[Evil Vito]

Originally Posted by M-A-G Also, MARKING OUT for the return of Vito's AEW, which I can only assume is light years better than the real AEW from what I've been told.

I mean, personally I love AEW. It's by no means perfect and I don't agree with all of their decisions and booking methodologies, but I do like quite a lot of what they do. Usually at least one or two really good matches per Dynamite, lots of programs being built, long-term storytelling and callbacks to past history when appropriate. Peoples' previous history with one another isn't ignored, which I appreciate. It's a hell of a lot more lively than the soulless, effortless booking of modern day WWE but that's not a high bar to clear.

I'm guessing if you watched an entire Dynamite you'd like some of it and come away thinking it wasn't a total waste of time BUT that it's not enough to stick around. That's been pretty much the consensus of friends I have who used to watch wrestling and gave it a try. One of my buddies actually watched one of the better Dynamites and liked the entire show, but still didn't watch the next week cause "eh, I don't want to go back to spending 2 hours a week on this stuff". Getting lapsed fans back on anything more than a part-time basis is very difficult, if not impossible.

All things considered, I'm guessing we haven't really seen the last of Daniels in this program?

I've got at least 2 more matches lined up for him. Not sure about past that, as a non-wrestler my booking opportunities for him are limited since he can't wrestle on TV but my god he's still delivering the goods on PPVs so benching him will feel difficult.

Oof. Well, it was a risk worth taking. I can only guess that Darby's over rating was a factor?

Possibly. Darby's an 84 which is not bad, it climbed considerably after the Brian Cage feud. But Sting had a 97 overness so maybe the game computes the passing of the torch as feeling "forced"?

Yikes. How many people over 40 are on AEW's roster? I mean, you're using them the way they should be used but is that the case for the real deal?

The wrestling world has changed a lot since this game came out. When it came out in 2002 I'd say the median age of the WWE roster was late 20s/early 30s and so their stats age accordingly. People in their mid 40s and later were largely on an indy nostalgia run.

Well guys wrestle a hell of a lot longer now, and with advances in conditioning, training, etc guys stay on form a lot longer. Half of the 2021 Royal Rumble was over 40 years old. And while yes, WWE have trouble creating new stars, even in NXT you've got most of their prominent names hovering around 35 years old already. People start their careers later, get to the point where WWE wants to sign them later, etc. and it cycles accordingly.

AEW has far more guys under 40 than above it but case in point - Kenny Omega is 37, Jon Moxley is 35, PAC is 34 going on 35 in August. EWR deems all of these guys old when none of them are by today's standards. Hell there's a chance Adam Page who is super talented and really over turns 30 in July could see a stat hit if EWR slaps him with the "old" tag. Gonna be tough to navigate.

That said the legit old dudes (like Dustin) might win some matches against enhancement guys on Dark but he's putting guys over when it counts on Dynamite.

So what role does the TNT Title have? Is it a mid-card belt or something along the lines of a television title? It can't be a cruiserweight belt because everything I've heard about AEW tells me that like 90% of the roster is cruiserweights.

It is the secondary singles title. So far it's been held by Cody (twice), Brodie Lee (RIP), and Darby Allin. In real life Miro just won the belt as well, but obviously that didn't happen in my game as I gave it to Brian Cage. Darby's the only one of those guys that would be deemed a cruiser by today's standards.

Like age, average weight's another thing that's changed a lot over the years. WWE brought back the cruiserweight division and had to lower it down to like 205 lbs and even then dudes on the main roster like Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, or Finn Balor were plugging along away from the division. Tough to imagine it used to be like 230 lbs or something, like 80% of both the WWE and AEW rosters are under that weight. There are way less "big guys" now which doesn't bother me personally but it's a barrier for some.

LOL @ the game expecting me to buy Riho as a person with a drug problem but Kurt Angle being fit to be an onscreen authority figure.

I don't actually want to see AEW get an onscreen authority figure IRL as I think authority figures have been done to death. But authority angles are useful in EWR, I had planned Sting for the eventual role but then he retired on me so I looked for the most over, charismatic non-wrestler I could find on the market.

At least there's some headcanon reasoning for the choice as well given that Angle was SmackDown GM in 2004 and Raw GM in 2017/18, so it's a good spot for him. Just hope he lays off the drugs.

Seems like an odd way to finish a match that was built as the face looking to get revenge in a stipulation match but I'm sure there will be more to it. Murderhawk Monster is a certainly interesting moniker.

When I first wrote off Archer that was my plan. But then I put Kingston in a feud with Cody and it absolutely exploded his overness. He went from like an 80 to a 95. Super charismatic guy (92) so every promo or beatdown on Cody got him more over. Can't really justify putting a 78 over Archer over him given that Archer is 43, although he's at least protected by a screwy finish. Kingston's another guy I'll have to play the EWR age landmine with because he turns 40 in December. So I've got at least half a year of him being a really great hardcore brawler before I see what happens to his stats. He'll put guys over but I have to do it judiciously. I'm planning on having him ride the wave and getting some snowflakes out of him for now but I've got at least one big program in mind for him for later in the year.

But what do I know? I'm just a schmuck behind a keyboard who has a thing for Australian blondes.

Getting an in her prime Emma into bed would've been an excellent 75 seconds for me.