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AEW Dynamite- Dec 18, 2019


Ricky Jackson

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I was watching but also eating dinner. 

The first match was fun spotfest stuff. Was digging the breakup until PAC interrupted. 

Bummed to see Butcher and Blade lose their 2md match. 

I don't care about Kong or her crew. 

Someone screwed up as Jericho's entrance for the pic in pic treatment and then it cur out during his signs completely and I have no idea what happened. 

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1 minute ago, Ricky Jackson said:

I know Jericho had a lot of great stuff in WWE over the years, especially that 2008 reinvention, but damn if his career best work isn't found in all the other places he's worked, like WCW, New Japan and AEW 

It's probably not a coincidence those places let him do what he wanted to (well I'm sure no one in WCW cared either way) rather than script the life out of him.

I also appreciate he finally realized he can't hang move for move with the young guys and went all in on character development.

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37 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

If Dark Order is going to work they need a big name recruit. God bless 'em for trying their damndest to get this over but the jury is still out imo 

It's shit. Pure, utter shit. As in "I'm not going to bother watching live anymore" levels of shit. I'm talking "I would rather watch XPW" levels of shit.

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Dark Order and Nightmare Collective are too much heel recruiting. I don't like Dark Order, so the show ended on a flat note for me.  I did like how they used it to further the Page-Omega-Elite story. I don't think it's a co-incidence that they had major faces coming out to help the Bucks a few days after no one came out to help Roman when he was getting beaten down. 

I like SCU, but I wanted the Young Bucks to win. I am not even a big fan, but they clearly have a connection with fans and so far they have really not been treated like major stars on TV. They have been too selfless with the number of jobs they have done. Becoming the literal anthithesis of WCW is not a great idea either. 

I liked Cody getting a definitive win, and I really like them using commentary to push angles more. I think they are becoming more focused, and also getting the balance between wrestling and angles right. They are not perfect by any means, but they are getting better. Brandi is so miscast though. Yes, she is a great heel manager, but she is also an excellent babyface promo. She is Cody's wife, fans clearly want to cheer for her, just go with it. I would much rather she welcome someone like Statlander - whom I love, she seems great - into the Elite and could be a babyface manager who occasionally gets in the ring. I know she wants to do her own thing, but this Nightmare Collective seems so unnecessary. It just feels like a waste of time. 

Jericho-Jungle Boy was amazing. Every second of it. And then Jericho came out and continued his storyline with Mox as well, while leaving the door open for the Jungle Boy story to continue. It's basic storytelling, which somehow feels refreshing because WWE, after almost 40 years of being amazing at it, seems to have forgotten it. I am guessing they are waiting for Luchasaurus to get fully healthy and Hager's fight schedule to be more clear before pulling the trigger on that match. But I love how they are building to it every week. 

Overall, I thought this was a really strong show. There was focus, things seem more streamlined now, and logical week-to-week booking. It's going to get killed in the ratings though. That NXT main event was 100 kinds of awesome. 

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I liked the show until the last segment (first time I felt that way for Dynamite). Felt it ought to have been a feel good ending for the holiday break and Jericho cruise.

I have an open mind about how things will turn out. I know shows ending with super heat on babyfaces usually piss off fans, but it is necessary for storytelling.

However, jobbers beat up the Elite. Felt like Black Scorpions in WCW. Weird to use that as a homage, since it was universally panned- pure WrestleCrap to this day- and a brainchild of Ole Anderson. Luchasaurus beat all of them with a tail swipe previously. It was disappointing enough The Young Bucks didn't win the titles, so it felt flat that the focus was on Alex and John (squash match jobbers to the mainstream fans).

I would have closed out the new year with The Young Bucks celebrating with the titles, and perhaps Christopher Daniels getting heat with Frankie and Scorpio as a subplot. If the Dark Order must have been used, a better ending would be if Adam Page took off his mask at the end.

Maybe Tony Khan heard Vince Russo on Talk is Jericho yesterday morning and went full gear on sports entertainment.

Again, we will see how it turns out. Overall I was hyped for this show and it was paced great and had solid matches, especially BBB vs Cody/Darby and Jericho/Boy. Would not surprise me if the 5 minute no-action character work (Pentagon/Omega) to start the show handed the night to NXT.

I also wanted more than 3 seconds of Riho. I told my bud we'd get a 5 second cameo. Just think that AEW had said they want to treat the women's title the same as the men's.

I don't want to come off negative. Just gotta vent. I know we all want AEW to succeed.

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Russo being on Jericho's podcast is not a good sign.

Listening to WOR, Meltzer also hated the post-match angle and said it was straight out of bad WCW booking. He said yesterday night felt like a turning point in the war, with NXT gaining momentum and AEW losing it. That might be over-the-top, but seriously, who is clamouring for a Dark Order main event angle against all the stars in the company? I don't think even the few people who like the Dark Order want them featured in such a prominent storyline. I get showing faith in your booking and your acts, but come on. The Elite being beaten up by a bunch of jobbers was a legit turn-off. 

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Damn, I wonder what the WWE sycophants on Twitter are gonna do with their time now, with Meltz bashing AEW's booking this week. I guess he's not on the payroll anymore or something.

Haven't watched the show yet. The last angle doesn't strike me as a good idea at all on paper, but we'll see if the execution can make it ok. Oh, I know what WWE sycophants are gonna spend their time with now. "AEW is dead !" and such...

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The most pathetic thing about the Dark Order is that Uno and Grayson are both talented guys. I really, really like Uno's voice and cadence, but it's an Eric Young thing where I enjoy the performer but HAAAAAAAAAATE the performance. Ditto Brandi. They're both better than this and I know it.

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Overall, I thought the show was actually pretty good this week.  More good than bad. 

The opener was pretty good, a lot better than I expected.  I saw online this week that Chris Jericho had spoken to The Lucha Brothers backstage about following standard Tag Team wrestling rules, and it looks like that might actually be true. (He told the story on Konnan's podcast apparently.) The Lucha Bros actually tagged in and out, and this was a much more traditional Tag Match than I had anticipated.  It was pretty good.  I'm not crazy about the idea of an Omega/Hangman feud (if that's where they're going) but I thought it was good.

I really loved the Cody/Allin vs. Butcher and Blade match.  I especially love that it led to Cody/Allin II in the New Year. The fact that there is a woman in bunny ears and a guy who comes to the ring dressed like The Gimp from Pulp Fiction, and that is supposed to be somehow intimidating to people is odd, but whatever.  Butcher and Blade looked better this week than last.

The Brandi/Kong stuff was mercifully short.  I don't think Kong needs Brandi at all, but hey...that's me.

The Jericho/Jungle Boy match was nothing more than classic old school gold. It was exceptionally well done and Jungle Boy did a great job at playing the underdog who won't quit. Great stuff, I loved this whole segment...especially the Hager/Luchasaurus confrontation and Marko Stunt KO.  If you have to use Marko Stunt, that is how you use him.  He really helped put Hager over.  And the post-match promo was awesome, the interplay with Schiavone and Jericho was hilarious.

Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander was really good, and the right person went over.  No complaints there, they really have something with Statlander. Once again, I don't think Brandi needed to be inserted into all this, but whatever.

I like where they're going with Tully and Spears trying to find the right partner.

Then the show kind of went to shit.  The match was okay, I guess.  I've never been a big Young Bucks fan, but I respect what they can do.  I don't have any major complaints about the match itself, but the angle at the end was just flat out stupid, and pretty much inexcusable.  I know people have been going on about how the vignettes over the past few weeks have been supposedly helping get The Dark Order over.  And that's all fine, except that at the end of the day after all the vignettes have aired and all the smoke has cleared...The Dark Order are still The Dark Order. You can't hide that and you can't change it...especially by adding Reynolds and Sliver of all fucking things. You can spend all the money you want trying to make them more interesting, but you can't disguise the fact that honestly, it's a stupid gimmick and even more importantly...they're not really all that much fun to watch. I fail to understand the logic of having a bunch of jobbers in masks beating up your top guys.  It makes no sense and even more importantly, it really can't lead anywhere interesting.  Does anybody here really want to see Evil Uno, Greyson and now Reynolds and Silver fight The Elite?  I sure don't. The only possible explanation I can see to justify this is that they knew everybody was going to be watching NXT at this point, so they just threw a bunch of stupid shit out there.  Otherwise, I have no idea what the hell they were thinking. That last segment might actually be the very first time since the supposed "Wednesday Night War" started that I thought AEW actually deserved to lose in the ratings.  Not for the whole show, which was pretty damn good...but for that one segment for sure.  Somebody really needs to get it through to these guys that sorry...The Dark Order kinda suck.

 

 

 

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The Dark Order push is a complete mystery to me. AEW have been really good at learning from their mistakes and listening to the fans.....except for the Dark Order. They have never been over. They have always been the weakest thing about every AEW show they have appeared in. The final image of AEW in 2019 being a bunch of jokers beating up Cody, Dustin, the tag champs, Omega and the Bucks....yeesh, who on Earth thought it was a good idea?

I also feel the Bucks need to protect themselves more. If they keep losing and getting beaten up like this, pretty soon they will just be a midcard team with a bunch of high spots. And when every match has a bunch of high spots, you need more to stand out.

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Jericho/Jungle Boy was really great and Jungle Boy exudes such pure babyface charisma that he can't help but be a star. Everything else is beginning to feel really flat though; they need a hot angle or feud and they need it now. I popped for them having babyfaces coming to the aid of The Bucks and SCU, days after WWE got criticised for having nobody save Roman, though. I'm starting to think they need to find a way to feature Mox, MJF, Cody and Darby Allin every week, along with Jericho, since they're the clear stars

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