5 years of AEW Dynamite - reflections, fave bits etc

[RedTwoster]

Jon Moxley’s comeback promo on his return from rehab was just beautiful. Inspiring, yet full of intent - it blended real life into storyline in a way WWE at the time just couldn’t - tastefully. But the fact he came back from such a difficult time only to deliver this? Incredible.

 

[theringmaster]

13 hours ago, Supremo said:

 

That thing last week where Jey Uso won the Intercontinental Title? Yeah, that doesn’t happen if AEW Dynamite never existed. Let’s not forget, before AEW Hunter was this guy.

 

It's mad how similar this is to a typical Trump speech, watch and this and just imagine Trump saying it. When Triple H is finally ousted (and he will be, he's to carny for such a now cooperate company, same for Dana) I think we will gets of stories of just how unprofessional he was.

 

The first Dynamite will always be a special show for me, I remember the build up to and everyone just trying to work out what exactly would it look like.

I always enjoyed the skits between Omega and Don when he was Champion, if memory serves correct this was during pandemic and it was a welcome weekly entertainment. Likewise, Britt and Tony.

Speaking of Britt, her 'rise' which included the Light Out match was brilliant to watch, That lights out match was one of them 'star making' matches.

Blood and Guts just because it showed that other companies can do big spectacle matches, not just wwe, I don;t know if i would call it a 'good match' but that weird MMA gimmick match with a legit MMA cage is defiantly a match I won't forget.

THAT Omega and Dark Order entrance. That whole match tbf, The Elite entrance was brilliant also.

But the Sting's debut is probably the stand out moment for me though, NOBODY saw it coming. 

 

But my absolute fav bit of Dynamite history is how WWE made NXT 'The Third Brand' to beat Dynamite, lost the war, then rewrite their own history to make out NXT has always been a developmental brand, going as far as scrubbing Charlottes NXT wins from her record as x time champion and then having the NXT champ job out on RAW in a random match. 

[LaGoosh]

Can we stop talking about Triple H, WWE and NXT please? Can we not just talk about AEW on it's own merits?

[Supremo]

9 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

Jon Moxley’s comeback promo on his return from rehab was just beautiful. Inspiring, yet full of intent - it blended real life into storyline in a way WWE at the time just couldn’t - tastefully. But the fact he came back from such a difficult time only to deliver this? Incredible.

 

The overall handling of Mox going into rehab was so great. It’s all super bitter sweet now , knowing they eventually fell out over Rocky 4, but at the time Punk’s promo where he praises Moxley for reaching out for help, advising everyone to do the same, is up there with the Brodie Lee tribute show. Just a fantastic, mature, classy reaction to a very real, serious situation. Like watching the entire industry grow up before your eyes.

On the subject of Punk, I don’t have a clip of it, but that time he cut a promo on Dynamite not long after debuting and the crowd started chanting, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” 

“That’s somebody else’s schtick and you might just need to be a little more patient.” 

Fucking hell. In that moment I could feel my blood fizzing. Punk’s already in and he’s all but confirmed Bryan Danielson is soon to follow? The highest high possible. They felt unstoppable.

It’s such a shame the Punk thing ended the way it did. It puts a dark shadow over what was mostly an incredible run. Probably the best work of his entire career. Minus Bobby Fish, obviously.

Another one to mention is the Implosion of Team Taz. Angle that came out of nowhere, starting with Ricky Starks defending against Danhausen, then HOOK answers the open challenge, then Ricky cuts an incredible promo just in time for Hobbs to take his head off. Peak AEW, this.

 

 

What a great bit of business. Peak crash TV, with matches, angles and promos merging and flowing together perfectly. Crowd are hot as fuck for all of it. Arguably the peak of HOOK’s entire career. I bet they all reminisce about this time period at the We Hate Jericho Club.

[DavidB6937]

I know it's a general positive topic - as it should be! - but damn some of these videos I watch and think there's so much talent they could've capitalised on and didn't at the right time.

I guess one of the main problems with having such a stacked roster over the years. It's tough because then you sacrifice someone else in the top spots instead and there's been some great stuff there.

[Merzbow]

The best moment was unironically the debut of The Dark Order, it gave the company a much needed head wobble and shows picked right up almost instantly for a good long while after the reset that awful shite caused.

 

[LaGoosh]

Yeah those very early shows were a bit of a mess. Apparently everyone was booking their own segments with no discussion between them. You could definitely tell!

As far as best episodes go, that run up to the first Revolution was incredible. The best episode they've ever done was the one that had the cracking tag royale that ended with Sammy Guevara's head kicked off into the sun, Hangman/Omega vs Lucha Bros and ended with Cody vs Wardlow in the cage. May be the best episode of wrestling ever produced.

[RedTwoster]

I thought it might be fun to add some debuts to the thread, so here are a few worth mentioning 

I think this was the first surprise debut on Dynamite, although I may be forgetting someone (were Santana and Ortiz a surprise?) - there was a lot of speculation about who might show up prior to the show, with CM Punk being suggested based on the fact he appeared at Starrcast. In the end, the ‘big debut’ was Jake Hager. They probably shouldn’t have had that the big end-of-show surprise, but Hager went on to have a solid, if unspectacular, run in AEW - and the Inner Circle can surely be looked at as one of the best, if not the best, faction in AEW history. 

On the flip side, here’s a guy who would go on to have a surprisingly bad run in AEW. Or surprisingly to me, at least. As much as Brodie Lee’s debut was enhanced by the silence, this debut was hurt by it. They tried to compensate with the piano music, which was nice, but the lack of an audience made everything else feel a little strange.

I can’t say I appreciated it at the time, but the Cody Rhodes open challenge did wonders for the AEW roster, bringing in Ricky Starks, and Eddie Kingston. As someone who really enjoyed NWA Power at the time, this was a really cool debut for me. Kingston was a bad fit in the NWA, but he immediately won me over when he joined AEW…

And then there was this guy, who still perplexes me. Was he the only non-AEW participant in this series not to get signed? I’m still confused as to why he appeared, he was utterly woeful…

Although Matt Cardona made his debut here, and in hindsight, AEW might have missed out on something fun with him, had they given him a fair shot. He can feel hard done by that they gave Shawn Spears a run but not him - and I like Spears! But Cardona is infinitely better. But a heel Cardona and Chelsea Green in AEW? I’d have been up for that.

Jade Cargill’s debut was awkward and strange, mainly because no one knew who the hell she was, although that soon changed. She was aided greatly by a strong first match which, thinking about it, might not just have been her best match in AEW, it may be her best match to date. I wonder how differently we’d feel if Cody had teamed with Brandi, as was originally planned?

Edited October 3, 2024 by RedTwoster

[Chili]

Don't say it too loud, but I absolutely love that Jade/Brandi 'open mic' promo. It's both a bit of a car crash and Brandi Rhodes being what she was overlooked at being, which was a very fun, confident promo when she wasn't talking utter poppycock, blurring face/heel alignments on the same show or mentally derailing live mid promo with Dan Lambert.

 

 

[LaGoosh]

10 hours ago, Chili said:

Don't say it too loud, but I absolutely love that Jade/Brandi 'open mic' promo

Shame on you! Jokes aside, I think the promo alone is fine but the main issue being that Brandi was acting and talking in a way that was completely opposite of how she had acted up to that point. I remember at the time there was some backlash from African American fans who found it pretty offensive. Watching it back makes me laugh - seeing Brandi like that is pretty ludicrous.

I don't think Brandi is actually that bad a performer but her character work was all over the place in AEW. Bouncing around from heel to face constantly, unbearably smug the whole time. If she wasn't in the god awful muddled Codyverse and actually had clear character direction she might have been worthwhile to keep around.

[Supremo]

To this day, I’m convinced the, “personal issue,” that resulted in Cody jumping ship is Tony refusing to pay Brandi anymore. Imagine what she was making for stinking up the joint for years. Best thing she ever did was when they completely dropped the Nightmare Collective by saying it was a dream or something. That’s a top ten Dynamite moment. The relief was palpable. Free at last! Free at last!

Edited October 4, 2024 by Supremo

[RedTwoster]

13 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I don't think Brandi is actually that bad a performer but her character work was all over the place in AEW. Bouncing around from heel to face constantly, unbearably smug the whole time. If she wasn't in the god awful muddled Codyverse and actually had clear character direction she might have been worthwhile to keep around.

I agree - she showed several times that she could cut a good promo. Her ring work was terrible, though. If she’d been willing to stay out of the ring, and they found the right act for her to manage, she might have been viewed differently. I say ‘might’, as I’m not convinced she would have been capable of taking a back seat to the act.

[BomberPat]

On Warhorse, he was a real viral sensation wrestler at the time on the indies, so it was just trying to capitalise on that, but I guess he just didn't deliver in the match itself. 

The same goes for Matt Cardona, really - this was before the Nick Gage match, and the "King Of The Deathmatch/King Of The Indies" gimmick, and he was just brought in as Cody's mate. It was a chance for him to show that he was capable of something different to what he'd done before, but all I got out of that match was "Zack Ryder with a different name", and I was glad they didn't bring him in.

 

Brandi Rhodes was abysmal. She has confidence and presence and wasn't a bad promo, so could have been channelled into a better performer, but being in a position of authority and creative meant that never happened, and she might have had the worst instincts of anyone I've ever seen in wrestling. She would wrestle as a spooky heel, but then go and be the supporting babyface manager of the top face of the company. She introduced Awesome Kong as her bodyguard, and then when the two of them were in a Battle Royal together, Brandi didn't hide behind Kong or rely on her, she just got loads of eliminations herself. There were multiple times when they were trying to get wrestlers over as scary, dominant heels that Cody couldn't beat, and they had Brandi either hit moves on them or, in the case of Malakai Black, mock him by sitting down cross-legged and giving him the middle finger. Just pulling focus at every opportunity, and singularly incapable of doing anything to get heat or attention on anyone else. 

[DavidB6937]

I'm glad I barely remember anything to do with Brandi. Must be a PTSD thing.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

The same goes for Matt Cardona, really - this was before the Nick Gage match, and the "King Of The Deathmatch/King Of The Indies" gimmick, and he was just brought in as Cody's mate. It was a chance for him to show that he was capable of something different to what he'd done before, but all I got out of that match was "Zack Ryder with a different name", and I was glad they didn't bring him in.

Cheers for the context - I’d never heard of him, and he seems to have disappeared since then, so presumably he wasn’t capable of being anything more than whatever it was that made him go viral.

As far as Cardona goes, they never really gave him the chance to prove he was more than Zack Ryder - but you could definitely make the case that he needed the run he ended up having in order to be more than Zack Ryder. I’m kind of surprised that he’s not ended up in AEW or WWE on a permanent basis since then, though.