AEW Dynamite Thread 2022

[Nick James]

Woke up this morning and had a quick browse on Twitter and saw loads of tweets from wrestlers of both companies tweeting 'Prayers for Hangman' etc and immediately had a knot in my stomach that something really bad had happened. It's so strange to say that I'm glad it is ONLY a concussion and nothing more serious, although with the recent Adam Cole news around concussions, it's still not great news. 

Haven't watched the show yet, but have seen the incident and how quick they reacted which absolutely needs praising. They cop a lot of stick for botches gone wrong and powering through after bad injuries (Reynolds, Hardy etc), but they got this one absolutely spot on. Fair play. 

Hopefully he doesn't have any lasting effects and is back to health shortly. 

[Loki]

Is anyone else getting a bit bored by AEW's "this is real life damnit" promos?  

I was watching the MJF/Regal promo and Mrs Loki said "oh, it's another of these "real" promos, except it's wrestling so you know it's not real".  And she's right, if all your top stars always cut the real life reference, real backstory, remember when we were training together, promos then it loses all its impact.  And thanks to CM Punk we've had non-stop promos like that for a year plus.

Sometimes wrestling can just be a story about two fictional characters, in fact most of the time it's better that way.

And saying "everything else is fake, but THIS BIT is real, also undermines the rest of the product imo.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Loki

[Hannibal Scorch]

20 minutes ago, Loki said:

Is anyone else getting a bit bored by AEW's "this is real life damnit" promos?  

Nope. Not if they are done as well as that.

[Factotum]

MJF/Regal. Fuck yes. That's what you want right there.

[Merzbow]

When it's Britt trying to be smart, sure I hate them but MJF is just so good at bringing real life into things.

[RedRooster]

1 hour ago, Loki said:

And saying "everything else is fake, but THIS BIT is real, also undermines the rest of the product imo.

I'm not sure that's the intent. Last week, MJF explained that he had to become a bad person to survive and thrive, he hates who he is - but he has to be that person to succeed in a cut-throat industry. 

With that framing in mind, I think the Regal segment works perfectly well in a storyline sense; without it veering into "shoot" territory. It also ties in to MJF's recent crisis of identity, and the internal battle he seems to be facing right now about the person he has become. It also made his decision to give Moxley advance notice of his title shot completely logical; when you consider MJF's ruthlessness up until this point. 

[DavidB6937]

This did make me smile.

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Frightening end to the show. I’m relieved it’s “only” a concussion. Paul Turner deserves the highest praise for spotting something was wrong so quickly.

It had been a fun show as well - Jericho vs Castle was good, I really liked the MJF/Regal segment, and it was great seeing Shida in a high(ish) profile match on Dynamite again.

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, Loki said:

Is anyone else getting a bit bored by AEW's "this is real life damnit" promos?  

I was watching the MJF/Regal promo and Mrs Loki said "oh, it's another of these "real" promos, except it's wrestling so you know it's not real".  And she's right, if all your top stars always cut the real life reference, real backstory, remember when we were training together, promos then it loses all its impact.  And thanks to CM Punk we've had non-stop promos like that for a year plus.

Sometimes wrestling can just be a story about two fictional characters, in fact most of the time it's better that way.

And saying "everything else is fake, but THIS BIT is real, also undermines the rest of the product imo.

Bray Wyatt's was like this as well. We're going to get them all the time now. Wrestling's been watching too much Bo Burnham. I'm ready to become a lapsed wrestling fan again.

[gmoney]

That was an excellent show. Glad Hangman's OK, that was shaping up to be an great match. Dalton Castle once again proving why he should be featured on TV much more often. What a fantastic act. 

Edited October 19, 2022 by gmoney

[gmoney]

Is there anyone in a major promotion with a worse look than Chuck Taylor? Appalling haircut, gear and the worst font on that gear. He looks like a ropey job guy. 

Edited October 19, 2022 by gmoney

[Factotum]

2 hours ago, Loki said:

Is anyone else getting a bit bored by AEW's "this is real life damnit" promos?

I don't really understand this point. Most of these promos actually exist within the context of wrestling storylines. In fact in terms of 'shoot' promos, bar MJFs a few months back I can't really think of any that have veered outside those lines

[Nick James]

Is Dalton Castle still held together with gaffer tape? If so, it's a shame, the guy is money and deserves an extended run in one of the big companies. 

[WyattSheepMask]

Perhaps I’m being a tad over sensitive, but Mox saying to MJF “you have earned [at Full Gear] a date with destiny. A date that a lot of people don’t even make it out of the ring standing” was in pretty poor taste considering Hangman had been stretchered out of the ring only a couple of minutes earlier. I get that they were scrambling a bit but that was poor

[Loki]

53 minutes ago, Factotum said:

I don't really understand this point. Most of these promos actually exist within the context of wrestling storylines. In fact in terms of 'shoot' promos, bar MJFs a few months back I can't really think of any that have veered outside those lines

He said “this is real life, damnit” in this promo, in case the audience thought it was a normal storyline one ?

 He also did the “look at me when I’m talking” line which was great when Samoa Joe did it, but less powerful when the guy is already staring into your soul.

MJF is a great promo guy, don’t get me wrong.  But the “this is real” technique has a law of diminishing returns.  It’s something WCW did a lot, too much, during its declining years.