The AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite Thread

[Guest]

JR saying on commentary that Mox has been off tv for 45 days.  Honestly can’t say I had missed him, but not in a bad way. I know he was off on paternity, but shows you can rotate people on and off and not have big gaps in a show when it’s done right. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

Not much to add. Absolutely brilliant show from top to bottom. But that final coffin drop through a coffin. Absolute madness!

[LaGoosh]

Tremendous night of wrestling. Some people think Smackdown is the best weekly wrestling show...these people are fucking idiots.

Credit where credit is due, taking JR out of Jacksonville seems to be one of the best things for the show. He's been great the past two weeks. A live crowd and new environments seems to put a spark up his arse.

Malakai Black rambling on about horses or whatever was very bad and I was groaning watching. But they completely turned it round when Cody challenged him and he said "I hoped you'd say that" and BOOM the lights go out and a fight is on. Lovely!

And there's not enough good to say about the Hangman/Elite segment. Top level brilliant stuff we haven't seen for years. There's multiple levels of fantastic story woven here. I especially liked that it was Matt Jackson who got in the ring to berate Page, seeing as there was monster heat between them two during the tag feud two years ago. That 10 men has those Rock/Foley/Too Cool/Rikishi vs Triple H/X-Pac/Radicals vibes going for sure.

[RedRooster]

What a show. If you watched that and didn't enjoy it, either wrestling isn't for you, or you've had a perfectly natural reaction to the fact they still managed to squeeze in a QT Marshall segment (speaking of which, what's happened to Anthony Ogogo?)

Anyway, I'll start with the very, very few negatives. I wasn't particularly pleased to see Yuka Sakazaki again, and I was even less pleased to see her defeat the criminally underutilised Penelope Ford. Sakazaki and Emi Sakura both stood out in a bad way during the early days of AEW's Women's Division, and I don't particularly want to see them without massive character overhauls. 

And I've said it already, but it's worth repeating - QT Marshall. 

Outside of these very minor things, this was one of the best Dynamite shows ever, and the atmosphere was absolutely incredible. How could you not watch that without wanting to attend an AEW show?

I was pleasantly surprised at the reaction to Ricky Starks. If this is replicated elsewhere, they might have difficulty getting Cage over as a babyface during this particular feud. Starks is absolutely dripping with charisma, and they may be facing an uphill battle to get him booed against someone who is noticeably less charismatic, like Cage. 

Britt Baker's promo was fantastic, and she might actually be my favourite promo in wrestling right now. You never know what she's going to say, and she's leagues above almost every other woman in the division on the mic. But they need to build up someone who can have the hot feud that she deserves, to help her keep the momentum she has. Thunder Rosa would be an obvious choice, but Red Velvet has shown promise in the past, and I think she has it in her to have an excellent feud with Britt. 

The Black/Cody segment was great, with Black treading just on the right side of Bray Wyatt. I'm slightly wary that he'll eventually cross that line, but we'll see. 

Talking of ex-WWE stars, I can't wait to see how the crowd reacts to Miro. He's absolutely phenomenal, and somehow balances being hilarious with absolutely terrifying.  Andrade was also great - a storyline with Death Triangle, whatever the outcome, has bags of potential. And the Christian/Jungle Boy storyline is moving along brilliantly. I loved the little look from Jungle Boy, post-match, indicating his doubt about Christian's true intentions. 

As for the main event...wow. I'm happy to say I was completely wrong about Ethan Page. He's been brilliant recently, and was fantastic in this match. I'm not entirely sure what they do next with him, but he's more than earned a regular spot on television. That match was brilliant fun. I'm assuming Darby will move on to a new feud, and I'm intrigued as to what that might be. 

The potential line-up for All Out is mind-blowingly strong. I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed watching wrestling as much as I do right now, AEW is absolutely brilliant. 

(On another note, I really hope they announce where Rampage will be showing in the UK soon...)

[Hannibal Scorch]

2 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

What a show. If you watched that and didn't enjoy it, either wrestling isn't for you, or you've had a perfectly natural reaction to the fact they still managed to squeeze in a QT Marshall segment (speaking of which, what's happened to Anthony Ogogo?)

 

He returned to the UK for another eye operation. So I imagine he will be back as soon as hes able to.

[Supremo]

It wasn’t as obvious or as funny as at the PPV but I like that losing his mind and getting lost seems to have become a tradition with Moxley’s entrance. Nearly shoving fans over, nearly walking into a handrail, all whilst Kingston is grinning from ear to ear. A pure joy to watch.

Similarly, Ricky Starks looking genuinely choked up during his entrance was phenomenal. It must mean the world for these guys to be getting these reactions after a year of silence.

It seems they’ve realised the right way to go with Andrade is the broken English and subtitles. Good to see.

Britt Baker saved that entire feud with that one promo. Her hugging Big Tone will always make me happy, too.

Just a great fucking show. It’s so good to have a show delivering like this, with so much to look forward to. Imagine being one of those tribal WWE fans trying to convince yourself this is a bad show. Hilarious.

[cobra_gordo]

1 minute ago, Supremo said:

It wasn’t as obvious or as funny as at the PPV but I like that losing his mind and getting lost seems to have become a tradition with Moxley’s entrance. Nearly shoving fans over, nearly walking into a handrail, all whilst Kingston is grinning from ear to ear. A pure joy to watch.

I genuinely thought I'd picked the wrong episode when he walked out and did that again.

Just a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours. As cliched as it is to say, that crowd felt like an Attitude Era WWF crowd with how hot they were for everybody and all the signs. The fans are invested and want to show their support and there's something very genuine to it unlike the Thunderdome nobheads WWE has. The Ricky Starks reaction being a perfect example.

Not much else to add that everyone else hasn't covered already but I'm still hyped for where Omega/ Page continues to go. What a fantastic rollercoaster of simple storytelling. 

Just seeing Jade Cargill on that Rampage trailer excites me for the inevitable match between her and Britt Baker.

And Darby Allin is just a brilliantly mental motherfucker.

[The King Of Swing]

Interesting that Vickie wasn't with Andrade this week, hopefully they realised what a shit pairing that is and have binned it.

Andrade Vs. Pac/Penta/Fenix? Fuck yes.  

Yeah that Black promo was rough until the end.

Darby is a mad bastard. 

[RedRooster]

1 hour ago, The King Of Swing said:

Interesting that Vickie wasn't with Andrade this week, hopefully they realised what a shit pairing that is and have binned it.

I'm not so sure about that, some weeks he seems to appear with her, others he does not. If she's simply part of his entourage, I'm completely fine with that. I did find the fact that they bothered to say that Andrade was allowed to challenge for titles all over the world quite interesting, given that this is Omega's gimmick right now (although others are obviously doing it too) - I do wonder if that's foreshadowing of a future feud on their part?

Edited July 15, 2021 by RedRooster

[BomberPat]

17 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Andrade was allowed to challenge for titles all over the world quite interesting, given that this is Omega's gimmick right now (although others are obviously doing it too) - I do wonder if that's foreshadowing of a future feud on their part?

Andrade is booked to face Kenny Omega for the AAA Mega Championship at Triplemania.

[DavidB6937]

The WWE digs in here are as bad as the stuff AEW throws out. Pretty tiresome. People can enjoy different stuff without being called idiots or whatever else.

Anyway - great show, great crowd. Very little I didn't enjoy and the majority of the booking is so simple yet effective. All you really need is guys and girls that people care about and everything else falls into place.

[The King Of Swing]

Can't say that I noticed any digs this week. 

[tiger_rick]

16 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

The WWE digs in here are as bad as the stuff AEW throws out. Pretty tiresome. People can enjoy different stuff without being called idiots or whatever else.

I AM SMACKDOWN ... NUMBER ONE ... DEFENDER.

[theringmaster]

One thing i really noticed this week was they have finally come to their senses and realized Baker is a face. That promo was pure face selling a big match and the crowd leapt it up.

Her journey from face nobody got behind to heel stealing the show to an organic face turn has been brilliant to watch.

I'm guessing Rosa is turning up after her match with Nyla? 

[RedRooster]

14 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

The WWE digs in here are as bad as the stuff AEW throws out. Pretty tiresome. People can enjoy different stuff without being called idiots or whatever else.

To be fair, I think that a lot of the comments on here have been an observation on tribalism, which seems to have infested wrestling as much as it has politics. It goes both ways of course, but it's still a difficult thing to understand.

3 minutes ago, theringmaster said:

One thing i really noticed this week was they have finally come to their senses and realized Baker is a face. That promo was pure face selling a big match and the crowd leapt it up.

Her journey from face nobody got behind to heel stealing the show to an organic face turn has been brilliant to watch.

I'm guessing Rosa is turning up after her match with Nyla? 

I think she's a bit of a unique entity. I'm not sure she's either. I suspect they'll have her feud with both faces and heels, knowing her star power and presence will elevate the division, and hopefully her opponent, in the process. I really, really hope she gets the chance to main event a PPV during this title run. She deserves it.