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AEW Dynamite - 4/21/2021


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Really looking forward to both title matches especially Darby Allin vs. Jungle Boy for the TNT Championship. Wouldn't be surprised if Tay Conti wins the AEW Women's Championship. I'd be for it but I'd prefer Dr. Britt Baker as my first choice.

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Haterz be Hatin' (No not really, this is a pretty boss card)

  • TNT Championship: Darby Allin (c) vs Jungle Boy

I guess they are low key telling the 'Darby is killing himself and it will eventually catch up with him' story which is a great story. It works especially for Darby since it helps establish a fatal flaw in our hero that he's too dumb to take the foot off the accelerator even when he should. Ideally we should have a heel waiting in the wings waiting to pick his spot to get to Darby when he's at his weakest and collect the TNT title for a follow up feud. We do need to keep that heel hidden a little bit so its not completely obvious but it would be perfect for a 'cerebral heel' like MJF who can get under his skin to goad Allin into a really bad situation or a monster heel like Miro two pull a Brody Lee v Cody I match. This should be good, I wouldn't expect JB to pull the upset because you're trading like for like in role terms which seems sort of purposeless. 

  • AEW Women's World Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) vs Tay Conti

This is how ranking systems should work. Tay wins matches against lower card people, Rose and Bunny and moves into title contention and matches. Shida's reign should be closing out because its unfortunately been kind of a dud with no booking strength behind it. I would suspect like most people that Britt would actually be the next person to get strapped in the women's division and I hope we see the start of that build here. This would be a totally appropriate time to pull a No Contest with a Britt run in to protect Conti (who can be a challenger for Britt later) and Shida who needs to be protected heading into hopefully dropping the title. Worst case scenario to me is Shida knocking off Conti clean.

  • Christian Cage vs Powerhouse Hobbs

I really, really hope everyone gets to see why I've been hyping Hobbs for a while. Both guys are super smart, work to their strengths and Christian is a really good guide wrestler for bringing people along to good matches. I expect Christian to win which would only make sense, but this could be a star making outing for Hobbs. I'm super psyched for this.

  • Adam Page vs Ricky Starks

Did I mention that I love this card? Mostly because we get twice the HOOK brother! This should be a banger of a match. Starks looks great all the time and Page is building momentum again after the long drunken sad sack stuff. I would love to see this not be a one-off so we get more of a good program. Team Taz is low key the best stable for getting over other people on this show. Giving Page another feud to win is great for the build to him hopefully knocking off Omega sometime soon.

  • Penta El Zero Miedo vs Trent

I don't get this booking. The Death Triangle is so schizophrenic week to week and it hurts their presentation. The Best Friends should be riding high after winning the Miro feud and maybe targeting the Bucks so the tag team champions have a feud to work with to further establish their heel run. This seems like treadmill booking that doesn't improve anything and has no real purpose. I can at least rest assured that Trent wrestles like a surly asshole and will likely pop Penta in the mush when he taunts.

  • QT Marshall vs Billy Gunn

Makes sense booking wise to put the Factory against the Nightmare Family. QT should win with cheating. If they get Big Nick to hit his finish on Billy, we get a good highlight spot for the angle to continue to build from. 

  • Jim Ross interviews The Pinnacle

Really think they have missed the boat on Pinnacle and are going about this backward. This segment should have been during the ascendency period of the stable right after they demolished The Inner Circle so The Pinnacle could set out a mission statement and reason for being. As it stands, The Circle have already gotten too much revenge and clearly have the upper hand going into Blood and Guts. They released the pressure gage way too soon on this angle.

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Darby is looking to be the biggest draw on the show and I wonder if they start off with him vs Jungle Boy or if they still keep that as the main event. Either way, this is going to be fucking awesome.

Speaking of awesome, we get the Hungman vs the Stroke Daddy!

And I'm really intrigued with the Hobbs vs Christian match. I think Christian needs to win, but Hobbs needs to look strong.

The thing that worries me the most is that the live Dynamites tend to be a little wonky with the matches and there's more botches than usual since they can't be edited out. I'm hoping they capitalize off their huge number from last week and keep folks entertained.

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I like the Trentagon El ?M match. It's Trent's first singles match since November, it's on TV, it's against a bigger name. At this point I don't expect anything resembling logic around Death Triangle's booking. It might even lead to an entirely confusing DT/BFs feud that will somehow have a perfect blowoff match.

Allin/JB, Starks/Page & Christian/Hobbs are three singles matches I would pay to see. I don't know if AEW has even run a card without a tag match before, maybe that's why they wanted to get everyone on TV during the opening minutes of Darby vs. Hardy the other week.

I think that AEW thinks that the Pinnacle's likely win at Blood & Guts will fix their inauspicious start. I'm gonna totally guess the long game here... the Pinnacle have set the highest bar possible for a faction, they're supposed to be the Horsemen. And if The Pinnacle are supposed to be the Horsemen, MJF is supposed to be Ric Flair, but the Horsemen didn't form until Ric Flair had spent the better part of 5 years with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. I don't know how that stable lives up to the hype if MJF isn't AEW Champion by the end of the year. I would have still put money on Kenny -> Hangman -> MJF being the way the belt ends up moving, and I get the feeling a lot of companies are gonna run babyface title wins the second they get crowds back (AEW thinks July per Jim Ross). I just hope AEW haven't painted themselves into a corner and that Adam Page doesn't get one of those short, first-time babyface title runs that not everybody gets their heat back from.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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2 hours ago, Goodear said:

Haterz be Hatin' (No not really, this is a pretty boss card)

  • TNT Championship: Darby Allin (c) vs Jungle Boy

I guess they are low key telling the 'Darby is killing himself and it will eventually catch up with him' story which is a great story. It works especially for Darby since it helps establish a fatal flaw in our hero that he's too dumb to take the foot off the accelerator even when he should. Ideally we should have a heel waiting in the wings waiting to pick his spot to get to Darby when he's at his weakest and collect the TNT title for a follow up feud. We do need to keep that heel hidden a little bit so its not completely obvious but it would be perfect for a 'cerebral heel' like MJF who can get under his skin to goad Allin into a really bad situation or a monster heel like Miro two pull a Brody Lee v Cody I match. This should be good, I wouldn't expect JB to pull the upset because you're trading like for like in role terms which seems sort of purposeless.

I really want that person to be Ricky Starks. Dude is money.

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I think it's pretty set that MJF beats Hangman w/ shenanigans down the road. I don't think Hangman needs to hold the belt for a year but a good 6-8 month run would be fine. So long as they do right by his character development over the summer, the title will mean less than it would if he were to win it at DoN. I'm glad they had him get all dodgy when asked about Kenny & the Bucks. He hasn't earned that confidence yet. 

Hopefully QT kicks Billy in the balls and eats gabagool in celebration. With the likelihood of both Team Taz members losing tonight, we should move closer to the implosion. Looking at the matches above, the ones that should get time are the TNT title match, Hangman/Starks, and maybe the women's match. Tay has come on leaps and bounds but I don't think she and Shida need a 15 minute epic title match at this stage. Trent is good at selling and Penta is good at beating people up, so I could see that getting 10, but that's a lot of matches for one show and you've got two inner circle town halls. Billy/QT should go less than 5.

Edited by Jiji
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Very excited for the show as advertised. I say it like that because I just want to hear interviews and promos without interruption.

The TNT Championship match is so frustrating. Jungle Boy as the next guy elevated sure would work, but only after Darby was worn out for another couple of weeks more. Neither guy should lose, it's begging for some kind of big angle fuck finish after both guys look awesome for twelve minutes. I wouldn't mind it really.

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6 hours ago, Goodear said:

This is how ranking systems should work. Tay wins matches against lower card people, Rose and Bunny and moves into title contention and matches.

That's how it should work, yes. But I'll note that Tay was already ranked number one before her match with Nyla, despite the fact that at that point she had beaten nobody but a bunch of jobbers. I had a whole screed thought out that I never got around to writing about how dumb that was, because Tay beating Nyla for the first time was clearly a significant milestone in building her up, and having her be ranked above Nyla going into the match just muddied the story they were telling. Kind of a nitpick, but it bugged me.

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I don't think Darby winning both the TNT and World title so quickly makes sense for his character or his style. They've done a great job with him overall. I know there were times where it felt like they weren't doing anything with him (so many vignettes) but he's been one of their big successes so far. I think he's amazing and definitely should be world champion down the line, but I just feel like he should have to fight and go through hell to win the title. Would be interesting if something were to happen like Miro beats him for the TNT title and two years down the road Darby beats Miro for the world title. Stevie Wonder could see Hangman beating Omega, they've gotta pull the trigger on MJF and he's a great guy to lift the title off of Page in a way that you can protect Page like they did with Moxley. After that it's less obvious but they've established MJF and Jungle Boy as rivals and that makes sense to me. Darby could be that guy but for the complaining nothing's done with Darby up to the TNT title win, Jungle Boy needs a bone and it really shouldn't be associated with that giant dork of his. Maybe JB can win the TNT title instead, further down the line, but I keep thinking of how they hyped up MJF/Jungle Jack in my head.

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2 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Maybe MJF beats Darby for the TNT title first, and we stay the course for Hangman/Kenny, with MJF eventually beating Hangman for the World title in like a year or something.

I'd like Sammy to be the one to take the TNT off MJF in that situation, so then they can renew their feud over the World title in a year.

Christian vs Hobbs is exactly the way they should be using him work with the young guys not just other veterans

Along with that I'd have Dustin team with Billy Gunn against various combos of QTs faction

 

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If Jungle Boy were to get there ahead of Darbs, he better get super hot or they better learn to use him more consistently. At this point, it'd almost feel like he's jumping the line. Not that I'd complain too much, as it'd mean they're actually doing something with the guy.

Would be nice if after the show's over, I look silly for complaining they're doing nothing with him. New champ, let's go! 

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I really liked Ricky Starks pointing to his head to let us know he's smart. All-time great heel move. Rest of the match was a fucking mess. It still worked for what it was but wasn't all that I hoped. The fact this was still fun with all the mess ups says a lot about these two, but if these guys had 10 matches this would probably be the worst one. I am glad Ricky didn't die on this:

 

I enjoyed Trent/Penta. The big spot being a "Your mom sucks" joke is pretty amazing, tbh. The camera angle did that apron piledriver no favours, but I'm glad they executed it super safe. Not a super memorable match but it was fine.

I can't explain why, but JR touching MJF's silk scarf and saying with all sincerity "that's nice" made me laugh. It felt like a Mean Gene moment to me. Man, MJF can talk. I thought this was a good heel promo segment that focused on another classic trope: heels telling the truth.

You know what else I like? That the build for Conti vs Shida is that Wrestler 1 has a belt, and Wrestler 2 wants to, get this, win the belt. That's it. That's the build. No fake drama or nothing. What a wild ass concept. Shida actually worked this match as an old school heel which was an interesting twist. Conti did babyface in peril for the entire first chapter before rallying, and then Shida got briefly booed when she gets control. Then we get into the nearfall sequence.  It's absolutely crazy how much Conti has improved. This was actually really good. Honestly the best televised Shida match in maybe forever, and the best Conti match I've ever seen. Loved this. Couldn't realistically have been better. This was some goddamn great wrestling TV.

Chris Jericho is speaking. Jake Hagar yelled some Big Wrestler Mumbo Jumbo stuff and threw straws, which was fucking great specifically because it was dumb, not in spite of it. Huge Mongo McMichael Energy. Santana and Ortiz are here and I wish the rest of this segment had been dedicated to them squashing two jobbers instead. I really need to track down some of their big TNA stuff at some point. Chris Jericho had the audacity to say someone else's promos sounded scripted, which nearly made me fall out of my chair. Chris Jericho sang a song. Chris Jericho made a joke about ass wiping. Chris Jericho is yelling. Okay.

It is April of 2021 and I am actually watching Billy Gunn wrestle QT Marshall. This was a match no one cares about. As angle development with the post match, this was fine. Nick Comoroto did the old Meng spot where something gets busted over his head and it does absolutely nothing, so I can't say I got nothing out of it. Would have been way better if it was just the actual Meng. Fuck, he's only like 10 years older than Dustin. I bet he could totally still be "Big Guy That Stands There Making Faces".

God, I love Kingston and Moxley so much. The only piece of wrestling merch I have bought in at least 10 years is Moxley's AEW figure. I have nothing else to add to this.

Hobbs is here to play the roll of a human battering ram. Christian is here to play the role of a human pinball. Hobbs is really good with the facial expressions. I'd bet anything this guy was a wrestling nerd before he was a wrestler. This was a simple classic formula and a fun match.

Main event was exactly what I wanted it to be. 

AEW is for The People.

 

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Well, that episode slapped.   Tay vs Shida was great, Hangman vs Starks was as expected (and glad Ricky's ok), and Darby vs Jungle Boy was pretty good.

 

When Christian vs Hobbs was the 4th best match of the night, you have something special, especially when Shida vs Tay was as good as Britt vs Rosa.

 

Getting feelings we're seeing a NJPW in late 2010's-esque run out of AEW starting up.

 

Edited by alstein
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Liked Hangman incorporating Starks' injured ankle into the finish.

Alex Abrahantes getting more and more into Penta's act continues to delight.

I wish people didn't use the word "promo" on TV. Dax's Bret socks were the best.

I've been sleeping on Shida and Tay. Neither has been one of my favourite, but that was a great match. Loved them starting by countering one another's judo. Hope the TayKO finishes someone on TV some day.

I could have done without hearing from the Inner Circle at all. Jericho's attempted singing is the last straw. Dude has my permission to go away.

So everyone runs in for everything, but Ogogo is just going to stand there and stare at Dustin getting ready to wreck QT? Get the fuck out of here. Liked the Sopranos mention here though.

I don't know why I didn't see it earlier, but Comoroto is Muscly Mandy Patinkin. 

Goodear wasn't lying. Hobbs is real good. Works big, great mean-mugging/cocky facials, great loopy and out of it facials. Like him. Christian sure was sweaty after this one again. I hope they're indoors before the real heat arrives. 

Jungle Boy vs Darby was good. Fuck offering the handshake to Darby though, the dude pulled on your hair and raked your eyes. Tell him where he can fucking shove that cheap win.

People can stop running from Emo Facepaint Daddy. He's not that scary. 

Edited by John from Cincinnati
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There was some bad looking stuff in Shida/Conti almost entirely early on but it turned into a good match. Main event was very good but I know they have a better one in them. It told a story of though, based on Darby's promo, and he went dirty to survive. JR actively brings shit down. Said Darby isn't a catch wrestler and yet they started with slick as hell chain wrestling and finished with an elaborate (and dope) pin. Hobbs looked fantastic. TSN moved the show to TSN 3 so it didn't record on my DVR and I missed the first 25 or so but caught the Sue insult. That was fun. Comoroto as Meng is the right way to book that guy. 

That jericho promo had to be one of the worst in a long time. Santana saved that shit show. 

Edited by Jiji
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