cero2k wrote: ↑Feb 18th, '21, 11:07
Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Feb 18th, '21, 10:48
Except that, as the Lee Johnson thing last week showed, they
don't do that. They threw Johnson on TV and gave him this win and treated it like a big moment and the end of a journey, except that they hadn't done anything to let the majority of their audience know that the journey had even been taking place until it was over.
Maybe that'll will let the 'majority of the audience' know there's this other show called DARK, and if you wanna know about Lee, maybe you should watch DARK.
I'm not going to say that that's not a
fair request of AEW to make, but I will say that I don't think it's a
wise one for the following reasons:
1. Obviously, people only have so much time in their weeks.
2. Even a wrestling fans is going to get annoyed if you ask them to sit through a show that is two hours of mostly squashes in the hopes of their being some storyline-relevant material on there
3. Having more content that you require people to watch to keep up is a barrier to entry.
Dark has a useful place in AEW's ecosystem. It lets AEW get fan reactions to new talents while also serving as a place to buff people's records in preparation for a title shot. What AEW needs to learn how to do is
integrate that with what is presented on Dynamite. For a situation like Lee Johnson, the right way to do it would have been as follows:
1. Create a video package about the guy that airs on Dynamite where you tell us that he's an up-and-comer who comes really close but just can't ever seem to pull out the win. You show us highlights of him doing cool things interspersed with footage of him training and him telling us his story, and also footage of his coaches talking about how he's so good, but just can't seem to get that win, and you include some footage of his losses.
2. Put him on Dynamite and have him lose a few times (let's say three times spread out over the course of two months), and each time he's on, you have the commentators talk about how well he did on Dark but came up short, and before each match he cuts a promo talking about how hard he's trying to win and how much he wants to validate his coaches' faith in him, etc.
3. Then you put him in a match on Dark against a bottom of the midcard-level heel (Shawn Spears is the name that immediately comes to mind- especially here because Spears is a vet who can help carry the kid if he needs it) and you have them go twenty minutes and give him lots of nearfalls but have Spears pull it out in the end. Spears will be a dick, but after the match, Cody and Dustin come out give Johnson a big ovation.
4. Then, on Dynamite, you air a video package of #3.
5. Then you put him on Dynamite against a respected veteran babyface but who is in an equivalent position to Spears (Christopher Daniels or Kazarian or Colt Cabana seem ideal for this) and they go ten to twelve minutes and gives him some good nearfalls but he loses via roll-up, and the veteran babyfaces puts him on the mic afterwards.
6. Meanwhile, you do an angle where Cody or Dustin or even Q.T. hand-pick Johnson to be their tag partner and he gets pinned (this seems like a spot where someone like Top Flight would get the win).
7. The next week Johnson loses on Dark and is a little dejected, but Cody comes out and handpicks him to be his partner.
8. Then, on Dynamite, you show a video of Cody picking Johnson to be his partner and have Johnson cut a promo once again talking about how badly he wants to win and what it means to him that Cody has shown this faith in him, etc.... and THEN you give him the win.
Not all of these steps after #4 are completely necessary, but do you see my point about how you have the story ping back and forth between Dynamite and Dark and make sure that all of the important notes from Dark are either shown on Dynamite in video form and how it makes sure that we get a chance to know Johnson before ending his journey?
And that's a more involved situation. There are plenty of simpler things they should be doing but aren't. For example, if someone is winning a bunch on Dark, give them a two-minute squash on Dynamite in the midst of that (or even a longer win over a real opponent) so that people who only watch your main show don't feel caught off guard when someone is announced as being in the top ten or otherwise shows up on Dynamite with some outrageous record and we had no idea he had been winning. Numbers are just numbers. To make someone really feel like a winner, you need to drive the point home by
showing people, and you need to do it over a stretch of time so that when the person shows up on Dynamite in a big spot, that person
feels like they belong in that spot (rather than just having some nice numbers by their name).