AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[Supremo]

Another mostly great show. Maybe there’s something to going back to having big breaks in between pay per views. This is easily their best build up in ages, with stuff having time to breathe, heating up organically as we get closer. I’m buzzing for Revolution.

Great opener. No idea if it was the characters involved or the unique structure of the match, with everyone rushing to get a finish as the time limit got closer, but that was the most I’ve enjoyed an FTR match in a long, long time. Felt miles away from their patterned Takeover match and the wild brawling after the bell was great fun. Excited for the pay per view match, although I worry it’ll see Dax and Cash return to the old, boring formula. Four hot tag sequences, lads? That’s insane.

Fudther evidence that last week’s Texas Death was the over-delivery of the century; in montage form, alongside the clips of Orange at Wembley and Rev Pro, that was the most momentum he’s had during this second reign. First time in ages he felt like the proper fighting champion again. Solid match, but Jake Hager can fuck all the way off. No interest whatsoever in him becoming a hanger-on to Orange’s incredible act. Hopefully it’s one of those hometown things that they’ll quickly drop. He’s shit. Get rid. Take Jericho with you.

As has already been mentioned, great to see the women getting time throughout the show and that split screen thing where half the screen was black and white was really clever. Love stuff like that.

I’ve got no idea what’s been going on with Ruby and Cool Hand because I’ve finally admitted defeated and abandoned Rampage these last few weeks, but I was made up see that storyline is still going on. Always enjoy some daft, cute, throwaway nonsense in my wrestling. Hopefully they air a vignette of their date.

Fingers crossed Tony Khan’s new trope that he’s going to spam to death is in-ring promos with Tony Schiavone because they always bang. Daniel Garcia and Wardlow delivered belters on this week’s show. More of this please! That’s the best both have looked in ages!

Garcia in particular is the fucking man right now. I hope they put the TNT Title on him. Have Copeland cost Christian if you must, but I just want to see Daddy Magic lose his mind at the desk when Danny raises the gold. Imagine him doing the dance with the belt! Get in! Match will almost certainly rule, too.

Speaking of matches guaranteed to deliver, MEAT MADNESS sounds bloody brilliant. The only way I can see that not working is if Miro and CJ find a way to stink the joint up enacting out more cuckhold fantasies.

Everyone’s talking about Will Ospreay leaving Don Callis at the pay per view. Fuck that. Takeshita should be the one. Look at this man! Pure sex. Turn him back babyface as soon as possible. Hunkasaurus Rex.

Proper money promo from Sting. Cannot wait to watch him throw those little pricks around. See, Darby? Much easier actually focussing on the heat rather than whether Brandon Cutler got hired before you, you moron. Shame the stuff about Sting’s Dad didn’t land though. They’re a victim of their own success. Something like that should have had this huge, emotional resonance, but all I could think about was Christian’s smiling face. He’s made it impossible for any Dad to ever die without thinking of him. I’ll probably have to hold a giggle in whenever my own Dad kicks the bucket.

Brilliant, action-packed main event. Managed to showcase everyone. The only negative was that bit in the middle where RVD suddenly looked a bit old and lost, but they managed to save it. Did I also clock a Cena-style bald patch on Rob? Sad to see. There was a real joy to watching him still look great, coming out to the awesome music.

Nobody really talks about it, but it’s mad how Brian Cage has become relevant and enjoyable to watch again. He’s the perfect example of taking guys off TV when they need it. I remember he felt completely worthless around the time he lost the FTW title, destined to get sacked, but some time away has done him wonders and he’s a great addition to the roster now. Didn’t look out of place at all mixing it up with the big stars. Excited to see him against HOOK.

Worst part of the show - again - was Ric Flair’s corpse. Just fuck off, lads. He adds nothing and kills the mood every single time. Am I right in thinking this was his first appearance since all the Vince stuff broke last month? It felt worse than ever to parade him on TV. WWE gave them the biggest open goal ever to crack on and put on happy, feel good TV without the stench of horrible, old sex pests. Madness that they just decided to jump in and join them. May as well sign Brock. Grim.

Edited February 23 by Supremo

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

I'm happy with the multiple angles the women have spread over the shows at the moment. It will never be a straight mixed balance (though it absolutely could) but you've actually got some big moves and shifts going on especially with Merc Mone on her way. We're not at the timing their segments or Tony Khan hates women guff at the moment.

It's definitely feeling a lot more focused and positive with the women these days in AEW. It doesn't feel too much of an afterthought which it often has over the years by TK. Hopefully they can keep up that momentum and some of the potential new talent should only add to that.

[Loki]

4 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

It's definitely feeling a lot more focused and positive with the women these days in AEW. It doesn't feel too much of an afterthought which it often has over the years by TK. Hopefully they can keep up that momentum and some of the potential new talent should only add to that.

The actual quality of the women's wrestling matches remains stubbornly poor though.  If you look at their roster they seem to have a much more rounded crew nowadays but a lot of the in-ring action is miles behind say TNA and WWE.

I wonder why?  I'm assuming it has something to do with how the division is produced?  Or the lack of a house show circuit? 

[DavidB6937]

8 minutes ago, Loki said:

The actual quality of the women's wrestling matches remains stubbornly poor though.  If you look at their roster they seem to have a much more rounded crew nowadays but a lot of the in-ring action is miles behind say TNA and WWE.

I wonder why?  I'm assuming it has something to do with how the division is produced?  Or the lack of a house show circuit? 

It's an odd one. I think some of them definitely could do with more experience and they're early on in their careers, but then you get people like Ruby who have been around for ages and I still think she's mostly shit/forgettable so..

[LaGoosh]

19 minutes ago, Loki said:

The actual quality of the women's wrestling matches remains stubbornly poor though.  If you look at their roster they seem to have a much more rounded crew nowadays but a lot of the in-ring action is miles behind say TNA and WWE.

They put on a lot of established star vs undercard jobber matches which I think seems to be the problem. So you get a lot of say Kris Statlander vs Anna Jay and Toni Storm vs Red Velvet or whatever type matches which are always going to be a bit rubbish, when really they should just fuck all that off and book Kris Statlander vs Toni Storm. It feels like the cream of the crop very rarely actually face off or put into long term programmes against one another. Or they've shipped them off to ROH (Athena) or they are just sitting around doing nothing (SHIDA).

They've got at least 10 good women on the pay roll, with 3-4 womens matches per week on TV there's loads of fun stuff they could be putting on if they felt so inclined.

[Infinity Land]

I don't agree that the in-ring action is miles behind. It's still the booking that lets them down.

Queen Aminata has been heavily featured on all 3 shows as the designated jobber to the stars. It was becoming apparent she would break that streak eventually. Did it happen against an established star that could then spark a rivalry? A Serena Deeb or Thunder Rosa who have nothing going on, of course not. Was it even on the A show to get some pay-off to a month plus story? Nah. Random win over Anna Jay on a pre-empted Rampage.

Mercedes Mone and Megan Bayne to come in. Athena maybe stepping up from ROH after Supercard of Honor. All the rest that are just...there. There's a lot more that can be done. The perfect example of this is the World Title match between Toni and Deonna. So far the only women's match at Revolution. Unless Deonna wins, you have to wonder what's next? Toni at least has the Mariah May angle to keep her busy. Deonna is more than likely getting lost in the shuffle.

 

 

[organizedkaos]

I assume it also many of the more inexperienced wrestlers not getting the reps in. Skye Blue has noticeably improved in the last year or so and also noticeably had a lot more matches. But there's only one slot per show. I guess it's sort of a self defeating loop; the womens matches often are the worst match on the show, so you get less of them, so the performers have less experience, so they often put on the worst matches of the show.

You then get the side effect of the quality performers being relegated to shorter matches (because of what the women's slot is perceived as) so they don't get to show what they can do and reinforces the idea that the women put the worst match on the show. Tony Kahn probably loves you less if your average star rating is below 3 too.

To be clear "worst match on the show" relates to AEW's whole "workrate promotion" thing.  They're mostly not bad matches, just often noticeably worse because you've Bryan Danielson fighting Mexico's best technical wrestler on your TV show. If TV matches are seens as mostly filler for storylines etc then you can get away with more average matches.. More average matches means more experience which means better matches eventually. I don't think AEW's brand works with more average matches though..

Solution isn't just more matches I don't think. Using ROH well seems to be helping. Good characters and storylines can cover for lesser wrestling however AEW is more a "good wrestling sometimes covers for lesser storylines and characters" promotion (empahsis on sometimes, I'm not being one of those people). I think a lot of the issue is baked into the DNA of the promotion

Edited February 23 by organizedkaos

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

56 minutes ago, organizedkaos said:

. But there's only one slot per show

I don't think this is the best way of describing the women's matches. Makes them sound like a cut price peep show. 

[DavidB6937]

What I'm glad of is women getting actual storylines and proper feuds. For so many years they'd just get thrown out there as some kind of novelty without any reason to get invested beyond watching two women roll around together. They never got a chance to develop characters or proper storylines and I do think it's still lacking quite often but it's good when they realise they're worth investing the time and effort into.

[organizedkaos]

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

I don't think this is the best way of describing the women's matches. Makes them sound like a cut price peep show. 

Could've been worse. "o" was probably the best vowel there that still made sense

[DavidB6937]

It's all feeling real now 🥲

 

 

[Merzbow]

I'm surprised it's advertised that way, I always thought he was just having his last match and might show up from time to time in other ways.

[Infinity Land]

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

I'm surprised it's advertised that way, I always thought he was just having his last match and might show up from time to time in other ways.

Gotta sell some tickets and it's wrestling. Plus a bunch of other programming and on different channels to keep them honest.

_______________

Didn't take long to undercut it.

 

Edited February 23 by Infinity Land

[Hannibal Scorch]

2 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

Gotta sell some tickets and it's wrestling. Plus a bunch of other programming and on different channels to keep them honest.

_______________

Didn't take long to undercut it.

 

Having to literally breakdown what something means is to appease the Bully Rays’ of this world

[JLM]

Dynamite 21/02/24

Brilliant fiery brawl to open, would expect nothing less from these teams. Such a nice simple feud; BCC slapped two of their guys together and the claim they're the best tag team. FTR can't be having that. Importantly though, it is a feud. The match between these four is always going to be good, but they've made sure to build great heat for the rematch here. Loved post-match and the way it bled into the next segment. 

OC and Mike Bennett had a good match. I can't think of many circumstances where I'd watch a Mike Bennett singles match, credit to OC for that one. I was mostly bemused when Haeger came out. Was relieved to hear Excalibur say "Oklahoma's own" and hopefully explain what it was about. I hope so anyway. 

Like everyone else am 100% on board for Ruby and Cool Hand. Happy to see it briefly make Dynamite! 

I was initially annoyed at Excalibur because he started reading off all the upcoming matches when we were clearly supposed to be intrigued about who had just arrived at the arena and they were heading in for the reveal shot. Was silently thanking Taz for getting him back on track and then saw it was shambling old Ric. He sounded like he had a mouthful of marshmallows talking to Renee. I think I had briefly forgotten about his cloud hanging over the Sting retirement run for a moment there. It was a happier time. 

Garcia/Christian segment was incredible. Garcia sounded fantastic, Christian never misses, this direction is perfect and I love it. "You had a pretty dark childhood didn't you?" made me laugh out loud. Christian gets me every time with the dead father segue. "I'll put you in the ground right next to him" from Garcia was a great line too. Garcia may not have a father but he'll always have Daddy Magic. If Sting's retirement doesn't make me cry at Revolution then those two just might. 

Loved the unhinged promo from Hangman. He needs everyone else to be as obsessed with ending Swerve as he is. The juxtaposition between him foaming at the mouth and his stoner/stoic partners was great here. 

I feel like I say this every week at the moment, but why can't Purazzo just have some squash matches? Why is it always nearly-a-match instead? Madison Rayne was moving in slow motion, though I do hope she's OK after that horrible flatliner botch. But yeah, the point was to beat someone with the other person's submission hold. Neither of them needed to be real matches. Everything else in the segment was great though. They did the split screen black and white thing during the tattoo reveal segment and I thought it was cool then. That was with both of them sat down in a static shot though; they're really flexing now the way they seamlessly hop in and out of it between shots. AEW's production can be rough around the edges at times, but the whole presentation of Timeless Toni Storm has been first class. Toni madly slathering lipstick all over her face was a superb visual. Genuinely wild choice to make a terrifying looking botch the Intuit Turbo Tax move of the week. 

Sting promo was amazing. If Sting is a superhero then this was his "Logan" moment. Every soundbite they need for the Sting/Darby side of the video package was in this promo. 

Wardlow with a sensational promo from absolutely nowhere. Did not see that coming. Basically said out loud most of the complaints I've had about his direction. Honestly the only thing that would have made it better for me would have been him tearing off his Undisputed Kingdom shirt at the end. If Wardlow the character has finally realised that he's beaten all of their champions and is near unstoppable then what does he possibly have to gain by being in this group? It's so fucking stupid. But yeah, promo was about ten times better than what I thought he was capable of. Crazy. 

Main event was a blast. Hangman and Swerve only legal together for a tiny spell but taking pot shots at each other throughout. I loved Hook stepping up to face Joe again, and Hook and RVD trying to get Hangman to chill. Everyone had some strong moments, particularly enjoyed Hook during the closing stretch getting the big suplex on Joe and briefly getting the Red Rum on Swerve. Also a big fan of the announce table spot because it felt spontaneous and opportunistic from Hangman in the moment. He was looking for any opportunity to hurt Swerve at all times, so of course he'd do that. Cage looked the part and, I'll say it again, his Streets of Cage gear is magnificent. 

Revolution has achieved the holy pairing of a ridiculous card paired with a strong build pretty much from top to bottom. There have been odd missteps from week to week and we could all do without Ric Flair, but generally speaking every direction going into this PPV is hitting for me, whether it's the feuds they've put together for the PPV itself like BCC/FTR, OC/Roddy and Purazzo/Storm, to the big chapters in long term stories we could all write essays about like Kingston/Danielson and the rise of Danny Garcia. They've added unnecessary guff and spare parts to the tag title match, but it's Sting's retirement and the match will be a blinder and I'll be choked up regardless on that one, so it's un-sabotagable. Again, a video package simply containing the bloody white suits attack and Sting's promo from tonight is all they need on the PPV and I can happily forget about the rest. Then you've got a genuinely fascinating main event between three hot acts firing on all cylinders where any possible outcome is interesting and I struggle to see how they can miss with any of them. Then the only match that's "a match for the sake of it because it will be good" is fucking Osprey vs Takeshita, which is like the FINAL FORM of that sort of match. 

An utterly stupendous card and, as I said last week, every episode of TV leading up to it has made me more excited for it, this Dynamite certainly included. 

Edited February 28 by JLM