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Good Morning!
Man, what a week. WrestleMania had two nights of incredible spectacle, and some really good wrestling mixed in there too. AEW Dynamite gave us the big reveal of the kerfuffle between CM Punk and Jack Perry from last year’s “All In” show. And social media’s discussion of that, paired with some lackluster numbers on my previews, were just disheartening enough to get me to think about quitting.
It’s a strange place to be in as far as these things go. Obviously I love the wrestling aspect of things – I’ve been watching for so long, I can’t imagine just stopping. But at the same time, there’s still overload, and when the conversations around your favorite thing become toxic it really sucks the joy out of things like writing about it. And, if we’re being completely honest, there’s so little feedback from doing this that I just kinda felt like nobody would notice if I stopped.
But! I think there’s a plan B, and it’s not giving up. We can’t just give up after being consistent for so long. And I have heard from a couple people who noticed I skipped last week, which was nice. So, rather than tapping out, we’re going to take a little breather from the structured format, and just kinda pop in whenever something comes up that I feel like sharing my thoughts about. Whether that’s wrestling, or something else, at least it’ll be here for those of you interested.
We’ve got a PPV coming up this weekend, with AEW’s Dynasty hopefully representing a turning point for the company after several lackluster weeks of TV. I think the in-ring product is unquestionably excellent; it’s why a lot of us watch week after week. But the focus on non-AEW things has really hurt the show recently.
I believe that this weekend is really important for All Elite Wrestling as a company. We’re likely to see a couple new champs crowned in Willow Nightingale and Swerve Strickland. The trios championships for AEW and Ring of Honor will be unified. And we’re getting a dream match in Will Ospreay versus Brian Danielson. This is the time for AEW to show what it does best, build up what it doesn’t, and really recalibrate into the product so many fans fell in love with.
I’m not going to be giving up on them anytime soon. As I said, the matches are so good they overshadow everything else the company doesn’t do well. But ratings and buyrates are a real thing that might affect the company in the long run, and while I don’t really follow those numbers, one can see the crowds shrinking on TV. And I hate that folks online use those numbers and photos of arenas as a reason to argue that AEW shouldn't exist. Competition is good! Having a second national promotion where the best wrestlers in the world get to ply their trade on TV is good!
One last thing. I really hope this feeling I have in my gut about Willow and Swerve is wrong. But when AEW signed Mercedes Mone and Will Ospreay, and Mercedes made her intention to go after the TBS championship at Double or Nothing known, I immediately worried that we’re crowning two transitional champions this weekend, people who will hold the titles until Mercedes is cleared to wrestle and Ospreay goes to Wembley to claim his title. We saw the latter play out with Saraya, a person who really didn’t earn a title but got one because she’s from the UK. Now, Ospreay is far more deserving of a world championship, and has earned it in matches week after week, but it does kinda feel like a foregone conclusion that he’s getting crowned in front of his home crowd. Does that make Swerve, a man who has clawed his way to the top with great promos, matches, and entrances, a temporary fix? I think it feels that way, but he’s also talented enough to make the most of the time he’ll be champion, and hopefully it leads to a number of reigns to come.
Oh! Since we’re talking AEW, I’d like to do at least a short Dynasty picks preview. Not a big whole post like usual, but at least I’ll list names. If I’m feeling saucy after Saturday’s Collision/Rampage twofer, I’ll write up a full on preview. *Glances at Wikipedia* Jesus Christ, there’s already 12 matches listed?!?
[if that image is illegible, it's part of this Wikipedia article]
In order from top to bottom, we’re going with: Bullet Club Gold, Trent Beretta, OC and Shibata all win on the pre-show. Copeland/Kingston/Briscoe, Jericho (ugh) takes the FTW Championship, Roddy Strong retains the International Championship, Willow Nightingale wins the TBS belt. Okada and the Young Bucks win their matches, keeping the bad guy Elite on top for now. Toni Storm retains, but maybe interference from Deonna Purazzo costs Rosa her title shot. Ospreay wins, respectful handshake, attempted Don Callis Family interference leads to BCC/Callis feud continuing but Ospreay walking away from the Family. And, Strickland wins the big one!
Closing Up Shop
…in which I say goodbye for now
And that’s it! SmackDown is tonight, and Collision and Rampage will air back-to-back on 4/20, a national holiday around these parts. Sunday night brings AEW Dynasty, and I’ll try to compile some thoughts on that for an Untitled Monday Blog on, well, Monday.
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