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AEW Dynamite - 12/4/2019


Dolfan in NYC

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Here's what's on tap for tonight:

Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela

The Young Bucks & Dustin Rhodes vs. Proud -N- Powerful & Sammy Guevara

Fenix vs. Trent (?)

Pentagon Jr. vs. Christopher Daniels

Kris Statlander vs. Hikaru Shida

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I've decided that Luchasaurus should be champion now. Articulate + knowledgeable about history + woke + dinosaur = ratings and buys.

This show wasn't very good. Jericho and Cody cut awesome promos, but the wrestling was kinda a mess and the Brandi/Kong thing is so much like the Dark Order thing that an EWR-style message indicating that the angles were too much alike should have popped up on the screen.

Also, what the hell was up with the audio in this show? The first fifteen minutes were a mess, Janela's promo was super-quiet for the first half, and the commercials were all way louder than the show whenever it went to break.

At least Moxley's open challenge gimmick seems to be getting dudes some shine. And the opener was so hot that I enjoyed it even though it's not my style of match. 

Edited by Smelly McUgly
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Kris Statlander beating Shida might make things interesting in the rankings. Although Riho hasn't been on for a few weeks, is she touring in Japan? 

Please split up the Lucha Brothers as a tag team so they can have individual entrance musics. Daniels' Arabian Press miss looked nasty as hell, but he seemed OK after. Penta did a really good job of giving him recovery time without making it look like he was stalling. The main event was sort of predictable, but if Mox vs Jericho is the title match at the unnamed unscheduled next PPV, they need to keep both guys strong. I'll take a wild guess, it's in Cincinatti the Saturday after the Cleveland Dynamite.

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I enjoyed what I watched of this one, though I'll be honest, I'm still tuning out a lot of the wrestling. Audio didn't bother me like other episodes; it seems to be different for every damn viewer every week.

Open was fine though about ten highspots too long. Dustin can still go like a madman. It was funny seeing the heat almost completely die off for the match after. 

Props to Jericho not making a champagne joke in Champaign. 

Cody was great. Dark Order segment was stupid. Nyla squashing people I could watch all the time. 

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The commercial breaks were in full effect tonight. Can’t believe they had Nyla killing folks during commercial. Speaking of which, I can get behind a feud between her and Shanna.

Very cool surprise for Kris to upset Shida. Thus definitely makes things more interesting in the division. I like Brandi and Kong but this segment was just strange. They were all heavy into recruiting Kris, the “fan” shows up and then they’re all “Kris who?” 

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Show seemed to fly by but another enjoyable week. Thought the opening six man was awesome, super hot crowd and nonstop action. Shida/Kris was great. Felt like a tough match where Kris needed a win and Shida shouldn't lose if she's going to be #1 contender but it was done well. Liked the prospect of Statlander/Kong in addition to Riho/Shida, Shanna/Nyla, some cool stuff abound in the division. And of course Britt redoing her in the crowd cameo. Cool to see Melanie Cruise in the Brandi angle, always liked her. Cody continues to be the best promo. Daniels' springboard botch looked real rough, but overall solid match. Another great Moxley performance in the main event with Janela holding his own. Moxley/Jericho should be excellent, though I still hope that if/when they get around to doing the Match Beyond that Jericho and Cody are still involved in it even though they are onto other things now. Jericho v. Jungle Boy in 2 weeks should be a lot of fun.

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This was more like it. Aside from audio issues in the first 10 minutes, the sound production was good.

I enjoyed nearly every match this week and liked the stories being told as well. Really good show tonight.

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I thought it was a good show but I was bummed by how much was tarped off. Not that I'm freaked out or anything, because they're a young company and still putting the pieces together, but because I know that bad takes about it are coming.

The Women's division is improving quite a bit. Statlander is becoming a favorite. Nyla murdered a couple people. I dig the shit out of Shida as well, I actually think she might be my favorite of the Joshi stars they've featured so far. 

So much to say but I must sleep. For now I just say that Dustin is timeless

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Them doing things through the commercial breaks on TNT is an issue, but it's seemingly because the Fite stream is constant for the most part so they have to fill those gaps with something. They could easily do it with filler, but that'd be a lot of filler since every break is 3-5 minutes. If they didn't have the deal with Fite, this probably wouldn't be an issue. Audio at the beginning of the show all the way through to about 30ish minutes in was touch and go. It started off fine, then the volume levels went way low, then they even out, and it disappeared again. Again, apparently the Fite stream has no issues with audio, so it's seemingly on the TNT side of things, which is weird to say the least.

Onto the actual show.

WARNING: Wall of Text!

I was doing laundry during the six man tag, so I didn't see most of it, but it was your usual Young Bucks fare from what I did see. Dustin in Bucks inspired gear was everything. He tried to work at the same pace as everyone else, and for the most part he held his own. Sets up Bucks/PnP next week in a street fight, so that's cool. Later on, I did like Cody mentioning that everyone he could have usually called on for help is neck deep in their own issues. QT Marshall ain't gonna cut it against the Butcher & the Blade, that's for sure. Like I've said before, Page is solo because of frustrations with the Elite and how his AEW career has went so far, and Omega doesn't even know who he is anymore. So that really only leaves one person for Cody to call on in the weeks to come. Also very cool that he name dropped Beyond and Bar Wrestling. Cody offering $50K to wrestle MJF was straight up old school, I bet some people loved that. Appealing to MJF's vanity is one way to get him to agree to a match, since they don't want to play the hand of "Cody is an EVP so he can just make any match he wants". That's smart.

Butcher, Blade & Bunny targeting Cody because they're sick of his face being all over everything holds water, given Allie's previous (aborted) feud with Brandi. Heels can face other heels, but I have no desire to see Allie or Brandi wrestle. Kong either, really, but it's going to happen, and I'm hopeful that Allie and Brandi both stay in a managerial role. Allie needs to add a woman to her group (unless she's going to be the female wrestler in the group). What's Rosemary up to these days?

Words can't describe how excited I am that Kris Statlander signed with AEW, and also pinned the #1 contender. The sooner the belt comes off Riho, the better. I don't care which of them it is, but one of them needs to win it. I'm also sensing an impending heel turn for Shida, whether she joins up with Brandi or it's just a solo heel turn. Thanks @Goodear, you've planted this idea in my head now.

I'm coming around on Nyla Rose, too. At the beginning of the year all the way up until Dynamite's debut, I wasn't really feeling her, but she seemingly becomes less green each time she's on screen. She didn't set the world on fire on Dark in the commentary role, but she showed personality at times. Not everyone can shine in that announcer role. If she can just find a way to roll that personality into her character, it'd be awesome. Just being another big monster woman isn't going to cut it when you have someone like Awesome Kong around doing the same thing, and better. Right now it just feels like she's playing The Beast character. I think in 2020 she'll find that nice middle ground. Can't complain about multiple women's stories going on at the same time, either. You've got whatever is going on with the Women's Title, Kong/Brandi finding a new minion in Melanie Cruise, Nyla and Shanna fighting whenever possible. That's good shit, pal.

Pentagon/Daniels wasn't all that awesome (Fenix/Trent? was decent but I didn't really pay too much attention), but those matches showed me a few things. Fenix & Pentagon can exist both in the singles and tag divisions and it doesn't look out of place like it does for Trent. Daniels needs to hang it up and focus on being the head of Talent Relations (and maybe a producer too if he isn't already). Daniels just didn't look great tonight. I could buy Trent as a singles guy, but that leaves Chuck Taylor out in the cold and I don't want to see a tag team with Orange Cassidy either (even though I love both of them). They've got a good thing going with Best Friends & OC, don't ruin it by wanting Trent to exist in both divisions or transition to a singles guy.

I'm not too hyped about Jericho/Jungle Boy, but his mission statement apparently is to make new stars in AEW and give guys some rub, and he's definitely done that so far. He can't push them all the way over the moon, it's up to the guys behind the scenes, but he's made Adam Page and Scorpio Sky seem like a big deal already, and lifted Sammy Guevara from just another flippy guy to one of the most hated guys on the roster, and PnP benefit from being around him too instead of just another tag team (that happens to be feuding with the Bucks). I guess the plan is still seemingly Luchasaurus vs Hager, since they teased that a few weeks ago. Jungle Boy vs Jericho will be good, I don't know how Luchasaurus vs Jericho would have turned out. Lexicon of Le Champion is a nice throwback, and I loved him bathing in the cheers for a minute before he flipped the switch back on and told everyone to get out of 2016.

Moxley/Janela was about what we all expected, but it was still good. Janela was determined to kill himself to prove he belongs in a Dynamite main event, and he did it. A lot of people will say he doesn't look like a pro wrestler, his stuff looks sloppy, etc. I think that's part of the appeal, personally. He just looks like a normal dude who wanted to be a wrestler, and he goes out there with a chip on his shoulder because of those people saying he doesn't look like this or wrestle like that. That could be any one of us in there during Janela's matches. I like that a lot. Moxley is Moxley, and he's on fucking fire right now. He needs to be the one to beat Jericho for the title. Dude is red hot right now, and as much as I love Jericho's AEW character... Jon Moxley is on a different level and he feels like a big deal every time you see him on TV or PPV. This isn't a Cody situation, I was steadfast in my opinion that Cody would have been the wrong choice to beat Jericho and I was right. Jericho needed that win over a top babyface so it places doubt on his next big title defense. He could feasibly beat Moxley and set someone else up to be the guy down the road, but Moxley is for all intents and purposes the most popular wrestler on their roster (right now).

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1 hour ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

I thought it was a good show but I was bummed by how much was tarped off. Not that I'm freaked out or anything, because they're a young company and still putting the pieces together, but because I know that bad takes about it are coming.

You mean, tarping off this place?

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Yeah I think that was rather necessary for obvious reasons

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6 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I've decided that Luchasaurus should be champion now. Articulate + knowledgeable about history + woke + dinosaur = ratings and buys.

This show wasn't very good. Jericho and Cody cut awesome promos, but the wrestling was kinda a mess and the Brandi/Kong thing is so much like the Dark Order thing that an EWR-style message indicating that the angles were too much alike should have popped up on the screen.

Also, what the hell was up with the audio in this show? The first fifteen minutes were a mess, Janela's promo was super-quiet for the first half, and the commercials were all way louder than the show whenever it went to break.

At least Moxley's open challenge gimmick seems to be getting dudes some shine. And the opener was so hot that I enjoyed it even though it's not my style of match. 

Agree on the Luchasaurus comments and also the same sameness of it all.

MJF ducking Cody followed by Jericho ducking Moxley.

Nyla dominating followed by Kong being dominate. 

Even the randomness of Jungle Boy and Statlander being thrown up as random challengers seemed to cancel each other out.

Good Jericho and Rhodes promos.

Moxley killing everyone is starting to feel like when WWE guys would turn up in TNA and immediately go over all the local talent.

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Wrestling wise the show was pretty good tonight. But storyline wise it was all over the place which just isnt helping.

For starters this Brandi thing is so stupid. Like why didn't they just have her and Nyla team up because aside from the weird hair fetish thing, Nyla and Awesome Kong have the same exact gimmick. But yeah the Brandi thing is dumb. I understand people in the company can do probably almost whatever they want, but a little quality control would be nice. Though I doubt anyone is going to tell the boss's wife her angle sucks.

Now I thought the Cody promo to MJF was great. I can really see MJF drawing this one out for quite a while and when he's finally forced to face Cody (maybe in a Bullrope match or something) it's going to be great. But with Cody offering him all this money and his possesions, I know I couldn't have been the only one thinking it's going to set up MJF wanting Brandi as the prize for the match. This would all work much better if Brandi just stayed as Cody's Baby Doll instead of her doing whatever it is she is doing.

Jericho was great as usual. But they really need to focus with the ratings stuff. Moxley is number one so it makes sense Jericho is gonna duck him. So who's number 2? According to their ranking thing, It's Pac. I didn't hear him being named on the Lexicon of Le Champion. I think there is a huge upside for Luchasauras and Jungle Boy. But they need a run as tag champions first before we start spliting them up.

Moxley/Janela was good. Could have been better, but AEW really needs to tighten up the main events especially when they only have 10 minutes till the end of the show.

I have a feeling Pac will be the one to beat Moxley first (probably the new years show). But yeah, they need to work on storylines big time.

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I agree with @DreamBroken this one really flew by. I enjoyed the pacing of it all, between the matches, promos, vignettes (which they were pretty light on again). Dustin looks like he go full Terry Funk at this rate and wrestle into his 60s but still work like a MF'ing machine.

I have similar misgivings about all the cult shit. All they need now is for Nick to become Merch Freak and create Merch disciples in the crowd with a magical T-Shirt gun, then they can fill the whole 2 hours with the same gimmick.

Rick Knox earned his pay tonight, Nyla just hefted him up and through that table. I can think of worse ways to go than being squished by Shanna though. Very impressed by Kris Statlander considering how little experience she has in comparison to the other strong women of the division. 

Jericho's been on another level for months now with his entertainment value. 12,000 bloody bottles of sparkling Riesling named after a meme with a tacky label on them sold in a week. He really does have the Midas touch. With quarterly PPVs, they feel that they can meander along with Jericho for now until things heat up again in January, and show off Jungle Jack in a high profile match the way they did with Allin. It's good for them to have a confident direction but they have to acknowledge the risk of channel changers, though it's still early to tell how that will pan out.

I think it's just Joey Janela's body shape that makes him look like he shit his pants when he runs the ropes and that his tights are just about to fall down. But he is a charismatic son-a-ma-gun.

Edited by Custos
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Just my random-ass thoughts

Someone posted here a little while ago that they thought AEW was backing themselves into a corner with Shida/Statlander because a Shida win would just dig Statlander into a bigger hole but a Statlandler win would kill Shida's streak.  I disagree and am really happy with the result because, shit, that kind of thing happens in real sports.  Hot teams can and do lose trap games.  It was awesome to see. NOW what was not so awesome is not letting the moment breathe, and killing all its impact with this dumb Brandi/Kong angle.  That was hot garbage and really screwed Statlander.  Like holy shit, the number one contender was just upset by an unranked wrestler and in two seconds you're doing some GLOW-level jive-ass angle.   TNA level "TO THE BACK!" type shit.

That six man was amazing and the crowd was hot.  What I could hear of it, anyway.  As others have stated, the audio was all kinds of fucked for a good bit there.  I loved Dustin holding off Guevara so he could catch his breath.  I can see how this type of match wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, as it was definitely a PWG-style scramble but that shit is my jam.  Smiling from ear to ear at the end of it.

Oh man, Chris Daniels was so off.  Slow and sloppy.  But come on, the dude will be 50 in March.  He's definitely better suited to tags.  And seeing a guy who was so awesomely in shape his whole career sporting an old guy pouch gut gives no hope to this 45 year old dude.

The Jericho segment was great and I'm loving the Jurassic Express.  Marko Stunt as this tiny lunatic is just perfect.  LOL @ "Marko is small for his age."  "Marko is small for ANY age!"  And Rick Allen got a shout out.

Did I mention the Brandi/Kong angle is dumb and useless?  And they referenced "the Nightmare Family" like it was something we all knew.  I don't think it's every been mentioned on AEW Dynamite proper before, has it?   This is another example of AEW relying on angles from web shows that a good portion of their audience may not watch.

Moxley needs to settle on gear and those camo pants aren't it.  Dude looked like Corporal Kirschner out there.  Good match though.

I enjoyed the Blade, Butcher, & Bunny and Dark Order segments.  But if they're going for a "real sports" vibe, the DO skit was a little too Lucha Underground here.

Nyla rose going nuts was great but I agree with the sentiments that no division needs two monsters with similar gimmicks.  Also, she really seemed to struggle getting Bates up for those power bombs.

Fenix and Trent was just kind of there, which is disappointing considering how talented both guys are.  I mean Trent and Pentagon was good, and Fenix and Nick Jackson was amazing, so maybe these guys just don't gel.  BTW, I believe the announcers said Trent is 1-0 in singles competition.  Wasn't Trent the one who lost to PAC in that match with the botched finish a few weeks ago?

Edited by Technico Support
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Nightmare Family has been referenced before. The brawl between Cody and Jericho that went up to the VIP box and into the concession stand featured them. DDP, Dustin, MJF. Glacier was a part of it too, along with Brandi.

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I do want to say that I like the different sizes and body types that the women's division has. There are at least two women that can be effective bases (even if Kong's knees and back are shot, I believe that she can find a way to work effectively around her limitations, but I've long been super-high on her as a worker), though Nyla really needs lots of seasoning, as all super-heavies do. I think she'll get there in time.

But then we have people also running body types from Stadtlander to Riho to Sakura, and I think that's cool. I wish the men had more variety in body types and looks. I say it every week, but we need more fat athletic dudes killing people. Give me 1993 Bam Bam Bigelow up in this company, or, barring the invention of time travel, his modern-day equivalent. 

Though man, the general smallness of the roster had me popping for the Luchasaurus/Hager punch exchange. Those dudes looked like legit giants. I mean, they are legit giants compared to the general public, but in this company, it really popped off the screen.

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