Overall Evaluation and Achieved Goals
You could weigh this week on a scale of awkward to “fine” and with no room for “good” or “entertaining.”
Week-by-week this feels less like the start of something new and more like a victory lap for some talented wrestlers capable of success outside WWE.
Maybe I should stop watching this late Wednesday nights alone on the couch. Is that the problem? Is it me?
Lucha Bros got themselves an actual real-life win in a wrestling match, Britt Baker is pulling some Andy Kaufman-esque tricks out of her dental bag, and The Elite is fighting… kind of?
MJF demanding Cody let him whip him ten times with a belt before they could have a match was always kind of weird, something that absolutely worked at some point in time and damnit if I didn’t wish I lived in a world where it worked today but I’ve got to say it just came off as awkward, an attempt at some classic angle in an era that’s not ready for it. Maybe me again?
Either way – this show began with a man stabbing another man in the eye with a car key and ended with weird performative torture, while in the middle The Elite shoved each other around. Not good.
Areas of Excellence Within Performance
It was like 5 minutes, but I’ll support a Jon Moxley vs. Ortiz match.
PAC still seems properly out of his mind.
Suggested Areas of Improvement
Cody can be a bit much, yeah?
The Best Friends vs. SoCal Uncensored and The Elite vs. The Lucha Bros/The Butcher & The Blade matches both felt very painfully ordinary – I don’t know how some of the stuff they pull off can feel like they’re going through the motions but here we are.
Joey Janela is less Atsushi Onita and more dirtbag Santino Marella. Wasn’t expecting that.
And you left an Orange Cassidy and Tully Blanchard confrontation on DARK? AEW DARK!?
Top Plays of the Week
2. Santana Cuts a Promo: Hell yeah.
1. Orange Cassidy Teases The Dark Order: Orange is a comic relief guy but the folks genuinely care about him. The pockets spot rules.
The U.S. Senate Presents, The Most Appalling Acquittals of the Week
2. Joey Janela vs. Kip Sabian: A boring match during a lull in the show that didn’t give Cody and MJF an inviting environment.
1. JR is Bored: Grilling JR is an absolute must-listen treat, but JR did not recruit any of these wrestlers and I think the verdict is that while the fundamentals of a pro wrestling broadcaster generally remain he is just not invested in anybody.
Performance Improvement Plan (Kind Of)
2. I can get a sense of what you’re trying to get across, but it’s being done in some pretty brutally uninteresting ways. Borrowing from the past is great, trying new things can be complicated, but if you’ve got a sense of where you want to go maybe try to avoid a boring trope to get there.
1. Let it breathe. I know it’s 2020 and everything is frantic but slow it down and I don’t even mean in-ring – don’t rely on JR and Excalibur trying to cohesively piece together a background, give your team the overt character traits and moments you need so that they can all collide with each other later in other interesting scenarios in the future – COME ON!!!
Official Star Rating
1.5 out of 5 Stars
