John E. Dynamite

I let my morbid curiosity get the better of me and I peeked in on the show a few times. Liked most of what I saw - great Creeds showcase - but that promo was a stinker. Punk got over as a mega-babyface in WWE by being anti-authority in the Vince-dominated deep monopoly years (setting the stage for what Danielson & Becky did later). It worked, because a majority of WWE fans at the time resented the creative + corporate structure. But in 2023, they don't. The diehards think HHH is writing the great American novel. After a big return, Punk's gonna get cheered. Maybe to a point where he'll take shine away from babyfaces if he's turned heel. But if you present him as a face... does he really have a machine to rage against? I guess there's a built-in story with Heyman but he shouldn't be anywhere near Roman. Or any major singles titles, based on recent behavior and health.

There's a just-about-industry-wide problem, particularly with Western devs, that has to do with the medium's deep inferiority complex to film. The idea that movies and TV are always going to be viewed as more valid than games will, and that the best games then have to play like an "interactive movie". I think the most validating thing you can say about a game re:"Is is Art?" is that successful games have to be games. Their story can't be as successfully told through any other means. I think the fact that TLOU works so well as a television show proves the opposite point.

The reports from the arena that the crowd was by-and-large with the main event. The regular jagoffs on non-wrestling message boards and the side chat (when you don't feel like paying). The strangers I chat with about wrestlinf behind the counter at work or at a bar. The people on my social media + inbox who watch, but not religiously. When I say "perpetually online" I mean "not following every possible bit of online wrestling discourse". People who don't read dirtsheets/news sites, who don't check SquaredCircle and cagematch, who aren't part of a wrestling Dischord, who don't post somewhere like here. The majority of the audience, who never saw a Jay White match before he debuted.

A decent portion of the actual, not-terminally-online fanbase would have rejected Jay White as champion. Lord knows I'm not part of that group, but it's an issue in booking him. Because he comes off as nothing short of a world champion, except to the people who don't "get" him, which I don't "get", but here we are. He can't lose anything but the biggest matches but he can't be the top guy. Yet? If my preferred kind of wrestling doesn't have room for stapling your child's finger paintings to a person you hate's face then I am no longer myself.

You're also dedicating 12 guys to 5 televised singles matches each in two months. That'a thirty televised matches that you can't pivot on. Something something Women's Division.

This kind of booking continues to be a burden for AEW. Bringing in storyline-free foreign talent pops the DVDVR and kills live crowds. The tournament should be a celebration of pre-existing talent and a means to push the "everyone is feuding with everyone" territorial-style narrative that TK seems to dig. But there is no room for new talent. Maybe use eatablished special-attraction guys like Ospreay or Vikingo to pretend like that's the scene? A Round Robin tournament does fix a big AEW problem in regards to the audience always knowing who's going to win a match. The best thing about the modern G1 Climax is that it provides a context where anybody can beat anybody on any given night (or at least until you get past the Osaka shows). One of the worst parts of AEW broadcast history was the ROH purchase leading right into the first Owen Hart Cup. You can NOT let this tournament feel as unimportant and labored as that one. It makes the average viewer feel stupid. It is casual kryptonite.

Code Veronica X is so far-and-away my favorite Resident Evil game. It's so sincerely silly. The unending comedic barrage of Steve is enough to seal it for me. The twist is as camp as the series ever got. But it's not an "easy" game if you're playing blind, it benefits from maintaining more that a few save slots and peeping an FAQ here and there (have ammo for the plane). Yeah nothing else in the series hits like that one, even if RE2 and 4 still tickle me. And I have no idea if those cowards will ever have the guff to remake it.

He got bounced from CMLL in only two weeks over the summer, so this tracks. Dude seems like a bonehead.

I'm not able to watch live like I used to - live reports made it seem like this episode was business as usual. But then I look a little closer and certain sites - i.e. cagematch - say this was the single worst televised episode of AEW of all time? Am I missing something?

Sincerest condolences to all the smart money that was gonna wait until after this fight to bet on Usyk.

I can't imagine the casual response to those (correct) scorecards. Fun!

OH MY GOD JUST FIGHT ALREADY

I think Darby should be ditched for Edge & the Butcher. Sting should be in a trio with a Copeland and a guitar-playing Andy.

Because they ruled the intentional knee unintentional. Probaby for a reason.

The youngs absolutely appriciate Looney Tunes. Bugs Bunny is a drag icon.

I too prefer the Spanish James Bond dubs.

No apostrophe. He's named after the Hanshin Tigers Baseball Team.

Definitely not trying to dig a trench and restart the console wars, but aren't their <15 true PS5 exclusives?

Juice doesn't even need the quarters if he or another member of BCG wins the Dynamite Diamond Ring. They have a foreign object that the Bang Bang Gang can *ahem* pass around AND it adds to the power of Juice's dreaded left hand AND it has personal meaning to MJF AND they've already mentioned it in the storyline.

I don't believe for one second that MJF didn't personally approve of, or quite possibly proposed that part of the angle himself. He has been playing edgelord and using uncomfortable references to his Jewish identity since well before his AEW debut. For every one time it reads as the legitimate life story of a man who encountered emotionally traumatizing prejudice and abuse, twice it reads as MJF using his real experiences to get weird heat and/or the wrong kind of sympathy. For what it's worth I've watched almost every episode of Dynamite with my Jewish partner and it hasn't required a ton of effort to realize her fluctuating opinions of MJF's use of religion/ethnicity/culture. Sometimes it's refreshing, empowering and compelling. Sometimes it's cringe and tasteless. I think the intended story was supposed to be - Juice Robinson is a punchin' heel who has occasionally used a roll of quarters to enhance his performance in that regard, and he was supposed to intend nothing more than a threat to MJF's jawbone (yes, I think this is terribly misguided). And MJF, upon witnessing said quarters, was reminded of his storyline-established trauma and finally SAW RED, was hit in his most sensitive point, and now wants to rip Juice's head off like a conquering babyface dragged down to an emotional level he doesn't usually occupy due to the actions of the offending heel. I do not think AEW is stupid enough to intentionally add antisemitism to Juice's current heel shtick. Problem is Juice is so smarmy and MJF uses this particular device so often that it seems like intentional racial provocation, which happens a lot with MJF storylines and is happening again at yeah-maybe-the-wrong-fuckin-time. But this is a long standing Max problem. I'd make a small bet, more like a hope, that they course correct soon, possibly on Collision pre-tapes but probably right before the actual match.

A... successful episode? There's this anxiety that pervades when you're more worried about the ongoing propaganda war than what's actually happening in front of you, and I felt a lot of that from both the social media stream + crowds I was witnessing during both shows. This was a blueprint episode. Everybody involved were frequently-featured, over acts having good matches that advanced storylines. No Ring of Honor titles or international stars introduced sans video package. They played it straightforward if not entirely safe, but their calls to make Hobbes/Jericho a long squash and run the Shida x3 Title Change were more than fine by me. The continuing saga of Cole x Roddy was kinda weak & the fact that we'd had 1h45m of matches with mostly uncertain outcomes followed by the most obvious result on the card go on last (Sydal had a better chance than Luchasaurus) didn't sit right and almost begged me to switch the channel to Bron v Carmelo. But having long Danielson and Jay White matches cure all ills from where I stand. It also seemed like online engagement greatly favored AEW over NXT, on Reddit and news aggregator comment sections and stuff. I don't expect that to bridge the gap over NXT's home court advantage but it's an interesting takeaway.

Luchablog's Google Drive. CMLL folder, look for files that start with 20230916. They're all on there. They're the first thing I'm gonna watch once I start watching non-live wrestling again...

I like stores. I own a non-gaming retail joint myself, and I like customer/cashier interactions. Retro video game retail has been a pretty positive thing for me as I bounce around my geography - since a disproportionate amount of DVDVR is posting from Maryland, I wanna rattle off my fave stores in the state and encourage anybody else to mention the good shops around them in case any of us find ourselves within their radius. 1. Play Raven, Eldersburg. 9/10 selection, 11/10 service/chit-chat/willingness to hook it the fuck up. They're the rare kind of store that *actually wants you to walk out with their stuff*. And they have a great and busy collection of higher-end games under glass in the back of the store. The casual racks are bursting at the seams despite not being anything close to organized, but my lord do I find some gems in there. It's a store I tend to spend a lot of time at, mainly because you've got to go in with a pickaxe-and-headlamp mentality, but I always end up working the floor and making recs to randos and talking shop with whoever's behind the counter. They were robbed recently and by the end of the week they wound up with more games donated to them than what they lost - that kinda tells the entire story. 2. GamerZ Paradise, Joppa- They share a wall with the Maryland Championship Wrestling main venue/school in the Joppa Flea Market fyi. The best selection in the state with big stock on pretty much every console's library. Ungodly amounts of N64 - these dudes clearly buy BIG Nintendo lots. One my my only consistent spots for stuff on my PSP/VITA/DS/3DS wishlists, also had a hell of a great time picking up mid-level PS2, PS3, 360 and Wii stuff there. A lot of high-end PS1 behind the counter. They lose points because they transferred a lot of their inventory to their new store in Bel Air MD, where everything has a 15%-or-so markup. 3. Cartridges Galore, multiple locations (Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland, La Vale) - Kings of Western Maryland. They're all very good at keeping the nice stuff in well-organized glass cabinets and they frequently run sales on their common stuff. By far the best place to load up on common middle-price games, like if you just bought a new consoles and want to get all the good stuff under $30. And yet some of my best expensive games came from here, because they run a really great Black Friday sale. They also have some of the better trade-in prices on offer. 4. Re:Gen, Towson. I wasn't coming here to shop over the last few years, as their prices took a noticeable jump when they moved from White Marsh mall to the one in Towson. But they're good for hardware (they refurbish well), and are my preferred spot for repairs and mods. The back room guys here are a savvy sort of solder soldier. And if you play your cards right they'll give you a branded shopping bag, which gives you 10% off all your purchases. That made all their new prices make a lot more sense. They have some gaudy stuff under glass, and I probably get most of my Game Boy stuff from them. Also they're right next to a big fkn arcade with some legit pinball tables + rhythm game cabinets. 5. The Dundalk Gamestop, Dundalk. The reason I'm writing this list. So I woke up today and felt like getting Peruvian for lunch. I went to El Gran Pollo @ Loch Raven & Taylor (Chicken Rico who?) and swung by the Gamestop while waiting for my Anticucho de Corazon (skewered beef heart w/ tha Peruvian corn, you can't beat it). They were running this crazy sale where a bunch of stuff was 50%-75% off on new Switch + last-gen games, a lot was cheaper than Pricecharting CIB prices - $18 Elden Ring PS4, for instance. So after I bought that and ate my lunch I made a beeline to Dundalk, who ALWAYS has the best stock of games despite being in DUNDALK. They're twice as stocked as any store in the state. I got 10 PS4 games for peanuts and they're not even all big-production cuts. Potion Permit, Cotton Fantasy, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, Dodgeball Academia... all less than $15. This is a situational store, but Gamestop sales can be really good if you know how to work them and this is the place to do it.

Since the last guy to burn this torch got banned - how the hell is Shirley Crabtree not in? He's my new Kraftwerk.

Watch Hour 2, if you feel generous Fenix vs. Nick wasn't a bad version of what they were going for.