The AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite Thread

[RedRooster]

1 hour ago, Nick James said:

Christian Vs Omega could be good for a 1 and done. Who would have thought in 2021 that Edge and Christian would both be challenging for the main belt in two companies.

I felt a little bit frustrated by the apparent pairing off of Moxley/Kingston with the Good Brothers, and Christian with Omega. If they've done this to shift Kingston out of the title picture, even in the short term, it's a massive mistake. As much as they fucked the explosion on Sunday, the interaction between Omega and Kingston was good. Rather than being made to play second fiddle to Christian, Kingston should have been given the opportunity to cut another promo on Omega next week - making his intention to go after the title clear. 

Kingston, ultimately, doesn't need to win the title from Omega - although I've no doubt that I'll want to see that if that match takes place. A hot feud with Omega (which really needs the momentum of the "now") on the back of his hot title feud with Moxley would really solidify Kingston's place at the top of the card - and if he loses to Omega after a valiant effort, it makes any eventual title win all the more sweet. 

Kingston's story arc in AEW, the more I think about it, should be finally lifting the big one. But for that story to have the full emotional weight that it can have, he needs to fall at the final hurdle - just - more than once. 

I'm not saying that they shouldn't do the Christian feud, I'm saying that they shouldn't do it now. Christian is a perfectly acceptable opponent for Omega, he just isn't the right person at this particular time in my view. It should be Kingston, and Kingston should lose after really making you wish against that happening.  

[Supremo]

The Mox/Kingston interview is a masterclass. They’re incredibly lucky the responsibility landed on those two to talk their way out of it. I can’t think of anyone else who could have succeeded as well as those two did. Managing to address it, justify their silly selling, and yet not dwell on it or make it the main story.

No. The main story is these two cool motherfuckers instantly becoming the best top act in the business. Them bickering and going back and forth was so wildly entertaining, I’m now dreading the idea of Mox leaving for a few months. Leading into Revolution it felt natural for Mox to go have a baby. The character had done pretty much everything and he needed a good few months away to reset and allow new opportunities to come through. Now though? They’ve done the unthinkable and found two guys I’d rather be the Tag Champions than PAC and Fenix.

If Mox still insists on taking his Paternity Leave then Tony Khan should be setting aside at least a million dollars for Mox and Kingston to shoot enough footage of their new Buddy Cop TV show that it fills TV time for however long Jon’s gone. Get Darby Allin to direct. Instant Emmy Award.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Supremo

[RedRooster]

13 minutes ago, Supremo said:

The Mox/Kingston interview is a masterclass. They’re incredibly lucky the responsibility landed on those two to talk their way out of it. I can’t think of anyone else who could have succeeded as well as those two did. Managing to address it, justify their silly selling, and yet not dwell on it or make it the main story.

No. The main story is these two cool motherfuckers instantly becoming the best top act in the business. Them bickering and going back and forth was so wildly entertaining, I’m now dreading the idea of Mox leaving for a few months. Leading into Revolution it felt natural for Mox to go have a baby. The character had done pretty much everything and he needed a good few months away to reset and allow new opportunities to come through. Now though? They’ve done the unthinkable and found two guys I’d rather be the Tag Champions than PAC and Fenix.

Although, as I've already outlined, I'd prefer to see Kingston go after Omega now, the fact we have two teams as interesting as PAC/Fenix and Mox/Kingston (and the potential of a Jerishow reunion) has me baffled that The Young Bucks aren't the mega heels they really ought to be. I can't remember seeing a team like them before - I genuinely do want to watch their matches, but they're utterly detestable as characters in every single way. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

Kingston and Mox may have cut the best promo in wrestling history. I’m not even joking.

They had the absolute worst hand dealt to them on Sunday, and they dealt with it in such an understated, ‘them’s the breaks’ kind of way that I was just like yep, fine, got it. Tying it to a stint in a maximum security prison also managed to soften any perceived cowardice. Very, very good.

And, then... Christian. Fucking hell. The one downside to this whole thing was him being wedged in just as I’d been a 100% sold on Kingston/Omega as the next big program.

Christian is, ironically, in exactly the same position as Edge. Being wedged in between a natural, exciting feud.

I hope this is just Christian laying down a marker before they move away from this for a bit. Though, I imagine the go-home angle next week will be Mox/Kingston being written out for a bit - presumably, Mox for longer, but I reckon they’ll be gone for a bit.

I enjoyed the show. It all felt consequential and like it had purpose. I might not care for every move forward, but at least they’re moves forwards.

Fenix/Matt Jackson was fun, if you can make peace with the fact that they’re not going to sell and it’s going to be daft. Flipping piledriver in the ring... flipping piledriver to the floor... 2 count! Yep, okay. Fine. Whatever. Still, silly fun and PAC/Fenix vs The Young Bucks will be utter madness.

Hardy and his rent-a-faction having a brief feud with the wildly fun Page/Dark Order before they inevitably break up and we get Private Party vs Butcher/Blade? Yep, fine.

Sting vs Lance Archer/Jake Roberts in a silly feud and a blow-off cinematic match? YES. FUCKING. PLEASE. I would like to order many bags of snakes for that match, please.

Cody Rhodes actually squashing someone rather than going life and death? Yeah, fine. Moving into a feud with Penta to presumably see Cody written off TV? Sounds great. Penta’s translator had some real sass to him, I’d love to see them become an act together.

The final segment was a bit silly, and it does feel like the show has too many factions but I don’t hate where it takes us. MJF is a bit of a throwback, and leading FTR and Tully could be very fun for a bit. They instinctively feel like a more logical grouping than the Inner Circle.

The biggest shitters on the show was All Average Ethan Page doing nothing of note before being used as a tool to further a QT Marshall/Dustin Rhodes feud and Darby/Scorpio Sky being a bit shit.

I tell you what though, it Darby’s ankle injury was a work that they made seem real by having Sky ignore it for the match only to work it as part of his heel turn then that is fucking clever. Sold well throughout, and made real by them not going near it. If next week the explanation is that Sky the babyface didn’t want to put Darby on the shelf, but when he felt disrespected at the end he snapped and stopped caring, then that is an elite level story. Scorpio Sky will still be boring, but at least the story will have been good.

I wish Max Caster was on the show cutting another crazy promo.

[Arch Stanton]

Going back to Eddie's look - I think it's valid enough criticism, you have to take into account the casual fan view when it comes to presentation. If he's never going to be in shape, then at least work with costume and creative to think of ways to improve the way his character looks on TV. At the moment, Kingston really looks like an indy wrestler.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Arch Stanton

[d-d-d-dAz]

Eddie’s look outside the ring is fantastic, I think. It’s just that singlet and belly when he wrestles. I’d almost rather he went retro hip-hop t-shirt/wifebeater in the ring and just live the gimmick.

Edited March 11, 2021 by d-d-d-dAz

[RedRooster]

39 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

Going back to Eddie's look - I think it's valid enough criticism, you have to take into account the casual fan view when it comes to presentation. If he's never going to be in shape, then at least work with costume and creative to think of ways to improve the way his character looks on TV. At the moment, Kingston really looks like an indy wrestler.

I agree - you only have to look at how widely-mocked Chris Jericho was a few weeks ago, when Dynamite aired after an NBA game. Rightly or wrongly, people pay attention to that kind of thing. And it's not like it's a particularly difficult thing to fix, all he needs to do is change up his ring gear, for the most part he looks like a total badass. 

Having said that, Kingston has become, for me, more important to AEW than Cody, Omega and The Bucks. He's utterly captivating with almost everything that he does.

On a separate note, Don Callis can fuck off. Kenny was brilliant before he came along. Callis seems to bring out his worst tendencies. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by RedRooster

[Carbomb]

For me, it was a bit of an odd switch-around that Kingston had the perfect look for him in the NWA which his character didn't quite fit, wearing regular street clothes that made him look like the tough-guy brawler he is, and yet, in a promotion he's perfect for, he changed it up to colourful wrestling gear which would have suited the NWA aesthetic and doesn't quite suit him in AEW.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Carbomb

[WyattSheepMask]

Some guys just don’t have the genetics to become muscle guys, and I think Eddie Kingston is just one of those guys unfortunately. His strength though is his mic work, he’s totally different to everyone else and you believe every word that he says.

[chokeout]

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

 

Sting vs Lance Archer/Jake Roberts in a silly feud and a blow-off cinematic match? YES. FUCKING. PLEASE. I would like to order many bags of snakes for that match, please.

 

If they do a cinematic match with those guys involved and it doesn't include someone getting hit with a Coal Miners glove then I just give up

[Merzbow]

I think this is the first time I've really not been interested in a single storyline coming out of an AEW show, aside from Uncle Adam taking his Dark Order lads for a ride on his lawnmower which was excellent.

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, Arch Stanton said:

Going back to Eddie's look - I think it's valid enough criticism, you have to take into account the casual fan view when it comes to presentation. If he's never going to be in shape, then at least work with costume and creative to think of ways to improve the way his character looks on TV. At the moment, Kingston really looks like an indy wrestler.

If the casual fan isn't invested in Kingston after the promos he's delivered then they're not going to give a shit about him switching up his look in-ring. It's really not that important. In fact it's more important that he's one of the guys that doesn't look like everyone else. There are so many people all over the place that look the same. WWE's incredibly guilty of that. AEW not so much but still. And I've always felt like Kingston's in-ring look kinda plays into his story anyway. It's not what he's about.

[BomberPat]

58 minutes ago, Chris B said:

It's a requirement the other way. I believe its not a requirement in Florida - if she's tested, she's allowed to work etc. 

Yeah, no Covid isolation on arrival in the states, but she will have to isolate for two weeks on returning to Japan. It's the main reason we're not seeing more made of the AEW/NJPW partnership - no one from NJPW proper is going to be able to appear in AEW for even a single match without missing at least a fortnight's worth of bookings in Japan.

47 minutes ago, Nick James said:

This, exactly this. Granted, his singlet tucked into his basket ball shorts isn't a great look in the ring, he could go the Kassius Ohno route with a baggy vest, but as he said in his promo 'It's 98 in my head forever'. His look is part of the character for me, hes an everyman. 

Yeah - his gear is shit, but that's fine. It's part of his story that he basically lost everything, that he had to sell his wrestling boots, that he keeps wrestling because it's the only thing he knows. If he showed up with shiny new gear every week, it would fundamentally undermine his character. He's probably the only wrestler in the world who I think would be improved by wrestling in street clothes rather than wrestling gear, but then that also misunderstands part of his charm - he's not just a street thug, he's an AJPW nerd and genuinely wants to be a wrestling star, he just either fucks it up (as Callis said on Dynamite) or isn't given the opportunity.

It's like the panic attack explanation they went with; I don't think there's another character in wrestling, bar Hangman Page, who could admit to having a panic attack and it not make them seem less of a bad-ass. He's a tough guy who's also extremely fragile, emotionally, and that fragility manifests in him having a short temper and doing stupid things, but also in him risking his life to save Jon Moxley, even though the last time they were in the ring together they were kicking the shit out of each other. When "emotionally unstable" in wrestling has usually amounted to "Randy Orton hears voices in his head that tell him to do a wrestling move on someone" or "rocking back and forth and staring at your hands", it's refreshing to have someone who feels real in just about everything they do.

[RedRooster]

15 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

If the casual fan isn't invested in Kingston after the promos he's delivered then they're not going to give a shit about him switching up his look in-ring. It's really not that important. In fact it's more important that he's one of the guys that doesn't look like everyone else. There are so many people all over the place that look the same. WWE's incredibly guilty of that. AEW not so much but still. And I've always felt like Kingston's in-ring look kinda plays into his story anyway. It's not what he's about.

For me it's more about that first impression. I've no doubt that if a non-fan saw a Kingston promo they'd be utterly captivated. If you see a picture of him or footage of him in street clothes, he looks utterly menacing - he looks like someone you want to find out more about. His current ring gear take away from that. There's always the danger that people look at him in the same way they did Jericho after that NBA game a few weeks ago. You change-up his ring gear, and you have someone who is visually captivating as well as verbally. 

His in-ring look isn't what he's about, you're right. I just don't think changing his look would be a negative thing - very few people are going to miss his old ring gear. And on the other hand, there are almost certainly positives to be gained. 

[DavidB6937]

This where Kingston succeeds where so many others absolutely fail. The flip flop nature of so many of the characters in AEW - especially guys like Cody and the Bucks - is so annoying because it's impossible to get behind them or against them because there's no clear path there. They are absolutely fucking awful at booking their own characters sometimes because all too often they're insistent on this 'there's no babyfaces and heels these days' crap. Regardless of what anyone says, that clear dynamic is still the foundation of the most successful stories that wrestling tells these days.

And yet you've got Kingston who basically does whatever the fuck he likes, and can be a hero one second and a complete arsehole the next, and yet it's so legit and believable that it is his character to be all over the place. After everything he's been through, why wouldn't he be? He would die for some people and kick the shit out of them the next because that's just what life has taught him.

5 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

For me it's more about that first impression. I've no doubt that if a non-fan saw a Kingston promo they'd be utterly captivated. If you see a picture of him or footage of him in street clothes, he looks utterly menacing - he looks like someone you want to find out more about. His current ring gear take away from that. There's always the danger that people look at him in the same way they did Jericho after that NBA game a few weeks ago. You change-up his ring gear, and you have someone who is visually captivating as well as verbally. 

His in-ring look isn't what he's about, you're right. I just don't think changing his look would be a negative thing - very few people are going to miss his old ring gear. And on the other hand, there are almost certainly positives to be gained. 

I think I'd be okay with it as a natural progression for his character within a storyline. Not just 'oh he looks shit, let's revamp him' because I genuinely don't think he needs that. But I guess time will tell.