AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[Hannibal Scorch]

3 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Agree, he's got Johnny Gargano written all over him. A very solid talent, occasionally brilliant, but in need of something to help him break out and that's easier on NXT than it is to their main audience. 

Don't get petty as an rgument at all. Seems completely logical.

I think my thought process was that NXT is supposed to be building stars. So far Shawn Spears (remember him), Brian Pillman Jr/Lexis King and Ethan Page have jumped. All brought in with fanfare, although only Ethan has been at the top, but if you brought in another ex AEW wrestler to take the title off another ex AEW wrestler, where the developed talent? It will make the grass look green for people in AEW thinking of jumping, but thats more of an NXT Gold and Black way of doing things, rather than what they have been pushing NXT to be. That said, I could see them doing that with Ricky Starks more than Daniel Garcia.

[DavidB6937]

Was there fanfare for any of them?

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

Was there fanfare for any of them?

Well, I mean they were all given promo time and vignettes or with Page straight into a feud with the champ. 

[Dr. Alan Grant]

15 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Though sadly I predict we'll be seeing Garcia on NXT feuding with the likes of Ripley Bishop, Flash Harlem and Xander Klaxx before we know it.

It says a lot about NXT that I genuinely don’t know if these are real names or a piss take.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

It says a lot about NXT that I genuinely don’t know if these are real names or a piss take.

Xander Klaxx is a bloody tremendous name, and I would encourage any budding wrestler who reads that post to use it going forward.

[JLM]

Dynamite 25/09

Nige and Bryan was about as good as it could be given Nigel's limitations. I love that they got to do this as part of Bryan's last full time run. Some gorgeous chain wrestling, some iffy looking strikes and some big melodramatic story beats and memorable moments. This year of Danielson has been the best of pro wrestling. Finally got round to watching his match with Blue Panther from CMLL and it was just non stop joy from start to finish. This match reminded me of that. Nigel isn't anywhere NEAR as limited as Blue Panther, but just the general feeling that the "workrate" was by far the least important thing happening here. It just felt so right that it happened and it made me very happy to witness it. 
 
The idea of a cash-in being stopped due to a stolen pen made me laugh more than it should have. Exactly what Christian deserves. 

Roddy gave Hook one of his best singles matches to date, probably only second to the Joe match. It was such a standard match for the first half that I was wondering if it wasn't FTW rules for a bit. When they started using weapons and it confirmed it was indeed no-DQ, I did then question why Taven and Bennett didn't help Roddy at the end. Why wouldn't they, they cheat all the time! I think it highlighted why retiring the FTW title is the right move. What a lovely moment with him retiring it in New York and handing it back to his tearful old man. Wonderful. 

Tag title match was complete insanity. Fletcher and Ospreay against opponents who have zero interest in reining in their videogame spotfest lunatic instincts and it made for one hell of a spectacle. Huge drama, great heat and mind-blowing action. The false finish on the roll up after the belt shot from the outside was the best bit for me. 

I like the second bash at a Conglomeration shirt! I'm tempted. Briscoe's promo was, yet again, amazing. OC explaining to Rocky how the end of a Conglomeration promo works was funny. 

MVP was a brilliant surprise! As @Hannibal Scorch says. I'm more interested in him being used to elevate some new/returning guys than Lashley. Hobbs sprung to mind immediately for me too. Private Party have a great reason to look for some management right now as well. Could even do something like the gigantic EJ Nduka from ROH as the muscle if it's not Lashley. 

Willow mixing it up in the world title picture at last was great. She's not taking it off Mariah any time soon, but I'd rather she moves up into that conversation and leaves TBS behind permanently. Much better stuff for Mariah this week. Solid defence against Sakazaki to start. I'd love Sakazaki to stick around for a while, such a great babyface. Also got the big story development of Mina returning and being horrified at what her friend has become. 

Main event was just brilliant. Loved everything about this. "You can't kill him!" is a phenomenal chant. Again, you can't beat Darby's connection with the audience. It was a typical East Coast wrestling fan chant, but instead of them making fun of the show or showing how clever they were, they were backing Darby and getting at Moxley for being unable to put him away. It was the story of the match being chanted out loud.

Exceptional performances from both guys. Darby literally foaming at the mouth trying to hold onto his title shot for dear life, Moxley a mixture of admiration and frustration. His little shrugs and expressions were brilliant, like "Yes Darby, this is exactly what I wanted to see from you, but seriously I need this title shot for this mission I'm on so please pack it in". Awesome stuff, and even with Shafir interfering and Mox jumping him from the opening bell, Darby proved that he is on Mox's level. Darby beating him down the line is going to be absolute magic. Danielson doing the Cardiff closing promo again was great, Private Party and Komander getting their shots in again was great too. What warmed my heart the most, though, was the thunderous "Yuta!" chant. Cannot wait to see how that unfolds on Collision. This Mox angle and all of the associated story threads are hitting for me at the moment, it's cracking stuff. 

Excellent show that. 

Edited September 28, 2024 by JLM

[LaGoosh]

10 hours ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

It says a lot about NXT that I genuinely don’t know if these are real names or a piss take.

I'm pretty sure they're real.

[CDM]

Hello. I joined the forum a while back but haven't posted till now. I hope everyone is well. I really liked dynamite this week. Didn't think there was a bad match on the show. What dies everyone on here think of dynamite? I think it's been a lot better this year.

[RedTwoster]

17 minutes ago, CDM said:

Hello. I joined the forum a while back but haven't posted till now. I hope everyone is well. I really liked dynamite this week. Didn't think there was a bad match on the show. What dies everyone on here think of dynamite? I think it's been a lot better this year.

Welcome! I think it’s improved significantly recently and it’s a fun watch. It’s a shame to see them perform to half-empty buildings though, and I hope they find a way to remedy that.

[Hannibal Scorch]

10 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

Welcome! I think it’s improved significantly recently and it’s a fun watch. It’s a shame to see them perform to half-empty buildings though, and I hope they find a way to remedy that.

I think the next 12 months will be interesting. Money is tight, WWE have been on a big hot streak, but the ticket prices have been going up hugely (£50k for Ringside for Summerslam 2025). So either WWE will keep selling well, and AEW will be impacted because less disposable income from wrestling fans, or they maybe seen as a cheaper alternative. The shows of late have been much improved and seemingly well received, but they need to bring back lapsed fans to live events.

[CDM]

9 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

Welcome! I think it’s improved significantly recently and it’s a fun watch. It’s a shame to see them perform to half-empty buildings though, and I hope they find a way to remedy that.

The thing is lower attendances doesn't necessarily mean lower quality.  There can be lots of reasons. Take the Danielson match this week. Good match good sorry. But unless you were a ROH fan years ago you probably wouldn't know to much about it. Looked like a good crowd at grand slam though. 

[CDM]

1 minute ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

I think the next 12 months will be interesting. Money is tight, WWE have been on a big hot streak, but the ticket prices have been going up hugely (£50k for Ringside for Summerslam 2025). So either WWE will keep selling well, and AEW will be impacted because less disposable income from wrestling fans, or they maybe seen as a cheaper alternative. The shows of late have been much improved and seemingly well received, but they need to bring back lapsed fans to live events.

I think the casual fans is the main issue. If I remember rightly before covid the main event for wrestlemania was going to be Reigns v Goldberg. A lot of fans didn't like it but some pointed out they will still go or buy the ppv anyway. And it would attract more casual fans. They being said I like the way Tony Khan does what the aew fans who watch all the time want and its not all about money. And I wouldn't want aew to be all about making money. But I do think he could maybe do both a bit more. 

[Jesse]

It's tempting to look at the quality of the product and ask whether it appeals, but by all accounts the thing that's really missing is local promotion. Some of their decent attendances early one could just as easily have been that they ran a fairly tight loop of areas so built up an audience there that knew it was happening and were interested in it.

Whereas doing a much bigger loop now, with new towns/cities, you're not going to fill it with travelling fans so you need to make sure you're maximising your local audience and it's at a price point they're willing to pay (I've no idea how AEW tickets are priced vs other live events, so they might be doing a good job here tbf). I know criticism at the start of them widening this out was that if you weren't already watching AEW then you wouldn't know they were in your city, and I'd suspect that's still the case given the way their attendances are looking.

[LaGoosh]

6 hours ago, Jesse said:

I know criticism at the start of them widening this out was that if you weren't already watching AEW then you wouldn't know they were in your city, and I'd suspect that's still the case given the way their attendances are looking.

I lurk on a few other forums and Reddits that are primarily US fans and it sounds pretty clear that local promotion is basically zero with even hardcore fans not being aware there was a show happening near them until days before or after the show happened. It's a real problem they need to address. Additionally AEW typically seem to announce shows about 6-8 weeks in advance which is just too short notice. Shows should be announced months in advance! 

They need to funnel that new TV deal cash into marketing and merchandise. It's their two biggest gaps.

[DavidB6937]

Tony doesn't seem that bothered though. And if he's happy with the way things are going then I can't imagine things will change a massive amount. It's still his plaything at the end of the day. He's succeeding in some areas and that seems to be enough for him.