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Dynamite (05.12.2021)
Holy hell, what a week. I had a great day off, took a very full hot bath, watched some movies, but I'm jumping right into wrestling because it was a LOT.
This show started with Eddie carrying Moxley's IWGP belt for him around his neck and it was perfect, the end.
Jon Moxley (c) vs. Yuji Nagata for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS RULED SO HARD. Ren and Eddie at ringside! Rocky in the audience! Mox coming out to WILD THING in yet another Onida tribute, Tony Khan flashing his wallet and splashing out for music rights yet again, LOVE TO SEE IT. I only really know Nagata from some retirement show for a friend of his in the NJPW stuff from last year that's on the Roku Channel, so it was great to see him show off what he's still got left on American TV like this. Then the post-match bows and headbutts of respect, AGH SO GOOD. A great, feel-good start to the night. I was so surprised when Mox retained this title against Kenta, but New Japan seems determined to get their due out of him as champion now that the pandemic is finally starting to be less of a hindrance and I'm LOVING it.
Solid promo from Ortiz in the back but uuuuuuugh I guess the Inner Circle/Pinnacle stuff isn't done yet, save me please.
And then there was a very long, VERY 'Murrca patriotism yay promo from Cody, which eeeeeech. He did a good job making it more of a personal thing, tearing up (classic fuckin' cool boss Cody) talking about Brandy and his biracial daughter and reclaiming the 'American Dream' name for one night only, but just... uuuuuuugh. Is now really a great time for this? Is ever really a great time for this? He already had a solid angle against Ogogo without bringing the weird nationalistic shit into it. I wonder if it's just because they want to turn Ogogo into British Kurt Angle. Either way, they're fighting at Double or Nothing, no surprise there.
The Young Bucks (c) vs. SCU for the AEW World Tag Team Championship: And then SCU broke up forever and I'm SAD ABOUT IT. I really grew fond of those guys when I was going through all the old early BTE episodes (shout out to my favourite of their 'worst town' bits, the fucking noises CD makes are just the funniest goddamn thing), so even though I didn't really get to experience them in their heyday, it's still really emotional stuff! And this match, man... fantastic shit. They really pulled out all the stops for their last go as a team, perfectly hitting all of their iconic moves, bringing back a few classic ones, and all while doing it against some of their oldest friends in the business was just... chef's kiss, even if the Bucks' current role as heels made me hyper-aware of how WRONG it all is throughout. Seriously, though, they've been bad guys before, and even at their douchebag WORST, their behaviour here would have been wildly out of character, and this change in personality happened OVERNIGHT. It HAS to be an act at this point, because at the end of the day, is there ever any coming back from delighting in destroying the partnership of the guys you used to have over for Christmas every year while one of them bleeds all over you?? The Shawn Michaels "I'm sorry, I love you" riff was great, though.
Woof. Man. I was in my feelings after that one, and then got NO catharsis afterwards because this show moves a mile a fucking minute and we went STRAIGHT to Mox and Eddie trashing the Elite locker room which yay but GODDAMN. LET A BITCH BREATHE, PLEASE. Hopefully this isn't the end of the SCU story, since while it's clearly setting up for CD to retire from in-ring action and focus on his talent relations role going forward, he needs a more decisive final match than this. Him vs. Kaz at Double or Nothing to end it would be... oof, so I guess we'll see what the next two weeks bring.
Christian interview where he pivots from his Team Taz feud to just announcing that he'll be in the casino battle royale? Weird! I'll have thoughts on this later!
PAC vs. Orange Cassidy: Oh man, what a bummer. I was really looking forward to this match, their first one at Revolution last year was fantastic, and a time-limit draw leading to a three-way against Kenny at DoN was absolutely on my list of possible outcomes. And I'm pretty sure that WAS the plan here, until Orange took that liger bomb. I had to go back and rewatch after that ridiculous finish to see exactly what happened, because Orange eating shit and getting layed out for long periods is kind of a hallmark of his matches, but he definitely got hurt there and all the weird hemming and hawing and cutting to commercial was definitely Aubrey assessing the situation, she eventually throws up the X and that's when we get the weird bullshit with Don and Kenny coming out leading to the double countout. As far as calling an audible and salvaging the outcome of the match on the fly on live TV goes? Not too fucking bad after all, goddamn. Hopefully Orange is okay. Damn.
Young Bucks vs. Mox and Eddie at Double or Nothing confirmed. Sometimes good things happen, too.
HANGMAN!! I was really worried about how he was doing, since we haven't seen a glimpse of him since his loss, but he seems to be doing okay! That throwaway line about how it had to happen sooner or later hurt, though, the self-loathing is quieter these days, but still very much in there. Anyway, I guess he's getting a rematch against Brian at Double or Nothing, which... okay? That's it? Combined with Christian's announcement earlier in the episode, I've got a nasty feeling that plans had to rapidly change with the news that Ricky actually DID fracture his neck when he landed on it after that German suplex three weeks ago. I really thought they were building to Hangman and Christian vs. Brian and Ricky, but if that was the case, could they really not just sub Hobbs in for Ricky? Was there more important storyline reasons that it HAD to be Ricky, maybe having to with the tensions within Team Taz that seem to be backburnered right now? Or am I completely off the mark? I don't know! Hopefully this will be a good match and Hangman can get some redemption for that horrific beatdown and some higher stakes will be introduced along the way. PUT THE FTW BELT ON THE LINE, YOU COWARDS.
And then the fucking Pinnacle had a long, boring 'coronation' segment and honestly, I just kinda tuned out and watched Wardlow flirt with the pretty ladies at the back of the stage for a while. There was a great moment where MJF asked the audience if they wanted them to have a rematch with the Inner Circle and I yelled NO a lot and then he refused to grant one, like yes, thank you, that is exactly what I wanted. But then the Inner Circle drove up and called them out and Jericho was there and then they hosed them down with a champagne firehose and it was all very stupid nonsense and then MJF accepted the rematch and so they're doing Stadium Stampede at Double or Nothing and UUUUUUUUGH. A) I still don't care. B) Stadium Stampede right after Blood & Guts, they really are just biting all of the Inner Circle vs. Elite feud's steez with this, huh. C) How was Blood & Guts not the big kiss-off?? D) Will Stadium Stampede be the token cinematic match again this year, or will they find a way to make it fresh? I kinda thought it would be a one-off. E) I guess if it's as wide-ranging as the last one, it could be seen as a sort of farewell to Daily's Place with AEW finally starting to tour again in July, which would be nice to have. F) I was really hoping for something like that for Dark Order vs. Hardy Family Office, though, those groups have been going at each other every week on Dark for ages now, so where is THAT feud going? Are they going to have two big group matches on one PPV? Or are they just treading water? G) If/when the Inner Circle loses, they have to break up, which: pretty weird introducing that as a stipulation RIGHT after doing a match where that was the stipulation but also FUCKING PLEASE. FREE SAMMY AND SANTANA AND ORTIZ FROM THIS PURGATORY ALREADY. At least they found SOME way to make me want to watch this multifaceted fucking rehash of a match. H) Wardlow was wearing a white shirt, which kinda made the whole stupid firehose bit worth it. MOVING ON.
Britt Baker interview with JR was a'ight. Pretty sad that they needed this to illustrate some reasons why it'll offer some cool story beats when she defeats Shida and becomes the next champ; the stuff about Shida creating the monster she's become when she busted her nose open last year, leading to Britt getting sidelined for five months and getting nastier all the while is great! Sucks that they get so little to do that it was so easy to forget! The way she calls out the struggles of the division here just doesn't sit right with me when they're STILL struggling to get decent booking compared to the men, I hate performatively calling out issues instead of fixing them (and that's not on the ladies, obviously, it's not Britt's fault, it's just... ech).
The Random Thunder Rosa Squash Match: HA HA HA, HEY, SPEAKING OF. Two weeks in a row where the lone women's match was a total afterthought! Cool! Cool cool cool! Instead, I will talk about how hilarious the stipulation on Thunder Rosa's upcoming NWA match against Kamille is: if she loses, she's not allowed to wrestle anywhere else. Staying in NWA is the PUNISHMENT. It's like the opposite of a Loser Leaves Town match! Loser has to stay here in this dump! What an ultimate self-own of a stipulation!
And then Jade gets another interview where she doesn't have a manager, is still her own boss, still that bitch, still the same old same old from her once more, BORING. And all three women's bits were completely buried in their old familiar second-to-last slot once again. It's some extremely weak shit!
Not weak shit? That artsy black and white Darby video of him going to his old skeleton-filled skate punk house, great little promo package for what I was fervently hoping was his last title defense.
Darby Allin (c) vs. Miro for the AEW TNT Championship: I wonder if the looooooooong pre-match beatdown here was to eat up time lost from ending the PAC/Orange match early? Anyway, this match was fucking phenomenal, one last main event banger from the nervous little punk boy's title run; I like that it wasn't just a long, brutal beatdown and Darby got in tons of killer looking offense along the way. That one tope suicida where he just PINBALLS off of Miro is one for the AGES, he just HURLS himself out of the ring. Also, whenever he manages to latch on like a skinny human backpack to wreck Miro's shit from behind, that move NEVER gets old. So good, but also, I painted my nails in Bulgarian flag colours in advance of this match, I am VERY happy to finally get a title change. I'm ready for new things for both Darby and the TNT belt! Let's do it! Darby/Sting vs. Ethan/Scorpio and Miro vs. Lance at Double or Nothing, anyone?
Hey, speaking of Scorpio, would have really liked to see some sort of reaction from him to SCU breaking up, since he's... technically still a member? Guess hitting old men with cheap shots takes up all his attention these days.
Crazy episode. Three fantastic matches, one really unfortunate one, and some weird promos that got me all riled up and annoyed. Also the Double or Nothing card got all filled in all at once! Going in, Britt vs. Shida was the only announced match, now we've got...
Britt vs. Shida for the women's title
Bucks vs. MoxKing for the tag titles
Kenny vs. PAC vs. Orange for the world title
Cody vs. Anthony Ogogo
Casino Battle Royale (w/ Christian and Matt Sydal)
Hangman vs. Brian Cage (again)
Inner Circle vs. Pinnacle (again) in Stadium Stampede (again)
Throw in Darby/Sting vs. Ethan/Scorpio (which is still just a guess on my part, admittedly) and a potential TNT title defense for Miro and that's a pretty full card, but they've still got a couple of weeks to switch things up. Guessing they'll throw something random together for the women on the Buy-In again? Or is two whole matches in a five hour show too much to ask?
Next week: Christian vs. Matt Sydal, Bucks vs. Blonds (I hope they bring their adorable new cheerleader friend they picked up on Dark!), Ogogo vs. Austin (gotta let him rack up some wins ahead of DoN), and Serena Deeb vs. Red Velvet for the NWA championship (REALLY glad to see Serena back). A quieter card compared to this week so far, but this week was fucking crazy, so we'll see what the next few days brings for anouncements.
Wrestling!
This show started with Eddie carrying Moxley's IWGP belt for him around his neck and it was perfect, the end.
Jon Moxley (c) vs. Yuji Nagata for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS RULED SO HARD. Ren and Eddie at ringside! Rocky in the audience! Mox coming out to WILD THING in yet another Onida tribute, Tony Khan flashing his wallet and splashing out for music rights yet again, LOVE TO SEE IT. I only really know Nagata from some retirement show for a friend of his in the NJPW stuff from last year that's on the Roku Channel, so it was great to see him show off what he's still got left on American TV like this. Then the post-match bows and headbutts of respect, AGH SO GOOD. A great, feel-good start to the night. I was so surprised when Mox retained this title against Kenta, but New Japan seems determined to get their due out of him as champion now that the pandemic is finally starting to be less of a hindrance and I'm LOVING it.
Solid promo from Ortiz in the back but uuuuuuugh I guess the Inner Circle/Pinnacle stuff isn't done yet, save me please.
And then there was a very long, VERY 'Murrca patriotism yay promo from Cody, which eeeeeech. He did a good job making it more of a personal thing, tearing up (classic fuckin' cool boss Cody) talking about Brandy and his biracial daughter and reclaiming the 'American Dream' name for one night only, but just... uuuuuuugh. Is now really a great time for this? Is ever really a great time for this? He already had a solid angle against Ogogo without bringing the weird nationalistic shit into it. I wonder if it's just because they want to turn Ogogo into British Kurt Angle. Either way, they're fighting at Double or Nothing, no surprise there.
The Young Bucks (c) vs. SCU for the AEW World Tag Team Championship: And then SCU broke up forever and I'm SAD ABOUT IT. I really grew fond of those guys when I was going through all the old early BTE episodes (shout out to my favourite of their 'worst town' bits, the fucking noises CD makes are just the funniest goddamn thing), so even though I didn't really get to experience them in their heyday, it's still really emotional stuff! And this match, man... fantastic shit. They really pulled out all the stops for their last go as a team, perfectly hitting all of their iconic moves, bringing back a few classic ones, and all while doing it against some of their oldest friends in the business was just... chef's kiss, even if the Bucks' current role as heels made me hyper-aware of how WRONG it all is throughout. Seriously, though, they've been bad guys before, and even at their douchebag WORST, their behaviour here would have been wildly out of character, and this change in personality happened OVERNIGHT. It HAS to be an act at this point, because at the end of the day, is there ever any coming back from delighting in destroying the partnership of the guys you used to have over for Christmas every year while one of them bleeds all over you?? The Shawn Michaels "I'm sorry, I love you" riff was great, though.
Woof. Man. I was in my feelings after that one, and then got NO catharsis afterwards because this show moves a mile a fucking minute and we went STRAIGHT to Mox and Eddie trashing the Elite locker room which yay but GODDAMN. LET A BITCH BREATHE, PLEASE. Hopefully this isn't the end of the SCU story, since while it's clearly setting up for CD to retire from in-ring action and focus on his talent relations role going forward, he needs a more decisive final match than this. Him vs. Kaz at Double or Nothing to end it would be... oof, so I guess we'll see what the next two weeks bring.
Christian interview where he pivots from his Team Taz feud to just announcing that he'll be in the casino battle royale? Weird! I'll have thoughts on this later!
PAC vs. Orange Cassidy: Oh man, what a bummer. I was really looking forward to this match, their first one at Revolution last year was fantastic, and a time-limit draw leading to a three-way against Kenny at DoN was absolutely on my list of possible outcomes. And I'm pretty sure that WAS the plan here, until Orange took that liger bomb. I had to go back and rewatch after that ridiculous finish to see exactly what happened, because Orange eating shit and getting layed out for long periods is kind of a hallmark of his matches, but he definitely got hurt there and all the weird hemming and hawing and cutting to commercial was definitely Aubrey assessing the situation, she eventually throws up the X and that's when we get the weird bullshit with Don and Kenny coming out leading to the double countout. As far as calling an audible and salvaging the outcome of the match on the fly on live TV goes? Not too fucking bad after all, goddamn. Hopefully Orange is okay. Damn.
Young Bucks vs. Mox and Eddie at Double or Nothing confirmed. Sometimes good things happen, too.
HANGMAN!! I was really worried about how he was doing, since we haven't seen a glimpse of him since his loss, but he seems to be doing okay! That throwaway line about how it had to happen sooner or later hurt, though, the self-loathing is quieter these days, but still very much in there. Anyway, I guess he's getting a rematch against Brian at Double or Nothing, which... okay? That's it? Combined with Christian's announcement earlier in the episode, I've got a nasty feeling that plans had to rapidly change with the news that Ricky actually DID fracture his neck when he landed on it after that German suplex three weeks ago. I really thought they were building to Hangman and Christian vs. Brian and Ricky, but if that was the case, could they really not just sub Hobbs in for Ricky? Was there more important storyline reasons that it HAD to be Ricky, maybe having to with the tensions within Team Taz that seem to be backburnered right now? Or am I completely off the mark? I don't know! Hopefully this will be a good match and Hangman can get some redemption for that horrific beatdown and some higher stakes will be introduced along the way. PUT THE FTW BELT ON THE LINE, YOU COWARDS.
And then the fucking Pinnacle had a long, boring 'coronation' segment and honestly, I just kinda tuned out and watched Wardlow flirt with the pretty ladies at the back of the stage for a while. There was a great moment where MJF asked the audience if they wanted them to have a rematch with the Inner Circle and I yelled NO a lot and then he refused to grant one, like yes, thank you, that is exactly what I wanted. But then the Inner Circle drove up and called them out and Jericho was there and then they hosed them down with a champagne firehose and it was all very stupid nonsense and then MJF accepted the rematch and so they're doing Stadium Stampede at Double or Nothing and UUUUUUUUGH. A) I still don't care. B) Stadium Stampede right after Blood & Guts, they really are just biting all of the Inner Circle vs. Elite feud's steez with this, huh. C) How was Blood & Guts not the big kiss-off?? D) Will Stadium Stampede be the token cinematic match again this year, or will they find a way to make it fresh? I kinda thought it would be a one-off. E) I guess if it's as wide-ranging as the last one, it could be seen as a sort of farewell to Daily's Place with AEW finally starting to tour again in July, which would be nice to have. F) I was really hoping for something like that for Dark Order vs. Hardy Family Office, though, those groups have been going at each other every week on Dark for ages now, so where is THAT feud going? Are they going to have two big group matches on one PPV? Or are they just treading water? G) If/when the Inner Circle loses, they have to break up, which: pretty weird introducing that as a stipulation RIGHT after doing a match where that was the stipulation but also FUCKING PLEASE. FREE SAMMY AND SANTANA AND ORTIZ FROM THIS PURGATORY ALREADY. At least they found SOME way to make me want to watch this multifaceted fucking rehash of a match. H) Wardlow was wearing a white shirt, which kinda made the whole stupid firehose bit worth it. MOVING ON.
Britt Baker interview with JR was a'ight. Pretty sad that they needed this to illustrate some reasons why it'll offer some cool story beats when she defeats Shida and becomes the next champ; the stuff about Shida creating the monster she's become when she busted her nose open last year, leading to Britt getting sidelined for five months and getting nastier all the while is great! Sucks that they get so little to do that it was so easy to forget! The way she calls out the struggles of the division here just doesn't sit right with me when they're STILL struggling to get decent booking compared to the men, I hate performatively calling out issues instead of fixing them (and that's not on the ladies, obviously, it's not Britt's fault, it's just... ech).
The Random Thunder Rosa Squash Match: HA HA HA, HEY, SPEAKING OF. Two weeks in a row where the lone women's match was a total afterthought! Cool! Cool cool cool! Instead, I will talk about how hilarious the stipulation on Thunder Rosa's upcoming NWA match against Kamille is: if she loses, she's not allowed to wrestle anywhere else. Staying in NWA is the PUNISHMENT. It's like the opposite of a Loser Leaves Town match! Loser has to stay here in this dump! What an ultimate self-own of a stipulation!
And then Jade gets another interview where she doesn't have a manager, is still her own boss, still that bitch, still the same old same old from her once more, BORING. And all three women's bits were completely buried in their old familiar second-to-last slot once again. It's some extremely weak shit!
Not weak shit? That artsy black and white Darby video of him going to his old skeleton-filled skate punk house, great little promo package for what I was fervently hoping was his last title defense.
Darby Allin (c) vs. Miro for the AEW TNT Championship: I wonder if the looooooooong pre-match beatdown here was to eat up time lost from ending the PAC/Orange match early? Anyway, this match was fucking phenomenal, one last main event banger from the nervous little punk boy's title run; I like that it wasn't just a long, brutal beatdown and Darby got in tons of killer looking offense along the way. That one tope suicida where he just PINBALLS off of Miro is one for the AGES, he just HURLS himself out of the ring. Also, whenever he manages to latch on like a skinny human backpack to wreck Miro's shit from behind, that move NEVER gets old. So good, but also, I painted my nails in Bulgarian flag colours in advance of this match, I am VERY happy to finally get a title change. I'm ready for new things for both Darby and the TNT belt! Let's do it! Darby/Sting vs. Ethan/Scorpio and Miro vs. Lance at Double or Nothing, anyone?
Hey, speaking of Scorpio, would have really liked to see some sort of reaction from him to SCU breaking up, since he's... technically still a member? Guess hitting old men with cheap shots takes up all his attention these days.
Crazy episode. Three fantastic matches, one really unfortunate one, and some weird promos that got me all riled up and annoyed. Also the Double or Nothing card got all filled in all at once! Going in, Britt vs. Shida was the only announced match, now we've got...
Britt vs. Shida for the women's title
Bucks vs. MoxKing for the tag titles
Kenny vs. PAC vs. Orange for the world title
Cody vs. Anthony Ogogo
Casino Battle Royale (w/ Christian and Matt Sydal)
Hangman vs. Brian Cage (again)
Inner Circle vs. Pinnacle (again) in Stadium Stampede (again)
Throw in Darby/Sting vs. Ethan/Scorpio (which is still just a guess on my part, admittedly) and a potential TNT title defense for Miro and that's a pretty full card, but they've still got a couple of weeks to switch things up. Guessing they'll throw something random together for the women on the Buy-In again? Or is two whole matches in a five hour show too much to ask?
Next week: Christian vs. Matt Sydal, Bucks vs. Blonds (I hope they bring their adorable new cheerleader friend they picked up on Dark!), Ogogo vs. Austin (gotta let him rack up some wins ahead of DoN), and Serena Deeb vs. Red Velvet for the NWA championship (REALLY glad to see Serena back). A quieter card compared to this week so far, but this week was fucking crazy, so we'll see what the next few days brings for anouncements.
Wrestling!