AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Just got round to watching it and loved the All-star tag match. Not one of those matches that will get 5 stars or any awards, but genuinely good fun and enjoyable wrestling. Also kept the storylines going well. 

[DavidB6937]

Money money money money money money money money moneyyyyyy.

 

 

[LaGoosh]

Shane vs Darby. Shane takes a big bump on a crash pad. Darby follows it up with a big bump onto concrete. Buy rate through the roof.

[Daddymagic]

Does every single person have a title at this point? It certainly feels like it.

[Duke]

There is no harsher insult in the English language to tell a man he "ain't nothing but Peppa Pig". Brisco's mouth is getting him into trouble again.

Edited June 27 by Duke

[The King of Old School]

Shane vs Darby in a falls count anywhere match at All In and I would go.

Over to you TK.

[I Bent My Wookie]

If Mina had taken any longer to hit Mariah with that bottle it would have happened on Collison. 

Storm was practically out of the ring before she swung. 

[Supremo]

If Ricky Starks can’t be on the show in person, at least he’s there in spirit.

[DCW]

15 hours ago, Daddymagic said:

Does every single person have a title at this point? It certainly feels like it.

How does TK not see having so many titles knocking about = titles now mean nothing. So obviously bad for business and so easily remedied. 

[LaGoosh]

On 6/27/2024 at 6:56 AM, Daddymagic said:

Does every single person have a title at this point? It certainly feels like it.

I definitely think AEW has too many titles. WWE has too many titles. Too many titles in wrestling as a whole.

Not a bad show this week but not a great one. The Forbidden Door stuff always puts the shows in a bit of a holding pattern because it feels like they have to pause everything to shoehorn in a bunch of guys from other promotions. Fingers crossed this is the last one. I'm pretty bored with the production and presentation of these shows took. The way everything is presented often feels flat and lifeless. Needs more grit and urgency to inject some energy into the show. They really need to put together a new look and vibe to the weekly TV, it all feels WWE lite at the moment.

The best part of this week was the Toni/Mariah stuff which is just a load of fun and all three are playing their roles perfectly. I'm really enjoying the weird sexual ambiguity to it, adds a layer of cheeky fun to it. My only complaint is that it would have made way more sense for Toni to be the one who accidentally hit Mariah with the bottle. That would have added a lot of intrigue to the upcoming match.

Edited June 28 by LaGoosh

[Lorne Malvo]

I was more up on this weeks show than the past few weeks (I thought Swerve losing his shit at the end and taking Ospreay out was a cracking go-home angle) but I do agree that the shows feel weirdly lifeless at the moment. Hopefully everything settles back to normal after Forbidden Door.

The end of that ZSJ vs Inbetweener Kyle match encapsulated all the issues I have with Forbidden Door season. Just a load of different factions shotuing at each other and the only one I care about out of the lot of them is Orange Cassidy. It's a shame that the momentum he had following his International title run seems to have been halted.

The shows do seem to be following more of a WWE format which just isn't working for me as much. Starting with 20 minute promo segments instead of matches, and also less of an emphasis on what is coming up on the next show. One of the things I liked about AEW initially was that you knew the whole card before watching a Dynamite (which makes sense, kayfabe-wise), but it seems now that only 2 or 3 matches are advertised then the rest has that 'booked-on-the-fly' feel with Chistopher Daniels making improptu matches and the like. There does seem to have been some kind of philosophy shift for the promotion over the last month and I'm struggling with it.

[LaGoosh]

16 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

and also less of an emphasis on what is coming up on the next show

Yeah I don't like that either. Used to be that just before the Dynamite main event you'd get a rundown of all the shows coming up from Excalibur, talking 100 miles a minute, and while it was kind of absurd it also made it feel like there was absolutely loads going on and coming up which made the shows feel exciting. I wish they'd do start doing that again.

[Supremo]

I guess that’s our Wild Card. Must have taken the same medicine as Chad Gable, to immediately recover from his own murder.

Ricochet vs. Jeff Jarrett, though? Bonkers pairing. I want to see that with my eyes! Jeff goes over, obviously. Smash a guitar over that Covidiot’s head!

Edited July 1 by Supremo
Ain’t he great.

[JLM]

Dynamite 05/06/24

Spoiler

Dynamite 05/06

MJF's promo was half good and half cringe. Bragging about smoking legal weed in Colorado is extremely uncool I must say, as was the attitude era "dry" joke.  He also seemed to realise he'd spent too long burying loads of guys and making fun of everything, so had to awkwardly course correct into listing RUSH's achievements. RUSH's promo was also weird, saying he's been here working and winning during MJF's absence when he has just barely returned from injury himself. I am a huge fan of RUSH, so I am sad that his first match back of any real substance is being fed to MJF. Would have liked to see him stomp for a while before taking a high profile loss like this. That said, it's a big role for him at least and the match should be excellent.  

Roderick Strong vignette was great. Serious enough to build towards his main event title shot but keeping enough of his silly heel character in there for it not to be a complete tonal shift. 

Fenix/Lethal/OC/O'Reilly was tremendous. So good to have Fenix back, though my favourite spot was O'Reilly countering the stundog millionaire into a cross arm breaker. Fenix/Ospreay is true dream match material. Loved Willow making the save post-match, and Taz calling Stokeley "a very very sketchy man". Still saddened that they broke up Stat/Willow as one of the most genuinely likeable babyface duos in wrestling, but a Willow/OC super team up is certainly on that level as well. Good people looking out for each other, you love to see it. 

Loved Tony Schiavone's deadpan "I don't want an entrance" on commentary when Excalibur made fun of him for not having theme music. 

Speaking of genuinely likeable babyfaces, was so happy to see Mark Briscoe get a notable win and a spot on the PPV. He's just the best. Commentary was absolutely hysterical for this match. Taz insisting on being put over, Schiavone commentator's cursing Briscoe, Taz bringing back "call the match, dude", Excalibur as cross-sell Jones, pure gold for the duration without detracting from a good match. Briscoe getting his heat back after Perry's promo first by air guitaring his own title and then sizing up how the TNT title would look paired with it was all brilliant stuff as well. 

Uncle Joe looking after Hook is one of my favourite things in wrestling right now. Having someone teach a young hotheaded babyface how to pick their battles and avoid the standard heel bait tactics is such a great idea. 

Bucks cutting The Acclaimed segment was a great dick move and also spared us an Acclaimed promo. Win win. 

Mone/Vaqeur vignette was well put together and explained the history well, but maaan Mercedes just cannot manage to sound like a human being when she speaks.  

Wasn't especially interested in the 8 man tag as it was missing Hechicero from the CMLL team. That said, it got really good in the second half and both Esfinge and Volador Jr had impressive moments and won me over by the end. Nice to see Yuta back and a nice moment for him to get the win and the props on his return. Funny that Copeland retired his title immediately, Yuta is out for 145 days and comes back still holding the ROH pure title. I actually watch ROH and I had forgotten that title existed. 

Tremendous vignette for Danny Garcia. Get a title on this man. 

Christian still schmoozing with the Bucks was promising. I love how the disingenuous EVP-speak sort of pours out of them regardless of context. Nicholas dropping a "good to see you guys" after the Acclaimed chewed them out, and Matthew's "let's have a great show" after throwing a paddy demanding a water bottle. 

Short and sweet promo from Swerve, good retort to MJF and I like that he keeps prodding the EVPs. 

Mariah/Saraya was great! Saraya I think did one pro wrestling move in the whole match and it did not matter in the slightest. I'm sure it wasn't what Tony had in mind when Saraya was signed, but I have ended up enjoying this run way more than I ever expected to. The double act with Harley Cameron is fun, she seems to be having a blast every time she's out there and she's a very effective mid-card heel. Have been a fan of everything from the Mariah/Toni/Shirakawa love triangle too. It's almost a shame Mariah will presumably still be turning heel at some point down the line, as on this run as Toni's superfan she has shown herself to be an incredibly sympathetic babyface. 

Wonderful promo from Danielson. Hard to call what twists and turns happen along the way, but all I want for Wembley now is him putting on yet another classic and winning a big match on that stage.

Cracking main event. Agreed with @Lorne Malvo about Roddy, what a sensational run he's on. Cracking TV matches against Haeger, London Lightning, Matt Menard and Lio Rush over the past few months, then when called upon to deliver big matches he's had belters against Ospreay, O'Reilly and now Swerve. 

Undisputed Kingdom is a horrendously shit faction (WardLOL) but the dynamic of Roddy Strong + two henchmen has been a thoroughly successful and valuable act. As @Supremo says, the whole thing made Swerve look like a million bucks, and the closing shot of Nana and Swerve dancing with the old lady was wonderful. 

Jericho also did a bunch of things. I liked the bit where Daddy Magic told Big Bill to shove it and Big Bill smiled. Bryan Keith also had a couple of amusing lines. Jericho was by far the worst bit of it. There were also too many of them and they got progressively less funny as the show went on. Terrible. 

Mostly an enjoyable show with some crap Jericho skits shoehorned in. 

Dynamite 12/06/24 

Spoiler

Dynamite 12/06

Nice hot opening to the show with Swerve looking cool as hell throughout. The bit about how he'll take the shot if Ospreay hesitates was a great line. Again, I love how he keeps taking shots at The Elite and is not bothered at all by having MJF, Ospreay and the Elite on his plate at the same time. He carries the title with pride and is ready to fight anyone at any time. Proper bad ass world champion stuff. Throwing the Reeboks into the crowd was an inspired move too. Bret Hart giving away his shades, but framed as a ballsy act of defiance in the face of four guys who just bragged about all the people they've put on the shelf. Okada cracks me up every time. 

Only downside of this segment was The Acclaimed sadly. I don't know exactly whose music I wanted to hear to run in and save Swerve, but I was definitely disappointed to hear theirs. 

Perry/Rhodes was a very effective brawl. Dustin shat the bed on Collision but this was a perfect use of him. He has always been great at drawing sympathy, the crimson mask/facepaint combination is an amazing visual and it was more good heat for Jack Perry. 

Mark Briscoe's conglomeration promo was absolutely outstanding. On the verge of derailing the entire time and yet it didn't, a freestyle rap, Renee somehow keeping the mic where it needed to be as he moved, Kyle and Willow being utterly delighted by it, then the cut to all three commentators reeling from how amazing it was. I rewound it and watched it again. Kyle O'Reilly needs to shave his head though. I don't know what is going on up there but he'd be better off without it. 

The icing on the cake for this bit was Renee asking OC how he's doing with the tone of a friend rather than an interviewer. It's just so lovely to see the other good people in AEW rallying around OC in his time of need because he is such a good dude. 

Maaan imagine being a jobber against RUSH when he has an added reason to be pissed off. God damn what an ass whuppin'. The brawl was fantastic. Tonnes of heat, completely chaotic, loved it. Also fun to see Nick Comoroto and Jacoby Watts helping to break them up. I still watch ROH guys. 

I thought OC had missed the OC cosplay kid in the front row during his entrance, then saw that he'd gone down to hang out with him for the duration of the other team's entrances. What a guy. Six man tag here was outrageous. What a wild ride. Felt like the babyface team was in competition to see who could do the best tag and I think they tied on that front. Phenomenal match. If we're struggling to fit all the major angles and best guys onto the card then definitely do more of these. The fake out on the Willow save following on from the end of Collision was great as well.

Shingo Takagi vignette took me back to the Dragongate days. Good times. Delightful addition to the Owen tournament there. 

Joe/Hook/Shibata is just the best thing. I thought Joe asking Shibata where he got the TV camera was a little meta joke, so it got me again when it cut to the ramp and he was out there actually holding a TV camera. This whole match/beatdown was a joy to watch. Hook doing the Joe walk away spot, Joe having the time of his life and the beautiful timing on the triple choke out reveal. Bloody marvelous. 

Mercedes/Zeuxis was a solid TV match. The finish is pants, the promos are bad, I'd still get rid of the slow motion lucha arm drags, buuut overall I think Mercedes has looked good in-ring in all three of her AEW matches. 

Short and sweet Toni Storm promo. Again, fully on board for the Toni/Mariah/Shirakawa triangle. Also "Wide load that holds the gold" was a hell of a line. 

TV time was god awful. Barely any reaction to Private Party beating him down either. If it wasn't for Quen's shooting star press being so beautiful it wouldn't have registered a pop. What a massive waste of time. 

Bang Bang Gang promo was excellent, so good to have Juice back. The "three quarters of the trios champions" thing is great. 

And now I see why Watts and Comoroto were there in their outfits. Another strong squash for Danny Garcia. Glad to see they're making a point of getting him on both shows even if it's only a quick one. Give this man a title before the end of 2024 or I will be very upset. 

I like the contrast between Swerve inviting all comers to step up and actively looking for more plates to spin, and Ospreay feeling a bit rushed and overwhelmed by trying to juggle everything at once. Already sows the seeds of how/why he might drop the International title and/or not get the job done at Forbidden Door. He's spreading himself too thin and perhaps doesn't have the psycho mindset of a Swerve to overcome it. 

Pac continues to be one of my favourite promos in wrestling right now. Incredible delivery and no fat on them whatsoever. Another brilliant addition to the Owen Cup bracket. What a tournament it's shaping up to be. 

Wonderful main event from Fenix and Ospreay, obviously. I'll say it again, it is a joy to have Rey Fenix back and I am savouring every moment because it always seems to be temporary. Every bit as magical a pairing as you'd expect and another belting match and statement win for Ospreay. The post-match stuff was excellent as well. Swerve was on fire for the whole episode. There had been a few weeks of TV, particularly immediately after the win, where Swerve didn't feel anywhere close to the most important guy on the show. He was presented and carried himself as such for this whole episode and it was brilliant. 
 
Very good episode of Dynamite there. 
 

Dynamite 19/06/24

Spoiler

Dynamite 19/06

Brilliant opening to the show with MJF and RUSH. Tremendous fiery brawl and the loudest I've heard a Dynamite crowd in some time. As a big fan of RUSH I am disappointed his return has been squash matches and then a clean loss in his first feud. It was a very high profile spot against the former world champion, but as ever I worry about the follow up. The Callis thing later on suggested they have something in mind at least. 

Hechicero vs MJF sounds tremendous. I'm happy to see Hechicero in any sort of featured singles match on the card and Max likes to show off his workrate pervert side given the opportunity. As a hold over to get Max on the show until his next proper direction starts after Forbidden Door season I'm all for it. 

The real Best Friends are the Conglomeration that picks you up when you're down. Another utterly incredible promo from Mark Briscoe. "Mr. Hey, Get Off My Cloud" as a nickname for Dante Martin is better than anything Top Flight and Andretti have ever said on the mic. Whenever they have a smaller/quieter crowd for TV, they need to put Mark Briscoe on the house mic at the start of the night to get everyone fired up. 

Swerve/Ospreay promo battle was outstanding. Hit Row/Hit List line from Ospreay was a good one. Also absolutely loved the fake ending to the segment. Ospreay stepping on the "who's house" was a brilliant mic drop but he'd already revealed which buttons Swerve can push to get in his head, and Swerve was never going to let him get away with that. The way this has progressed has been so well done. Last week they explicitly said they're still friends and Swerve thought the "you can't juggle the two worlds" angle would be enough to give Ospreay doubts. Ospreay had a great response to all of Swerve's previous barbs, so Swerve is back to the same tactics he used to break Hangman and they appear to be working. This build has been simple and highly effective, the match feels huge. 

Eight man tag was a riot. Kept a number of ongoing programmes moving, blistering action and showcase moments for everyone involved. This is the most I've enjoyed Dante Martin in ages, perfect environment for him to shine. The little flashes of ZSJ/OC were brilliant, I also loved in the standard "everyone takes out everyone" sprint stretch towards the end, it took three guys to take out Takeshita. Definitely happy for them to keep doing these on Dynamite to squeeze as many programs and top talents on the show as possible, but for Collision they should be mandatory.

Acclaimed vs The Bucks was good! Okada's bit was gold once again of course. The match was good too though; as much as The Acclaimed have cooled off, Bowens has always been a great sympathetic babyface in peril and everyone wants to see the EVPs lose. Had really good heat in the end. 

I hope Hook/Joe/Shibata's trios title win happens at Wembley so I can watch these lads do it live. Once again, the only good thing to come out of the Hook/Jericho nonsense was Joe and Shibata saving him from it. Love how petty they're being going after the Premier Athletes this many times. Also the "doom time" thing was very silly but it did make me chuckle. 

Toni/Mina/Mariah stuff was silly fun as usual. Mina's pronunciation is wild but credit to her for doing all of her live promos in English. Anna Jay joining the Saraya/Harley mean girls squad should be a permanent thing, she has no direction otherwise and she'd be a good fit with them. 

Is the Jamie Hayter at Wembley dream dead for another year then? Clutching at straws that she somehow ends up challenging Mercedes for however many belts she has at the time. 

Solid match between Statlander and Nyla Rose. I love Statlander boosting Stokeley up onto the ring steps during her entrance, definitely keep that.  Heartwarmingly big reaction for Nyla considering how little she's featured on the main shows. Very impressive strength from Statlander for the finish too. Cracking little promo from Willow too, liked her delivering a fuck-you promo using her classic smiley happy demeanour. 

The Learning Trio vs Private Party oooh boy how I do not care.

Daddy Magic getting so excited for Danny killing a guy that he stepped on the ring announcer was lovely stuff. Atta Boy, How bout it, TAKE A LOOK. Danny Garcia and Daddy magic hugging in the ring after Danny wins a title is going to make me well up. Pair of legends. Ospreay running in and getting himself into more shit in his quest to try prove he can juggle all this stuff at once was great storytelling. Unexpected way to get an MJF/Ospreay staredown out of nowhere too, and that "I don't give a crap about MJF" before he was cut off is ripe for a revisit.

Shingo/Danielson at Forbidden Door. Delicious.

Very good main event from Pac and Claudio as you'd expect. Happy to see Pac progress. 

An excellent episode backed by a nice lively crowd. 

Dynamite 26/06

Danny Garcia getting some shine to start the show is a beautiful thing. Seemed more like it was teeing up Ospreay vs MJF for All In, perhaps with MJF leaning more heel by that point. But still, Garcia getting his International Title shot confirmed and having a bit of conflict with MJF all feels like steps forward for him. 

Good that they cut to Swerve to address Ospreay offering up a world title shot before he even challenges for it. Not good that the live crowd couldn't hear him and were vocally complaining about it. 

Six man tag was fun, particularly enjoyed the Hiromu/Yuta part of it. Definitely more excited about Shingo/Danielson than Moxley/Naito. 

Rey Fenix vs Jay White was good but, as a big fan of both guys, it didn't quite come together and knock my socks off as I'd hoped. Still very solid though and I appreciated them removing all the seconds to let it be a proper match. 

Max Caster promo again, oh no. Bowens did fine though. Just not a feud of match I can bring myself to care about on what will already be an absurdly long Forbidden Door card. 

Mark Briscoe's promos are so utterly brilliant that he's giving Kyle O'Reilly a charisma boost by osmosis. The Conglomeration are an absolute delight. "You soooft, you Peppa Pig babeh!" 

Enjoyed the six woman tag, the Mina/Mariah/Storm stuff has been consistently entertaining to me every step of the way. Also as silly as it's been and as delayed as the bottle smash was in execution, this still managed to escalate things and build some somewhat serious heat between Storm and Shirakawa ahead of the PPV. Also, again, definitely keep Anna Jay with Cameron and Saraya going forward, she's a perfect fit with this group and she has nothing else going on. 

Mone with her signature robo-promo there. I'm here at Dynamite, but uh-where are ah-you-uuh? Jamie Hayter to beat her ass at Wembley. I live in completely baseless hope.

Enjoyed ZSJ/O'Reilly of course. Kyle winning on strikes but ZSJ ahead in the good old fashioned grapplin', which won out in the end. Lovely stuff. Orange Cassidy's commentary was both informative and insightful. Ishii coming out to back OC was a nice little moment. Again I appreciate OC reaping the good karma of being a stand up guy, with fellow babyfaces and old rivals alike coming to his aid. 

Loved the main event. Rivals trying to co-exist in a tag team is obviously incredibly played out, but the build for this title match has largely been excellent and they integrated into the match very effectively here. Ospreay wincing at Swerve taking out Kaun's arm was a great touch. Closing moment of the show was perfect. Swerve had already warned him once about putting his hands on the belt too. 

Not  as good as last week but still a strong episode with only Caster's Promo and of course The Learning Tree being truly rubbish. Also had excellent go-home moments for the two world title matches. 
 

[Gooner]

MJF vs. Rush was good fun, I can buy Rush as a bad guy, he portrays it well with his facial expressions and style in the ring. Be good to see him pushed more as compared to moat on this roster he is believable. It was good to see MJF back in the ring, he looked smooth, could do with him dropping the baby face gimmick and placating to the fans boys act very soon. Him against Ospreay at some point in the future feels like the biggest money match this company has to offer.