AEW Dynamite (December 1st, 2021): Cody Suffers For His Art… And Still Wins

Not a whole lot to say about this show, actually. It was fine for the most part, but also felt like a show that you could skip and not miss a thing. I say this even as the main event featured a somewhat fiery ending. So I’ll just touch on a couple things.

Bryan Danielson kills Alan Angels and goads Hangman Page – sitting in commentary for Jim Ross, who is undergoing treatments for his skin cancer – into a fight. Page and Danielson aren’t allowed to touch each other for another two weeks, where their title match will take place at Winter Is Coming, the special Dynamite episode named after a Game Of Thrones tagline. Page is about to go on, but John Silver stops him and decides to go after Danielson himself, who refuses to share the ring with Silver because he is a lowly man. Well, he’s not wrong and next week, said lowly man will be getting his fucking head kicked in. It’s been a good run, John, but it’s time to put your affairs in order.

The sight of Sting and Billy Gunn wrestling each other in a match is surreal, which explains this whole Darby/Sting vs. Gunn Club feud. Gunn Club did suffer their fist loss as a tandem, so that’s notable. There was a pretty fun match with Ruby Soho and Kris Statlander, with Ruby winning to advance in the TBS Title tournament. A bunch of other stuff happened, I guess, but you could look that up elsewhere.

And finally, the Cody/Andrade street fight in the main event… yeah, first off, that was a nasty fall that Arn Anderson took, and bless Andrade’s lackey for helping the poor guy up and then beating his face in. What an absolute pro. Anyway, the big spot; Cody suplexes Andrade through a flaming table, gets scorched pretty badly, and still manages to win. If this is supposed to get Cody cheered by those who’d rather have nothing to do with him, I don’t think it worked all that well, but good effort, regardless.

AEW Dynamite (November 24th, 2021): The Show Opened WIth 20 Minutes Of Talking

Yeah, I know it’s a week later… but that promo…

It’d be a waste of time to try and explain the opening interaction between MJF and CM Punk, but fortunately, AEW has uploaded the entire segment onto Youtube and that’s what’s being embedded here. So, go watch that, be amazed by two masterful talkers, and groan at the knowledge of Edge trying to reference this on RAW for a cheap pop and getting no reaction, whatsoever.

There’s other mild bits to talk about here, but other than that opening promo, the rest of this Dynamite show felt secondary.

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Why Should I Care About Brand Supremacy?

So, it’s November and we’re closing in on the annual WWE tradition that is Survivor Series.

One of the “Big Four” PPV events that also comprise Summerslam, Royal Rumble, and Wrestlemania, Survivor Series was the show where you had two teams of four or five teammates competing in elimination-style matches. The earliest editions of the event were nothing but these elimination matches and were such a staple of the event, even when they started varying up the card with other matches.

Once upon a time, these sorts of matches were used to pit two rival groups against each other or other special circumstances. In recent years, however, Survivor Series has had only one central theme; brand supremacy. This was the “ONE NIGHT” where superstars from RAW and Smackdown would wear either red RAW shirts or blue Smackdown shirts. And they would compete against one another to see which brand was superior. Never mind the fact that there have been numerous occasions outside of Survivor Series, where RAW and Smackdown talent would interact and compete in matches with each other; particularly during the weeks surrounding the Draft or Superstar Shakeup or whatever venacular they decide to go with that time.

For reasons that escape me, there is an allure in wondering which WWE show is superior and there absolutely needs to be a show based on this concept. Of course, there were other attempts at this. There was the short-lived Bragging Rights show, which built on this premise alone before it was decided to move it to Survivor Series, where it had remained to this day. And this is the thing that is supposed to sell PPVs or Network subscriptions or whatever the case may be.

So I have a honest question; does anybody really care about brand supremacy?

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AEW Dynamite (November 17th, 2021): “Of Course, Virginia Boos Hard Work!”

Well, AEW has a new World Champion and his name is Hangman Adam Page. And he’s going to celebrate in his home state of Virginia with a Cowboy Shit celebration. Sadly, top-ranked contender to the World title Bryan Danielson takes exception to this because when he won the World Championship at Wrestlemania, HE WRESTLED THE VERY NEXT NIGHT! Kind of unfair to levy that towards Page, since AEW has no Monday show… unless you wanna count that Elevation Youtube show that’s taped in advanced.

This, invariably, leads to Bryan Danielson having a match with Evil Uno and subsequently kicking his fucking head in for the win. Danielson then threatens to kick all the Dark Order’s heads in until he gets his title match with the Hangman. The idea of Danielson killing all the (all due respect) Dark Order geeks to get to Hangman looks like it’s gonna be a fun ride if nothing else. And the most amazing thing about this so-called heel turn is that it wasn’t a turn. Danielson think he’s the best wrestler in the world, he backs up his claims since day one-ish, and now he’s up against the fan-favorite champion. There’s no sudden shift in character; it’s always been like that and it’s brilliant. That’s the sort of “shades of gray” storytelling I like.

The Gunn Club decide to start some shit with Darby, who goes along with it, which will give us the Rampage match between Darby Allin and SIXTY-PLUS YEAR OLD BILLY GUNN. YES, BILLY GUNN IS IN HIS SIXTIES AND STILL LOOKS GOOD FOR A MAN HIS AGE. WHY AM I YELLING?

The main event match saw TNT Champion Sammy Guevara retaining the title over former ROH Champion and newest AEW signee JAY LETHAL in a pretty awesome match. There was actually quite a bit of good stuff on this show; a fun Lio Rush/Dante Martin vs. Acclaimed tag match, an MJF promo interrupted by CM Punk, who walked in, said nothing, and walked out as poor Maxwell offered a handshake, a fun little Nyla Rose/Hikaru Shida match, and a couple other bits.

Not much to say in the long run, but I quite enjoyed this Dynamite show.