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Dynamite - 1/12/2022


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12 hours ago, Bryan said:

Oh and I hope they’re not planning on having Sting in the ring with Luchasaurus that would scare me.

Wait, why would that be scary? (Other than the fact that Luchasaurus is so awesome it's scary.) I thought the talking point about Luchasaurus was that he allegedly worked too soft, not too stiff.

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Wrapping my head around the AEW criticisms from last night (someone tallied the following on the f4w board apparently) for instance:

Image

It kind of feels like the difference between AEW and WWE is that one company has absolutely nothing happen ever and the other company has too many things happening.

But the difference between AEW and 1998-9 WWF Crash TV is that crash TV had 3 minute matches instead of 10-15 minute ones.

I'm probably biased/lucky in that I don't usually watch this stuff live and i can skip around how I want. But you know what that list looks like to me even more than the other things listed? Memphis TV with far more substantial matches. And Memphis TV is awesome. It's Lance Russell as Kermit the Frog trying to keep order while there's all this insane chaos around him and his run sheet gets blown up each and every week.

There are problems. Things start and stop and come and go too much without enough direction, though they do almost always get where they're going in the end. The ranking system is flimsy and not entirely underpinned by transparent logic (Why isn't Punk ranked if he's 10 and 0?). They need agenting when it comes to repeating certain things, but Gordi summed up pretty well how we should be much more focused on the execution and the impact than the theory. I didn't mind the execution of Best Friends getting laid out repeatedly. He didn't mind the execution of two size mismatch matches in a row. But if things were done differently, either of us could have raised issues.

The biggest problem is that they don't let moments resonate into the next segment. On the other hand, Raw and Nitro have traditionally overdone that, to the point where you'd have people talk about the NWO constantly during a luchador match. The reverse to that is not being able to fit in enough women or to highlight the huge roster well enough. So it's a hard balance. How do you make things resonate more while still involving everyone. And the answer is that if you have to sacrifice one of those two things, you just don't involve everyone and you take advantage of how cycling people in and out can keep them fresh. Maybe you use the announcing more to highlight issues and draw them out a little longer instead of having constant interference/presence on screen to keep the stories going. Or hey! you can use insert interviews like old WWF TV. That's a great idea. Let's see someone's head in the corner of the screen talking about an issue. But even that's tricky due to the intensity of the matches, making sure that all the things they need to plug get plugged, and balancing picture in picture.

I'm sympathetic because I'd rather have too many interesting things going on than too few, and they should constantly strive to get better, but I don't think there's an easy answer for any of this. Any solution causes some other problem. But I'm also not getting paid big money for my message board opinions about how to fix it either.

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13 hours ago, Jiji said:

Hey, so is Pac joining House of Black with the tarot card or is he playing Black's game? 

I'm hoping he joins up with House of Black.   I think he's a much better heel than babyface and he really needs to move on from Death's Triangle.  Between injuries, COVID, Visa issues, etc., they've been much closer to Bermuda Triangle and, really, they're probably better off as a heel unit.   Just put a pin in the idea and move on.  

First show I've watched (mostly) in full in quite a while.  Thought it was fairly bleh.  The Punk match telegraphed its outcome and still took took long to get there.  Killed most of my interest in the show.  I feel like that match would be reviled if it was in WWE and involved someone less beloved than Punk.

Did enjoy Deeb taking out Shida decisively.  When Shida hopped in the ring and they started the match, I wondered if she was going to get the win just because.  Looking forward to the rubber match between those two.

Edited by Tarheel Moneghetti
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I still thought Dynamite was pretty good with matches and angles. I'm not going to lie though, the thought did cross my mind that I want AEW's cable TV shows to be closer to when Dynamite first started airing where the booking seemed pretty fearless when it came to wins and losses. Maybe my memory is poor, but I seem to recall most matches having clean finishes without chicanery to protect heels and faces. Dudes, both men and women, just straight up lost and won.

Opening segment...Perfectly fine because Best Friends vs Super Elite has been the post-PPV storyline for these guys. It is getting a little played out with the Best Friends coming away with one win in this whole feud. There's at least some movement here where it's starting to transition to Bucks vs reDRagon with Cole stuck in the middle. When Britt first came out I was a little concerned because I tend to hate real life couples being involved in wrestling, but I wound up liking Britt's involvement just fine. Plus, it's leading to Britt/Cole vs Kris/OC, which should hopefully give us a rematch between Kris and Britt at Revolution where Kris SHOULD win. Personally, I still think Kris is up there with Rosa for Kris' best match and opponent, but I haven't seen Britt vs Riho because Battle wasn't recorded.

I really liked everything that happened with the Wardlow vs Punk match. I sat there thinking, holy shit, they're putting Wardlow over pretty big here. He's just a total force of nature. I had a feeling that the match would end with a small package. Despite Punk winning. I saw it more that he escaped and less that he won or even survived. Lots of moving parts with this feud that I like. Building up to Punk hopefully shutting MJF up, building up to Wardlow smashing Spears, building up to Wardlow smashing MJF. I mean, when Wardlow destroys MJF and turns on him, I hope it's in a packed arena because the roof is going to blow off of that place. Part of me also wants Punk to keep interfering in MJF's matches to cause him to lose by DQ and one of those opponents winds up being someone that goes after Punk because they're pissed they were used by Punk to get one over on MJF.

Hobbs vs Martin was really good shit, but the finish annoyed me because it involved the chicanery I mentioned above. Others here have mentioned that needs to be more quality control with these matches and segments because there are too many repeating elements. Hell, Jericho openly complained about this and it led to some positive change with regards to avoiding repeating elements. It seems they've taken some steps back in this regard. It's also a good example of something I brought up last week where not every match needs to go through a commercial break. Hobbs vs Martin should last 6 or 7 minutes instead of putting Hobbs on the treadmill for however long and having Martin risk injuring himself by being in longer matches. You can even do the same finish they did, but again, in a 6 or 7 minute match.

I had wondered if Page's next challenger would be some form of a monster or giant. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about Archer. He and Page should have a banger of a match to hold Page over until Cole probably challenges him at Revolution.

Shida vs Deeb was awesome. It makes me think even more that Kris will beat Britt for the title and the Deeb will be her first challenger.

WTF was that Hardy vs Penta match? Both guys looked blown up, Hardy looked like he was repeatedly sandbagging Penta, Penta looked sloppy, there were a couple moves where Matt clonked right on his fucking dome, including the Fear Factor at the end. Really weird match.................

............That led into a fucking awesome angle. Again, another example of how AEW is really good with feuds and angles that have lots of moving and intertwined parts. I did have to laugh at everyone kicking the shit out of Black like it was the ending from Death Proof until Julia stopped them. Add me to the "SHE'S CORRUPTED" choir. Brody King looks scary as fuck. Honestly, Jungle Express should have a short reign because Black and King should smoke them for those titles Demolition style.

I have no idea what to think about Matt partnering up with Andrade, but can we please get a hotter mic for Andrade. His English is improving, but he's a little soft spoken and when you keep moving the mic around, it makes it almost impossible to hear him.

I also have no idea where this shit with Eddie and Jericho is going, but Eddie needs to win a feud badly. Dude is O-fer in all of his feuds and the crowd still goes nuts for him because he's the realest motherfucker in pro wrestling.

Main event kicked all kinds of ass until the finish with the aforementioned chicanery. Pro wrestling has desperately needed someone like Nick and Nate Diaz and Daniel Garcia fills that role perfectly. I wouldn't have minded Garcia winning here, even if it hot potatoes the title around too much. I love Garcia as this dude who will just fight a motherfucker. Sammy looked good as well. What sucked, but also didn't suck, was the involvement of 2point0. I love those guys, I love Eddie, I love Sammy, I love Garcia, and I like Jericho enough. Everyone involved scratches an itch for me, but it sucked that there was another fucked up finish when you could have had Sammy just go over clean.

Here's the deal...If you're someone who is as threatening as Garcia and wrestles as good as him and can talk like him, then it doesn't hurt him if he loses clean in a tough match. There's no harm there. Case in point, look at Darby Allen and how many Ls he dropped clean on his way to being one of the top guys in the company. He may be in a holding pattern now, but he's at least still on TV with Sting and he's still kind of the face of this company. This was Garcia's 10th loss. If those previous 9 losses didn't hurt him, then losing clean for a 10th time wouldn't hurt him either.

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3 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I want AEW's cable TV shows to be closer to when Dynamite first started airing where the booking seemed pretty fearless when it came to wins and losses. Maybe my memory is poor, but I seem to recall most matches having clean finishes without chicanery to protect heels and faces. Dudes, both men and women, just straight up lost and won.

This is what I've been pissing and moaning about for a while. They've basically turned into an '80s territory where so many of the finishes include shenanigans. Dynamite was way better booked in this regard in the first year. 

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1 minute ago, Jiji said:

This is what I've been pissing and moaning about for a while. They've basically turned into an '80s territory where so many of the finishes include shenanigans. Dynamite was way better booked in this regard in the first year. 

Ultimately, it still doesn't bother me that much because there are still more than enough matches with clean finishes and PPVs are almost all clean finishes. However, for the TV product, it would be nice if higher profile matches could just be a little cleaner.

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Only caught about the last half or so. Brody King and Malakai Black as Tattoo Brothers 4 Lyfe is a nice pairing. On the Discord we were talking about workers to back Serena up as muscle and the idea of a Knockout being one came up. Masha Slamovich was one name and that now makes me think of Masha vs. Leyla in a Russo-American war. Anywho, Serena is the best. Take that leg home with ya! 

Main event was great. King losing to Jericho will suck, but you know... still a good match.

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So Revolution is starting to take shape. Premature guesses:

Cole vs. Hangmin, Jericho vs. Kingston, Bucks vs. Red Dragon (I'm over the stupid copyright spelling), MJF vs. Punk, Shida vs. Deeb.

Tag and women's titles are up in the air. Don't think Statlander is the PPV challenger. I'd be fine with Rosa beating Mercedes and moving on to finally getting hands on Baker for the title change, but that does seem like a lot between now and March 5th. Statlander doesn't have a lot of momentum and they've been leaning towards either Rosa or Soho to be the one that finally beats Baker. It'll be interesting to see how often Jade is featured. 

Danielson needs a dance partner and I wonder if they hold off on unifying the TNT title for the ppv. Sting and Darby will be involved. So don't think Wardlow and Spears makes the cut. They've traditionally had 10 matches on their ppv cards, with the first being on the buy-in. There is now one more title to feature so there will be big names not on the card. 

Doesn't appear to be a named dynamite between now and the ppv either. 

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18 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Only caught about the last half or so. Brody King and Malakai Black as Tattoo Brothers 4 Lyfe is a nice pairing. On the Discord we were talking about workers to back Serena up as muscle and the idea of a Knockout being one came up. Masha Slamovich was one name and that now makes me think of Masha vs. Leyla in a Russo-American war. Anywho, Serena is the best. Take that leg home with ya! 

Main event was great. King losing to Jericho will suck, but you know... still a good match.

I'm pretty sure Masha vs Leyla has happened, like, recently. They're pretty local to one another, and it's such a logical booking. I'll have a look on IWTV later.

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9 minutes ago, ReiseReise said:

I really like Punk, and I'm interested in Wardlow. But in no way was this anywhere as crisp an Inside Cradle as Bret vs Diesel. 

That's the problem with Punk imitating the Hitman. He's notoriously pretty sloppy in a lot of his execution. 

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I enjoyed the sports entertainment of Punk vs Wardlow, though that finishing cradle was ass. I think if that had been executed tighter and they had played up the experience gap between them more on commentary it would have come off better.

Zero interest in the Cole & Friends/Bucks vs Best Friends feud as it feels like obvious filler until they decide to either push Cole for a title shot or do this Elite split angle.

I really enjoyed how last week Deeb was hyping up this big grudge match, only for her to come out and cheap-shot Shida with a shitty win. Low-key this has been a really well built feud and it's time for an I Quit or something to blow it off.

Sammy vs Garcia was decent but I think the TNT title has exposed Sammy as a guy with a great physical skill-set but quite limited when it comes to the mental side of putting a match together.

House Of Black was alright. Can't say I'm that excited by Brody and his first flurry of offence on national TV looking soft didn't help that.

For the 1,000th time - Lance Archer is AEW's Kane, and that's an acceptable place for him even if I have no interest in that match

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3 hours ago, Valcourt said:

Speaking of weird. Was the dude with the box on his head on camera? Front row to the right side of the ring? During Rampage some fans my side were yelling at him like it was Kip Sabian but could have sworn it wasn’t?

Yeah, that's Kip Sabian.  He's doing this "Unknown Comic" thing where he'll hang out somewhere and has a phrase "Under rated, over it" (whatever that means)  He was hanging outside before the Queens show and had a decent enough line though has recently been front row in the crowd.  I don't know if he's still recovering from injury but I like how it's a way to utilize him until they're ready for him to come back.

Edited by NikoBaltimore
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Random thoughts:


Didn’t care for the random Matt Hardy and Acclaimed matches. They felt very Dark-ish material.

 

I liked Dam Lambert desperately shouting “YOURE IN THE RING WITH THE CHAMPION DONT WASTE THIS OPPORTUNITY!!!” because that’s classic wrestling logic, start beef with the champ and get a title shot.


Punk continues his Bret homage tour by beating Diesel at Survivor Series 95. I was (and it seemed like the crowd too) very ready for Warlord’s face turn to finally happen tonight, was disappointed when it wasn’t complete.

 

Brit got the biggest laugh out of me by saying Adam Butler. i like the idea of she and Cole helping each other when but not being attached at the hip ever time they’re on screen.

 

Jungle Boy keeps getting better and better in the mic. Then silver came in and just stole the whole thing by being absolutely ridiculous.

 


Main event was fun, really enjoyed the intensity between both guys. It blows my mind that Daniel García and Brian Pillman Jr have been wrestling for the same amount of time yet Garcia is a million miles ahead in every way possible.
 

Eddie again was getting is name cheered near the end, it’s amazing how much the crowd always sides with him. I think him vs Hangman would be extremely captivating.

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4 hours ago, Valcourt said:

Speaking of weird. Was the dude with the box on his head on camera? Front row to the right side of the ring? During Rampage some fans my side were yelling at him like it was Kip Sabian but could have sworn it wasn’t

Lol, that was real?  I was answering email and looked up and got a quick glimpse of him but never saw him again.  More or less decided I was just seeing things and forgot about it.

I hope they eventually give Silver a quick run with the TNT title or a tag run.  Dude's got some interesting offense and loads of personality, but is going to be held back by his height and look.  As Dave once remarked about Austin Aries (during AA's first stint as ROH champion), "if he were six inches taller - he'd still be six inches too short for Vince."  

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Ok.  Time for my weekly AEW blow job.

Nope.  Not this week.  This week AEW is sleeping on the couch.

If I said this was probably my least favorite episode of Dynamite thus far.  I’d be telling the truth.  But it’s not like I’m jumping ship back into Vince’s vascular arms, pal.  
 

I liked Punk/Wardlow well enough (including the sloppy inside cradle, since my dude WAS beat the fuck up after an army of power bombs).  Brody Kings intro hit its mark.  The promos were all fine and never over uhh stayed uhh it’s wellllcome uhhhh!  
 

The rest of the show just didn’t do much for me.   But then again I was watching this morning on crappy daily motion and being assaulted by flu shot ads every 2 1/2 minutes.  It absolutely killed my interest in Sammy/Garcia.

Oh well.  Next week it is.

I love you AEW.  You’ll do better next time.  You’re still the antidote to WWE.

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16 minutes ago, D.Z said:

969,000 viewers

P18-49: 0.39 (505,000)

That's pretty good.  I see that people my age couldn't figure out how to reprogram the DVR to switch channels.  MATLOCKE~!

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I think it was a pretty good show overall. I do think they need to stop booking the biggest match first. You need to stop frontloading the show. I like Daniel Garcia and all, but he wasn't ready for a main event cable slot this week. 

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4 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

I think it was a pretty good show overall. I do think they need to stop booking the biggest match first. You need to stop frontloading the show. I like Daniel Garcia and all, but he wasn't ready for a main event cable slot this week. 

I don't think frontloading is necessarily an issue. They notoriously (and I think intentionally) did this for one of their bigger shows last year, and IIRC it ended up working and getting one of their biggest numbers of the year. If they're getting the ratings back like they're obviously are, they're noticing trends and what is and isn't working.

Hell, I remember us discussing when they did it the first time how SNME use to do it all the time in the heyday. Granted, that's later at night and I think they knew folks were probably turning off at the hour mark anyway regardless of starpower. Anyway, a vast majority of the people liked it from what I was reading in the thread.

I think it's an interesting experiment. If it doesn't work, they're going to stop doing it. There was a stretch last year (prior to the return to touring) where there was very little growth in the numbers and that was WITH putting on the best main event possible.

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16 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

I think it was a pretty good show overall. I do think they need to stop booking the biggest match first. You need to stop frontloading the show. I like Daniel Garcia and all, but he wasn't ready for a main event cable slot this week. 

He’s main evened Rampage like four times. 

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