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AEW Dynamite - 1/25/2023


The Natural

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I was going to write a navel-gazing post about how, unlike certain of my peers (of a certain age, length of following wrestling, and prolific-ness in being out there), because of my lack of a social media presence and not being a part of the indy scene and not seeking it out due to other aspects of my life, I don't have any real personal one-on-one connections with wrestlers. I wasn't chatting with anyone on Prodigy. I wasn't hanging out in the DVDVR chat room with anyone. There are no DMs for them to be up in. I'm not discussing old French footage with Chris Hero or Ricky Starks or whoever. Yet despite that, because of the nature of the AEW locker room and the amount of interviews done, and how open everyone is, I feel pretty sympathetic towards almost everyone there as human beings. Even the ones I don't care for in ring. I want nothing but good things in life for Adam Cole and Adam Page. I'm not going to say I feel like I know any of them, because I don't, but you hit a certain age and you pay enough attention to human beings and you pick up on things. In this day and age with how out there everyone is, it's hard not to. So that would have been a ten paragraph post and I just shoved it into one.

Point being, the post-match at the end of the show was touching, from Sonjay being out there first to hug Jay to Mark getting hugged by Daniels and RUSH, etc., but what got me was the music looping and Joe, who was just, just about to get a hug, leaning in as Mark turned away from him and giving that wry smile of his, since he knew Mark was going to get his pop with "Reach for the Sky Boy" and the two belts and all the emotion, and just Joe sort of living and being present in that moment.

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Bittersweet episode, but boy did we ever get some amazing stuff here! Action Andretti (and later Darby) solidified their stance as great wrestlers by hitting poison ranas. Opening tag got a LOT of time, but that's ok, it was exciting.

I don't want to see Buddy Matthews losing, but I'll take him losing if that means that I get to see him, period! Great showing by both men, but looks like Samoa Joe is coming to collect. Well, it was good while it lasted, Darby! You made it count.

The Family therapy went way better than I expected, but if The Gunns use this as a launching pad into an AEW tag title reign, it has been quite the rise into the contention for them. They beat FTR and talked their way into a title match from there. Quite a feat, that is, IF they actually win the titles.

Toni Storm's heel make-up certainly worked. Looked very heelish. With all the talk about Toni's arsenal, all I've got to say about that is, that this is a very literal case of "working with what she's got". Huge win for Ruby, but I was yelling "don't fall for the hurt nose thing, it's a trap!" And it was. C'mon, Ruby.

Ok, so Brian Cage couldn't do that much of the exciting flying big man stuff here, so it wasn't terribly exciting, but hey, good enough. He lost, so he tried to at least get the bounty. Thatcher should be great. They are really going balls out here, I couldn't have realistically picked more interesting (for me) opponents for Bryan, if I tried.

Main event was emotional and great, with the bittersweet ending of Mark finally getting a win over Lethal with Jay's finisher (a beautiful one at that). The tribute video was heartbreaking, but really nice.

Next week and Rampage should both be awesome!

Edit: Fogot to say that JungleHook rules and Ethan  and Hardy got some good character work in there. Also, DEAN is being quite the trooper providing that much text despite being in the hospital! Let's see others try that! Although, hopefully nobody needs to go to a local medical facility just in order to accomplish that!

 

 

Edited by Shartnado
There were 6 matches...
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Dave Meltzer gave ****1/4 to Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal. I feel uncomfortable with star ratings for tribute matches so I don't. That's not the point of them. Best tribute match I've ever seen was Adam Page/John Silver/Alex Reynolds vs. MJF/Santana/Ortiz on the AEW Dynamite Brodie Lee Celebration of Life, 30th December 2020. That's the best wrestling tribute show ever.

Edited by The Natural
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4 hours ago, Matt D said:

Point being, the post-match at the end of the show was touching, from Sonjay being out there first to hug Jay to Mark getting hugged by Daniels and RUSH, etc., but what got me was the music looping and Joe, who was just, just about to get a hug, leaning in as Mark turned away from him and giving that wry smile of his, since he knew Mark was going to get his pop with "Reach for the Sky Boy" and the two belts and all the emotion, and just Joe sort of living and being present in that moment.

I was noticing RUSH and he had to just feel awful for Mark since he has two brothers.  What else can you do but give them a hug and wait for time to pass.  There is nothing like losing a brother.

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8 hours ago, The Natural said:

Meltzer:

Chris Jericho/Sammy Guevara vs. Ricky Starks/Action Andretti: ****.

Darby Allin vs. Buddy Matthews (TNT Championship): ***3/4.

Bryan Danielson vs. Brian Cage: ****.

Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal: ****1/4.

If those are 4 star matches then 4 star ratings are meaningless.

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On 1/25/2023 at 8:20 PM, DEAN said:

What did Mark come out to?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4R0oGXEemA&ab_channel=ProWrestlingMatt

Don't have to much to add but I like the story of Ruby being caught in the middle of homegrown v outsiders

Also Ass Family Therapy reminds The Kane/Matt Hardy feud where Lita put her martial status on the line in the match, just for the pro wrestling absurdity. I'm okay with a little of that

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Oof at those ratings. Allin vs. Matthews was a 3 star match (Matthews/Allin didn't really click well together) and if we're honest Danielson vs. Cage was a 2 star match (due to Danielson wanting to wrestle a match Cage couldn't do and Cage doing big steroid guy offense and neither guy getting on the same page with each other). Lethal/Briscoe was a 3 star match maybe 3 1/2 or 4 star match even with the emotion behind the match.

I tuned in as the tag match was done.

Edited by Andrew POE!
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They’re a lot of younger guys these days doing a lot more of the week to week heavy lifting.  Sammy, Action, Darby, Gunns, Acclaimed, Starks, JungleHook all taking up prominent amounts of time on Dynamite.  There is also lots of room for all the aforementioned names to continue to level up.  
 

Makes me wonder if Jericho is about to get cycled out of the rotation or ramping up for his possibly final run.  I don’t know what his contract status is.  But he definitely took a back seat in that tag match.  Nothing wrong with it.   Good match.

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37 minutes ago, Brandon Bones said:

They’re a lot of younger guys these days doing a lot more of the week to week heavy lifting.  Sammy, Action, Darby, Gunns, Acclaimed, Starks, JungleHook all taking up prominent amounts of time on Dynamite.  There is also lots of room for all the aforementioned names to continue to level up.  
 

Makes me wonder if Jericho is about to get cycled out of the rotation or ramping up for his possibly final run.  I don’t know what his contract status is.  But he definitely took a back seat in that tag match.  Nothing wrong with it.   Good match.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/chris-jericho-aew-contract-extension-2-1235407072/amp/
 

3 years starting last October.

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11 hours ago, Matt D said:

Just putting this out there: I liked Cage vs Danielson more than Brock vs Danielson.

Respectfully disagree. Brock/Bryan had it's faults (Suplex City Shit, beat down on Bryan going too long and Brock breaking up the cover) but great highs: the low blow, the forearms to Brock's face and Bryan stomping on Brock's face leaving his boot impression. I actually prefer Brock/Styles. Bryan/Brian did little for me as the biggest Bryan Danielson fan on the board.

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5 hours ago, The Natural said:

Respectfully disagree. Brock/Bryan had it's faults (Suplex City Shit, beat down on Bryan going too long and Brock breaking up the cover) but great highs: the low blow, the forearms to Brock's face and Bryan stomping on Brock's face leaving his boot impression. I actually prefer Brock/Styles. Bryan/Brian did little for me as the biggest Bryan Danielson fan on the board.

I’ll link my write up when it goes live tomorrow so you can see where I’m coming from,

Edited by Matt D
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