AEW Dynamite - September 9, 2020

[El-P]

21 minutes ago, Badlittlekitten said:

Eh? FTR signed months ago. Rusev is a bigger name no matter how you look at it.

As far as AEW goes ? Nope. FTR were gonna work with the Young Bucks and Omega/Page, which basically means they are top level guys from the get go. Miro, who the hell knows what level he can attain in AEW. He's totally unproven outside the WWE machine. He can be another Mox/Lee or another Spears (Cardona is too early to tell, but I don't see shit in him).

And honestly, if he had showed up and challenged Mox or Cody right away, *then* we're in a TNA situation where a guy who for years has been a mid-card act at best shows up in the other company and goes automatically to the main event.

I really can't wait to see the follow-up, as I've got a feeling of where it's gonna go... I don't think people are getting *how* meta this is (because I don't feel there are a lot of fans of the BTE kind of spirit around here), but maybe I'm wrong about where this is going...

21 minutes ago, Badlittlekitten said:

Why are we suddenly supposed to care about whatever Kip Sabian is doing when he's been a complete non-entity since the start of Dynamite?

Well, because maybe it's time to give the guy some time on TV and develop his character too ? Gotta start somewhere. His team with Jimmy Havoc was quite good and they were given wins, but that was obviously derailed. So, let's try again.

21 minutes ago, Badlittlekitten said:

I'm not sure if its the worst segment in AEW history but it's easily their biggest misfire.

Nah. The Dark Order beatdown of the Elite late last year is still their biggest misfire. That and the Tyson stuff, actually, which I thought was a complete mess (and it really did not spark much mainstream interest nor helped ratings).

[sek69]

I mean, it's fair if you don't like how he was presented or the pairing with Kip, that's all subjective. However, the crowd was chanting "Miro Day" and popped big for the guy (well at least as big as a crowd of 300 or so can pop) so to say it was a misfire seems just patently wrong.  As opposed to the previously mentioned Dark Order beatdown from last year where you had an arena full of fans collectively going "wtf?" in unison. 

 

[Badlittlekitten]

You should develop characters before you cram them into angles. AEW have a bad habit of sticking guy in stories before they've told us who the hell the are and why we should care.

That's the big flaw with this Elite angle. Sure, I bet there's built in history from Japan or BTE or whatever. But for a Dynamite viewer like me? They told me hardly anything about The Elite before this drawn-out split began. Unfortunately it looks like they're about to do the same with the Lucha Bros too.

[Badlittlekitten]

1 minute ago, sek69 said:

I mean, it's fair if you don't like how he was presented or the pairing with Kip, that's all subjective. However, the crowd was chanting "Miro Day" and popped big for the guy (well at least as big as a crowd of 300 or so can pop) so to say it was a misfire seems just patently wrong.  As opposed to the previously mentioned Dark Order beatdown from last year where you had an arena full of fans collectively going "wtf?" in unison. 

 

300 of the most hardcore of hardcore fans popping for a big surprise is hardly a measure of success is it? I've seen far more negative than positive response to the angle, from big AEW and Rusev fans too.

The Dark Order thing was no doubt a misfire. But unlike them, Miro actually has main event upside and he got off to the worst possible start.

[El-P]

5 minutes ago, Badlittlekitten said:

I've seen far more negative than positive response to the angle, from big AEW and Rusev fans too.

Because pissed off people always express themselves more anyway.

In a few weeks no one will talk about this anymore. Of course there will be something else that will piss some people off by then.  

[Badlittlekitten]

Oh definitely. When Miro's going ten minutes with Marko Stunt I'll be the first one in here to complain. 

[sek69]

3 minutes ago, Badlittlekitten said:

Oh definitely. When Miro's going ten minutes with Marko Stunt I'll be the first one in here to complain. 

Now if it's ten minutes of him tossing Marko around, that actually sounds pretty good.

[El-P]

Considering Jake Hagger murdered Stunt on Dark a few weeks ago (with Stunt injuring his ankle), I don't think this will happen...

Now, give Big Swole another TV feud that takes up my time and then I'll complain, again. 

[C.S.]

I kinda liked The Librarians...

[Badlittlekitten]

3 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Now if it's ten minutes of him tossing Marko around, that actually sounds pretty good.

 

You're right to be fair. Stunt could make it work as shown in his awesome squash vs Lance Archer. Marko can actually work and sell a beating.

Should've saved my ire for Joey Janella. Useless.

[Coffey]

18 hours ago, El-P said:

Mox did it. Brodie Lee did it. Lance Archer did it. Brian Cage did it. People complained (yes, it did happen) that AEW had no big guys and only "small indie geeks doing flips", but now the company has reached the point where they actually have almost too much big guys kicking ass around.

Well, there's a line too. Like Brian Cage is jacked but he's definitely not a big guy. And Luchasaurus is huge but he's doing karate kicks and front flips. 

Here's the thing for me that I think often gets overlooked & this has been an issue for a long time, not just in AEW. A good example would be Mike Awesome in ECW. If your giants can do the same things as your non-giants, what makes the non-giants special anymore? Just because guys can do something doesn't mean that they should. That used to be an unwritten rule in pro-wrestling but now more than ever wrestlers seemingly think they have to throw everything at the wall to try to get something to stick. So you have people killing themselves for nothing.

There's a reason The Giant doesn't need to do a Moonsault. And why Rey Mysterio, Jr. should not do a Chokeslam. 

On an related note, Dustin Rhodes is the best worker in AEW. A lot of that roster could learn from him. But even Dustin Rhodes feels the need to do things like the Code Red nowadays for... reasons.

[MoS]

Dustin hitting Code Reds and Canadian Destroyers is my least favourite thing about him, but I popped when they teased the destroyer but he hit the piledriver instead. It was a good holy shit spot that got me biting on the nearfall. The match was all kinds of awesome.

[El-P]

Dustin Rhodes doing Code Red and Canadian Destroyers at 50 years old is fucking awesome. Just like Terry Funk doing crazy-ass moonsault at whatever age he was in the 90's was awesome. 

And yeah, Dustin at 50 still is a great worker and his match with Lee was terrific. So glad he's getting to display his ability again.

[TheDuke]

I was worried when Cody dropped the TNT title to Brodie Lee, but I enjoyed the Dustin match, and really like the match where Brodie won it, so now  I am interested in seeing what match Brodie has next.

[SirEdger]

I'm assuming we'll get a Cody vs Brodie rematch down the road but the way everything is developing between Brodie and Colt Cabana, it makes me wonder now if they won't have Colt actually beat Brodie for the TNT title, with some little help from a Nightmare family.

[El-P]

What's intriguing about this whole Cabana angle is that now that Brodie is mad with him costing them the match at All Out, Evil Uno seems to want to "protect" Cabana from his boss wrath. Maybe at some point we'll get a Uno & Grayson babyface turn alongside Cabana (whom I really can't see as a full fledge heel, he's really the "useful idiot" of Dark Order rather than a true heel thus far), maybe also leading to #4 & #5 getting more of a push (they really are an excellent team and Silver is such a charismatic guy he sure could do more).

[SirEdger]

John Silver is like the Lodi of the Dark Order and I'm all for it because he's just freaking hilarious in that position. As for Evil Uno, I don't know if it's that he wants to "protect" Cabana, as you say, as much as to cover his ass from the recent shortcomings caused by Cabana. But that poses an interesting theory though; should Evil Uno and Stu Grayson turn babyface and step away from Dark Order, who becomes the second-in-command? Would Brodie try to groom Anna Jay in taking a bigger role in the group (granted she's still SO YOUNG but I could see her become Brodie's pet project in the stable)?

[El-P]

Maybe they'll finally be successful in recruiting someone, after weeks of efforts...

This Dark Order stuff is way more compelling and fun to me than the apparent MJF/Wardlow storyline, which again, reeks of old-school pro-wrestling studies but really strikes me as kinda ridiculous in the current context. I mean, if Wardlow doesn't have a contract with AEW, why is he even allowed to compete there ? And the whole "I can put you and your family on the street" stuff is ridiculous, why isn't Wardlow just signing with AEW anyway if he's tired of MJF's bullshit ? It's not like he wouldn't be signed by Tony Khan, speaking strictly kayfabe-wise. Yeah, I understand it's a classic old-school angle, but it struck me as not fitting in today's product very well unless you give me more than the old-school bullshit. MJF is great, but yeah, his character is almost *too* old-school.

[sek69]

The "you work for me" stuff is just to explain why Wardlow hasn't turned him into a spot on the floor.  Pretty sure this will lead to Wardlow finally killing him and revealing he's signed with AEW after all. 

It's not incorrect to say this kind of fits weirdly in modern wrestling, but I wonder how much it's also due to WWE doing endless angles where they state the wrestlers will be destitute without the benevolence of The Company keeping them around. 

A cool twist will be revealing Wardlow's plan all along was to take MJF down a peg because he's ....well.....MJF. Wardlow turning out to be a secret genius and not just a meat head stereotype could be something.

[FMKK]

5 hours ago, SirEdger said:

I'm assuming we'll get a Cody vs Brodie rematch down the road but the way everything is developing between Brodie and Colt Cabana, it makes me wonder now if they won't have Colt actually beat Brodie for the TNT title, with some little help from a Nightmare family.

Colt having a guilty conscience leading him to help Cody win the title back would be a nice way to conclude this and allow you to spin Cody off into his next feud while leaving Brodie with something to do.  

[cm funk]

So am I the only one who really likes Kip Sabian?

[WingedEagle]

7 hours ago, cm funk said:

So am I the only one who really likes Kip Sabian?

Apparently Penelope Ford and Tony Khan do as well, so you're not entirely alone.

[El-P]

7 hours ago, cm funk said:

So am I the only one who really likes Kip Sabian?

He's a kinda fun character, needs to develop his game, pretty good worker but nothing special shown thus far. Considering the ridiculous amount of hatred he gets here, he's safely in the "underrated" category. It's not like he has got any kind of serious push thus far either.

[Big Pete]

I thought it was a pretty ho-hum edition of Dynamite. It seemed like after a stressful PPV with the heat and all the injuries everybody took a day or two to compose themselves and just threw together this show that didn't really flow.

Until I read about Miro, if you had have asked me the most significant fall-out of the show, it was the Bucks super-kicking Marvez. Just about everything else could have been gleamed from the PPV or is just mid-card hijinx. It really seemed like AEW buried the lead with Miro, not so much having him talk about brass rings or anything, but by putting him in a train wreck of a segment with Sabien. Instead of getting the sense that we're about to see Miro has to offer, it just seemed like he picked up where he left off. It also seems like another example of a modern wrestling company bringing in a star just to prop up a struggling talent.

Outside of that...?

I spose Dustin had a good showcase against Lee. He's been the real success story of AEW for me and appears to be in the best shape of his career. I didn't think the match did anything for Lee until the post-match where he got to low-blow Rhodes. I hope this match doesn't become the blueprint of Lee's reign, I think he should be more dominant but as a once off where he kicks a great in the balls after they put in a great performance was fine.

Maybe it's just me, but modern wrestling is really struggling to find it's flow. In AEW in particular, it just seems like a public access television network where guys and girls fight for television time and they have a bunch of commentators riff over the top and try to make sense of everything. It doesn't go together as wellas it should and I find it difficult to get up for any of their matches.

Again, I get the feeling that this week was just about getting back into the swing of things after a very difficult show. They planted a couple of seeds through out the show and I expect it'll lead to a better edition this week.

[Migs]

5 hours ago, El-P said:

He's a kinda fun character, needs to develop his game, pretty good worker but nothing special shown thus far. Considering the ridiculous amount of hatred he gets here, he's safely in the "underrated" category. It's not like he has got any kind of serious push thus far either.

He's only really a good worker in that modern "does nice moves" style - I think he's really uncompelling in the ring. I think they've figured  that out, and using him first in a tag team with Havoc and then making him Penelope and Miro's sidekick has been a good use of him.