AEW Dynamite Thread 2022

[LaGoosh]

12 minutes ago, Loki said:

Brian Cage still works for the company?  Has he even been on tv recently?

He's been under contract this whole time but for some reason kept off TV. He was in the big battle royale they did at Grand Slam. I'm not his biggest fan but he's definitely got his uses and usually delivers when it matters. Putting him in matches with guys like Wardlow is exactly how they should be using him and he's definitely got more to offer than guys they regularly give TV time to like QT Marshall, Tony Nese and Jay Lethal.

[Supremo]

Wasn’t Brian Cage the first one in AEW to have a public moan about how he was used? I recall his wife was at it too. I always assumed he was taken off TV as some type of punishment. Probably brought back since every fucker now moans, both on and off screen.

[Infinity Land]

1 minute ago, Supremo said:

Wasn’t Brian Cage the first one in AEW to have a public moan about how he was used? I recall his wife was at it too. I always assumed he was taken off TV as some type of punishment. Probably brought back since every fucker now moans, both on and off screen.

His wife did. He was quickly superseded by basically everyone in Team Taz and was sidelined. Then miscast as a babyface feuding against them. Disappeared from TV at the end of last year. Most thought, himself included, that his contract was going to expire. Tony Khan picked up the option with plans to use him for ROH. Which he couldn't tell anyone about until it was official.

One of those slotted for ROH but ROH hasn't happened. Seems like Tony has finally realised since he's paying him, might as well use him.

[Supremo]

That's more like it!

Backstage, the company remains a dumpster fire, but on-screen this was a solid episode. Exactly what they needed after last week's disaster.

Great, fun matches across the board, brilliantly building up MJF, Wardlow, Darby and Hangman. And then two banger, home-run promo segments that perfectly built up the next few weeks. What is going on?! Did Tony Khan run out of time breaking up fights backstage, so just went into his drafts and found a script from 2020? If it wasn't for the crowd this could have easily been one of those mid-pandemic episodes! It still had its minor agenting problems - repeated handshake angles in back-to-back matches, references to breaking faces in back-to-back promos, but overall this was a tight, fun show. Plus, Saraya wasn't allowed a microphone. Belter.

Anthony fucking Bowens! I can't remember the last time someone delivered a monologue like that with such confidence! He absolutely nailed that (fantastic) segment. Triple H is probably sending out the feelers as we speak. That's a contract worth tampering with after this!

Chances of next Monday's DX reunion being hijacked by, "scissor me Daddy!" chants? They've got to be expecting it, surely?

Stonking Hangman/Mox promo. Suddenly feels like they're wasting this putting it on free TV. There's magic here. Should've saved it for the PPV. I'm still pulling for Hangman. I love him.

The Trios Titles are finally being defended! Hopefully a sign of The Elite coming back. They're sorely missed.

Swerve Strickland is quickly becoming the best heel in this company. Real aura and snarl about him. Great prick. Hoping he violently hurts Daddy Ass next week.

Let's talk about what's really important though, lads. Willow Nightingale. It's time to pull the trigger. If you really want to shake up the division and make me believe things are changing for the better, then it's let's do it. Willow beats Jade Cargill on Friday. Clean. Pyro. Confetti. Balloons. Imagine her celebration! That's the feelgood moment of the year, right there. Don't let me down, Tony!

Edited October 6, 2022 by Supremo

[Nick James]

Oh no, a Jericho at the capitol building!

Imagine cramming Saraya onto the graphic and not The Elite. They are suspended yes, but you can't act like Kenny and the Bucks either don't exist or haven't been a huge part of Dynamite. 

It is a cracking graphic though. I love these style, similar to the old Royal Rumble graphics where you can spend a chunk of time looking at it, seeing who's there, who's been missed etc. More of this please.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

That pic is great but its missing little Johnny Hungee and Wardlow.

[Chili]

Dax rob the Andre promo box for that shoot did he? 

[LaGoosh]

If you paid no attention and were completely unaware of the seemingly endless backstage bollocks AEW would be just be this really fun and easy to watch wrestling show. All the nonsense unfortunately is giving the company as a whole a weird and unpleasant vibe which is a shame as they are still putting out a lot of really good stuff like last nights show.

The building was noticeably smaller and less crowded than usual. Apparently AEW's ticket sales have been the shits recently which is a shame. Most likely down to the fact that they seemingly hit the same small number of areas over and over rather than spreading things out. They've had nine Chicago shows this year for example. Upcoming shows in new cities are selling very well but the areas they are returning too are diminished returns.

Heartbreaking that Hangman and Mox is a short TV programme. At one point I had this in my head as a huge, PPV headlining feud and that's exactly what it should be. A minor tragedy that bad booking and other issues have led to it being a stop gap rather than the biggest thing in the companies history. I love both and they deserve better.

The Acclaimed are the absolute best.

[Nick James]

It's a shame that every time AEW seem to have a really good show lately, its always overshadowed by outside bollocks or one down spot on the show. TK either needs to get everyone in line or sort out the leaks that seem to be seeping out constantly. The Andrade / Sammy situation was completely avoidable and shouldn't have got to the point of blows and one of them leaving the building (potentially suspended). Tony Khan can't be blamed for absolutely everything, it doesn't seem fair, when he promoted people to executive roles not that long ago to sort shit like this out, but he should be asking questions of those who SHOULD be in charge of it all. 

Three backstage fights / incidents in around two months, with suspensions aplenty. Sammy has been suspended previously as well for his comments on Sasha Banks, along with the Eddie stuff and now Andrade, surely some action should now be taken, however I can see why they may have run with the main event anyway as they have just had to cancel the Andrade / 10 match and cancelling this one a few hours before the show could have caused them more issues. 

It doesn't help the whole Elite / Punk stuff hasn't been addressed and is still hanging over the show like a grey cloud. Rampage looks like its going to be really good, hopefully nothing else happens and the show can be the focus. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

Dax rob the Andre promo box for that shoot did he? 

Toni Storm is 4ft 6.

[Infinity Land]

39 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

The building was noticeably smaller and less crowded than usual.

I'm guessing you mean 'usual' as in terms of week to week where they're in a near 10k capacity building. For this specific building they're only ran it twice before. One of the first times they split Dynamite and a live Rampage earlier in the year where Mox returned from his hiatus. It only holds about 4,000 max as it was a purpose built WNBA arena.

So it might just be the unfortunate timing of it, but for that particular building I thought it looked better than before as they actually lit the crowd.

They haven't helped themselves by announcing several standalone Rampage shows with nothing extra added. It might have been a test the waters situation or to have security on certain buildings going into MLB Playoffs/start of the NBA/NHL season where games can lead to pre-emptions. Doesn't look to have worked.

------

Catching up on the Sammy and Andrade stuff.

I see the professional sports world has given Tony Khan/AEW some cover again. Just as the UFC had a press conference debacle not long after All Out. Turns out some NBA players had a fight in practice.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Infinity Land

[Guest]

From following the wrestleTix twitter their sales haven’t been “the shits”, they just aren’t hitting capacity as often. The Washington shows are strange as they are under 3.k if full so looks small to begin with. 

[RedRooster]

I'm a bit surprised at the positive reaction to this show, as I thought it was really boring. We had solid matches, sure - but they all followed the same formula. Match takes place, attempted handshake and/or someone comes out to do something. 

And I wonder what common ground Darby Allin found to want to shake Jay Lethal's hand? What a mystery. 

If ever a segment needed an editor, it was the Acclaimed scissoring-fest. It started off really strong and fun, but just dragged on. Why on earth did Mark Sterling come out? Why was it needed? Why did Caster need to talk about football? Trim the fat, and you'd have had one of the best AEW segments of the year. But they fucked it. I suspect it was padded out because of the extra 15-minutes added to the show - time that just wasn't needed. 

And for a show celebrating three years of AEW, there was a whole lot of ROH, and code-of-honour references on it. I wish that brand would just fuck off. It's like an anchor, dragging the rest of the show down to the depths. 

35 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

If you paid no attention and were completely unaware of the seemingly endless backstage bollocks AEW would be just be this really fun and easy to watch wrestling show. All the nonsense unfortunately is giving the company as a whole a weird and unpleasant vibe which is a shame as they are still putting out a lot of really good stuff like last nights show.

I can't pretend this isn't clouding my opinion somewhat. I don't feel particularly good after watching Dynamite, in the way that I used to. FTR come out, I think "do they hate being there?"; MJF comes out, I think "does he want to leave?"; Sammy is on screen, I wonder what the heck his problem is. 

I miss the days when the emotion you felt about AEW came from Eddie Kingston's blistering promos; the company doing amazing things for -1; MJF cutting emotional promos about the abuse he suffered in early life, adding depth to the heel he became...the company is so toxic right now, I don't know if it's even possible to return to that perception. 

And Tony Khan seems like an absolute tool, unwilling to listen to legitimate criticism, and boasting about how much money he has. Why would anyone want to support someone who behaves like that?

[Merzbow]

Did Hatebreed have a word with Tony about using a blatant rip-off of their song? I noticed Wardlow is back to the old song.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Did Hatebreed have a word with Tony about using a blatant rip-off of their song? I noticed Wardlow is back to the old song.

Wardlow said it was his call as he didn’t like the new one. Changed about a month or so back