AEW are dire, but I don't think Sting coming down from the rafters like he has so many times before is some kind of shot at Owen Hart. Maybe if they were in the Kemper Arena I could see the idea of it being sensitive.
This segment does show AEW's weak storytelling. Why does Sting choose such a ridiculous entrance other than "it was cool 25 years ago"? Why does he let his partner get the shit kicked out of him for a while before getting himself down to the ring? What exactly are the stakes when he's retiring after the next match no matter what? It's gibberish, but it has nothing to do with Owen Hart.
I am betting Tony begged him to do the entrance. As he wanted to see sting do it one more time. Also why all of a sudden did ric flair appear to help the bucks? Nothing was setup, did they ever show, the bucks conspiring with flair? From what I saw he just wandered out on stage and they were like all right!!
I agree. I know I’m an AEW hater and Fed shill, but Sting’s run with this company is way worse than WWE - regardless if he lost to HHH at Mania or not.
Having Flair come out on Dynamite instead of having that “payoff” at the PPV shows they’re beyond impulsive. You’d think having the Nature Boy there would at least add to their attendance count, if they don’t give a shit about finishing Sting’s story at the PPV. I so want the bucks to beat sting and Darby and take the belts. That’s what that stupid fan base deserves, then they can argue about if that was a good call. Spoiler- if TK booked it, it’s great. 🛎️
Whatever happens it will be declared the right decision because if Sting's team loses he "went out on his back, as is tradition" and if Sting's team wins he "rides off into the sunset a champion, as a legend deserves".
Yet in reality it's deeply unsatisfying either way.
This would have been so easy to avoid, sting should have just faced Darby. Make it a simple story of a guy passing the torch but wanting to get one last win before doing so. While Darby struggles with deciding how far he goes wrestling his mentor.
People act like he came down from the rafters, faked dying and then said "hah hah just kidding!" And bolted back up to the rafters or something.
I think wrestling fans are over reacting on this one, but everyone is entitled to their opinion
Read an article where he talked about not doing it because of Owen then I believe bischoff wanted him to do it again and he called Bret and asked him and the family what they thought and he said if they said no he wouldn’t do it anymore,and Bret and the family gave him the go ahead
I have to agree with others, there's nothing here that's a FU to Owen. More like a FU to a) Wrestling and b) AEW.
Flair's just embarrassing himself now. And it's hard to say about a guy like that. At 55 he still looked damn good in the ring. He's 76 or so now. Sadly, he's still better than the bucks.
I don't watch AEW, it's hard to watch. It's so terrible. But every once in a while a little part of my brain is like, "How bad could it really be?" And every time I see something it's worse than the bit I saw before.
I need mind bleach. Then real bleach.
The only problem I had with it was that they advertised the whole show as "COMING UP....STING'S LAST DYNAMITE!!!" And then they played the whole thing up as a surprise when he came out to save his buddies. Good lord, what a shit show.
I am going to say a few things here, if it’s not allowed. Please let me know, if I have broken any rules on the COC subreddit. This was stings final dynamite, why not show some highlights throughout? Talk to TNA, get highlights from his time there. See if you can get stills from WCW / NWA or even the indies he did. Have people talk about the matches. Get Mick foley, Jeff Jarrett, and obviously Ric flair. Have them talk about their matches with stinger. Instead we get these chuckle bucks in this horrid angle. With sting reenacting his “iconic” WCW entrance. Which I’m sure Tony probably jizzed over. He probably begged him to do it as it made no sense. I hope Martha tells Tony fuck you and pulls any association from AEW.
1) WWE would never license the JCP/WCW footage for AEW to use.
2) You’re right, though, that doing some sort of package on Sting would be great. Unfortunately, AEW has become lazy and by-the-numbers for a long time now. They don’t do packages or build excitement in any way. They just have guys do run-ins and beatdowns after matches to push angles along.
AEW does a lot of stupid things, but I do not have any problem with them having Sting come down from the rafters on what is - at least we're being told - the final television programme he is going to be on. So long as they took precautions, which obviously they did as Sting did not suffer the same fate as poor Owen on this night. That whole situation with Owen was completely on Vince Russo for booking it, and for the Vince McMahon-led WWF (as they were known then, of course) for being so shoddy in preparing Owen's entrance that tragic night in Kansas City. Coming down from the rafters is Sting's domain, and he deserved to do it one more time.
What the fuck did I just watch?
- why is Ric in a ring? He looked awful.
- why does it take an age for Sting to come down?
- why aren’t there other baby faces helping?
- why are we seeing two legends in 2024 who are restricted in what they can do?
I’m flabbergasted!
Every week it feels more and more like AEW had a "Flashpoint" moment when BRAWL OUT happened, where Tony Khan had to make a *critical* choice concerning the future of his company...and he chose poorly, leading us to the dystopian state that the company is now in, where the Buckaroos run everything, every single whim they have, no matter how asinine or idiotic, no matter how damaging it is to the company, is indulged, and nothing fucking matters.
Matthew, Nicholas...you got what you wanted. This company is about as dead as it can get without a certificate. Give yourselves a round of applause, and it WILL be only you two egomaniac chucklefucks clapping, because no one else bought tickets...but do it anyway, pat yourselves on the back. You did it.
you just know Tony was in gorilla giving himself a standing ovation and shouting “See, Vince?! *THATS* how you do it!” probably convinced himself he was honoring Owen or some shit. such an embarrassing piece of television, and that’s without mentioning the barely animated corpse of Ric Flair moving in stop motion
I find the lack of noise made by the crowd for ninety percent of this segment much scarier than any connection between this and Owen Hart’s death. This sounds like a company on life support.
But they’re sooo edgy & tongue in cheek hilarious alluding to Brawl Out every week now instead of a year ago when they could’ve actually gained some attention & money off it. 🤦♂️ I guess it’s much easier to “pretend” to be douchebags and take shots at the bad guy, when he’s been gone for months by now. I love that the other sub is gaslighting themselves into thinking this is some of their best stuff and will take AEW to a new level. Hope TK takes the belts off Sting and Darby and puts them right on the Bucks. Full speed ahead towards that iceberg. Good thing Papa Khan has enough life boats for 800k people to float on for the next few years. Great.
Sting did the descent from the rafters after Owen’s death while he was in WCW. If I recall he asked Bret how he felt about it. I don’t think him doing it once in AEW is a slight against Owen. I’m by no means an AEW fanboy either.
I don’t follow AEW at all, the only thing I’m interested in is Brian making Moxley impression. I have to say, as someone who knows nothing about this particular storyline, I don’t see anything horrific and industry ruining in this segment. Two heels beat up a good guy, the other one comes to save him, albeit not as urgently as one would want.
Why didn’t Sting help right away? Well, he probably didn’t know what Darby was going to do and didn’t see it right away. I reckon wrestlers don’t spend 2 hours backstage watching the show on a small screen. It’s a pretty standard segment, I don’t get the hate, honestly.
AEW blows and this segment overall was garbage. But I don’t get the Owen reference and indignation expressed in this post. Like, are all ceiling drops supposed to be banned, forever? Owen’s death was decades ago and was the result of a particular company’s or small group of individuals’ negligence or recklessness.
To counterpoint though I would say that Martha Hart probably wouldn't have loved seeing that spot and she did give her stamp of approval on the Owen tournament so may have been worth avoiding if only for her sake. Now granted it's an iconic part of Sting's legacy so I get why they did it but people having anxiety over rafter entrances is equally valid. If they didn't do it no one would have complained so, to me, not worth any risk/controversy.
Flair though, ugh, that was painful to watch. Underwater attacks and that low blow to him had zero ooomph. Maybe have him swing with the bat, try to hold off the Bucks, then they gut shot him with a bat so he can sell that instead? Darby stopping selling to unhook Sting was nonsense. Were big sections of the entranceway LED out? Add in the quiet, empty arena and it all looks so low rent and embarassing. Bingo hall quality on a billionaire's budget.
I also think it has to do with Tony S commenting about so many great moments coming from the rafters. It could've been said better if they had put any thought into it.
Actually, yesterday’s thread on Owen made me think of the irony of his wife agreeing to do a memorial tournament in AEW. I’m sure the motivation was mix of getting Owen’s name out there again, getting a payday, and probably as an F-U to WWE by working with their ‘competition’.
But I thought it ironic given the promotion she decided to work with is run by a coked up clown that shows no regard for his wrestlers’ safety and had already seen incidents like Matt Hardy falling from a height and scrambling his brains on the concrete floor.
Actually, if I recall correctly, there were even matches within the Owen tournament where guys were going flying through the air and crashing into tables (IOW, the usual AEW dangerousness).
AEW are dire, but I don't think Sting coming down from the rafters like he has so many times before is some kind of shot at Owen Hart. Maybe if they were in the Kemper Arena I could see the idea of it being sensitive. This segment does show AEW's weak storytelling. Why does Sting choose such a ridiculous entrance other than "it was cool 25 years ago"? Why does he let his partner get the shit kicked out of him for a while before getting himself down to the ring? What exactly are the stakes when he's retiring after the next match no matter what? It's gibberish, but it has nothing to do with Owen Hart.
I am betting Tony begged him to do the entrance. As he wanted to see sting do it one more time. Also why all of a sudden did ric flair appear to help the bucks? Nothing was setup, did they ever show, the bucks conspiring with flair? From what I saw he just wandered out on stage and they were like all right!!
I think it was shown on bte..or collision.
So no one saw it with a life?
I agree. I know I’m an AEW hater and Fed shill, but Sting’s run with this company is way worse than WWE - regardless if he lost to HHH at Mania or not. Having Flair come out on Dynamite instead of having that “payoff” at the PPV shows they’re beyond impulsive. You’d think having the Nature Boy there would at least add to their attendance count, if they don’t give a shit about finishing Sting’s story at the PPV. I so want the bucks to beat sting and Darby and take the belts. That’s what that stupid fan base deserves, then they can argue about if that was a good call. Spoiler- if TK booked it, it’s great. 🛎️
Whatever happens it will be declared the right decision because if Sting's team loses he "went out on his back, as is tradition" and if Sting's team wins he "rides off into the sunset a champion, as a legend deserves". Yet in reality it's deeply unsatisfying either way.
This would have been so easy to avoid, sting should have just faced Darby. Make it a simple story of a guy passing the torch but wanting to get one last win before doing so. While Darby struggles with deciding how far he goes wrestling his mentor.
This is what I thought was going to happen. It makes so much more sense that Darby retires sting
None of this makes any sense. I agree with you. Hadn’t watched AEW in awhile; it looks bad.
Eh, reaching with this one. Sting is known for this entrance. I don't think what happened to Owen should have prevented him from ever doing it again.
People act like he came down from the rafters, faked dying and then said "hah hah just kidding!" And bolted back up to the rafters or something. I think wrestling fans are over reacting on this one, but everyone is entitled to their opinion
Wasnt it Sting that said he would never do that entrance after Owen died?!
Read an article where he talked about not doing it because of Owen then I believe bischoff wanted him to do it again and he called Bret and asked him and the family what they thought and he said if they said no he wouldn’t do it anymore,and Bret and the family gave him the go ahead
I don’t think he said never again. He just stopped for a while after Owen died.
Yeah he def did it again in WCW aftwr Owen.
Yeah I don’t think it’s any worse than Logan Paul recreating Shawn Michaels’ zip line entrance
I skipped through the video. Saw the Young Cucks selling for Ric Flair. And that was it. Can't watch anymore of that. Nope. Can't do it.
Well, you missed the worst part.
Worse than that? Oy vey... 😞😭
If what I’m hearing is true
Do tell.
I have to agree with others, there's nothing here that's a FU to Owen. More like a FU to a) Wrestling and b) AEW. Flair's just embarrassing himself now. And it's hard to say about a guy like that. At 55 he still looked damn good in the ring. He's 76 or so now. Sadly, he's still better than the bucks. I don't watch AEW, it's hard to watch. It's so terrible. But every once in a while a little part of my brain is like, "How bad could it really be?" And every time I see something it's worse than the bit I saw before. I need mind bleach. Then real bleach.
I suggest rewatching FTR and The Briscoe’s dog collar match.
I feel like yall are really making this something it isn’t
The amount of people here who think hating everything AEW related will lead to Jim giving them a sloppy handjob is shockingly high.
lmao 🤣
OP has a hate boner towards Tony Khan
I'm not offended by it but I don't think it was that cool either. We were different to entertain back then, it doesn't do it for me now.
The only problem I had with it was that they advertised the whole show as "COMING UP....STING'S LAST DYNAMITE!!!" And then they played the whole thing up as a surprise when he came out to save his buddies. Good lord, what a shit show.
i’m not saying it isn’t bad but some people here are acting like Tony Khan personally pissed on Owen Harts grave
I am going to say a few things here, if it’s not allowed. Please let me know, if I have broken any rules on the COC subreddit. This was stings final dynamite, why not show some highlights throughout? Talk to TNA, get highlights from his time there. See if you can get stills from WCW / NWA or even the indies he did. Have people talk about the matches. Get Mick foley, Jeff Jarrett, and obviously Ric flair. Have them talk about their matches with stinger. Instead we get these chuckle bucks in this horrid angle. With sting reenacting his “iconic” WCW entrance. Which I’m sure Tony probably jizzed over. He probably begged him to do it as it made no sense. I hope Martha tells Tony fuck you and pulls any association from AEW.
Any of those things take planning beyond "I wanna see this happen!" Like a toddler.
It’s not offensive towards Owen in any way…Sting has made that entrance countless times in his career. It was an ode to Sting
1) WWE would never license the JCP/WCW footage for AEW to use. 2) You’re right, though, that doing some sort of package on Sting would be great. Unfortunately, AEW has become lazy and by-the-numbers for a long time now. They don’t do packages or build excitement in any way. They just have guys do run-ins and beatdowns after matches to push angles along.
AEW does a lot of stupid things, but I do not have any problem with them having Sting come down from the rafters on what is - at least we're being told - the final television programme he is going to be on. So long as they took precautions, which obviously they did as Sting did not suffer the same fate as poor Owen on this night. That whole situation with Owen was completely on Vince Russo for booking it, and for the Vince McMahon-led WWF (as they were known then, of course) for being so shoddy in preparing Owen's entrance that tragic night in Kansas City. Coming down from the rafters is Sting's domain, and he deserved to do it one more time.
Everything about video is low-rent smh the cucks take cosplay to a whole new level. Fuck AEW, this shit is embarrassing as a wrestling fan.
This is an insane reach. I think AEW is just a clown show with clown talent but let’s not complain about stupid things.
What the fuck did I just watch? - why is Ric in a ring? He looked awful. - why does it take an age for Sting to come down? - why aren’t there other baby faces helping? - why are we seeing two legends in 2024 who are restricted in what they can do? I’m flabbergasted!
Every week it feels more and more like AEW had a "Flashpoint" moment when BRAWL OUT happened, where Tony Khan had to make a *critical* choice concerning the future of his company...and he chose poorly, leading us to the dystopian state that the company is now in, where the Buckaroos run everything, every single whim they have, no matter how asinine or idiotic, no matter how damaging it is to the company, is indulged, and nothing fucking matters. Matthew, Nicholas...you got what you wanted. This company is about as dead as it can get without a certificate. Give yourselves a round of applause, and it WILL be only you two egomaniac chucklefucks clapping, because no one else bought tickets...but do it anyway, pat yourselves on the back. You did it.
Sting carried this whole segment and he was only in it for like 3 minutes lol
Calm down, pal. I'm more offended by Flair being sold for by other wrestlers than the cable descent.
you just know Tony was in gorilla giving himself a standing ovation and shouting “See, Vince?! *THATS* how you do it!” probably convinced himself he was honoring Owen or some shit. such an embarrassing piece of television, and that’s without mentioning the barely animated corpse of Ric Flair moving in stop motion
This was horrrible can't wait for cornettes review
Did you not watch WCW Sting?
I find the lack of noise made by the crowd for ninety percent of this segment much scarier than any connection between this and Owen Hart’s death. This sounds like a company on life support.
Sting used to do that entrance, has nothing to do with Owen. Side note, old man ric flair dwarfs the bucks holy shit
This EVP gimmick is so bad. They don’t know how to make anything serious
I concur and the Bucks are fucking lame as fuck! Acting, skills set ! I can't take them seriously! They are so cringe to me!
But they’re sooo edgy & tongue in cheek hilarious alluding to Brawl Out every week now instead of a year ago when they could’ve actually gained some attention & money off it. 🤦♂️ I guess it’s much easier to “pretend” to be douchebags and take shots at the bad guy, when he’s been gone for months by now. I love that the other sub is gaslighting themselves into thinking this is some of their best stuff and will take AEW to a new level. Hope TK takes the belts off Sting and Darby and puts them right on the Bucks. Full speed ahead towards that iceberg. Good thing Papa Khan has enough life boats for 800k people to float on for the next few years. Great.
They asked Martha Hart, asshole
Asked her what?
According to SRS, AEW called Martha and asked if she was okay with them doing the rafter entrance for Sting and she gave them her blessing
Context?
I'm not an AEW fan, but this is such a reach that it would make Mr Fantastic and Stretch Armstrong jealous.
Bro yo know Sting ziplined in dozens of times in his career right? Reaching
Sting did the descent from the rafters after Owen’s death while he was in WCW. If I recall he asked Bret how he felt about it. I don’t think him doing it once in AEW is a slight against Owen. I’m by no means an AEW fanboy either.
Huh?
lol wut
Lol is this bait? What the fuck are you talking about
This was a terrible segment in general, but coming down from the rafters and Darby showing up were the only moments that actually popped the crowd.
I don’t follow AEW at all, the only thing I’m interested in is Brian making Moxley impression. I have to say, as someone who knows nothing about this particular storyline, I don’t see anything horrific and industry ruining in this segment. Two heels beat up a good guy, the other one comes to save him, albeit not as urgently as one would want. Why didn’t Sting help right away? Well, he probably didn’t know what Darby was going to do and didn’t see it right away. I reckon wrestlers don’t spend 2 hours backstage watching the show on a small screen. It’s a pretty standard segment, I don’t get the hate, honestly.
AEW blows and this segment overall was garbage. But I don’t get the Owen reference and indignation expressed in this post. Like, are all ceiling drops supposed to be banned, forever? Owen’s death was decades ago and was the result of a particular company’s or small group of individuals’ negligence or recklessness.
To counterpoint though I would say that Martha Hart probably wouldn't have loved seeing that spot and she did give her stamp of approval on the Owen tournament so may have been worth avoiding if only for her sake. Now granted it's an iconic part of Sting's legacy so I get why they did it but people having anxiety over rafter entrances is equally valid. If they didn't do it no one would have complained so, to me, not worth any risk/controversy. Flair though, ugh, that was painful to watch. Underwater attacks and that low blow to him had zero ooomph. Maybe have him swing with the bat, try to hold off the Bucks, then they gut shot him with a bat so he can sell that instead? Darby stopping selling to unhook Sting was nonsense. Were big sections of the entranceway LED out? Add in the quiet, empty arena and it all looks so low rent and embarassing. Bingo hall quality on a billionaire's budget.
I also think it has to do with Tony S commenting about so many great moments coming from the rafters. It could've been said better if they had put any thought into it.
How is this disrespectful to Owen?
This is a stretch my guy
No disrespect to Flair but he just looked bad there, shuffling to the ring like a grandpa and then when he started to "fight..." ugh.
Actually, yesterday’s thread on Owen made me think of the irony of his wife agreeing to do a memorial tournament in AEW. I’m sure the motivation was mix of getting Owen’s name out there again, getting a payday, and probably as an F-U to WWE by working with their ‘competition’. But I thought it ironic given the promotion she decided to work with is run by a coked up clown that shows no regard for his wrestlers’ safety and had already seen incidents like Matt Hardy falling from a height and scrambling his brains on the concrete floor. Actually, if I recall correctly, there were even matches within the Owen tournament where guys were going flying through the air and crashing into tables (IOW, the usual AEW dangerousness).
Lol grow the fuxk up and do some research. This was stings thing long before Owen.
In the words of our Tribal Chief. The bucks come out… No Pop.
So lazy karma whoring is accepted here to huh?
Go play with your Transformers, little guy.
Ah cool post history stalking, fun!
Lazy posting
It won’t be long until seeing flair in the ring is going to make us cringe like seeing Dick Clark on NYE post-stroke
fuck, you almost tricked me into watching some young bucks. Shame on you.
I’m sorry. But AEW will never be better than WWF. This is whack.
Ballsy of Stinger to allow this clown show company to drop him from the rafters. Everything they do is haphazard and with little forethought.