AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[JLM]

I read Mercedes has been made the actual CEO of AEW, and every time you see Tony Khan now it’s actually Mercedes wearing a suit made from his skin. She is also the real president of New Japan, and the reason Tanahashi hobbles about is because she keeps her spare wigs in his knees. You didn’t hear it from me though. 

[WyattSheepMask]

15 minutes ago, JLM said:

I read Mercedes has been made the actual CEO of AEW, and every time you see Tony Khan now it’s actually Mercedes wearing a suit made from his skin. She is also the real president of New Japan, and the reason Tanahashi hobbles about is because she keeps her spare wigs in his knees. You didn’t hear it from me though. 

Hey man, I’m all for something new & different in my wrestling. Been years since there has been a decent disguise used

[poetofthedeed]

I'm not saying I'd agree, but if you wanted to argue for Jeff Jarrett having a spot on the pro wrestling Mount Rushmore, I'd listen to your case. Majestic Babyface performance last night.

[JLM]

49 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Hey man, I’m all for something new & different in my wrestling. Been years since there has been a decent disguise used

 

Also unrelated to the above mystery wrestler, but I listened to Dalton Castle on a podcast recently and he pitched many gimmick ideas. For Dalton Castle he wanted his entrances to get increasingly lengthy and elaborate with musical/dance numbers, to the point he’d be too blown up to compete and get pinned as soon as the match started. Would watch that. 
 

Another one was The Starving Artist Danny Picasso. He’d cover himself in paint during his entrance and put his own canvas down on the mat at the start. He’d then get destroyed by the opponent and sell the resulting artwork during intermission. 

He and RJ City also pitched a feud where the blow off was an empty arena match half way through the show. So during intermission they’d send everyone out to the lobby, then one of them would poke their head out the door and report the outcome. 

I’m surprised PWG didn’t do either of these. 

 

 

 

Edited July 4 by JLM

[The Gaffer]

Really fun episode of Dynamite. 

Good lord, the creeps shouting out stuff during Britt's promo was excruciating though. It seems to be particularly bad in AEW due to what I imagine is a combination of smaller houses, louder crowd mics and the more negative side of hardcore fandom. 

I was watching it through my laptop's in-built speakers and it was all over the promo. I know it's wrestling but hearing people hurl their funnies and "YOU SUCK!" when someone's talking about having a transient ischemic attack is stuff from the sewers. 

They're in dire need of a quick trigger finger on the mixing board to just fade this stuff down until a chant is meant to be picked up. It happens for the backstage promos too. You could barely hear Mariah May and Storm's segment. 

[JLM]

Oh fucking hell yeah that was the worst bit of the night. Was actually furious listening to those complete turds. The sort of people I dreaded encountering at Indy shows. 

[LaGoosh]

I won't do a big breakdown of this very good show but will point out the main thing that made it good was it felt like the whole show was top stars interacting with eachother and being in eachothers orbit all night long. So often AEW TV feels like this weird place where all the top acts are in their own universes, they need to be smashing against eachother constantly. 

With this roster depth every Dynamite should be up to the standard of this one. No excuses!

[HarmonicGenerator]

59 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I won't do a big breakdown of this very good show but will point out the main thing that made it good was it felt like the whole show was top stars interacting with eachother and being in eachothers orbit all night long. So often AEW TV feels like this weird place where all the top acts are in their own universes, they need to be smashing against eachother constantly. 

With this roster depth every Dynamite should be up to the standard of this one. No excuses!

And this show didn’t even have the World Champion on it!

I loved that Dynamite. PAC and Danielson was terrific, Willow and Mark Briscoe continue to be the best of babyfaces, a really fun six man tag that as many have said, even Jericho didn’t ruin, Wembley is taking shape with Baker/Mone and Toni/Mariah, Jeff Jarrett broke my damn heart to the point I almost sobbed at the result, Hangman is back and I’d be WORRIED if I were Swerve dear lord the cowboy might kill him, Ospreay has completely won me over since he’s been in AEW, MJF is a horrible horrible man and I can’t believe I ever liked him, and then my heart completely broke hearing a bloodied Daddy Magic saying “I’m sorry, Danny..” as the show faded to black.

Brilliant episode. 

Edited July 4 by HarmonicGenerator
J-A-ha ha

[Cousin Jim Bob]

Jeff Jarrett doing an enzuigiri and the sharpshooter were incredible hope spots and fantastic tributes to Owen. Loved that match. Grizzled vet trying to win in tribute to his friend but runs into a returning lunatic on his own personal revenge mission.

Hangman telling The Bucks to get the hell away from him after was a great layer to this as well.

As others have mentioned this week was really bloody good. Felt like everything was kicking in to gear to start a bunch of huge feuds for All In.

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

MJF is a horrible horrible man and I can’t believe I ever liked him, and then my heart completely broke hearing a bloodied Daddy Magic saying “I’m sorry, Danny..” as the show faded to black.

Brilliant episode. 

he’s so great

 

[Hannibal Scorch]

They need to show this stuff on TV

 

I’m calling it now. He declares himself into the next Owen Cup as part of a retirement tour.

[Lorne Malvo]

After a rocky few weeks of Forbidden Door season, AEW is back baby. Cracking Dynamite.

[JLM]

Dynamite 03/07/24

Loved the opening so much. I wasn't planning to stay up and watch the whole show live, but as soon as I saw my boys Garcia and Daddy Magic opening the show and it was made clear it would be the main event, I was hooked. It's a classic wrestling TV show formula to book end the show with the most important story, and it's a classic for a reason. The foreshadowing of the ending was not subtle. MJF shutting down Garcia reminding him about the Wembley offer, Daddy Magic giving MJF the seal of approval. I didn't care though. Danny Garcia main eventing the show for a title and mixing it up with Ospreay and MJF in any capacity is exactly what I want to see. Daddy Magic is one of the funniest guys in wrestling and yet, when he gets serious, he's one of the few who can make me well up too. 

Tremendous opener from Pac and Danielson. Fantastic heat throughout, amazing chemistry, got a "holy shit" chant at the opening bell but managed to completely live up to that expectation. I was 100% sure Danielson was winning, but he is so good that I still worried for a moment when he was in the brutaliser at the end. Belting match; the show was so full of big emotional moments that it felt like a distant memory by the end of the night, but it was so, so good. Any other week this would have been a worthy main event and comfortably the highlight of the show. 

Willow's promo might have been my favourite one of hers yet. The closing SMILE ANYWAAAY was so triumphant I want the t-shirt. 

Mark Briscoe has been knocking out some of the best promos ever over the past few weeks too, so glad he got to go out in front of this crowd and do it live. One of the best babyfaces in pro wrestling. Testament to that is Okada getting a 100% heel reaction for beating him down, even in front of this sicko-heavy crowd. Only down note is, once again, Acclaimed and Daddy Ass being the people to make the save. This is not the CONGLOMERATION we need for blood and guts. 

Liked the little subtle downplaying of Mariah from Toni Storm. Did this big supportive promo on Mariah's behalf but still dropped in "if you lose I'd still love you". Juuust a little bit of hubris/underestimating of Mariah sprinkled in there. 

WIllow and Stat up next. Was very excited indeed for this one and happy to hear the crowd agreed. The show just felt so stacked at this point, not just in terms of star power/name value, but also with well built ongoing stuff that I'm invested in. I made a little involuntary squeal of delight and woke up my dog when Willow pounced her down the entrance ramp. Not the first time this episode made me scare the dog in the early hours of the morning. Always a glowing endorsement of wrestling TV when that happens. As hesitant as I was about the Stat heel turn, the big upside is that these two are a perfect match for each other as opponents. Another great little taster, hope they get to go balls out in a street fight before this feud is over. Stokeley and Stat to cost Willow in the finals to give her an out to lose to Mariah then? 

Fucking hell Jeff Jarrett having nothing to say was the BEST promo. 

As has been covered, the utter scumbags heckling Britt Baker during the first bit of her promo were the low point of the entire show for me. Dickheads. Ooh boy business picked up when she got on to Mercedes though. All great points, and the comparison between the artificial CEO and organic DMD chants was spot on. Mercedes buddying up with The Elite AT LAST. She could not be a more natural fit to be rubbing shoulders with the EVPs. She was playing heel for the Willow feud as well, definitely one of the worst casualties of Forbidden Door season as she had to exist in limbo to promote a cold match with no heel/babyface divide instead of diving into the heel turn. 

This was perfect though. Coming into the scene with the obnoxious horn honking, schmoozing with the Bucks, not giving a shit about the negative reaction because she loves herself so very much. Having her celebration being set up around Britt still in the ring was an inspired move. What a complete arsehole. Loved it. This is how you use Mercedes. She's waltzed in coasting off her WWE name value, acts like she owns the place, calls herself the CEO for god's sake, the ultimate villain for the AEW originals is the most natural role for her. It even makes her awful delivery more palatable. She sounds like a stereotypical vapid mean girl type, which works infinitely better when that's the role she's meant to be playing. Again I worry about a match between these two, but with the right build (and this was a fantastic start!) I think the heat at Wembley could carry it very well. Outside of the segment where Willow put her through the table, this for me was easily the best thing they've done with Mercedes. 

Jericho/Hook/Shibata (Lads PLEASE name the team) vs Cage of Agony was a cracking TV match. The triple choke out finish is so awesome, I need to see them win the trios gold with that at some point please. Oh, also, obligatory "I bloody love Toa Liona" comment. It makes the Jericho vortex all the more maddening, because this was such a delightful taster of what this trio COULD be doing. These guys against Bullet Club Gold, House of Black, BCC, The Patriarchy... so much fun we could be having. Shibata and Hook being written off for a bit so they can presumably return to challenge Jericho and pals for All In is very disappointing. 

Ooh boy, The Last Outlaw vs The Hangman. What to even say about this. Jarrett's face, his walk, even the understated version of his signature pose with the guitar. This was a masterful performance from the moment he got out there until the end. That sensational promo from Collision had already set this up perfectly. Hangman's story has been told brilliantly over several years. The *only* obstacle this match had to overcome in my mind was getting past the Hangman return pop. He is the main character of AEW, we love him, wrestling fans in general love a return. There was a "Cowboy shit" chant at the start, then they killed that dead within about 10 seconds and after that it was pure pro wrestling magic.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being *this* invested in a Jeff Jarrett singles match in 2024. I have loved everything about his AEW run, but man this was something else. As Cousin Jim Bob mentioned, his two biggest hope spots being Owen tributes was perfect. The merging of real life emotions and history with fiction that only pro wrestling can provide. I've seen people complaining that this "exploited" Jarrett's friendship with Owen, but I thought Jeff put on the best possible tribute to his friend. Unhinged Hangman was also superb of course. AEW is indeed at its best when Hangman is around. Between this and his SEETHING interaction with The Bucks backstage, it feels like he's been sat in a dark room rocking back and forth thinking about murdering Swerve the whole time he's been away. I love the new theme song for this part of Hangman's story too:

But yeah, this was my match of the night. Crazy to say when we had my boy Danny Garcia mixing it up with Ospreay in a belting main event *AND* Pac vs Danielson. This match got me more emotional than anything else on the show though, and that is the wrasslin' at its finest. 

Speaking of the main event, it was phenomenal. This is the first time I've seen an AEW crowd in its entirety willing Danny Garcia to win as much as I do, which was doubly impressive up against the universally beloved Ospreay. As I said before, regardless of outcome, Garcia being at the top of the show challenging the Golden Goose with MJF in the mix is the most important he's ever felt on the show. The wait goes on, but a big step forward has been taken. The ending was further telegraphed by Daddy Magic not being on commentary. If Daddy Magic isn't on comms when Danny wins his title I will be fucking outraged. Running out of superlatives for Ospreay's AEW run too. One thing that strikes me is how incredibly selfless he seems to be. I don't think he can help himself trying to put on a fucking ridiculous epic banger with everyone he faces, so even on this winning streak he's had he has elevated every opponent he's faced even though he's beaten them all. 

Post match was amazing. It wasn't that surprising, but the execution of it, MJF's completely deranged performance and just how far they went... it was sensational. In the short term as I suspected it's being used to set up Ospreay vs Full Villain MJF for All In, but it genuinely feels like an angle that could get Danny Garcia over the hump at long last. He lost the big match yet again, but this was a giant step forward for him and I am already very excited for his return. 

What an episode. Red hot crowd and a red hot show, and huge moments for some of the wrestlers I am the MOST invested in, particularly Danny Garcia of course. As I said before, one of my favourite episodes of Dynamite ever. As LaGoosh says, there is no excuse for an episode like this to be a one off. This show had no Swerve, no Orange Cassidy, no Takeshita, no Moxley, no Christian Cage, no Bullet Club Gold, no FTR, no Lucha Bros, no RUSH, no House of Black, barely any Toni Storm ....Not even counting currently unavailable people like Kingston, Copeland, Omega, Hobbs... The depth of talent is unreal. Basically there is no universe where Bryan Keith vs Boulder should be booked on any AEW card ever. 

Edited July 5 by JLM

[BomberPat]

A reminder that WWE never wanted to give 2.0 any promo time in NXT because they thought they were "too wrestling". If it weren't for Jeff Jarrett, I would say that "somebody call his mother, somebody call my wife" was the most genuinely real thing I'd heard in a TV wrestling promo in years.

It's a crowded field, but in terms of return on investment and surpassing expectations, 2.0 might be one of the best signings AEW ever made.

[Lorne Malvo]

30 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

 

It's a crowded field, but in terms of return on investment and surpassing expectations, 2.0 might be one of the best signings AEW ever made.

There's a fun topic to be had there but I'm far too lazy to create it.

but yeah, I'd argue that for the most part, AEW's less-hyped signings (your 2.0s, your Mark Briscoes, your Roderick Strongs) have been much better value than their 'big' signings i.e your Adam Coles and Keith Lees of the world. 

Edited July 5 by Lorne Malvo