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AEW Dynamite - 7/29/2020


Dolfan in NYC

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I'm into seeing what Cardona can do. WWE's style is such that we may have never seen what Zack Ryder was capable of and everyone deserves a chance to show their stuff. My issue is just that he feels very unnecessary. He's jacked and tanned and that's great if you're Eric Bischoff but to me he's a generic CAW template in a company that tries to be anything but. He reeks of Ruthless Aggression and other corny wrestling tropes I want to move past. Or to put it in a more positive light, Matt has a steep hill to climb and a lot of evolving to do before I can see him as anything besides what he's spent that past 15 years portraying and I'm excited to see if he can do it.

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I like Cardona a lot.  He seems like a great guy and I always felt bad for him when the rug would be pulled out from him.  I agree the debut could have been better but don't think it's fair to say he just slid right into AEW without going around the horn.  With the pandemic going on most shows are not happening so who's to say that he wouldn't have done the indies a for bit before AEW?  So if that's not an option like it normally is then I can overlook that.  But as soon as they were released it was obvious to me that he was AEW bound and Myers was Impact bound considering how they talked up both on the podcast.  So I'm hoping he gets a proper chance to show what he can do and if it doesn't pan out then so be it.

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Just finished the show. As @Godfrey rightly points out, Starks should get a nice little bonus for the skateboard shot because that looked all kinds of nasty. Cage looked impressive, the Mox/Darby catch looked great! Agreed with @RolandTHTG about Taz on commentary. Loved how naturally he flicked between Taz the manager and Taz the commentator ("I'm trying to be professional here") 

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I also don't see this AEW Horsemen with Cody, Page, and FTR. 

Cody has the Nightmare Family... who are anything but a nightmare. 

I see Page finally breaking away from BTE, and just hooking up with FTR as something that references "The Mid-Atlantic Boys" line that Page dropped in that segment. Page with FTR as a Triple Threat type trio makes far more sense than those three grouped with Cody.

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Starks gets no bonuses for taking the skateboard spot. If anything, that's a receipt for nearly killing Darby at the taping two weeks ago.

One final, final thing regarding Cardona, and it's more of a criticism for AEW in general, but I don't like how they debuted him. They overuse that method of debuting wrestlers where they do the surprise run in. Cardona would have benefited from maybe a couple weeks worth of hype videos or packages.

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First time I've seen Warhorse wrestle. Not too bad, and I like some of the little things he did (the immediate reversal of Cody's figure-four comes to mind), but he's not someone I'd want to see week in and week out.

Justin Roberts sounded like a grade-F Lenne Hardt in his introductions for Cody-Warhorse. 

Agree with Craig that Cardona needed a vignette package before he debuted. It honestly took me a minute to make the connection that Cardona used to be Zach Ryder. Maybe a week or two of vignettes with Cardona saying he's "more than a hype bro" or something similar would have helped.

With Ariane Andrew coming in for the tag tournament, I'm curious if AEW may use this as an opportunity to audition new talent for the women's division, similar to Cody's TNT open challenge.

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If Cardona never showed up and the tag next week was Dark Order vs Cody and WARHORSE, I'd be looking forward to it. As it is, I hope they aren't intending him to be a babyface, because he just seems cringe to me. He doesn't seem like he's the cool guy, he seems like the delusional idiot who thinks he's cool. Make him AEW's Johnny Swinger.

As far as Ariane Andrew, compare and contrast: Cardona was a life long fan, got a gimmick over and coasted on it for years, and never tried to become a good worker or have a good match, and debuted with an apparent push. Andrew was recruited despite not knowing what Pro wrestling even was, worked hard to learn and improve, and debuted to her tag partner rolling her eyes and seeming disappointed to be teamed with her.

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2 hours ago, John E. Dynamite said:

Cody getting patted on the back for being brave enough to leave when others weren't overlooks the fact that he was born rich. Walking away from your soul-sucking but high-paying job is a privilege of those with million-dollar daddies.

I believe Cody mentioned at some point that Dusty spent as much as he made and that Dusty's big money making days were long behind him by the time he was born.  He mentioned doing okay at times and living hand to mouth other times.  But hey, the guy bullshits a lot -- notice how he revamped his story about trying to be an actor to make it so he only did it to get better at playing a character for wrestling -- so who knows?

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36 minutes ago, colonial said:

With Ariane Andrew coming in for the tag tournament, I'm curious if AEW may use this as an opportunity to audition new talent for the women's division, similar to Cody's TNT open challenge.

I'm guessing what the Diamante/Ivelisse and Ariane stuff is, yeah. Don't think Diamante is ready. Ariane is there to see how she's improved and be Nyla's excuse as to why she didn't win the tournament, I'm guessing.

I had seen the Excalibur promo where he says the n-word with "a" at the end of it but not the one where he straight up calls Human Tornado it with the hard "r". Not that the former is okay, but holy shit... Who thought the latter was an okay way to get heat in 2005? Steen repeats him too. That all sucks. Saw some dumbass on twitter saying it was bad creative from his boss... Excalibur was and has been a part owner of PWG since the beginning, has he not?

Edited by Jiji
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Meltzer gave some context, that it was back in the early 2000s, Human Tornado was the top face, and Tornado would essentially urge guys programmed against him to go hard with racist angles.  He said all parties realized it was really stupid after the fact and apologized, etc. 

Not making excuses for anyone, just explaining it for anyone who hasn't listened to the show.

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I’m probably one of the few people that didn’t mind Ariane in the WWE. She’s at least got the personality stuff down. And she didn’t look half bad when she was in NXT towards the end of her run. 

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46 minutes ago, AxB said:

If Cardona never showed up and the tag next week was Dark Order vs Cody and WARHORSE, I'd be looking forward to it. As it is, I hope they aren't intending him to be a babyface, because he just seems cringe to me. He doesn't seem like he's the cool guy, he seems like the delusional idiot who thinks he's cool. Make him AEW's Johnny Swinger.

As far as Ariane Andrew, compare and contrast: Cardona was a life long fan, got a gimmick over and coasted on it for years, and never tried to become a good worker or have a good match, and debuted with an apparent push. Andrew was recruited despite not knowing what Pro wrestling even was, worked hard to learn and improve, and debuted to her tag partner rolling her eyes and seeming disappointed to be teamed with her.

He didn’t even cut a promo, he just beat up some jobbers to save Cody. He hasn’t had a match and wasn’t out there for even two minutes, and you already understand what he’s trying to convey with his new character? I think you’re projecting some preconceived notions onto him.

Also, he got over on his own and was buried worse than anyone I’ve ever seen get buried. It’s also not like matches on Main Event and getting squashed by Braun Strowman or whoever are great opportunities to put on clinics.

On multiple occasions he’s gotten the fans behind him despite the WWE only wanting him to be a jobber. Also, he hasn’t always looked like that. He got jacked because he wasn’t getting opportunities and HHH and Vince are body guys. You don’t just wake up in phenomenal shape, you have to work at it.

I don’t know how hard Arianne worked but I know she tried to pin someone who was on their stomach and hasn’t wrestled since 2016, so...I guess at least she’ll fit in with all of the other inexperienced women on the AEW roster.

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Ew. Yeah, they should probably hold off on them for a while now.

So how does AEW, the "woke" promotion, handle Excalibur? He has already apologized in the past, I'm sure he will apologize again. Is that enough? Do you suspend him? Fire him? I don't have an answer, but I feel like whatever move you take, certain people will complain one way or another. If true that it was Tornado's idea, Excalibur should've told him to try it elsewhere as a part owner of the promotion. Dumb.

Whatever they decide to do, I don't think it's a good idea to run back the three man crew they had last night. No chemistry, guys stepping on each others toes, Ross can't carry a TV show anymore. Golden Boy is under contract, right? I'd rather him fill in for the Excalibur PBP role than last night's shit.

Edited by Jiji
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13 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Shida vs. Diamante just seemed off to me. Something either about the pacing or movement just seemed a tad slowed down. 

 

I almost wonder if one/both them got knocked a little loopy.  There was Shida's weird under-rotation on what I think was supposed to be a Code Red that ended up rolling into the ropes and Diamante looked annoyed about.  Then there was the one spot where Shida was going for the falcon arrow and they just sat there for like 10 seconds.

5 minutes ago, Bryan said:

He didn’t even cut a promo, he just beat up some jobbers to save Cody. He hasn’t had a match and wasn’t out there for even two minutes, and you already understand what he’s trying to convey with his new character? I think you’re projecting some preconceived notions onto him.

Also, he got over on his own and was buried worse than anyone I’ve ever seen get buried. It’s also not like matches on Main Event and getting squashed by Braun Strowman or whoever are great opportunities to put on clinics.

On multiple occasions he’s gotten the fans behind him despite the WWE only wanting him to be a jobber. Also, he hasn’t always looked like that. He got jacked because he wasn’t getting opportunities and HHH and Vince are body guys. You don’t just wake up in phenomenal shape, you have to work at it.

I don’t know how hard Arianne worked but I know she tried to pin someone who was on their stomach and hasn’t wrestled since 2016, so...I guess at least she’ll fit in with all of the other inexperienced women on the AEW roster.

I think that might be a bit of hyperbole.  The Spirit Squad got mailed back to OVW in a box. There are about a zillion others.  Ryder got cut off at the knees and buried, sure, but "buried worse than anyone I've ever seen get buried"?  He's probably not in the Top 30.

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3 minutes ago, Jiji said:

Ew. Yeah, they should probably hold off on them for a while now.

So how does AEW, the "woke" promotion, handle Excalibur? He has already apologized in the past, I'm sure he will apologize again. Is that enough? Do you suspend him? Fire him? I don't have an answer, but I feel like whatever move you take, certain people will complain one way or another. If true that it was Tornado's idea, Excalibur should've told him to try it elsewhere as a part owner of the promotion. Dumb.

Whatever they decide to do, I don't think it's a good idea to run back the three man crew they had last night. No chemistry, guys stepping on each others toes, Ross can't carry a TV show anymore. Golden Boy is under contract, right? I'd rather him fill in for the Excalibur PBP role than last night's shit.

One thing that I hate more often than not, is when someone is on commentary and their guys are in the ring and they spend the whole time cheering/coaching.  Some guys can get away with it (Jericho...Heyman, maybe).  Taz could not.  Yelling "Whoa!" "Yes!" "No!" over top of the other guys calling the action/mumbling about breaking the non-existent rules was a cluster of Michael Cole making fun of Daniel Bryan order.

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A Rhodes should never trust an Anderson seriously look at the track record. Cody's eating a spinebuster, I'm hoping this Page FTR stuff is all a tease and it's Kenny who turns and joins Arn and FTR.

Cardona, I'm optimistic. I think he has Zack Ryder stink on him right now but idk I watch the Major Wrestling Figures YouTube page and idk there's something endearing about the guy maybe it's like what @AxB said and he's a delusional idiot that thinks he's cool. Cody just mentioned in that ESPN interview that of the 2 Covid Cuts Miro and Cardona are the two they are looking at, Cody pointed out that they both are legit draws. I know it was 9-10 years ago but Cardona has proven he can get over with limited resources and sell merch like nobodies business. I don't know if he will be a top guy (I'm talking Cardona not Miro I think there's a fanbase screaming for Miro to be a top guy) but I think he's a good addition to the roster.

The male side of the roster is very stacked and doesn't need anybody else but If Kingston wants to sign I'd sign him up in a heartbeat, I'd grab Miro and if he wants to, grab Rey, Cody alluded to that in the interview as if they can make it happen make it will happen. If Domenic is part of the deal I say fuck it and sign him too, put him with Pillman Jr as a 2nd Generation Tag Team or something or if the world ever starts turning again send him on excursion to AAA. 

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For what it's worth--maybe nothing!--the youtube video titled "Warhorse Makes His AEW Debut & What is Matt Cardona Doing in AEW?" has 412k views, which is the most from this episode by quite a bit. 

Edited by Beech27
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Thumb tacks on a skatebeard is a bit odd. Did Darby Allin sit up all night by the fire with a pritt-stick studiously sticking each thumb tack to the board one by one? Sounds like a lot of effort.

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4 hours ago, Jiji said:

Ew. Yeah, they should probably hold off on them for a while now.

So how does AEW, the "woke" promotion, handle Excalibur? He has already apologized in the past, I'm sure he will apologize again. Is that enough? Do you suspend him? Fire him? I don't have an answer, but I feel like whatever move you take, certain people will complain one way or another. If true that it was Tornado's idea, Excalibur should've told him to try it elsewhere as a part owner of the promotion. Dumb.

Whatever they decide to do, I don't think it's a good idea to run back the three man crew they had last night. No chemistry, guys stepping on each others toes, Ross can't carry a TV show anymore. Golden Boy is under contract, right? I'd rather him fill in for the Excalibur PBP role than last night's shit.

Based on how they handled Sammy for his past transgressions they need to at the very least suspend Excalibur without pay for a month. Even if we believe what Meltzer said as you pointed out it was a dumb idea, and one the owner or part owner of a company should have immediately shot down. 

Going forward I’d rather they split the announce teams for the two hours and have Taz and Tony do an hour together, and give Jericho and JR the other hour. The only reason I’m saying that is we both know they won’t ditch JR, and I think he’d be more bearable if it was just he and Jericho for an hour.

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