AEW Dynamite - 2/1/2023

[Craig H]

58 minutes ago, chriskbrown50 said:

I have no clue what Darby Allin's body will look like down the road but these bumps are really cringe worthy. I think there is a rational fear of his health overall. Mikey Whipwreck anyone?? His shelf life just seems so limited. Watching the action sports guys from my era like Tony Hawk walking around now with a cane or Matt Hoffman is his future or worse. 

Tony Hawk was using a cane because he injured his leg and using a cane made more sense than crutches. 

[chriskbrown50]

40 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Tony Hawk was using a cane because he injured his leg and using a cane made more sense than crutches. 

 "I had my femur surgically realigned 2 weeks ago in order to get back to what I love doing at a high level. " - Tony Hawk - I stand corrected. 

[zendragon]

I wonder if Darby is next in line for MJF, Hangman just lost, Eddie is wrapped up in his HOB nonsense

[Log]

If Darby wasn't a pro wrestler, he'd be wrecking his body in other ways. I hope he can live a long and healthy pain-free life, but I'm also glad he chose to entertain us through pro wrestling.

[John from Cincinnati]

Page could win the blowoff vs Moxley (so worried it's gonna be last man standing) and then go for the belt, but they seemed to just be teasing something with him and the Elite. 

Cole is viable to be MJF's next challenger, it just depends what the plans are. This far out, I'd be surprised if Double or Nothing is MJF vs anyone other than Cole, Starks, or Darby. I don't see Omega jumping back to main event singles stuff in this timeframe. Even if Miro comes off the bench, all indications are he's not likely to get such a showcase. Neither Lucha Bro nor PAC has gotten that kind of singles push. Sting's not working a singles match. Would be a fun way for Punk to return, but Tony might be worried (rightfully? I don't know) about how people would react to putting him in such a spot. 

Maybe Jericho will do a flash turn so he can challenge at Double or Nothing... *shudders* 

I'm almost more interested in whatever MJF could get up to in his rare TV matches. Dustin Rhodes? Claudio? Bandido? Hook?? 

Edited February 2, 2023 by John from Cincinnati

[Zimbra]

Speaking of Dustin why aren't we getting the Swerve/Dustin match they seemed to be teasing on Rampage?

[John from Cincinnati]

Just now, Zimbra said:

Speaking of Dustin why aren't we getting the Swerve/Dustin match they seemed to be teasing on Rampage?

We are, just not yet.

Or we're never getting it and they're giving the rub to TRENCH. 

[Zimbra]

7 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

We are, just not yet.

Or we're never getting it and they're giving the rub to TRENCH. 

Gotcha.  I thought he said something in the promo about Dustin not being around so I wasn't sure if he got hurt or whatever.

I also thought he said that dude's name was French, so maybe I should get my hearing checked.

[AxB]

World Title: Defended a handful of times a year, hard to get a title shot .

TV title: Defended frequently, easy l to get a title shot, hard to hold on to.

This isn’t very complicated.

[Shartnado]

14 minutes ago, AxB said:

World Title: Defended a handful of times a year, hard to get a title shot .

TV title: Defended frequently, easy l to get a title shot, hard to hold on to.

This isn’t very complicated.

And All-Atlantic title is defended just (or almost) as frequently as the TNT-title but is seemingly easy to hold on to. Or at least OC makes it look, well for the lack of a better term, effortless.

And as far as the actual Dynamite goes, holy hell what an episode, once again! Several different kinds of splendid matches, everyone interesting for different reasons. Next week seems like a bit of a cool down, but Rush vs Dragon? Alright. And we may just be in for a shocking tag title change, maybe.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Shartnado
Actual Dynamite talk

[John from Cincinnati]

9 minutes ago, Shartnado said:

And All-Atlantic title is defended just (or almost) as frequently as the TNT-title but is seemingly easy to hold on to. Or at least OC makes it look, well for the lack of a better term, effortless.

Don't worry, they'll change up the dynamic by giving a short reign to Jarrett. 

[Shartnado]

2 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Don't worry, they'll change up the dynamic by giving a short reign to Jarrett. 

Could happen. All those defences have to be squeezing Orange dry.

[Jenalysis]

4 hours ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

Fwiw I actively disliked Page for the longest time and didn't like their second match at all but the 60 min draw was the match that really opened my eyes to Page's good qualities, especially when he has the right opponent to direct some of the traffic. His Takeshita match was also excellent from a Hangman-skeptical perspective. 

 

Hangman is a bomb thrower to me.  Kinda like a heavyweight spot money, not as bad as Brian Cage, and does have an idea of psychology, but his pacing is just off.  I'd love an extended Hangman/Jay White feud just so Jay can reel him in.  

Hangman and 80s Lex Luger could be comparable in some ways, both were really good when they didn't have to carry the match, but when they had to lead, it wasn't good when Lex did it (Hangman is more of a mixed bag)

Edited February 2, 2023 by Jenalysis

[HarryArchieGus]

How many weeks in a row have you loved this show? I’ve lost count. Tho, my number is pretty huge. I did kinda hate a couple Rampages if that counts for anything. That one where Jade was gonna hold the show hostage, but instead relented a short time after. Jacksonville has seen the best of times and worst of times!

So many huge matches every week. And huge matches with clean (enough) finishes! It can never be understated ‘the booking genius of Tony Khan’ to stick to matches ending in pinfall or submissions. Hangman-Moxley III!!! I was thinking a draw, but was pleased as punch with the commitment to clean finishes and the Mox win. And it worked, we all want more. ‘Backscratch of Doom!’ - one of the worst moves in wrestling by one of its greatest practioners. I’m falling head over heels for this Saraya-Toni tandem. Good on the Good Doctor to still act like an asshole to Ruby. Luv the ‘tude! Acclaimed rap n’ wrestle! Turbo and Truth are this season’s Menard and Parker, and I think we’re all on Board! Jungle Jack says no more team with Hook, which I tend to think means ‘more tag teaming with Hook’. I had a good feeling going in, and all the way to the finish with Takeshita-Cage. Cage hate is passe. Elite shooting some hoops. Nick Jackson for 3! I like the around town style promo. Remember that one by the river with Starks and Hobbs (in the fur coat)? More of this MANSURY! Real nice j-o-b by Timothy Thatcher. God bless Bryan Danielson and his incredible skillset! He’s providing matches each week for all his colleagues to study to help make pro wrestling that much better. Really dug Renee delivering the booking scoop following the MJF-Takeshita brawl. I was hoping to hear the crowd chant ‘Renee! Renee!’ Excalibur gets the wrong info as we slide to Lexi, not Renee, with Roosh, not MJF. Then MJF walks in, not disheveled like he was just fighting with a brilliant young DDT star, but like a (taped earlier in the day) Smooth Operator – small point taken away here for unsatisfactory (tho easily missed) continuity - directly to new guy, Mike. I skimmed Jade-Velvet. Loved some of the highlights. I’m with @JLowe, Red Velvet’s visual pin was not earned. The booking around Jade clearly needs some serious improvement. UGH, I am so terribly disappointed by this Red Velvet face turn. Please read the audience and let her naturally embrace the darkside. Please. Moving on, it’s the King of Television! The resurgence of Samoa Joe is an understated but great AEW story. Darby Allin is unbelievable. I did not see this title change coming. A lot of speculation surrounding an overbookedcooked finish, but instead they Do It Clean and the satisfaction is much appreciated. Good solid decision to give Darby the title and remind everybody how fucking awesome he is while letting him do his thing. His thing being the hardest working champion always. I find great inspiration seeing this young man go so far above and beyond for his Art! Darby Allin, top 5 in the world!?! Wardy finishes it out with kind of an anticlimactic return, no? Glad to see the manbun go, but wouldn’t mind also seeing the booking formula of having him beat up a bunch of security guards go away too. Whatever, Joe-Wardlow’s gonna rock! LUV-LUV-AE-DUB!

[John from Cincinnati]

16 minutes ago, Shartnado said:

Could happen. All those defences have to be squeezing Orange dry.

Heavy is the shoulder that wears the backpack.

[AxB]

It was strange hearing Tony Schiavone calling Danielson vs Thatcher as if he’d never seen Timothy Thatcher before in his life. Because he literally commentated Thatcher vs Davey Boysmith Junior in MLW. 
 

That was a good match, but Schiavone wasn’t that into it. He sounded exhausted.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

I would have liked to see Danielson tap to Thatcher's armbar. 

I think the story of Danielson coming in with an injured arm and having to tap to the debuting guy coming in as a much-vaunted submission specialist would have been a nice surprise given Danielson has to win them all. Have MJF decide that his Salt of The Earth is a far superior version, and deciding to give into hubris and give Danielson the match anyway because he wants the satisfaction of making Danielson tap too. You could even protect Danielson by have him tap immediately to protect the arm, or even say he did it to lull MJF into a false sense of security.

Very interested to see where Mox/Hangman goes from here. It's been really well done.

[John E. Dynamite]

1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Darby Allin, top 5 in the world!?! 

Y'know, I've been starting to come around to this line of thinking. It really helps if you're the very very best at something and I can't remember the last time I saw a better TV underdog babyface.

[Belgian_Waffle]

I'm definitely ready for them to phase out Danielson and Moxley in singles after the March ppv so we can get some exclusively <40y/o main events on the following few ppvs. Darby and a Starks rematch seem like viable MJF ppv mains, or even Jungle Boy (who personally doesn't do much for me in singles but he's really over). I have a suspicion they might keep Starks away from MJF as long as they can just in case they decide they want him to be the guy who ultimately takes the belt from him (although Tony's long road approach to booking would suggest the idea is for him to eventually drop the belt to Wardlow). 

I don't really want them to ever long-term break up the Acclaimed but I think a year from now we should start having Bowens established as a viable singles top guy (who still frequently competes in tags with Caster). Him and MJF would be a tremendous program, both on the stick and in the ring.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Belgian_Waffle

[AxB]

Of the two members of The Acclaimed, Max Caster is the one who most wants to get his hands on MJF.

[zendragon]

4 hours ago, John from Cincinnati said:

 

I'm almost more interested in whatever MJF could get up to in his rare TV matches. Dustin Rhodes? Claudio? Bandido? Hook?? 

I think the champs tv match schedule is even r than 80's Hulk Hogan 

 

1 hour ago, AxB said:

It was strange hearing Tony Schiavone calling Danielson vs Thatcher as if he’d never seen Timothy Thatcher before in his life. Because he literally commentated Thatcher vs Davey Boysmith Junior in MLW. 
 

That was a good match, but Schiavone wasn’t that into it. He sounded exhausted.

announcing did sound fairly loose tonight

36 minutes ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

. 

I don't really want them to ever long-term break up the Acclaimed but I think a year from now we should start having Bowens established as a viable singles top guy (who still frequently competes in tags with Caster). Him and MJF would be a tremendous program, both on the stick and in the ring.

Acclaimed is most definably an act that is more than the some of its parts

[Belgian_Waffle]

11 minutes ago, L_W_P said:

Jeff Hardy is right there for him to see his future if he keeps doing this.

For all his influence and power I hope Sting isn't sitting by and letting this happen, or worse, ENCOURAGING it. He needs to be slowing Darby down or talking to Tony and getting Darby re-booked as a special attraction that only works a few matches a year.

I kinda wonder if unfortunately the reverse of this is true in that Darby and Tony have convinced Sting he only lives once so he should jump off of more things. 

[Curt McGirt]

I was busy watching Infinity Pool last night and came home completely bewildered and not even thinking about Dynamite, so I came back to it tonight. 

It's a real hard vote: which is the best match between Page/Mox, Danielson/Thatcher or Joe/Allin? Everything else did its job (I really liked the ladies' stuff getting set up and Jade getting a win in front of her kid) but these two were some heavy meat for a card. My nod is probably Page/Mox. The only thing I disliked was the AVALANCHE~! Death Valley Driver which after seeing it once again should DEFINITELY be a pinfall victory. Everything else -- the avoidance of typical offense by Moxley, the lack of bomb-throwing in favor of brawling, the plain no-bullshitness of it -- was great. 

Bryan/Timmy was great in its own way. This one felt like Hanson coming into your territory and beating/stretching the shit out of your babyface champ... Rick Martel, I suppose? Thatcher would be great as a hired gun in the future, like Nick Gage, the horror movie villain that you didn't expect showing up to fuck you up. Or to provide another analogy, the miniboss that is hard as hell to beat to get to the main boss. 

...and to bring up video games again, Cage/Takeshita was your standard video game wrestling match between two slabs of beef with move skills. The MJF match will be better. 

Christ, am I about to forget Joe and Darby?! That was nuts. Joe has incredible presence, more than just about anyone working right now. Darby backed it up with the madness that wracks his brain and he pushes into his matches. Joe and Mox need to have a backstage contest as to "Who Did The Best Dusty Bladejob?"

[NoFistsJustFlips]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:26 PM, Andrew POE! said:

I haven't seen the match yet, but oof at giving the TNT title back to Samoa Joe. Why would TK go through the trouble of having Darby Allin beat challengers (like Mike Bennett, Juice Robinson, Kushida, and Buddy Matthews) that were increasingly harder but then have a wrestler on his decline and injury prone (if we're being honest) like Samoa Joe beat him? Allin could have still won the match and they could have had the post-match for Joe & Wardlow and Joe wouldn't have lost his heat.

Tony Khan, booking genius everyone.

This is a bad take. No disrespect meant, but Joe is not washed / injury prone. He's been in AEW for almost a year now. He's only taken time off for movie projects. He's had a lot of high end, high impact matches. And he's looked great in my opinion. This is one of those instances where the way AEW books plays to certain talent's strengths. Joe doesn't need to be in 52 TV matches a year. He loses his aura if he's out there doing 50-50 15 minute TV matches every week. It also saves his body.

As for the booking, again respectfully disagree. I find it one of the best things they've done. Darby got an awesome moment in his hometown. We got 6 or 7 really awesome TNT Title matches, counting the 2 with Joe. It got Darby back on our screens. It gave Wardlow time to heal up. It gave the him & Joe story time to breathe. It gave Joe a reason to get a mean streak and level up a notch. Now when Wardlow beats him at the ppv for it (if that's the way they go), he is better off than he was when Joe initially won the title.

It's booking that made everyone involved better off. Darby may have lost the title, but his character can't be an underdog if he never loses. Not everyone can nor should be booked like Super Cena. It's perfectly within the bonds of that character for his body to give out from accumulated damage from all his psycho stunts. He loses nothing losing it back to Joe. And finally, the world title is always going to have long reigns (by way of the title being defended so rarely). It makes total sense to have a secondary title contrast that by changing a lot, because it's defended a lot more.

Edited February 3, 2023 by NoFistsJustFlips

[Greggulator]

Just finished. 
 

1) The opening match was a predictably great fight. Mox and Page are great dance partners. It is so clear in how they wrestle/fight they they hate each other and they they both are coming from different places. The end of the match was a great “gotcha” where Mox, the street tough, tricked the more technically proficient Hangman with a roll-up in what was a brawl. In a lot of ways that is a cheap shot. I can watch these guys keep this feud up for another few months and not get tired

2) I love The Ass Boys. I love The Acclaimed. I loved their first feud. I hate this one. The As Boys throwing shots about their dad being an addict and the like — that just feels like cheap heat to me. I think The Ass Boys have so much more natural heel talent then throwing out MJF bombs like that. 

3) How many outfits does MJF wear throughout the course of one show? 

4) Dragon/Thatcher was good stuff. That was my first time seeing Thatcher and he has a great “I have broken someone’s thumb for leaning on my car in a convenience store parking lot” look. I liked that the match is a continuation from last week and then building to the Iron Man match. It makes sense to give BD a weakness going into that match so there is psychologist for MJF being able to get a reasonably clean fall against a guy billed as the best to ever do it. I cannot wait to see all the fun stuff that comes in that match.

4) I am absolutely over Jade as she currently exists. They are just recycling opponents for her now. Red Velvet is not so good. Jade is still so new and she had to carry Red Velvet. They really need to get Jade mixed in with the rest of the roster — Jamie, Britt, Ruby, etc. She would be incredible if she could have matches against the talented part of the Women’s division. Who has she wrested against that isn’t a few steps beyond recent wrestling schooo graduate? I know she wrestled Willow and Stat and Athena. Anyone else? But then the end gets weird because the story they are telling is that Jade was cruel to The Baddies… and then she goes and gets her kid after she wins. I mean, I get wanting your kid to see you in action, but man you can’t have a badass heel storming through the roster then cuddling with her adorable child. One of the things about a winning streak angle is that eventually it has to end. And the ends are almost always anticlimactic. 

5) Does Darby Allin have a responsible adult in his life who can tell him no? I mean by all means ruin your spinal mobility for my entertainment, but when Joe was setting him up for the muscle buster onto the exposed wood made me wish we had a camera backstage when they were putting that match together with Joe repeatedly telling Darby all of the reasons why that was a bad idea before finally relenting. That match was great from a story and psychology perspective of Darby using everything he could get his hands on to take out a monster. Really clever things like the thumbtack jacket. I also thought Joe was going to end up with some horrible infection from the powder mixing in this his cut eye. Really great stuff but also Darby needs to talk to someone.