>>14653956Tony is afraid to legitimately piss off his fanbase. AEW has by far the biggest concentration of smarks, you can't work them by doing normal face/heel stuff. When everyone's protected, when only 10% of matches are a coin-flip, and even for those there interference/foreign object/low blow/fuckery, it's just not as exciting. When everyone is clapping and cheering 95% of the show, and only booing as part of the performance, it's boring.
Imagine if Big Bill got a match vs Will Ospreay, and just beat him clean in the middle of the ring 1-2-3. No injury angle, no distraction, nothing, just beats him clean on Dynamite. Back and forth match, Big Bill gets the advantage, hits his finish and beats him.
That's the kind of thing that makes the smarks RAGE
>"You ruined his momentum! You wasted his match vs Danielson!">"Why the fuck do you sign the best wrestler IN THE WORLD and make him lose to Big Bill?"That's what you actually need to drive interest, to make fans give a shit
Then you give Ospreay a rematch on a PPV.....and Bill beats him again. Foot on the chest, 1-2-3.
You then have 100 different directions you can go in with both wrestlers. Ospreay can go back to winning every match and BB becomes his boogeyman. Big Bill can lose matches and becomes the guy who "Beat Ospreay, but then what?" - he becomes more sinister, more intense, and so on.
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Instead, what we'd get if Big Bill and Ospreay had a match on Dynamite: 5 minutes, picture in picture break, 8 more minutes, Ospreay wins. Uncle Dave gives it 4 1/4 stars. Nobody is elevated, nothing results from it, just another match.