Category: AEW Television Musings

I know I said last week that I wasn’t going to do any more of these weekly Dynamite musings, but something important and significant happened on this show that prompted me to talk about this piece of business. It’s been the talk of the town and I feel the need to provide my two cents on the matter. I am, of course, referring to…

Well, it’s the go-home show for Double Or Nothing, which means the last push before the big PPV event this coming weekend. It’s also going to be the last AEW Dynamite musings for a good while. I’ll keep watching the show on and off, but I think I’m going to give these things a rest for a couple months and pick it up later down the road.

That said, this was a fine show.

Wardlow killed the Ten Guy in a steel cage after a chairshot from Ten Guy killed special ref MJF, which prompted a regular ref to make the winning pinfall count. This is followed by a pretty solid Hangman/Punk promo segment hosted by Tony Schiavone, who is more than happy to stir up shit between these two, leading to Hangman knocking Punk on his ass… the intrigue in this World title feud is enticing, unlike anything involving Roman these days.

Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston beat up a bunch of dudes and then they brawl with Jericho’s crew. This is followed by a ROH Tag Title match between defending champs FTR and Roppogi Vice ending in an actual, honest-to-God DISQUALIFICATION FINISH on an All Elite Wrestling television program caused by a couple New Japan guys whose names I don’t recall beating on both teams… I guess we gotta start building towards that PPV while we’re at it.

Thunder Rosa cuts a promo hyping her title defense against Serena Deeb… it’s fine. Britt Baker advances to the finals of the Owen tournament by beating Toni Storm… and Samoa Joe defeated Kyle O’Reilly to advance to the finals against Adam Cole or someone… and part of me has this funny feeling that the tournament is going to be won by Cole and Britt because they’re doing the lovin’ or something. I hope I’m wrong on that count because… eh…

On a whole, a perfectly fine go-home show for Double Or Nothing and a good note to bow out on this journey for now. See you all next Wednesday… or earlier if you like the other shit I post here every so often.

So, I am going to level with you. This episode has two REALLY good matches and a bunch of other stuff that either didn’t jive with me or… wait for it… put me to sleep.

And no, that last bit did not involve CM Punk.

Specifically, the Hangman Page vs. Takeshita match was a really non-title match that saw the champ hit the DDT guy with his Buckshot followed by a somewhat sloppy looking GTS, much to Announcer Punk’s approval, which is a nice change of pace seeing a guy not react poorly to another guy using his move. This Takeshita fellow is pretty good; hope to see more of him around these parts. The other fine match on this show, an Owen tourney match that saw Kyle O’Reilly advance to the semis at Rey Fenix’s expense, was also exceptional.

The rest of the show was kind of just there. There was a Jericho/Regal segment that was a thing that happened – the furthest thing I would expect to say about a segment between two great talkers – and we got a big multi-man out of it… but not a Stadium Stampede as Jericho initially wanted because Mox isn’t doing any of that sports entertainment crap. Way to bury the AEW staple, Jon… but then again, I’m sure a lot of people feel your way, so it works out.

MJF gives Wardlow some lashings, a low blow, and more lashings… Wardlow no-selling the first few lashes and even laughing it off to the chagrin of MJF made the segment in my book.

As for the two Jokers in the tourney… eh. Samoa Joe got Johnny Nitro Morrison Impact Turbo Elite Mundo (how many fucking names does this guy need?) and beat him. Meanwhile, Dr. Britt got the singing joshi with the red hair and yeah, okay, that was a thing. At least Britt won, but what was the point of having mystery opponents if they’re really nothing special?

Apparently, Adam Cole beat Jeff Hardy in his Owen tourney match and there was a beatdown afterwards. I wouldn’t know because I fell asleep during this one and by the time I woke up, the show was over. That was not a good sign and the fact that I have to watch more Adam Cole does not excite me in the slightest. Fortunately, next week’s musings was already written months ago, so I should be able to stave that off for a bit.

Oh, and there was also a Serena Deeb confrontation with Tony Schiavone and Dustin Rhodes, where she cries foul about people thinking that she (Deeb) can’t beat Thunder Rosa for the Women’s title. I realize this involved another promotion that they’re no longer working with at the moment, but didn’t Serena beat Rosa for the NWA Women’s title a year or so back? And wasn’t that title prominently featured on AEW television? Because if that’s the case, then I don’t see why you couldn’t use that to plant seeds of doubt that Rosa could beat Deeb and hold on to her title. That’s just me, though.

Not much else to say there. I didn’t hate this show, so we can leave the bots at home. Try to catch those two awesome matches I mentioned if you can, but the rest is skippable fare.

Pretend you’re Excalibur and you have to read the following paragraph in less than 30 seconds of airtime.

Adam Cole beat Dax in an Owen match. CM Punk killed the Meatman with the Hangman’s Buckshot Lariat. A Tony Schiavone-conducted interview with Britt Baker does not get interrupted. Tony Nese, who didn’t even get an entrance, Kill-Hausens Danhausen, much to my happiness… and then Hook shows up because sure, why not? And now we have Hookhausen… I’d be much happier with Deadhausen, but whatever-hausen… Fuck, now I’m doing the hausen thing. MJF/Wardlow contract signing turns into a Dark Side Of The Ring segment featuring Barry Horowitz… MJF gets a pop from the Long Island crowd. They book the match for DOuble or Nothing, assuming ten whip shots, cage match from Ten Guy with MJF as special ref… and Wardlow kills the lawyer guy. Ricky Starks retains his FTW belt over Jungle Boy. Toni Storm beats the Hayter and Jeff Hardy beats Darby in what is supposed to be an Owen match but ended up being a match full of crazy spots and by the way, did you know Owen’s widow and kids were at the show? I wonder what they thought of that match.

It was a better show than last week, at least.

Yeah, it’s one of those shows. I think I’m going to use this banner for AEW programming that I actually didn’t care for. It was bound to happen, sooner or later, I suppose.

So this was a rather uneventful Dynamite show with a rare heel promo from Hangman Page, a couple Owen qualifiers, and another Blackpool Combat Clubberin’ on display being the highlights of sorts… and then there was that main event, which was such a “just there” match that even the normally hot AEW crowd was like, “What the fuck?”

Further musings after the break…

RAW celebrated 20 years of Randy Orton with the usual opening segment where a bunch of people come in and talk… and then they book a multi-man for the main event despite not liking tag-teams because how many fucking people do you gotta pay? At least the match ended with a happy ending and the crowd went home happy… or so I’ve been told.

Anyway, I just finished watching the Dynamite show a short while ago… man, what a great show that was.

Amazingly, Rob Van Dam did not make his supposed AEW debut, because what better time to make waves in the new promotion than on the 4/20 edition of Dynamite.

So now that we got the obvious deadhorse joke out of the way, the major announcement hyped up by Tony Khan turned out to be the official announcement of Forbidden Door, a joint AEW/New Japan PPV event from Chicago taking place in late-June… so another PPV event for me to sample, yippee. The way they handled this was fine; as TK came out and introduced the president of New Japan, only for Adam Cole to pop up on screen and make the announcement himself, which was the right move because Adam Cole is a good promo and TK often comes across as awkward. And then of course, this brings out Jay White of Bullet Club fame, who is… not the least bit amazing. By the way, him saying that he sold out MSG is cute and what a heel in taking credit for other people’s hard work.

I may have to go back and watch that MSG show, actually. One of these days.

Meanwhile, there was some good wrestling on here. CM Punk vs. Dustin Rhodes opened the show and that was a good match. Wardlow and the Butcher had a good ol’ fashioned hoss fight and after Wardlow won, MJF cut a promo to pay off Jake The Snake to cut one of his classic Jake The Snake promos before ol’ Murderhawk himself Lance Archer goes “Fuck all that. EVERY BODY FUCKING DIES!” Excellent. Trios between the Blackpool Combat Club and three geeks is always fun for a lark. Kyle O’Reilly beating Jungle Boy to advance in the Owen Hart tournament was NOT a surprise as it should’ve been, because we needz some genuine CANADIANS in this tournament showcasing this CANADIAN rassler. And the coffin match between Andrade and Darby was an entertaining spectacle if nothing else.

Points must be docked for one of the Private Party guys ripping a Sting sign from a guy in a Sting mask, who pulls the mask off to reveal himself to be… Sting. I could’ve sworn I’ve seen this bit in TNA ages ago. I must stress; I don’t mind it. It’s funny.

Oh, and Sting does another dive… and I was worried about Steve Austin having another match.

All in all, a perfectly fine edition of Dynamite. Summon the bots to hate this show.

Note to future wrestling promoters; if you’re going to have an overrun on your weekly television show, make it worth your audience’s while. Don’t blow it on something that nobody is going to care about.

Case in point; last night’s episode of Dynamite, which was another fine episode in a series of fine episodes and I’ve little to say in general. Jurassic Express beating O’Reilly & Fish to retain the tag titles was a nice surprise to an otherwise fine piece of tag wrestling, Captain Shawn Dean scoring another big win over MJF (albeit via countout after MJF was scared off by Wardlow because… whatever, don’t kill the Cap’n’s big moment, pal!), a fun six-man with Jericho’s crew beating up Eddie’s crew, and finally Team Taz’s best stars whose name is not HOOK get a big win over the NXT rejects of Swerve and Keith Lee. The women’s match was kinda trash, though. That’s what we get for saying Britt/Rosa didn’t live up to expectations, I suppose.

Samoa Joe vs. Minoru Suzuki was a good main event… didn’t quite live up to the physicality of Joe Vs. Kobashi (not that I would’ve expected it) and the match felt more like a tease of something bigger and more brutal, but it was fine and seeing Joe win the ROH TV Title from Suzuki was a nice little surprise. What wasn’t so nice was the follow-up, which saw Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt beat up Joe for a bit before the lights went out – another gimmick we need to kill off if the end result is another diminishing return – and when they turn back on, we get this big tall dude whose name I’m not even going to try and spell out because I might butcher it… I’ll look it up later, I promise.

I’d imagine this is a TBS deal or something… probably to try and get a big Indian name over… I wish nothing but the best for this guy, but my hopes are not high, as past experience has proven. It also doesn’t help that first impressions for this guy is that of a big, lumbering oaf that killed a previously hot crowd, who were probably expecting a name with some weight to it. Perhaps a certain Swiss superhuman or some guy named Johnny, not some failed basketball player who’s reminding me of another failed basketball player who was marketed as a giant among men and nobody bought into because he was just tall and lanky. Poor bastard has a long way to go to wipe the stencth of this first impression of the minds of the audience.

One thing is certain; this was definitely NOT WORTH the extra few minutes of overrun that had been hyped and was a downer ending on an otherwise fine edition of Dynamite. But I’m sure any negative reaction that this garners will be blamed on bots… because that’s Tony’s schtick these days.

And no, that’s not going away any time soon…

Another week, another edition of Dynamite… and it was just a show for the most part.

Mind you, it had its high points. Punk vs. Caster was good stuff. Mox vs. Jay Lethal along with Danielson vs. Yuta was a nice double dose of violence… still not entirely sold on the Blackpool Combat Club name, even if it does sound kinda cool. Darby vs. Andrade was tremendous and I’m actually starting to dig this Andrade fellow. Pity you couldn’t give Darby another win, but hey, the match was fun. And next week looks to be good..

The rest of the show… is just there.

Toni Storm debuting with a win over the Bunny is something, I guess. FTR vs. Gunn Club was also… something. The Jericho people getting ambused by Eddie and friends before overcoming the odds reeks of horrid WWE booking that almost caused me to turn the show off, because the last thing I want on the alternative wrestling show is more of the same shit as the show I avoid for those reasons. This Adam Cole/Hangman Page feud is still a thing for some reason and quite honestly, I’m bored with it. Never a good sign when Adam Cole is cutting a promo and I’m falling asleep. I don’t want to call this Hangman World Title reign a total bust, but we went from excellent pro wrestling with Bryan Danielson to meandering NXT goofiness with Adam Cole. Give the champ someone new and worthy, not NXT sloppy seconds. Thanks.

Jade Cargill’s 30th opponent was supposed to be Leva Bates, but Jade doesn’t want a joke opponent. What a burial of Leva Bates. Does she have as bad as of a win-loss record as Brandon Cutler?

So yeah, that was a show. A show with good stuff, but a show nonetheless. Meh.

So I have not been keeping up with AEW as of late. I have still not seen the PPV and the closest thing I’ve done to catching up was following whatever recaps I could. But I was able to sit down and watch this episode of Dynamite and… well, I guess I need to bust out the Five Point Format, don’t I?