On Sting, AEW Dynamite & Impact Wrestling

 

I've mentioned this before, but I never really watched WCW. During it's 1996-98 peak, I paid casual attention to what was happening, but I was a "WWF Guy" and Nitro didn't air during a convenient time in Canada. 

However, since WCW folded and I've learned more about it, I've come to appreciate Sting. I was pumped when he finally joined WWE. Then he lost to Triple H and the nWo helped him for some reason and he was forced to retire and let's not talk about any of that.

Sting is in AEW and I'm excited. Yes, he's 61 years old. Yes, he may not be able to wrestle. Yes, AEW needs to focus on the present and the future more than the past. But I'm excited because Sting will be treated with respect in AEW. He won't be mocked for being a "WCW Guy." He won't constantly be criticized for "The Monday Night Wars."  He'll have a theme song that sounds like his Crow theme and not whatever that awful WWE theme was.

If he can wrestle, it would be nice to see him have an actual farewell match. He deserves a real retirement, something like Ric Flair or Shawn Michaels or the Undertaker received. Even if he can't compete, he deserves to have an official send off. Hopefully he gets it.

But, of course, Sting's debut isn't all that happened on Dynamite. Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley faced off for the AEW World Championship. The match itself wasn't as epic as I expected, but it was entertaining. I liked the story they were going for even if it didn't work 100% perfectly.

The way I see it, Moxley not only wanted to retain the title, but he also wanted revenge for being attacked a few weeks ago. He brought two chairs into the ring to finish Kenny off, rather than pinning him after he hit the Paradigm Shift. He was going to brutalize him. But then he thought better of it. He'd already beaten Omega in a "hardcore" match. He wanted to beat him in a fair fight. So he set up the chairs and initiated a slug fest.

But Kenny Omega didn't want to win clean. He just wanted to win. Don Callis knew that and, as soon as he saw the opportunity, he took it. He gave Omega a microphone to use as a weapon. Omega used it and we have a new champion.

It was a good story.

But the most interesting part came after. Callis said they were going to explain themselves on Tuesday night on Impact Wrestling.

I haven't paid any attention to TNA/Impact since its peak over a decade ago, but this is interesting. Where is it going? Will Callis and Omega be appearing on Impact regularly? Will other AEW wrestlers? Will Impact wrestlers be coming to AEW? This is exciting because I don't know where they're going with this. It's nice to have some unpredictability in wrestling.

Which brings me to another point. I’ve thought before that “All Out” should be an AEW PPV and “All In” should be a cross promotional event. It would be cool if some of the biggest non-WWE promotions got together once in a while. Think of it like the original All In show. On that show, wrestlers from NJPW, ROH, CMLL, Impact Wrestling, AAA, MLW, and the NWA all took part. Why not try something like that again?

AEW, Impact, and NWA are already working together. Why not have the three of them put on a show that also features NJPW, ROH, etc.? You could book a "dream card" of non-WWE talent, promote the hell out of it, and air it on pay-per-view or even TNT on a day like Tuesday (when no live WWE shows are on). Could a show like that, running unopposed, get a rating similar to what Raw gets on Monday nights?  Sure, WWE would likely counter it with something, but it could still be a big deal.

For 20 years, WWE has been essentially unopposed, but they're vulnerable now. There's room for competition now. Don't run a show head-to-head with Raw (or Smackdown) because WWE can stack those shows and crush any competition. But a PPV or a TNT special? That might be enough to show the world that there's actually an alternative right now.