AEW Dynamite Thread 2024

[HarmonicGenerator]

Is that Dasha as in the ring announcer? I hadn’t realised that was her surname if so!

[The King Of Swing]

Undisputed Kingdom are absolutely dead in the water. Outside of Strong, of all people, they are complete losers. 

Never mind MJF Vs. Cole, when both are healthy. Subvert the whole thing and have MJF actually forgive Cole on his return, and spend a few months trying to bring him back into the light.

Then have them both send the rest of the scrubs packing.

Fuck logic, anything would be better than a prolonged MJF/Undisputed Kingdom feud.

[LaGoosh]

1 hour ago, Loki said:

If young wrestlers were signing up with Uncle Tony thinking it was a job for life that’s naive in the extreme.

Also when they haven't been regularly booked for months or ever received a decent sustained push wouldn't you just assume you're about to be sacked at any minute?

Edited April 2 by LaGoosh

[Statto]

I'd always been under the impression that the people who were on the roster page on the website were actually signed to some form of contract, anybody else was being used on a per appearance basis (even though some people not listed on the roster are sometimes far more regularly/prominently featured than those who are)

If that is in fact the case, only about half of the people who've been released were actually "signed" - Dasha, Jose, Stu & Boudreaux. 

Regardless, a bit of a trim was long overdue. I quite often pass the time while taking a dump by scrolling through the roster and figuring out who you could cull without anyone really noticing. It's a lot. 

[JLM]

Dynamite 27/03/24

Loved the opener, obviously. Belting match. Osprey busting out Shibata's signature moves was a nice touch, as was them playing up the previous match between the two and showing the footage. Hope they also play up the fact that Osprey beat Shibata more convincingly than Danielson, knocking him out with his finish instead of a quick roll up. Osprey has been near flawless since arriving but man I love Shibata so much. I feel positively spoilt getting the Danielson and Osprey matches with him back to back. Hope we get more of him. 

Danielson video package was excellent. I feel like I'm seeing more and more of this stuff from AEW lately and it is a huge positive. The little Copeland one later was good too. As much as anything it's a wise move to show off your roster, and make sure people are reminded of your bigger names and what they're up to even when they don't appear. 

Bucks/Private Party was a fun match but I am so cold on Private Party right now. 

Tony Hawk saying "I'm Tony Hawk, Pro Skater" made me smile. I would do that 100% of the time if I were him. 

Hook/Jericho stuff makes me sad. Hook was on such a good trajectory. 

Mercedes was abysmal on commentary. Incredible outfit but Christ I was getting second hand embarrassment for the other announcers trying to squeeze something ot of her. 

Women's match was a thoroughly entertaining sprint with the right winner. The visual of Julia Hart holding the title up and staring down Mercedes was great, so I guess that was the small benefit of having her there. Maybe make her guest timekeeper next time eh. 

Dustin vs Butcher was unexpected. 

Best Friends vs Kingdom was a good match but The Kingdomn are so dreadfully dull. 

Quality main event and a big statement win for Swerve, all capped off by another red hot promo from Joe.

Good show. As others have pointed out though, the crowd sounded terrible. 
 

[RedRooster]

It's pretty heart-breaking reading the posts shared by @Infinity Land. I don't remember Slim J at all, but it can't have been easy to 'act rich' while struggling financially. 

Dasha's a great ring announcer, I'm sorry to see her go. 

Anthony Henry definitely has positive qualities to him, and I hope WWE signs him up for NXT. Same goes for Stu Grayson, who is worth far more than the opportunities he was given. TNA might be a good landing place for him, actually - giving him the chance to show what he's capable of. 

Jose wasn't brilliant and Parker was nowhere near TV ready.  

I wish I had something to say about the rest of them, but I have no idea who they are. I hope they land on their feet, regardless. 

[air_raid]

I'm reeling from the fact that Slim J is indeed the same Slim J who was one of the less well known members of Special K in ROH - of whom you probably only remember Izzy & Dixie winning the tag belts for a week or so, Hydro because he was Jay Lethal, and Deranged getting squashed by Low Ki in one of the best squashes ever at Death Before Dishonor.

[LaGoosh]

Slim J is actually a pretty good worker. One of those guys whose been around forever but never got a decent break. If he had a different gimmick you'd have thought he'd be exactly the type of person they would want to feature in the new ROH.

[JLM]

Curious to see what becomes of JD Drake as a singles guy. Such a reliable in-ring performer but doesn’t have any sort of character going. 

[Statto]

It's unlikely to be a gimmick that'll take you to the world title, and it'd be very 1993 WWF/1998 WCW jobber, but JD Drake should definitely have a pro bowler gimmick.

They've hinted at him being such before (I don't know if he's actually a pro, but he's definitely a very accomplished bowler) and it just seems the perfect gimmick for a bloke with his look. 

[CavemanLynn]

45 minutes ago, JLM said:

a reliable in-ring performer but doesn’t have any sort of character going. 

This unfortunately sums up a lot of hires. It's not like they have the scene out there where they're running three house shows a night needing dozens of enhancement talent to fill out the cards between draws. If you've been wrestling for 5+ years and still don't have a discernible let alone marketable persona, then you're always going to have a ceiling and be that much more disposable.

[JLM]

Could switch to darts in the summer to try and get on the All In card too. 

[JLM]

On 4/2/2024 at 6:40 PM, HarmonicGenerator said:

Is that Dasha as in the ring announcer? I hadn’t realised that was her surname if so!

My FASCINATING findings from Wikipedia. I looked it up so now I will bore you with it.

She was born Dasha Gonzales.  In 2014 she gained two new surnames: Fuentes from WWE and Kuret from her husband. In 2019 she lost the Fuentes, kept the Kuret and brought back the Gonzales for AEW. 

I can see why she didn't go with Kuret. 

[Supremo]

I wish they hadn’t sent Copeland out there to do the Paul Heyman motivational rah rah speech. Felt really desperate and tragic to react to Punk’s criticisms like that. Honestly, I didn’t even understand what Copeland was going on about at first. Thought he was talking about stuff that I missed on Collision, only for the penny to drop that he was referring to Punk ripping into them on Helwani’s show. Urgh. Why bother addressing it at all.

You’re on a great run since the start of the year. Just ignore it and keep doing what you’re doing. It also didn’t help that it was Copeland doing it, who’s only been there for a few months! Remember when Stone Cold walked out on WWE and they got The Rock to do the big speech slagging him off? The equivalent would have been sending Booker T out there to do that speech instead.

If they had to do it, Eddie Kingston should’ve gone out there and said, “who gives a fuck what a hypocritical nutcase thinks,” before he ran down the card and told us everything he was excited about.

Ultimately, the whole thing set them up massively for a fall. If you’re going to try and babyface yourself and put the company over like that, don’t do it on the same show that Chris Jericho is getting some of the worst, “oh, fuck off,” heat of all time, whilst Billy Gunn and Jay White are having a Worst Match of the Year contender. What on Earth went on in that Billy Gunn match? Who agented that? Did they think the whole thing was happening in picture-in-picture, during an ad break? Weirdest psychology imaginable. “Billy will smash Jay to fuck for about six months, then we’ll rush to a DQ finish.” It was like the last four to six months of re-building goodwill hadn’t happened! Rubbish!

However, those two glaring negatives aside, it was a mostly good show.

Fun matches with Ospreay and Danielson. Still seems crazy to have the type of talent to just chuck those two lads out as a one-two punch combo to start your free TV. Danielson bringing back the Yes chant is interesting. You wonder if even he is aware how much bigger of a star he could be. It’s always been admirable that he didn’t rest on his laurels and wanted to try new things, but fucking hell mate. You have the ability to be one of the best top babyfaces of all time. Maybe give it a go for six months and see if it improves attendances even a little bit. I love Danielson, he’s the best ever, but it’s crazy frustrating the way he constantly campaigns to not be as big a star as he has the potential to be, happy to do constant jobs and never win Titles. They should stage an intervention with that kid from Summerslam 92.

“Bryan, you’re going to start beating everyone clean and winning belts, whether you want to or not!”

Trent turning heel was brilliant. Felt truly momentous after five years together. Bonus points for having Sue out there to sell her disappointment. I’m delighted Orange Cassidy has something big to sink his teeth into again. Ideally, this somehow brings back Danhausen too. Gone but not forgotten. Very nice, very evil, very missed.

I love The Young Bucks. This new act is brilliant. Fuck all the way off with the Jack Perry references though. Matt shouting, “yo Scapegoat, love your work,” during the entrance and then telling Sue, “cry me a river.” Everyone. I’m begging you. Please move on from this. I fear it’ll be the year 2045 and everyone will still be referencing Brawl Out and Brawl In. Get over it!

Toni Storm was a hoot at commentary. She’s at her best just trying to pop Taz. Loved her reaction to Thunder Rosa winning. Freezing in disbelief. They should completely change the NXT Shocked Face Curriculum based on that. That’s how you do it!

Phenomenal closing segment. Any doubts I had about Swerve’s moment passing were quickly dismissed by his fantastic work here. Great brawl, with an amazing visual of him signing the contract in his own blood. Has anyone ever done that before? I know we’ve had loads of guys signing with their opponent’s blood, but I can’t remember anyone ever being such a nutcase as to use their own. Clearly, Swerve is at his best when he’s a fucking psychopath. Hopefully they make the PPV match some type of No DQ.

However, for as good as Swerve and Joe were here, they were still overshadowed because the true highlight of the whole show was Willow Nightingale! Finally giving her some proper promo time? Everyone instantly falling in love with her? Over like a motherfucker? About fucking time. Love her so much. Build your entire company around this woman! The definition of a babyface.

Edited April 4 by Supremo

[d-d-d-dAz]

I get why, if TK felt he had to have someone say something, it was Edge who did the opening promo. He's one of THE most WWE guys in the world, and he's saying all that good stuff? Well, gee whillickers, it must be true!

But, yeah, just don't. Rise above. It's never once improved a wrestling show when someone has addressed outside concerns that the wrestling show might be shit.

Just crack on.

Edited April 4 by d-d-d-dAz