AEW Dynamite - 10/14/2020 - 1st Anniversary!

[For Great Justice]

Oh man Wardlow/Hangman should be hot fire 

[Curt McGirt]

1 minute ago, A_K said:

So Archer's now finished as a credible threat, right?

What pissed me off about this was if he destroyed Mox after he could have at least got his heat back but they had to shoehorn Eddie in. Eddie deserves it, but still. 

[Jiji]

Yeah, I feel for Archer here. He left NJPW so he could get a shot as a singles star and now he'll probably end up in a tag team again unless they do some serious rehabbing.

[A_K]

1 minute ago, Curt McGirt said:

What pissed me off about this was if he destroyed Mox after he could have at least got his heat back but they had to shoehorn Eddie in. Eddie deserves it, but still. 

Like, I get it if the arrogant monster is rolled-up by a more nimble & cunning foe while showboating / distracted. But booking him to be rolled up right off his mega-physical finisher (has anyone kicked out of it before?) .. I don't have any idea where the head is at on that booking.

[DreamBroken]

I *hate* the time remaining announcements since it only seems to happen when there's a draw coming. Completely took me out of the finishing stretch to Cody/Orange which was otherwise an excellent match. But once they hit 15 minutes and heard that announcement, it was extremely obvious that they were going to the limit. Logical way to protect both guys in a match where neither should lose but would've had a lot more drama without the announcements and countdown, then of course they announce a rematch anyways. 

FTR/Best Friends was good. Hikaru/Swole was solid, I always love Shida's matches against anyone, she comes off like a star and kills it most every time. Britt/Tony seg was funny. 

Liked the main event, but ugh they changed Archer's theme music. That sucks. and only adds to what everyone else is saying about him being wiped out in another loss.  Dug the callback to their Wrestle Kingdom finish. Didn't hate the finish even though it was a bit no selly of the Blackout, I know Cody/Darby did that awhile back too. I like Moxley always having multiple ways to win. Guessing Moxley goes through Kingston at Full Gear then goes on to lose to tournament winner Omega eventually. 

Edited October 15, 2020 by DreamBroken

[Casey]

Archer wanted his music changed and the same guy who made the other song made this one.

[Flair’s Shadow]

Cody vs Orange was good.

Everything else on the show was not good.

I’m very disappointed tonight and I’m rarely disappointed in Dynamite. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

@DreamBrokenArcher's new theme suuuuuuucks, man. Hugely disappointed.

Rest of the show was good to great. Opener was awesome and I really do hope Best Friends get a run with the titles at some point eventually. 

Maybe Archer will end up with the FTW or TNT belt eventually or something

[For Great Justice]

Not sure what it means that Cody and the Bucks are probably my least favorite acts in the company right now (not counting bit players like Hardy). But I’m not buying what they’re selling.

Love Crow Sting Allin though and he really needs to win the belt. He’s come up just short against AEW’s top guys too often and needs to break through. Then Ricky Starks jumps his ass and ruins his celebration.

Speaking of Team Taz, clearly he needs to buy Archer’s contract out from Roberts, pair him up with Cage and let them MDK guys and win the belts.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

11 minutes ago, A_K said:

Like, I get it if the arrogant monster is rolled-up by a more nimble & cunning foe while showboating / distracted. But booking him to be rolled up right off his mega-physical finisher (has anyone kicked out of it before?) .. I don't have any idea where the head is at on that booking.

Thinking about it further, it's not out of the realm of possibility they run Archer/Mox again before the PPV with Kingston. Maybe non-title but it would make at least some sense out of the ending.

[EVA]

FTR/Best Friends was pretty good until the finish, when everybody seemed to get discombobulated.  Knox hitting the deck for the finish looked weird.

I feel like THAT should’ve been Miro’s first match, and Best Friends will be a good feud for him to get broken into the AEW style.  Much more so than green Sonny and Janela.

Shida/Swole was exactly as messy as I expected it to be.  *shrug*

I really liked Cody/Orange, even though Orange kinda no-sold the leg for a minute to fire up toward the end and then went back to being crippled for the finish.  Liked the draw.

Mox/Archer was fine.  I loved Archer throwing the dude through the glass.

[A_K]

2 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Thinking about it further, it's not out of the realm of possibility they run Archer/Mox again before the PPV with Kingston. Maybe non-title but it would make at least some sense out of the ending.

It was a pretty conclusive finish though. Archer hit him with his bomb; Moxley rolled it up. Not really anywhere to go from there. They've assembled a roster of really cool characters but my god is the booking haphazard / over-wrought at times.

[Casey]

It’s almost like it’s a one year old company that’s ran by people with zero booking experience.

[A_K]

10 minutes ago, For Great Justice said:

Not sure what it means that Cody and the Bucks are probably my least favorite acts in the company right now (not counting bit players like Hardy). But I’m not buying what they’re selling.

Love Crow Sting Allin though and he really needs to win the belt. He’s come up just short against AEW’s top guys too often and needs to break through. Then Ricky Starks jumps his ass and ruins his celebration.

Speaking of Team Taz, clearly he needs to buy Archer’s contract out from Roberts, pair him up with Cage and let them MDK guys and win the belts.

Yup. Brodie + Archer as a KroniK/APA type pair who, disillusioned with falling short of the big titles & carrying mediocrities/past it stars on their backs, become killers-for-hire just smashing their way through the roster has a ring to it too. Gotta salvage the big guys - they've got all the tools to look like a million bucks.

Edited October 15, 2020 by A_K

[Just Dave]

22 minutes ago, DreamBroken said:

I *hate* the time remaining announcements since it only seems to happen when there's a draw coming. Completely took me out of the finishing stretch to Cody/Orange which was otherwise an excellent match. But once they hit 15 minutes and heard that announcement, it was extremely obvious that they were going to the limit. Logical way to protect both guys in a match where neither should lose but would've had a lot more drama without the announcements and countdown, then of course they announce a rematch anyways. 

FTR/Best Friends was good. Hikaru/Swole was solid, I always love Shida's matches against anyone, she comes off like a star and kills it most every time. Britt/Tony seg was funny. 

Liked the main event, but ugh they changed Archer's theme music. That sucks. and only adds to what everyone else is saying about him being wiped out in another loss.  Dug the callback to their Wrestle Kingdom finish. Didn't hate the finish even though it was a bit no selly of the Blackout, I know Cody/Darby did that awhile back too. I like Moxley always having multiple ways to win. Guessing Moxley goes through Kingston at Full Gear then goes on to lose to tournament winner Omega eventually. 

Ugh, why? Why do people want this? To go from the cool, charismatic Moxley to weird-ass space alien Kenny Omega seems like such a massive downgrade. Why do people think he's a big enough star in America to have a run with the top belt?

[Curt McGirt]

Omega can stay where the fuck he's at right now forever as far as I'm concerned. Off the show. 

[Casey]

Omega is one of the more over guys on their roster. It’s one thing to not like the guy, but to deny that he’s a star to most of the fan base is a detachment from reality that I can’t understand.

[Curt McGirt]

I don't mean to sound like a Cornette and I understand his appeal. But he burned me out so hard watching him in NJ that I'm done with the dude. I still like him in gimmick matches but that's it. 

[Death From Above]

If all you had seen of Omega was his AEW run with Hangman Page you'd be completely excused thinking Page is the much better wrestler, so

[EVA]

I’m not sure how I feel about them going back to Sammy and Matt.  I know Matt wants to have a better ending to the feud than the concussion match, but, damn, It seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong between those two, and I would want to just get the fuck away from that.

[DreamBroken]

9 minutes ago, just drew said:

Ugh, why? Why do people want this? To go from the cool, charismatic Moxley to weird-ass space alien Kenny Omega seems like such a massive downgrade. Why do people think he's a big enough star in America to have a run with the top belt?

Just to clarify, I don't necessarily want that, that's just how I see it going with Moxley beating all the other top contenders and they haven't revisited Moxley/Omega since before he won the title. I think Omega beats Hangman in the tournament final then if he wins the title, eventually Hangman's coming back to win it from Omega. 

I do like Kenny but think Moxley's been great as champ. 

[John E. Dynamite]

2 minutes ago, Casey said:

It’s almost like it’s a one year old company that’s ran by people with zero booking experience.

I hate to be a total butthole here, but the nearly-rhetorical question begs to be asked... name a better booked company?

The long stretch of NJPW glory days look to be over, neither the NWA, RoH, or Impact have managed to fly nearly as high, NXT visibly down-shifted somewhere during the Gargano vs. Ciampa-or-Cole feuds while being hamstrung by a main WWE product that has been the-bad-kind-of-smoldering for a majority of two decades.

What do we have to go by as a gold standard of North American booking post-WCW? Hunter's NXT run before his first and second crop of babies graduated makes the most sense, but I don't know how applicable it is. Quack's comic-booking control freak run that wound up being toxic? Sapolsky's taking advantage of post-ECW indie stars that A) existed when WWE wasn't even thinking about poaching them B) maybe lasted five years?

I think it's hard to book a wrestling company. I would say AEW probably needs a more coherent "writer's room" that involves their more creatively inclined talent, but I don't know if a shadow committee of JR, Cody, Chris Jericho, Chuck Taylor, Tony Khan, Arn Anderson and Excalibur don't rip each other's throats out after one PowerPoint presentation on TikTok data.

[John from Cincinnati]

This MJF-Jericho stuff is so forced and unfunny and it’s making both guys look bad. 

[Bryan]

30 minutes ago, A_K said:

So Archer's now finished as a credible threat, right? 43 year old; beaten by Cody in a physical battle to take the initial rug from under him. Now just had his finisher no-sold into a roll up pin. Put him in a squash monster-tag team otherwise he's pretty much pointless here now.

They’ve buried him and his finisher all at once, pretty impressive feat. AEW couldn’t properly book a big man to save its life, it’s crazy.

Overall, this was a disappointing show. Maybe my expectations were too high but with how much AEW has done surprises on big shows I thought maybe there would be a surprise debut or something major would happen. But it was pretty much just another show.

The opening tag match was okay and the ref was actually out of position when the heels cheated even if it was a little contrived. So they’re making progress.

I liked Miro beating up the “good friends” but starting a feud over an arcade game—kind of gives me Jericho Kane feuding over a cup of coffee vibes.

I really don’t understand why they’re pushing Orange Cassidy so hard. When there was a crowd he was getting a reaction but he’s really unimpressive in the ring and I’m starting to get annoyed by wrestlers acting surprised when he moves really slowly. Was very unimpressed by this match until the finish.

I also don’t understand the Big Swole push. Again fans like to chant her name but she’s pretty rough in the ring. This was abysmal.

The Brit Baker Tony segment was great. They can’t put the title on Baker fast enough.
 

The MJF Jericho thing is interesting but I didn’t think they’d drag it out for another week.

The Young Bucks being bullies doesn’t work not just because of their height but because they’re not physically impressive and nothing about their presentation actually signals that they’re tough guys.

The main event was pretty good I liked how physical it was but Moxley’s always being a step ahead and having a submission or counter to everything is getting a little tiresome. And Eddie Kingston really stole the show on commentary and in the after the match.

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, A_K said:

So Archer's now finished as a credible threat, right? 43 year old; beaten by Cody in a physical battle to take the initial rug from under him. Now just had his finisher no-sold into a roll up pin. Put him in a squash monster-tag team otherwise he's pretty much pointless here now.

...

Edited October 15, 2020 by Bryan
Accidentally double posted