AEW Dynamite - Beach Break - February 3, 2021

[NintendoLogic]

[MoS]

41 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Also Kenta was straight up mentioning going to Jacksonville two days ago on Twitter and apparently no one noticed, which is great. 

I did, which is why I was a bit surprised at how shocked some of the reactions are. 

I completely get the forbidden door point, and the bad blood between the two promotions, but this has been teased for a fair while now, and kicked into overdrive last week

[Coffey]

Um. HOLY SHIT. 

That is awesome. Straight up. 

[NintendoLogic]

I was under the impression that most of the bad blood on both sides stemmed from Harold Meij, and that's obviously no longer an issue.

[sek69]

9 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

I was under the impression that most of the bad blood on both sides stemmed from Harold Meij, and that's obviously no longer an issue.

Pretty much. He rubbed pretty much all the Elite guys the wrong way, and it was probably a big reason he ended up out the door.

Don Callis and Chris Jericho were working on mending fences for a while and I suppose it finally paid off for them. It's brilliant really, since it seems like everyone wins. New Japan gets a better US partner, AEW gets several potential hot angles and matches, and even Impact was able to see a boost to their viewership.

[SirEdger]

Kenny Omega & KENTA vs Mox & Archer - Lights Out Match next week.

At least, hinted by Kenny in a backstage promo after the show.

[Dav'oh]

I don't think he's sacrosanct around here, but I still feel like a heretic when I say Karl Anderson isn't much chop no wrestling pun intended. I know he had a good G1 run some years ago, making the final, and I caught some of that, but most of his matches were "short" i.e 9-12 minutes (like most of the group stage matches). The next year they gave him even less time per match. Before all that, of course, he was secondary to Giant Bernard as champs of New Japan's traditionally-weak tag division but no-one here needs a history lesson, so...
He's got a snazzy spinebuster and some good "Hot Asian wife" gags. But he's physically underwhelming, and whilst Gallows is to me just constantly taking the piss out of pro-wrestling, I get a similar feeling of "not taking it seriously" out of Anderson. Karl seems to be coasting on NJPW "smart-cred" since he signed with WWE five years ago. I love wrestlers who are enjoying themselves, of course - not a fan of Riddle per se, but I do appreciate that he's loving being out there - but there's a huge difference between Daniel Bryan's carefree attitude and Gallows and Anderson's care less (two words) attitude. As mentioned above, Rey Fenix saved that six-man match (from being the typical perfunctory Good Brothers match). 
And while the Magic Killer sucks eggs, it doesn't look like it could break one. Peace out / mic drop / I'm Kent Brockman / whatever the cool kids say these days.

[kas]

Soooooooooooooooo Okada/Omega V when??

12 minutes ago, Dav'oh said:

Karl seems to be coasting on NJPW "smart-cred" since he signed with WWE five years ago. 

Big time. He was a good wrestler in New Japan, with a couple of great matches (Okada G1 final, Tanahashi IWGP match) but got real lazy as soon as he got to WWE.

[Stiva]

I think this has been a solid as fuck run of shows but fixing things with New Japan gives them the real heat for when the pandemic eases enough for us to get fans. AEW has been at its best (IMO) when its revolved around a heel faction and Moxley leading a ragtag bunch of baby faces against the Bullet Club with Ibushi and Okada hovering in the background sounds like money to me.

They badly need a second TV show though; Dark works as a showcase for them to slowly introduce workers but there’s so many of them now, especially if the NJ and Impact relationships grow, that the potential for having more hot midcard feuds and a focus on more of the women is right up there. A lot of work for Khan to book though, I would guess.

[sek69]

5 hours ago, kas said:

Soooooooooooooooo Okada/Omega V when??

Big time. He was a good wrestler in New Japan, with a couple of great matches (Okada G1 final, Tanahashi IWGP match) but got real lazy as soon as he got to WWE.

Tama Tonga called the Good Brothers "Festus and smaller Festus" and I can't not see him like that now.

[Dav'oh]

5 hours ago, sek69 said:

Tama Tonga called the Good Brothers "Festus and smaller Festus"

I loathe Tama Tonga in-ring but he just turned babyface with that comment.

Gallows would rather be Sex Ferguson than Bruiser Brody (yeah yeah, "well...can ya blame him?") and the Good Brothers would rather be the Bushwackers than the Road Warriors. Is my view from the cheapest of seats. 

[sek69]

They seem to be planting seeds for New Japan's Bullet Club vs AEW's Bullet Club to happen at some point.

[SirEdger]

Who knows, we might get a Moxley-Shooter Umino reunion at some point!

[Coffey]

Hopefully working with AEW can lead to NJPW getting some better merch. Would love to get a couple of shirts but the NJPW pickings are super slim. Unless you just want the NJPW lion logo tee. Whomever they have in charge of their designs... woof.

[Coffey]

On 2/4/2021 at 11:45 AM, Stiva said:

They badly need a second TV show though; Dark works as a showcase for them to slowly introduce workers but there’s so many of them now, especially if the NJ and Impact relationships grow, that the potential for having more hot midcard feuds and a focus on more of the women is right up there. A lot of work for Khan to book though, I would guess.

The last thing AEW needs is Thunder.  Keep the roster special & don't risk overexposing everyone. If the roster starts to get too bloated, start releasing some talent.

[El-P]

Funny, as I was watching the show I was thinking how the board was gonna shit on that failed wedding segment (apart from having James Mitchell, which was awesome, and a few funny lines here and there, and Penelope looking like only she can) and then, that fucking main event (Fénix was out of this world, and the fact the Good Brothers could hang on with these people is telling, no matter what they showed in WWE for years) and KENTA !!!! Well, that wasn't expected. I was really thinking they were gonna get back that US belt without much fanfare on that NJPW Strong show and AEW would never address it, well, I could not have been further from what happened there. 

I've been thinking about how fascinating the whole Good Brothers story is (basically, if they just sign with AEW from the get go, they are part of the roster and what have you, but ending up signing with WWE then being fired during the pandemic then signing with "not relevant lol" IMPACT ended up making them much more interesting and hotter than they ever were in the US scene) and really KENTA is another one. Here's this guy who was a star and great worker in Japan, signs with WWE, wastes a bunch of years in NXT under a fake name because they are still in "no one knows who KENTA is anyway and we need trademarks" mode, gets injured un-learning how to work because there's only one way, loses his confidence and gets hurt more, comes back to Japan and re-invent himself working around his current physical limitations and shows up a few years later in the show that basically has been kicking NXT's ass for a year and a half straight to much HYPE. Kinda crazy when you think about it how things turned out.

Also, I have no idea what happened with Britt Baker but it doesn't make any sense that someone who was as green and tentative as she was a year ago just breaks her leg and comes back about ten times better, that match with Rosa (remember she's under NWA contract ? Yeah, no one does, really) with terrific, they really beat the shit out of each others.

Gotta love some Bear Country, these guys have been super impressive on Dark, push them. Gives a great contrast with Private Party & Top Flight too.

Don't really need more of the Acclaim though, especially not Max Caster who's about as impressive a worker as he is a rapper. He gives me Buff Bagwell vibes.

[SirEdger]

Wouldn't be surprised to see Bear Country vs Butcher & Blade on Dynamite really soon. Only heard good things about Bear Country so I'm excited

[Stiva]

On 2/6/2021 at 1:46 AM, Coffey said:

The last thing AEW needs is Thunder.  Keep the roster special & don't risk overexposing everyone. If the roster starts to get too bloated, start releasing some talent.

Eh, another hour would be ideal, I'd say. Something similar to that 1 hour Saturday show they did a while back; have three or so matches, get some extra promo time and give people like Varsity Blondes, Leyla Hirsch etc. some extra time to get over outside of the crowded Dynamite spots. Maybe have the odd TNT Title Main Event

[Dale Wolfe]

aye- they don't need a Thunder but World Wide would work a charm.

[MoS]

Thought this was interesting, because we did discuss coded language here when this happened. Of course, Brandi is an excellent promo and Jade is the worst promo in wrestling today, so I was always going to be more impressed by Brandi

[sek69]

"common misunderstandings"......huh.  I suppose that's one way to look at it. Unless Jade is fucking Cody for real what real anger and real emotion is she bringing? She's out here like this was some Lita/Edge/Matt Hardy deal based on reality instead of some shit designed to build Shaq doing a match for them. 

[El-P]

I did not say anything then because that would probably not have gotten over well with some people, but basically I was in awe of all the people who magically got their Master's degree in language science and sociolinguistics... (basically I thought this whole "boo Brandi you're doing code-switching it's offensive" thingy was completely ridiculous). And to quote Luchasaurus, I have a Master's degree (in language science). I'm basically of the unpopular opinion (especially in France where everyone is apparently a grammatical genius...) that people who aren't specialist in the field of language should just shut the fuck up about language matters ! 

But anyway, Brandi is not wrong. As far as her getting pissed off, she basically said went off Actor's Studio style, channeling real anger and real emotion to cut her promo. Which is probably why she's such a great promo. It's just too bad her booking had been all over the place, really.

[Coffey]

I feel like the old man yelling at a cloud at this point, I know I'm in the minority, but all the stuff they doing with Brodie Lee's son doesn't sit right with me. Not that they're doing it, I think that's awesome. But that they're filming it all & showing it all. That bothers me. It's an extraordinary circumstance & I can't imagine what that family is dealing with - who the hell am I to judge? It just feels like AEW is trying to siphon some of the sympathy & that irks me. Maybe I'm dramatically overanalyzing the situation entirely. One of the positives about AEW that I prefer over WWE is the way they have seemingly been a lot more relatable & inclusive, so maybe it's entirely justifiable to accuse me of making a mountain out of a mole hill, or to not give them the benefit of the doubt which they rightly may have earned at this point. I know a lot of the people there loved Brodie & just want to help his family while they grieve. I just feel icky about being a fan & seeing it all like that. Not that the kid is getting to experience those cool things. Just that we have to know that AEW is providing the kid with those things, y'know?

Am I just a bitter sumbitch? Brother El-P has a lot more finger on the pulse of AEW than I do, or MoS, so has anyone else had thoughts like this so far?

Zero issues with the Brodie Lee tribute show. That was phenomenal. And to be fair, not everything is airing on Dynamite, some of it is just social media stuff. I just question why we have to show everyone everything. 

[El-P]

19 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Not that they're doing it, I think that's awesome. But that they're filming it all & showing it all. That bothers me. It's an extraordinary circumstance & I can't imagine what that family is dealing with - who the hell am I to judge? It just feels like AEW is trying to siphon some of the sympathy & that irks me. Maybe I'm dramatically overanalyzing the situation entirely.

Honestly I think you are. I'll tell you this, I'm not a fan of seeing Brodie Jr. on TV (apart from the tribute show) mainly because I don't care for kids on TV (and I never cared for kids on TV including when I was a kid, I did not want to see fucking brats on TV, I wanted to watch adults and monsters and robots). If this becomes regular thing (which I don't think it will at all, plus there was one spot on Dark and one on Dynamite and not much else I believe, I've not seen other social media stuff), yeah, I will probably not gonna like it for many reasons. But until now, to me they come off as making this kid's life as "fun" as it can be in this dramatic context, plus it's gonna be some nice memories to balance the tragedy of losing your father.

[MoS]

I think it's basically been okay till now. However, if he keeps doing commentary and cutting promos on air, it will definitely get too much for me. I don't even know if I would call it exploitative as much as totally unnecessary and excessive. I am sure the last few weeks have been enough to give him memories for a lifetime. He doesn't really need anymore.