April 21st, 2024 saw another AEW Pay-Per-View event added to the annual AEW PPV cycle and naturally, I didn’t get the show.
Yeah… sorry, folks. I was fine with four a month and while it was a total pipe dream for them to keep at like that until the end of time, I kinda held out hope. Now I don’t bother getting them live and I wait for a friend to loan me his recordings of the shows months after the fact… because we still record stuff to DVD-R to this day and will undoubtedly continue to do this until our DVD recorders eventually die out… I may have jinxed this entire operation, haven’t I?
Anyway, as of this moment, there’s only two other shows I’ve not seen; the Double Or Nothing show and Forbidden Door, but we’ll be doing something else next week. In the meantime, here’s the Dynasty musings… maybe next year, they can do Dallas as a PPV name… no?
AEW Continental Champion Kashukida Okada defeated THAT GODDAMNED MOTHERFUCKING INGRATE BASTARD PAC to retain the title. Hell of an opener, just two guys beating the crap out of each other. Tremendous showing to start the show.
House Of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Rhea Ripley’s partner who isn’t Dirty Dom) defeated TNT Champion Adam Copeland, ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, and… Eddie Kingston in a six-man match that saw Black score the winning pinfall over Copeland to tease a future TNT title match (Spoiler: Copeland retains.) Fairly typical, hard-hitting trios match with an ending that moved things forward. No complaints.
Willow Nightingale defeated TBS Champion Julia Hart to win the title and thus earn the right to lose her title to Mercedes Mone at Double Or Nothing because let’s be honest. You knew that was going to happen the minute she even sniffed her way into that title picture… and only the man upstairs knows how well that turned out. Anyway, this was fine. Happy to see the cold reign of former cheerleader Julia Hart finally come to an end and also nice to see Willow win something of significance… and then Mercedes shows up to remind us that 2019 WWE was the drizzling shits and nobody actually wants to relive that. Thanks.
International Title Roderick Strong defeated Kyle O’Reilly to retain the title in a nothing happening match that was perfectly fine on a technical level, but really did nothing for me on an emotional or investmental level (is that even a word? It is now, fuck you). Probably because anything with the words “Undisputed” or “Kingdom” is usually the kiss of death as far as my interest levels go… unless it’s Cody’s theme song, which is actually starting to grow on me a bit after all these years. Oh noes! I’m mentioning a guy from the other promotion! How will the old timers react? I don’t know. I don’t care. Fuck ’em.
Speaking of fucking ’em, “Lionheart” Chris Jericho defeated FTW Champion HOOK via baseball bat shot to win the title that has no official status, but we’re supposed to treat like a big deal because… reasons? Dude, it’s 2024 – we have eleventy billion fucking “real” championships in AEW, so why are we still having title matches over this vanity belt? Also, when Jericho said that he was sorry before he hit his finish, was he talking to Hook or was he talking to the audience who had to watch this sad display? I’m not one to jump on any bandwagons, but in this case, I have to side with those who have no interest in seeing Jericho on-screen. Whatever happened to the guy who went away for a good long while and came back with a fresh new perspective? Why is he doing this Lionheart thing again? What is he essentially the anti-Midas in that everything he touches turns to shit?
I know that there was some backstage controversy regarding Jericho and that’s part of the reason why the crowd seems a bit more hostile towards the guy. I could certainly understand that if he was doing something interesting and people simply wanted nothing to do with the guy, but whatever he’s doing now just feels like he’s doing whatever he can to try and stay on TV, try and stay relevant, and really, just sucking the life out of anything he touches. Good on Jericho for being a loyal company guy and all; appreciate all his work over the years, whether it’s his WWE stuff or his role in getting AEW off the ground and kicking… but the man needs to go away for a while, take a few months off… maybe longer, and then come back with a fresh new take that gets people excited. I get that tends to be difficult after so many years in the business, but Chris Jericho used to be the master of re-invention. And right now, re-invention is what he needs… and a break. Don’t worry about the house falling apart in your absence, Chris; there’s plenty of other folks who can hold the fort just fine, especially nowadays.
Women’s Champion Timeless Toni Storm defeated Thunder Rosa to retain the title in a surprisingly decent match. No fan of the Timeless Toni thing – I didn’t mind it until it led to championship gold, then it became cringe – but she mostly wrestled a straight match and Thunder Rosa held her own just fine. Nice that they got this match out of the way considering Thunder never lost the title (she had to vacate due to injury) and close the book on this particular thread. That’s about as far as I’ll go.
Will Ospreay defeated Bryan Danielson in a 97 and a half star match. I knocked a half-star for the lack of Final Countdown. Fucking FIN.
The Young Bucks defeated Fuck The Revival in a Ladder Match to win the vacant AEW Tag-Team titles and become the first three-time tag champs in company history. One of the Fuck The Revival guys were closing in on the belts when a masked man – revealed to be on Jungle Jackboy Perry – pushes the ladder over. Bucks tell the fans to cry them a river and will presumably use their EVP money to buy some high-quality Z-Packs to nurse their wounds… oh yeah, the match was fine, but every Bucks/FTR match would be fine, so why would this be any different?
Swerve Strickland defeated AEW World Champion Samoa Joe in a hard-hitting main event to win the title and shut call the Swerve crybabies up. Hey, seriously though, good on the guy. He finally won the big one, the crowd went crazy over the win, and we have another black World Champion to add to the books. That, and Prince Nana remains the life of the party. Do not do that man dirty.
What do you want me to say? Dynasty was a good show… not my cup of tea, but… oh wait, you meant the PPV. Sorry…
What do you want me to say? Dynasty was a damned good show with some truly great to excellent professional wrestling on display here… and of course, there was that Jericho match, but they can’t all be winners, I guess. Did I regret skipping this one? No, but I was more than happy to watch it months later and that works for me.
dtm666 