AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[LaGoosh]

1 minute ago, RedTwoster said:

I actually love this idea, has it ever been done before? I can’t recall something like this, but it’s a great idea. It’s always the younger star being manipulated by the older wrestler before turning babyface - I can’t think of an example of the opposite (or similar to the opposite). But it’s a great idea.

Hire me, Tony!

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Hire me, Tony!

Careful what you wish for brother, you'll get sucked into the vortex. 

Edited October 28, 2024 by Lion_of_the_Midlands
Typo, but sacked in the vortex could be funnier. Fat thumbs today. Double fucking edit.

[The King Of Swing]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

A booking formula based around building someone for a few weeks to lose to an established star (who doesn't move up the rung from where they are) then putting them on the shelf before doing it again a few months later is really not a winning formula for building up your roster. 

This in particular has been what has killed the woman's division, for me. 

A routine of building a challanger up for a couple of shows, losing to the champion and then either going back to where they previously were or just vanishing off of TV.

Of course it happens with the men but with the women having such limited airtime in comparison, it becomes much more noticeable.

While I'm at it, basically making Anna Jay's entire character 'I spent a month in Japan' isn't exactly a winning formula. If anything it further highlights how little character and personality she actually has.

Now watch her get a shock win next week?

On one hand I want to praise AEW for resisting immediately bringing Toni back, but on the other her absence has really highlighted just how important she had become.

[MachoLibre]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

- the general production/presentation needs a big change up. Decades of WWE TV has convinced so many people that wrestling can only be presented one way. They need to come up with their own look and way of doing things. So much weird dead air and bad WWE style production of backstage stuff. I'd like them to adopt the look and feel if their online stuff to the TV product. Make it more realistic and gritty looking, copy mainstream sports, experiment. The current vibe just doesn't have any juice at all.

Don't disagree with this overall point, but interesting seeing you say as such. WWE experimented with something quite different with the recent Cody/Roman Atlanta piece. And you shit all over it (I think), saying something along the lines of 'at what point does wrestling not become wrestling' (apologies if I'm confusing you with someone else). Pro-wrestling and it's presentation constantly evolve (for better or worse), there aren't really any etched in stone rules, rules constantly get broken and eventually just accepted.

I agree, I'd love a completely fresh and different approach to really provide a WWE alternative, as there's really endless possibilities to how pro-wrestling can be presented, beyond the WWE way, because of those loose rules. I want to be fully into AEW, but their current approach doesn't engage me at all, quite the opposite. Which makes AEW so frustrating because there's so clearly so much potential there. I'm sure you loved Lucha Underground, I did too and personally really took to it as it nailed an approach to wrestling I'd long imagined and envisioned. That was a completely different style of presentation that broke many of the standard rules that the larger audience are accustomed to and it was all the more exciting for it.

I'm not sure AEW will make any significant changes on that front though. Interestingly, they find themselves in a similar position to where WWE was in 2019. Where AEW arrived in 2019 and brought about changes to WWE that have lead to its current boom and popularity, AEW currently have a fairly cold product, struggling to fill arenas and sell tickets, but have big money coming in through big TV contracts so will be turning a profit regardless, much as WWE were 5 years ago. So probably don't have significant enough incentive to force change. Also much like pre-20's WWE, AEW is booked to cater to an audience of one...well, maybe two. In Tony and Dave.

[LaGoosh]

4 minutes ago, MachoLibre said:

Don't disagree with this overall point, but interesting seeing you say as such. WWE experimented with something quite different with the recent Cody/Roman Atlanta piece. And you shit all over it (I think), saying something along the lines of 'at what point does wrestling not become wrestling' (apologies if I'm confusing you with someone else)

Yeah I said that. I'm not sure what your point is here to be honest in relation to my point?

And yes I definitely was a huge Lucha Underground fan. The key reason ehy that worked and the Cody/Reigns Atlanta piece didn't was because in LU that stuff was firmly established, consistent and logical for that show. And consistency and logic are key. In WWE it made no sense because that style wasn't consistent with the rest of the show or make any sense with the established internal logic.

I agree they are unlikely to change the current approach because that's just what people seem to think wrestling just looks like now but you can go to loads of different promotions around the world or in wrestling'a history for examples of different aesthetics and ways to portray wrestling. I hope AEW finds it's own path rather than looking like WWE-lite as it does now. 

[PogueMahone88]

7 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

- the general production/presentation needs a big change up. Decades of WWE TV has convinced so many people that wrestling can only be presented one way. They need to come up with their own look and way of doing things. So much weird dead air and bad WWE style production of backstage stuff. I'd like them to adopt the look and feel if their online stuff to the TV product. Make it more realistic and gritty looking, copy mainstream sports, experiment. The current vibe just doesn't have any juice at all.

This is my biggest hangup with Dynamite. Everything feels the same as RAW/Smackdown - same colouring, same style ramp, same titontron, same hard cam.

Even tweaking it a little could give the whole thing a fresher feel.

Take Double or Nothing 2021 for example - give me that.

[unfitfinlay]

I really wish AEW would sack off the “all the stories are written by different writers” thing and get back to everyone writing the show as a whole.

I just find it really noticeable during the show. It feels like the majority of the stories exist in a vacuum, with no crossover. There’s some good stuff in there but nothing really flows, it takes me out of the show and I find myself caring a lot less.

It also leads to awkward stuff like Daniel Garcia not being arsed about MJF anymore or Swerve and The Acclaimed, who were big on defending AEW from The Elite, not being arsed about the BCC taking over.

Also they need to put a long ban on “Heel tries to recruit a babyface backstage who doesn’t want to be recruited” storylines. It feels like AEW has done loads of them and they’ve almost always been shite. 

[Guest]

I really like AEW. I think a lot of characters have evolved really well helping them stay fresh, their big angles tend to be great, they've got a good variety in their matches and they still have lots of fresh matchups. I think the Moxley Crue story is really interesting and forcing a lot of guys who were getting a bit stale to evolve.  Dynamite is my only appointment viewing every week. Really enjoying the product and looking forward to the future

[LaGoosh]

13 hours ago, unfitfinlay said:

I really wish AEW would sack off the “all the stories are written by different writers” thing and get back to everyone writing the show as a whole.

I think this is how writing rooms in TV in general tend to work though. You give different writers their own episodes/segments to lead on.

It's the job of the showrunner/executive producer, or in wrestling's case the booker/head of creative, to then weave that all together so it makes sense as a cohesive whole.

[Lorne Malvo]

A couple of little things I liked on last weeks show;

- Bang Bang Gang haven't suddenly turned into idiot babyfaces overnight - it felt unique and fresh to see Juice and Switchblade do the heelish thing of 'surround the ring then doubleteam Hangman' instead of just rushing into a beating. Colton Gunn not waiting around to get his revenge was really good too.

- Shelton Benjamin channeling suplex city-era Brock Lesnar.

- Kyle Fletcher's promo dragged a little but I liked it for the most part, and I thought his ad-lib response to the 'wrap it up' chants about Callis buying him all the TV time he wants was a really good on-the-spot reply.

- Absolutely everything to do with Orange Cassidy/Chuck Taylor.

- Christian Cage/Hook officially starting.

- The Private Party stipulation adds stakes to a match I wouldn't have cared about otherwise, and it does feel like it's either time to see what they can do with the belts or just split them up. I'm fine with either option.

Things that were shit;

Absolutely everything to do with Jericho:

- Kyle/OC having to leave the BCC welcoming commitee to watch Briscoes match, then neither of them getting involved when Keith and Bill interefered? Made no sense.

- I love Ishii, but him returning wasn't the huge moment it was presented as and shouldn't have overshadowed a title change

If Jericho winning the ROH title leads to him being shunted from Dynamite and only appearing on HonorClub for a few months that would be fantastic, however we all know that's not going to happen. Going forwards I'd happily have Mark Briscoe dethrone one of AEWs 3 heel InterTNTNental champions.

This leads on to my next point that it's a massively heel-heavy company at the moment - every title is held by a heel (and in addition, most of the ROH titles are held by heels too). There's a lot of 'heat' segments recently. AEW is at it's best when it's a feel-good happy-ending promotion, and obviously you have to put the legwork in to get to the happy ending, but I really wish the good guys would win the odd match/feud/title at the moment.

Things I don't give a single solitary shit about;

- MJF/ Cole / Undisputed Kingdom. Had genuinely forgot that segment happened until I read this thread back.

Edited October 29, 2024 by Lorne Malvo

[2Xtreme_lives]

16 hours ago, PogueMahone88 said:

This is my biggest hangup with Dynamite. Everything feels the same as RAW/Smackdown - same colouring, same style ramp, same titontron, same hard cam.

Even tweaking it a little could give the whole thing a fresher feel.

Take Double or Nothing 2021 for example - give me that.

I really agree with this, I miss the unique venues and designs during the early years of AEW, the one on the Jericho Cruise, Beach Break, Dailys place. Especially with smaller crowds these days i love for them to experiment a bit more

[Chris B]

52 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

- Bang Bang Gang haven't suddenly turned into idiot babyfaces overnight - it felt unique and fresh to see Juice and Switchblade do the heelish thing of 'surround the ring then doubleteam Hangman' instead of just rushing into a beating. Colton Gunn not waiting around to get his revenge was really good too.

I also saw someone making the point somewhere that Hangman bragging about giving Austin a concussion so bad that he still didn't remember his brother's name was particularly heelish considering Hangman made a big emotional speech after his own concussion (at Moxley's hands) about briefly struggling to remember his son's name.

It's a bit like, at the start of his heel run, the wonderful and funny touch about how Hangman made a big speech about how he was honest and would never lie, then faked an injury and justified that 'he had to do it'.

He's a brilliant hypocrite, not least because he's doubling down on so many things he made audiences care about when he was a face.

[organizedkaos]

Catching up on on last weeks TV and it's possible the John Silver and the rest of the Dark Order need to seriously have a think about what they're doing.  Twice in two weeks they've done things to actively distract from the big serious mega plotline thats going on. No issue with comedy in wrestling but trying to make meme moments in the big major crossover plotline just undercuts what's by far the best thing AEW is doing now. I like them as wrestlers, comedy can be great and mega heel vs. scrappy underdog comedic guys could be a great storyline... but it requires sincerity (look at how well they've grown Orange Cassidy).

There's no sincerity in nunchucks and comedy running moments to end a scene, makes the bad guys look less scary and lessens any sense you want the good guys to get what they want because you don't believe they want it. Sincerity mate, 'tis the season, the Great Pumpkin would not approve.

 

 

[LaGoosh]

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Kyle/OC having to leave the BCC welcoming commitee to watch Briscoes match, then neither of them getting involved when Keith and Bill interefered? Made no sense.

- I love Ishii, but him returning wasn't the huge moment it was presented as and shouldn't have overshadowed a title change

Yeah and it was Rocky Romero who came out to help which just highlighted the logic gap of OC/Kyle not coming out. Also Romero is fucking shite and should never be on TV ever.

If you're having a surprise appearance immediately after a title win the general rule is that it should be someone who is a bigger star than the person who just lost the belt. Anything less and it's a wet fart - which is what happened when Ishii came out. I'm assuming Jericho has the title back because they're trying to shop ROH TV around again.

[Supremo]

Well that settles that before he’s even made TV. Do not let Bobby Lashley have any creative control whatsoever. Absolute moron. Imagine saying this the week that you’re likely making the big debut. Keep your receipt, Tony.