King Mal the Glorious Posted October 22, 2025 Posted October 22, 2025 The spelling mistake in the last one had me wondering if I'd been getting Shibata's name wrong all this time. Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted October 22, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted October 22, 2025 The Opps vs Hurt Syndicate feels like it should be a bigger thing than a randomly put together TV match. I'm intrigued to see it nonetheless. I love the match posters they do. I wish they could find a way to put something along the lines of them on TV in some way. Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted October 23, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 Spot of the year. Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted October 23, 2025 Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 Bit of a disappointing Dynamite. They needed a reset, but instead chose to keep most of their major stories going. Hangman is still feuding with Samoa Joe. Ricochet is still feuding with The Hurt Syndicate. Kyle Fletcher and Mark Briscoe are still feuding and - most bizarrely - Darby Allin’s feud with The Death Riders hasn’t come to an end. He’s beaten Moxley what else is there to do? Samoa Joe’s heel promo was surprisingly weak. He resorted to cheap heat tactics like insulting the local sports team and local women while doing very little to heat up his feud with Hangman. If they’re going to keep this feud going, they need to work with better material than this. I’ve enjoyed pretty much ever Dynamite this year, until this one. It simply wasn’t very good. Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted October 23, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 Yeah I'd agree with all that. But in typical AEW fashion even with ice cold, repetitive stories that are seemingly going nowhere the match quality was still excellent. So frustrating! Okada/Bandido was great and I absolutely loved the finish. Any time a wrestler uses intelligent counters to get the win rather than just spamming finishers you're getting a double thumbs up from me. Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted October 23, 2025 Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 1 minute ago, LaGoosh said: Okada/Bandido was great and I absolutely loved the finish Yeah, I’d agree with that - it was surely Okada’s best singles match since joining AEW. Bandido has to be a leading contender for Breakout Star at the UKFF Awards this year. He’s been around for a while of course, but this year he’s been able to establish himself as one of the best in the world. Quote
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted October 23, 2025 Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 1 hour ago, RedTwoster said: I’ve enjoyed pretty much ever Dynamite this year, until this one. It simply wasn’t very good. Just say you hate women since I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode of wrestling TV with so much time focused on Women. I haven’t seen the main event yet but everything up to then I had no issue with. Conglomeration/Darby vs Death Riders is clearly the Blood and Guts for men this year. The story of Mox punching out the Ref to not tap out again was clever. No issue with Hangman going through the Opps tbh, he wants a receipt. Women’s Tag Titles off to a good start, interested to see the other teams. Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted October 23, 2025 Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 35 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said: Just say you hate women since I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode of wrestling TV with so much time focused on Women. I’m hoping that’s a joke, as I’ve consistently been a big proponent of AEW’s women’s division and in 2024 it was my favourite thing in wrestling. I’ve always pushed for there to be more gender parity on AEW TV because they have the wrestlers to be able to do that well. The episode failed for me as it kept a number of storylines going that they should have moved on from. Their main stories right now feel, on the whole, like they should have been settled a long time ago. Quote
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted October 23, 2025 Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 Yes @RedTwoster it was sarcasm, I didn’t think you hated the women (although I’m surprised considering how many times people online complain about the time given to women on Dynamite, more hasn’t been said about it this week). But I still think a lot of those stories aren’t done yet. And I don’t think all of them will be resolved before Worlds End. Some might, like Page/Opps, but I think the Death Riders and Darby will probably carry on past Full Gear. But that’s me, I understand for some they wanted these stories done, I’m ok that they aren’t done just yet. And yeah I know I’m an AEW defender but I genuinely am content with the current state. Okada/Bandido, absolute banger. What a year Bandido is having! Great Okada performance as well. Quote
digforvictory Posted October 23, 2025 Posted October 23, 2025 2 hours ago, RedTwoster said: Bit of a disappointing Dynamite. They needed a reset, but instead chose to keep most of their major stories going. Hangman is still feuding with Samoa Joe. You surely can't be surprised at that one though? He's not going to turn heel and attack him after the match and then that's the end of the feud. Fletcher/Briscoe and especially The Hurt Syndicate/Demand feud still looking like it's continuing is insane though, what else is there left for them to do? I thought it was a Dynamite in keeping with the rest of them recently. Perfectly fine on their own but just missing something and if you watch weekly it feels cold, they definitely need a big story or big angle to hit. Okada vs Bandido was excellent though, Bandido is incredible. Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted October 23, 2025 Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 43 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said: But I still think a lot of those stories aren’t done yet. And I don’t think all of them will be resolved before Worlds End. Some might, like Page/Opps, but I think the Death Riders and Darby will probably carry on past Full Gear. But that’s me, I understand for some they wanted these stories done, I’m ok that they aren’t done just yet. And yeah I know I’m an AEW defender but I genuinely am content with the current state. And that’s great - as I say, I’ve enjoyed pretty much every episode of Dynamite this year, but this episode felt like it was dragging out storylines that have very little more to say. If beating Moxley doesn’t resolve the Death Riders story for Darby, what does? Hangman defeated Joe comprehensively. The heel turn might have heated things up if it had been followed up with a killer promo or confrontation - but instead, Joe resorted to pretty standard heel mic work. Ricochet/Hurts is similar - there’s not really a reason for that to continue; same goes for Fletcher/Briscoe. Keeping one of those storylines going would be fine, but making every single men’s storyline a continuation feels like a huge mistake. 1 hour ago, Hannibal Scorch said: The story of Mox punching out the Ref to not tap out again was clever. Doing that with Kyle O’Reilly, though… 1 minute ago, digforvictory said: You surely can't be surprised at that one though? No, I’m listing it as an example of ‘the same’ rather than something that surprised me. I think turning Joe was a mistake in the first place. If they’re going to have Hangman face another one of The Opps, I’d have preferred to see them give Will Hobbs a crack at him. Joe could still act as his spokesman to help with the heavy lifting on the mic, but ultimately it’s hard to care about Hangman wrestling someone he’s already defeated who will almost certainly lose to him once again. Quote
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted October 23, 2025 Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 18 minutes ago, RedTwoster said: If beating Moxley doesn’t resolve the Death Riders story for Darby, what does? Doing that with Kyle O’Reilly, though… If Mox had done that in a match against Hangman, Joe, Darby, Takeshita etc it would be a main event guy. Against KoR, a mid carder at best? It shows the desperation, it made way more sense! The Death Riders aren’t dead. Darby won’t be satisfied until they are taken out, that’s why it continues Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted October 23, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 45 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said: The Death Riders aren’t dead. Darby won’t be satisfied until they are taken out, that’s why it continues It makes total sense from a story perspective. As a viewer though I'd be happy if they moved everyone on to new things. Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted October 23, 2025 Paid Members Posted October 23, 2025 I thought that was the most uninspiring Dynamite in a long time. There's a direct correlation behind AEW being creatively spent and Tony Khan appearing as an on-screen character. They should have used Shibata's injury as an excuse to get the Trios belts off The Opps, because everything is a mess now. Samoa Joe is in a singles feud with Hangman Page, but he's still Trios Champion, and I doubt they'll have him drop the belts while presenting him as a World Title contender. If they had dropped the belts, then Hurt Syndicate and The Demand could be feuding over them, which would at least go some way to justify why on earth that feud is still happening after two blow-off matches. Hell, they could have had Hangman Page cost The Opps the belts here if they really needed to, but no, the babyface World Champion wasn't even on the show outside of a pre-taped promo. Jim Crockett Promotions had Jimmy Valiant feud with Paul Jones for years, and it was allegedly because nobody else wanted to work with either of them, and it's increasingly feeling that way with Hurt Syndicate and the Demand - they've found people the Hurt Syndicate are prepared to do business with, so they're just going to wrestle them forever. The Death Riders stuff is just exhausting. The finish of Moxley being rattled by the prospect of giving up again is something, but it's not enough for this point in the feud. So now we're going with Darby Allin taking out the rest of the Death Riders? I don't know, maybe you do that before the big gimmick match with their leader? The commentators kept banging on about how now we know Moxley is a coward and a bully, but has it changed anything? The booking is still the Death Riders beat up the babyfaces until Darby Allin runs in and chases them off. As it has been for fucking ever. There's no question of whether the Death Riders are still a united front, of whether Mox tapping out has maybe made them lose faith in him or lose focus, they're just back, wrestling matches, as if nothing changed. It's not just that the I Quit match didn't end it, it's that if that didn't, what will? Moxley losing the World Title wasn't the end of the story, so okay, this whole thing started with Mox and Darby Allin, so that's where the story goes. So Darby conclusively beats Mox, Moxley says I Quit, in a big gimmick match, after a fucking Sting run-in, and that's not it? Where's the catharsis in this if it's not the babyface standing tall after vanquishing the bad guy? So Darby and Moxley wrestle again. why do I believe this time will be any more conclusive than the last one? Or the one before that? Quote
King Mal the Glorious Posted October 23, 2025 Posted October 23, 2025 Bryan did say on comms that the Death Riders might be losing faith in Mox, which could be foreshadowing. I can see it ending in Blood and Guts if they're doing both men's and women's, otherwise I'm not sure who you'd have as a men's match. I'm not as down on that episode/current AEW as some of you seem to be, the only feud I wish they would end is Hurts/Demand. I really don't see how they can wring anything more out of that at this point. Main event was a banger, I bought that they could have had Bandido win so that Okada/Takeshita doesn't end up being title for title. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.