AEW Dynamite Thread 2023

[The King Of Swing]

Fucks sake TS. Stop getting my hopes up by giving Jarrett, title shots. 

On paper I had little interest in this weeks episode but it turned out to be a lot of fun, helped by a mostly hot crowd. 

I like The Righteous. Personally I find them less "spooky bollocks" and closer to Swamp Cult Wyatt Family, and a team with an actual gimmick is nice to see.

Show was definitely a little too talk heavy, imo. 

MJF/Cole/White promo would have been better if they shaved a couple of minutes off. Feel like I've said similar about MJF segments, in the past.

Don Callous getting heat only for everyone to instantly stop giving a shit once Ibushi was on screen, was hilarious.

Two multi-man matches on the same show was classic overkill but the action was enjoyable. 

Can %100 see Willow fucking off and TS still not giving a shit. Selfishly, I hope Mariah May stays put in Stardom for another year.

Are Black and Murphy, injured?

Edit. 

Probably going to be in the minority but I thought the contract signing was rubbish. 

Edited September 29, 2023 by The King Of Swing

[WeeAl]

Not quite sure why people think Darby has gotten good on the mic. I think he's dreadful still and being in the same talking segments with someone like Christian shows him up on that front. Anyway, unfortunately Darby is likely to be winning here and ending Christian's reign before it really gets started. Unless Christian manages to put together a new group tonight with a bunch of people with dead dad's. Jungle Boy, Nick Wayne etc. Christian can adopt them all and retain his moniker as the world's greatest dad. 

I didn't like that Jay White and MJF segment at all. Felt like it went downhill once both started talking. Staring at each other from opposite corners, they had me interested then. I felt less invested by the end, which is not what they were going for I'm sure. I suppose it's a redirect and trying to come up with the new direction on short notice, but this is Tony's fault for having nothing else going on for his champion other than an absolutely worthless title defence at the PPV. MJF and White will knock it out of the park at Full Gear though, I'm pretty sure of that. 

Hangman and Swerve feels like it'll be pretty great tonight too. Both men need a win though. AEW, more often than not, put over the hometown guy (not always, as we've seen recently with Britt Barker etc) but it has me leaning more towards Swerve getting the W here. Hopefully we'll be looking at a series between them here though over the next couple of months. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Just a note for anyone watching on Fite - the stream cuts out about two minutes before the end of the last segment. AEW’s YouTube has it on in full if you want to see the episode to the very end.

[The Gaffer]

Wardlow back smashing motherfuckers in squash matches instead of coming out in dress shoes talking about his feelings? 

Sign me up. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

Lads.

It’s 2023. Nearly 2024.

I am absolutely BUZZING for a potential Edge vs Christian main event feud. 
 

Don’t agree with me? …”go fuck yourself”

Good grief. Wrestling. Absolute lunacy.

 

[mim731]

Great closing segment. Christian is great, Edge was great, story was great. 

I'm really going to try and optimistically enjoy this Edge run, even though history has taught me not to get too invested because he has habitually gone a bit stale or got injured throughout much of his career. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy this. Tremendous work lads. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Just a note for anyone watching on Fite - the stream cuts out about two minutes before the end of the last segment. AEW’s YouTube has it on in full if you want to see the episode to the very end.

That’s weird. I watched it live and it all went out on fite. All uncensored. I wonder why the replay cuts off?

Edited October 5, 2023 by Hannibal Scorch

[The King of Old School]

Next weeks line up looks tremendous

Quote

* AEW TNT Championship #1 Contenders Match: Bryan Danielson vs. Swerve Strickland
* AEW International Championship Match: Rey Fenix vs. Jon Moxley
* AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Saraya vs. Hikaru Shida
* Adam Copeland vs. Luchasaurus
* Jay White vs. Hangman Page
* Chris Jericho vs. Powerhouse Hobbs

Swerve/Danielson. Bit of a shame it's a throw away match for a TNT title shot though.

[Factotum]

My word, that segment was perfect. Christian and Edge unleashed is gonna be great. Christian is just incredible

[RedRooster]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Just a note for anyone watching on Fite - the stream cuts out about two minutes before the end of the last segment. AEW’s YouTube has it on in full if you want to see the episode to the very end.

That really threw me, I thought AEW had fucked up. That kind of took away from what was an excellent segment a little; which is a shame. 

13 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Swerve/Danielson. Bit of a shame it's a throw away match for a TNT title shot though.

I think it's a huge mistake to book that match. Swerve is riding high after beating Hangman, and a loss to Danielson would derail his momentum. Alternatively, if he wins, that pits him up against Christian Cage, the hottest heel in the company. Swerve is an outstanding heel himself, and having him face off against Christian seems counterproductive. Even if he wins, turning him seems like a bad idea; and having a heel be the one to end Christian's title run also seems like a bad idea. I suspect he'll lost to Danielson and that'll be that, but I hope they have something smarter planned that I'm just not seeing. 

I thought the follow-up to the masked man angle was pretty weak. AEW is pretty poor at following up things like this, and turning a good idea into a great one. A mystery in wrestling is generally a lot of fun, but the minimal focus on it made it seem like the answer to this "whodunnit" wasn't that important. Also, I hate belt-stealing angles, they're always a bit crap. 

On the whole, it was a solid show - but I still feel like AEW feels a bit tepid. There's plenty of good in there, but it's a bit spread out. I know others disagree, but I think they'd benefit hugely from ditching ROH (I've watched AEW from day one, and even I feel confused by all of that - I had no idea Stokely was effectively their GM) and either Collision or Rampage. It would keep all of the good stuff in one place, remove loads of meaningless titles, potentially increase the size of the crowds (without all the ROH matches to sit through, the taping becomes much more enjoyable) and leaves Khan focusing on less; which you'd think would lead to a stronger AEW. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by RedRooster

[Loki]

Another week another plethora of production mistakes - from the Fite early cut-off to a whole prerecorded segment not having audio apart from the audience mic.  I know it's a live show but this stuff is too regular.

Unprotected headshot in 2023.  Ugh.

MJF has a reputation for great promos, but he needs to stop with the awkward pauses where he wants the audience to chant.  It really breaks the flow of the segment and comes across as a bit Butlins.  This championship reign, a bit like his last one, seems to have got a bit derailed into too many mid-card threads.  He's not the focus of the company and he should be.

Overall an ok Dynamite but it felt a step down after a hot PPV, and certainly didn't feel like they did anything to counter NXT's bumped up offering.

Edit: stop calling him Jay!!  Hard camera, Copeland, come on!  Edge needs a stint in NXT

Edited October 5, 2023 by Loki

[JLM]

Ah I think MJF is doing the butlins thing quite deliberately. He’s the most dastardly man in the world doing what he thinks a babyface is meant to do. Silly comedy skits, catchphrases, silly signature moves etc.  The fans want to believe him but we can never 100% trust him. So we don’t know if he’s trying too hard because it’s the first time he’s been universally beloved and isn’t sure how to handle it, or if some time down the line he’s going to take the  piss out of us for cheering the kangaroo kick. I don’t know if that’s too wanky an analysis but that’s how I’m reading it at the moment. 

[DavidB6937]

Yeah MJF being awkward as a face is exactly why it's working as well as it is. There's something very endearing about it but also gives you that feeling that it could be fake and he could just be taking the piss. It's one of my favourite character transitions I've seen in quite some time because sometimes these turns are so unnatural and they just start acting the complete opposite of how they were the week before and for no real reason. While here you've got a guy who could be one way or the other but he's somewhere in the middle fighting against who he was before.. or is he really? Maybe we're all being manipulated. Who knows. Who cares when it's this damn entertaining. It being so open ended and full of possibilities is fantastic.

[Infinity Land]

Can't get excited about Wardlow's return. We've seen it so many times with AEW's big men. They get dusted off, have a squash or run of them and it never really leads anywhere. Look at Miro and Hobbs when Collision started.

We've never seen Wardlow as a proper heel. I'd have rather him in the Hobbs spot with the Callis Family. He'd be a better fit in LFI instead of Vance (whenever they'd return). Give him a proper tag partner or break out the suits and have him be Toni Storm's bag carrier trying to keep a straight face in her segments. Just about anything would be better than another aimless face singles attempt.

I know there's a lot of titles floating around. Maybe a reminder needs sent out that the World Heavyweight Championship doesn't exist in AEW. Joe and Edge used it last night but i'm sure i've heard it creep into other promos recently.

[RedRooster]

5 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Can't get excited about Wardlow's return. We've seen it so many times with AEW's big men. They get dusted off, have a squash or run of them and it never really leads anywhere. Look at Miro and Hobbs when Collision started.

We've never seen Wardlow as a proper heel. I'd have rather him in the Hobbs spot with the Callis Family.

I'm hoping that this is what's about to happen. Griff Garrison isn't a heel, Wardlow's behaviour didn't exactly scream "babyface" and he also seems to have dropped Arn Anderson. Granted, that partnership wasn't working anyway; but it does make me wonder if the idea is to present a different Wardlow. A heel Wardlow versus MJF could be a really interesting direction for - say - Winter is Coming.