Category: AEW Television Musings

Yeah, so Dynamite is transplanted over to Saturday for a couple weeks due to being pre-empted for NHL games… good thing they’re not going to have to deal with this shit when they move to TBS, right? Har, har.

Anyway, a nothing happening episode of Dynamite, but there was a couple notable things here. FTR cosplayed as luchador frogs and beat the Lucha Bros for the AAA Tag-Team titles, which I forgot were a thing until now. Jon Moxley beat the ever-loving PISS out of one of the minor players in quick fashion, possibly teasing a turn to the dark side. And the main event of Bryan Danielson beating Bobby Fish was a fun bit of pro wrestling.

Oh and there was a promo from the cowboy shit guy, Hangman Page, who seems to have found the mojo he was missing all this time and is ready to beat Kenny for that World Title. Great little segment that was full of cowboy shit that builds toward the match and the moment that NEEDS to happen.

That’s about it, really. Like I said, nothing really special that stuck to mind.

So last week was AEW’s biggest showing yet, taking place at the Arthur Ashe stadium, featuring a live edition of Dynamite and a special two-hour edition of Rampage, which was taped from the venue after Dynamite. Since this is essentially being treated as a big-time PPV event being given away on free TV – and considering there isn’t another AEW PPV until November, I’ll take this – I’ve opted to cover both shows on a single musings. It’s only taken me a little longer to post this because I didn’t catch Rampage until a day or two ago when a buddy who gets the show recorded it onto DVD-R so that I can watch it.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

Continue reading “AEW Grand Slam Week (Dynamite 2021-09-22 and Rampage 2021-09-24)”

That Shaq banner perfectly sums up my reaction to this episode, which may very well be the worst episode of Dynamite that I’ve seen. One of the rare misfires from AEW as of late, but I think we can safely say that we have established a definite bottom to this Cracker Barrel.

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 28th, 2021): Garbage For The Sake Of Garbage”

Fyter Fest Night Two. 1.148 million viewers. Yep.

Let’s check this out real fast.

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 21st, 2021): Forget Sting Vs. Taker. Give Us Sting Vs. Orange!”

Fyter Fest was a gaming festival once upon a time that also held an AEW show. This is the video used to tease said event.

Since then, it’s become an event edition of Dyanmite for two nights. Though I’d imagine once things start returning to sustained normalcy, it can go back to being a gaming convention paired up with a wrestling show. I guess… I don’t know. Is anyone really clamoring for a rematch between Nakazawa and the CFO guy or whatever it’s called?

Anuway, this was a really fun show with some good stuff. A good segment with Hangman Page and the Dark Order challenging the Elite to a big elimination match down the road, a pretty fun match between Christian Cage and Matt Hardy that saw Cage pull out the win, and the long awaited return of the magical girl herself, Yuka Sakazaki.

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 14th, 2021): Fyter Fest Part One”

Well, AEW is back on the road, holding a show in Miami.

I considered doing a joke banner and call it “WWE Dynamite” in honor of Jim Ross’ latest botch that people have railed him over, but decided against it. Hey, it’s live TV, kids. And sometimes, you do something for so long that it almost becomes force of habit. Everybody fucks up. It happens. It’ll happen again. And dumping one guy to replace him with another is no guarantee that commentary will be “better.”

Unless you want to put Alex Marvez back in the booth… anyway…

Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 7th, 2021): Road Ragin’ Party”

The most amazing thing about the Kenny Omega/Jungle Boy match wasn’t the fact that it was a really good match. It wasn’t the fact that it proved Kenny Omega was more than capable of elevating younger talent to another level. Nor was it the fact that it proved that Jungle Boy was more than capable of going the distance and taking it to that next level to be a big-time main event star, thus establishing to the audience that his time will come and he’ll be ready for it.

No, the most amazing thing about this match was that there wasn’t a fuck finish.

No countouts, no DQs, no bullshit outside interference from the Bucks or the Jobber Club (that came after), nothing that would constitute a shit finish that you’d expect from a free TV title match on WWE or TNA, for that matter. No, this was a very old-school, very compelling match that saw two guys bring their A-games, busted their asses, and made each other look better than before. You didn’t come out of this match thinking Jungle Boy was some loser after taking the fall like you would a Roman Reigns match in WWE; you came out of it thinking Jungle Boy hung in there, took it to the champ, and yeah, he didn’t win, but his time will come and it’s only a matter of WHEN, not IF.

To me, this was the first truly great Kenny Omega match of the year. Probably not to the level of his legendary New Japan classics, but still pretty damn good. It certainly cemented his status as the “best bout machine” and proved that he is more than capable of elevating younger talent to that higher level. This was Sting almost beating Flair and not quite making it, but people got a better impression of the Stinger than they did before. I got that same feeling with Jungle Boy.

Somewhere in Louisville, someone named James is having a conniption fit over that comparison.

The rest of the show wasn’t too bad either. A fun match between Hangman Page and Powerhouse Hobbs, a really fun match between Matt Sydal and some kid named Dante, and another brawl between MJF’s group and Jericho’s group. Nothing blowaway or anything like that, but a good example of this being a one-match show.

I had this on the DVR still and I figured I’d give it a watch. Not much to say in general because it was a lame duck show during a lame duck period of being stuck in a Friday Night death slot where nobody was watching while the NBA playoffs was a thing.

They started the show with the MMA Cage match between Jake Hager and Wardlow… and it was almost as good as any MMA match that I’ve seen in that I was almost passing out of boredom. Then Wardlow flipped Hager and I was back into it for a bit before Hager tapped him. Then MJF caused some trouble, hurting Jericho’s arm and even punching out Dean Malenko, who has had neck issues. All the old guys with bad necks are taking better bumps than half the roster in NXT. Go figure.

Other than that, it was one of those nothing Friday shows that also featured a Miro title defense. I like Miro’s new gimmick of being God’s favorite wrestler and thanking God for his hot wife, parodying all those fighters thanking God for their gifts in beating people up. That’s fun.

It’s May 19th… Mayor Glen knows what that means…

Not much to say about this show. Opened with a good Christian Cage/Matt Sydal match, fun tag match between the Acclaimed and Mox/Kingston, a really good match between Serena Deeb and Red Velvet, and finally, the Young Bucks retain the titles over the Varsity Blonds, only to get their shoes stolen by Mox and Kingston.

This was mostly about the promos, which were largely good… the only exception being that Jade person, but I’ll lay off her for now since she didn’t say that she was “that bitch.”

Promos, kids. The show had ’em. Great promo from the Blonds hyping up their match, telling us how the Bucks showed them things aren’t dark on that side of the ring and how the current Bucks are a far cry from those upstarts. There’s a good promo with Mox and Kingston hyping up their match with the Acclaimed, followed by a sick rap from Max Caster. There’s a nice bit with Jericho and Dean Malenko that calls back to a rather popular and “meme-worthy” segment from the olden days of WCW that I thought was pretty cute. Awesome Pinnacle promo from the dinner table, followed by a great Inner Circle promo.

Needless to say, lots of great building towards their PPV and probably a good idea to get it all out now before the playoffs starts fucking around with the scheduling. That move to TBS apparently can’t come soon enough.