Any AEW fans out there?

[Logic]

I know there used to be a pro wrestling thread on this forum, but I couldn't seem to find it.

Any AEW fans out there?

I was a diehard wrestling fan as a kid, but found the modern product unwatchable for the past 20 years or so. A couple years ago, I started watching some New Japan matches and then watched an entire G1 Climax tournament and loved it. Because of the language barrier and other factors, I didn't begin following it regularly, but it showed me that I still love pro wrestling, just not whatever that drivel is that WWE puts out these days.

Fast forward a bit and I decided to check out some AEW matches after seeing how impressive their roster had become. I loved what I saw, so I wound up going back and watching basically all of the best, most well loved/reviewed matches from the organization's inception in 2019 up to today. It has reminded me of exactly what I used to love about pro wrestling, and has re-ignited my love for it. For the first time in 20 years, I'm watching a wrestling show every week (Dynamite on Wednesday nights) and enjoying it a lot. 

Just finished watching Forbidden Door, the cross-promotional PPV with New Japan Pro Wrestling that was held on Sunday. Incredible show with some incredible matches. 

Anyone else out there buying what Tony Khan is selling?

 

[May Day 10]

WWE is unwatchable.  I was a multiple-time per week watcher from about 1999 to 2005.  

 

AEW has me intrigued.  I watched an episode and liked it.  I just havent been motivated enough to go out of my way to watch it yet

[Gugny]

[Your Brown Eye]

[Bray Wyatt]

I was trying to keep up with it, but haven’t had the time lately. I do appreciate that the show isn’t catered to little kids like wwe is

[Metal Man]

I have been on the AEW train since the fist Double or Nothing in 2019 and like the OP it has reignited an old love for wrestling.

 

I fell off of WWE a while back but still loosely kind of kept up with it. I was a big fan in the 80s and late 90s-early 2000s but like others have said though it eventually became unwatchable.

 

Me and some of my wrestling buddies had heard the buzz about the new league starting up and were hopeful enough to give AEW a try on their first PPV a few years ago and it sold us all immediately. Since then I have watched all their PPVs and Dynamite each week. Actually went to Vegas last month over Memorial Day weekend for Double or Nothing 22. So far Tony Kahn has really nailed it as far as the product goes IMHO.

[Logic]

3 hours ago, Metal Man said:

I have been on the AEW train since the fist Double or Nothing in 2019 and like the OP it has reignited an old love for wrestling.

 

I fell off of WWE a while back but still loosely kind of kept up with it. I was a big fan in the 80s and late 90s-early 2000s but like others have said though it eventually became unwatchable.

 

Me and some of my wrestling buddies had heard the buzz about the new league starting up and were hopeful enough to give AEW a try on their first PPV a few years ago and it sold us all immediately. Since then I have watched all their PPVs and Dynamite each week. Actually went to Vegas last month over Memorial Day weekend for Double or Nothing 22. So far Tony Kahn has really nailed it as far as the product goes IMHO.

Did you watch Forbidden Door? If so, what was your vote for "best match"?

I thought that it was a really good show, despite all the injured wrestlers that weren't able to appear and how that altered the booking plans.

I really liked the opening trios match with Jericho/Suzuki/Sammy vs Eddie Kingston/Wheeler/Shota. Didn't expect that to be among the best matches of the night, but it cooked. Ospreay vs Cassidy was the other one for me. The crowd in the United Center was awesome and really took the whole show to another level, IMO.

[Metal Man]

1 hour ago, Logic said:

Did you watch Forbidden Door? If so, what was your vote for "best match"?

I thought that it was a really good show, despite all the injured wrestlers that weren't able to appear and how that altered the booking plans.

I really liked the opening trios match with Jericho/Suzuki/Sammy vs Eddie Kingston/Wheeler/Shota. Didn't expect that to be among the best matches of the night, but it cooked. Ospreay vs Cassidy was the other one for me. The crowd in the United Center was awesome and really took the whole show to another level, IMO.

 

I did watch Forbidden Door. I don't watch New Japan so I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it without much of the AEW storylines being involved but there definitely was a lot of excellent performances during it.

 

For me the highlight was the Will Ospreay v Orange Cassidy match. I heard a lot of hype around Ospreay leading up to the PPV, and his couple appearances on Dynamite delivered, but that match took it to the next level for me. Even knowing it was highly unlikely they would let Orange win that New Japan belt there were a couple times during that match where I thought for a second it might actually happen. Excellent performances from both of them.

 

Agree about the crowd too. An awesome crowd can really make a difference in the show. Chicago is usually pretty solid in that regard 

[Logic]

40 minutes ago, Metal Man said:

 

I did watch Forbidden Door. I don't watch New Japan so I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it without much of the AEW storylines being involved but there definitely was a lot of excellent performances during it.

 

For me the highlight was the Will Ospreay v Orange Cassidy match. I heard a lot of hype around Ospreay leading up to the PPV, and his couple appearances on Dynamite delivered, but that match took it to the next level for me. Even knowing it was highly unlikely they would let Orange win that New Japan belt there were a couple times during that match where I thought for a second it might actually happen. Excellent performances from both of them.

 

Agree about the crowd too. An awesome crowd can really make a difference in the show. Chicago is usually pretty solid in that regard 

Yeah, Ospreay is awesome.

When I watched a bunch of NJPW a couple years ago, he was still a super junior, and a huge face at that. Much smaller, much more of a high flying, luchador wrestling style, really popular with the Japanese audience. He bulked up considerably to join the heavyweight ranks, and subsequently his wrestling style changed and he became a great heel. It's cool to watch how great he still is, considering he underwent such a huge change.

Here's the final from the 2019 Battle of the Super Juniors tournament with Ospreay against Shingo Takagi, who is now a huge star in his own right. Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer broke from his usual ratings system to give this one 5.75 stars. The commentary is in English, for what it's worth. I know you don't know the story/buildup to the match, but if you ever just want to see an incredible wrestling match and see what Ospreay (and Shingo) are all about, check it out.

Undoubtedly, without the recent Okada/Tanahashi/Ospreay/Omega era of NJPW, there would be no AEW. The Okada vs Omega series of matches, in particular, and Jericho's run in NJPW, I think, are what gave Tony Khan the idea to start AEW.

(It's weird that this match video is hosted on Facebook, but anyway):   https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=826528288196319


 

[Metal Man]

2 hours ago, Logic said:

Yeah, Ospreay is awesome.

When I watched a bunch of NJPW a couple years ago, he was still a super junior, and a huge face at that. Much smaller, much more of a high flying, luchador wrestling style, really popular with the Japanese audience. He bulked up considerably to join the heavyweight ranks, and subsequently his wrestling style changed and he became a great heel. It's cool to watch how great he still is, considering he underwent such a huge change.

Here's the final from the 2019 Battle of the Super Juniors tournament with Ospreay against Shingo Takagi, who is now a huge star in his own right. Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer broke from his usual ratings system to give this one 5.75 stars. The commentary is in English, for what it's worth. I know you don't know the story/buildup to the match, but if you ever just want to see an incredible wrestling match and see what Ospreay (and Shingo) are all about, check it out.

Undoubtedly, without the recent Okada/Tanahashi/Ospreay/Omega era of NJPW, there would be no AEW. The Okada vs Omega series of matches, in particular, and Jericho's run in NJPW, I think, are what gave Tony Khan the idea to start AEW.

(It's weird that this match video is hosted on Facebook, but anyway):   https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=826528288196319


 

 

Thanks for the link. I will definitely check it out.

 

I caught Omega / Jericho from one of the Wrestle Kingdoms on replay on I think Spike TV or a channel like that. I stopped on it while going through the guide just from knowing Jericho and that was my first exposure to that style. I liked it enough to stop on Spike another time when they were replaying Omega / Okada from another Wrestle Kingdom which was also an excellent match and put me on the Kenny Omega bandwagon. It definitely makes a lot of sense that those New Japan days were the early spawning grounds for AEW.

 

Tony Kahn needs to figure out a way to translate his good booking and management of AEW into the Jags somehow and right that train wreck of a football franchise. : )

[Warcodered]