Thoughts on the state of AEW now that we're into the Collision era?
Thoughts on the state of AEW now that we're into the Collision era?
Just curious on what everyone's high-level thoughts are on how they're feeling on AEW's current path/decisions/roster/etc. now that we've had a taste on how they're going to go forward in this new situation of two 'primary' shows.
It's seeming like there won't be too much of a 'brand split' in the traditional sense, what with Acclaimed and Punk both being implied to be at Dynamite this Wednesday, so I'm curious as to how they handle things in that regard going forward, whether there will be relatively stable rosters for each that just tend to be on each show and some crossovers, or if it will be entirely freeball with the shows just filling up more haphazardly.
All things considered, personally I'm a fan of the structure that comes with a more hardline brand split, and how it forces shows to make more space for the lowercard just by necessity, so I was a bit sad to see it doesn't appear to be going that way, but I'm hopeful they can go an interesting direction with things under the current arrangement.
I miss Daddy Magic at the booth
Truth. I also miss Taz and Excalibur screwing around on YouTube.
It's almost a shame that Daddy Magic is also such an entertaining active wrestler because it means we can't have him fully committing to his incredible commentary skills.
Just let him commentate while wrestling.
For now, I hope they tweak Collision's presentation a bit to make it feel different. Everyone takes it for granted now, but the fact that Raw is red and Smackdown is blue is a big deal. Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness are a strong commentary booth, so that's at least one very distinguishing feature, but I'd appreciate a little more on the visual side.
Ah man, I just wrote a long comment and I think it got eaten. Let's see if this one works. The fast paced minimal promo nature of Rampage will work great as a developmental show. I remember someone saying they didn't bother with Rampage because storylines neither began nor ended there, so just skip it for dynamite, which was a good point. I'm hopeful that even if it isn't a strong brand split that Collision will not fall into that trap and have its own stories. However, I do expect a good amount of overlap at first as they work on drawing Dynamite only viewers over to the new show. Gotta put Punk where the eyes are to do whatever it is people like about him and convince them to watch his new show.
It'll be very interesting to see where Rampage shakes out in the grand scheme of things going forward. Assuming it remains on the air, a developmental 'transition' show for talents ready to jump from RoH but finding their footing against established talent does make a lot of sense.
So I finally signed up for Honor Club or whatever it's called and watched the most recent ep. Maybe that was a particularly good one, but I was way more engaged with it than I've been with Rampage for a while. It's different than AEW, but I don't know that I'd say those wrestlers aren't "ready." Just that there may not be room for them, such as having too much overlap in character and style with an existing Dynamite talent. But even with just one recent ep under my belt I am so ready for Athena/Kiera Hogan.
I enjoyed the no-nonsense feel of the first collision however I won't pass any judgment on it's formatting till it's settled into it's routine in a few months.
I'm hoping the two more "serious" shows (Dynamyte and Collision) allow Rampage to be it's own thing a little more, a little more mid-cardy, a little more Ex and Taz being theirselves. Let it actually gain an identity even if that's stealing some of what Dark was.
Too soon to tell. Nice to see Miro back and I'm happy they didn't enforce a strict brand split, but that may change if both shows every week now becomes the CM Poochie show.
I loved the look and feel. If they truly use it as a place to get more people opportunities it will be great. If it’s just another place for Orange Cassidy to open every show and Jericho to extend never ending feuds then the hype will die quickly.
I feel like it’s too early to tell. We haven’t had time to let anything happen yet.
I liked the first episode of Collision. I knew we were in for something special when an Elton John song opened up the show. The matches felt less about “get your high spots in” and more about letting the matches breathe.
Wardlow losing was really unexpected. Matthews/Andrade was amazing. Happy to see Miro back. Soho/Storm/Blue/Nightingale was fantastic, CMFTR/BC Gold was great, and Punk’s opening promo was a reminder that few are better on the mix than he is.
How this translates to AEW’s health overall is tough to say. Personally, with Punk’s promo, I’m hoping we get an AEW Civil War at some point. Those were some huge shots fired and the guy is so good at working literally everyone. It’s amazing he and Christian haven’t crossed paths