The AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite Thread

[Yakashi]

2 hours ago, Nick James said:

I'm all for giving AEW the benefit of the doubt, but this part right here, is a load of shit.

Remember the build up to the Christian announcement? How much Tony Khan hyped that up? AEW are the ones that put the Tanahashi name out there for people to think, it's not just something that got messed up, they teased something and delivered something else. Let's not get it twisted. 

I'm not angry or disappointed as I don't really know Japanese wrestling, but let's call a spade a spade.

They only delivered something else because the thing that they had teased (but never advertised) fell through. They thought they had it sorted out and then it got pulled from them. And then they advertised something else once they knew. This isn’t like WWE where they advertise someone for weeks knowing that they aren’t going to be there and never tell anyone until everyone has paid their money. It’s completely different.

 

The Christian thing was overhyped sure but at least Tony believed the hype. Christian is one of his all time favourites and i think it clouded his judgement a bit.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Yakashi

[DavidB6937]

19 minutes ago, theringmaster said:

It was just a really odd show wasn't it? Weeks of momentum kinda felt like they have come to a halt. It felt like they needed some interaction between Punk and Darby, I hope it's not going to be one of them 'We are all friends' feuds, I'm not saying one has to turn heel but at least have a bit of spice to it.

Punk returning is enough to sell it. I like that they haven't done an unnecessary twist to it or overcomplicating things too much. It's a 2021 dream match for a lot of people and the respect thing isn't a bad thing for a first match back. Obviously we'll want Punk to get into some proper feuds going forward but it's a nice way to get over new talent as well as giving people a Punk return in an interesting first match against one of their hottest young talents.

[simonworden]

It reminds me a lot of Survivor Series 2011 which was basically sold on the premise of it being the Rocks return to the ring, nothing else was particularly mind blowing or of interest. They can sell this PPV on Punk's in ring return alone. It's an interesting way to do it with a hot babyface being the first opponent but probably more intriguing to many that if they had used Ethan Page or some other dispensable heel. 

[Supremo]

What do we reckon on Jericho, then? Is this it? AEW have done a good enough job adhering to their stipulations that I don’t think he’d lose and then wrestle again in six months of so, but then the whole thing feels like a waste of time if Jericho beats MJF in the end.

[WyattSheepMask]

Jericho is having time off regardless as he’s on tour at the end of the year, but If it keeps him away from doing commentary full-time then I’m 100% behind them going back on a stipulation 

[DavidB6937]

16 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Jericho is having time off regardless as he’s on tour at the end of the year, but If it keeps him away from doing commentary full-time then I’m 100% behind them going back on a stipulation 

Yep I feel like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I really don't want Jericho to win but the thought of him being full time on commentary is enough to make my ears bleed.

[CavemanLynn]

When a show isn't more than fine, the bad stuff really drags it down. Last week the sound mix seemed to be mainly crowd noise over music, but this week sounded like the other way around and it hurt the energy of the show a bit, on TV anyway. There were still plenty of people having a blast live, which is great to see.

I enjoyed the opener. It makes sense to send out a recognisable name, plus one of your premier gimmick characters who can still ramp up the pace and fire. Really enjoyed the stuff with the money. Some of the spots didn't pay off, like when OC was deliberately rolling away when Matt was cuing up the Twist of Fate. I had flashbacks to the PAC powerbomb when Hardy hit Splash Mountain. Good match. Top marks to their Twitter exchange too, where Matt derided OC for doing dumb shit, only for OC to respond with "Well, guess I'll be doing some dumb shit then."

Fast & Furious memes have ruined the term "family." Pillman Jr's kickpads were clearly hiding his Sports Direct boots. He's not looking great. he might be trying to bulk up, but his beard and belly here had shades of the Anvil. Both him and Griff put in a decent shift. My feed cut out the picture in picture stuff, so I don't know if there were more botches than I saw. Just Penta stumbling standing up out of a wheelbarrow to jump into a DDT, which is a fucking stupid move anyway. While you've got Fenix there, I don't know why Penta bothers doing flippy-rolly shit, when he should just be slapping people and giving out piledrivers in between poses. I'd like to see Julia Hart get more involved. Right now, she's more of a mascot and ringside eye candy, which feels like a disservice. Great post-match. The final should be a fun mess.

Andrade's charisma cannot overcome Chavo's shitness. He's just a really, really bad fit for a cool, calm, cash-rich Latin star. Listing things he's heard about the first-class lifestyle, when he clearly has no experience of it himself. His cheap suits next to Andrade's tailored masterpieces, but not even tacky like Callis, just ill-fitting and dull. Bristling psycho PAC vs tranquilo El Idolo would've been money. Instead, Andrade's mates are dragging this down to filler.

Punk promo was nice, but that was a bit of a problem. It surprised that it went exactly the way the debut was originally supposed to go, according to the leak earlier in the week, and you could see immediately why it didn't work. The guys in the ring were having a lovely time, but we weren't. I'm sure getting interview by Schiavone was a bit of a mark-out moment for aging nerd Punk, but after the energy and fire of last week, it was a massive comedown. And not only did the production crew try to recreate the magic of Friday, but Schiavone outright TOLD the crowd to. Nope. I wonder how many people Punk's got in trouble telling the crowd to be patient after the Yes chant.

Hayter vs Velvet was crap, and not just because of the awkward face/heel dynamic in this group or Velvet's rookie over-reaching. Hayter sitting on her arse on a fallaway slam, then nearly knocking herself out twice deciding to drop like a stone flatback onto the outside taking two topes in the face. Absolutely no sense of strength or power, or personality beyond a slight scowl throughout.

I really like the ad hoc team of Mox, Kingston and Darby, with Sting on the outside. A crazy brawler, a street thug, and a human missile, backed up by a corpse-painted golem. Mox's aura since he came back and got puddingy is incredible, and his promos are 100% believable. Yeah, I'm a bit of a Tanahashi mark, but halfway through Mox's Kojima promo, I was sold. Shame the Wingmen were sidelined a little here - their character stuff has been a great laugh and they're one of the better lower-card teams in the roster. Nemeth was hilarious, yelling "I'm just so mad!" when he had the chair. I give zero fucks (yet) about Garcia and his silly socks.

QT and his lads getting the jobber entrance versus Two & A Half Gunns, lol. Get Billy away from as many people as possible, everyone you stand him next to looks tiny, not good when you're trying to get guys like Comoroto over as monsters. Absolute nothing match, the Factory continue to get zero development, and QT losing AGAIN means the Big Show match is a waste of time.

And then the main. Fuck me, even knowing the finish from on here, Black had me believing he was going to murder people. Then that ending. Fucking hell. I genuinely thought it was a botch, Arn had bottled it and forgotten to bump then called it on the fly. So now an old man can block the new heel's one killer move. His second match, and the Codyverse has already cut Black's nuts off. It's even worse than Ogogo going from one-punch murder machine to failing to get the job done after 15, in that you'd think Black had the clout to tell them to fuck right off with that booking. Then Johnson ran in, and I though maybe Black would just pile up Nightmare Family bodies in the ring. But no, off you run. One on one versus a rookie cruiserweight, but no, Black, you take a powder and do the WWE backing up the ramp for half an hour. Black'll be doing 15-minute back-and-forths in a month.

After an okay show, that really left a bad taste in the mouth.

[RedRooster]

31 minutes ago, Supremo said:

What do we reckon on Jericho, then? Is this it? AEW have done a good enough job adhering to their stipulations that I don’t think he’d lose and then wrestle again in six months of so, but then the whole thing feels like a waste of time if Jericho beats MJF in the end.

His wording was interesting, and I'm assuming it was designed to sow doubt - "I won't wrestle in AEW again", rather than "I will retire" - I don't know if he was looking to imply that he may end up wrestling for WWE in the future, or if he's wanting to keep the door open to wrestle the occasional match in Japan, or even for Impact. However, if he were to do that, I don't know why he'd bother taking the AEW option away from himself. 

I really don't know what to make of the clumsy (but presumably deliberate) wording - so I suppose it's served its purpose. 

12 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

I don't really think Hayter and Britt should be paired up really. If Hayter was on her own they have a womens division of: Britt, Statlander, Conti, Hayter, SHIDA, Rose, Deeb, Hirsch, Rosa as your main acts. Sign up Ruby Riott or someone similar and that's a pretty banging division. Need to stop wasting TV time with extremely green acts like Velvet, The Bunny and Penelope Ford.

While I agree with your wider point (particularly relating to The Bunny) I don't think Velvet and Ford are bad at all - I would go as far as to say Ford is underrated. Red Velvet has had more than her share of solid matches, and I think the problem with AEW women's matches is that inexperienced performers often don't wrestle around their own limitations, and as a result you get the odd trainwreck of a match. I don't know if this is because of someone like Omega, thinking he's trying to push them to be their best, or if it's people not reigning them back, but it happens often enough for it to be problematic. 

I've also been unconvinced by Statlander for the most part, she's had quite a few rough outings. I get the impression that you know more about their non-AEW careers than I do though, so I'll trust your judgement and assume there's more potential there than I've seen. 

[Arch Stanton]

This doesn't feel like the way Jericho would want his illustrious in-ring career to end, and I don't think he feels he's finished yet. His performances suggest he's still got plenty of fun matches left in him. My guess is he wins the match but MJF puts him on the shelf afterwards, to go over in the feud.

[BomberPat]

Jericho has said for a long time that he wants his last match to be with Lance Storm, that's the main thing making me think he's going over - though maybe they do something like have him wrestle Storm on the Jericho Cruise and explain that it's not technically an AEW match, but then that sort of get-out clause doesn't strike me as very AEW.

I'm hoping the "I won't wrestle in AEW again" stip doesn't mean that he's taking a Saudi Arabia payday in October.

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by BomberPat

[Arch Stanton]

I just can't see him retiring from AEW matches yet. He's more over in AEW than he has been in years and you can tell he absolutely loves working for that crowd.

[JimmyAnderson]

Jericho wins via a Wardlow interference of some description, opening the door for the inevitable MJF/Wardlow feud.

[Statto]

Which one of the bigwigs is a massive Billy Gunn mark?

There's surely no other explanation for him & his 2 kids having that ludicrous 87-8 combined record or whatever it was they put up.

[JohnKringler]

I could see Jericho going back to WWE for one last small run and HOF in late 2022/2023. MJF needs the win.

[DavidB6937]

1 minute ago, JohnKringler said:

I could see Jericho going back to WWE for one last small run and HOF in late 2022/2023. MJF needs the win.

At this point it'll be so awkward seeing him going back to 'The List' or whatever. I hope if he does go back to WWE at some point for the HOF run or whatever then he stays how he is now. Knowing how much fun he's been having with creative freedom and all that. Although I'd be shocked if Vince would let him walk out looking like that.