AEW Dynamite - 11/20/2019

[Niners Fan in CT]

7 hours ago, Craig H said:

That is insane. So basically people over 50 put NXT over the top, but barely. I would love to know exactly why the 50+ demo is WWE's most hardcore demo. 

EDIT: Also, what I'm most interested in is if the total viewers for both shows increased from last week. I can't seem to find last weeks numbers and this website is moving slow again so leaving this page isn't really an option.

I used to work with a guy who watched WWE every single week but knew nothing about even NXT.  He had the network and I'd ask him about NXT and he'd go "I'm not watching the minor leagues"  ...  and after that I just sort of stopped talking to him about wrestling unless he asked me something.  I realized there are people where "WWE = wrestling" and everything else is "minor league" or an imitator..  

I guess that's what happens when they are the only game in town for nearly two decades.  I imagine he's the kind of guy who tuned into NXT last night to see the "real stars" 

[Peck]

15 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I used to work with a guy who watched WWE every single week but knew nothing about even NXT.  He had the network and I'd ask him about NXT and he'd go "I'm not watching the minor leagues"  ...  and after that I just sort of stopped talking to him about wrestling unless he asked me something.  I realized there are people where "WWE = wrestling" and everything else is "minor league" or an imitator..  

I guess that's what happens when they are the only game in town for nearly two decades.  I imagine he's the kind of guy who tuned into NXT last night to see the "real stars" 

Ironically enough, my 66-year-old father stumbled across AEW Wednesday night for the first time and sent me the following texts verbatim from his flip phone:

"Ray Felix is on now"

"They put wwe to shame with their moves unreal"

"Shida is awesome"

 

AEW: stealing Baby Boomers one at a time.

[Niners Fan in CT]

It would be great if most people were that open minded.  Still,  lost in all this is NXT threw everything at the wall and AEW still drew 893K and won in the 18-49 key demo 

I don't want to turn this into a ratings thread but I want to remind everyone (though I'm sure most here remember) that TNT was going to be happy with around 500k a week.  

AEW has exceeded their expectations so far. 

[J.T.]

Great show for the most part.  

- Rey Feinix vs. Nick Jackson was the battle of spot monkeys I was expecting.  Lots of flippy moves and suspect selling.  TBH, I would've expected the no handshake from Jackson, not Fenix.  I think I enjoyed this match more than I should have because it was a curtain jerker and the dudes definitely succeeded in warming up the crowd for the rest of the show.

- Baker vs. Shida was a match.  The blood helped a bit, but Baker seems pretty green.  I think Shida potatoed her on purpose because Baker sandbagged a couple of spots.  Baker getting a ref escort back to the dressing room after the match makes me think that these girls have some legit heat between each other that didn't work itself out during the match.

- I have never really cared for Billy Gunn before the battle royale and now I think it's a crime he's not going to the final.  Gunn was the heart and soul of that match.  Someone needs to tell MJF that it is possible to be a heel without being a complete asshole.  I have hated Jimmy Havoc's hardcore lite bullshit since MJW and this match didn't help.

- Mox vs. Alin was the David vs. Goliath match I hoped it would be.  Alin fought with the desperation of a man who was outweighed and at an experience disadvantage, but he believed in his heart that he would win.  God bless him for eating that sick Dirty Deads.  Obviously it is Allin's greatest wish to walk with leg braces and have the Arn Anderson neck surgery before he turns fifty.  Someone should've told Darby about the blonde at ringside with his facepaint on so he could've posed with her for a sec before the match.  Wasted camera opportunity.

I don't think I could love Chris Jericho or Jack Hagar more than I do now.

Edited November 22, 2019 by J.T.

[SirSmUgly]

My favorite move of the night was Shida poking Britt Baker right in the eyes and then small packaging her. 

Shoulda got three. 

[Web Conn]

I watched the Jericho announcement and SCU getting Sky a title shot on YouTube.

Jericho is awesome. Him being physically in able to say he’s sorry, Hager finally speaking to say sorry for Jericho was all gold. Jericho is such a great heel he’s despicable that’s what he is. SCU tricking Jericho was great too the whole segment was really fun. Sky’s promo, the crowd chanting you got pinned at Jericho it has me excited for the match next week.

Jurassic Express running in was cool as fuck. Crowd popped crazy for that. Stunt is a madman it looked like Jericho killed him, he hit like a brick wall. Jungle Boy getting that forearm in on Jericho was cool. Jungle Boy could be a star giving time. Lucha and Hager’s stare down reminded me of in WCW when two tough fuckers ducked it out. Then Hager bounced and deprived us all of what was to be an asskicking of epic proportions. When Hager finally gets what’s coming to him, look out.

Also WCW hard a lot of tough fuckers on its roster. I hope AEW follows suit. The world needs more Mengs and Scott Nortons.

The Sears Centre Show looks pretty stacked. I will be watching next week.

[Jiji]

49 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Someone should've told Darby about the blonde at ringside with his facepaint on so he could've posed with her for a sec before the match.  Wasted camera opportunity.

I don't want to assume too much here and I totally understand why you're saying this but this isn't a thing he'd do from the bit I know about him. He's so anti that. Probably both because it's cheesy rasslin and he's probably weirded out by it too. 

I agree that the opener would've gone from a great spotfest that I'll probably forget about in a few weeks to a MOTYC with some more selling. I get why they went for that but I hope as AEW matures so does the psychology. It's not as if they can't do it. They've both shown they can sell well when they want to. 

[TheVileOne]

Is it just me or are the ring acoustics sounding out of wack? It sounds like the mat underneath the canvas was removed after Full Gear and they are getting slammed on straight wood.

[Jiji]

Watched that Flair/Lawler segment that Sky/Jericho lifted from and good God it is so tremendous. I love how they are just talking like how human beings talk and not caricatures.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Oyaji

[SirSmUgly]

You forget how big most dudes in WWE are until you see Billy Gunn, a big-but-not-a-hoss guy in WWE, towering over most of the roster. 

Actually, this is what gives Hager his value. There are like three dudes in the company who come off as big dudes on TV (Luchasaurus, Hager, and Page when he's not trying to fly too much off the top of my head). That makes them special. Back in mid-'00s WWE, there were too many hosses, so none of them stood out. You can't tell me that mid-'00s Luther Reigns wouldn't look kinda impressive if he were transported into 2019 AEW.

I said last week that I wished this company had the early '90s Natural Disasters running rampage within it, and in light of how strongly I would love to see that, I feel like poaching Heavy Machinery or even AoP from WWE would be almost as useful for them as poaching The Revival. 

Edited November 22, 2019 by Smelly McUgly

[matt925]

11 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

Is it just me or are the ring acoustics sounding out of wack? It sounds like the mat underneath the canvas was removed after Full Gear and they are getting slammed on straight wood.

Even my wife who doesn’t like wrestling at all and just saw a few minutes commented on that. I think they are still experimenting with mic placements and sound mixes. 
 

Can’t wait for next week. 

[Curt McGirt]

37 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Watched that Flair/Lawler segment that Sky/Jericho lifted from and good God it is so tremendous. I love how they are just talking like how human beings talk and not caricatures.

Yeah, that shit was fantastic. Low-key Flair is so rare to see that it's almost like a lost treasure. Then his anger builds and builds during the match until after it he goes full-blown, and it feels special. 

They padded the hell out of that match time though, if you are supposed to go ten give it ten.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Curt McGirt

[J.T.]

52 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I don't want to assume too much here and I totally understand why you're saying this but this isn't a thing he'd do from the bit I know about him. He's so anti that. Probably both because it's cheesy rasslin and he's probably weirded out by it too. 

If it were a National Guard armory with a paying crowd of barely fifty and we were talking about sketchy ring rats with shrines in their closets dedicated to your image, I'd agree.

But we're talking about a lively crowd at a large sporting arena and a person he might never see again until the next time they run a show in that city, so what's the harm in a quick Facebook moment for some girl at ringside at least for promoting himself on social media?  Even Bret Hart found time during his walk-out to give a random kid a pair of sunglasses.

It helps sell the brand and right now there's a war raging on Wednesday nights and Darby will be a huge selling point after that match.   His cult following is about to get much larger.

Even the camera team thought it was a good idea to at least get one shot of her for the reel during the match.

Edited November 22, 2019 by J.T.

[Curt McGirt]

This wasn't the right place for it because he was in war mode. He brought a body bag with a guy's name on it and flew into him before he could get in the ring, there ain't time for no damn picture. 

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, Smelly McUgly said:

My favorite move of the night was Shida poking Britt Baker right in the eyes and then small packaging her. 

Shoulda got three. 

Shida's chair assisted flying knee spot definitely had some of the stank taken off of it, probably after Baker's complaints of stiffness.

[J.T.]

37 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

This wasn't the right place for it because he was in war mode. He brought a body bag with a guy's name on it and flew into him before he could get in the ring, there ain't time for no damn picture. 

Mox was also in war mode and did his walk-in through the fucking crowd so that he'd be close enough to the peeps for them to give him bro slaps on the shoulders as he came to the ring. 

When one goes to war, one goes to war with an army and even solo gladiators desire to hear their name suspended in mid-air by the roar of the crowd.

Next bullshit excuse from the Darby apologists?

Edited November 22, 2019 by J.T.

[TheVileOne]

50 minutes ago, matt925 said:

Even my wife who doesn’t like wrestling at all and just saw a few minutes commented on that. I think they are still experimenting with mic placements and sound mixes. 
 

Can’t wait for next week. 

Interesting. And it's weird because I thought the first few weeks most of the acoustics, as far as in-ring action, sounded great. For an example, here are some Cody/Sammy highlights from the first episode. When they are stepping and doing moves, it's not that *CLOP* *CLOP* *CLOP* sound every time they do something on the canvas. 

 

 

And this might not be the best example from this week. But it just seems like the sound of the ring is too dialed up when they do stomps or light slams on the mat now.

Edited November 22, 2019 by TheVileOne

[Craig H]

There definitely is a difference and I like the former more than the latter, but it still sounds worlds better that WWE rings. Give me that WCW or NJPW sounding ring any day of the week. Plus, the sound those rings make and AEW's makes is just more violent sounding and I like that.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Craig H

[J.T.]

2 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Plus, the sound those rings make and AEW's makes is just more violent sounding and I like that.

And the key is that it needs to SOUND violent so that guys aren't fucking wounding each other just so that the smack carries through the arena.

[Brian Fowler]

2 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

You forget how big most dudes in WWE are until you see Billy Gunn, a big-but-not-a-hoss guy in WWE, towering over most of the roster. 

I had the same thought about him when him and Road Dogg had that last run, except "fuck guys were a lot bigger in the 90's."

I never thought of Billy as a big guy in the 90's/00's, but he looked like a giant in 2014 or whatever.

[eikerir]

 

Someone like Kevin Nash or Big Show would look like Godzilla in AEW

[LoneWolf&Subs]

3 hours ago, eikerir said:

 

Someone like Kevin Nash or Big Show would look like Godzilla in AEW

I mean, we saw it a bit in TNA. 
 

I wouldn’t mind a Billy Gunn tag team built up just to take the fall against the Jurassic Express(Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy). Billy is still is a mediocre singles worker, but tags are still his bread & butter if you saw him in New Japan.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

6 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

My favorite move of the night was Shida poking Britt Baker right in the eyes and then small packaging her. 

Shoulda got three. 

Shida nailing Britt with the first knee(really inner thigh) was my move of the night. It helped light up the crowd a bit after Britt cooled them down with all her pre-finishing stretch moves.

Edited November 22, 2019 by LoneWolf&Subs

[Goodear]

Do you all think associating Darby with Moxley as a semi-regular tag partner would be a good move?  On one hand, I think it could work tonally and Moxley's character would respect someone who took the fight to him.  On the other, I don't know that Darby really needs the rub per say and it might cut into their loner personas.

 

EDIT: Clarifying who's loner persona I was talking about.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Goodear

[LoneWolf&Subs]

16 minutes ago, Goodear said:

Do you all think associating Darby with Moxley as a semi-regular tag partner would be a good move?  On one hand, I think it could work tonally and Moxley's character would respect someone who took the fight to him.  On the other, I don't know that Darby really needs the rub per say and it might cut into his loner persona.

I’m into it just because I don’t think Darby has anybody they can program with yet. So some weeks where him, and Moxley are working together would be something nice for him to do until they want to run Darby Vs. Sabian angle, or him Vs. Hager, and maybe with Sammy. Right now with the company having such a small roster, I can imagine they don’t want to run the risk of constantly running rematches, and going too fast into feuds. So it’s time to hide some stars in tag title programs until they are ready to pull the trigger on certain singles angles.

That’s one thing I noticed this week is that they are very cautious right now of moving too fast, so this episode felt a little bit exibition like. Which I thought worked well with the main event, and opening match, but failed with the tag match. Because of that the battle royale ended up to me as the only segment to be effective in the weekly storytelling process.

Edited November 22, 2019 by LoneWolf&Subs