AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[LaGoosh]

Bully Ray is such an idiot.

I've only seen the first two matches from this week so far. Jeff hardy may look like he's in constant unbelievable pain but he's had three good singles matches in three weeks now. There's a story there about a broken down old daredevil if they feel like telling it. Mox straight up punching him out the air was glorious.

Toa Liona isn't someone I've paid much attention to but he showed something here against Hangman. I think he could be better off as a singles, his partner whose name I can't even remember is boring as sin. This match would have been better if they cut 1/3rd off the time and kept it as two blokes smashing the shite out of eachother. I enjoyed it.

[Hannibal Scorch]

9 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Bully Ray is such an idiot.

Spoiler

In the episode there is a video package about the tattoo. Either TK is booking things now for Bully Ray, or they just wanted to expand on the lore because you know, Storytelling.

 

Either way, Bully is still a fucking idiot.

 

 

Edited February 1 by Hannibal Scorch

[Factotum]

Jeff Hardy suddenly getting motivated in 2024? Maybe seeing Christian thriving has lit something. Get him away from Matt and you can have really interesting stories with Jeff.

[air_raid]

17 minutes ago, Factotum said:

Get him away from Matt and you can have really interesting stories with Jeff.

I appear to have stepped back into 2018! The Hardy Boys were separated by a draft and suddenly "main event Jeff" was a real possibility again, having great matches with Orton, Joe and all sorts. A real highlight. But he's never worth the risk of a prolonged push in a good spot, long term.

[RedRooster]

I watched the whole episode this week. I found most of the matches hard going; not because they were bad, but because AEW often has a tendency to book match after match with an obvious outcome - a lower carder who shows some fire, versus an obvious winner. If the Hangman match had been a unique example of that, it would have felt kind of special - not quite a breakout moment for Liona, but perhaps an opportunity for him to rise up the card after what was a good showing. But when it's one in a series of similar matches spanning all AEW shows, it feels more routine than it maybe should. 

There were also far too many matches in a row with no breaks for angles, for my taste. I'd have minded less if the outcome wasn't so obvious - but it all felt a bit inconsequential. 

That said, Toni Storm was fantastic value on commentary during the Deonna match that fit this formula. And who'd have thought you would be able to Google 'Toni Storm anal beads' and (somewhere on the search page...) find a clip that appeared on AEW television? 

Another major Tony Khan announcement next week, presumably it's either Mercedes Mone or Okada? Or maybe both?

[DavidB6937]

Yeah there's definitely been far too many matches where the little guys are getting too much in on the bigger stars. Not every match needs to be a 50/50 good fight. Give me more squashes.

[Factotum]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

But he's never worth the risk of a prolonged push in a good spot, long term.

Agree and I'm not saying he should be way up the card. But there's some really good inbuilt story and pathos with Jeff that could be really interesting.

[LaGoosh]

2 hours ago, RedRooster said:

found most of the matches hard going; not because they were bad, but because AEW often has a tendency to book match after match with an obvious outcome

Yeah it's a tricky balance sometimes. You need to protect/push your stars and avoid 50/50 booking while also getting your characters into the place they need to be for bigger matches/stories without it being too obvious. It's not a balance many companies get right and AEW certainly struggle with it.

As you say, all these matches in a row doesn't help either. Sometimes when I look at all of a week's worth of AEW shows I think if you just switched and moved around the lineups for each show you could definitely get 3 better paced shows with more variety on each without changing up the actual content at all.

[RedRooster]

12 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

As you say, all these matches in a row doesn't help either. Sometimes when I look at all of a week's worth of AEW shows I think if you just switched and moved around the lineups for each show you could definitely get 3 better paced shows with more variety on each without changing up the actual content at all.

100% this - I was thinking something similar watching the show, actually - if you took the best parts of Dynamite, Collision, Rampage and ROH on a weekly basis and merged it together into one show, you'd have an unmissable TV show. And that's obviously what AEW was when it was at its best, all of the good idea in the one place. Creatively, I think AEW would benefit from losing two out of these four shows (aside from Dynamite obviously, that would be catastrophic) - there's still a hell of a lot of great AEW content each week, it's just...very spread out. 

[LaGoosh]

15 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Creatively, I think AEW would benefit from losing two out of these four shows

Obviously getting rid of ROH is a must but I think there's enough talent to carry five hours of TV a week. They just need to put more effort into each show having an established identity, utilising their roster better and get better at maintaining momentum. I'd be pretty sad if they ever ditched Rampage or Collision. 

[RedRooster]

13 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Obviously getting rid of ROH is a must but I think there's enough talent to carry five hours of TV a week. They just need to put more effort into each show having an established identity, utilising their roster better and get better at maintaining momentum. I'd be pretty sad if they ever ditched Rampage or Collision. 

It's certainly possible that they could, but I think they'd be better off if they didn't. There's something to be said for leaving people wanting more; but it's not just that - attendances would likely rise, and consequently the atmosphere would be more consistent. Less opportunities to see AEW would likely mean that people are more likely to go and see it when it comes to town. It also means you're more likely to see all of your favourite acts in the one taping.

I'm not sure how people feel about it these days, but if Collision remains, I'd definitely favour a roster split; and brand-specific titles. If Collision - due to having different wrestlers - can't continue on plot threads from Dynamite, it would help them shape each show into something that feels distinct. 

Edited February 1 by RedRooster

[Loki]

They do seem to be struggling with AEW fatigue.  The house for Dynamite this week was less than 2,000 people, and apparently their ticket price is higher than WWE in a lot of towns.

 They’re not the maverick renegades any more, they’re in danger if becoming their own worst enemy in some respects.

[The Gaffer]

Is the Buck's latest "Are they super serious now or are they cosplaying as wrestlers kinda meta funny serious?" shit gimmick going to move beyond two of them going "Hey use our REALLL names please!" every single week? 

[Duke]

15 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

Is the Buck's latest "Are they super serious now or are they cosplaying as wrestlers kinda meta funny serious?" shit gimmick going to move beyond two of them going "Hey use our REALLL names please!" every single week? 

How could anyone look at how they're dressed and not know the answer to that question?

[LaGoosh]

44 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I'm not sure how people feel about it these days, but if Collision remains, I'd definitely favour a roster split; and brand-specific titles. If Collision - due to having different wrestlers - can't continue on plot threads from Dynamite, it would help them shape each show into something that feels distinct. 

I think you could do a relatively unofficial light roster split which could still be very effective without having to do a hard split that limits storylines and creativity. They are already kind of doing it with FTR and House of Black pretty much being Collision only acts. I'd like to see them do that a bit more of that. Dump ROH and put the best elements of it (Dalton Castle, Athena, Willie Mack, a few others) on Collision. Keep the World, International and Tag Titles on Dynamite/Rampage then keep the TNT, Triple Crown and Trios on Collision seems like a simple enough formula.

I'd have the shows set up something along the lines of Dynamite - the flashy, flagship show, Rampage - the absolutely mad bonkers fun hour, and Collision - the slower paced, more traditional wrasslin' show with a decent long main event each week. 

Edited February 1 by LaGoosh