DYNAMITE!- 1/4/2023!

[The Green Meanie]

Well that new set was underwhelming. When they said new look I was expecting more, my biggest wish was a new look to the ring/ring area, but sadly no change.

 

Legit laughed out loud as Britt was once again correct about Saraya, as she couldn't even remember Shida's name.

That seemed like a great crowd, and it was a really great show!

[Elsalvajeloco]

37 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Jarrett danced around like he bowled a strike after the ref sent Billy Gunn to the back, it was amazing form

I suspect there's a certain amount of Mid South Coliseum shtick that Jarrett would do on TV that would be fresh because (1) it took place a long time ago in wrestling terms and (2) they didn't televise full matches from the MSC so some of the stuff they did live isn't really known outside of fans from Tennessee/Kentucky/Arkansas/etc.

Living in Mississippi, I can tell you the last several years of Memphis they NEVER showed stuff from the Mid South Coliseum. That would make sense as it would be like a black out for the NFL just to get folks to the venue. Didn't work, but it made sense when business was down.

[matt925]

I didn’t think there was anything that could get me excited about an mjf ppv main event, even vs Bryan, but holy cow an iron man match does it. 
 

That was such an awesome crowd. Great show, great crowd. 
 

Not sure why anyone is still expecting Mercedes to show up. She’s wrestling her first match since leaving wwe in San Jose, two weeks before aew inexplicably runs 4 shows in Northern California in 8 days (boggles the mind) which are all underperforming. If aew paid her big money she would not be selling tickets in San Jose two weeks earlier. This whole “no longer a mystery opponent” is very clearly trying to tell everyone to not expect Mercedes please don’t hate anyone when you don’t get her. 

[Just Dave]

Idk man, that “Shida being upset at not being the partner” makes me think there’ll be an angle between now and then. Mercedes steps in after…

[matt925]

4 minutes ago, just drew said:

Idk man, that “Shida being upset at not being the partner” makes me think there’ll be an angle between now and then. Mercedes steps in after…

…Toni is the partner. And shida is pissed which sets up a heel turn or at least a match with either of them. Am I missing something? It doesn’t seem like there’s an outside person at all. That was the whole point of the segment, even though it was awkward because Saraya forgot shida’s name. “We fucked up and people are going to expect a big surprise so now we have to make it not a surprise.” 

[Cobra Commander]

that swerve is almost too predictable by now though? like Toni's the scrub that just has to be knocked out of the match so that the real star takes her spot

Sasha/Mercedes is probably gonna have better luck than Saraya/Paige at being cheered by AEW fans vs Britt/Hayter, but it wouldn't hurt to have a somewhat not convoluted path to pivot in a few months if fans keep cheering Britt and Hayter in this feud

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Bryan slut-shaming someone who isn't actively on the show, before spamming tampon jokes was a level of misogyny that seems out of place this side of 2001 WWE. Also not the first time he's done it too.

[The Natural]

 

[Go2Sleep]

Do the good old "mystery attacker" angle and let everyone think it's Shida for a few weeks, including a violent Shida/Storm blowoff match on Dynamite, only to find out it was actually Saraya. It would make sense if she said she was actually tired of being paired with second-tier wrestlers who couldn't get the job done like Toni and Shida and needed to ditch them for real woman superstar to take over AEW. Depending on how much Mercedes is going to work with AEW, you could either have her win the belt before the reveal or just have Jamie beat her and establish herself as the new ace. Depending on how much fuckery they're going to put into the Bryan/MJF Iron man, Jamie over Mercedes would be a great choice for AEW's first women's ppv main.

[matt925]

As much as I beat the drumbeat three weeks ago that it would be Mercedes vs Kairi in San Jose, I want to beat the drum beat that Mercedes will not be appearing on aew television, at least until this new japan run is over. Aew made a terrible accident when they announced a mystery partner for a big womens tag match in Los Angeles for right about this time. When it became clear the fans expected Mercedes they ghosted the angle until tonight, when they clearly explained it away and set something new up for the future (shida vs Toni then Saraya). 
 

Meanwhile, half the remaining tickets for the new japan show in San Jose were sold today, and I expect the rest to be sold soon. There was nothing else traditionally that new japan could have done to sell those tickets, short of announcing a ppv supercard with multiple title matches. Now I’m very curious to see how the announcement of the revolution main event, two months in advance, moves tickets. The stip definitely made me more interested, but I already bought my ticket. 

[Cobra Commander]

9 minutes ago, Go2Sleep said:

Do the good old "mystery attacker" angle and let everyone think it's Shida for a few weeks, including a violent Shida/Storm blowoff match on Dynamite, only to find out it was actually Saraya. It would make sense if she said she was actually tired of being paired with second-tier wrestlers who couldn't get the job done like Toni and Shida and needed to ditch them for real woman superstar to take over AEW. Depending on how much Mercedes is going to work with AEW, you could either have her win the belt before the reveal or just have Jamie beat her and establish herself as the new ace. Depending on how much fuckery they're going to put into the Bryan/MJF Iron man, Jamie over Mercedes would be a great choice for AEW's first women's ppv main.

Feels like a bit of a dramatic swing to have Saraya pick Storm one week and then have her secretly take out Storm the next week.

Unless the booking here is that Saraya is dating Alberto Del Rio era irrational Paige or something.

Having Sasha secretly attack Storm to take Storm’s spot and pit Storm against Shida would be sort of a “newcomer shows up and is a chaos agent towards others” thing… which hasn’t happened in AEW for at least a few months.

[BrianS81177]

Alright...*cracks knuckles*.... here's my first (and likely only, at least until AEW comes back to Seattle) road report. Done DEAN style because fuck paragraphs and spacing. We got to the arena at about 145 to get in line for the 230 meet & greet. Options for the meet & greet were Eddie Kingston, Ricky Starks and Toni Storm. 50 bucks each. My friend and his 13 year old son opted for just Eddie. I decided to get Eddie and Ricky because I don't have kids and therefore have disposable income. While in line my friend and I are talking about old video games and VPW2 comes up. I ask him if he could only pick 1 wrestler from VPW2 to play as forever who would it be. He replies with Kawada. I say I would choose Kobashi because, Burning Hammer. My friend says something about Kawada's Exploder which makes me tilt my head to the side the way a dog does when it's confused about something. He says he meant the Ganso Bomb, I tell him too late and that I am gonna rat him out to Eddie Kingston when we get in there. I am ahead of my friend in line and when my turn comes up, I ask Eddie the same VPW2 question (he immediately answered Kawada btw) and then tell him my friend's little snafu. Eddie proceeds to break my friend's balls about it and I love him even more for it now. My friend and his spawn go to find our seats while I get in Ricky's line. The line moves very slowly because Ricky is an absolute (pun intended) gem of a human being and is getting into conversations with every person who comes up to him. My turn comes, he asks my name so he can sign my 8x10 and I ask if he would sign it to my 12 year old nephew instead because Starks is his favorite. He not only does so, he writes a little personalized message for my nephew and seemed genuinely delighted when I told him I gave my nephew a Starks action figure and Tshirt for Christmas. He was like this with everybody. If you get the chance to meet him, do it. You'll walk out an even bigger fan than you went in. 330 I get to my seat in time to see a video for the live crowd of MJF shit talking Seattle. He mentions the Sonics leaving, mentions Kurt Cobain's suicide then brings up the Superbowl loss to the Patriots. He then SHOWS THE CLIP of said Superbowl loss where the Hawks inexplicably try a pass from the 1 yard line instead of using their all pro running back. This gets a gigantic chorus of boos. About 415 we get out first match taped for Dark Elevation, the Bollywood Boyz vs The Kingdom. Crowd goes ape for the Bollywood Boyz because they're mainstays in our local promotion DEFY. Second match is another local guy Schaff against Brian Cage. If you like big beefy men hitting each other you will enjoy this match. At this point they say that they will tape more Elevation matches after Dynamite and get the ring set up. I'm sure it was loud on TV but man being in there was crazy. There were times my friend and I couldn't even hear each other. I'll gloss over Dynamite since others have already written about it. Jericho gets his serenade, does the job then gets his heat back. Adam Page comes out to a huge reaction and gets another big pop for saying the word "Dick", Moxley comes out through the tunnel right underneath where we were sitting and gets a massive response too. Even though you could hear him on TV, we couldn't hear Mox's mic in the arena hence the loud "We can't hear you" chant. Tag title match was fun and again, I don't know how well it translated on TV but Jarrett was getting nuclear heat. There were a couple of very loud "Fuck you Jarrett" chants. Aubrey Edwards got a massive pop every single time she came out. She was wearing Seattle Supersonic colored shoes which did not go unnoticed by the crowd. We didn't see the backstage segment with Hayter/Baker, instead we got to watch Tony Nese come out. Poor Tony Nese. So talented, so not over. Danielson comes out and the building is shaking. Danielson wins, MJF comes out, crowd chants "Shut the Fuck up" at MJF a couple of times (the city of Seattle apologizes for your eventual FCC fines Tony Khan). Swerve comes out to a big pop despite being a heel because not only is he a local guy too but he is the current champion of DEFY and appears regularly at their shows. "This is awesome" chant during the match (and the match was pretty damn awesome) though the interference of the Inkmaster rejects kinda dampens it a bit. Still, out hometown boy won so we're happy. We also did not see the segment with Saraya, Storm and Shida. The Ass Boys come out to a loud "Ass Boys" chant. The segment was what it was. Wasn't terrible. I knew FTR wasn't there but a lot of people in the crowd were fooled when the music hit. Jade Cargill's match I missed because I went to the bathroom, then got something to eat. My friend tells me I didn't really miss much. I kinda feel like Jade is running out of steam and they may wanna think about freshening her up a bit. End the streak, turn her face, I dunno. We did not get to see the backstage interview with Jarrett and company either. Main event time. Place is insane for Darby. If he hadn't won there probably would have been a riot. Aterwards Darby gets on the mic and talks about growing up in Seattle, coming to this arena to watch the Supersonics play, etc. He brings in 17 year old Nick Wayne (who wrestles for DEFY and already has an AEW contract cuz he's really talented). Darby says maybe someday they'll fight for the TNT title but Nick needs to graduate high school first. Elevation tapings resume. House of Black faced Nemeth, Avalon and Daivari. Claudio faced Josh Woods. It may or may not have been a ROH title match. I don't remember Dasha saying it was but the ref held the belt up like it was. Powerhouse Hobbs had a match, as did Nyla Rose and Marina Shafir. Matt Hardy, Isaiah Cassidy and Ethan Page had a trios match and Page was great during it. Athena had a match, then Eddie Kingston and Ortiz had a tag match. At this point my friend insisted on leaving because it was 830 and he has to wake up at like 5am for work and he's a little bitch about needing sleep. As we left they were starting Bandido vs Christopher Daniels, not sure if there were more matches after that.

Edited January 5, 2023 by BrianS81177

[The Green Meanie]

Geez I hope Sasha doesn't show up in this company. I want to keep enjoying it.

[DreamBroken]

Amazing show! Loved the ultra hot crowd and how it seemed to stay that way all the way through and never let up.

Starks/Jericho ruled, enjoyed the whole excitement of the first 20 mins with the match and post-match attacks. 

Tag title match was fantastic, definitely bought the title change and look forward to the No Holds Barred rematch. 

Saraya segment was awkward with a sudden turn to making her come off tone deaf for doing Shida like that. I'm still in the Mone' camp on that one for now.

Bryan/MJF segment was long, but I liked it. Did get a laugh out of MJF's namedrops of Disco, Bischoff, and Cornette. Ironman should be epic even if it feels like no way MJF's reign ends this early. Schiavone: "Do it, dumbass, do it!"

AR/Swerve delivered the goods. Wild apron bump.  the Jade/Red angle is weird since they were already rivals, then friends, and now rivals again.  We need to circle back to the Bow Wow angle.

Main event ruled. Perfect follow up from their first match. A little sad to see half of Joe's King of Television run end so soon, but this felt like a real special win and moment for Darby. Great stuff., great finishing sequence.

Excellent start to the year and looking forward to all the great stuff to come, a double shot Friday and a super stacked next week. 

[eikerir]

The stage is an improvement but I don't love it since it's still just a generic mash up of LED Screens. Would have been nice for them to still do the LED stuff but mixing it up with some old school scaffolding a la Nitro, I miss late 90s stages so much. I hope this one doesn't stick for a full 3 years and they improve it as they go.

The announcer's desk set up does look very slick now and makes the guys look much more like something you'd see on ESPN.

 

Surprised at the clean win from Starks, specially after it looked like the bullshit finish was inevitable with the bat shot. Happy with the result, Ricky has been getting great reactions lately and they have to keep it going. I just hope they know not to make this Jericho program last 6 months like they usually do, short and sweet please.

 

I'm getting a bit sick of MJF's stuff already, Bryan couldn't have said it best "dude just shut up", perfect delivery.

 

I kinda wanted Jeff/Lethal to actually win in a "OH NO THEY DIDNT" kind of way because the heat would have been NUCLEAR, but the fake out was probably better in the end to avoid a riot. Fun stuff.

 

Main even was great, weird that Wardlow just disappeared but I'm thinking maybe they want him going over Joe without being locked in the TNT Title scene anymore?

 

Next week's card looks fucking insase, PPV Level stuff.

Edited January 5, 2023 by eikerir

[The Natural]

So MJF vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Championship in a 60 minute Iron Man match at AEW Revolution 2023. This will be the longest PPV match in AEW history. This will be tied for longest in AEW history with Danielson's draw with Hangman Page, AEW Winter is Coming Dynamite 2021. If there's overtime, it will be the longest.

Bryan Danielson has to win all his matches till the 8th of February. Jon Moxley owes Bryan Danielson two jobs. Danielson has never defeated Moxley in AEW.

[The Natural]

By far the best Iron Man match ever is Ricky Steamboat vs. Rick Rude at WCW Beach Blast 1992. Rude getting an injury early but gets a flash pinfall of a strike, the get a DQ to do more damage and get a fall back came from here and Rude going for pinfall rollups in the last minute. A ***** match.

Second to that is Bayley vs. Sasha Banks at NXT TakeOver: Respect with Sasha suckering Bayley in for a hug, Sasha getting a countout decision, taunting Izzy making her cry and the finish callbacks NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. I've always preferred this to the predecessor. Both ***** bouts.

[Log]

There are a bunch of things that confuse me in this Hayter/Britt vs Saraya feud, but I think it’s pretty clear that last night’s announcement of Storm as her partner was very much a “Oh shit, everyone thinks it’s going to be Mercedes! We need to squash that.” 
 

I think she will come to AEW at some point, I just think it won’t be as Saraya’s partner. 

[zendragon]

6 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Bryan slut-shaming someone who isn't actively on the show, before spamming tampon jokes was a level of misogyny that seems out of place this side of 2001 WWE. Also not the first time he's done it too.

MJF started it... speaking of which is MJF's mother now #1 contender? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzMzEhIzOU&ab_channel=AllEliteWrestling

Also if our man @JustDrew can handle an Elite match every week I think @Gordlow can handle a Jeff Jarrett match 

[Andrew POE!]

5 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Bryan slut-shaming someone who isn't actively on the show, before spamming tampon jokes was a level of misogyny that seems out of place this side of 2001 WWE. Also not the first time he's done it too.

Let's be honest....MJF would have went there first with Brie Bella if Bryan didn't go there with MJF's mom. Based on everything else MJF has done, he goes after the lowest hanging fruit and slut shaming / misogyny is in his wheelhouse too (remember his promos with Brian Pillman Jr about Pillman's mom). I did like Danielson questioning if MJF is even a wrestler because....it's true. I almost wish Danielson added a stipulation that in order for him to agree to the title shot, MJF has to wrestle weekly too (and he wouldn't even have to defend the title when he wrestled). It would have gone differently if Danielson said he didn't need the AEW title; MJF needed to beat Danielson to prove his legitimacy, not that Danielson needed to prove anything to be a World champion (and also allude to the fact that Danielson was a WWE champion and MJF isn't). Danielson could simply say he's a star and started a movement without even trying to be, while MJF tries too hard and wants to be at the place Danielson was that he may never go there.

 

[Casey]

2 hours ago, Log said:

There are a bunch of things that confuse me in this Hayter/Britt vs Saraya feud, but I think it’s pretty clear that last night’s announcement of Storm as her partner was very much a “Oh shit, everyone thinks it’s going to be Mercedes! We need to squash that.” 
 

I think she will come to AEW at some point, I just think it won’t be as Saraya’s partner. 

They've had weeks to squash it, and they suddenly pivot to Toni Storm as the mystery partner the day that Mercedes debuts in Japan? And the Friday before the new year begins, they say Saraya will have an update on the situation on Dynamite (which, again, happened to be the day she debuts, and they know that beforehand).

I'll gladly take the bet against anyone that Mercedes is the mystery partner. I don't even like her all that much, but it seems like people not wanting her in AEW are just plugging their ears and pretending it's not happening.

[NikoBaltimore]

6 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Bryan slut-shaming someone who isn't actively on the show, before spamming tampon jokes was a level of misogyny that seems out of place this side of 2001 WWE. Also not the first time he's done it too.

I'm with ya on this one.  I can see why people thought the promo segment was good.  But even if MJF first brought her up Bryan could have just pointed out how even his own parents don't like MJF and he wouldn't have missed a beat with anything else.  It seemed more of Bryan stooping to MJF's level and didn't really add much to it.  Plus I thought it went a bit long and that time could have been better used to lenghthen one of the matches.

5 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

The line moves very slowly because Ricky is an absolute (pun intended) gem of a human being and is getting into conversations with every person who comes up to him. My turn comes, he asks my name so he can sign my 8x10 and I ask if he would sign it to my 12 year old nephew instead because Starks is his favorite. He not only does so, he writes a little personalized message for my nephew and seemed genuinely delighted when I told him I gave my nephew a Starks action figure and Tshirt for Christmas. He was like this with everybody. If you get the chance to meet him, do it. You'll walk out an even bigger fan than you went in.

I can vouch for this as we met Ricky at Celebfest last November.  The guy indeed is a gem and took all the time in the world to chat with us about things from his figure (regular and chase variant) plus him needing some gold around his waist.  I was already a fan of the guy but my wife likes him a lot more now.  Plus him being incredibly handsome doesn't hurt either.

[The Natural]

Tony Khan should strap a rocket on Ricky Starks. Future Ace. Great to read he's a gem.

Edited January 5, 2023 by The Natural

[For Great Justice]

I always thought the BCC dynamic was that Bryan was a fun loving crowd favorite on the outside but a sadistic asshole on the inside, while Mox was a bad ass take no shit killer on the outside but a big softie on the inside

[Log]

28 minutes ago, Casey said:

They've had weeks to squash it, and they suddenly pivot to Toni Storm as the mystery partner the day that Mercedes debuts in Japan? And the Friday before the new year begins, they say Saraya will have an update on the situation on Dynamite (which, again, happened to be the day she debuts, and they know that beforehand).

I'll gladly take the bet against anyone that Mercedes is the mystery partner. I don't even like her all that much, but it seems like people not wanting her in AEW are just plugging their ears and pretending it's not happening.

Oh, I'm excited for Mercedes in AEW. I think she'd be an amazing signing on multiple levels.

I just think having her debut like this would be underwhelming. Maybe its just because I have no clue what anyone sees in Saraya and I don't think Mone should be associated with her?