Go2Sleep

I think angle #1 plays better if Max&Max retain. It's not like any ROH belt really means much right now, and having 2 guys named Max with belts has to be good brand synergy if nothing else. Angle #2, but it's Wardlow who kills Caster. There's a lot of different ways they can go, and I think it comes down to how long AAAADAM has to be off TV. If his 9-month time frame is legit, getting a couple months of comedy out of MJF/Acclaimed isn't a bad way to kill some time. If he can get back sooner, then you unload the heavy stuff.

Based on last week's TV, I think there's a decent chance we get Golden Jets/Young Bucks, HOB/FTR, and Miro/Andrade. I wouldn't be surprised if Penta takes that AAA belt off QT on the preshow either. I'd be surprised if the TBS title is left off the show, and a Stat/Willow/Julia/Skye 4-way seems reasonable. Oh and MJF's mystery partner has to be Caster, right? Fills the comedy niche left by Cole and and should balance whatever the serious angle is with the devil payoff.

I agree that Dutch has some redeeming qualities, and is held back trying to fit Vincent's gimmick. He'd probably be fine in another role, whereas Vincent would likely suck doing anything.

I have no idea what TK sees in the Righteous. Here's a spoiler: Old Jake ain't gonna get 'em over. I don't think they even to deserve to be a warm-up match for the Darby/Sting/Copeland trio. I do like the general chaos of the tag division. I hope it gets to simmer for a while, with all the factions getting turns at each other. This was a show that was trying to fill a lot of time, and would be Exhibit A for "Put another women's match on the show." You could let Dalton/Acclaimed build for a week or two by ending it after the trophy break and fill the time with something more productive. Build the Stat/Skye tension by having them vs. The Renegade Twins, Athena/Billie, or even Ruby/Saraya if you really wanna pack in the angles.

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that heel Skye Blue and babyface Marina Shaffir would have one of the better women's matches in AEW this year... I probably would've believed you because that kind of stuff happens in AEW, but it was still nice to see. Is there anyone even close to Skye for most improved this year? I also like the totally off-the-wall possible love story with Angelo and Ruby. Paul Wight was great on commentary all night.

MJF's booking is one thing AEW has done consistently well this year. At least they have that piece down. I was ready to hate on everything related to the 6-man titles thing, but Matt Jackson actually saved it by reverting into a whiny baby. He was completely right about all the plot holes the last couple of months, but rattled them off in such a catty way he basically turned the team heel instantly. Bucks vs. Jets at Full Gear is way better than them vs. Ricky and Bill.

Bringing in Flair as a one-off "thank you" for Sting is maybe excusable (maybe), but signing him to a multi-year deal...

I would've liked him to pick Billy, Anthony, and Roddy. Keep the goofy tension going with Caster, and throw a bone to his buddy AAADAM at the same time. "You're a simp, but I know you're a good wrestler, your injury is obviously fake, and it keeps this creep away from me." Alternatively, I'm all for him paying off Joe, Kenny, and Wardlow to absolutely steamroll BCG (minus Jay who bails early) and end the stolen belt nonsense.

Danielson did almost exactly this during his heel run in ROH. He would do things like work an abdominal stretch for a long time while the crowd chanted "boring" at him, or do 10 body slams in a row to the chants of "same old shit." Early Young Bucks kind of did too with their cartwheel handsprings into a back rake and what not. The Meltzer Driver lives as a remnant of that gimmick today. Of course, both would always give the crowd a hot finishing run. I don't think it could be pulled off unironically, though.

Skye/Stat was really good, easily Skye's best match to date. Stat doesn't get enough credit as a workhorse, she routinely gets the most out of everyone she works with. Even though, Skye is teasing a heel turn, this was her best fighting spirit performance where it looked like she had winning chances. She brought the heat, but Stat always had an answer for her. Reminded me of Jungle Boy's first crack at Kenny Omega.

1. Yeah, even JR uses the coded "Jezebel" 2. Hey, Paul Wight is one of only two men to be in an actual stairs match on a ppv with stairs in the title, he has to be a definitive authority on the subject.

Yeah, Luchasaurus was kind of a weird choice for Copeland's first AEW match. This isn't a knock on Luchasaurus, who I generally like and think has an undeserved rep as a big stiff. He was working pretty light with Adam and has generally proven to be a solid "high floor low ceiling" kinda guy. Still, anyone that has watched both guys recently could see this was gonna be an awkward styles clash from a mile away. Copeland was working way too WWE-style here giving way too much offense to the heel when the circumstances didn't call for it and lots of resting. Nick Wayne would've been a way better choice since he's naturally more of an "AEW style" guy and Copeland as the vet would have to work with that calling match and likely take more offense for himself given the size and experience advantage. Nick would bump and make Copeland's offense look strong in his debut and you protect Luchasaurus' cred as the muscle without having to do a finish where Copeland is cheating to win in his debut after taking 90% of the offense.

Yeah but he uses some of his money to make great fan-service wrestling, which is more than any other billionaire has done for me.

TK is the only good billionaire, but his billionaire tendencies still show through sometimes. He gets very Elon-like online.

Something I liked about this Dynamite was the different lengths of matches. OC/Fenix is the kind of match Dynamite and Collision need more of. Very attitude style, 5 minutes, both guys get a lot of shit in, still packs in a lot of story, no commercial break necessary. No one comes away from that match thinking it's a squash just because it finished in one segment. The "average 12 minute match" has been way overdone by now, and with more matches like this, things like Swerve/Dragon stand out in contrast. The show also had a Wardlow squash and Hobbs semi-squashing Jericho. I also thought Shida/Saraya was a top match for both in AEW (I know Saraya has a very small sample size). If that was on NXT in 2014, people would've gone nuts for it. It says a lot about the hard work numerous women have done to completely flip the script on women's wrestling in the US over the last 10 years when this particular match flies under the radar. Also, it was a logical setup for the inevitable Outcast triple threat, which I don't think anyone was really calling for, but will work thanks to the re-invention of Timeless Toni.

The inability to be subtle made the quarters thing worse than it should have been. Everyone knows Juice uses the roll of quarters as his weapon of choice, and everyone knows about Max's antisemitic bullying story centering around quarters. Anyone who needed to get the angle would've gotten it. Writing FRIEDMAN on the roll of quarters and zooming in on it makes things look a lot worse to a casual viewer. I don't think there was any ill intent, but much like the misogynistic lines that Caster slips in his raps, sometimes creative freedom still needs some oversight. Hopefully there won't be much more to this than Juice trying to grab the quarters in the match, then immediately getting blasted by the diamond ring and otherwise beaten handily. Keep the focus on the main event with Jay which is the big program here.

Takeshita really hoping TK has room for Callis Family promo or Rampage squash on this show now.

I don't understand AEW's desire to regularly fly international stars to 5k-seater in freaking Kansas City, but I'm very glad they do.

Dude's 18. It's gonna be another 5 years before he can pile on muscle mass. Collision was kind of a nothing show outside of the tag title change. All in all, it's probably good the belts were forced of FTR. We didn't need them and The Bucks again so soon, and Ricky and Bill have been delivering the goods every week despite bad booking. Hopefully they see the big picture here and don't have the Bucks go over in LA. Timeless Toni is a top act in wrestling right now. Love that they bothered to type out an actual script. Generally speaking, I think AEW needs to book smaller venues for their weekly shows. The other option is drastically lowering ticket prices and comping the fuck out of under-performing cities. They should know by now what cities they can run a big arena in with a decent card (Chicago, Toronto, NY, London). No need to force it and have 20% full arena pics surfacing elsewhere. I don't think even MNW-era WWE and WCW were running 10K+ arenas every week. WWE didn't start that until they were way ahead and into their monopoly days.

It's amazing how much better AEW TV matches look on the international feed, especially Dynamite when Taz drags the whole team into DGAF mode on commentary.

I got tickets yesterday, they have decent ones now for $24. Normally my group just buys the $95 dead center hard camera seats without blinking, but 2/3 of us had other shit going on, so we waited to see if the prices dropped. We're one section off the hard camera closer to the stage, but there aren't many bad seats at the Independence Events Center (that changes sponsors every other year). For a city that isn't super important to AEW, KC usually gets something kinda big. Pac/Kenny 2/3 falls, Will Ospreay debut, Kenny/Vikingo, and now Copeland's in-ring debut. Swerve/Danielson and Jay/Hangman should be nice too.

It's where Nate Diaz is from, so draw your own conclusions. Another promo heavy Dynamite, but at least this one wasn't all "serious business." Roddy still yelling "AAADAM" when Cole is right next to him is great. Bennett and Taven are excellent stooges. Toni's "all in" with her new Timeless act and I love it. "A word from our sponsors... NOW IT'S TIME FOR A TITTY SLAP" is hands down the best mid-match cutaway of all time. Good to see Hobbs and Wardlow back. It's kind of amazing that Wardlow stays as over he does for how poorly he's been booked since the MJF split. The E/C (or A/J) reunion was well done. Felt like a big deal but still part of a bigger angle, not just a straight nostalgia trip. Copeland's promo was mostly good. I don't know if anyone has ever called Juice Robinson "The Stray Bullet" before, but if not, he should be thanking the hell out of Copeland for giving him an infinitely better nickname than "Rock Hard." Despite his goofy gimmick, that nickname always just comes across too Russo-ish for my liking, but I digress... I also liked the foreshadowing of Nick Wayne and Luchasaurus turning on Christian, which could very well set up the tag team reunion some time next year). Nick Wayne has that super sleazy dickhead "no morals" energy, and Adam Copeland should be able to relate. Christian's part in this was perfect. I will say I hope they don't focus too much on a Christian/Copeland feud beyond the obvious 6 man at Full Gear. Let them go their separate ways for a while and get the feel-good reunion when it's right, probably around All In next year for a match with FTR.

I'd be surprised if Mark Davis doesn't have some kind of wrist/forearm injury, since he was avoiding using it after the doomsday device type spot and was holding it after every move/impact.

Not that I enter the social media places where such discourse happens, but which would be worse: NXT winning by 500k+ or Dynamite winning/barely losing against a John Cena show?

Someone has edited Christian's wikipedia page.