This past Thursday, TNA aired their first live episode of Impact in eight years and while I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet, I will give it a watch this weekend and hopefully have some thoughts up shortly after posting the Genesis PPV musings this coming Wednesday.
But in the meantime, we have this baffling AEW Dynamite show that continues to chug along. Nice that they’re embracing smaller, more intimate arenas… though I’m sure some will scoff as to how far they’ve fallen since their early years. Let’s be fair, though; some of AEW’s best work happened when there were no crowds in the audience; something that couldn’t be said for WWE or TNA for that matter. (And I tried re-watching those 2020 COVID shows… they are not pleasant for a variety of reasons.)
The big news out of this show is that Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin defeated Private Party to win the AEW Tag titles and end the latter team’s reign that lasted a couple months and was pretty much an afterthought. Hey, you know what? This was fine for what it was, but really having the Hurt Business Syndicate have a regular match with the Private Party folks rather than obliterating these geeks (let’s be honest here; Private Party isn’t the most intimidating team on the roster) feels like a bit of shine was lost. Still, good on Lashley and Benjamin; they treated the win like a big deal and the crowd reacted to them as though they were a big deal. Something you should be doing when you’re supposed to be a big deal.
On the other hand, we have this seemingly never-ending, never-go-anyway angle with the Death Riders, comprising your reigning World champion Jon Moxley (who carries the belt in a box for some reason) and the Trios champions… hey, remember when people were clamoring for Trios titles in AEW and the introduction of those belts felt like a big deal? Those sure were the days.
At this point, right now, this Death Rider stuff feels like death television. It’s the same shit every week. Death Riders come in, beat up some schmuck, and never get their comeuppance. And if they do, they usually get theirs back the following week. It’s like they’re doing whatever they can to make sure that I’m NOT invested in this stuff. And it’s not just this. Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay – your two most talented guys – are feuding with the Don Callis family, which doesn’t sound like an exciting proposition, but hey, it was a fun segment. (Part of this, I’d imagine, is Kenny wanting to work with familiar friends for his first program back from injury to get his groove back and regardless of what you think of his standing, Don Callis is an excellent talker.)
The continuing adventures of Mercedes Mone and her revival of the phrase “designated bathroom break” continues to exist. This Jeff Jarrett/MJF feud continues to exist for some baffling reason and for once, I can’t blame this on Jeff Jarrett, even if it means he might get a title shot at Moxley at some point. MJF, for whatever reason, is the opposite of what he was when he was the fastest rising star in all of professional wrestling.
And then there’s the main event; COPE vs. PAC… hey, that sounds good on a marquee, but it didn’t need to be a near 20-minute sloth. We talk about how AEW produced their best content during the COVID era and here we are with a main event style straight out of WWE’s main event era. Slow, plodding, long, and pointless. All of this leading to yet another Death Rider beatdown.
Only bright spot was the interaction between Hangman Page and Chris Daniels, who wrestled his last match on the previous Collision show that I didn’t watch. Daniels basically confirmed his retirement and hoped for Page’s happiness, which made Hangman conflicted somewhat. Character development? On AEW television? In 2025? Perish the thought.
Yeah, this show has seen better days… can we go back to those one of the days? Would be nice.
dtm666 