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Dynamite (06.26.2021 - 06.30.2021)
A chilly day, which at least makes me feel less guilty about keeping the space heater on all day. Supposed to heat back up by the time my next week off starts. Yes, good.
Still feel kinda crummy, but I can actually stand up today, which is what really matters in this work-a-day world.
Gonna try to keep the wrestle ramblings brief overall, since there are a couple of beats I KNOW I wanna go on at length about.
Hangman Page vs. Powerhouse Hobbs: HANGMAN STOP SPLITTING YOUR GODDAMN HEAD OPEN CHALLENGE 2021. FUCK. YOU HAVE A BABY ON THE WAY, MAN. Anyway, the highlight of this (very good) match was the aftermath, as the sun just begins to set and Hangman, his hair all a-rust with blood but nevertheless smiling in the light of his win, remembers the obligations that come with yet another win and who is still waiting for him at the top (at least once Jungle Boy is dispatched at the end of the night) and his face just FALLS. The world will not stop for his anxieties, and he's put off any sort of confrontation with Kenny for more than half a year, now. It's an opportunity that anyone else in the company would kill for, and yet it just feels like a noose tightening around his neck because he doesn't think he can take another crushing defeat; it's so much safer just staying where he is, winning fights and drinking with his cult buddies. But that isn't an option, not forever. CLOCK'S TICKING, COWBOY.
Best part of the Bucks promo that followed was Brandon's excitement whenever he managed to get a good zinger in. He's trying so hard to be a bad guy!
LOVED the Konnan/Tully showdown, bringing Konnan in as PnP's mentor to really add to the parallels between them and FTR seems like an excellent idea, I am SO ready for this feud to kick off properly (and for Santana & Ortiz to win and to then take the tag titles from the Bucks I AM GETTING A LITTLE AHEAD OF MYSELF HERE BUT I'M JUST SO READY).
Matt Sydal vs. Dante Martin: What the fuck was that awful bit with Vickie and Andrade at the start of this? I get that it was to set up Andrade vs. Matt at Road Rager, but yeesh. Anyway, this was a rematch from Dark a couple weeks back, and it was exactly the low-stakes, high-flying banger that their first match promised! A SUNSET FLIP AGAINST A LITERAL SUNSET. Beautiful.
Christian giving Jungle Boy a li'l pep talk ahead of his title shot because he has adopted him, bless.
Jade Cargill update: still That Bitch. In case you were wondering (I am never wondering).
Pinnacle promo turned brawl with the Inner Circle in the feud that will never end. I'm just so much more interested in the individual moving parts here then in the group stuff.
I continue to love Miro's weird new horny religious murder man vibe.
Ethan Page vs. Bear Bronson: This is just here for Ethan to cut a promo on Darby and challenge him to a coffin match at Road Rager, which: hell yeah. Nice to see Bear Boulder at ringside for Bronson, I've missed that large ginger!
The fact that it was followed by some Britt/Rebel vs. Nyla/Vickie stuff really left a bad taste in my mouth, though. We have time for glorified Dark matches like Page vs. Bronson, but not for more than one women's storyline at any given time, or anything other than single random match right before the main event per episode! Anyway, upshot was Nyla's getting her title shot at night 2 of Fyter Fest.
Kris Statlander vs. The Bunny: Ha ha ha, another women's match that seemingly only exists to set up an angle for the dudes that accompanied them! Second week in a row! That's some weak fucking shit right there. They pivoted afterwards into setting up a mixed tag match for Road Rager instead, which I am tentatively hyped af about, but I will be bummed if there's no intergender action involved again.
Decent promos from QT and Pillman ahead of their matches at Road Rager and next week, respectively. They're really jumping on Pillman's sudden boost in popularity following his dad's Dark Side of the Ring episode. They were immediately blown out of the water by Penta and Eddie being delightful, though.
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Jungle Boy for the AEW World Championship: So. Fucking. Good. I have to go back and rewatch this one, actually, there was just so much going on, and not because of the usual Elite interference shenanigans. Mostly just a lot of good-ass wrestling! I think JB's my current pick to take the TNT belt off of Miro.
AND THEN THERE WAS ANOTHER EPISODE OF DYNAMITE JUST FOUR DAYS LATER. My cup runneth over! Jericho was unfortunately on commentary for this one, but you can't win 'em all. He's just so shouty.
The Young Bucks vs. Penta El Zero Miedo & Eddie Kingston: YES. YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS. So fucking good and satisfying. Is this the first time that one of these eliminator-style matches has actually led to a rematch for the title? God, just thinking about this whole fight makes me so happy, I can't wait for Road Rager. FUCK. I am pointedly not mentioning what the Bucks did to their facial hair; if I don't think about it, it can't harm me.
Another Christian pep talk for Jungle Boy following his loss, and this time around Jurassic Express seems to adopt HIM. BLESS.
Ethan Page calls out Darby, Scorpio is also there for some reason (seriously, dude is dead weight here, why are they a tag team, they both JUST got out of long-running tag teams!), Darby comes out in a coffin because he is extra as fuck, and then he claws out Ethan's eyes, causing Ethan to bump their match to Fyter Fest, and I'm like 85% sure this whole thing was just because the building collapse in Miami would make a coffin match... insensitive to hold there. Either way, Darby's manicure game was ON POINT, so it was totally worth it.
Jungle Boy vs. Jack Evans: Very solid, Jungle Boy being the first wrestler in AEW to notch 50 wins is a pretty insane achievement that rewards both being booked well and just getting the fuck out there and wrestling week after week after week. MJF could never! And at least the random HFO brawl after the fight doesn't feel quite as tacked on out of nowhere when it's an actual member of the HFO involved. I guess they only feud with Dark Order on the Dark shows now? Matt Hardy Make Up Your Goddamn Mind Challenge 2021.
A GREAT MJF promo here, the most I've enjoyed him in a VERY long time, probably because it's mostly just about Jericho than unfocused unending Pinnacle vs. Inner Circle garbage. More stipulations, though? Is this just going to be his feud with Cody with a palette swap?
Andrade's interviews are so weirdly compelling. Looking forward to seeing what he can do in-ring next week, he's an ex-WWE guy so I am wholly unfamiliar.
Okay. Okay and then. AND THEN. Agh, fuck, okay. KENNY CUTS A PROMO ABOUT HOW THERE ARE NO MORE CHALLENGERS LEFT WHO ARE WORTHY OF HIM AND THEN DARK ORDER COMES OUT AND BASICALLY CHALLENGE HIM ON HANGMAN'S BEHALF EXCEPT NOBODY EVER ACTUALLY SAYS HANGMAN'S NAME AND AAAAAAAAAGH. AAAAH FUCK. I'M NOT READY. GOD THERE'S JUST SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE. For weeks now, whenever Kenny has cut a promo on somebody, he's been specifically calling out things that mirror things people have bagged on him for, his own insecurities, and this was no different; he talks here about how Hangman himself doesn't even think he's worthy (again, without ever actually saying his name), and it really drives home something that hasn't been brought up much, that Hangman and Kenny actually have some pretty similar insecurities at the end of the day. They always did, feeling like weak links and fearing abandonment and I think that's where a lot of the tension when they were tag champions came from; same issues, wildly different ways of coping with them (or NOT coping with them, really). They both self destructed because of it, but while Hangman let himself hit rock bottom, Kenny just continually propped himself up with unearned glory and has continued coasting along on the high of his various championships and controlling relationships, growing ever more unhinged and hollowed out while Hangman has built himself back up with the help of supportive friends and is in a MUCH better place as a result. And because Hangman's avoidance of Kenny has been so blatant, it's been easy to forget that Kenny has ALSO pointedly avoided acknowledging Hangman's mere existence ever since beating him at Full Gear. And even now, he can't even say his fucking name.
I am, once again, ignoring the whole facial hair... situation.
Miro (c) vs. Brian Pillman Jr. for the AEW TNT Championship: Solid! A little unmemorable, but Miro's putting together a pretty nice streak of title defenses here, I'm glad they seem to be back on track with the TNT belt after the first half of Darby's reign was spent just standing around next to Sting. Also, the Varsity Blonds are just so darn cute.
And then Hangman accosted Dark Order for that stunt they pulled with Kenny (he said his name!), leading to an extremely wholesome minute of television that is a little 'telling not showing' for my tastes, but sometimes you just gotta spell things out for a cowboy. While the Elite have become horrible, twisted, toxic doppelgangers of themselves with terrible mustaches, Dark Order have gone from being an evil cult to a loving family and supportive friends to anyone willing to accept their weirdness. When it happened, betraying the Elite and getting kicked out seemed catastrophic for Hangman, and now it turns out that he ended up the winner in the end. He's just got one last hurdle to overcome to prove it. And even if he doesn't manage to, he'll still have his friends. Goddamn. GODDAMN.
Team Taz update: ahahahah they're so not okay. Brian vs. Ricky (his neck's all better!) for the FTW belt at Fyter Fest, LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO.
Britt Baker & Rebel vs. Nyla Rose & Vickie Guerrero: Fucking dire. That's all I have to say about that.
Starting out a fantastic Santana & Ortiz promo with Jake Hager is a crime against me, personally. I wonder how long they had to coach him for it to be remotely decent.
MJF vs. Sammy Guevara: Faaaaaaaantastic. A perfect end to a very long, strange run of pandemic wrestle shows. I'm very bored of MJF being SO protected, but his performance here was enough to make me wish he wrestled more often regardless of outcomes. Both of these dudes are stars.
And then there was a 'farewell Daily's Place' montage that actually made me cry, so fucking embarrassing. The inherent weirdness of pandemic wrestling before they figured out how to make it work going viral was what kinda put it back on my radar in the first place and led to me falling down this whole fuckin' rabbit hole; seeing over a year's worth of memories (most of which I crammed in a couple of months) and being onboard for the start of this new era, the return to how things are supposed to be just really got to me! That video is how I spent my 2020, by and large! IT'S JUST A LOT. ;___;
Still feel kinda crummy, but I can actually stand up today, which is what really matters in this work-a-day world.
Gonna try to keep the wrestle ramblings brief overall, since there are a couple of beats I KNOW I wanna go on at length about.
Hangman Page vs. Powerhouse Hobbs: HANGMAN STOP SPLITTING YOUR GODDAMN HEAD OPEN CHALLENGE 2021. FUCK. YOU HAVE A BABY ON THE WAY, MAN. Anyway, the highlight of this (very good) match was the aftermath, as the sun just begins to set and Hangman, his hair all a-rust with blood but nevertheless smiling in the light of his win, remembers the obligations that come with yet another win and who is still waiting for him at the top (at least once Jungle Boy is dispatched at the end of the night) and his face just FALLS. The world will not stop for his anxieties, and he's put off any sort of confrontation with Kenny for more than half a year, now. It's an opportunity that anyone else in the company would kill for, and yet it just feels like a noose tightening around his neck because he doesn't think he can take another crushing defeat; it's so much safer just staying where he is, winning fights and drinking with his cult buddies. But that isn't an option, not forever. CLOCK'S TICKING, COWBOY.
Best part of the Bucks promo that followed was Brandon's excitement whenever he managed to get a good zinger in. He's trying so hard to be a bad guy!
LOVED the Konnan/Tully showdown, bringing Konnan in as PnP's mentor to really add to the parallels between them and FTR seems like an excellent idea, I am SO ready for this feud to kick off properly (and for Santana & Ortiz to win and to then take the tag titles from the Bucks I AM GETTING A LITTLE AHEAD OF MYSELF HERE BUT I'M JUST SO READY).
Matt Sydal vs. Dante Martin: What the fuck was that awful bit with Vickie and Andrade at the start of this? I get that it was to set up Andrade vs. Matt at Road Rager, but yeesh. Anyway, this was a rematch from Dark a couple weeks back, and it was exactly the low-stakes, high-flying banger that their first match promised! A SUNSET FLIP AGAINST A LITERAL SUNSET. Beautiful.
Christian giving Jungle Boy a li'l pep talk ahead of his title shot because he has adopted him, bless.
Jade Cargill update: still That Bitch. In case you were wondering (I am never wondering).
Pinnacle promo turned brawl with the Inner Circle in the feud that will never end. I'm just so much more interested in the individual moving parts here then in the group stuff.
I continue to love Miro's weird new horny religious murder man vibe.
Ethan Page vs. Bear Bronson: This is just here for Ethan to cut a promo on Darby and challenge him to a coffin match at Road Rager, which: hell yeah. Nice to see Bear Boulder at ringside for Bronson, I've missed that large ginger!
The fact that it was followed by some Britt/Rebel vs. Nyla/Vickie stuff really left a bad taste in my mouth, though. We have time for glorified Dark matches like Page vs. Bronson, but not for more than one women's storyline at any given time, or anything other than single random match right before the main event per episode! Anyway, upshot was Nyla's getting her title shot at night 2 of Fyter Fest.
Kris Statlander vs. The Bunny: Ha ha ha, another women's match that seemingly only exists to set up an angle for the dudes that accompanied them! Second week in a row! That's some weak fucking shit right there. They pivoted afterwards into setting up a mixed tag match for Road Rager instead, which I am tentatively hyped af about, but I will be bummed if there's no intergender action involved again.
Decent promos from QT and Pillman ahead of their matches at Road Rager and next week, respectively. They're really jumping on Pillman's sudden boost in popularity following his dad's Dark Side of the Ring episode. They were immediately blown out of the water by Penta and Eddie being delightful, though.
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Jungle Boy for the AEW World Championship: So. Fucking. Good. I have to go back and rewatch this one, actually, there was just so much going on, and not because of the usual Elite interference shenanigans. Mostly just a lot of good-ass wrestling! I think JB's my current pick to take the TNT belt off of Miro.
AND THEN THERE WAS ANOTHER EPISODE OF DYNAMITE JUST FOUR DAYS LATER. My cup runneth over! Jericho was unfortunately on commentary for this one, but you can't win 'em all. He's just so shouty.
The Young Bucks vs. Penta El Zero Miedo & Eddie Kingston: YES. YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS. So fucking good and satisfying. Is this the first time that one of these eliminator-style matches has actually led to a rematch for the title? God, just thinking about this whole fight makes me so happy, I can't wait for Road Rager. FUCK. I am pointedly not mentioning what the Bucks did to their facial hair; if I don't think about it, it can't harm me.
Another Christian pep talk for Jungle Boy following his loss, and this time around Jurassic Express seems to adopt HIM. BLESS.
Ethan Page calls out Darby, Scorpio is also there for some reason (seriously, dude is dead weight here, why are they a tag team, they both JUST got out of long-running tag teams!), Darby comes out in a coffin because he is extra as fuck, and then he claws out Ethan's eyes, causing Ethan to bump their match to Fyter Fest, and I'm like 85% sure this whole thing was just because the building collapse in Miami would make a coffin match... insensitive to hold there. Either way, Darby's manicure game was ON POINT, so it was totally worth it.
Jungle Boy vs. Jack Evans: Very solid, Jungle Boy being the first wrestler in AEW to notch 50 wins is a pretty insane achievement that rewards both being booked well and just getting the fuck out there and wrestling week after week after week. MJF could never! And at least the random HFO brawl after the fight doesn't feel quite as tacked on out of nowhere when it's an actual member of the HFO involved. I guess they only feud with Dark Order on the Dark shows now? Matt Hardy Make Up Your Goddamn Mind Challenge 2021.
A GREAT MJF promo here, the most I've enjoyed him in a VERY long time, probably because it's mostly just about Jericho than unfocused unending Pinnacle vs. Inner Circle garbage. More stipulations, though? Is this just going to be his feud with Cody with a palette swap?
Andrade's interviews are so weirdly compelling. Looking forward to seeing what he can do in-ring next week, he's an ex-WWE guy so I am wholly unfamiliar.
Okay. Okay and then. AND THEN. Agh, fuck, okay. KENNY CUTS A PROMO ABOUT HOW THERE ARE NO MORE CHALLENGERS LEFT WHO ARE WORTHY OF HIM AND THEN DARK ORDER COMES OUT AND BASICALLY CHALLENGE HIM ON HANGMAN'S BEHALF EXCEPT NOBODY EVER ACTUALLY SAYS HANGMAN'S NAME AND AAAAAAAAAGH. AAAAH FUCK. I'M NOT READY. GOD THERE'S JUST SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE. For weeks now, whenever Kenny has cut a promo on somebody, he's been specifically calling out things that mirror things people have bagged on him for, his own insecurities, and this was no different; he talks here about how Hangman himself doesn't even think he's worthy (again, without ever actually saying his name), and it really drives home something that hasn't been brought up much, that Hangman and Kenny actually have some pretty similar insecurities at the end of the day. They always did, feeling like weak links and fearing abandonment and I think that's where a lot of the tension when they were tag champions came from; same issues, wildly different ways of coping with them (or NOT coping with them, really). They both self destructed because of it, but while Hangman let himself hit rock bottom, Kenny just continually propped himself up with unearned glory and has continued coasting along on the high of his various championships and controlling relationships, growing ever more unhinged and hollowed out while Hangman has built himself back up with the help of supportive friends and is in a MUCH better place as a result. And because Hangman's avoidance of Kenny has been so blatant, it's been easy to forget that Kenny has ALSO pointedly avoided acknowledging Hangman's mere existence ever since beating him at Full Gear. And even now, he can't even say his fucking name.
I am, once again, ignoring the whole facial hair... situation.
Miro (c) vs. Brian Pillman Jr. for the AEW TNT Championship: Solid! A little unmemorable, but Miro's putting together a pretty nice streak of title defenses here, I'm glad they seem to be back on track with the TNT belt after the first half of Darby's reign was spent just standing around next to Sting. Also, the Varsity Blonds are just so darn cute.
And then Hangman accosted Dark Order for that stunt they pulled with Kenny (he said his name!), leading to an extremely wholesome minute of television that is a little 'telling not showing' for my tastes, but sometimes you just gotta spell things out for a cowboy. While the Elite have become horrible, twisted, toxic doppelgangers of themselves with terrible mustaches, Dark Order have gone from being an evil cult to a loving family and supportive friends to anyone willing to accept their weirdness. When it happened, betraying the Elite and getting kicked out seemed catastrophic for Hangman, and now it turns out that he ended up the winner in the end. He's just got one last hurdle to overcome to prove it. And even if he doesn't manage to, he'll still have his friends. Goddamn. GODDAMN.
Team Taz update: ahahahah they're so not okay. Brian vs. Ricky (his neck's all better!) for the FTW belt at Fyter Fest, LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO.
Britt Baker & Rebel vs. Nyla Rose & Vickie Guerrero: Fucking dire. That's all I have to say about that.
Starting out a fantastic Santana & Ortiz promo with Jake Hager is a crime against me, personally. I wonder how long they had to coach him for it to be remotely decent.
MJF vs. Sammy Guevara: Faaaaaaaantastic. A perfect end to a very long, strange run of pandemic wrestle shows. I'm very bored of MJF being SO protected, but his performance here was enough to make me wish he wrestled more often regardless of outcomes. Both of these dudes are stars.
And then there was a 'farewell Daily's Place' montage that actually made me cry, so fucking embarrassing. The inherent weirdness of pandemic wrestling before they figured out how to make it work going viral was what kinda put it back on my radar in the first place and led to me falling down this whole fuckin' rabbit hole; seeing over a year's worth of memories (most of which I crammed in a couple of months) and being onboard for the start of this new era, the return to how things are supposed to be just really got to me! That video is how I spent my 2020, by and large! IT'S JUST A LOT. ;___;