AEW Dynamite - 1/25/2023

[Go2Sleep]

Extremely classy tribute to Jay. It was very genuine, but not overdone.

I would not be opposed to a Mark/FTR trios run when the time is right.

[The Natural]

33 minutes ago, DreamBroken said:

Awesome main event as expected. Mark looked great, didn't miss a beat. Excellent performance for his first match on AEW TV. Loved the closing visual with everyone standing on stage behind him, good stuff.

All the matches were pretty good and I liked that they all got a decent amount of time even with 6 matches this week. Darby hasn't been champ long, but already been a hell of a reign. 

Sadly I think it may come to an end next week with the story that the weekly defenses are doing a number on Darby Allin. Samoa Joe, Darby Allin and Tony Khan have restored the TNT Championship from the hot potato BS with Cody Rhodes/Sammy Guevara/Scorpio Sky last year.

Edited January 26, 2023 by The Natural

[punkenhead]

I am normally not a fan of Brian Cage matches, nor did I ever think I would be in a position to be his defender. Tonight's match being flat was NOT the fault of Brian Cage. From a storyline standpoint, he did exactly what he was supposed to do. From an in-ring standpoint, I feel like Daniel Bryan called a flat match. Maybe he underestimated what Cage was capable of physically in the ring, and called based on that; but Cage did fine with what he was given.

The opener was great. Lexington loves Ricky Starks! Daniel Garcia is awesome and continues to show ever increasing charisma and personality week by week.

Lexington loves Takeshita!

MJF with the "not the first time a Jew had to hide from a blue eyed man" line? I did Nazi that coming; Anne Frankly, it shouldn't have been said. Wow!

Buddy Matthews is really good at the whole wrestling thing.

Ruby Soho and Toni Storm just walloped the stuffing out of each other. It was a ton of fun to watch, although I can never tell if Ruby is a brilliant seller or always on the cusp of a concussion.

The main. What can I say? I was already in tears before Mark came down. I saw the one tag title and thought "Man, he should have had both". Then he pulls the other one out of his shirt. I lost it. Brilliant match. I don't know how they managed to do it. I knew he was going to hit the Jay driller, but the false starts added to an already poignant match. Well done. Having watched a lot of Briscoe promos the past week, I am not suprised by Ian Riccaboni's statement that Mark is the smartest man in the ROH locker room. If you pay attention, you will notice some of the pacing and words he chooses; and you will see that there is a lot going on there.

 

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

The match sucked almost as much as the ability to flesh out the story in the ring.

MJF pays Cage to break Danielson's arm. While last week's backstage vignette already highlights that Cage doesn't necessarily care for MJF, he and Nana choose to take the job because of the overwhelming amount of money being offered. 

The logical progression here is not "Cage wrestles Danielson to a ten minute match, loses by a surprise rollup and then does the job he's there to do afterwards". It could be, but it's not.

You need to flesh out why Cage chooses to wrestle Danielson rather than just get DQ'd five seconds in and fuck him up. Does Cage have a point to prove? Does MJF push him too far, and then you have subsequent reactions of MJF freaking out on the ramp instead? Does Danielson wrestle a match where he, the crafty veteran manages to avoid Cage's attacks on his arm to a point where he's finally caught, and you actually build some audience suspense in Danielson's arm about to get shattered. 

Why did they not have a finish that tied in to the story being told? Cage being overconfident in his attacks on the arm, goes out of his comfort zone and becomes big guy who just watched a UFC PPV, tries for a kimura, gets trapped in the Labell Lock, taps. 

Could Cage have actually had something prepared that showed he had a legitimate threat in-ring to damage Danielson's arm other than generic 80s WWF big guy offence? Could they have gone with Penta for this reason? At least they had the backstory of him trying to break guys arms until he didn't?

I think that whole match just killed Cage dead as a guy who got paid to break a guy's arm and then proceeded to try and do it with standing arm lifts and the weakest looking shoulder breakers ever, rather than just weapons? If nothing else, it came across as an overcommitment to the bit about AEW not wanting to do DQs and countouts. Even after the match, Danielson declares he's wrestling next week anyway.

The post-match stuff hopefully goes somewhere. Where were the BCC? Yuta was just in the segment prior. I hope this gets a callback to the Garcia stuff from a few months ago and that he's still mad about that. Where's Cesaro been? Why would AEW not send out the refs/security to protect their PPV main event? Why would Takeshita take so long? Will there be fallout for Cage failing to get the job done? (Ideally it's MJF costing Cage the ROH six mans and leaving with the Gates of Agony as his new muscle).   

 

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

5 hours ago, Casey said:

We’re definitely getting a women’s Blood & Guts match and I’m here for it.

I wonder what that looks like.

Toni Storm is a definite on one side, you probably have Willow as a definite on the other.

Ruby Soho, Britt and Hayter are almost certainly in, but on what side? Saraya probably but would you want to risk her health in that sort of a match? That gives you 3 on 3 in some fashion.

Athena and Shida would be logical choices for 4 on 4. 

Blade/Bunny, TayJay deserve to be in it for their previous success in these sorts of matches, but not sure the face/heel alignment really suits here. 

I think you run Toni/Saraya/Ruby/Athena/Jade vs. Britt/Hayter/Shida/Willow/returning Thunder Rosa - Jade stomps a hole in Britt for the win, you run back Jade/Britt and build to Jade vs Hayter title vs title.

[The Green Meanie]

That CROWD SUCKED. There was tons of great stuff happening and they just sat there, worse then Dallas.

Toni's new heel make up was terrible, it's like they tried to make her look Russian.

Forgive my ignorance here for a second: I'm aware of the Briscoes, but since I was never an ROH guy, I'm not familiar with them. I'm slightly confused; their character(s) is that they're supposed to be rednecks, but they're from Delaware? I don't understand. Either way, that was a proper tribute and match, the correct main event for the evening. The cuts to Lethal crying just tore us up, though.

Next week's episode is packed.

[John E. Dynamite]

I understand if you're not from the East Coast but Slower Lower Delaware is very real. The outer, inner reaches of DelMarVa. Shorebillies.

[The Green Meanie]

11 minutes ago, John E. Dynamite said:

I understand if you're not from the East Coast but Slower Lower Delaware is very real. The outer, inner reaches of DelMarVa. Shorebillies.

I'm from Texas, so when I heard that I was like "....they do realize Delaware isn't in the South, right?"

[J.T.]

5 hours ago, DEAN said:

What did Mark come out to?

His outro theme was the canned Briscoes music.  I missed the ring entrances getting to work for night duty so I am not sure if he came out to Gimmie Back My Bullets.

[Krone]

I want to say two things. First, Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are just top notch, world class commentators who did justice to the moment as expected. Those two guys could be commentating for AEW if they wanted to. Secondly, hats off to Jay Lethal man. This is a guy who was entrusted with helping work old ass Ric Flair's "last match" and now working the tribute match to Jay Briscoe with Mark. You could see he was torn up and rightfully so. It's always so weird to see such emotion on everyone elses faces, but then there's Mark just doing his thing. Him speaking to the camera at the end got me.

Also would love an FTR/Mark Briscoe 6 man team. Really hope he gets to join the main roster.

[punkenhead]

2 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

Forgive my ignorance here for a second: I'm aware of the Briscoes, but since I was never an ROH guy, I'm not familiar with them. I'm slightly confused; their character(s) is that they're supposed to be rednecks, but they're from Delaware?

Redneck is a state of mind, not geographical.

[Daynek]

1 minute ago, punkenhead said:

Redneck is a state of mind, not geographical.

#facts

[odessasteps]

As was mentioned in the RIP thread, Laurel DE was a town of only a few thousand people and the accident happened on a rural 2 lane road. 

I'd think most all states have pockets of rural/country living, to one extent or the other, even in New England. 

Northern Delaware might be all suburbs and strip malls apart from downtown Wilmington. Below the Canal is plenty of farms and open spaces.

[Gorman]

9 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

also, is Matt Hardy basically "Million Dollar Corporation Nikolai Volkoff" in regards to his dynamic with Page/Stokely?

Sort of - Matt's not poor; he just lost that match where he and Private Party had to join The Firm. In fact, he will often capitulate to what Page and Stokely want to save Private Party from getting fined.

[Andrew POE!]

4 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

The match sucked almost as much as the ability to flesh out the story in the ring.

MJF pays Cage to break Danielson's arm. While last week's backstage vignette already highlights that Cage doesn't necessarily care for MJF, he and Nana choose to take the job because of the overwhelming amount of money being offered. 

The logical progression here is not "Cage wrestles Danielson to a ten minute match, loses by a surprise rollup and then does the job he's there to do afterwards". It could be, but it's not.

You need to flesh out why Cage chooses to wrestle Danielson rather than just get DQ'd five seconds in and fuck him up. Does Cage have a point to prove? Does MJF push him too far, and then you have subsequent reactions of MJF freaking out on the ramp instead? Does Danielson wrestle a match where he, the crafty veteran manages to avoid Cage's attacks on his arm to a point where he's finally caught, and you actually build some audience suspense in Danielson's arm about to get shattered. 

Why did they not have a finish that tied in to the story being told? Cage being overconfident in his attacks on the arm, goes out of his comfort zone and becomes big guy who just watched a UFC PPV, tries for a kimura, gets trapped in the Labell Lock, taps. 

Could Cage have actually had something prepared that showed he had a legitimate threat in-ring to damage Danielson's arm other than generic 80s WWF big guy offence? Could they have gone with Penta for this reason? At least they had the backstory of him trying to break guys arms until he didn't?

I think that whole match just killed Cage dead as a guy who got paid to break a guy's arm and then proceeded to try and do it with standing arm lifts and the weakest looking shoulder breakers ever, rather than just weapons? If nothing else, it came across as an overcommitment to the bit about AEW not wanting to do DQs and countouts. Even after the match, Danielson declares he's wrestling next week anyway.

The post-match stuff hopefully goes somewhere. Where were the BCC? Yuta was just in the segment prior. I hope this gets a callback to the Garcia stuff from a few months ago and that he's still mad about that. Where's Cesaro been? Why would AEW not send out the refs/security to protect their PPV main event? Why would Takeshita take so long? Will there be fallout for Cage failing to get the job done? (Ideally it's MJF costing Cage the ROH six mans and leaving with the Gates of Agony as his new muscle).   

 

You put more thought into the storyline involving the AEW World title than Tony Khan did with Brian Cage and the Midcard 4 Life AEW World Champion MJF. What you describe should have been what happened - the match should have been built to advance the story and done so smartly.

The whole match really just killed Cage dead as a guy being a draw in AEW period. He complained about how he wasn't given a chance, blah blah blah....well this was his chance. He kinda blew it.

"Blackpool Combat Club" (or whatever they could be called now) should have had Yuta and Claudio be the first ones running out to chase off Cage and MJF. The problem is having wrestlers like Takeshita, Yuta or Claudio get involved would mean that next week should have a tag match - Danielson & Takeshita or Claudio vs. Brian Cage & MJF. The story there would be Danielson wants a piece of MJF and has backup and MJF wants Cage to finish his job and break Danielson's arm. Not only that but it would give MJF and Danielson a chance to face each other before the PPV. Because again, logic.

Instead, it's another wrestler tossed in to pop the crowd and have a great match with Danielson (I haven't been following overseas wrestling as much as I used to so I'm not familiar with Timothy Thatcher).

Edited January 26, 2023 by Andrew POE!

[porksweats]

I dug that commentary explained that Brian Cage was one win away from number one contendership (which is why he didn't immediately get DQ'd) but God I cannot stand Cage. At least we get Prince Nana on weekly TV, I can deal with that.

[porksweats]

3 minutes ago, Andrew POE! said:

You put more thought into the storyline involving the AEW World title than Tony Khan did with Brian Cage and the Midcard 4 Life AEW World Champion MJF. What you describe should have been what happened - the match should have been built to advance the story and done so smartly.

The whole match really just killed Cage dead as a guy being a draw in AEW period. He complained about how he wasn't given a chance, blah blah blah....well this was his chance. He kinda blew it.

"Blackpool Combat Club" (or whatever they could be called now) should have had Yuta and Claudio be the first ones running out to chase off Cage and MJF. The problem is having wrestlers like Takeshita, Yuta or Claudio get involved would mean that next week should have a tag match - Danielson & Takeshita or Claudio vs. Brian Cage & MJF. Because again, logic.

Instead, it's another wrestler tossed in to pop the crowd (I haven't been following overseas wrestling as much as I used to so I'm not familiar with Timothy Thatcher).

They established that Danielson would have to do the gauntlet through the beginning of February, that's why they didn't jump immediately to the tag match (which is logical, you are not wrong) but Danielson has been more estranged from the BCC. You've got them running interference for Mox (see Page vs Yuta coming up)

[Just Dave]

Yuta said a few weeks ago that he doesn't respect Danielson for the Garcia stuff. Mox is out. I think the BCC is mostly Claudio mentoring Yutes at this point. Which is cool. Danielson also distanced himself subtly from BCC after the Regal stuff. I wouldn't count on him getting any help from those guys.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

hopefully this cheers DEAN up.  from the international feed, during the Danielson-Cage match:

Tony:  "you can hear Prince on the outside, trying to drive his spirits down, trying to intimidate him, which I don't think he can do to be honest with you..."

X:  "Prince Nana.....not Prince the musician"

Tony: "..........yes, Prince Nana!!! not Prince the Musician!!!

X:  "I just wanted to clairfy"

Tony:  "You don't have to clairfy!   because Prince the musician is DEAD!!!"

*Taz and X like wtf*

but this actually led to Tony putting Prince Nana over, saying that last week when MJF told him it was more money than he'd ever seen he calls bullshit because HE'S PRINCE F'N NANA and he's seen all sorts of money!!  Thank you Tony!

Toni nailed an awesome ass attack early in their match with Ruby caught in the ropes, then killed her later on in the corner which I totally buy as the setup to the finish every time.  Her ass-based offense is the best thing going and she needs to add more to the arsenal

Loved the Briscoe match.  Shame it took Jay dying for them to get on TV.  Loved Mark with both the belts and them announcing him as one half of the ROH Tag Team Champions.  My favorite little moment from the match was when Mark rolled to the outside after Lethal hit a big Lethal Injection and a fan front row was like, "Ya gotta do it man!  ya gotta do it" hahaha.  I also loved how they teased Mark hitting the Jay Driller, especially at the end.  *****

[AxB]

2 minutes ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

 

Toni nailed an awesome ass attack early in their match with Ruby caught in the ropes, then killed her later on in the corner which I totally buy as the setup to the finish every time.  Her ass-based offense is the best thing going and she needs to add more to the arsenal

 

I think her arsenal is the perfect size already.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

As was mentioned in the RIP thread, Laurel DE was a town of only a few thousand people and the accident happened on a rural 2 lane road. 

I'd think most all states have pockets of rural/country living, to one extent or the other, even in New England. 

Northern Delaware might be all suburbs and strip malls apart from downtown Wilmington. Below the Canal is plenty of farms and open spaces.

New England is pretty much all rural/country living outside of the coast and the I-90 corridor running through Massachusetts, and even then you're a short drive from nowhere.  We got rednecks and hillbillies galore.  

Americans are pretty much the same everywhere, thing with New England is we got different weather and people been here longer so we've gotten a bit more sophisticated and such ahead of some of y'all, a bit more ahead of the curve if you weeel

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

4 minutes ago, AxB said:

I think her arsenal is the perfect size already.

touche

[Just Dave]

11 minutes ago, AxB said:

I think her arsenal is the perfect size already.

Sett-

 

Never mind. That was dope.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

7 hours ago, TimLivingston said:

Bryan Danielson vs. Timothy Thatcher on national television in one week’s time. 
 

Year made. 
 

Reach for the skies. 

Yeah, I almost forgot about that!!  I marked the fuck out because honestly I almost forgot Thatcher existed.  What a perfect match for Danielson

[Zakk_Sabbath]

18 minutes ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

New England is pretty much all rural/country living outside of the coast and the I-90 corridor running through Massachusetts, and even then you're a short drive from nowhere.  We got rednecks and hillbillies galore.  

Americans are pretty much the same everywhere, thing with New England is we got different weather and people been here longer so we've gotten a bit more sophisticated and such ahead of some of y'all, a bit more ahead of the curve if you weeel

Yeah, I can corroborate that - I've 100% seen confederate flags out in the sticks near the CT/RI casinos. They did a Rampage out there in October that we drove up to, and Nyla tweeted something about "Rampage, Live from the fucking Hills Have Eyes" which, I can't even lie, got a huge pop outta me.

Edit: I got one for you I just remembered - I did a job once in New Hampshire, and the person met me outside in a t-shirt with a picture of a stork on it that said "EVERYTHING ELSE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU IN A FUCKIN' TRUCK" - doesn't get much more country than that, I don't think. 

Edited January 26, 2023 by Zakk_Sabbath