To me this is a problem all companies running shows have: They're still basing the lay outs of matches as if there were a crowd. The ebbs and flows of both MJF/Jungle Boy and Cody/Archer were really dependent on the crowds biting in the moments they needed to bite, which even with some of the roster at ringside is not the same thing since they're mostly just out there talking shyt and goofing off.
My view is right now, in any company, traditional "story based" matches do not work. Anything that is built around ebbs and flows that a live crowd would be reacting to do not work. Everything needs to be short, compact fun sprints, wild spot fests, comedy stuff, or the cinematic stuff like Boneyard/Stadium Stampede/I assume shyt TNA is doing. Cody playing 80s NWA face in front of now crowd in a long match is fukking weird. MJF doing 80s heel stooging in front of no crowd makes it stand out even more how corny everything is. Every company still running seems to be formatting their matches as "just go out there and do whatever as long as you take up time" and for me personally, that fukking sucks.
I guess I feel like companies/talent should be using this time to rethink how they work matches, even if it is just for the time being. I see a lot of praise for this show and feel like I watched something else, because what I saw was overly long matches where guys were struggling because it's fukking weird working without a crowd but still working as if there is one because they are still in that paradigm of how to work. Could be just me, though. I couldn't watch any of the TV shows from WWE or AEW after one or two eps in this format and it isn't anything against the talent themselves, who definitely are working hard in both companies, but it's just so off to me it drives me nuts.
My view is right now, in any company, traditional "story based" matches do not work. Anything that is built around ebbs and flows that a live crowd would be reacting to do not work. Everything needs to be short, compact fun sprints, wild spot fests, comedy stuff, or the cinematic stuff like Boneyard/Stadium Stampede/I assume shyt TNA is doing. Cody playing 80s NWA face in front of now crowd in a long match is fukking weird. MJF doing 80s heel stooging in front of no crowd makes it stand out even more how corny everything is. Every company still running seems to be formatting their matches as "just go out there and do whatever as long as you take up time" and for me personally, that fukking sucks.
I guess I feel like companies/talent should be using this time to rethink how they work matches, even if it is just for the time being. I see a lot of praise for this show and feel like I watched something else, because what I saw was overly long matches where guys were struggling because it's fukking weird working without a crowd but still working as if there is one because they are still in that paradigm of how to work. Could be just me, though. I couldn't watch any of the TV shows from WWE or AEW after one or two eps in this format and it isn't anything against the talent themselves, who definitely are working hard in both companies, but it's just so off to me it drives me nuts.
with the botchomania ladder match (GREAT format though) saved by Cage's debut which is a great look for the company. 
