Stiva

I loved how Regal spent a good few minutes praising Bryan and spent about 15 seconds on Moxley. We can all see where this is going

Weird show that felt oddly thrown together in parts, at least with the in-ring parts of it anyway. The World Title match and PAC/Yuta seemed to come from nowhere. As for Sky winning, I’m glad AEW is throwing more curveball title changes into the mix but man, Scorpio Sky feels ice-cold compared to so many other workers. And I’m not sure this is a one and done thing as Wardlow will probably be screwed by MJF next week and, as a whole, they’ve been trying to recapture the momentum that Scorpio had on the first few Dynamites for a good two years now. Baker as champ is beyond stale now too, it’s time for Thunder Rosa, Mercedes, Shida and Deeb to carry shit for a while. Still, we have William Regal leading Mox and Bryan, all is well. I’m strangely excited for the Hardys run tbh. FTR, Bucks, Private Party and Darby/Sting all feel like they could be good match-ups.

Also, special props for Isiah Cassidy, who is sneakily one of my favourite guys in the company. I want Cassidy vs Sting on Dynamite

Fucking great show with Britt/Rosa being the only real dud, I thought. Baker is in danger of being overshadowed by Cargill at this point, what a star she is. I loved what they did with the Buy-In this time around and basically made it a mini-Rampage, complete with HOOK squash and hot main event. But, the main show just had everything you could ever want; The Dog Collar match, WILLIAM FUCKING REGAL, Sting as AEWs Terry Funk, Kingston winning the big one, Jungle Boy just casually unleashing about 5 different lunatic spots, Jade Cargill as a Mortal Kombat ninja, Wardlow turning face, Keith Lee throwing a man into the sky, Hangman Page getting a good main event out of Adam Cole and Swerve Strickland being the coolest fucker alive. And now we have Jeff Hardy on the way, complete with ROH becoming AEW-adjacent and the Mox/Bryan tag team is a reality. The sky is the limit with this company, it really is.

I don’t mind Redbeard coming in because, to some degree, it makes sense that they’d find a big fucker to counteract Brody King. And I’m assuming that’s how the finish is going to go

I would absolutely wear the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match shirt but importing their shirts to the UK seems like a headache

I don't mind Page as a one-and-done challenger but my worry is that the match is going to see a ton of run-ins instead of Page just lariating his head off. Thought the matches on this show weren't great but man, were there some fucking great promos. This MJF wrinkle is interesting and I like the idea of MJF finally finding a way to get into Punk's head after he's tried so hard with everything else. Buddy Matthews is insanely jacked, he was never THAT huge in WWE, was he? Granted, I missed pretty much everything past his matches with Ali. Isiah Cassidy getting a PPV spot after making Keith Lee look like a trillion dollars is cool. Poor Quen though

I dig White in-ring but that man gestures with his hands in promos more than anything I’ve ever seen. It was like watching some poor guy out there at an E3 press conference who doesn’t know what to do with his hands

Hobbs vs Dante ruled. Hobbs has come on leaps and bounds and I am hyped for the Big Boy Ladder Match. Who else can we throw in? Vance? Brody King? I hope there’s one lunatic bumper in there and they all take turns launching him about.

Great show, I thought just about everything clicked. Whoever said that Dynamite's formula should be giving almost half the show to Punk and Danielson has it on the money. Anybody in their orbit comes away looking like a million dollars. PPV Build AEW is my favourite AEW. If the Hardy/Andrade/Darby/Sammy cluster leads to us getting The Hardys vs Darby and Sting, then everything will have been worth it. Also, the Jokers in the Casino Tag Battle Royale have to be The Briscoes, right?

Where does this leave The Factory, I wonder? Isn’t that a Cody and QT owned school?

Is Cody still wanting to be an actor? Maybe Vince is rebooting The Marine

Agree with all of this. It also had the added benefit of making JR mark out on commentary which means you keep company with Bryan Danielson. I cracked up at Hardy just leaving Private Party pissing in the wind though. I assume this leads to Jeff coming in but I’m not sure how all the pieces will fit. Props to Kassidy in that match too, he looked fantastic in there. I’m almost disappointed he isn’t in the ladder match now. Great show all in all. I LOVED Punk picking Moxley and everything that went with it. The intersection of the Moxley and Danielson stuff, MJF reacting to Moxley, the crowd popping huge for the idea of them being a team and then them living out teenage dreams by hitting the Doomsday Device. Just a great 15/20 minutes or so of pro wrestling. Hangman Page is a madman. I don’t know if he’s the one who has decided his reign needs to be a total bloodfest but I’m down for it. What’s wild is that AEW don’t look like running out of those sorts of hot TV matches any time soon

Keith Lee and Ken the (Forbidden) Box

Having thought about it, the fact the new signings first match is against Isiah Kassidy makes me think it has to be Keith Lee. Just because Kassidy will bump around like a lunatic for him and make everything look great

Starks, Hobbs and HOOK vs Sydal, Dante Martin and Lethal could be a fun 6-man to throw on the Revolution undercard. At the very least, it would get HOOK a featured PPV win

I suppose this can double as the Rampage thread but the finishing spot in Starks vs Lethal was smooth as butter. Starks has fantastic presence, he feels like a forgotten worker when people are mentioning AEWs future top talent. Are we thinking that QTs “top student” is just going to be him in a mask or is that too soon after the FTR dressed as Luchadors angle? As for Dynamite, I think that Brandi/Lambert segment may well be an AEW low point but another one was surely Kip Sabian sitting at ringside with that stupid fucking bag on his head. I thought Miro had killed him off

Give me grumpy Kendrick from a few years back, Regal and Danielson as a group and AEW has my goodwill for the next decade.

Moxley coming back has to lead to him winning the belt again, surely? Not to be too cynical but it’s an ideal story and the way the live audience reacted to him coming back paired with the rating shows that he’s still the fucking man. Saying that, a 6 month Moxley/Danielson blood feud sounds pretty appealing too. This leads me to another hypothetical for you all. Obviously TK is doing the Batista slow burn with Wardlow and MJF but you also have HOOK getting superstar reactions every time he squashes another dweeb. If, as could happen, Wardlow and HOOK continue at this rate, what do you do? I don’t think HOOK is ready for a title but, if you were to team him with Ricky Starks, it weakens both of their auras and it’s fairly clear MJF is going to be the one that beats Hangman so how does Wardlow fill time in the meantime? As much as you can rightfully criticise AEW, the fact that these questions are things you can ask are a testament to them

Umaga was who I was thinking about, actually. He was definitely the last of the monster heels built up for the WWE champion before they decided to run with shades-of-grey Cena on Raw and wink wink nudge nudge bullshit baby face HHH on Smackdown. Spare a thought for Big Daddy V

Yeah, you’re probably right. To be fair to AEW, I’d probably put Cole and Baker together on screen too but where does this leave our girl, Jamie Hayter?!

I think I'm right there with you on D'Amore. In anyone else's hands, the Impact roster goes nowhere. For all of the talk of THE FORBIDDEN DOOR, the fact that Tony Khan either, didn't want to, or didn't see the potential in using Impact for anything more than having Kenny Omega hold a few extra belts on Dynamite is disappointing. I have a sneaky suspicion that the ROH invasion program may well have been what D'Amore foresaw when they struck a deal with AEW and it'll play out as he planned originally.

At it's very best, SMW is transcendent pro wrestling but, with the benefit of hindsight, you can definitely see Cornette edging toward the excesses and nonsense that makes his OVW booking unwatchable. Dirty White Boy though. You could definitely argue that, in terms of raw talent, Tracy Smothers got done the worst by Vince's second job jobbers gimmick but Tony Anthony got stunk with TL Hopper AND Uncle Cletus. That poor fucker.

This show, as subpar as it was, beat Raw in the demo and hit over a million. I guess Moxley's return bumped it up but, with that being the first segment, and the show not really having much in the way of good matches to grab anybody after that, will it translate to similar next week?

Incredibly stupid name aside, it really sucks for ol' GUNTHER that he's not in a WWE that wants to run with babyfaces on top anymore because, back then, he'd be built up really strongly for a 3/4 month run against Cena, lose but be kept strong and probably eventually settle into a decent gatekeeper role as a trusted monster heel who can be trusted to have good matches and keep his heat. Unfortunately, we're trapped in the Reigns-Lesnar vortex in which nothing else can escape or thrive so good luck breaking through that.