6/15/2022- AEW DYNAMITE!

[Matt D]

Playing catch up now.

• I thought Jericho looked pretty good in the Ortiz match actually. I agree that this kind of makes 2.0/Garcia feel like the NWO B Team so hopefully they balance it well. With Danielson out for a few weeks it's fun that it's now JAS vs "Kingston's Army."
• The Wardlow thing was pretty visually satisfying. I can't remember a match where one guy has just mowed through so many like that. It was just violence from every direction. It worked for me. Less said about the MMA guys the better.
• I'm kind of glad I don't have to write up Dax vs Ospreay in any meaningful way. Ospreay gave the Hennig-bumping-for-Von Erich/Warrior performance. It's a shame the fans were so into him because he was clearly heeling to get a reaction and if they were maybe a little more used to seeing him live they would have let him do that instead of it it being more equal. My favorite bit here was when Dax went for a hip toss and Ospreay turned it into an abdominal stretch. Maybe a few too many kickouts in the stretch, but what are you going to do? It's the style. I will say that there were moments, most especially the electric chair into powerbomb bit which felt a little too collaborative which you never see in a Dax match. Anyway, other than that, good transitions and cutoffs and I like how hard he fought for the cutter (which is why that probably should have been the finish; no harm there).
• Talking segment should have given Tanahashi a little more? Plus Archer and Desperado look like goofs for doing the attack but then not being in the match.

[EVA]

Checking the Elevation and Rampage spoilers, and I’m very disappointed to learn that they had Desperado in the building and booked him in zero matches. This suggests to me that TK is not a fan of Despy and therefor not the man of taste I thought he was.

[Matt D]

• Miro vs Page was good. I saw people complaining that Page got so much but it was done smartly, either through controlling the arm or ambushes due to Lambert distractions, etc. The second he really got cocky and started mocking Miro, Miro just up and killed him. Black/Miro/Pac/Some Other Guy sounds like a pretty good 4 corners match if you need to do one. Given the "All Atlantic" theme, I do think it's sort of like a UK title as much as anything else and they're probably putting it on Pac so he can have a big defense in the UK OR having him chase for it so he can win there.
• Women's match was definitely good, but I wish they had milked the concussion bit a little more and maybe had a bit more separation between moves in the stretch.
• Christian turn got a big reaction and he portrayed it well. The jawing with the family was just ok because they didn't exactly do their part to be concerned, just angry.
• Rampage looks good! Fish vs Darby when we know Fish is going to have something to prove after O'Reilly's last month, Dante vs Mox, Willow vs Jade, and Ruff/Bears vs Caster/Gunns.
• Oh, I did appreciate Excalibur taking 15 seconds and explaining to everyone what the deal with IWGP was. Didn't hurt the flow of the match. Brought the 20% of the audience that needed it up to speed. Good stuff.

[Log]

Saw this on Instagram today and thought for a second old Bob was wearing Hangman's new shirt.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

4 hours ago, matwarz said:

 people are still seriously going to tell me Ospreay isn’t as good as there is? Please.

Throwing him into a midcard match with a comedy character seems like a real waste to me.  I tuned into the show mostly for the Ospreay match and the ladder match, but the Cassidy stuff was so underwhelming that I watched baseball the rest of the night.  

[Log]

Cassidy will bring it for that match.  I have a feeling that's the sleeper great match that's going to catch a lot of people by surprise.

[HumanChessgame]

I'm surprised Jericho won his match. When I saw Davey Vega playing the "barber" I'd assumed they'd do some type of fuck finish at the end, and maybe Ortiz would cut a few chunks out of Jericho a la Becky/Bianca and he'd show up next week with the same haircut he had during his last WWE run.

Osprey/Dax was fantastic. As much as I'd prefer FTR to just stick to tag matches, Dax has shown he's the guy you can plug in to have a fantastic match with anyone, and him losing doesn't matter as he's not a singles guy in the end.

Britt/Storm was very good.

I realize this is more of a me problem, but would it hurt them to do brief video packages about the New Japan guys that are going to be featured at Forbidden Door for those in the audience who don't follow NJPW? Excalibur pointing out who they are and what's notable about them is one thing, but a 60 second montage of a guy with a "coming soon to Forbidden Door" thing would make them look like a big deal. I recal WCW doing something like that when they had their cross promotional event.

Ladder matches are way overdone at this point, but I still found myself enjoying the main event. The Hardys definitely would have taken a few more years off their lives in such a match, and I guess they were originally slated to win the titles here? While I don't care about The Young Bucks having the belts again, I'm assuming it's just until the next PPV if that long and we got the long overdue Christian heel turn. I'm looking forward to what he and JB can do together.

[Zimbra]

2 minutes ago, Log said:

Cassidy will bring it for that match.  I have a feeling that's the sleeper great match that's going to catch a lot of people by surprise.

I feel like OC/Pac showed that Cassidy + super serious intense guy is a winning formula.

[EVA]

On Santana/Ortiz watch: Very telling that Santana didn’t second Ortiz for the biggest singles match of this career and was disappeared for the head shaving angle. If you didn’t know about their history, you would assume Eddie was Ortiz’s long-time tag partner.

Yeah, for whatever reason, those guys are done with each other.

[DEAN]

THURSDAY REFLECTIONS:  Yes, it's the INTERNATIONAL FEED!  The fact that Eddie Kingston is the first one to try to end the match by hitting a Urican behind the ref's back makes Sammy's run-in justified!  I didn't realize that detail until I rewatched the INTERNATIONAL FEED! I assume this means that Ortiz will shave Jericho's head down the line.  The Wardlow match is an Ode to Kung Fu movie fights after they are powered out to disperse!  These are SECURITY GUARDS!  Why are they expected to beat a wrestler in a wrestling ring!  They should have Wardlow have to go to a club and make guys take off their cowboy hats and hit on hot chicks while checking their IDs.  Sterling should become Wardlow's Bobby Heenan to Wardlow's Hulk Hogan.  Sterling IS pre-neck injury, bumping Bobby Heenan!  Will Ospreay getting over as a face eventhough he works total heel is the reason Dax Harwood is over- modern wrestling fans dig guys who can go.  Zack Sabre Jr will be so over as a face no matter what he does.  AEW is a promotion of 1986 Arn Andersons.  Dax Harwood is so fucking intense.  Ospreay is great taking Dax's offense.  The SUWA Dropkick by Ospreay on the outside INTO THE CAMERA angle was so fucking great.  During the Picture in Picture that you rubes had to endure, the crowd is very vocally torn between Ospreay and Harwood.  Dax does the Bret Hart Sternum First Into the turnbuckle and JR doesn't bring up the connection- as I assume someone sat him down and told him how stupid it is to bring it up.  Ospreay is awesome taking the Released German on his neck- and Excalibur emphasizes this by bringing up Ospreay's neck trouble.  Harwood sells the powerbomb by rolling through for a two count and heading for the outside.  The crowd is waaay behind Dax's Lyger Bomb and really rises when Ospreay kicks out.  They have the same response to Ospreay's Lyger Bomb.  So St Louis crowds are as good as Southern California crowds.  Will Ospreay being confused by the whole Orange Cassidy thing is great.  Will Ospreay is the big winner in the Forbidden Door build up.  I assume he will be an AEW regular considering how quickly he got over.  Who dubbed this the Kingston Combat Club?  So great.  I guess Jericho is just freeballing the booking since TK is scrambling with everybody hurt or drunk driving.  Jericho books AEW like a grandscale Memphis, trying to get every one to the Memphis Coliseum this Friday and it's FUN!  Miro is like Road Warrior Hawk after they got over their initial annoying no-selling everything phase, in the way that he sells all out and then hits giant moves for a comeback.  Miro selling the shoulder is good old school story telling to negate the obvious awesome offensive advantage of Miro.  JR talks about Ethan Pages size and MMA background during the rubes' Picture in Picture.  Dan Lambert is the star of the INTERNATIONAL FEED!   Miro's selling carries the match until Ethan Page does the GREAT "PRAY TO ME, YOUR GOD!" spot and turn the tide of the match.  Ethan Page is a great old school wrestler. PSYCHOLOGY!   Britt Baker laying it in and bumping big is the difference in this compared to a normal Brit Baker match.   Baker is wearing her Owen Hart outfit.  During the EXCLUSIVE INTERNATIONAL FEED BIG SCREEN, Baker feeds the crowd backing Toni Storm by heeling it up.  The St Louis crowd who backed Will Ospreay for his skill, ALSO reacts to Toni Storm's 1970s babyface comeback, thus St Louis crowds are the best crowds.  Brit Baker wrestled this match as a GREAT heel- hitting her finisher after being a total bastard heel, but Toni Storm is Ricky Steamboat as she wills her way to kick out and hit her own finishers and being a better technical wrestler and winning.  That match could have gotten over in the Norfolk Scope in 1975.  A TRIUMPH!  Stokely Hathaway adds to the AEW is Memphis vibe, being a manager who sets up matches I want to see.  I await Blue Dragon and the Natural to debate how hideous the IWGP belt looks.  I guess they are going with Jay White vs Bryan Danielson?  Adam Cole is great being baffled while Jay White walks past him.   Your main event is fun but it isn;t really a wrestling match but a collection of table spots and back drops onto ladders.  They did make it so that the double decker table set up is the only table spot that actually mattered.  The Young Bucks aren't the Rock n Roll Express or the Midnight Express or anything, but the match was an extreme extension of the ECW main event.  Probably could have used the Hardy's so someone would have actually sold something, but that match pleased the St Louis crowd and it was the best crowd ever, so they got what they wanted so we as wrestling fans should be happy.   And we are.   Christian does the best heel turn in a while.

[The Natural]

 

[Jenalysis]

Friends I was watching this with- when "Fuego" attacked, they thought it was House of Black mist turning Fuego to the dark side.

 

[HarryArchieGus]

I wish this company would slow things down and stop trying to shoehorn all this information. Just take two minutes at the start of the show or after the first match. It takes me out of the bouts seeing those intrusive graphics and hearing the commentary focus on discussing later in the show stuff. Like prime WCW Nitro. So too any of the packages in Picture in picture. Just go full screen and allow the point to be. Less energy drinks and coffees all around. Slow things the fuck down. You don't need more, more, more all to be forgotten. What they have is good, let it be embraced.

I thought Jericho might lose his hair and I was captivated by this thought. The match was fun, and seems to me like the set-up for a future hair match in which Jericho indeed does lose. The Sammy as Fuego interference was well placed. Dig it! The Wardlow segment was shittier than even expected. Wrestle-Crap! Why not at least give us a new Sterling charge out of it? I'd love to see AEW stop promoting 'Face to Face' confrontations and 'townhalls' and let some of these interview segments feel more spontaneously put together. That said, Moxley completely overdelivered and killed it putting over this match. Huge piece of business! I dug Jericho's involvement here, but the annoucement came off awkward-more shoehorning. I did love his twisted excitement for Tay and Sammy's PDAs. Ethan Page-Miro was excellent. Especially dug the cartoon-y closing portion. Slobberknocker Jim was hellbent on telling us Page is the future to remind us he had no chance of winning. God bless Tony for reminding Ross that Page was actually currently wrestling for a 'championship opportunity'. Looking forward to the commercial free Toni-Britt. Loved the later stages drama and made me feel like I loved the entire match. Toni to the top! Nice to see 'Wilma' Nightingale get some TV time. That lady is the darkhorse money superstar. Solid Hangman promo as per usual. Jay White with a state of the obvious address. Jay's great as they say but inconsistent on that mic. That said, his dynamic presence easily exceeds that weak shit. Dug the Main and look forward to a commercial free view. Pleased to see them get the titles off the Jurassics and onto the consistently terrific Bucks. I was tired of that Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus run way early. It just didn't seem quite right for this (really solid upper) mid-card act to be crowned with all the great teams waiting in the wings. Tho, they had a really solid run. Man, Christian coming home to the darkside was obvious yet so exciting. Loved that pop! Not unlike a big debut there. I gleefully laughed at that post match interaction with Jungle Mom and Jungle Sister-who were both excellent there. Can't wait for more heel Christian!  
 

[Curt McGirt]

There was once somebody who put together a supercut of all the horrible things in Hughes' autobiography on here, including but not limited to him torturing and murdering animals as a kid. Not a good look, TK. 

Anyway. That had to be one of the loudest fucking crowds E-V-E-R. And it was nonstop fun the whole time. MIRO~!

[porksweats]

That was a great Dynamite all things considered (had to see Ospreay). 

[Craig H]

I'm not even sure what more there is to say about this episode. It ruled. Couple things of note...

• Dax hit Will with one of the loudest and hardest chops I've ever seen. It was a spot earlier in the match and Dax hits Will with one chop then he hauls back and levels him with a second chop that cracked like thunder. That whole match was awesome.
• Hmm, I'm getting more on board with there being some kind of weirdness between Santana and Ortiz. Other than Santana running in, there was barely any interaction, if any at all, between Santana and Ortiz. It felt pretty awkward.
• Holy shit, when everyone was running in during that segment, did you hear who they were chanting for? WHEELER FUCKING YUTA. I don't think enough has been said about how well developed Yuta has been.
• Fuck yeah! Shota Umino! LET'S FUCKING GO!
• Starting to doubt Okada is going to be on the card and honestly, if there's no Okada, I don't think I'm going to bother buying a ticket. Or maybe I still will if the price is right, but between buying tickets to the show or a new CPU, I think I might prefer a new CPU. Sucks, but what are you going to do. Meltzer speculated that the lack of Okada may have to do with Forbidden Door happening right around the time Okada's wife is due.
• I wonder who White will grant a title shot to. Or if he doesn't, maybe we do wind up with Cole/White vs Hangman/Okada. 
• Ideally, I think you have Toni Storm go over Thunder Rosa. For whatever reason, unless Rosa is in the ring with Britt, the crowd is always dead for her and Rosa's run has just been a bunch of diminishing returns.
• I fucking need FTR vs Khan and Cobb and I need FTR to win because Great O Khan sucks. Real talk though, that match would be a total slugfest and I'm here for it.
• You know, I forgot Christian is one of the best heels around. I laughed so fucking hard when he told JB's mom that she raised a piece of shit. That turn was magnificent. Perfect amount of time to build to the turn and I hope it leads to a bunch of Christian vs JB matches. Honestly, if JB is going to be on the shelf for a bit, I wouldn't mind Christian challenging Moxley for the title if Moxley wins the title before we get the unification match against Punk.

[JLowe]

14 hours ago, (BP) said:

Hey quick question, what does JR think about the square ring posts? It never comes up. 

JR might love Ethan Page more than he hates square ring posts.

[JLowe]

Great opener, and Ortiz shaving his own head (and using the hardway blood) was a great visual. I knew that wasn't Fuego based on size when he was standing next to Jericho (and build, and the fact there's no way they would actually have Fuego as a surprise) but I didn't even think Sammy until the reveal.

Wardlow match setup was great, he looked like a beast but I also had the quibble of "the least he could do is have everyone on their backs for a stack pin". He also had four guys side-by-side and him covering all at once that way would have been a great visual. Guess he's going to be chasing Sky, do they have any Cleveland shows on their schedule?

6-Star FTR. Ospreay doesn't bother me as a heel. I though Dax might have legit broken his hand on that HUGE chop.

Mox-Tanahashi was great. The rest was weird and confusing.

Page-Miro was a well-told, well-sold match that went about how I expected.

Storm-Baker was great, stiff, and credit to Britt for finally going all out in a match that she's not booked to win AND taking a clean pin. I love Thunder Rosa but I'm fine with Storm taking the title...but maybe not a Forbidden Door? Side note: does Rebel do anything?

Main event was a really great ladder-table spotfest, super enjoyable, lots of "oh shit" moments, lots of "if that had gone slightly wrong someone could have been seriously hurt" moments. Jungle Boy has an incredible sense of balance. The belts were so high I knew that those short ladders weren't going to do the trick. That said, no more ladder matches in 2022.

I still think the title switch and the Christian turn should have been at the PPV, but I've seen a number of people suggest that the Bucks-FTR for all the belts match is the money match so I'll go with this. Also, since Bucks were a big part of NJPW, I assume this is a way to have them on potentially 6-hour long PPV with their first title defense.

[Steventon]

The New Japan worship has always been the worst thing about AEW, and seeing it come to fruition the last few weeks with the un-repentant fanboying hasn't made for great TV. Jay White does not have half the 'top guy' presence he thinks he does, and I have to assume Tanahashi was supposed to riff on the 'would you please...Shut..The..Hell...Up' catchphrase but instead just had 1 awkward line.


At least Christian vs Jungle Boy should be a really good program once we get FD out the way.

[porksweats]

6 minutes ago, JLowe said:

Great opener, and Ortiz shaving his own head (and using the hardway blood) was a great visual. I knew that wasn't Fuego based on size when he was standing next to Jericho (and build, and the fact there's no way they would actually have Fuego as a surprise) but I didn't even think Sammy until the reveal.

Wardlow match setup was great, he looked like a beast but I also had the quibble of "the least he could do is have everyone on their backs for a stack pin". He also had four guys side-by-side and him covering all at once that way would have been a great visual. Guess he's going to be chasing Sky, do they have any Cleveland shows on their schedule?

6-Star FTR. Ospreay doesn't bother me as a heel. I though Dax might have legit broken his hand on that HUGE chop.

Mox-Tanahashi was great. The rest was weird and confusing.

Page-Miro was a well-told, well-sold match that went about how I expected.

Storm-Baker was great, stiff, and credit to Britt for finally going all out in a match that she's not booked to win AND taking a clean pin. I love Thunder Rosa but I'm fine with Storm taking the title...but maybe not a Forbidden Door? Side note: does Rebel do anything?

Main event was a really great ladder-table spotfest, super enjoyable, lots of "oh shit" moments, lots of "if that had gone slightly wrong someone could have been seriously hurt" moments. Jungle Boy has an incredible sense of balance. The belts were so high I knew that those short ladders weren't going to do the trick. That said, no more ladder matches in 2022.

I still think the title switch and the Christian turn should have been at the PPV, but I've seen a number of people suggest that the Bucks-FTR for all the belts match is the money match so I'll go with this. Also, since Bucks were a big part of NJPW, I assume this is a way to have them on potentially 6-hour long PPV with their first title defense.

They are going to debut in Columbus, OH the Dynamite before Rampage/Battle Of The Belts in Grand Rapids (which I got sweet seats for)

[JLowe]

17 minutes ago, porksweats said:

They are going to debut in Columbus, OH the Dynamite before Rampage/Battle Of The Belts in Grand Rapids (which I got sweet seats for)

Not sure how far Grand Rapids is from Clevo but having Wardlow-Sky at BotB 3 makes a lot of sense

[porksweats]

Just now, JLowe said:

Not sure how far Grand Rapids is from Clevo but having Wardlow-Sky at BotB 3 makes a lot of sense

West Side of Michigan, same distance give or take between Chicago's Forbidden Door and Detroit's Blood and Guts Dynamite

[Just Dave]

Yeah, from perusing Santana’s socials; I think those guys are done with each other. Sad we probably won’t get a P&P reign as AEW tag champs. Maybe they can work it out down the road…

[Infinit]

Dax was announced as AAA tag champion and wore the belt for the match vs Ospreay. I guess that was ok'd because Dax lost?

[BrianS81177]

Anyone know what the beef is between Santana and Ortiz?