AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[TheBurningRed]

7 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Not that they would blink at hiring him back, but wasn't Marko Stunt MeToo-ed?

No. Where did you see this?

[Lorne Malvo]

19 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Not that they would blink at hiring him back, but wasn't Marko Stunt MeToo-ed?

Not MeToo-ed, but I'm absolutely certain that in the early days of AEW he was involved in one of those horrible kissing spots where he forced himself on a heel valet or something, but a quick Google didn't bring anything up. Can anyone else remember this?

[poetofthedeed]

Markos brother logan was me-too'd.  www.ringsidenews.com%2F2020%2F10%2F14%2Flogan-stunt-accused-of-sexual-harassment-at-the-collective%2F&usg=AOvVaw28LR8wd4R6WQLf_29gRibP&opi=89978449

 

 

Edited May 15 by poetofthedeed

[BomberPat]

13 hours ago, King Mal the Glorious said:

I'd vaguely heard of this, but didn't know Stokely wrestled. Was he any good?

He was a decent comedy wrestler, but has always been better utilised as a manager. He had a fun match with Eddie Kingston while using the "Chuck Taylor" name, but nothing must-see.

[LaGoosh]

35 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Not MeToo-ed, but I'm absolutely certain that in the early days of AEW he was involved in one of those horrible kissing spots where he forced himself on a heel valet or something,

I have a vague memory of this. It's a pretty standard old spot which has thankfully fallen out of fashion. Last time I remember seeing it was Dustin Runnels kissing Jake Hager's wife at the first Revolution show. I think the worst one of these I can rememeber is Jericho kissing Stephanie after months of slagging her off then the following week talked about how kissing her was like kissing a disgusting wart hog or something. The Attitude era was fucking weird at times.

[Carbomb]

13 hours ago, TheBurningRed said:

No. Where did you see this?

Was on here. Thought someone posted it. Lorne's clarified, though.

[JLM]

I did it. I got up to date with Dynamite. It's been a long road, I still have the daunting task of getting up to date with ROH ahead of me (the skipping will be brutal and without mercy, quite possibly  only watching the Beast Mortos matches), but this week's Dynamite I will be in sync with the wider viewing public. 

Dynamite catch up 

Dynamite 10/04/24 (!!!!) 

Spoiler

Dynamite 10/04/24

After Dustin's amazing promo on Collision I did not see Swerve's attack on Joe coming at all. Really good start to the show.

Penta's different blue outfits on these past two appearances were beautiful. Excellent match vs Copeland, ticking one off the "I bet you never thought you'd see Edge against THIS guy!" list.

Stokeley/Willow/Renee/Copeland/Briscoe/Kingston. What a mad assortment of people in one segment. Absolutely love the Willow/Copeland team up. 

Punk vs Jack Perry wasn't a great match, surprised how little time they got too. It was a lot of nothing and the sort of worked shoot promo from FTR afterwards was messy. Meh. 

Osprey's promo was strong again when he got back on topic. 

The Julia Hart vignettes continue to be pretty cool and she sounds good in them. Her presentation and booking remain consistently very strong. 

I wonder how many Lionhook t shirts they've sold. Shibata complimenting Renee was funny. Hook looks like such an idiot vouching for Jericho. Shane Taylor and Hook had good chemistry in the six-man and, again, I am loving this extended run of Shibata being on AEW TV. The man is a joy to watch. Of course after this he should ditch Hook immediately. He told Hook before the match, Jericho cost them the match. I assume he's going to tell Hook to ditch Jericho more forcefully after this, but he should wash his hands of the pair of them. 

Okada's thorough disappointment with his allocated jobber was very amusing. He seems to be having a great time in this role and I love him in it. Very standard post match business, Pac said "motherfucker" so many times on his way out. 

Toni Storm's victory dance over Thunder Rosa was amazing. Genuinely did not see the attack coming. The precedent has been set for silly Toni Storm segments with silly names, so it was a good twist. Also the segment ending with Toni's old music to go straight into Mariah's entrance was quite slick. 

Mariah May and Anna Jay worked well together, I thought this one might be a bit rough but it was a solid match. Highlight was Taz's call "sometimes you act like you're gonna chop someone, then you don't do it, that's part of... things". Mariah being torn between her old friend and her idol is a fun addition to this angle. Happy to see more Mina Shirakawa. 

They're getting Mone to speak in all kinds of settings and she sounds crap in all of them. Not good. 

Cracking main event. Dustin is such a great babyface, so sympathetic and a perfect opponent for an increasingly rattled Joe in an especially violent mood. 

Patchy episode of Dynamite. Some goood bits and some standard PPV-building fare, some rubbish bits and some irrelevant petty nonsense that the shows could do without. 
 

Dynamite 17/04/24

Spoiler

Dynamite 17/04/24

Opening with Moxley's heroic return as IWGP champ was completely triumphant. Brilliant start to the show. Tremendous promo of course. We've had a few attempts at the "this is what AEW is all about" promo lately, and Mox is of course the one who nailed it, no insider bullshit required. 

I get the idea of opening with lots of big names with Moxley, Mone and then Cpeland back to back, but it did mean we got a Mercedes promo directly following an extended John Moxley one. Oof. This was comfortably her best promo in AEW so far and it was still just not good. 

Loved the mixed tag. They've done an excellent job building up Willow going into Dynasty and this was another great moment for her. Copeland and Brody worked well together too, cool that they got to have a little singles match before Willow got to save the day. Mone effectively came out and held a chair and looked at people. As I've said before though, I'd take this over the terrible promos. Have her out there interacting or teasing interactions with the women on the roster, that's the best way to present her if she's not wrestling until May. 

Another top class promo from Joe. He sounded ultra confident and full of swagger, yet you could tell he was trying too hard to convince himself that he's not rattled by Swerve. Man Joe is so good. 

OK The Bucks EVP characters have converted me. I enjoyed the excessive pyro they did the other week, and Matt's live commentary on the house mic here was amazing. Chiming in during the FTR vignette and then bumping them off the show was also hilariously petty. Six man was great, plenty of shine for everyone, calling back to Death Triangle vs The Elite, teasing Pac vs Okada, really good match. 

The rarified air of Jericho is a stench most foul. Poor Hook. 

Swerve turning the Renee sitdown interview into a call out to face him in the ring was such a cool idea. 

Mariah vs Deonna Purazzo had a decent closing sequence but was dull until then and lost the crowd. Also between Toni/Mariah/Rosa/Purazzo the heel/face divide is a bit messy. Rosa and Purazzo are babyfaces but don't like each other, they both don't like Mariah and Toni. Toni is technically a heel but everyone loves her. Mariah May is also a heel but is often sympathetic and is doing this cute storyline reuniting with her friend. The best bit of this whole thing was Thunder Rosa's big flying superman punch to Luther as she ran in. Looked and sounded amazing. 

Bullet Club Gold to unify the trios titles at Dynasty. Love that. Solid promo from BCG and another weak one from The Acclaimed. I cannot believe Max used "twinkblade" again. It's so fucking terrible. 

Enjoyed OC vs Shane Taylor. Been great to see STP increasing their profile on the main shows over the past few months. Taylor is excellent, Moriarty is very capable and I think adding Ogogo to the group is big a improvement. He doesn't even need to wrestle that much, he's just a perfect fit for the group. STP always felt like a boxing stable anyway, and selling his punches as being superpowered so he can use them to interfere in matches or during post match beatdowns gives them an extra threat. Funny that he was a pro boxer and his punches don't look anywhere near as good as Shane Taylor's though. Worked punches are a different artform. Poor OC having to rely on Worse Friends Sydal and Daniels was tragic. 

Claudio and Osprey was a belter, obviously. Fantastic match. Osprey is so good against bigger/more powerful opponents. The giant swing counter into tornado DDT was brilliant.

Electric closing segment. Swerve sounded fantastic and the giant stomp onto everyone was an awesome spot. As much as I sort of think Joe should be world champion permanently, it has to be Swerve at Dynasty. 

Dynamite 24/04/24

Spoiler

Dynamite 24/04/24

Ahh love a Daily's Place show. Crowd always sounds good, it looks cool and unique on TV and feels very signature AEW like their ECW arena or someting. 

Solid promo from Trent, he made good points, appreciate a heel who feels justified in their villainy. I also liked him telling the fans to shut up because it's none of their business/they don't get it, rather than deciding he hates them because he's a heel now. 

Can't believe Swerve didn't get a promo, or at the very least spend some more time in the ring before the match milking the "Who's House?" call and response or something. When Joe won he came out in a suit, swagger incarnate, dictating the rules for any prospective challengers and placing himself as the man who runs the show. This was so far from that. I watched this immediately after finishing off Dynasty too, so it felt deflating coming immediately after watching his crowning. 

Purazzo/Rosa pull apart was good stuff.

Anna Jay/Mina Shirakawa was actually a rematch from ROH TV. The ROH match was one of Anna Jay's better outings and this was too. Shirakawa did most of the work, but Anna Jay was fun as well, heeling it up and provoking Mariah May. Enjoyed everything I've seen from Shirakawa in AEW so far, she's a natural entertainer and makes for a great underdog in this land of much larger opponents. Post match was all strong too, furthering the ongoing Mariah/Mina/Storm love triangle and also setting up Deeb vs Storm. Big fan of Serena Deeb so I like this direction a lot. Was a cool idea for Deeb to forego the usual "challenger holds up the belt" (and specifically call out that trope in her promo to camera), but unfortunately was very hard to make out what she was saying thanks to her own theme song still blaring. 

WIllow/Mercedes segment was by far the best thing Mercedes has done so far. Properly playing the heel in the feud, sounding fairly human on the mic, I'll take it. I want Stokeley to turn on Willow and join Mercedes but I don't want Statlander to turn. They were very very strongly hinting at it here but I don't like it at all. It's not just because I personally don't want to root against Statlander ever because I adore her either. I think their friendship and chemistry elevates both of them and it'd be a mistake to break it up, and if I'm honest I think Statlander would be horribly miscast as a heel and am not sure she could pull it off. It's also the same story as Trent/Orange Cassidy. 

Casino Gauntlet was awesome! What a fun idea. The little snippets of Osprey/White, Osprey/O'Reilly and Osprey/Komander were especially delightful but the whole thing was a blast. Osprey and Roddy will be a belter. 

Not Big Bill as well.

Liked the Osprey/Fletcher/Callis backstage bit a lot. Didn't love the finish at Dynasty but I do like the story they're telling off the back of it, so fair enough.

Gutted about Hobbs' injury. He'd been looking great recently and was starting to be featured more prominently. Apparently needing surgery so going to be a while too. Rubbish. Match with Mox was a good scrap until Hobbs hurt himself. Takeshita vs Mox for the IWGP title, fucking yes please. 

The Elite stuff throughout the show worked for me. I thought Perry arriving separately and not dressing like the rest of them made perfect sense. He was still supposed to be the undesirable outsider who doesn't work for AEW any more at that point, and as much sway as The Bucks are meant to have, they were ostensibly there to ask Tony Khan to give him another chance. Would make no sense for him to turn up all suited in a limo BEFORE the New Elite takes out Khan and assumes control of the show.

I also completely agree with Supremo re: this being the making of Jack Perry. His previous attempt at being a bad guy in a leather jacket was excruciating and I was the coldest I'd ever been on him just before the suspension, but I feel like he's owning it now. I also believe him now. As well as his complaints about the suspension and the scapegoat stuff probably being at least partly grounded in reality, we've also seen that he really is that gobby little shit who will let his pettiness spill out on screen. So now it's more like a wrestling character that's an extension of the person, which are often the best wrestling characters. He isn't Evil Jungle Boy, he's Mr. Real Glass Cry Me A River turned into a character. 

The lack of follow up on Swerve's win was extremely disappointing, but overall I wasn't as down on this show as many others it seems. 

Dynamite 01/05/24

Spoiler

Dynamite 01/05/24

Intro/Bucks' custom intro video was hilarious. 

Absolutely loved the Christian/Swerve segment. Have missed Christian a lot. Genuinely caught me off guard with the surprise attack; I was getting ready to google the status of Swerve's parents and then BAM. Promo was, naturally, excellent as well. Calling back to the Nick Wayne attack and their loss at All In were great touches. Love this direction. 

Copeland/Matthews had some decent action in it but it was far too long. Matthews is not good in a long singles match like this. He's excellent in a tag/multi man, and he can do a short/sprinty/violent singles, but at this length it doesn't work. It always feels disjointed. Everything he does looks fantastic and he can put together incredible sequences, but the match didn't feel like it was building up to a heated climax. It was lots of individual sketches, some of them ending in near falls, then it ended. Also this is just the first stage of Copeland working his way through the HOB guys, starting with the lowest ranked one, so no need for it to be this long. Post-match was silly rubbish. 

For the 1,000th time saying it, I bloody love Samoa Joe. The disdain and mild impatience on his face as Kassidy strutted down to the ring was perfect, as was his acknowledgment of the "joe is gonna kill you" chant before the match. Can't remember the last time I've enjoyed Kassidy this much either, just begging for the ass kicking he was about to receive. His signature shriek when he gets launched into the air was a perfect fit in this match too. The commentators talking about Kassidy like he was strutting his way down to his own execution was spot on. Everyone involved here went the extra mile to make this way more memorable than a typical squash match. Great stuff. 

OC/Trent segment was excellent. It's a great benefit of the OC character that him coming out to do an in-ring promo at all immediately lets you know shit is getting far too serious. Trent has settled right into this role, surprised at just how good a heel he is. Fascinated by the Don Callis interjection. 

FTW title match was so much fun. Delightfully novel to see Shibata doing something as whacky as this and throwing himself into it wholeheartedly. As I've said before, I feel positively spilt by how much Shibata I've been blessed with this year, long may it cointinue. As Supremo says though, this is is the classic Jericho-does-a-fun-hardcore-match play to buy some goodwill, I will not be baited. I remember thinking his match with Adam Cole might be decent because I thoroughly enjoyed the crazy arena-wide brawl he had with Roddy. Could not have been more wrong. 

Strong promo from Willow again, she's on fire right now. Also notable that she barely acknowledged Stokeley and didn't really accept Statlander's apology.

Claudio and Brian Cage was solid stuff, though Taz and his creaky shoulders getting destroyed on commentary was undoubtedly the highlight. Was nice to hear Tony win a few rounds as it's usually Taz giving him a hard time. 

Good promo from Rocky Romero, hadn't even occurred to me where he stands in all of this, though my assumption would have been he'd side with Trent. 

May/Deeb the match was OK and they worked fairly well together, but similar to the Rosa/Purazzo feud it had a a messy heel/face dynamic. Both May and Deeb appealing to the crowd throughout the match, Toni Storm throwing in the towel to save her babyface-ish protege from another babyface. Just not sure who they're supposed to get behind. Totally agree with LaGoosh that Deeb needs to turn heel.

Kyle O'Reilly's all over the place isn't he. Drifting about getting involved here and there, probably asking to borrow people's phone chargers.

Loved the closing angle. Really good, heartfelt promo from Kenny, he also looked the business with the hair tied back and the suit. As soon as he addressed those two pieces of shit, it felt like a "business is about to pick uo" moment. Was surprised at how much he did physically too. Great angle, loved it. 

The crowd sounding quiet was a real shame on this show. Schiavone specificially said at the beginning of the show they were really loud and going nuts for everything, but it didn't come across on TV at all. It didn't look especially sparse and the Canadian crowds tend to be quite loud, so was very disappointing when there were some hot angles on this show deserving of a better sounding response on Tv. Claudio/Cage, Copeland/Murphy and May/Deeb were all just OK matches by Dynamite standards, though the Joe squash and FTW title matches were both very good. 

The major stuff definitely hit, the matches were a mixed bag, could have bumped Claudio/Cage or May/Deeb and trimmed down Murphy/Copeland to get Willow/Skye onto Dynamite and it would have made for a better episode. 

Dynamite 08/05/24

Good, hot opening to the show with Trent and OC. Trent still using the Best Friends theme and running with this modified t-shirt thing is great. He's doing a great job in this role. I didn't think the crowd sounded bad for this match, they were into it and sounded good during the brawling through the people. It was pretty stupid to do the piledriver on the steps and *then* the post match angle. Very bizarre choice. 

Can see the opinion is a bit split on it, but so far I'm on board with scapegoat Jack Perry. Good promo from him here. 

Deeb/Storm segment wasn't great, certainly not as good as the build for Thunder Rosa's challenge. I like Serena Deeb but she is a very awkward babyface promo and feels miscast in the role. Had no idea she'd been through that awful experience with the seizures, obviously impossible not to get behind her a bit after that, but then Toni says she doesn't give a shit and still gets cheered. I love Toni Storm, I love this character, but man is it tough to be her challenger, particularly if you're trying to be a babyface. No matter how much of a dick Toni is she will always be cheered, and after Deeb telling her story and doing this promo she is locked in like Deonna Purazzo to be a babyface challenger who is less over and less beloved than the ostensibly heel champ. The cut to the "Toni Storm > Serena Dweeb" sign moments before Deeb started talking said it all. Toni's bump off the punch was hilarious though. 

Mariah/Harley Cameron was good! I thought this match would be a lot uglier than it was. Harley didn't do all that much but everything she did looked fine, and Mariah carried the rest of it well. Mariah May did the Baldo Bomb/Derailer in this one (because Toni Storm does it, naturally), Excalibur keeps calling it the Sky High. I will not tolerate his A-Train erasure agenda. Mariah has organically become a popular underdog babyface, was nice to see how over she was to this audience without Toni. She's thrown herself into all the silliness wholeheartedly, the ongoing Mariah/Storm/Shirakawa angle is delightfully entertaining, the real chemistry she has with Shirakawa is plain to see and her matches have been getting better as well. Saraya throwing Harley in front of Shirakawa and then bailing was also tremendous. What a fun segment. 

Bang Bang Gang vs Death Triangle is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see after the trios title unification. Excellent promo from Jay White here, also loved his little glance at Austin Gunn when he said "death" instead of "dead". Wonderful to see these guys back at their best after shedding The Acclaimed.

The little Bucks vignette was fantastic. 

Swerve/Christian/Embassy business was superb. Excellent segment. Good promos from Swerve and Christian, and a turn that feels completely logical and grounded in reality. Swerve in both storyline and in real life has ascended way beyond these guys, not surprising they'd be pissed off at being summoned  to back him up after he ditched them. Nana notably absent. As much as the Embassy boys could use him, it would be beyond insanity to take him away from Swerve. I'd have Nana try to talk to them and they give him a beating as well. I hope they get something to do after this. I have not been shy about my Toa Liona fandom and would like to see him utilised more. Still not over the FTW title match with Hook that never was. Nick Jackson giving the segment 4.5 stars made me laugh. Took a little bit of time to find their feet with these gimmicks but I am loving the new Elite more and more each week. 

Another cracking promo from Willow, this is exactly the angle I wanted her to take for this feud. Mone response was passable this time. I liked the stuff about sitting courtside/throwing out first pitches etc. They both hit on the red carpet walking superstar vs Hard grafting pro wrestler angle effectively. 

Jay White/Romero was a solid TV match. Rocky Romero doesn't have many bad matches and I always enjoy Jay White. Again, fully on board for Death Triangle vs BCG. 

Loved the Joe vignette, hope he gets something substantial to do ASAP. 

Big Bill is Sammy Guevara now. Wasn't feeling the Jericho promo this time. The one he did the other week where he said The Learning Tree 100 times got a smirk out of me, but making being an unwelcome presence on the show into his character doesn't stop him being an unwelcome presence on the show. The reference to his Cagematch rating was too try-hard for me.

Copeland/King was an all out war. I think that's the best singles match I've seen from Brody King, helped by Copeland's ability to pace a match and inject drama into the proceedings. Fantastic match.

Solid closing segment. No matter how patchy or off-sounding an AEW crowd is, they are always RABID for Eddie Kingston, and rightly so. Anarchy in the Arena will be outstanding. 

Edited May 15 by JLM

[Hannibal Scorch]

Delightful! Can not get enough of the wrestle aunts

 

[Supremo]

Best thing on the show was Jack Perry being a fantastic little prick. Throwing his drink on Schiavone was top tier shithousery.

Worst part was the same as it always is.

Darby Allin in Anarchy in the Arena, though. Man’s gonna kill himself.

[Mr.Showtime]

The crowd was great on this show and they loved, as did I, Mercedes getting planted through the table by Willow, great stuff! And another beautiful backstage promo by Toni Storm too, what a year she is having.

[Supremo]

This Willow vs. Mercedes match is giving off strong Hangman Adam Page vs. CM Punk vibes. In every traditional business sense you put over the big new star, but at what cost? Is it worth sacrificing your homegrown, pure bred babyface, when they’re still scratching the surface of what they could become? Does the shiny new toy always trump everything else?

I dunno. Maybe I’m just trying to think of meta reasons as to why Willow should win because I love her so much and want to see my favourites triumph, but it’s definitely something I’d go back and forth on if I was Tony Khan. Willow’s fucking great, and is only getting better, and whilst Mercedes is undoubtedly easier to watch now she’s a heel, that doesn’t cancel out the fact that she’s been pretty rubbish thus far.

You assume if Tony had a Time Machine he’d never have put that World Title on Punk. In retrospect, it was the wrong call to make. The entire company never truly recovered. This is your second chance Tony. Right that wrong. Willow wins clean. Do it for us. Do it for the Wrestling Club.

Edited May 16 by Supremo

[LaGoosh]

I'm just about maybe ok with Willow losing only on the condition that they have big plans for her immediately afterwards but if she just loses and goes back to the position she was in before then that'd be a disaster. But really, Willow should absolutely win this match.

WillowMania all the way. 

[Mr.Showtime]

I'm going with Willow to get the win, probably a cheeky roll-up, after which Mercedes will go full-on maniac heel and steal the gold off her very soon afterwards. Give Willow the win but then get her right back into the chase.

[Supremo]

There’s a far more interesting story to be told if Mercedes loses her first match and goes mental afterwards, showing her true colours. It speaks to how strict and unimaginative a lot of pro-wrestling story-telling still is that nobody ever really does that. It’s always a big win for the debut star because most everyone still writes this medium like it’s an e-fed. “And then I’ll come in and beat everyone up because I’m the best.”

Even if Willow was always meant to be a transitional champion, when was the last time someone had a belt for so little time, and yet consistently delivered week in and week out? Her promos have been amazing, she’s the purest babyface in the business, and she’s literally making kid’s dreams come true! She’s more John Cena than John Cena ever was.

Anyway, thoughts and prayers to everyone who was up in arms about Orange Cassidy no-selling that piledriver last week. I saw a clip online of Bully Ray droning on, moaning about it. Can only imagine how Bully Ray felt this week, seeing Darby Allin real-life no-sell a broken foot and getting hit by a fucking bus. I bet his fat, gormless head exploded.

[Factotum]

Christian is so bloody good. Just the perfect heel for Swerve to be up against first. The guy has just been on a roll for 2 or so years now.

A very enjoyable show. I personally am loving the Elite. Perry being a little shit heel is great and the Bucks are perfect.