I didn't hate the show, but... it's so obvious they're mildly afflicted with that Russo mentality of trying to swerve situations just because. On this show, you had Archer, Brodie and Matt all have parts to play. And every fukking single one of them was miscast.
Stay with me for a sec.
Matt shoulda been the Exalted One; point-blank, period.
Brodie woulda been much
much better with Jake.
And Having big-ass Archer come out to level the playing field against the Inner Circle on some 'we got a big dude, too, motherfukkers' shyt woulda definitely been a better way to utilize a guy whose whole career has been a testament to how working hard and being big doesn't fukking mean anything if you aren't put in the right angles to succeed.
Him going into the PPV as the Elite's hitter just to say '
you thought' and kick Matt Jackson to death would have made him
way more than standing next to Jake and having a backyard fight club in a ring hosted by the Oompa Loompa who left the squad and got the gym membership in the separation settlement. Matt running around as the chessmaster of a group of random dudes would not only give them credibility, but it limits what he has to do because he can set himself up as a final boss and not actually need to see anyone until they work their way to him. And Brodie... lawd. If there's been a bigger miss in wrestling this year than putting Brodie fukking Lee with Jake the fukking Snake, it's a close #2 at worst. They both got that swamp-living, shoot-you-if-you-come-on-their-property energy literally exuding from them, and Brodie's voice doesn't match his size, so having raspy Jake get all devious but also abstract for him and let the man's work in the ring do the talking woulda done way more for him than whatever that bathrobe they put him in will do.
shyt is crazy. Like... they had the people, they just shifted slightly and missed the mark on all three. There is a parallel universe right now where there is no COVID and AEW did this right and in that place, the Wednesday after Blood & Guts (terrible PPV name), Archer is coming out to vociferous boos for singlehandedly costing the Elite the first AEW War Games match, Matt is getting to cut a batshyt crazy promo by video from NC while he has the two Dark Order grunts do yard work for him in the background, and Brodie Lee is coming off a PPV win that saw him walking a gator on a leash to the ring and following it up by coming down to the ring on Dynamite wearing a gator-skin coat that Jake uses at the end of the match to choke Jungle Jack into unconsciousness with, clearly building to the Luchasaurus vs. Brodie (ft. Jake) match that people might actually be interested in seeing.
and I tip my hat
