Bryan

I actually think Swole’s lack of pro wrestling talent is relevant, in that her comments seemed to be self-serving excuses for her own short comings. There is no pro wrestling company that can structure her into being a good wrestler than can talk people into buying a ppv to see her wrestle. If she wants to do that she’ll have to actually recognize her weaknesses and work on improving. In terms of development, AEW often uses BTE to let lesser known talent try out things and connect with the audience on a smaller stage that “doesn’t count.” It worked with the Dark Order after they looked to be dead in the water, for example. I recall the Young Bucks giving her a segment on BTE for a while but it was not good. And while Tony Khan’s tweet was clearly not the right move (even if what he said is true), I don’t think people are being sympathetic enough to how insulting it might have been for him to essentially have his own personal experience growing up as a non-white person in America dismissed like that. Personally, I could see how that would upset him (and how that would lead to him firing back like that). Especially, since as a nerdy and awkward guy growing up in the 90’s he probably endured his fair share of bullying/mean comments about his ethnicity.

Yeah I think having essentially the same storylines or matches on the same card with two different people/groups at the same time has been one of AEW’s weaknesses, so far. Maybe Kingston was just mad that Jericho waited until they’d all been taken out and until after the bell shot to come out though.

I thought it was funny but it didn’t really make sense since Tebow was just a training camp body that didn’t make the team. Tony Khan spent more on catering for Dynamite tonight than Tebow made from the Jaguars. Urban Meyer would have been more obvious but Tony Khan probably quashed that because they may end up in court with Meyer.

If they wanted to try, I don’t think they would have him stay backstage while his wife confronted three men. That was weird. Jericho waiting until his buddy was clocked with the bell and taking the time to get his music cued was a little weird. I thought Cargill vs Rosa spent too much time outside the ring. But this was probably Cargill’s best match. I thought she did a pretty decent job selling at points for how green she is. Brian Pillman, jr cut a really good promo. I’m curious about the new version of him he said would show up next week CM Punk’s comment about MJF being a waste of Khan money like Tebow was very funny. The Jacksonville crowd being shocked because they love Tebow but knowing it was true was also amusing. The main event was solid but I don’t really understand why the Young Bucks instantly had animosity towards Kyle O’Reilly but not Fish and I certainly don’t know why we’re supposed to care.

Wow, this is definitely way too many multi-person tags on one show for my tastes.

The Pinnacle winning that match wouldn’t have been breaking them up for no reason, it would have really elevated the Pinnacle as the dominant stable in AEW. And it would have once again shown that stipulations really matter in AEW which is still a young company. Not breaking up a stable that was past its usefulness might have been a novel idea but in practice it killed all of the momentum Sammy and Proud and Powerful had built up on their. The Inner Circle is now an anchor around the necks of the younger talent it was supposed to elevate. Not breaking it up when it had run it’s course has been a misstep. And what’s worst of all about it is that it was just for a stupid angle that ended with Jericho going over a non-wrestler and really did nothing to even elevate Ethan Page or Scorpio Sky.

It’s a bummer that the inner circle reuniting for Jericho’s feud with American Top Team really derailed his title reign.

Cassidy repeatedly got the better of Jericho and beat him to end the feud. And that was Cassidy’s first big feud. The Jericho leeching/burying to put himself over didn’t start until the MJF feud. AEW just didn’t build on the momentum from the Jericho feud which they’ve done with multiple other people. Personally, it’s been almost three years of the pockets and light kicks stuff. I’m bored with it (and I don’t understand how it can be a mind game when he’s been doing it for years—does no one actually prepare for matches in AEW?) so comedy midcarder seems like a good spot for him. Anyway, thought this was kind of a weak show. In that if you missed it, I don’t think it would have been a big deal. Cole vs Cassidy went on a little too long for me but I’m glad Cole won. It’s cool Kyle O’reilly is in AEW but it was so telegraphed that I don’t think it was a surprise to many. The women’s match was a little rough starting with Ruby not being able to get her jacket off. Thought she sold her shoulder well but overall I didn’t care for the match. Bryan Danielson continues to be a great heel on the mic. Judges is a little weird but I think they did that before and they weren’t necessary, so hopefully that’s the case for the rematch. Dan Lambert’s promo was great. Mocking AEW/Tony Khan for making decisions based on friendship, and comparing getting Cody cheered to mission impossible was hilarious. Disappointed the Malakai Black Griff match was just a pointless extended squash and didn’t further the House of Black storyline. Was hoping for Brody King or a Julia Hart heel turn. The main event was a good match. FTR is amazing, they’re better than you’re favorite tag team and you know it. MJF being the classic chicken shit heel constantly running from Punk was also great. The highlight of this show though for me was easily Taz’s commentary. So many good lines. Telling Tony that nobody cared he was in North Carolina in 1987 had me dying.

I wanted him to and really thought Hangman would win but man, that was easily the best match I’ve seen this year. I liked the Malakai Black promo and what I assume was a Brody King tease. It will be interesting to see if he just has a second/protector of if he’s starting a full blown stable. I really liked MJF’s pre match promo mocking Punk for the low hanging fruit of going after sports teams and comparing him to Ryback. The match with Dante was really good too, maybe Dante’s best singles match, so far.

Heel CM Punk was a nice tease for the future…I hope. The MJF promo was amazing. I died laughing at the he totally scored with lots of chicks line…so reminds me of some of the guys I went to high school with. I thought the battle royale was good and I liked the swerve but it’s still weird for me for it to end with two people. I’d prefer it in the future if the previous years winner was just automatically in the match and there was one winner of the battle royale. It looked like Jamie Hayter broke Riho in half with that back breaker. But I thought it made Hayter look weak to get put down by a knee like that from a 90lb girl that survived offensive moves that looked a lot more violent. I would have preferred some kind of flash pin/roll up to better protect her. I was surprised Malakai Black spit the mist into Julia Hart’s eyes was surprising…I wonder if there’s going to be a storyline out of that. The announcers were talking about it being corrupting at one point. It’ll probably just set up a match but it’d be interesting if they used it to turn her heel. It will be very interesting to see Hook wrestle for the first time. Heel Bryan Danielson is amazing. His destruction of the Dark Order was a lot of fun.

Wasn’t that actually the same night since that Raw had been taped?

I thought the opening promo segment was the highlight of the show. ”You might as well be preaching hustle, loyalty, and respect at this point” and “You’re just a less famous Miz” were my favorite lines. I also thought the women’s match was really good. Thunder Rosa is a beast. I liked Danielson beating up Colt Cabana and the Hangman confrontation. However, I don’t like Hangman challenging him to a match after he just had a match. Why wouldn’t he just say let’s do it next week, instead of letting more of his friends get beat up? At least make the heel avoid the match. The main event was typical chaotic AEW tag multi-person style but the best part was Arn and Tully facing off. Glad Malakai didn’t lose another match too.

Yuta tripped and obviously botched a spot as a result. There’s not a lot you can do baby face falls on his face and blows a spot. Or do you just want no commentary for botched spots? Also, I’d say the fact that you’re harping on JR’s commentary of it and not Yuta blowing a spot means he probably did Yuta a favor with the shoes excuse. As far as rules go, you have a 10 count outside the ring before you’re supposed to get back in. This is frequently completely ignored in some matches. A couple of months ago the rule wasn’t enforced in the earlier matches, and then in the main event Cody lost to Black because he rushed into the ring to break the 10 count. The inconsistency of rule enforcement is maddening. In AEW you have 10 seconds to exit the ring after a tag but in a lot of the matches this is disregarded to the flurry of spots they like to do. I have lost count of how many times a manager or wrestler has hands on a wrestler in view of the referee.

Credibility of the announcer means that when JR says that “Fans, you’re not going to want to miss the ppv because CM Punk and MJF have a tremendous amount of animosity towards each other and are going to beat the absolute piss out of each other. It will be an absolute slobberknocker ” people still believe him. And people believe him more than (most if not all) other announcers precisely because he doesn’t lie to us and call a pile of crap a bouquet of roses. And has literally been a straight shooter on commentary since a lot of us were kids. As part of the show it’s the wrestlers job to not bury the referees and announcers by doing stupid and unnecessary things that make everyone else look stupid. The comically blatant disregard of the rules to get their stuff in also isn’t the “house style” either. Because numerous wrestlers are consistently able to operate within the confines of the commonly known rules (and only break them behind the backs of the officials). Also, recall that Jericho called a talent meeting shortly after Dynamite debuted and laid into the tag teams for not following rules, including ones as basic as tagging in. Another thing Tony Khan didn’t stop despite these house style claims.

Maybe Tony Khan is fine with wrestlers flouting the rules in front of the officials who do nothing about it but then he must also be fine with JR shitting on the rule flouting since it’s been over two years and he hasn’t stopped it yet, and he’s literally on the headset every show. I don’t like when wrestlers blatantly flout the rules in front of the officials, so I appreciate JR giving a voice to my frustrations. So it’s not counter productive to me or the people who have a similar view.

You can’t bestow credibility on anything if you aren’t credible yourself. And if you insult the intelligence of your audience by assuming that they don’t know basic rules (that are too frequently ignored by AEW officials) you lose credibility. Because it’s live tv we can see it and wonder what exactly the purpose of Rick Knox even is. Having an announcer validate that you’re not crazy the referee just isn’t doing his job is actually refreshing.

This mind reading/projection stuff is so annoying because it’s so obviously untrue. If he didn’t care he wouldn’t take the criticism from people like you so personally. He’s a 70 year old man that has had multiple bouts of Bell’s palsy, a stroke, and currently has skin cancer (whose treatments he’s scheduled around AEW tv despite “not caring.”). He doesn’t have his fastball but he’s obviously trying and he has moments that enhance a match more than any of his counterparts because he has more credibility. And he has more credibility precisely because he doesn’t pretend like the rules don’t exist so a stunt can be performed, and questions what the referees are doing when they don’t enforce the rules which are blatantly violated in front of them. The fact that maybe 90% of the roster can’t throw a good working punch which is continually exposed by the camera shots they’re using, and that the wrestlers have completely buried the refs since AEW began are all far bigger issues than JR stumbling or using a wrong name.

The report I saw earlier today said Fenix hit him with a shot that knocked him out about 10 minutes in and he was out of it from that point on (he was supposed to be more involved in the finish to make it more clear) and that there was some heat of Fenix for not checking up on him.

What exactly is Hangman doing that he wouldn’t just give him the title shot immediately? I don’t see how this scenario wouldn’t make him come off as a a scenario. The only way I think this idea could possibly work without Hangman coming off as a heel is maybe if Danielson challenged the entire Dark Order to show Hangman what he had coming. But that would be kind of a dumb thing for him to do instead of just taking the title shot.

It would be a pretty heelish move to have the number one contender for your title go through an entire stable of your friends before actually giving him the title shot he’s already earned.

Yeah, I was thinking the Pinnacle really ought to have won whichever match that would have ended the Inner circle while watching this. I think it did its job in elevating Sammy and Santana and Ortiz to the AEW audience but now they’re background characters in a feud centered around a 51 year old Chris Jericho and Dan Lambert. Why? Other than this and the women’s 6 man which was not very good but at least made Tay Conti look strong…I thought everything else on the show was pretty great. Also, I think every AEW champion should sign his contract with his opponent’s blood in the future. That was awesome.

I think it’d be more like a ticking time bomb for the well being of any of the women that had to wrestle her considering how terrible and reckless she is in the ring.

She could help ladies like Cargill, Red Velvet, and Anna Jay, etc. get better by providing them with another solid veteran to work with. They can’t all work with Serena Deeb every week, unfortunately.

They pushed the ppv back a week because the UFC is having a ppv (Covington vs Usman 2) and I think Canelo is fighting as well, so it’d be a lot of competition for that night.

Yeah, I know that Moxley’s situation obviously threw a bit of a monkey wrench into plans but Dynamite was kind of just a show and this looks pretty underwhelming on paper (Kingston Punk is the only thing that interests me going into it). Usually, it seems like AEW is always picking up a lot of momentum going into the ppvs. But the build so far has felt a little subdued to me. Hopefully, this show will be better than it looks on paper and they’ll build a lot of steam next week…