The AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite Thread

[RedRooster]

15 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

My concern is what do you do with The Pinnacle after this feud? They can't exactly feud with The Elite in a heel vs heel war. Perhaps you could set up some kind of temporary band of super friends to fight them. Off the top of my head: Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, Darby Allin, Sting and Lance Archer. If Pinnacle move on to a feud with Best Friends or Dark Order it's going to feel like quite a comedown. 

That's my concern too, and probably my biggest problem with this feud. They pretty much only exist to even up the odds for MJF against The Inner Circle. They've also prevented us from seeing matches I actually wanted to see, like Sammy vs. MJF. Ultimately, the money match is probably still another one-on-one MJF/Jericho match, and I would imagine that would be the rubber match - perhaps even with a stip that would see The Pinnacle break up, should MJF lose; solving the problem of what to do with them next and making them one hell of a short lived unit. 

I think they've missed a trick by not involving Paul Wight in this feud, MJF/Wardlow vs. Jerishow is a match I really would like to see. 

Having said all of that, I've still enjoyed the route they've taken, as flawed as it's sometimes been. 

[DavidB6937]

As much as I'm enjoying the feud it does feel like a rare case of them almost rushing through some stuff. Maybe they want to blow this off and move onto something else sooner rather than later. The longer term plan isn't too clear though.

[CavemanLynn]

38 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

It's Mox & Eddie vs The Acclaimed this week, is Max gonna have the balls to say shit?

Ha, which way is that going to go? Either he cuts a blinder and Mox and Kingston laugh along before murdering them, or Max does his usual "yo...  yo.... yo..." but then goes "nah, you alright." Then Mox and Kingston murder them.

[tiger_rick]

Not that bothered about Pinnacle and IC. Happy to see them self contained for now. Longer term, I want to see Santana & Ortiz break out a bit, they've been underused so far.

Here's a bigger question, who is the next AEW Champion? As good a job as they're doing week to week and PPV to PPV at the moment, I don't think they've done a great job building up babyface challengers and certainly not the next guy to take the title off Omega. Jon Moxley seems the #1 babyface in the company and he's already had a run. There's then a massive drop to the next guy which is probably Darby. Then who? Hangman, OC, Jungle Boy, Sammy, Jericho? Barring Jericho, all popular, fresh guys with lots of upside but none of them anywhere near a title run or even a believable shot at the moment. They need to fix that.

I didn't mention Cody Rhodes because he's not really in the title picture, I guess, given the previous stip.

Edited May 18, 2021 by tiger_rick

[Merzbow]

Here's your answer, next Babyface champion.

 

[BomberPat]

I think it has to be Hangman Page, it's just a matter of when. Everything was building to him beating Omega, and a story where he beats Omega without the belt on the line, or beats someone else for the belt, won't be nearly as satisfying. 

Between losing Brodie and the pandemic, Hangman's story has gone a bit on the backburner, but I expect we'll get back there after the PPV. Moxley and Kingston can be kept busy with the Young Bucks and Good Brothers, Jericho with MJF et al, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Darby Allin get a hard-fought loss against Omega before he drops it. 

The more Omega becomes an egomaniacal "bigger than the company" style heel, the more Hangman Page as the everyone's mate everyman babyface makes sense to finally beat him - and that's before you even consider their history. 

 

Just seen on Wiki that there's apparently a Casino Battle Royal with Christian Cage in it for the number one contendership? I can see him getting a shot and losing. But fucking hell, how quickly did the hype go down on that one? Not even been in the conversation, and his first PPV match is the "get the other lads on the card" spot. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by BomberPat

[tiger_rick]

4 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Here's your answer, next Babyface champion.

 

QT has definitely improved but I'm not sure he's top babyface material!

3 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I think it has to be Hangman Page, it's just a matter of when. Everything was building to him beating Omega, and a story where he beats Omega without the belt on the line, or beats someone else for the belt, won't be nearly as satisfying. 

Between losing Brodie and the pandemic, Hangman's story has gone a bit on the backburner, but I expect we'll get back there after the PPV. Moxley and Kingston can be kept busy with the Young Bucks and Good Brothers, Jericho with MJF et al, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Darby Allin get a hard-fought loss against Omega before he drops it. 

The more Omega becomes an egomaniacal "bigger than the company" style heel, the more Hangman Page as the everyone's mate everyman babyface makes sense to finally beat him - and that's before you even consider their history. 

I would have said so 6/9 months ago. They've really let him slide though. That's what I meant by fixing it. Not sure any of the guys I mentioned, bar Darby, are better placed than they were 6 months ago. Maybe they can flick a switch but I think they need to work harder with these guys.

[BomberPat]

Just now, tiger_rick said:

QT has definitely improved but I'm not sure he's top babyface material!

I would have said so 6/9 months ago. They've really let him slide though. That's what I meant by fixing it. Not sure any of the guys I mentioned, bar Darby, are better placed than they were 6 months ago. Maybe they can flick a switch but I think they need to work harder with these guys.

Darby absolutely is in a better place, and is a proven draw now, but I agree that no one else really is.

They've definitely slowed down on the Hangman Page angle - his match with Cage feels like an afterthought, and while him palling about with Dark Order has been fun, it was obviously never The Plan. I imagine what they originally had in mind was that as Dark Order got goofier, Brodie would have eventually returned and tried to whip them into shape, and feuded with Page for a little while over it. With no Brodie, we're just left with the Dark Order as goofballs and Hangman Page as their mate, and muddling through poorly thought out feuds with Matt Hardy and his mates.

I think the pay-per-view will go one of two ways for Hangman; either a win over Brian Cage to get him back into contention, followed by a couple of months of him chasing Kenny and bringing that feud back into focus, or a loss to get him back on the path of "anxious babyface doesn't know if he has what it takes", so that they can get a big pop when he finally stands up for himself against Omega and sets up a match that way. Given that Christian's been feuding with Team Taz, and Page is fighting Cage, I could see Christian winning the Battle Royal, those two teaming up a little against Team Taz to keep them busy, Christian coming up short against Omega, turning heel out of frustration, doing Christian vs. Hangman, and then Hangman vs. Omega. In a lot of ways I think Hangman needs that longer journey to get there, because so many of the important beats in his story were so long ago now, they almost need to repeat a couple of them. Which I don't mind, I don't think they should be in any hurry to get the title off Omega anyway - the bigger challenge will be keeping his potential challengers busy in the meantime. 

[LaGoosh]

Once they are back in front of live crowds it should be very easy to heat Hangman Page back up if he's given good feuds and angles. Crowds were molten for him just before COVID. Or they could go with Darby just as easily.

[BomberPat]

2 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Once they are back in front of live crowds it should be very easy to heat Hangman Page back up if he's given good feuds and angles. Crowds were molten for him just before COVID. Or they could go with Darby just as easily.

This was what I was thinking, "they're holding off Hangman until there's crowds". But they've actually had crowds for months, haven't they? Just not full capacity and not touring. So I don't know to what extent they're actually holding things off at all.

[tiger_rick]

1 minute ago, BomberPat said:

Which I don't mind, I don't think they should be in any hurry to get the title off Omega anyway - the bigger challenge will be keeping his potential challengers busy in the meantime. 

I wouldn't rush the title off him either, but that's just as important - who challenges him month after month creating any real jeopardy? WWE have the same problem with Roman Reigns. He's clearly not losing the title anytime soon so all his matches have no stakes. They've just gone down the "have a good match route" which satisfies some but does little for me. That's all I can see on the AEW side too. There are good matches there for Kenny but nothing that feels like he'll lose the belt bar Hangman long-term.

[BomberPat]

7 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I wouldn't rush the title off him either, but that's just as important - who challenges him month after month creating any real jeopardy? WWE have the same problem with Roman Reigns. He's clearly not losing the title anytime soon so all his matches have no stakes. They've just gone down the "have a good match route" which satisfies some but does little for me. That's all I can see on the AEW side too. There are good matches there for Kenny but nothing that feels like he'll lose the belt bar Hangman long-term.

I agree that there's a lack of real jeopardy - certainly in Omega vs. PAC vs. Orange Cassidy.

I've not given it much thought, but I suppose part of how to approach this would be to not necessarily always treat Omega's matches as if the belt is in real jeopardy, and to come up with another story, another draw to it. The beauty of them having built up the TNT Title to where it has main evented a few episodes of TV, and the tag division to where Young Bucks vs. Moxley & Kingston could easily main event over an Omega title defence, and so on, is that if Omega's matches aren't always headlining, there's a little more freedom there to tell different stories. 

I'd like to see Omega start defending against a few scrubs - just absolutely squashing someone like Joey Janela, or even guys lower on the pecking order than him. Have Don Callis talk them all up as if they're major title defences, while the announcers are annoyed that he's ducking real challengers and making a mockery of the ranking system. Callis going full sleazy fight promoter. If he ever does come up against a real threat, he has The Good Brothers and The Young Bucks to take care of it for him. So then it's less about the title being at risk of changing hands in every match but more a long-burning, "fuck's sake, what's this dick going to do next?", or babyfaces with the odds stacked against them so the story is more "how can they win when Omega's got all his mates backing him up?" or "what's Omega going to try and do to get out of this one?". There's enough to keep people intrigued even if they don't believe there's much chance of Omega losing, and it's easier to do that when you've also got other stories going on that can do more of the heavy lifting in terms of selling the show. 

Then maybe towards the end of it all, Omega can get cocky and allow someone - let's say it's Hangman - a shot if he wins a gauntlet or something like that, have Omega and Callis screw him at the last moment, robbing him of his shot. Page decides he wants Omega even without the title on the line, we get a big unsanctioned match, or a "if Hangman Page wins he gets five minutes in the ring with Don Callis" stipulation, something like that, where everything can just fall apart for Omega and he loses his advantages, setting up an eventual title win. There are ways to go about it and keep Omega busy without risking anyone else losing momentum by losing to him, for sure. 

[Guest]

Send Hangman to the Calgary Stampede in July . Even have Cowboy Bret hart on screen with him via satellite then at wherever they are have Silver vs Omega with all of the dark Order destroyed. Start the next week saying they are all out of action for weeks. End the night with a hangman sneak attack Buckshot on omega for the massive pop. Then you are off to the races, and the DO come out post match when hangman wins to get him on their shoulders. We all cry 

[DavidB6937]

I had a dream that Hangman cashed in Money In The Bank on Omega and now it's ruined every future cash in ever because it'll never be that good and nothing will ever bring me that much joy.

[Jazzy G]

It's got to be Hangman. I do wonder whether the AEW title will be the first of Kenny's belts to change hands, given that unless there's a lot of bollocks involved I worry it's going to hurt Moose to not win the Impact/TNA title at Slammiversary. Plus there's the Andrade match at Triplemania on the horizon as well...