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Dynamite - 9/7/2022


Dolfan in NYC

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Just now, Log said:

I can't think of anyone right off hand, but I was thinking about Jack Tunney recently. I think the reason he worked in the world of 80's WWF was that he was so incredibly bland. You had this world filled with all of these colorful characters, and here's this boring-ass old guy handing down decisions. I think it worked because he never took the focus off the wrestlers.

So, I'm not sure who, but they should be boring.  Lol.

I think there are two basic models of on-screen authority figure that are still workable in wrestling: Jack Tunney (has gravitas, only shows up when shit gets real) and Kermit from the Muppet Show (Weird Little Guy desperately trying to put on a show but outmatched by his assembled collection of freaks and weirdos).

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That was an excellent example of turning chicken shit into chicken salad.

Tony's taped announcement was smart. Since we're all analyzing body language, he seemed really nervous when announcing the vacancies, lots of blinking. But he was very excited when announcing the trios match (which I predicted) and the tournament of champions. For a minute, I thought it was structured to potentially set up Mox-Danielson and Jericho-Sammy in the semis, which would have been fun.

What they did with the MJF opening was smart. Having Mox basically hit the reset button and set the tone for the company moving forward was genius. My wife was half-listening and was making fun of it a little for being so serious (she also has a crush on MJF), but I was totally bought in.

Trios match was about what was expected, some comedy, Penta being Penta, some big spots (I personally felt the triple Canadian Destroyer was too convoluted and required a lot of staging). Complaints were a waste of Chuck T's huge entrance stage senton during PiP and Death Triangle going over. I think Best Friends could have much more interesting matches with a variety of competition.

Hangman-Danielson wasn't as good as their 2 classics but was still very good on short notice, and I liked seeing Danielson win on a flash/surprise. Page's huge moonsault was awesome, and the chops palm strikes to the chest were stiff.

My DVR wasn't able to record the Storm-Ford match because of, ironically, a storm messing up my DirecTv, but I'm sure it was a perfectly cromulent match.

Wardlow squashing Nese felt like deja vu to something from earlier in the summer. They have to figure out something to do with him. Fucking MJF...

Main wasn't as good a match as the ROH PPV but was an excellent match with a very hot crowd and a great payoff, and wasn't how I predicted. A little lost in the Dragon-Garcia-Jericho angle was Yuta sitting in the background, looking a little pissed about Dragon giving his love to Garcia. Considering we're also potentially building to Mox-Danielson at Grand Slam, are they working an angle of BCC dissension?

Disappointed that Caster didn't get a rap, but also probably a smart move, and definitely got Swerve some extra heel heat. Him and Bowens mean-mugging each other at the end has me excited for a side story to their tag feud.

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I think really I just prefer having Kahn as the only authority, but having his decisions read by the commentators.  Just like when someone challenges someone and they come back from the break and say "Tony Kahn has made it official!"

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11 minutes ago, Log said:

I think really I just prefer having Kahn as the only authority, but having his decisions read by the commentators.  Just like when someone challenges someone and they come back from the break and say "Tony Kahn has made it official!"

I always enjoy it when they screw up the timing on those so somebody will finish a promo calling somebody else out and like 20 seconds later we have a match graphic and an "official" announcement.

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1 minute ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

Could they just use Mark Henry in that role? He's imposing, likeable, has wrestling cred and Olympic Athlete Cred. Might be a little too much like Monsoon taking over for Tunney in '96 but I didn't hate that or anything. 

Ooh, I have it. Ex-wrestler, big and imposing, charismatic, not signed with anyone:

Spoiler

260px-Stan_Hansen_2015_(cropped).jpg

And y'all would pop like monkeys for it.

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47 minutes ago, punkenhead said:

I don't know if this has been covered already, but during the Hangman/Danielson match, William Regal talked about how he does not know Hangman. He stated that he has never talked with him. Was he throwing shade at Hangman and lending credence to what Punk said about Hangman not taking advice, or am I reading too much into it?

Nope just that Page's career arc and Regal's path never crossed. 

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I thought the show was really, really good and back to basics. Simple is always better. Like, we even got Ford wrestling on Dynamite again and she still looked good. She keeps improving. Now we just need the Bunny back.

Trios tag titles match was awesome. Everyone was on point. Bummed that the Best Friends lost, but Death Triangle have been deserving of those titles for awhile now.

All of the promos were good. Moxley has reached a point where he could tell me to run into a burning building and I would do it. Not sure what the finals are going to be, but I have a feeling it's going to be Darby vs Moxley. Re-visiting Darby and MJF would be pretty damn cool.

Wheeler and Garcia are both so fucking good. I want Wheeler to keep leaning into being the new Shibata while Garcia leans into being this combination of MiSu and a Diaz brother.

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38 minutes ago, SirFozzie said:

Ok. Question: if you were going for a neutral authority figure to make the kind of announcements that Tony has to make who would it be? I know, the quick and easy answer is Regal, but A) He's got a role with the BCC and announcing, B ) He's already done that in NXT, and C) It would be a waste of his talents.

 

I'd almost prefer a beefy old pro wrestler, just for the maximum Bill Watts type that isn't going to put up with Shenanigans, but I'm going with the out of the box one, can we get JJ Dillon out of retirement? It seems to me that he'd have the gravitas, wouldn't be accused of building his own empire, and has experience in the role.

Arn Anderson? He still works there, right?

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1 hour ago, punkenhead said:

I don't know if this has been covered already, but during the Hangman/Danielson match, William Regal talked about how he does not know Hangman. He stated that he has never talked with him. Was he throwing shade at Hangman and lending credence to what Punk said about Hangman not taking advice, or am I reading too much into it?

Thought that as well.  Regardless of the intent, not picking the brain of WILLIAM REGAL is a major red flag.

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I think Regal clarified his statement a little later. He just meant that he didn't have a history with Page. I took it to mean that they'd never crossed paths in like NXT or anything like a lot of the guys on the roster.

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56 minutes ago, Log said:

You know I’ve got nothing but love for you, Natural, but we’re getting into a bit of revisionist history here. 
Yes, Punk has turned out to be a jerk (or always was, that’s besides my point), but his signing was one of the biggest things to happen in pro wrestling in the last decade, maybe 20 years. The only other thing to generate that much buzz was Vince being ousted.
Maybe it’s not working out so great right now, but you can’t deny it was a huge deal for AEW. And I’m not knocking Mox’s signing at all. He’s probably meant more for that company as far as being their heart and soul for sure. 

There's probably some truth in the revisionist history thing, but there's also the Moneyball argument: if he's a good hitter, why doesn't he hit good? Punk hasn't really moved the needle so maybe he's just not that big a deal?

The thing is it was a big deal because AEW fans wanted it to be. He was the prodigal son, kind of, and we were willing to ride along with that. But if in 'The Prodigal Son' proper, the Prodigal Son was a fucking asshole and started telling everyone how to run the farm I am sure he would have been called out on it. The prodigal son was actually repentent!

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1 minute ago, SprintingFromAmerica said:

There's probably some truth in the revisionist history thing, but there's also the Moneyball argument: if he's a good hitter, why doesn't he hit good? Punk hasn't really moved the needle so maybe he's just not that big a deal?

The thing is it was a big deal because AEW fans wanted it to be. He was the prodigal son, kind of, and we were willing to ride along with that. But if in 'The Prodigal Son' proper, the Prodigal Son was a fucking asshole and started telling everyone how to run the farm I am sure he would have been called out on it. The prodigal son was actually repentent!

You're right. I'm just suddenly seeing a lot of takes along the lines of "why'd they even sign him?" I think it's being downplayed how big a deal that was last year. I mean, at this point I think the only signings that would move the needle for AEW would be The Rock or Stone Cold in a return to the ring full-time (or somewhat full-time). Maybe Cena, but I don't think he brings all that many wrestling fans with him.

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4 minutes ago, SprintingFromAmerica said:

The other thing I'd say is that Moxley signing was a really big deal - they just kind of botched it if anything.

Honestly, other than Punk, and that's just based on things being bad now, I think they've generally made good/great signings. Now, that's not saying they've used everyone to their fullest, but they've been good signings. Like, I don't care for Adam Cole, but I can't say he's a bad signing. He's over as all hell and has a large support. Malakai Black didn't really pan out, but I think that's extenuating circumstances.

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After THAT caliber of promo, i really don't see how anyone could argue against Moxley being wrestler of the year.  Phenomenal.

After discussing with Natural about Hangman/Danielson 1 and 2, it was cool to get three.  It wasn't up there with the first two matches, but on short notice, no build, it was great in it's own right.  Danielson/Darby is the final i want, simply because it's not something we've gotten before and I think it would be incredible.  Reality though, i think we're getting Mox as champ again, and despite the convoluted manner to get back there, i think it would be the right choice.

Just a total homerun top to bottom on a hard reset after a harder situation.  Kudos to everyone involved.

 

Garcia/Yuta was so awesome, I preferred this one to the ROH PPV match, but both of them were top tier.

 

Really excited for Rampage.

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Something else people ignore regarding these signings and the start stop of everything is that so many people have been injured or otherwise or have been snakebit. Black had a hot start, got out of the Cody angle and then the feud with Death Triangle was a little too slow moving and a little too kiddie-ish at times with "we're the death faction!" and then Penta turning into Penta Oscuro and Alex turning into a warlock or something. Then unfortunately Black's back got worse, but he at least had Brody King and Buddy Matthews around.

By the way, on the good signing tip, Brody King was a massive, no pun intended, signing. He rules so much.

Adam Cole fucked up his arm and then got concussed twice. Not much you can do with that.

KOR fucked up his neck and needs fusion surgery.

Miro has been a great signing and the only reason he's been a little stop-start-ish is because he got hurt and then during rehab he landed a role in a TV series.

Samoa Joe you could say is a fine signing, but he also landed a role in a TV series.

Danielson has been consistently booked so there's no complaints there.

Punk was looking like the best wrestler in the world again getting over simple shit like body slams, so why he felt the need to do a tope suicida is beyond me except for it being a big match. The weird thing is though, that he already proved he can be an incredible worker without trying to tap into who he was 10 years ago. I'm now counting this latest bullshit from him so I'll say that's been a great signing and it was only until recently that he became snakebit by injuries.

Menard and Parker were both awesome signings even if they don't wrestle a whole lot on the main shows. No complaints there.

Claudio was an amazing pickup.

Ruby hasn't panned out and has nearly ended her career multiple times now and now she's paying the price for some of the bumps she was taking.

Athena is overrated and I don't think her signing helps anything except for her gif worthy pop up behind Jade from a handful of weeks ago.

I think Toni Storm is good, but also not very interesting, so I'm not sure if I can call that a win or not, but at least she's been there every week.

Jeff Hardy is a mess and I can't think of anyone who thought that would be a good signing outside of the Young Bucks and Matt Hardy.

There's more to list, but when you go through everybody they've signed in the last year or so, they've made the most of everything and a lot of dudes have just been bitten by the injury bug. 

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1 hour ago, Log said:

I think really I just prefer having Kahn as the only authority, but having his decisions read by the commentators.  Just like when someone challenges someone and they come back from the break and say "Tony Kahn has made it official!"

Exactly.  Excalibur has experience in the role, as PWG's Commissioner of Food and Beverage and Liaison to the Board of Directors.

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There is a large part of me that wonders if Punk was doing stupid, high risk shit in ring to prove to some of the people who weren't listening to him that he can do the same things that they can, so they should listen when he gives them advice. It's a dumb reason to do those things, but in Punk's case I think that might make it even more likely that that's the reason why.

CM Punk is definitely their biggest signing from a profile standpoint. He did bring a lot of viewers the first few times he was on tv, but that appears to have waned some. From a "bang for their buck" standpoint, there's no one on the same planet as Moxley. MAYBE Jericho. But Mox has become their bell cow, and up until very recently I never believed WWE regretted letting him get away. The last three or four months, however, some of the folks over there have to be wondering if this version of Jon Moxley is exactly who could be the guy to take the titles off of Roman. I'm rambling. Anyway, I'm not sure AEW needs any of the suspended parties in order to be successful. I understand that Omega & the Bucks were instrumental in getting the company off the ground, but it's outgrown them a bit. Not that they can't still be a big part of what's happening there, but I'm not sure any of them are top stars in this iteration of AEW. Even Kenny Omega doesn't stand out on a roster that includes Danielson, Moxley, Claudio & this polished version of Hangman Page. Not to mention the young stars on the way up like Jungle Jack, Rick Starks, Bill Hobbs and Wardlow. Fix the women's division and you'd be in even better shape than you were before All Out. 

I was talking to a friend the other day who suggested that AEW just wasn't "fun" anymore. I'm sure part of that is because of how privy we've been to some of the uglier backstage machinations, but it's also been because the roster size has been bloated and the inclusion of too much outside "stuff." Too much NJPW, too much ROH, not enough of what made a lot of us love AEW in the first place; interesting, over characters doing things we can't see anywhere else. Tonight felt like the first step towards a return to that, and was the first "fun" AEW show in some time, imo.

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1 hour ago, Zimbra said:

I think there are two basic models of on-screen authority figure that are still workable in wrestling: Jack Tunney (has gravitas, only shows up when shit gets real) and Kermit from the Muppet Show (Weird Little Guy desperately trying to put on a show but outmatched by his assembled collection of freaks and weirdos).

Which is what they have now.

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Taz has been killing it lately. He’s sort of turned into the Tony Romo of their commentary giving some really interesting insight into moves and execution and things like that. He’s always been good, but I feel like he’s hit another level lately. 

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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie
2 hours ago, DEAN said:

He's just working out!  SEE THE WEIGHTS!

KAYFAB-... oh wait! You got it!

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