AEW DYNASTY - 4/21/2024

[EVA]

49 minutes ago, Raziel said:

I don't know if Jericho sandbagged Hook on teh suplexes, or Hook couldn't get him over.  

Man, I loved the suplexes. Far from the most graceful, but he fearlessly ate shit on all of them. 

Honestly, I think the match falling a little flat actually says more about Hook’s lack of development than Jericho. Jericho took a bunch of gnarly bumps for him, let him kick out of literally all of his shit, and Hook still couldn’t really get the crowd behind him. Hook really hasn’t figured out how to progress beyond squash/meme wrestler yet. I don’t think that’s talked about enough in regards to how lame this story with Jericho had come across.

[Dolfan in NYC]

43 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Assuming still its all a work, I enjoy these comments from Ospreay:

I like it because he has probably been doing the move too much so now he has a reason to "retire" it, plus now if he needs a super finisher in six months or a year he has it in his back pocket as the move that always wins for him. Good stuff.

I really just wish there were some other way to do this than watching a guy who I like* act like he just got fucking paralyzed in the ring. 

 

* - WHOM, I am liking less and less the more he decides to cry wolf. 

[EVA]

Blame Cody for teaching him how fun it is to lie.

[Brandon Bones]

9 hours ago, The Natural said:

Moving seeing Swerve Strickland sport Jimmy Rave's robe.

Was it?  Oh man.  That hits.  

[The Natural]

1 minute ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

I really just wish there were some other way to do this than watching a guy who I like* act like he just got fucking paralyzed in the ring. 

 

* - WHOM, I am liking less and less the more he decides to cry wolf. 

In full agreement, Kelvin and this is coming from someone whom loves Bryan Danielson. Wish he'd stop doing it, the headbutts as well.

[The Natural]

Just now, Brandon Bones said:

Was it?  Oh man.  That hits.  

Yes and it definitely does.

[Raziel]

7 minutes ago, EVA said:

Man, I loved the suplexes. Far from the most graceful, but he fearlessly ate shit on all of them. 

Honestly, I think the match falling a little flat actually says more about Hook’s lack of development than Jericho. Jericho took a bunch of gnarly bumps for him, let him kick out of literally all of his shit, and Hook still couldn’t really get the crowd behind him. Hook really hasn’t figured out how to progress beyond squash/meme wrestler yet. I don’t think that’s talked about enough in regards to how lame this story with Jericho had come across.

I mean, I know the love Wrestling's #1 Nepobaby gets here so I was trying to be nice, but yeah, as much as we're dumping on Jericho for being past this run's sell by date, Hook just ain't putting it together.  I'm not sure who that's an indictment of, he has his old man's swagger, but literally nothing else, and he's not seeming keen to develop that.

 

Aside, it was a mess of styles and neither guy did themselves any favors with how that match was laid out.  And as I said, it probably sticks out more because nothing else on the show fell below "good", and I'm even saying that about a fucking Rodrick Strong match.

[Death From Above]

13 minutes ago, EVA said:

Man, I loved the suplexes. Far from the most graceful, but he fearlessly ate shit on all of them. 

Honestly, I think the match falling a little flat actually says more about Hook’s lack of development than Jericho. Jericho took a bunch of gnarly bumps for him, let him kick out of literally all of his shit, and Hook still couldn’t really get the crowd behind him. Hook really hasn’t figured out how to progress beyond squash/meme wrestler yet. I don’t think that’s talked about enough in regards to how lame this story with Jericho had come across.

Hook sucks. His matches now are exactly the same as when he debuted and he still lacks so many basic skills.

He's just twink Goldberg.

[Craig H]

Here’s why I thought Jericho vs Hook was straight up awful, even worse than Daddy Ass vs Knife Pervert.

To start, there’s simply no reason to even have this feud other than Jericho is a succubus that thinks he’s capable of getting the youngsters over. So that right there is somewhat infuriating.

This was an FTR rules match, which is dumb but whatever, but it’s still a no rules match. And it was a no rules match that looked like all of the lame ass, vanilla WWE no rules matches. Cheap trash cans, cheap trash can lids, tables, dumb stuff spray painted on the plunder, kendo sticks, and so on. Like, I don’t think these guys need to go full Nick Gage, but AEW is famous for their wild brawls and this felt like something that the other company would put on. Not to mention…no one juiced? I know we got juice in the tag titles match, but it’s not like AEW hasn’t had multiple matches on one show with people bleeding. 

The actual moves were just…bad. Watch Hook try to suplex Jericho and then watch Swerve try to suplex Joe. Swerve only suplexed Joe once. Jericho went up like he weighed as much as Joe for EVERY suplex except the flying t-bone, which was pretty fucking cool. And if Jericho wasn’t sandbagging, then it was straight up dangerous at times where Hook doesn’t check his surroundings and nearly kills Jericho on the outside. If he’s a couple inches further in one direction, Jericho isn’t waking up.

Then there’s the fake as fuck drama with Jericho doing the “I’m sorry” thing. I get that this is the most subtle heel run in history, there problem is that it just looks hokey.

So I’ll admit that it’s probably not the worst match in AEW history because there race been some downright awful women’s matches in the early moneyball era of that division, but it might be the worst AEW PPV match ever. Jericho just looks washed. He looked extra bad last night and it’s pretty clear he’s cycled off of TRT or is hitting the bottle again. While Hook isn’t the greatest wrestler or anything, AEW has something with him and he has the potential to connect with younger fans in a different way than Ospreay is connecting with them. Putting him up against Jericho, doing this 50/50 shit, and having him lose to Jericho is just really bad.

Or to put it another way, Hook was hot as fuck to start the year against Joe and looked like he was moving up. Now he’s in Jerichos quicksand and his ceiling is quickly becoming Sammy Guevara.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

You know, I'm sensing a pattern: Jericho, despite his current staleness, can still go at a fairly high level; just a year or two ago was among his best ever in the ring IMO. But it seems like every now and again, he will have one of these plunder matches that are just simply well below standard. And on that note, candidly, I thought he and Hook looked like Steamboat/Savage out there compared to that Cole match from two summers ago. He also had one or two notable stinkers with Mox when they were still in WWE. Not saying I loved the match but I thought 'please retire' was a little unfair when he has been having these kind of matches once or twice a year for a decade now.

ETA great call on the WWE 24/7 division "violence" @Craig H- perhaps that's part of why it's a bit of a shitty formula. He never looked that rough in any of, say, the Blood and Guts matches

Edited April 22 by Zakk_Sabbath

[The Natural]

That's two Chris Jericho matches as contenders for worst AEW match ever, vs. Adam Cole at Double or Nothing 2023 and Hook from Dynasty 2024. If I had to say which was worse, the Cole one but Cole has never done anything for me.

Edited April 22 by The Natural

[The Natural]

9 hours ago, The Natural said:

"Go home, Jericho."

"Please retire."

Bad night for Chris Jericho.

 "Fozzy sucks" as well.

[Craig H]

Hook has gotten much bigger dudes up for suplexes than Jericho. Also, if you’re Jericho, why are you sandbagging someone who is tossing you around. Seems like a good way to risk getting dumped on your head. It’s just weird because like others pointed out, Jericho still gave Hook a lot, like letting him kick out of two Judas Effects, which I don’t think anyone has kicked out of. Then at the same time he straight up looked uncooperative. I don’t get it.

Jericho doesn’t need to retire, but he does need another break. This Lionheart run ain’t doing it and he’s looking rough. 

[EVA]

I mean, Jericho has always had a history of trying to do more than he’s physically capable of to get the match over. That’s what this felt like to me, rather than sandbagging. I’m talking at least 25 years of that.
 

My opinion on any suplex is that if it looked like it hurt, it was good. Jericho going face first through the table was a GREAT suplex.

Edited April 22 by EVA

[The Natural]

I also thought Bryan Danielson injured himself doing the top rope hurricarana with how he landed.

Edited April 22 by The Natural

[JLowe]

38 minutes ago, EVA said:

Man, I loved the suplexes. Far from the most graceful, but he fearlessly ate shit on all of them. 

Honestly, I think the match falling a little flat actually says more about Hook’s lack of development than Jericho. Jericho took a bunch of gnarly bumps for him, let him kick out of literally all of his shit, and Hook still couldn’t really get the crowd behind him. Hook really hasn’t figured out how to progress beyond squash/meme wrestler yet. I don’t think that’s talked about enough in regards to how lame this story with Jericho had come across.

Hook throws the shittiest punches. Those weird body shots he throws are business exposing.

[Just Dave]

Obviously, there was stuff here that I really, really liked, and stuff I didn't. 

PAC/Okada was The. Shit. Hard hitting. Snug. State of the Art. I could watch a best of 37 series between these two.

Rosa/Storm was pretty great. This was the best Rosa has looked in a long time. Toni Storm is doing absolutely generational character work right now. Fantastic. 

Strong/KOR is just VERY not for me. Nobody in this UK group/angle is better off than they were 6 months ago, except maybe Adam Cole, because people have forgotten how not good he is. 

I'll have more later. I thought this was really a great show, and another show that AEW really needed to have.

[EVA]

Rosa finding her way out of 1st gear again was definitely a pleasant surprise.

[Craig H]

11 minutes ago, The Natural said:

I also thought Bryan Danielson injured himself doing the top rope hurricarana with how he landed.

That is now the 5th or 6th time this year alone in AEW where someone tried reversing out of a top rope rana and the other guy ends up falling on his head and I swear it happened to Danielson or Ospreay once already just a couple months ago.

Maybe it’s time to tell the wrestlers to cool it on the top rope shit that’s like that.

[Craig H]

Just now, EVA said:

Rosa finding her way out of 1st gear again was definitely a pleasant surprise.

I’m chalking it up to it being a PPV. If she continues to bring it on TV then I’ll be convinced she’s back.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

34 minutes ago, Just Dave said:

PAC/Okada was The. Shit. Hard hitting. Snug. State of the Art. I could watch a best of 37 series between these two.

Seconded huge. This one and Ospreay/Danielson were worth the 50 bucks alone -  my expectations were high, and they far exceeded. The Bastard is just a nasty mother, straight up, and I thought that they were almost perfectly positioned as the opener (though it could've closed for the title and no one would've batted an eye)  - if I had the pencil (or Tony's ear) I'd be pushing to open at least one of the 3 weekly shows with a PAC match on the reg, be it with Buddy, Komander, Sydal, Andretti, one Young Buck, whoever - his shit is just such catnip for the eyeballs.

[The Natural]

Chuckled at the "Please be careful" chants near the end of The Young Bucks vs. FTR.

[The Natural]

Never thought I'd see an Avalanche Tiger Suplex but did in Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson. Scary shit.

[Salads]

2 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Assuming still its all a work, I enjoy these comments from Ospreay:

I like it because he has probably been doing the move too much so now he has a reason to "retire" it, plus now if he needs a super finisher in six months or a year he has it in his back pocket as the move that always wins for him. Good stuff.

Agreed. I also love the 'even though like 90% of the time that move’s been absolutely fine' excuse.

Firstly, that's a completely unacceptable safety success rate for any move, let alone one that targets the head/neck.

Secondly I don't think he's performed the move on-air as many as ten times in order to get that statistic. So either he had to make a number up and chose one that incriminated himself further, or he practised the move backstage and wasn't deterred by all the previous times he hospitalised someone.

16 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Never thought I'd see an Avalanche Tiger Suplex but did in Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson. Scary shit.

If it counts as close enough, I'm still recovering from the one Kobashi took off the entrance ramp. He probably is too.

[The Natural]

1 minute ago, Salads said:

If it counts as close enough, I'm still recovering from the one Kobashi took off the entrance ramp. He probably is too.

Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa. NOAH, 1st March 2003. That's probably the hardest of their matches to watch as it's the most head dropping one which is really saying something. I haven't watched it ever again since Mitsuharu Misawa died in the ring 15 years ago this year.