Bryan

Cody can also book himself as a star and protect himself even if it means making the new champ look like a chump. Like losing your first match and taking the pin after winning that title and how many times does a champ come out before his partner with no title?

ESPN tweeted out his return so it gets AEW some mainstream exposure. And being paired with Sting would probably be more beneficial to Darby than him being paired with Cody.

This was a great show. Didn’t see it coming but I’m Interested to see how the Impact crossover will work.

Yeah, Reigns would be a star wherever he went. He’s got the look, the size, the charisma, and he’s good in the ring. If he got released today Tony Khan and every other promoter would immediately show up with the Brinks truck.

It’s a reference to Michael Jordan (the greatest basketball player of all time) and his entrance for the Bulls.

The video game stuff and being best friends with a jobber is pretty lame but I’m not sure anything can be worse than being portrayed as a cuckold in a storyline with your actual real life wife.

According to Google his name is Tyler and he just recently filed for the trademark Hook.

The shadow looked so much taller than Omega at first I thought it was Archer and was wondering if they were going to make it a triple threat, so they could have the one on one at the ppv. Guess I’ve watched too much WWE.

Was surprised that The Butcher and the Blade vs PAC and Fenix was the main event since Butcher and Blade have been treated like a jobber to the stars team from the beginning. I think most people assumed they’d lose. I certainly did, so I wonder if that will impact ratings. But I’m very happy they got the win. They’re a good tag team, one of the most physically imposing, and have one of the best looks. I sincerely hope this is the beginning of them being booked better. Lance Archer coming out for the save was interesting and unexpected. John Moxley’s beat down and promo on Omega was great. Kenny Omega’s promo was cringe. I liked the video package for the women’s title, I think it was helpful for Shida who doesn’t appear super comfortable speaking English. And it helped build up the match that was obviously thrown together at the last minute (I think the only win on Dynamite I think she had relatively recently was the special late night episode of Dynamite over Brandi). I liked the Taz and Cody segment. Interested to see where it goes. The inner circle cheating excessively to win and then attacking Kazarian for the sucker punch was great.

AEW has sure done a great job of elevating the NWA Women’s title. I think it’s been featured on Dynamite more than the AEW women’s title and the matches for it have definitely been better. Which is good for the viewer but I don’t think speaks too well of the Women’s division or AEW Women’s title. Serena is good too but I think Thunder Rosa has been the best woman in ring for them so far, and as you said she’s still under contract to another company.

Yeah, Darby taking the pin was a little sketchy. If you’re not going to protect your new champion in favor of the former champion, you probably shouldn’t have put the belt on him.

To be fair, NXT started a feud with Pat Mcafee (a retired NFL punter) andAdam Cole on his podcast. It ended up better than expected. I’m not holding my breath but it’s possible.

If they want to build a competent women’s division with a bunch of unknown girls they have to give some of these women an opportunity to get over. And I thought they had a much better match than any of the Big Swole matches that were happening way too frequently a month or so ago.

Me too, someone had to after all of these over promise under deliver tweets. Some Jade girl most of us have never seen or heard of nervously cutting a promo on behalf of Shaq... for what I assume will be a mixed tag in by far Cody’s worst segment in AEW. Yikes. And PAC who they teased returning just last week... and whose return was kind of telegraphed by Schiavone’s obsession with Kingston causing the rift between the Lucha Bros. Anyway, I also don’t understand why the Butcher and the Blade pretty much always job on Dynamite. They have a good look and are physically imposing. I feel like they could have made some money with them if they hadn’t been treated like jobbers.

Yeah, what was the last one? The FTW belt or something. Grain of salt.

That would be interesting, I hadn’t even considered that. I was thinking that with them utilizing the same stipulation that Cody lost in was long term eventually going to lead to them all turning heel and somehow deviously going back on their word to get the titles.

It’s also true. Here’s Joe Rogan talking about how Roy Nelson would be a phenom at 185 lbs: And the last time he wrestled, on Dark this week, I’m pretty sure he was wrestling in a T-Shirt....People with “dad bods” aren’t in great shape.

He wasn’t actively rooting for a nipple slip. Anna Jay was fidgeting with her top which was really awkward and he made a joke. And Chuck Taylor is not in good shape. His physique is terrible and he doesn’t look like an athlete at all. In the UFC, when Roy Nelson fought there they would frequently comment on what he could do at LHW if he took his diet seriously. JR is consistent in that he treats the wrestlers as athletes and especially in a combat sport commentators will often comment on the physiques of the competitors. Also, literally talked about Cody’s physique and 14 lbs he’d gained two weeks ago, and after Excalibur slobbered over how good Cody’s shoulders and arms—no one was throwing a tantrum about the focus on his body instead of the match. I recall the UFC commentators commenting on Holly Holm’s physique and what great shape she appeared to be in and I don’t remember any outrage. It seems pretty obvious to me that many people just want to find any excuse they can to attack JR.

I thought the show peaked with Hangman vs Wardlow. I think they did a good job of making Wardlow look strong while still giving Hangman the clean win. I’m more interested in where they’re going with the MJF Jericho than the actual segments they’re doing. The women’s match was pretty good by AEW standards. I was actually curious about what happened with the Tay Conti Abadon match but I guess whatever happened was too bad to show. The Cody Orange match was okay but we saw it two weeks ago and I’m not that into the Orange gimmick. Omega vs Pentagon was pretty disappointing. I thought they had a better match last year. Omega’s weird facial expressions and awkward movements really took me out of the match. I don’t know if it’s because it was taped or if it’s just because this is a transition show before the ppv week show but overall it seemed like this show was missing some of the energy the shows usually have.

I think what’s more interesting about your merchandise data is that it indicates that AEW fans are actually more likely to buy merchandise from the baby faces than the heels (with the exception of Jericho and he’s the biggest star and has become more of a comedy character recently anyway). Which makes the Young Bucks decision to turn heel and start attacking announcers and back stage people before one of the most highly anticipated “dream matches” all the more baffling. It’s bad booking and hurt them in the pocketbook. I don’t get it. And I’m not at all surprised that pairing Miro with an AEW Dark jobber and having him be a video game nerd hasn’t helped him.

Plus, at least half the posts about him in this thread seem to be about how WWE missed out on him. So he was obviously on the same wave length as most people. But I agree you can almost see the money falling from the sky when he’s in the ring. Unless they bungle things in epic fashion they should eventually make a fortune with him.

I thought this was the best episode of Dynamite in a long time. Wardlow being dominant in the ring after their initial bungling of him is good to see. Kenny Omega’s over the top entrance, squash of the replacement jobber and then clapping for him and raising his hand even though he got in no offense was great. I thought I might have been drugged when MJF and Jericho went into a musical number. I don’t even know what to think just...WTF? AEW just needs to put the women’s title on Britt Baker as soon as possible. She’s by far the most entertaining woman and has gotten noticeably better in the ring from when she started. Tully and FTR beating down the Young Bucks was great.

I was referring to when Orange slowly crawled between Cody’s legs to get to the corner. Cody looked around dumbfounded when he could have easily kicked him or jumped on him for a submission or something. [quote]I think part of the problem is that we've been conditioned to expect shit like that to happen on "big" free TV shows from other companies, whether it's WWE or TNA or whatever. It's kind of refreshing that it was just a straightforward, all titles on the line episode of Dynamite that also happened to be the one year anniversary show (even though the real anniversary was like two weeks ago).[/quote] And AEW has also conditioned us for major happenings on big shows. In retrospect, with the ppv being just a few weeks away it makes sense that they’d save the major events for the ppv though.

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They’ve buried him and his finisher all at once, pretty impressive feat. AEW couldn’t properly book a big man to save its life, it’s crazy. Overall, this was a disappointing show. Maybe my expectations were too high but with how much AEW has done surprises on big shows I thought maybe there would be a surprise debut or something major would happen. But it was pretty much just another show. The opening tag match was okay and the ref was actually out of position when the heels cheated even if it was a little contrived. So they’re making progress. I liked Miro beating up the “good friends” but starting a feud over an arcade game—kind of gives me Jericho Kane feuding over a cup of coffee vibes. I really don’t understand why they’re pushing Orange Cassidy so hard. When there was a crowd he was getting a reaction but he’s really unimpressive in the ring and I’m starting to get annoyed by wrestlers acting surprised when he moves really slowly. Was very unimpressed by this match until the finish. I also don’t understand the Big Swole push. Again fans like to chant her name but she’s pretty rough in the ring. This was abysmal. The Brit Baker Tony segment was great. They can’t put the title on Baker fast enough. The MJF Jericho thing is interesting but I didn’t think they’d drag it out for another week. The Young Bucks being bullies doesn’t work not just because of their height but because they’re not physically impressive and nothing about their presentation actually signals that they’re tough guys. The main event was pretty good I liked how physical it was but Moxley’s always being a step ahead and having a submission or counter to everything is getting a little tiresome. And Eddie Kingston really stole the show on commentary and in the after the match.