AEW Dynamite Thread 2023

[SuperBacon]

If if was up to me I'd get rid of all DMs...oh wait, sorry, I thought this was the football thread.

[Keith Houchen]

2 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

If if was up to me I'd get rid of all DMs...oh wait, sorry, I thought this was the football thread.

A good DM is like a solid mid carder. They won’t win individual awards but without them, the big guns wouldn’t have the service and they hold the whole thing together. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

6 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Perhaps, but there seems to be a feeling of fan weariness with MJF that didn’t exist previously. For that reason, I think he’d be wise to jump before that stagnant feeling grows. 

What do you mean by that? I wouldn’t say WWE has done that with its signings from AEW. If they were to link back to an AEW storyline, I’d imagine they’d put him against Cody or Punk - a top star, as opposed to a non-wrestler who didn’t manage to reach that next level. 

Regal didn't need to reach the next level to be important to both AEW and WWE. Its the Blackpool Combat Club purely because of Regal and what he meant to D Bry, Claudio, and Mox. WWE fans know him for his work in WWE and to some extent his work in NXT both on camera and behind the scenes. It makes no sense to put him against Cody or Punk, that's not how WWE would introduce him as it is too much of a nod to AEW. It will need WWE's own stamp. AEW were calling back to when Regal ran NXT and Max was just breaking in, so really it's an NXT storyline that's ready-made. 

As for what I meant, Punk and Cody are two massive stars who went back from AEW to WWE and they have and will continue to make loads of money for WWE, money that AEW could have been making had they been handled differently. TK made his choice to stick with Jericho, The Bucks and Kenny. That hasn't turned out great so far. 

[Ulf ist Gut]

Disappointed that Mox made the finals over either Swerve or Jay White - I don't think he or the title really needed it and it seems like an opportunity missed to elevate someone else and in Swerve's case capitalise on his recent momentum (although thankfully he didn't take the pin). I would have preferred either to go up aganist Eddie in the final and make the outcome feel a little less predictable as surely it's Eddie going over now. Wasn't big on the promo after Eddie's match either, it really didn't add anything and was just a bit lame. Everyone knows the history, just have Mox check on Danielson, have a bit of a stare down and then leave and save the chat for the backstage bits to camera that have been so good all tournament. Eddie/Danielson was of course excellent and better described by others so i'll leave it at that. 

The Callus family/Sammy bit was pretty blah, didn't make a huge amount of sense (why did Sammy get so hot at his kid being in the painting?) and felt like a very long way to get where it was going. I'm assuming it sets up another multi-man tag titles match for tonight (i've not looked at the card given i'm an itver and generally behind on it all), which is presumably handy give all the Jericho stuff going on of late. It did make me wonder why Takeshka wasn't in the Continental Classic though - not sure who would have dropped out put him in while keeping him or someone else strong but he feels like he's lost a tonne of momentum over the past few months. It does seem to be becoming a bit of a theme where someone upper mid-card gets something going and then just gets forgotten about WWE style - hopefully the likes of Swerve, Rush, Jay White, Daniel Garcia don't go the same way post tournament.

Skye Blue/Stat was very good. Skye Blue's really come on a lot recently and it looks like she has a lot more confidence in hitting her key office that makes it look a lot crisper - the step up knee and the Code Blue are a lot quicker and smoother and as such look so much better. Probably helps that she's in there with the better/more experienced women rather than Anna Jay and Red Velvet who have better timing and she can trust to be in the right position. There's the basis for a decent women's division there with her, Julia Hart, Stat, Willow, Toni Storm, Shida, Mercedez Martinex and Jamie Hayter to come back.

Main event and all the devil was/is similarly blah aside from Joe's turn (if you can call it that). He's been made to look like a bit of a poindexter for the past few weeks so nice to see him look like more of a selfish killer bastard again. The doing business bit did make me wonder whether the Devil might be Don Callus with the masked folk being the family plus someone new (maybe Wardlow). No idea why they'd go to that kind of trouble or bother knocking off BCG a few months back but we're at reverse vampires/Rand corporation eradicating the meal of dinner with it at this point so why not. 

[air_raid]

43 minutes ago, Ulf ist Gut said:

The doing business bit did make me wonder whether the Devil might be Don Callus with the masked folk being the family plus someone new (maybe Wardlow). 

Surely that would make him Wartlow?

[RedRooster]

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

It will need WWE's own stamp. AEW were calling back to when Regal ran NXT and Max was just breaking in, so really it's an NXT storyline that's ready-made. 

If WWE do sign MJF, there’s close to zero chance of him starting in NXT - he’ll be AJ Styles, interacting with top stars from the off. If he did make the leap next month, I wouldn’t be shocked to see him wrestle someone like Cena at ‘Mania. They’d treat him as a massive ‘get’.

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

As for what I meant, Punk and Cody are two massive stars who went back from AEW to WWE and they have and will continue to make loads of money for WWE, money that AEW could have been making had they been handled differently. TK made his choice to stick with Jericho, The Bucks and Kenny. That hasn't turned out great so far. 

To be fair on Tony, Cody wasn’t exactly riding high when he left AEW - but the company was. If he’d stayed with them, there’s no guarantee he’d have been anywhere near as valuable to them as he is to WWE.

As for Punk, if Khan had chosen him over Kenny and The Bucks, it would have gone down like a lead balloon with most fans. Personally, I’d take CM Punk over Kenny and The Bucks on my roster; but if you lose them, you’re almost certainly losing Hangman Page too. There’s no way I’d select Punk ahead of Page in any hypothetical draft. I don’t think Jericho was a factor in Cody or Punk leaving - so he’s kind of irrelevant here. 

[Ulf ist Gut]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

Surely that would make him Wartlow?

No amount of topical cream will soothe his rage (or his penis).

[Duke]

Saying "choosing Punk over the Elite was the wrong decision" (a viewpoint that I think is wrong anyway) presupposes that Punk doesn't start another fight with, for example, Jack Perry, at a later date and get fired, meaning you're losing 4 of your top stars (and the guys hat the company is literally named after) and Punk, rather than just 45 year old Punk.

 

It definitely hurt losing him, but not as much as it would have done losing the elite, and it doesn't guarantee he stays 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

You are more than likely right Duke. It does seem likely that One Bill Phil will chuck another moody at some point and fall out with someone, take his ball and go home. I question though that the Elite have more value. A fully fit Kenny is a crown jewel, but when will that happen again? The Bucks haven't meant anything in AEW for ages. Outside of the FTR matches the Bucks haven't done anything, pissing about in the Trio's division doesn't count. Realistically all the Bucks have done this year is a FKN, that's a Full Kevin Nash. Signed a big contract and fucked off home. Perhaps like Punk, that was only a matter of time as well. Perhaps in the coming year AEW becomes a NEW promotion. No Elite Wrestling. 

Perhaps though I've drunk too much Baileys and need to be sick. 

[JLM]

Dynamite 27/12

Gold League Final was great once they got it in the ring. Similar to the Mox vs RUSH match, I find the plodding brawling in the crowd to be a real heat killer. If it's part of a blood feud or you're doing some crazy anarchy in the arena type deal it works, but here it felt bolted on for no reason. Once they got into it this got good though. Jay White being his weaselly scheming self, Swerve growing in stature as it went on and matching Mox's intensity by the end. I love Swerve's unorthodox little fake outs and counters. Seems to have a new little surprise added to his arsenal every time, and they typically make sense rather than being moves for the sake of moves. Loved the near fall where a groggy Swerve sat up off the mat and did a desperate shove to break up the fall before collapsing again. But yeah, this was really good once it got going, and glad Swerve didn't have to take the fall. 

Excellent, excellent video package for Kingston/Danielson here. Loved it. Would have liked to see one before the gold league final as well to show the paths they'd taken to get there. 

Great manic promo from Swerve. Kingston-esque scatterbrained, raw stuff, tripping over his own thoughts because he's still processing the disappointment and he's had a mic shoved in front of him. 

Riho/Mariah/Toni segment was the most default of go home segments. It was fine though. 

Orange Cassidy assuming everyone is challenging him to a match is a fun running gag. 

Callis family segment was some muddled stuff. Sammy saying out loud that Takeshita and Hobbs are doing fucking nothing at the moment wasn't a great look. Sammy Guevara keeps going round in circles. Guess they had to throw something together after losing Kenny. 

Eddie and Danielson, wow. I haven't really engaged with this "pure wrestling vs sports entertainment/matches vs storytelling" chat because I think it's a completely false dichotomy. Matches are one of the best ways to tell stories. A tournament is even more conducive to that, as there is an in-built story/throughline in place for the whole thing. I love a 10 minute Christian Cage promo, I've been gripped by Smackdown "main events" that were just the Bloodline talking for 15 minutes, but as that excellent write up posted by LaGoosh illustrates, two guys wrestling for 15-20 minutes can hit just as many story beats as any promo segment. 

They can be every bit as melodramatic too, I refute the idea you have to be some kind of workrate pervert to appreciate it. It's not like this was "ooh if you refer back tto 22/11 when Eddie tweaked the meniscus and now he's doing the puro style meta-textual-microsell" It was the middle finger of defiance in the first match vs. this match. The first time Eddie raising the middle finger and yelling "NOOO!" was basically him admitting defeat, knowing he'd played into Danielson's hands and giving him one last fuck you on his way out. 

This time Eddie raising the middle finger was him goading Danielson and letting him know it wasn't going down the same way this time. He'd taken Danielson's best shot and wasn't defeated, and he knew that this time it was Danielson who had cracked. Danielson got baited in himself, stumbling around all punch drunk and desperate like Eddie usually does. It was perfect and really not all that subtle. 

The story of Eddie not being baited and keeping his composure throughout this whilst Danielson slowly unravelled instead was masterfully told. Danielson trying the same rope a dope tactics he used at the start of the Garcia fight, Eddie not biting. Danielson spitting, calling him a bum, yelling at him to quit, Eddie not having it. It was all wonderful emotional melodrama based around two guys pretending to have a fight with a fully invested crowd on the edge of their seats throughout. Pro Wrestling at its best. 

(Hannibal) Scorching promos from Moxley and Eddie. Similar to his promos on OC, I fucking love Moxley's promos where is almost begging the other person to step up and find their final form to try and beathim because that's the only sort of fight he's interested in. The personal history and Eddie's well known insecurities on top of that made this feel incredibly real. 

Promos that tell stories, love them. Matches that tell stories, love them. 

Copeland/Cage stuff was fine. I think they'd already said and done enough for me to be invested in this one, so it felt more like a reminder than anything. The first match was a belter, Christian has been solid gold throughout, The Copeland reverse-go-fuck-yourself promo from the first round was also tremendous. I am sold. 

Skye Blue/Statlander was good stuff. Best Code Blue I've seen in a while. Skye's improvement over the past 12 months has been impressive, but not surprising she had one of her best matches to date with Statlander, who is extremely reliable and makes everything look good. Statlander shouting "Yeah she's gonna EAT YOU!" at Julia when Abadon appeared was pretty funny. 

Ruby Soho vs Marina Shafir on Rampage. Oooooof. Glad they're giving Harley Cameron something to do; she showed a ton of potential when she did that rap segment with The Acclaimed. Really comfortable in front of a live crowd and brimming with charisma. Did not expect her to pull a knife. I am cautiously intrigued.

MKJ vs the Conquistadorks was a thing that happened. I'm guessing Joe hit the chair shot and Muscle Buster at 70% power to make sure Max was injured enough to be beatable at World's End but not so injured as to have the match called off, which is what he's been banging on about for weeks. Very precise beatdowwn, checking Max's health bar throughout. Getting the ROH tag titles off Max was necessary I suppose. Just the PPV to watch now where I have to believe this angle ends. Good good. 
 

Edited December 31, 2023 by JLM

[Hannibal Scorch]

On 12/28/2023 at 9:17 AM, Nick James said:

The only way out of it that would explain the admin issues (Which would be utterly shite I might add) would be for Tony Khan to be involved somehow to get involved as a way of trying to get the belt off MJF before the whole 'Bidding war of 2024' kicks off. It's bollocks, would be shite, but would at least explain some of the plot holes.

I know I asked you about plot holes the other day, but just wanted to share this with you. Yeah, admin isn’t covered but I thought it tied up some lose ends to start and wondered about your thoughts 

 

[Duke]

I've seen that video and while there is good stuff in there the Jay White and Hangman explanations are extremely weak.