AEW Dynamite Thread 2022

[Infinity Land]

The "other tournament" aspect doesn't really bother me since it's so short.

PAC v. Matthews

Penta v. Malakai

Ethan Page v. Miro

NJPW match i'll never see

PAC v. Penta/Malakai v. Page/Miro v. NJPW at Forbidden Door.

It's the meaningless title and way of continuing House of Black v. Death Triangle that I find tiresome. Coming out of Double or Nothing was supposed to be a refresh. But a lot things are still repeating themselves.

[WeeAl]

" . . .The year is 1998 and the promotion is WCW. The company is doing hot business, and it's top stars are incredibly over. However it's on the back of a great 18 months.

The booking now is showing incredible holes all over the place. If they fail to kick the bullshit to the kerb and turn the creative around soon, the chickens are going to come home to roost in 1999 and 2000. 

Should that not happen, they better hope on some increased guaranteed income from somewhere, to help carry the company when the crowds dwindle and the PPV buys tail off. 

Negotiate a new TV deal with Turner pronto, preferably for 6 years with no cuts possible. Otherwise, this puppy will be looking pretty damn sick. . ."

[69MeDon]

3 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

" . . .The year is 1998 and the promotion is WCW. The company is doing hot business, and it's top stars are incredibly over. However it's on the back of a great 18 months.

The booking now is showing incredible holes all over the place. If they fail to kick the bullshit to the kerb and turn the creative around soon, the chickens are going to come home to roost in 1999 and 2000. 

Should that not happen, they better hope on some increased guaranteed income from somewhere, to help carry the company when the crowds dwindle and the PPV buys tail off. 

Negotiate a new TV deal with Turner pronto, preferably for 6 years with no cuts possible. Otherwise, this puppy will be looking pretty damn sick. . ."

I mean, shit, at least if Russo was booking this shit, I'd at least get some amusing Bryan Alveraz rants out of it.

[Keith Houchen]

53 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

Should that not happen, they better hope on some increased guaranteed income from somewhere

Hi dad. Can I have a new locomotive for my train set?

[HarmonicGenerator]

I enjoyed PAC vs Buddy Matthews, and Eddie’s one-minute promo was good (he should have won the battle royal).

I doubt I’ll remember anything else about this show by the time Rampage is on.

Going to give Forbidden Door a miss.

[DavidB6937]

Forbidden Door, for me, doesn't particularly need build up. It sells itself as a crossover event and they could easily book it without it interfering with what they're doing on their weekly show. In fact I wish they would do that. People are either going to watch it or not. None of this shit going on on Dynamite or whatever is selling any more PPVs.

The whole thing is about one-off dream matches that exist outside of everything. It's not going to form any long term storytelling or anything so fuck wasting your time even bothering trying to book around it.

[Statto]

Seriously, what the fuck is Khan's obsession with fucking Kyle O'Reilly??

[DavidB6937]

3 minutes ago, Statto said:

Seriously, what the fuck is Khan's obsession with fucking Kyle O'Reilly??

The way he talks about Kyle, Bobby and Adam Cole, he sees them as pretty much the only legit threats that NXT had against him. Plus they've been all over the indies and I'm sure he's watched them a bazillion times in PWG and ROH and wherever else. They're God-like to him.

[JLM]

Only recently started watching AEW full time after following via POST wrestling since launch and checking out highlights and occasional shows. I got invested enough that I made the decision to start watching the shows before listening to the reviews and actively avoiding spoilers. This is the first week it's really let me down and I felt like skipping through the show. One of the flatter AEW crowds I've seen so far and the show didn't do nearly enough to liven them up. Certain individual entrances got reactions but they were sitting on their hands for large portions of the wrestling. 

Battle Royal was dull, lots of obvious people missing and lots of jobbers inexplicably included. I think enough has been said about Kyle O'Reilly winning. I find him extremely frustrating. I think him being quite serious, doing strikes and submissions and having somebody talking for him would be solid enough. I think he's capable in the ring but I don't know what he's meant to be. He's violent and dorky and fiery and goofy and MMA guy and indy wank guy all at once. I think there's a good wrestler in there but in both NXT and AEW it's not panning out for me. 

The crowd wanted o be excited for Thunder Rosa but she was given a pointless match that was too long for Marina Shafir. Was a bit saddened by Thunder Rosa literally saying "I'd like my challenger to be someone relevant but I'll take anyone". I assume that was supposed to give off a fighting champion vibe but it sounded like she was in-character admitting she's just happy to be on TV. Like Thunder Rosa the character knows how under valued her and the title are. I know the excuse for the women's division getting shafted has been the depth of the roster and how there isn't space to fit anyone on etc etc. But she is very over. The people clearly want to see her, so they need to do better. 

Toni Storm is being handled worse than she was in NXT so far. Yes all of us internet dwellers already know who she is, but there is no indication of a character/direction/motivation/anything. The commentators said her vs Thunder Rosa is "inevitable" but the reasoning is "because she's Toni Storm and people know her from elsewhere". That is not enough and I thought the muted reaction to her run in reflected that.  Hopefully for both her and Rosa they will attempt to tell some kind of story here. 

WWE, for all of their faults, have handled Cody so much better than AEW have done with so many of their arrivals. They had the built in amazing real life story already there. That's great. That already guarantees massive interest in the Mania match and a huge return pop. However, night two he also follows up with a lengthy promo about returning to win the title Dusty never won. So even if you know nothing of the other story you still understand his motivation and he's still a babyface. He has a clear and specific direction beyond the arrival pop. 

"Our audience knows WWE didn't use this person right and will be happy to see them here" seems to be as far as the planning goes for so many AEW signees. 

They crowd was very excited for Hangman challenging Okada, but they took the steam out of that announcement immediately.

They wanted to be excited to Eddie Kingston in the battle royal and he was a complete afterthought. HIs promo was good though. He will make the most of every second of TV time he gets but he was fighting against the booking this week. 

Pac vs Buddy Matthews was "good" I suppose, but II don't feel like good wrestling can exist in a vacuum. If there are no stakes and I don't care about the outcome then I don't think it's good. First round match in a tournament for a D-tier title.  They're both stellar talents and they did some of the spectacular stuff I'd expect, but I've seen House of Black vs Death Triangle's directionless feud meandering on for a bit now and this was just that again, except the trios matches were more fun. Big fan of both groups too, I shouldn't ever be bored when they're on screen but I was here. 

House of Black added a new member and Death Triangle got screwed at the Pay Per view. Then Pac and Buddy had a good solid wrestling match on the television in a tournament for a shiny new toy. Would have liked some story progression here. 

Adam Cole was one of the things I liked the least about late era NXT Black and Gold, even when I was still enjoying the show overall more than most people. He can talk and his sing along entrance is fun. That is where the pros end for me. I don't want to see him wrestle ever. He looks awful as soon as he's in his ring gear, the Panama Sunrise is one of the worst wrestling moves I've ever seen and his matches are self indulgent wankathons. Mid card heel, mouth piece of a stable who's job it is to get the other members over etc. I can see it.  Anywhere near the main event I don't buy it at all.

Don't care about Osprey and pals at all. Page vs Finlay was perfectly fine.

Wardlow's reasoning was suspect but I didn't think his delivery was bad honestly. Very much looking forward to the jobber massacre. 

 I  love Jade Cargill and I love Malcolm Bivens. Him turning up at Double or Nothing was one of the biggest pops of the night for me personally. I think there are probably some other people who need him more than Jade Cargill in AEW as she can certainly speak for herself, but I think the entourage does help her and he immediately has fantastic chemistry with the faction. 

Forbidden Door is frustrating because I keep waiting for AEW to settle down with surprise debuts and dream cross overs and new titles etc. and tell more stories, but it still feels like year one three years in. They have shown they can tell some incredible stories, they have a fucking insane depth of talent on the roster, but for so many of the acts I keep waiting for things to settle down so they can sink their teeth into something and it just doesn't happen. More tournaments/more belts/more arrivals/one-off super shows yadda yadda yadda. The best stuff they have done is not that. It's Hangman going for the title, Punk vs Kingston, MJF vs Wardlow. 

Let things breathe please. 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by JLM

[adjarrell]

42 minutes ago, JLM said:

Only recently started watching AEW full time after following via POST wrestling since launch and checking out highlights and occasional shows. I got invested enough that I made the decision to start watching the shows before listening to the reviews and actively avoiding spoilers. This is the first week it's really let me down and I felt like skipping through the show. One of the flatter AEW crowds I've seen so far and the show didn't do nearly enough to liven them up. Certain individual entrances got reactions but they were sitting on their hands for large portions of the wrestling. 

Battle Royal was dull, lots of obvious people missing and lots of jobbers inexplicably included. I think enough has been said about Kyle O'Reilly winning. I find him extremely frustrating. I think him being quite serious, doing strikes and submissions and having somebody talking for him would be solid enough. I think he's capable in the ring but I don't know what he's meant to be. He's violent and dorky and fiery and goofy and MMA guy and indy wank guy all at once. I think there's a good wrestler in there but in both NXT and AEW it's not panning out for me. 

The crowd wanted o be excited for Thunder Rosa but she was given a pointless match that was too long for Marina Shafir. Was a bit saddened by Thunder Rosa literally saying "I'd like my challenger to be someone relevant but I'll take anyone". I assume that was supposed to give off a fighting champion vibe but it sounded like she was in-character admitting she's just happy to be on TV. Like Thunder Rosa the character knows how under valued her and the title are. I know the excuse for the women's division getting shafted has been the depth of the roster and how there isn't space to fit anyone on etc etc. But she is very over. The people clearly want to see her, so they need to do better. 

Toni Storm is being handled worse than she was in NXT so far. Yes all of us internet dwellers already know who she is, but there is no indication of a character/direction/motivation/anything. The commentators said her vs Thunder Rosa is "inevitable" but the reasoning is "because she's Toni Storm and people know her from elsewhere". That is not enough and I thought the muted reaction to her run in reflected that.  Hopefully for both her and Rosa they will attempt to tell some kind of story here. 

WWE, for all of their faults, have handled Cody so much better than AEW have done with so many of their arrivals. They had the built in amazing real life story already there. That's great. That already guarantees massive interest in the Mania match and a huge return pop. However, night two he also follows up with a lengthy promo about returning to win the title Dusty never won. So even if you know nothing of the other story you still understand his motivation and he's still a babyface. He has a clear and specific direction beyond the arrival pop. 

"Our audience knows WWE didn't use this person right and will be happy to see them here" seems to be as far as the planning goes for so many AEW signees. 

They crowd was very excited for Hangman challenging Okada, but they took the steam out of that announcement immediately.

They wanted to be excited to Eddie Kingston in the battle royal and he was a complete afterthought. HIs promo was good though. He will make the most of every second of TV time he gets but he was fighting against the booking this week. 

Pac vs Buddy Matthews was "good" I suppose, but II don't feel like good wrestling can exist in a vacuum. If there are no stakes and I don't care about the outcome then I don't think it's good. First round match in a tournament for a D-tier title.  They're both stellar talents and they did some of the spectacular stuff I'd expect, but I've seen House of Black vs Death Triangle's directionless feud meandering on for a bit now and this was just that again, except the trios matches were more fun. Big fan of both groups too, I shouldn't ever be bored when they're on screen but I was here. 

House of Black added a new member and Death Triangle got screwed at the Pay Per view. Then Pac and Buddy had a good solid wrestling match on the television in a tournament for a shiny new toy. Would have liked some story progression here. 

Adam Cole was one of the things I liked the least about late era NXT Black and Gold, even when I was still enjoying the show overall more than most people. He can talk and his sing along entrance is fun. That is where the pros end for me. I don't want to see him wrestle ever. He looks awful as soon as he's in his ring gear, the Panama Sunrise is one of the worst wrestling moves I've ever seen and his matches are self indulgent wankathons. Mid card heel, mouth piece of a stable who's job it is to get the other members over etc. I can see it.  Anywhere near the main event I don't buy it at all.

Don't care about Osprey and pals at all. Page vs Finlay was perfectly fine.

Wardlow's reasoning was suspect but I didn't think his delivery was bad honestly. Very much looking forward to the jobber massacre. 

 I  love Jade Cargill and I love Malcolm Bivens. Him turning up at Double or Nothing was one of the biggest pops of the night for me personally. I think there are probably some other people who need him more than Jade Cargill in AEW as she can certainly speak for herself, but I think the entourage does help her and he immediately has fantastic chemistry with the faction. 

Forbidden Door is frustrating because I keep waiting for AEW to settle down with surprise debuts and dream cross overs and new titles etc. and tell more stories, but it still feels like year one three years in. They have shown they can tell some incredible stories, they have a fucking insane depth of talent on the roster, but for so many of the acts I keep waiting for things to settle down so they can sink their teeth into something and it just doesn't happen. More tournaments/more belts/more arrivals/one-off super shows yadda yadda yadda. The best stuff they have done is not that. It's Hangman going for the title, Punk vs Kingston, MJF vs Wardlow. 

Let things breathe please. 

 

I've been viewing this forum for about 15 years and never posted. I've retrieved my password and jumped on just to say that this post is absolutely bang on. I couldn't agree more. So much frustration with AEW at the moment. I watched pro wrestling for 30 years and stopped around 2018, apart from Rumble/Mania. When AEW debuted it got me right back in with regular pro-wrestling watching, but for all your valid reasons listed above, I'm starting to get a little disheartened with it and slightly worried. Hope it's just a blip. 

[Nick James]

Imagine being at the Performance Centre for years then onto the Indies and being as shit as Marina Shafir is. Just zero co-ordination at all.

[Factotum]

Tony really needs to start realising what he has with Eddie. Time for that big run.

The show is a bit rudderless at the moment. 

[RedRooster]

1 hour ago, Nick James said:

Imagine being at the Performance Centre for years then onto the Indies and being as shit as Marina Shafir is. Just zero co-ordination at all.

I don't quite understand why she's being utilised in the way that she is. It's not as if they don't have better options on their roster, heck, even The Bunny has improved a lot since she originally joined AEW. 

One thing that no one has brought up yet is the fact they didn't even bother to start the show with a recap of Punk's announcement. I didn't watch Rampage (although I knew this had happened), so I'd not actually seen any of that. But imagine if you only watched Dynamite, and had missed the announcement? The announcers didn't even explain why they were crowning an interim champion until part way through the battle royale. You'd have been ridiculously confused as to what was going on. 

Heck, I felt a little lost at times throughout the show with all of the New Japan stuff. The explanations as to who everyone was, were seriously lacking. 

[BomberPat]

They've never been great at recapping stuff - there's a middle ground between "just leave the fans to figure it out" and the WWE approach of showing recaps and replays of things that happened two minutes ago, and it's especially frustrating when AEW produce some really great content online and very little of that kind of thing makes TV.

In general, I've been pretty understanding of them not over-explaining who the likes of Minoru Suzuki are when they show up - the audience don't need their hands held, and I often compare it to stuff like the WWF constantly presenting Arnold Skaaland and Ernie Ladd as hugely important legends in the late '90s and early '00s because the real stars of the past were all either in WCW or on the outs with the Fed; when the product is strong enough, and has the audience's trust, you can tell them that someone is a big deal and they'll believe you. "This guy is a big star in Japan" isn't a complicated selling point, and I don't really buy people who claim that it's alienating to "casual fans". However, when the next PPV is an entire show built around stars from Japan, they need to do a lot more work to establish who these people are, why we should care, and why they're on the level of AEW top talent. Having NJPW guys just randomly interfere in matches or interrupt promos is edging dangerously close to modern Survivor Series booking, where suddenly everyone's mates in matching shirts because they "represent the same brand", rather than bothering with actual character dynamics.

The problem with a card of interpromotional "dream matches" is that it needs stakes - it does AEW talent no favours to lose to people who aren't coming back for the next show, but NJPW can't be made to look like chumps either, so it sort of feels like a show in need of more kayfabe incentives. If Okada ends up fighting Hangman Page, there's a story there in Page having to regain his confidence and prove himself against the opponent who arguably made Kenny Omega, but what's in it for Okada if he wins? Does he get on to the AEW rankings, or does he just go back to Japan and we never see him again? Beyond individual benefit, is there any reward for NJPW if they win more matches than AEW do?

It sounds inconsequential, but it's the sort of thing that makes the show feel like part of regular AEW continuity, rather than a one-off novelty. And building to that novelty show is part of the reason everything feels a bit of a mess at the moment.

 

As for Marina Shafir, she's dreadful. I understand the logic of booking her against Jade Cargill a while back, and I didn't think their match was as bad as some of the stuff on social media suggested - Jade's an undefeated wrestler, but still early in her career, so fighting someone with an MMA background is a different challenge, and the story is around how she adapts to overcome that. But if Shafir's only selling point is "she used to do MMA", what does she has to offer a promotion that has Paige Van Zant under contract?

[King Mal the Glorious]

16 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

One thing that no one has brought up yet is the fact they didn't even bother to start the show with a recap of Punk's announcement. I didn't watch Rampage (although I knew this had happened), so I'd not actually seen any of that. But imagine if you only watched Dynamite, and had missed the announcement? The announcers didn't even explain why they were crowning an interim champion until part way through the battle royale. You'd have been ridiculously confused as to what was going on. 

This again, it's such a weird point and I don't understand why people keep bringing it up.

Imagine watching say, Eastenders. But you only watch 2/3s of the episodes each week and then have a moan because Phil Mitchell hasn't given you a rundown of everything that happened while you didn't watch.