Category: AEW Television Musings

So it’s BLOOD AND GUTS III… featuring the All-New, All-Different ELITE (Bucks, OKADA, Hangman Page, and Jack Perry) up against the AEW team of reigning World Champion Swerve Strickland, reigning ROH Champion Mark Briscoe, resident Crazy Man DARBY ALLIN… and the Acclaimed. All due respect to the Acclaimed – they are/were an entertaining act – but two of these things are not like the other. And if you want to toss Jack Perry into the mix, then make it three.

It’s been no secret that the build up to Blued and Goots has been underwhelming. The EVP Elite storyline that’s been going on is kinda lame, Jack Perry comes across as more of a geek than the next big star in the company whose push is seemingly designed as a proverbial FU to Phil, who is apparently much happier in WWE these days when he isn’t getting injured. And other than the World Champion and maybe Darby Allin, the team opposing your big heel faction seems to be pulled out of a hat. Are we that low on big stars that we need to fit the Acclaimed in there? Again, no disrespect intended, but they didn’t exactly get me hyped for this match.

And when all was said and done… well, the match was already, but as others have noted, the ending was underwhelming.

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 24th, 2024): Bored And Gortz”

I guess Tony Khan doesn’t believe in Joe Hendry.

He probably should; guy’s been doing great numbers for NXT lately. Wouldn’t surprise me if TNA pulled the trigger on him – not that I would expect them to.

Alas, we’re not talking about Impact – even though we probably should – but rather it’s this past Wednesday’s Dynamite show, which is the last show before next week’s big Blood & Guts match, which is a regular annual thing we do rather than something that’s needed to raise the stakes in a hot feud. I’ll be honest with you, folks; I am not feeling this Elite Vs. Team AEW thing that’s going on. The whole thing comes across as totally lame and also confuses me; so the Elite take out Tony Khan so that they can take over AEW, but now that he’s back, they… still have power and we have a limp dick commissioner in Christopher Daniels. Meanwhile, we’re trying to make the former Jungle Boy into a big time heel act and we even gave him the TNT title, but he comes across as such a wannabe tough-guy sounding geek that I can’t help but laugh. Then there’s Okada, one of the New Japan greats, who’s more than content to phone it in while racking in the dough. He must have learned a thing or two from Shinsuke Nakamura.

Just about the only guy who feels like a major heel is Hangman, who’s only in this match so that he can continue his feud with Swerve, who also happens to be the only major face on the AEW side of the match. Making up that group is Mark Briscoe – a guy that people actually like, but hasn’t done much of anything on AEW television… the fact that he happens to be the reigning ROH World Champion seems to be more of an afterthought than anything. And then we have the Acclaimed – good tag team, but not quite a major force for this type of match – and the returning Darby Allin, who seems to be perpetually punished for his wanting to climb Everest by suffering enough injuries to put off said climb and on top of that, going from one crazy match to another where he will undoubtedly try and kill himself to get more time on the injured list.

Right now, this Wargames, er, I mean, Blood & Guts match has no reason for existing beyond “it’s a thing we do every year.” It’s become the new “Hell In A Cell” where every year we do a Hell In A Cell match whether the matches warrant it or not. Hell, WWE stopped doing that with their Hell In A Cell match, but then turned around and turned Wargames into a Survivor Series thing. I mean, can we not just have these matches happen when we need them to happen to further the story? Must we have a match for the sake of a match? Do we have to pick up every discarded and hated WWE trope just so we could be the alternative to the other company that’s doing all the stuff we used to do? You know, the stuff that made us worth watching?

As far as the rest of the show goes… eh…

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 17th, 2024) – I Said His Name And He Didn’t Appear…”

Emanating from the great wrestling city of Calgary, …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Alberta, Canada… it’s AEW Dynamite and the finals of the Owen Hart tournaments, which will feature Bryan Danielson and ??? going at it in the mens tournament, while Willow Nightingale and ??? will battle it out in the bussoms tournament… what’s that? It’s not the…? Oh… well, okay, then… never mind…

On with the show, I guess…

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 10th, 2024) – Am I Really Supposed To Be Excited About This?”

It’s the Forbidden Door post-show edition of Dynamite and it also happens to be the first episode of Dynamite (or any semblance of AEW – TV or PPV) I’ve watched since May. And yes, we’re sticking with the TK Neckbrace banner for now… because it amuses me.

But did this show amuse me?

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 3rd, 2024) – I Guess Chicago Is Not Swerve’s House”

The saga of All Elite Wrestling being run by the Elite continues with this week’s episode of Dynamite and apparently, news broke that Eddie Kingston may have suffered an injury during a New Japan show last week and his status for the show is as questionable as my waning interest in the current direction of this promotion. This show continues to confound me and… well, you know what? I’ll save my thoughts for after the break, because there’s also a bit of an announcement regarding future content as it relates to the wrestling side of things.

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (May 15th, 2024) – Jumping Off Point”

Week 2 of our nWo tribute act continues with Kenny Omega making a major announcement after his attack last week… and it turns out to be…

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (May 8th, 2024) – The nWo Tribute Act Continues…”

Before anyone asks… yes, that is the new AEW Dynamite Musings banner for the foreseeable future. Take it in however context you wish, but that headshot is about as synonymous as that Anthem owl that Reby Hardy wanted to fuck all those years ago… and also, it amuses me greatly, so therefore, it stays… for now, at least.

Unfortunately, while a headshot of a blank-eyed Tony Khan in a neck brace brings some mild amusement, the same cannot be said for this Dynamite show, which… I will admit to watching for the explicit purpose of seeing where they go with this Tony Khan thing.

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (May 1st, 2024) – Canadian Content Breeds Canadian Contempt”

Saw bits and pieces of Wednesday’s Dynamite show, which was the post-PPV edition of the program following what I heard was a tremendous Dynasty PPV. Maybe somewhere along the way I’ll get back to watching that, but in the meantime, I watched this AEW Dynamite show and, well, random thoughts after the break…

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (April 24th, 2024): Good Grief…”

This is going to be short because I’ve got very little to say about this show. Not even gonna bother with a banner.

Jon Moxley beat Jeff Hardy in the opening match… I’d want to say that this is a big deal, but when was the last time Jeff Hardy was used in any meaningful way? I do like that Mox went for a handshake after the match and Jeff flipped him off… I laughed. This followed by Hangman Page getting a win over some guy I’ve never heard of, but this is supposed to be Swerve Strickland’s chosen opponent for Page to continue that feud. The match was okay in a vacuum, but clearly nobody figured Hangman was losing this one.

The Young Bucks – sporting goatees to get away from the creep mustaches – fine an intern for getting their names wrong… I wonder if they’re going to extend that to special favors backstage to really push this tired joke further. And speaking of tired jokes, Wardlow almost kills the Kommander with a power bomb that even I could tell looked a bit. I know they signed this big Kommander guy so he could lose a lot, but that doesn’t mean kill him outright.

And speaking of killing things… the Undisputed Kingdom of jobbers come out to beat up on poor Kommander until Orange and Friends come along to save the day. By the way, I know it’s been a while since I last watched an episode of AEW, but weren’t these Kingdom guys doing comedy bits the last time I saw them on TV or something? And now I’m supposed to buy them as the next big super heel group? Seriously, guys?

Chris Jericho, fresh off the Jericruise and looking somewhat “out of it” as a result, defeated some guy. Former TNA wrestler Deonna Purrazzo defeated Taya Valkyrie while Timeless Toni was on commentary talking about titties or something, so clearly that was the thing you’re supposed to be paying attention to… I can at least say that for the moment, this gimmick is still somewhat likeable. And then in the main event, Swerve beat RVD in a hardcore match. And then we have a confrontation between Swerve, Hangman, and Joe.

Yeah, so this was playing a less-than-full crowd and it sort of explains while AEW has been playing to less-than-full crowds as of late. Tony probably should’ve gotten pointers from TNA on how to make a near-empty arena look full because they used to be really good at that. Not the worst show I’ve seen, but I was bored through most of it, so…

Next week, Tony Khan has a big announcement.

To quote a great man, “that’ll put butts in them seats.”