AEW Dynamite - Sept 8 2021

[KawadaSmile]

3 hours ago, Dav'oh said:

His jacket matched his shoes perfectly, bubba. Like he got his yellow and black Jordans and then found a coat with the same colours. Far from putting on "whatever", for mine.

He gave up halfway tho, 

If he has money to buy that outrageous versace jacket he can go all the fucking way to buy matching pants AND use those matching sneakers. Would be even more infuriating imo

[Zoo Enthusiast]

1 hour ago, WingedEagle said:

I want Dante Martin on TV every week.  I know he shouldn't be there every week, but he feels so fresh and different from the rest of the show whenever he gets an opportunity.  No clue what his ceiling may be but his athleticism and body control are incredible and allow him to turn traditionally impressive spots into something really special.  He's also already an impressive seller and more than willing to take some creatively sick bumps to get there as well.  

Last night was the first time I didn't mind MJF.  His schtick usually makes me cringe but outside of screaming "not cheap heat!" that segment was pretty good.  But he still comes across as one of the least physically imposing wrestlers around.

I'm cool with Cody/Black at Arthur Ashe even if I didn't expect Cody back quite that soon, but they've also gotta give us an Elite vs. Bryan & Co 8/10/12 man, right?

Martin is so good and he’s like 20 years old.  

An added fun part of being in the crowd for the GCW War Games show this past weekend was seeing Martin, Hook, Bowens, and some other AEW guys (of course Janela and Marko, along with some others laying more low) in attendance soaking that spectacle in.

I’m glad they signed Moriarty as long as he gets to keep working his indie dates, which I assume he will.  He’s really good.

[KawadaSmile]

I feel we are at a turning point when we look at the bigger picture, and I'm not talking about company X vs company Y. 

We have MANY young wrestlers appearing on big stages and actually showing up, in a point where stars from the last two decades are pushing 40 to 50, and may be thinking of retiring or becoming part time, yet still have a lot to bring to the table. It's one of the smoothest transitions I can remember.

[cm funk]

Early in the show I thought they really missed Excaliber.  JR seemed low energy/off and it took them a bit to find their rhythm.  JR's lead announcer days are clearly behind him, and I'm someone who likes what JR adds to the product which seems to put me in the minority around here.

Show was definitely rushed at points because they had so much to cram in, but I'm not going to knock it because they knew they'd get a lot of fresh eyes on the product and wanted to get as many of the big storylines and characters on as possible.  The show was promo heavy but it kinda needed to be.  But yeah, early into the second hour I started worrying about Mox and Suzuki not getting enough time unless they were going to do an overrun, and also with Suzuki not being an American TV performer that it might fuck up the match.  Cutting off his music too soon was kinda inexcusable, but what annoyed me more was Mox taking his sweet ass time on the entrance.  He at least knows timecues intuitively at this point.  Then the commercial break.....

Oh well.  Could have been better, but the match was fun for what it was.  Hope we get to see Suzuki again in NYC.

The Elite really played up the dorkiness last night and I loved it.  Matt looked like the biggest fucking geek on the planet, lol.  And yes, Cole calling Tony a nerd repeatedly while being a nerd and hanging out with a bunch of goofs is heel heat.  They're actually getting the AEW crowd to boo them, to boo them taking credit for starting AEW, which is impressive.  It's gonna be interesting the more they're on the road and the more new fans are coming to shows to how much heel heat they can get, and hopefully the core hardcore fans play along

And anyone thinking Cole is being "overshadowed" or whatever, they're doing it on purpose and I think it's for the best.  They'll slowburn a match with Kenny, and IMO it needs it.  Let's be honest, Cole was a big fish in NXT who was barely ever on the main roster, he's not even close to being a name on the level of Danielson.  There's hardcore WWE fans who as recently as a couple years ago would proudly shit on NXT and claim to not watch it.  He's in the spot of Waltman joining the nWo essentially.  I totally see him and The Bucks being a trio within the Elite and probably being the first trios champs if they ever introduce those belts, and it's a great spot for him.

Also, he's really friggin small and it's really noticeable when he's in the ring with Callis, Good Bros, Cutler and even Omega who all tower over him.  Not just height but build.  It was hidden pretty well in NXT when he's in a stable with other short guys and wrestling Gargano or Balor.  I like Cole, and I liked UE, but it definitely ran it's course to the point I'd totally lost interest in both him and NXT.  I think this is a spot he's much better suited for. 

Ruby looks rusty, which is not surprising given the pandemic and WWE never doing anything with her.  Plus, she's still coming off major knee surgery and has that huge brace on.  I liked her in WWE when she actually got to wrestle, so hopefully with some more ring time she starts looking better.  You could tell in WWE she was a bit of a ring general with some of the greener girls, and AEW definitely needs that.

I love Punk being paired with Team Taz.  You'll get two entirely different matches with Hobbes and Starks and the first interaction with him and Taz was great.  Some folks might complain but this is the kind of stuff I want to see Punk doing, and this is clearly what he wants to be doing.  I know people made the Bret Hart comparison with the Darby match, but Punk as 1995 special attraction Bret working with different talented mid-card guys while the title picture is occupied is IMO the perfect booking for him.  He doesn't need the title, and he's got seven years of ring rust to work off.  They'll get to him and Omega down the line, but with Danielson there now, who was just in the WM main event, that's obviously the direction to go first. 

I hate to bring up Cornette in these threads but I still listen to him and the majority of his AEW complaints just ring hollower than ever and a lot of it has been reduced to complaining about booking decisions.  Like, I know it's personal with him, but now that Tony is being praised for his booking and AEW is hot he seems to be focusing more on nitpicking the booking and it comes off even more bitter than usual.  He shit on Punk's first physical stuff being with 2.0/Garcia, and shit on those guys in general, which I thought was totally off.  Not only are they perfect in their role, they had the ongoing stuff with Darby and Sting.  He suggested using higher up the card heels for that to give them a rub, and says it was completely wasted on those guys.  He might have even suggested Team Taz, which wouldn't have fit for multiple reasons and I wouldn't have fed them like geeks to build up the Darby match (shit like this and that he admits to fast forwarding thru shows makes all his takes suspect).  Now that they're doing Punk and Team Taz I wonder if he'll shit on it, or begrudgingly like it while taking credit for the idea and saying he could do it better.

Anyway, wowzers.  I didn't mean to type so much.  Another great show, AEW is red hot and I love having a national promotion that feels like it's being booked for fans like me but will also appeal to casuals/lapsed fans/new fans.  I really notice that with some of the "insider" stuff they pepper in that you don't have to be an uber smark to pick up on for it to work in context.  The early Nitro comparisons are totally apt, not surprisingly, complete with Vince/Bruce/Dunn being many steps behind what the audience wants

[MoS]

I am not a big fan of Adam Cole, but he felt ten times cooler and bigger of a star yesterday than he did in his entire WWE run. Maybe it's the big hot crowd, but even his promo was better. 

[concrete1992]

AEW followed up their best PPV to date with a hot episode of Dynamite! Love when there is a good wrestling show on TV.

Pros:

• Opener was great! Dustin continues to still have it and I thought Malaki Black pretty darn good for someone I don't usually click with. They made me not mind all that much that we are getting Cody coming back for Arthur Ashe after not all that much time away. It was over a month, that's more than most angles they let someone stay away from on-air
• Punk versus Team Taz is so good. All the dynamics are great. Starks feels like someone that easily could have been grabbed 5 years ago by WWE and currently be on 205 Live. But he didn't get grabbed and now he gets to be a part of this program with Punk. Really enjoyed the Darby match but disliked the build, this feels like it is going to have a bit more meat on the bones as far as actual tension and not just Punk saying he wants to work with young talent
• Dante vs Hobbs follows that angle up and you are quickly reminded that AEW has signed some of the biggest names in wrestling but also has these wildly talented young wrestlers that can show out. Can't help but watch a match like this and get excited knowing I'm watching a promotion that I could see being as good in 5 years as they are right now with Dante only going to be 25 and Hobbs being 35 (same age as Moxley right now) during that time
• Not the biggest Adam Cole fan but he comes across as a bigger star than I've ever seen him in AEW. Even if I want to say that the hot crowd does a lot of the work, that's not something I'm going to call a problem! Let the hot crowd make wrestlers look like big stars. That's cool by me.
• Lee Moriarty got signed. Okay, that's not a Dynamite thing but a very cool thing

Cons:

• Dan Lambert has one of the worst possible acts in AEW. The promotion doesn't need this type of vessle for a Jim Cornette type character. It gets no one over, takes up TV time, and Ego is openly a huge nerd. If there was a chance that Arloski and JDS were going to step in the ring for a match against Dean Ambrose and Eddie Kingston, sure, maybe I would be more on board. Right now, it is not just a nothing act but a negative one
• MJF's promo was extremely cringy. I don't want him to get beat up, I just don't want his act to exist. Some people don't care about "cheap heat" but at worst here it was distasteful, at best it was dull. Plus it lead to Pillman coming out which is not going to be something I'll root for
• I didn't mind when I saw that Suzuki vs Mox might be 10 minutes but they cut off Suzuki's entrance and then did the commercial. That's a sort of inexcusable blunder. Wonder if they can get Suzuki back for Arthur Ashe as a do-over. This negative actually as the undertones of a positive for me though as I will say that there is something nice about a wrestling show feeling like a live television production. We got the Punk debut from the control center which was beautiful and has made me think more and more how it is crazy how it even comes together. WWE is so bad with their editing that I don't particularly care if it is difficult. They make their bad work look easy. AEW ran long, rushed things, but that's live TV bby and I don't hate that

[KawadaSmile]

18 minutes ago, MoS said:

I am not a big fan of Adam Cole, but he felt ten times cooler and bigger of a star yesterday than he did in his entire WWE run. Maybe it's the big hot crowd, but even his promo was better. 

I disagree. At least in the early UE days, Cole was pretty much the most over wrestler in NXT. Of course, that stable got stale as years went by, but crowd reaction and how he carried himself was something very consistent through and through

[NotJayTabb]

For a show that started and ended with a 33yr veteran in the ring, I thought the opener absolutely smoked the main event. Dustin at 52 looked better and moved better than Moxley in the main event, and I loved the storytelling of Black playing mind games by taunting Dustin with Cody's boot. They've got something with Black, I really hope they go all in with him and let him beat Cody in the rematch. 

Never mind Cole looking small compared to the othe Elite members, when he went face to face with Schiavone, I thought "You know, I reckon Tony could take this guy"

[Zoo Enthusiast]

31 minutes ago, MoS said:

I am not a big fan of Adam Cole, but he felt ten times cooler and bigger of a star yesterday than he did in his entire WWE run. Maybe it's the big hot crowd, but even his promo was better. 

I’m generally in the same boat RE: Cole, to the point that if he had been the biggest surprise on Sunday night, I would have been disappointed and I didn’t even find it exciting being there live.  I was a huge fan of him pre-WWE signing but I thought he got played out pretty thoroughly there, regardless of how over the “Adam Cole bay-bay” thing always was.

That said, after his first two AEW appearances I am far more excited to see the direction he goes in in a new company.  I felt sad for Tony.

[funkdoc]

20 minutes ago, concrete1992 said:

Dan Lambert has one of the worst possible acts in AEW. The promotion doesn't need this type of vessle for a Jim Cornette type character. It gets no one over, takes up TV time, and Ego is openly a huge nerd. If there was a chance that Arloski and JDS were going to step in the ring for a match against Dean Ambrose and Eddie Kingston, sure, maybe I would be more on board. Right now, it is not just a nothing act but a negative one

Talking to AEW fans every day, i def disagree.  i think some people here aren't realizing that he's meant to be a stand-in not just for Cornette, but for Vince as well (cf. the 5'9 comment last night).  And let me tell you, perhaps *the* thing that unites their core audience the most is distaste for the Vincels.

Also i'm giving them the benefit of the doubt re: payoff because the timing would be right for them to run Archer/Suzuki vs. Lambert's bois at Arthur Ashe...

[KawadaSmile]

31 minutes ago, NotJayTabb said:

For a show that started and ended with a 33yr veteran in the ring, I thought the opener absolutely smoked the main event. Dustin at 52 looked better and moved better than Moxley in the main event, and I loved the storytelling of Black playing mind games by taunting Dustin with Cody's boot. They've got something with Black, I really hope they go all in with him and let him beat Cody in the rematch. 

Never mind Cole looking small compared to the othe Elite members, when he went face to face with Schiavone, I thought "You know, I reckon Tony could take this guy"

Suzuki himself was moving better tbh. But yeah, Dustin is one of the all time greats, no wonder he's having BANGERS for 33 years now. 

Black's matches should be structured like that MOTYC he had against Cesaro, or like this, if we were to integrate more storyline stuff into the match. Will he reach the top of the mountain next year?

 

Cole looking small is something I've pointed out for years now. He looked tiny compared to Rey Mysterio. Broader shoulders, thinner arms. He has some coolness to him that would fit more one of those pretty boy musicians, but he does need to get some mass, man. Like, Jungle Boy is not a huge dude, but he's pretty well built. Hell, Bryan himself, who is not tall, has the proper built.

[Timbo Slice]

He carried a lot more mass in his younger days and looked bloated, I’m fine with him being more lean. Some folks just don’t do well with muscles. 
 

The only valid criticism I have for Tony right now is that he’s trying to do just a bit too much. If he scales things back 10-15% as a buffer for his segments, he has more time to adjust. If you have to produce to a schedule, you have to know that sometimes things don’t time out the way they’re supposed to. So you have some things you’re okay cutting if they’re not produced, and that’s okay. That goes back all the way to the first All Out with Okada going long and then having to rush the main, and that was without Tony! It’s TV Production 101, and was the first thing I learned when I was an assistant editor at the local FOX affiliate in my ancient days.

[El-P]

23 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

But yeah, Dustin is one of the all time greats, no wonder he's having BANGERS for 33 years now. 

With the talk about "revisionist history" on Jericho's career the other day, I was thinking about Dustin and although I'm a big Dustin fan and pretty much always have been (was a huge Goldust fan), there's really a huge rose-colored glass/confirmation bias effect going on with him.

He was quickly great in the early 90's in WCW. Then at some point during the Goldust era he became worse... to the point of getting actually pretty bad (including his last WCW stint)... then he got good again teaming with Booker T, then he had the godawful Black Reign stint in TNA, then really wasn't around much until he was teaming with his brother in WWE in the mid 10's, which is when he began to get good then really good again, basically getting great to the point of having a classic match at 50 years old. So it's really an up and down career, with highs that go pretty damn high and lows that go pretty damn low. The idea that Dustin has been that great worker for 30 years is really not true at all and I'm sure he would be the first to admit that. Great first years, great last years, some good/very good stuff in between but also a lot of really bad periods.

[funkdoc]

i think part of it is he was never close to a top guy when he was at his worst, the way guys like Piper & Savage were.  In my experience most people only care about the low points of your wrestling career if you were heavily pushed then.

[El-P]

That's a pretty damn good point. Visibility and cultural relevancy surely plays a part. The Black Thought period was as bad as anything you'll come across, but since it was TNA not only it means it was kinda under the radar but also people would be tempted to put it on the company (which at the same time had some of the greatest workers in the world having some of the best matches of the era).

[Stiva]

Enjoyed the show and thought it was a perfectly good follow on from a hot PPV but why did Pillman cut a promo on MJF? He should have been storming to the ring to kick his head in. A minor point, I suppose but MJF is out there calling his mother a meth-head and he comes out, amps the crowd up and cuts a promo about how awesome Cincinnati is. It felt like he was responding to a completely different MJF promo. Pretty hyped for Varsity Blondes vs MJF/Wardlow though, that could be a sneakily good match.

Dug Danielson just taking the mic from Omega and throwing shit in his face. That’s the king right there

[Tenese Sarwieh]

I want more of Dustin Rhodes on TV each week. The man delivers every time given the opportunity, have him show up on NWA or Impact or any other promotion affiliated with AEW.

[El-P]

I would LOVE Dustin to show up in IMPACT. Hell, Dustin could have an IMPACT title reign, the matches and promos interacting with the roster there would be gold. Fuck, now I want this and I'm probably not gonna get it !

[Zoo Enthusiast]

24 minutes ago, Stiva said:

Enjoyed the show and thought it was a perfectly good follow on from a hot PPV but why did Pillman cut a promo on MJF? He should have been storming to the ring to kick his head in. A minor point, I suppose but MJF is out there calling his mother a meth-head and he comes out, amps the crowd up and cuts a promo about how awesome Cincinnati is. It felt like he was responding to a completely different MJF promo. Pretty hyped for Varsity Blondes vs MJF/Wardlow though, that could be a sneakily good match.

Dug Danielson just taking the mic from Omega and throwing shit in his face. That’s the king right there

I guarantee Pillman got a text from Austin telling him he needs to lay his punches in.

[Stiva]

47 minutes ago, Tenese Sarwieh said:

I want more of Dustin Rhodes on TV each week. The man delivers every time given the opportunity, have him show up on NWA or Impact or any other promotion affiliated with AEW.

They need to finally give me the Sonny Kiss/Dustin Rhodes team they hinted at continuing about 2 years ago. Kiss is finished with Janela, Rhodes has been Malakai’d, make it happen, Tony. Give me Kiss/Rhodes vs Bear Country. Dustin could get every single Sonny Kiss spot over like a motherfucker in 6 weeks 

[funkdoc]

The problem there is Dustin is very much a part-timer these days.  He runs his own wrestling school in Austin and that's his real value to AEW.  He still rules whenever he does get the opportunity though!

[KawadaSmile]

1 hour ago, El-P said:

With the talk about "revisionist history" on Jericho's career the other day, I was thinking about Dustin and although I'm a big Dustin fan and pretty much always have been (was a huge Goldust fan), there's really a huge rose-colored glass/confirmation bias effect going on with him.

He was quickly great in the early 90's in WCW. Then at some point during the Goldust era he became worse... to the point of getting actually pretty bad (including his last WCW stint)... then he got good again teaming with Booker T, then he had the godawful Black Reign stint in TNA, then really wasn't around much until he was teaming with his brother in WWE in the mid 10's, which is when he began to get good then really good again, basically getting great to the point of having a classic match at 50 years old. So it's really an up and down career, with highs that go pretty damn high and lows that go pretty damn low. The idea that Dustin has been that great worker for 30 years is really not true at all and I'm sure he would be the first to admit that. Great first years, great last years, some good/very good stuff in between but also a lot of really bad periods.

The thing to me is that even during his Black Reign he managed to insert some fun plunder matches, and that's when he was at his most fucked up. I thought his personal problems hindered him more than actual in-ring abilities.

He has merch saying "Five Decades", and his longevity is surely something to write home about, bubba. I think that him staying healthy and taking care of himself is one of the biggest what ifs in wrestling of the last 25 years, at least.

At the very least, he has certainly one of the most fascinating careers out there.

[El-P]

8 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

The thing to me is that even during his Black Reign he managed to insert some fun plunder matches, and that's when he was at his most fucked up. 

Credit Raven for that.

8 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

He has merch saying "Five Decades", and his longevity is surely something to write home about, bubba. I think that him staying healthy and taking care of himself is one of the biggest what ifs in wrestling of the last 25 years, at least.

At the very least, he has certainly one of the most fascinating careers out there.

For sure. His ups and downs only makes him even more fascinating. I mean, although I watched his WCW stuff much later after the fact, I remember him popping up on WWF Superstars in 1990, so I've been watching him (on/off) for those 31 years. I remember figuring out by myself that Goldust was that Dustin Rhodes fella from years ago (I had not watched WCW at that point and I had no inside knowledge at all, I got on the Internet in 97) and I was kinda proud of myself for being so pro-wrestling smart  ! (I also figured out quickly that Savio Vega was Kwang and Abe Knuckelball Schwartz was the Brooklyn Brawler and Who was Jim Neidhart, but these were rather obvious... fun times)

[ragemaster]

I love the Dustin love, but there was loads of missed spots in that match last night, if that happened in a Jericho match, you guys all be over it like a rash. Dustin definitely has the rose-coloured glasses syndrome going on here.   

 

 

 

[funkdoc]

Ratings came in and Dynamite got over 1.3m, 2nd highest ever.  And for the first time, straight-up beat Raw in the 18-49 crowd!