The AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite Thread

[Supremo]

A really good show overall. 

Brilliant, action-packed opener. Dustin is amazing and this was arguably the best the Young Bucks have looked on TNT. I’m excited for their match next week.

Fantastic promo from Cody. Helped smooth out all the muddled nonsense whilst keeping the ultimate focus on building up the MJF match. 

Another home run from Jericho. Brilliantly set up Jungle Boy getting the rub whilst simultaneously building up the Moxley match. Nice, clever little touch getting interrupted on the name, “Marty....” too. I said last week that I wish they’d rehash the Jericho-Triple H thing where someone wins the belt for an hour or so and now that we’ve got the Jungle Boy match announced that’s exactly where I’d do it. Have Moxley  cost Jericho the match, have Jungle Boy to be seen wearing the belt at least for a little while, then switch it back later on.

Spoofing her appearance on Takeover was by far the best thing Britt Baker has ever done. Don’t think they mentioned she was a dentist, either! Unbelievable!

Between Nyla murdering everyone and Statlander getting the upset, it was nice to see the women are finally at least doing something. Weird how little we’ve seen of the actual Women’s Champ, though.

Fun main event. Mox continues to look like a superstar. 

The worst thing about the show by a considerable margin was the shit involving Brandi Rhodes. Smash all the, “symbolic,” thrones you want to try and pretend you’re something different, but this reeks of Stephanie McMahon. Doing her own shitty thing that completely contradicts and undermines what her husband is doing, with bad dialogue delivered to silence, completely ripping off the Straight Edge Society and talking down to everyone, this was a hodgepodge of everything people would complain about on WWE television. It also doesn’t help that there now seems to be three separate dark, E-fed-style cult-like factions. Get some agents and a bit of quality control, for fuck’s sake.

Finally, does anyone else not really miss Kenny Omega when he’s not featured? Not a good sign at all. 

But yeah. Seriously. I think Cody is my wrestler of the year. Match of the year with Dustin, promos of the year against Jericho and MJF, babyface of the year by miles, played a pivotal part in creating a new company that’s given the entire North American business a huge kick up the arse and frankly a walking embodiment of how fantastic pro wrestling can be if you stick to the basics and show a bit of passion. The lad made me really, really care about a Tye Dillinger match, for fuck’s sake. He’s the best.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Supremo

[tiger_rick]

9 minutes ago, Supremo said:

The worst thing about the show by a considerable margin was the shit involving Brandi Rhodes. Smash all the, “symbolic,” thrones you want to try and pretend you’re something different, but this reeks of Stephanie McMahon. Doing her own shitty thing that completely contradicts and undermines what her husband is doing, with bad dialogue delivered to silence, completely ripping off the Straight Edge Society and talking down to everyone, this was a hodgepodge of everything people would complain about on WWE television. It also doesn’t help that there now seems to be three separate dark, E-fed-style cult-like factions. Get some agents and a bit of quality control, for fuck’s sake.

I think that's easily the worst thing they've put on TV so far. Horrendous stuff.

Not sure I'm down with another "upset" win in the women's division. There is one on every single show. To the point that none of them are upsets now. It's just slightly different 50/50 booking. They're trying to make too many people at the same time. I can see why when you read some of the ridiculous criticisms online but stop fucking reading stuff. Just do what you need to do. Establish a handful of stars and slowly drip feed new stars into the mix as you go and not by constantly beating the people you need to draw.

The exception to that is Jericho whose work to try and make these young guys matter is exceptional and selfless. He's the best worker in the business by a mile.

They need to spread the promo time. It's always Cody and Jericho. They're both great but don't overexpose them. I do really like Cody having his eyes solely on MJF, while MJF blows him off, and other people are after Cody to make a name for themselves. Nice way of constantly side-stepping the Cody-MJF match until it really sells.

Action was good all over. Agree with Supremo generally. A few stumbles weekly at the moment though is not good.

[Supremo]

So they reveal that MJF paid off the Butcher and the Blade to attack Cody, linking up the muddled bollocks of last week and actually making the storyline make sense...but chose to only put the promo out on Twitter, not on the TV show itself.

Fucking hell.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Supremo

[Snitsky's back acne]

'That's Adam Cole's girlfriend!'

I'm sorry but that was TNA-levels of cringe.
 

[simonworden]

On 12/4/2019 at 4:28 PM, The Dart said:

Funny that people have spent the last 2 decades moaning that WWE have too many PPVs and should go back to having 4 like they did when they were a kid and now AEW are doing that, people are moaning that AEW aren't doing enough PPVs and and the TV shows aren't building to anything.  Almost like wrestling fans are really hard to please and moan about everything.

Hard to please? Where has that idea come from. 8-12 seem decent enough for me, I got into wrestling in the attitude era so used to around 12, more does get a little bit too much i'd agree. I don't think it has to be directionless but when 2 or 3 weeks go by with nothing but week to week build or even less it does seem directionless and gives me personally no motivation to tune in for the next installment. Loose example but I used to like the 2003 format when WWE started single branded PPV's and on the week of the other brand having a PPV the other show would usually have a few bigger matches pencilled for their TV show that week. Smackdown had some wonderful cage matches and the Angle/ Lesnar iron man match in those slots IIRC. 

[Devon Malcolm]

There's absolutely no reason, in an age of wrestling where the weekly TV shows aren't built around squash matches, for there to be any more than about 6 PPVs a year. 12 is ludicrous and it was always has been, whether it happened during the Attitude Era or not.

I don't really care for AEW at all but their model is absolutely correct, especially as they are still in the process of building storylines and characters. The repetition that we see in WWE where PPV matches are usually just retreads of Raw or Smackdown matches, or Raw or Smackdown matches are retreads of PPV matches, is undoubtedly a reason why there's a huge malaise in WWE. The so-called quality of matches you get on an average TV show wouldn't be out of place on at least a B-level PPV. Aside from Wrestlemania and Royal Rumble, WWE PPVs mean nothing these days. They're just another show. What's the point of having so many?

Edited December 5, 2019 by Devon Malcolm

[UK Kat Von D]

Enjoyed the show last night, another easy watch. They could do with expanding the roster more and poaching the best from ROH and Impact. Both companies are in the shitter but have a few guys who could make a difference to AEW

[Otto Dem Wanz]

Jericho, Moxley and Cody are owning this shit, also Luchasaurus is ace - never expected him to sound like that

[IANdrewDiceClay]

This tweet is fantastic.

 

[FLips]

The shine is very quickly coming off this for me now. 10 weeks in and more and more WWE-lite cracks are showing. 50/50 booking, tag wrestlers doing singles and vice versa, clear stars to be made but focus being on the wrong people. Who thinks putting Nick Jackson or Trent Baretta in singles matches instead of building a tag division is a good idea? Where’s the women’s champion? Faces and heels just swapping week to week.

This week’s show was better than last week, but I chose not to stay up so I could start skipping bits I can’t be arsed with.

[tiger_rick]

1 minute ago, FelatioLips said:

Who thinks putting Nick Jackson or Trent Baretta in singles matches instead of building a tag division is a good idea?

I've got no problem with that whatsoever. It's always been done and is absolutely fine. I've got great memories of seeing the Hart Foundation and the Bulldogs wrestling in singles way back when. Always a fun little way to fill TV time and build a feud.

More of a WWE trope is Trent's last name having disappeared!

[cobra_gordo]

19 minutes ago, FelatioLips said:

Faces and heels just swapping week to week.

This is my biggest gripe. Not sure if they're scared of booking some of the mid-card tweeners as proper heels or what but I've found it confusing at times and it has led to a couple of flat reactions from the crowd. Good example is Pentagon attacking Daniels before their tag tournament match, a classic heel move meaning he's unable to compete. Scorpio Sky then becomes a super face as a result which is great and he's now genuinely someone I want to see pushed to the moon but Lucha Bros still come out to face pops, are still super over and continue to work the crowd like good guys would, despite wrestling a heelish style. Daniels finally returns weeks later, sneak attacks Pentagon from under a disguise to get his revenge but it's forgotten in seconds. If they'd built a clear story, that SCU are the disadvantaged faces and Lucha Bros are bastards, Daniels getting his revenge could have got a huge reaction but it just felt flat and didn't warrant any sort of selling from the commentary other than a "Oooh, it's Daniels" from Excalibur.

Similar thing with Proud and Powerful. Along with Jericho and the infinitely punchable Sammy G they're perfectly hateable heels, apart from when they're wrestling at Full Gear against the Bucks where they were coming off as the unfortunate, plucky faces at times. They had refs decisions going against them, tags being disallowed, being a man down due to Ortiz being thrown over the barrier and struggling for the hot tag. All stuff that screams underdog face team. In fairness the balance did shift towards a regular heel/face dynamic towards the end when Matt Jackson was selling his shin.

Is there a miscommunication between the bookers and the wrestlers? Is it inexperience on the bookers part? Are they just wanting to please everybody by not having a clear heel/face dynamic outside of the main eventers? It's jarring.

[FLips]

49 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I've got no problem with that whatsoever. It's always been done and is absolutely fine. I've got great memories of seeing the Hart Foundation and the Bulldogs wrestling in singles way back when. Always a fun little way to fill TV time and build a feud.

More of a WWE trope is Trent's last name having disappeared!

With all due respect neither The Young Bucks or Trent/Chuck have any upside as singles guys and you’re comparing them to the Harts and Bulldogs. Maybe if you had fond memories of Grandmaster Sexay vs Funaki or Renee Dupree vs Rosie.

[tiger_rick]

3 minutes ago, cobra_gordo said:

This is my biggest gripe. Not sure if they're scared of booking some of the mid-card tweeners as proper heels or what but I've found it confusing at times and it has led to a couple of flat reactions from the crowd. Good example is Pentagon attacking Daniels before their tag tournament match, a classic heel move meaning he's unable to compete. Scorpio Sky then becomes a super face as a result which is great and he's now genuinely someone I want to see pushed to the moon but Lucha Bros still come out to face pops, are still super over and continue to work the crowd like good guys would, despite wrestling a heelish style. Daniels finally returns weeks later, sneak attacks Pentagon from under a disguise to get his revenge but it's forgotten in seconds. If they'd built a clear story, that SCU are the disadvantaged faces and Lucha Bros are bastards, Daniels getting his revenge could have got a huge reaction but it just felt flat and didn't warrant any sort of selling from the commentary other than a "Oooh, it's Daniels" from Excalibur.

Similar thing with Proud and Powerful. Along with Jericho and the infinitely punchable Sammy G they're perfectly hateable heels, apart from when they're wrestling at Full Gear against the Bucks where they were coming off as the unfortunate, plucky faces at times. They had refs decisions going against them, tags being disallowed, being a man down due to Ortiz being thrown over the barrier and struggling for the hot tag. All stuff that screams underdog face team. In fairness the balance did shift towards a regular heel/face dynamic towards the end when Matt Jackson was selling his shin.

Is there a miscommunication between the bookers and the wrestlers? Is it inexperience on the bookers part? Are they just wanting to please everybody by not having a clear heel/face dynamic outside of the main eventers? It's jarring.

A lot of that is down to the audience. There is absolutely no confusion in the Proud and Powerful act. They're pieces of shit. Same for the Luchas. It's clear they've been heels against the Bucks, SCU and now Best Friends. The crowd just cheer them anyway though. Their style doesn't help, though that seems to be everyone's style anyway, but it's hard to book them as heels in front of these crowds.

I do think the point in general is solid. There have been a few examples already. The Brandi Rhodes one being the stupidest.

3 minutes ago, FelatioLips said:

With all due respect neither The Young Bucks or Trent/Chuck have any upside as singles guys and you’re comparing them to the Harts and Bulldogs. Maybe if you had fond memories of Grandmaster Sexay vs Funaki or Renee Dupree vs Rosie.

In fairness, I'm going back to a time when the Harts and Bulldogs were exclusively tag team wrestlers. The only time you saw them in singles was in this scenario. Obviously they're much better workers, apart from Neidhart, but that's not the point.

I've got no problem with Brian Christopher vs. Funaki in  TV match to fill time and extend a feud. I've no problem when WWE throw out Big E vs. Scott Dawson or whatever. As long as there's a purpose and it continues the rivalry, I think it's far more preferreable to them just running the same match over and over.

My biggest problem with it is when it goes 11 fucking minutes.

[Supremo]

Nick Jackson wrestling a singles match is a mad thing to be angry about. That was great. It perfectly sold the story that LAX had injured Matt, advancing their feud, it put over Fenix for when he and Pentagon inevitably start their natural runs as single competitors and it delivered what was arguably one of the best TV matches of the last few years. I loved it!

That’s another thing I liked about this weeks show, actually; someone realised Trent shouldn’t be beating either of the Lucha Bros and they seemed to do a hard reset to put both of those talented bastards over. Shame about Chris Daniels suddenly looking old as fuck and botching that springboard moonsault thing, though.