AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[The Gaffer]

7 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I know there will be a lot of "wait and see!" type comments but for a guy that has come to AEW to prove himself and that he was held down in WWE etc etc etc, is presenting him as a pussy the best way? I'd rather he had no personality at all, didn't talk and just unleashed himself in the matches and showed his 'true' skill that we apparently missed previously.

I think this is the standard WWE-held-me-back line guys have been coming out with since the mid 2000s when they started jumping to TNA. 

I'd bang that drum too - it's a good sales pitch - but it's often a work and shouldn't dictate how you're actually booked by the company you're signing for. 

There's no end of guys whose schtick is that they show it all in the ring. Chickenshits exist in real life, so I don't mind somebody I've never particularly been invested in getting lumped with that role. 

[tiger_rick]

Ricochet showed more personality in that 30 seconds with Skiavone before MVP's music hit than I've ever seen from him before. It's certainly more interesting than any match he could have. The fact he didn't join the Hurt Business is a bit of a Swerve. Call me interested.

Not sure any WWE discussion is required, really. His place in AEW isn't any different to where it was in WWE. But he's got a good deal and is getting paid. AEW have a talented guy on their hands who brings some name recognition. WWE cleared a spot in the mid-card and an opportunity opened up for someone else. This sort of move is bloody fantastic for wrestling. Same as Penta, Fenix and eventually Starks leaving AEW. I hope they all move and they all get paid.

[Guest]

It's interesting to see how they've pivoted the Death Riders, lately. Originally it was all "WE WANT THE YOUNG GUYS TO STEP UP" but that seems to have been dropped after Private Party can't get booked since winning the tag belts Now the story seems to be that these dumb dumbs can't put their egos aside, and Mox will win with divide and conquer. If you want to beat the Death Riders, you'll need to properly come together and trust people to do so. What's interesting about that is they're doing their best to not have Hangman and Moxley come together much, which suggests that a good long term direction. Will this be the way that Hangman learns to love again? 

I still hate Darby Allin. I hate his promos, I hate his gimmick, I hate his reckless attempts to kill himself every match, but I can't argue that that wasn't a banger. Exactly what AEW is best at. 

The C2 is banging again this year, really interested to see how it ends up going. At this point I'm assuming Darby faces Fletcher in the finals, but who knows? But either way, it's giving me Osprey vs Brody King and Shelton Benjamin vs OKADA. What the hell is that going to look like? That's my kind of wrestling.

Small thing, but maybe show the standings after the highlights and not before? 

As for Ricochet....yeah, he got properly geeked out here. I honestly wondered if it was a Hurt Syndicate face turn. Looked a total dweeb, but he IS a total dweeb,  and if it leads to some cool matches with Swerve I'm ok with it. 

[LaGoosh]

47 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

Genuinely struggling to think of a 4 way that stood out to me

The only good one I can think of is Brock/Roman/Joe/Braun. That ruled. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Surely you guys sre forgetting the Wrestlemania main event with a McMahon in every corner...

Ospreay v Allin was cracking, another in the long list of Ospreay bangers this year, though that may be underselling Darby's part which I don't mean to do. He more than held his own. I know that both are destined for the world title at some point but neither need a title to validate them. 

Ricochet I don't even care enough about to call Pinochet anymore. 

The whole Death Riders thing is still shite, the whole angle has been a waste of time and no-one is better of because of it. 

I didn't think it was a photoshop of Adam Cole, I thought he'd been on the gas and hitting the weights. Max's suit was a thing of beauty but he has to be careful as its only a small step from that to becoming Rabbi Rollins. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

Ricochet seems like one of those guys who has zero personality, and has seen that people are saying he has zero personality, so has gone 'I'll show 'em!' without realising that there are few things more cringeworthy than a guy with zero charisma trying really hard to prove he has charisma. 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Even though I find Mox's hard man act really unbelievable, I also still believe he could beat me up as easily as I destroy a chippy tea.

Even though I find Darby unbelievable as any kind of danger, I also still believe I could beat him up like he's a 10 year old child. Despite that, his match with Osprey was a cracker, and not entirely down to Osprey. Darby really needs a new finisher though, the coffin drop just looks bad. How can a move where he fully impacts on someone still look weak? Darby bounces off like me on a trampoline.

 

Really enjoyed the show though. ? 

[Supremo]

I knew I’d enjoy AEW a lot more when they booked some smaller buildings, but even I couldn’t have imagined how big the difference would be. This was like a completely different company once they turned the lights on and you could actually hear the crowd beyond an echoey murmur. Everything felt so much more alive and vibrant.

Excellent opening promos. They should do these on every show. One of the truly great things about those early episodes of Collision.

Good opener. Best performance of Anna Jay’s career. Mercedes feels back on track now she’s wrestling more and they’ve binned the Kamille thing. If she could cut some proper promos rather than shit nursery rhymes, we’d really be on to something.

The Cole vs. MJF thing remains the worst storyline of the decade, with the potential to become even worse now the Undisputed Kingdom look set to turn on Cole at the pay per view and join MJF. But I can’t lie. Max popped me huge announcing Santa wasn’t real. Proper heel work, that. Love the idea of parents having to have panicked conversations as they left the arena. Sometimes, the Edge Lord stuff can still work.

FTR bringing back Copeland to feud with the Death Riders and actually make a Trios Title match worth caring about is definitely exciting. There was something really funny about the FTR promo though. They kept talking as if they were’t particularly bothered about being abducted or having the shit kicked out of them, with their only real complaint being they were left out in the cold. They kept randomly emphasising, “THE COLD!” as if they’d have happily accepted a kidnapping and viscous assault if it was kept at room temperature. Made me laugh.

Great heel shithousery from The Patriarchy. Christian and Nick Wayne should go for the Tag Belts. Father and son Champs! It doesn’t get more wholesome than that!

I can’t figure out where it’s going, but regardless, this is the best use of Ricochet I’ve ever seen. Someone has finally utlilised what an annoying, cringey, slightly smug prick he is.

Another belting showing from Shelton. MVP is great as the mouthpiece, too. Such a great signing. Lashley is also there.

Toni Storm and RJ City are geniuses. They should be writing this entire show.

That Nan dressed as Orange Cassidy getting the limp fist bump. Beautiful. What this business is all about.

I’m still not a huge fan of the Four Way at the pay per view, but at least The Death Riders were a run of the mill heel faction on this show, rather than committing any more dumb crimes. I have my suspicions that even Moxley knows this Death Riders angle isn’t working though. Mood trousers, isn’t it? The more Moxley is sulking, the more distracting and silly his trousers become. It seems to be his version of not wearing the wrist tape when you’re angry about doing a job. His horrible green kecks here were definitely telling. If he comes out at Worlds End wearing the horrendous ones he wore losing the Title to MJF, we’ll know for certain he’s pissed off. I had to go back and check out how bad they were. Even worse than I remember! More criminal than the actual crimes he now commits weekly.

Back to the good news though. Ospreay and Darby was an absolute fucking ripper. All the expectations in the world and they still managed to surpass them. Phenomenal. Daddy Magic was brilliant on the call, too. I’m sure at one point both he and Schiavone were just earnestly shouting, “WOOOHOOOO!” Love it.

I still have my doubts about Darby as World Champion, and knowing AEW’s luck it’s going to be such a bad look when their World Champion dies climbing Everest, but you cannot deny Darby’s talent. Imagine starting the year with that Takeshita match and ending it with this Ospreay match. Two of the best TV matches I’ve ever seen.

Ospreay continues to be the MVP of the entire company. So clearly the best wrestler in the world, doing business everywhere, making stars wherever he can. His signing has been the success story of the year. Imagine if Ospreay had gone to WWE? With The Fed’s current momentum? It’d have been game over.

Kenny Omega hype video gave me legitimate goosebumps. Yes! Have they ever done Omega vs. Darby? I want it right now!

Omega needs to be pushed to the moon. It’s now or never. Anyone even uttering the words, “Golden Jets,” in creative meetings should be considered gross misconduct and an instant sacking.

Overall, this was the best show in months. Left me in such a great mood. I miss this feeling. Are we back? We might be back.

Edited December 19, 2024 by Supremo

[HarmonicGenerator]

8 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

 

Decent promo from FTR. 

Afraid I can’t agree with this bit. It just made me want FTR to fuck right off. Not only did they double down on the “we got no problem” with Moxley and his lads, now they also “don’t disagree with their methods”. Gonna say that to Bryan Danielson are you? Plastic bag murder and chair murder, totally cool with FTR.

They draw a line at poison, but only when it interrupts their interview time, presumably the first poisoning at Full Gear was all good, we got no problem, don’t disagree. Oh but now, now they’ve been attempted murdered, now there’s an issue. Even though the methods - which they don’t disagree with, they said so themselves, they got no problem - were no different against FTR than anyone else. Fucking hypocrites. The only people I actually want the Death Riders to see off.

On the plus side, Toni Storm’s segment was superb and I am 100% bought in to whatever’s going on there.

Edited December 19, 2024 by HarmonicGenerator
Edit guys, out

[Chili]

Ugh, credit where it should be due, the Jericho video amused me. It was so semi serious I like that he thinks he's some homegrown born and bred New Yorker in all the tourist tat. The use of the title belt and dialogue was good. The squirrel found a nut again. So wish it was against Samoa Joe though.

I also thought Anna Jay put in a strong effort for herself, but the next time she's in a title match should be to win one. She's lost two big title matches so they can work something there for her to spin off to something else. Get Tay Conti back in.

Edited December 19, 2024 by Chili

[LaGoosh]

Very decent show all round that. Nothing is really buzzing or edge of your seat but it was all solid, consistent, logical and held together with high quality wrestling. 

The C2 hasn't hooked me like last year but that had the Danielson, Kingston and Garcia stories which were all absolutely incredible so it's hard to match that. This year has a few lower key stories in it but I also appreciate how close most the guys are on points: it feels like it's anybodies to win at this point. The final batch of matches on Dynamite next week should be gripping, exciting stuff. Otherwise it's given us a bunch of really great matches and been a coming out party for Shelton Benjamin and especially Kyle Fletcher. I think Fletcher vs Garcia might end up being match of the tournament. 

I would like a Shibata vs Christian Cage match in the future please.

The Toni Storm story is SO GODDAMN GOOD.

AEW is in a constantly weird position where the narrative around them lives and dies on the quality of each episode of Dynamite. No other wrestling promotion has ever suffered this. But overall, the past few episodes have been good meat and potatoes stuff. Personally, I'm not as engaged as usual due to most my favourites not really having anything good going on but if they can sort out this Deathriders and Adam Cole shit, keep everything else going steady and have some good stuff lined up for Copeland and Omega then early 2025 should be pretty good TV.

EDIT: worth noting Darby's selling during the Ospreay match should be studied. Incredible work. Darby is so good at selling "the struggle" during his matches - it's why fans get so invested and he gets real reactions rather than "this is awesome"s. Everything feels earned in his matches. He always takes a moment to sell the effort and emotion rather than just going straight to the next thing. He's a master at it.

Edited December 20, 2024 by LaGoosh

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

24 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

AEW is in a constantly weird position where the narrative around them lives and dies on the quality of each episode of Dynamite. No other wrestling promotion has ever suffered this

This bit is an over exaggeration buddy. Back in the Monday Night Wars days a good or bad Nitro or Raw could be seen as a triumph or a death nell. There is just more opinion available more easily now. Had you had social media in general and Twitter in particular through the late 90s you'd have had the same thing. 

[DavidB6937]

25 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

This bit is an over exaggeration buddy. Back in the Monday Night Wars days a good or bad Nitro or Raw could be seen as a triumph or a death nell. There is just more opinion available more easily now. Had you had social media in general and Twitter in particular through the late 90s you'd have had the same thing. 

Yeah you got there before me. There's been plenty of these opinions, discussions and tribal stuff floating around for years and years and years. It's just that it's far more visible and shared easier now. I don't think it's necessarily worse. We just have far more open platforms to state things rather than having to write in to a random newsletter that may or may not publish an angry letter once in a while.

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

AEW is in a constantly weird position where the narrative around them lives and dies on the quality of each episode of Dynamite.

I don't think there's any greater example of this than the fact that Dynamite could win best and worst TV show in the awards this year.

46 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

This bit is an over exaggeration buddy. Back in the Monday Night Wars days a good or bad Nitro or Raw could be seen as a triumph or a death nell. There is just more opinion available more easily now. Had you had social media in general and Twitter in particular through the late 90s you'd have had the same thing. 

It's not an exaggeration for the exact reason you state. There was no social media. There was no instant proclamation every week that it's the greatest or worst thing in the world. For most of the "war", the only people examining it to the nth degree quarter in, quarter out were Meltzer and Keller. The general viewing audience thought WCW were great and the WWF were shit, then they liked both for a bit and then they thought WCW were shit for the rest. 

Sure there was playground chatter and such but it was on a completely different level Most of the arguments were based around which talent were has beens and whether Eric Bischoff sucked dick, not about the best booker, the attendance, the roster, the TV deals, etc. That stuff is almost all retrospective, with the exception of a few "journos". Now there are thousands of "journos" and "influencers" on a weekly basis.

It's a fair point. I don't think it's unique though, I think it was somewhat true of WWE for a long time too. Hence the constant big angles like killing Vince McMahon, the Nexus, the Pipebomb, etc, or the televised apologies for being shit and begging for another chance. The narrative on WWE would swing with the last good Raw.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

8 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

It's not an exaggeration for the exact reason you state. There was no social media. There was no instant proclamation every week that it's the greatest or worst thing in the world. For most of the "war", the only people examining it to the nth degree quarter in, quarter out were Meltzer and Keller. The general viewing audience thought WCW were great and the WWF were shit, then they liked both for a bit and then they thought WCW were shit for the rest. 

Sure there was playground chatter and such but it was on a completely different level Most of the arguments were based around which talent were has beens and whether Eric Bischoff sucked dick, not about the best booker, the attendance, the roster, the TV deals, etc. That stuff is almost all retrospective, with the exception of a few "journos". Now there are thousands of "journos" and "influencers" on a weekly basis.

Sorry Rick I can't have it. People still held the opinions that they had, they just had no way to express them to a larger audience. Social media didn't create the vast majority of opinions it created ways to shout them. Some people do have opinions for money, Meltzer and the rest of the wrestling journalists as we must call them always have. If Gooshy had said more people scrutinise AEW for money than any other promotion he might have been right. Even that might a stretch, Meltzer certainly doesn't scrutinise AEW for money, he promotes it for money, the yang to the ying of Cornette who criticises it for money. Actually had Gooshy said more people dishonestly comment on AEW for money I'd have had no complaint.