Kam

Just caught my first episode of AEW Dark, they're available for free on Youtube each week: I thought it was really good, some nice matches, good recaps and loved the little segment with Cody interviewing Aubrey Edwards - that was a nice touch.

I thought the show started off okay...with Becky/Charlotte, I also enjoyed the tag match and Andrade and Ali was good too. Didn't care for much else. It doesn't look like many people in the audience care about Strowman/Fury - I can see it's getting lots of mainstream press attention (which is obviously what WWE wants)...but it doesn't seem to be bringing much excitement to the show. The crowd were absolutely dead for Natalya/Evans vs Asuka/Sane! I don't get why they're still continuing The Fiend/Rollins feud if they're going to be on separate shows. I'm not sure if WWE was expecting fans to boo Rollins during the attack, although attacking Wyatt from behind was not very babyface like. Humberto Carillo and Jinder Mahal got drafted before Samoa Joe :p Cesaro didn't even get picked! Raw seems very women heavy with Smackdown having more tag-teams.

I thought that was an awful show! Reigns/Rollins was fine enough but it was a cop-out having Fiend do Kane and drag him 'to hell'. I liked the idea of the Fox/USA Network executives having a say in who gets drafted but the war rooms were hilarious. Having them celebrate like they'd won the lottery was too funny. After all the hype, the majority of the picks stayed where they were. How did The Lucha House Party get selected over teams like New Day, Usos, AOP etc! I'm not too sure about The Fiend on Smackdown either - I thought they were trying to be more realistic with the likes of Lesnar and Velasquez. Shorty Gable SHORTY? :rolleye2: The only high point for me was Baley finally embracing the heel turn and taking the title back :clap

I thought that was a good 2nd episode, it felt like they took it up a gear with the matches. Great start with the tag match, both teams looked good. Darby was the right choice for Jericho. Ladies match was OK but they seem to struggle in a few places. It feels strange seeing Moxley change his attire after seeing him wrestling in jeans for so long. Dustin continues to impress! :love: Good brawl to end the show.

It feels like they've started to revert to 'attitude era' type shows with the increase in violence and martial shenanigans :p I didn't need to see Lashey and Lana in bed! I like Rusev but I hate this storyline. Have they given up on Lacey then? I can't remember the last time they booked Natalya this strong. Nice spot at the end although I thought it was funny when the other commentators were trying to get King to move out the way but he just stayed there :) I think I'm loving Asuka and Sane even more now! Fury/Strowman was OK - like I said in the HIAC thread, I'm not that fussed about either of them. I guess they didn't want to risk Seth or The Fiend appearing incase they got some heat from the fans.

Urg! The show started off great, Becky and Sasha delivered, easily my favourite match of the night. I was gutted Sasha lost, she never got past Charlotte in their feud and now she's lost her feud with Becky also. This would have been the perfect time for it. I enjoyed the tag match too, nice brawl. I would have really liked it if they let Ali rollup Orton after that RKO swerve but I guess having 2 surprise wins on the show is too much. When did Asuka and Sane turn heel? They acted like heels from the start of the match. LOVED Asuka with the mist. I'm glad Gable won. Gutted for Baley...I wonder if she'll end up being drafted back to NXT. The Fiend entrance looked cool here too. I HATED the lighting during the match, I never liked it when they did it with the Sin Cara matches. I thought the booking was ridiculous. The stomp being used so many times just devalues the move. Having the referee stop the match was silly too. There was no reason to book this match if they didn't want to follow through with the push. It reminds me of when they hot shotted Ryback to face Punk soon after his debut, only for him not to win the title (albeit due to The Shield interference) and it hindered him. Similar deal with Braun. Seems like the fans enjoyed it though :D

I loved the new intro, not the music so much. I was surprised to see Raw and Smackdown superstars in the intro, I thought they wouldn't be brand hopping now they're on different channels. The new Smackdown set looked amazing - probably my favourite one so far. As soon as Becky came out I was thinking Rock would get involved...and sure enough, he did. Nice segment to kick things off. I don't watch any boxing or MMA so Tyson Fury's appearance didn't mean much but they put it over as a big deal. Although I thought it strange having Braun go over to him and taunt him when he's meant to be a face. I hated the title match...I generally don't like any quick finishes, but this had to be one of the worst. There were no redeeming parts for Kofi at all. They could have had Heyman distract him or have Brock attack him earlier in the show. I get they might want to push Brock as the beast again...but they don't have to do it at the expense of their roster. It doesn't just reflect badly on Kofi but also on those he's overcome since Mania - Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton etc I had no idea who Cain Velasquez was (at first, I thought Dominic had shaved his head! :P)...he didn't look all that impressive but I'll take Cole's word on how good he's meant to be. Overall I thought it was a good show but as you can probably tell, the Fury/Velasquez moments didn't mean so much for me.

I'm hoping for The Fiend and Banks to take the titles! ?

The Card Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Universal Championship Seth Rollins © vs. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship Becky Lynch © vs. Sasha Banks WWE Title Match Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns vs. Erick Rowan and Luke Harper

I quite enjoyed that! I was impressed with the presentation/graphics - I was expecting them to have a few screw-ups but they did far better than I thought. The crowd were great all night. I enjoyed the commentary too, SO good to hear Tony Schiavone back calling the action. I thought the opening promo for Sammy/Cody was really well done, nice match too. MJF continued to impress. PAC/Page did well. I thought Britt really struggled on commentary, it would have probably been better having her watching from the back. The ladies did OK, a few sloppy moments but some real nice spots too. I was expecting Rose to win so I was surprised when she lost. Crowd really got into it by the end. Main event was good, I didn't even recognise Jake Hager until the commentators said who he was. Not that fussed about him. I was expecting more faces to appear but I guess it's nice (and sensible!) to introduce new faces over the next few weeks and months rather than overload the first few shows. Overall, there seemed to be a nice flow, very promising for me.

I didn't think much of the new song/opening but it's alright. I also wasn't that fussed about the pyro, I never really found it noticable when it was removed. The new stage layout is OK, I prefer the old one but this could grow on me over time. Commentary seemed OK...I missed Graves but those 3 did alright and I think they'll improve as a team as time goes on (no idea how long Lawler is there for). I thought that opening segment was excellent - Brock looked like a beast, Rey is always excellent as the underdog and that beatdown on Dominic was brutal! He's bound to have a few bruises after that! I found the whole Miz tv segment cringey...it's weird seeing them do a big 5 on 5 match just prior to Survivor Series. Corbin got pretty much zero reaction when he came out :lol: I guess they were trying to make Seth look strong with all these matches after last week's fright :p Bobby looked a little silly constantly pointing at the entranceway for AGES before Lana finally appeared. It seemed like WWE is always trying to split up Lana and Rusev on screen, even though we can see from social media they're still together. I'm guessing Lashley was meant to make Rusev jealous but Rusev just watched... :oops:

I'm excited! I'm looking forward to seeing the new sets of Raw/Smackdown...but most excited for AEW's debut.

I get that they want kids to be scared of him...my nephews have the same reaction as your son :) I thought Finn played it well, he had a concerned look on his face during his match at SummerSlam. I still think the screaming from Seth was too much. The only similar thing I can think of is back in the 80s when some wrestlers would be terrified when Jake released his snake (:eyebrows:)...I was (and still am) ok with that. To this day I still remember when Jake tied up Macho Man in the ropes and had his snake bite his arm. I suppose The Boogeyman could also be used as an example but again, he had his worms... With The Fiend, they all know it's Bray Wyatt under a mask and I don't think he's done anything particularly terrifying to anyone yet to warrant that reaction from Seth.

I just can't take Seth (aka BEAST SLAYER) seriously when he's screaming like a little kid because another wrestler has a scary mask. (From 2:00)

It was a good intro, I would have preferred it if they aired both hours on USA but I understand the network had to juggle stuff around. I really was not expecting WALTER. I thought I read somewhere that he didn't want to go over to USA...so when he didn't show up with the rest of the group I totally thought he wouldn't be there. Nice reaction for WALTER and Imperium there. I've caught some of Oney Lorcan on 205 Live and I think he's great. Seeing Lio Rush was another surprise, hopefully he'll receive a singles push now and not end up only being Lashley's manager. I loved the brawl at the end too. Great start for them.

So...are we expecting Brock to take the title on the Smackdown Fox debut? I wouldn't be surprised, it gives Fox a big name to promote the show with. Speaking of surprised, I fully expected Becky to make the save for Charlotte...but we get Carmella instead? Looks like we're getting Rowan and Harper vs Reigns/Bryan. I wonder if WWE will turn Bryan face as most of the fans seem to be expecting him to turn on Reigns. I had the same feeling way back with Sasha/Baley when we all expected them to feud and it never happened. Then I had it again with Alexa and Nikki, that never happened too.

Urg! So Braun loses so they have to make him look strong by feeding both sets of tag champs to him! This is one thing I'm hoping we don't see in AEW. WWE has a habit of using their tag champs as fodder for anyone receiving a big push. I thought the Cobin/Gable match was good, as @Zack T predicted, Corbin takes the crown. That makes Corbin a MitB winner, KotR winner and Andre The Giant Battle Royal winner! :oops: I hope they don't forget about Gable now, he deserves a decent push. During the gender reveal party I was wondering why Ricochet was there, that was totally random - then I got it when Maria said he was the dad. I know they're meant to make Mike Kanellis look useless...but seriously, even Michael Cole calling Mike a loser after Maria was meant to have revealed someone else was the dad?! Rusev was a surprise, he looked in amazing shape. But as with the likes of Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman, I can't see WWE giving anything other than mid-card titles to him. He built up the whole Rusev Day movement organically, yet WWE did nothing with it. We saw more of his personality previously whereas it looks like they might be switching him back to 'monster status' again. I wonder what they'll do with Lana or if she'll turn up at some point, no way they keep him as the father of Maria's baby. Speaking of monsters, that AOP segment looked interesting. As had been predicted, we're getting Baley/Sasha vs Charlotte/Becky...but like I said in the Clash of Champions post, they need to keep Baley and Sasha strong. There is only so much you can do when you're only keeping a few superstars looking strong. I liked the R-Truth/Kane segments, we all knew Kane was going to pin him :) I thought it was weird no one came out to help Seth, especially with the likes of Cedric/War Raiders having their own issues with The OC. When I saw Kane I thought what a waste, considering he's not on the active roster. It was good to see The Fiend look strong over him. Although as much I wanted the Fiend to look strong, making Seth look like a scared little kid cowering in the corner while The Fiend slowly got closer was a tad too much :D

I'm glad Chad advanced :) Rumours are that Owens is headed to NXT which I'm OK with.

It's weird seeing Austin in 2019 getting a better reaction than anyone else on the roster, definitely in a league of his own on the show (similar to Taker's appearance on Smackdown). I thought the Viking Raiders were heels so was surprised to see them save Cedric but I guess they can tie that back to their double DQ finish with Gallows and Anderson in the tag tourney. Baron Corbin advances? :info7:

Ali lost :sad: Gable won :thumbup: Looking at the brackets...I'd quite like a Joe vs Gable final... I'm loving Orton/Kingston - this is the best I've liked Orton in a LONG time! So...it was Rowan all along? I could see WWE using this as a singles push for Rowan but I'd be surprised to see them give him such a prominent push considering he's not all that great in the ring. If it was someone like Luke Harper then I could see it (although it doesn't look like Vince is happy with him). I wonder if WWE might run with this for a while before it turns out Bryan was always the main culprit. - I had to Wiki what Harper was up to: I guess WWE are worried he'll end up in AEW.

So Baley actually turned heel! It seems weird to turn her now when she has her match with Charlotte, who has been awesome as a heel.

So...that was ALL OUT. Random thoughts: The womens Casino Battle Royale was awful! It felt like many of the wrestlers just got lost in the match, I can't remember how most of them were eliminated. Well...I can't even remember who took part, some of them were on screen for what felt like seconds. The men's one previously was better but to be honest, that wasn't great either. Private Party impressed again, I really like them. I quite like Angélico and Jack Evans too - AEW definitely have a strong tag division! Really enjoyed the six-man match - Luchasaurus was amazing, I was surprised Jurassic Express lost but they still looked good in defeat. Great to see Pac here, since his heel turn in 205 he seems to be unstoppable, good match again, loved that he won too :) I wasn't too keen on the hardcore match. I don't like staple guns or the idea of feeding someone thumb tacks...then taping their mouth shut! I thought the papercut spots were cringey - it didn't look like there was any contact for some of them...and the paper looked like it was laminated. 0_O O_0 I fully expected Riho to win her match after Rose won the Battle Royale - match was OK. Was there any reason given for the Star Trek attire for Rhodes and co? MJF could have at least worn black jeans! Pharaoh looked terrified coming out...and then the pyro went off! They could have let him go back, I don't think anyone would have minded. I was expecting MJF to turn on Cody...not yet, but it will happen, we all know it. I don't know how much I like the idea of heels/faces mixing like this. You've got Brandi heeling it up with the women but still comes out with babyface Cody. Same goes for MJF too. I thought this match was good, some nice spots and great to see Arn Anderson. It was a bit weird seeing Tully just walk off before the match ended...I guess he was meant to go after Arn...rather than walking out the other entrance way. I thought Shawn looked OK...I still can't see him main eventing but thought he looked OK. LOVED the ladder match, I had high expectations for this one and they delivered. I've really enjoyed both teams since I began watching AEW, they always deliver. Great spots/timing from both teams. Oh...and now we have another good tag-team in LAX join the division! :love: Main event was fine - I thought it went on a little too long though. Did Jericho blade...it looked like he did. I thought Page was OK but I can't quite see him in the main event picture yet. Overall, a good show. I'm excited for the weekly shows to start!

After Buddy's win over Bryan last week...I didn't expect to see him lose that momentum this week. It seems like he's beginning to connect with the crowd already. Moreso than Ali or Alexander who have had more exposure. It was a good match and I'm happy for Ali...but would have preferred them leaving Murphy out if he was never expected to go past the first round.

I wouldn't have thought The Revival would work with Orton but they're great together! That Revival assisted RKO was excellent!

After Cedric's great match on Raw, Murphy delivered on Smackdown! I actually thought he was going to win clean at one point. I'm liking the build between Reigns and Bryan also. Overall, I thought it was a good show.