Category: AEW Television Musings

All in all, a perfectly entertaining edition of Dynamite. Not sure if I’m going to be catching the PPV this weekend, but if not, there’s other stuff to look forward to, I suppose. There’s a WWE PPV that actually looks good (for once) and even the big Worlds Collide end of NXT UK Saturday afternoon. Stuff to consider.

P.S. Apparently Bobby Fish’s contract has expired and AEW is not re-signing him. So much for that Elite vs. ReDragon trios feud, bay bay.

Last week, I expressed my befuddlement (or something to that extent) in regards to the Punk/Mox unification match being booked on a Dynamite rather than at the PPV that’s about to take place in two weeks. Well, turns out that Jon Moxley beat CM Punk to officially become a two-time AEW World Champion and in just under three minutes. Holy shit! AEW can actually do short matches where one guy dominates the other guy and kicks his ass quickly…

Well, after several weeks of promotion joint New Japan ventures and a Ring Of Honor PPV that only a minute number of hardcore ROH fans will care about, Dynamite returns to form pushing some AEW talent on its AEW program. I’ve largely zoned out of the AEW cycle for the past few weeks and only caught glimpses here and there. I’m not going to dwell too much on the past (you can listen to the DTM-Cast episode posted yesterday for that), but I just want to talk about this Dynamite show, which has been, again, a return to form.

So, Forbidden Door has come and gone. Heard it was a great show with some great wrestling. I didn’t watch it because I didn’t care enough to order the PPV on the strength of good wrestling alone since that would be akin to giving a kid a participation trophy for showing up for softball practice. Good wrestling – even great wrestling – is not something that is lacking in good supply these days and I was more than content to fill the void with virtually anything else… as was the case when I posted yesterday’s weekly PPV musings.

Now Blood And Guts II on the other hand? THAT piqued my interest.

It’s rare for me to witness a good, bloody Wargames style match and the few that I watched back in the day have always been a fun spectacle of violence until I got the DVD comp that collected all of them, which is where I started to truly enjoy the match concept as a whole. So it’s the second ever AEW Blood & Guts match and this one has fucking CLAUDIO. What could possibly go right?

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.