Young and Cruiserweight Classics. There's interesting main roster stuff too from 2011-2014 with a great Mark Henry heel run, AJ Lee getting really over, the fucking amazing rise of Daniel Bryan, and the introductions of The Shield and The Wyatt Family
TNA's early years I would like to own physically, much of that stuff I never even saw, same goes for much of the early ROH stuff.
Jericho is the only one who ever really benefited from factions in my opinion. I think that is the best way to utilize him. He sucks on his own and that's become very clear recently. I don't really know if AEW ever needed any more factions beyond whatever group Jericho was currently in and The Elite. Jay White doesn't need the Gunn kids. The Blackpool Combat Club became pointless as soon as they lost William Regal. House of Black is really just House of Malakai, I don't think anyone would care about any one of them were it not for him and I'm quite sure he would do just fine of his own. Death Triangle always felt thrown together even though all three guys are cool. The Don Callis family has never made any sense as a faction, just random guys thrown together. Team Taz always felt directionlessReprise wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2024 4:56 am I was reading an article yesterday about what the writer feels is "wrong" with AEW. It was just an opinion piece dissecting various issues the writer has with the company, but I thought they made some good points.
They discussed over the last couple of years, AEW has repeatedly done these kind of faction storylines at the forefront of their shows, pushing those instead of personal, emotional, real heated blood feuds between individual wrestlers. To be fair, that's not entirely fair when we have had the amazing Swerve and Hangman feud and others in recent years, but I can still kinda see what they mean, particularly as they highlight that a lot of these faction storylines are very samey and often revolve around one group defending rhe honour of AEW.
They mention the Jericho Appreciation Society feud with the Blackpool Combat Club and how it dragged on and on and how there was little in the way of true progression nor emotional investment. The whole thing played out under the same one-dimensional premise. The pro wrestlers versus sports entertainers thing was basically a pretext to do a lot of matches. The faces won some, the heels won others.
Then it was basically the same kind of thing with The Elite vs Blackpool Combat Club, again with little progression or emotional investment. I remember having the same complaints at the time and getting really bored with that feud, because it seemed to just go on for the sake of it.
They also brought up the Outsiders stuff with the women, which was their own version that was even worse, because it never really got off the ground. I mentioned the other day about Saraya and Wembley, but the writer managed to explain more clearly what the issue was by focusing on AEW's faction war storylines. The group basically did nothing and then went into Wembley as heels, the group kinda broke up in the match, but with none of them turning face. Saraya won and got the babyface treatment, despite still really being a heel, then immediately got turned back to heel and lost the title to Toni who also remained a heel. The whole thing made no sense.
Now we have heel Elite vs AEW and it feels too samey again. Again, there isn't really a sense of progression or that the stakes are high. "The Elite have taken out Tony Khan!!!" Ok... And? He's now working remotely with a sore neck. So what? "The Elite have taken over!!!" Ok... And? What does that actually mean, because watching Dynamite or Collision or Rampage, you wouldn't really know it. It's not like when the nWo took over or when WWE did their various Corporation and Authority angles over the years, where you felt like a heel faction was really in control and the stakes were high. "The Elite took out Kenny!!!" Ok... And? He's still injured and off tv for months. Of course it was just an excuse to put on yet another anarchy in the arena match with a bunch of dudes defending the honor of AEW yet again.
I do like AEW a lot, but I must admit I find most of their faction stories kind of weak. I had hoped this new heel Elite story would be different, but so far it doesn't feel different enough to me. There are some positives though. Heel Okada is great, Jack Perry comes across better now and that moment from a couple of weeks ago when the Bucks played a new Dynamite intro that only featured the Elite was pretty funny. It's not that I hate the story, but I just feel kinda meh about it going into Double or Nothing.
Like yeah, AEW doesn't NEED all of these factions. Swerve just had his ROH faction turn on him and it's like...who really cares? Christian's group is fine, but they're not really a faction, just his minions. I liked the Best Friends, but they never felt like a faction, just a group of loosely affiliated friends.
I think it's Japan rubbing off on AEW, because they have lots of factions over there. AEW is an American promotion though, they don't have to copy everything Japan does.
A faction should feel like a big deal, the only ones that ever did in AEW were The Elite and The Inner Circle...that's it, and I stand by that. AEW was built on top of those two factions. Jericho never wanted the Inner Circle dissolved and maybe he was on to something. You could have kept the Inner Circle going until this very day, much like The Elite, and not have bothered creating all of these pointless other factions.
