AEW Dynamite Thread 2022

[Infinity Land]

• MJF v. Wheeler Yuta - Having seen them wrestle before I knew i'd end up enjoying this. Crowd were into it as well which helped. Did too much at the end. The Firm wasn't supposed to be aligned with MJF unless needed. The payoff of Regal and the brassknucks did salvage the postmatch.
• Darby v. Jay - Wasn't feeling it and don't know where it's going if anywhere.
• Seriously? You've had the Embassy in your backpocket for 3 months and been serving up the Trustbusters?!? Shame TK, shame! Needed some of those meaty bangerz instead of those chipolatas
• Samoa Joe should just be kept off screen until a Jericho match or something main event. He ain't Sting.
• Women's Trios match was good. Glad they figured out they have to do something with Saraya. Worry for me was the first person she reminded me of was Sable in the 90s trying to wrestle.
• National Scissoring Day worked for me. Acclaimed v. Swerve in Our Glory 3 should be good.
• A TayJay sighting! Actually going to wrestle as well. Thank F*ck
• Hangman v. RUSH Like to see them do more. Glad that there was some Mox v. Hangman postmatch. With Mox not announced as appearing I thought he was skipping the show.
• Luchasaurus v. Fuego meh. The Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus match happening in Canada should add to the dynamic
• Danielson & Garcia v. Jericho & Sammy - Decent for what it is. Felt a little lacklustre just knowing that Danielson v. Jericho is happening next week. I thought the tag took away from that a little.

Watching blind the only hint of trouble was the Dark Order Trios announcement for Rampage where I thought it might be Uno, Silver & Reynolds. Then when it was cleared up in Excalibur's rundown that the 10 v. Andrade match was off. That soured things. Otherwise I thought it was a really good show.

BCC v. RUSH & Private Party, Dark Order Trios title match, TayJay should take up the bulk of Rampage. Leaving Sterling's Stud Stable and Varsity Blonds as angle filler.

BOTB4 has an FTR sighting and it's not against the Gunns. Thank You! Jade v. Willow should be good and not that fussed by the AA title match. Shame having PAC pulling double duty and not being that bothered.

Next week in the Toronto debut Jericho v. Danielson should feel bigger than it does. Jungle Boy v. Luchasaurus and Swerve v. Billy are all angle to me. Depends on what happens around it to make it worthwhile.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Infinity Land

[RedRooster]

36 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Kind of goes into the remembering the good things and forgetting the bad.

How many in ring meetings before and after this about MJF being asked to join the Innner Circle, thinking about joining the Inner Circle, the fallout from joining the Inner Circle?

I remember there was a clown and the special jackets that Sammy didn't get. The town hall meeting where Bischoff made one of his appearances. One of those or another one is what led to the steak dinner invite.

If you accept that premise, is the argument here that AEW is as good now as it was then, or as bad then as it is now?

But I don't accept that premise. If a show is, for the most part, very good; people will forget or even overlook the bad. However, the opposite is also true. If a show is mostly bad, the good becomes less relevant. 

That's how I view AEW right now. 

[DavidB6937]

25 minutes ago, Nick James said:

Apparently (not sure how true) that Tony has threatened to sue if there are any mentions of Billy Gunn or if he's shown in any video packages, which is why he's been edited out of the videos they have been showing.

Is that even possible?

[Supremo]

“Didn’t there used to be…more of us?”

”Absolutely not. And we definitely don’t have a former member who’s currently in one of the hottest acts in the business, whilst we’re doing nostalgia from decades ago.”

[Nick James]

6 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Is that even possible?

Who knows, I've given up guessing or trying to predict how things are going to go this year.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Well, I fucking loved the show. Against all odds I really enjoyed a Brian Cage match. Hangman is just incredible. The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass stuff just keeps entertaining, and Swerve is a brilliant heel.

 

FTR sighting!

 

Yeah, it's a thumbs up from me.

[Infinity Land]

34 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

If you accept that premise, is the argument here that AEW is as good now as it was then, or as bad then as it is now?

But I don't accept that premise. If a show is, for the most part, very good; people will forget or even overlook the bad. However, the opposite is also true. If a show is mostly bad, the good becomes less relevant. 

That's how I view AEW right now. 

It's just about we're living in the moment. Taking everything in, all the details. In which case we nitpick over a lot of things. That simply will get forgotten in time.

Week to week I still think the good outweighs the bad. Otherwise I would stop watching. Whether or not that stands the test of time will be up to people's personal preferences.

AEW's booking has always been patchy at best. We're 3 years in now and it is what it is. Fortunately we'll look back on 2022 and remember more of the good than the bad.

I was skimming through the old Dynamite thread and gave up searching after seeing this. Fall back on bad habits, drop storylines, cycle through people. Some questions that I think were never answered.

Quote

Well in that case, you're going a little off topic - this is an AEW thread.

My final point on this (for that reason) - not every top babyface has fit the narrow mould you're trying to suggest they do/should (Hulk Hogan, John Cena and Bret Hart were all completely different to Steve Austin) and if history did keep repeating itself, and promoters did keep doing the same thing over and over, things would feel repetitive and dull.

Is there a place for that kind of character? Sure. Is that what Kenny Omega has to be? Of course not. Is his current character a bit crap? Yeah. But that in itself is not the source of their problem.

AEW simply hasn't managed to string together a long enough run of consistently good episodes to build any sort of momentum, and they fall back to bad habits far too frequently.

They also drop storylines without adequate explanation far too often, and cycle through character at a stupid rate.

What happened with Anna Jay and The Dark Order? She went away with them and hasn't been heard from since. Did they murder her? What are we supposed to believe?

Dropping The Nightmare Collective was the right move, but they did so in a dream sequence on Youtube, so loads of people will have questions about that.

What's the status of Pac's relationship with the Lucha Bros? I know the pandemic affected that one, but short of that one Pac video, their partnership hasn't been referenced again.

What happened to Shawn Spears and his search for a tag partner?

Where's Abadon? What about Ricky Starks? Why not follow up on their stories and allow them to build some momentum? What happened to Riho, has she left the company? If so, why on earth did they crown her their first women's Champion? Ordinarily I'd assume her absence was pandemic related, but she rarely appeared even before that point.
Edited July 17, 2020 by RedRooster

 

 

 

 

[Snitsky's back acne]

5 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

We're three years into Dynamite. People can no longer say he's got no background or that it's a new play thing.

After spending about the same amount of time in a creative role, wasn't Russo being headhunted or even with WCW?

 

He does have no background in wrestling prior to AEW. Three years is new.

Yes, Russo was the lead writer of WCW less than 3 years after working for Vince - and what a massive success that turned out to be.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Snitsky's back acne

[RedRooster]

55 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

It's just about we're living in the moment. Taking everything in, all the details. In which case we nitpick over a lot of things. That simply will get forgotten in time.

While I'm not saying you're doing this intentionally, "wrestling fans just nitpick" has been a really effective way over the years of gaslighting people into thinking legitimate criticism doesn't matter. Nitpicking would be pouring over the tiny details, but "the storytelling has become a bit shit" isn't a tiny detail, it's a big one. The impact of ROH on the AEW brand may be subjective, but again, it's not nitpicking to argue that it is doing far more harm than good. Saying that the company doesn't feel hot right now...that's not nitpicking. I think the fact we're having this very conversation suggests that what I'm saying is true - a lot of people feel cold about their product. I'd go as far as to say that outside of The Acclaimed, every act feels - at best - lukewarm right now. That doesn't mean that they're not doing good work with what they're given, but it's what they're being given that is letting them down. 

1 hour ago, Infinity Land said:

AEW's booking has always been patchy at best. We're 3 years in now and it is what it is. Fortunately we'll look back on 2022 and remember more of the good than the bad.

I'm sorry, but I disagree strongly with this. It might be true for you, but I think a good number of people will view this as a bad year for AEW and rightly so. 

1 hour ago, Infinity Land said:

I was skimming through the old Dynamite thread and gave up searching after seeing this. Fall back on bad habits, drop storylines, cycle through people. Some questions that I think were never answered.

All of this happened - but in the end, it turned out not to be a sustained run of bad television. This was a young company with teething problems, and they seemed to overcome them. Things improved, and bar the odd blip, up until the ROH-purchase and Forbidden Door, AEW was a really good watch most weeks. There were a few bumps in the road, but there was always something to enjoy. 

The current run of AEW television is its longest duff run to date, and it's only compounded by the backstage nonsense and general feeling of chaos. Some of the issues feel very obvious, but I'm not sure Tony Khan even recognises that they are there. In some ways, he's become Vince McMahon. He's just another billionaire who seems to assume that because he likes the product, everyone else should too. 

[69MeDon]

I thought this show was great. At first, I was a bit down on it just thinking about all the shit backstage lately and then this small-ish crowd for their anniversary show (somehow I'd gotten it into my head that they were at the MCI Center in Washington DC, which holds like 20k, and was very worried for AEW's live business for a minute). But this crowd was great, they reacted great for most everything. The Acclaimed segment was brilliant, I thought. Got to disagree with @RedRoosterabout it going too long. Normally, I might agree, but the crowd were into it the whole time. Great stuff. Opener was a banger, I zoned out of Darby/Lethal for obvious reasons, Cage/Wardlow was great. Hangman/Rush was fine, I was expecting better, to be honest, but the post-match stuff was great.

I'd say this was the best Dynamite, all in, in a while. 100% improvement on last week.

Edited October 6, 2022 by 69MeDon

[Supremo]

Another million plus viewers, for what was a really good show.

May as well keep the streak going, with Guevara acting as a punching bag for anyone disheartened.

FTR annoyed at not being featured enough? Go see Sammy to let off some steam.

[Infinity Land]

43 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

While I'm not saying you're doing this intentionally, "wrestling fans just nitpick" has been a really effective way over the years of gaslighting people into thinking legitimate criticism doesn't matter. Nitpicking would be pouring over the tiny details, but "the storytelling has become a bit shit" isn't a tiny detail, it's a big one. The impact of ROH on the AEW brand may be subjective, but again, it's not nitpicking to argue that it is doing far more harm than good. Saying that the company doesn't feel hot right now...that's not nitpicking. I think the fact we're having this very conversation suggests that what I'm saying is true - a lot of people feel cold about their product. I'd go as far as to say that outside of The Acclaimed, every act feels - at best - lukewarm right now. That doesn't mean that they're not doing good work with what they're given, but it's what they're being given that is letting them down.

Nitpick everything when in the moment. You can look back on my thoughts on last night's show and see plenty of complaints. The things that will last are National Scissoring day. MJF/Wheeler in AEW and Brian Cage coming back for a random banger.

AEW's great storytelling of the past have massive flaws in it. Say Kenny and Hangman. Strip all knowledge of BTE from it. Remember instead Hangman & Big Money Matt or versus Team Taz as side quests. Kenny spending the first half teaming with the Good Brothers and more time wrestling on Impact at times. Anyone really remember what led to Omega v. PAC v. OC at Double or Nothing? I think more build went into the Jungle Boy defense because they had to promote the Saturday Dynamite heavily. Then towards the end there were fans that went f*ck Hangman Omega should keep the belt for matches with Danielson and Punk.

Watch Tribute videos it was this amazing well told epic. Spanning over a year depending on when it gets taken from. There were moments where it dragged heavily, wondered what they hell they were doing, and needed social media to aid in the telling.

 

[RedRooster]

10 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

AEW's great storytelling of the past have massive flaws in it. Say Kenny and Hangman. Strip all knowledge of BTE from it.

Well, I can do that pretty easily because I’ve never seen BTE! While I’m sure that enhanced it, they managed to achieve some layered, powerful storytelling without shoulder content being an essential part of the ride.

14 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

AEW's great storytelling of the past have massive flaws in it.

While AEW isn’t perfect, there was a time when they had a great reputation for course correcting, and listening to their audience. There doesn’t seem to be as much of that now, unfortunately; at least in the sense that Khan seems to dismiss the negative stuff.

I’m not sure I agree that the great stories were massively flawed, although it may be true that they were accompanied by other stories which weren’t so great.

22 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

There were moments where it dragged heavily, wondered what they hell they were doing, and needed social media to aid in the telling.

 

While this is a subjective thing, there’s probably some truth in this, in that during the early days of the pandemic, they kicked the can on certain things, expecting things to return to normal sooner than they did.

[Chris B]

27 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Say Kenny and Hangman. Strip all knowledge of BTE from it.

When I put together a ludicrously long twitter thread recapping their feud, I was honestly surprised that so much of it was on Dynamite. There were details on BTE, but pretty much all the important stuff was on TV. Not disagreeing with your point overall, but this criticism has been used a lot of this feud and I don't think it's true.

[Chili]

I fucking hate this thread now. Only on here to really chat about the show but because its been a lower standard recently, as wrestling fans we've gone to the jugular. Either, it's all fucked, 'Vince wouldn't have that' or in RedRooster's case seemingly hate watching and the company being shit because their wants aren't happening. Calm it a bit. I'm probably sticking to off-topic, everyone just seems misered.