BRM Reviews the 6/22/2022 Dynamite (bad)

[Big Red Machine]

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS BRYAN DANIELSON- A great promo, but one that definitely raises some judgement questions.
Dragon & Moxley are the #2-ranked team in AEW. I barely remember them teaming up in straight two-on-two matches over the past two months. Hell Danielson’s unexplained absence means that they haven’t been active in weeks… and somehow they’re ranked #2.
I didn’t like Dragon framing the planned match with him and Zack Sabre Jr. as Jericho paying Zack to make the challenge. Yes, there is a feud there, but that idea doesn’t really add any heat to the feud, and it makes AEW and New Japan look inept for not booking the obvious match on their initiative.
Dragon said he was planning to prove his technical superiority over Zack and also “crush his trachea.” “You’re gonna get your f*cking throat kicked in?”
But he can’t because he’s injured. Okay… and if he wasn’t cleared to be in the battle royale for the match with Moxley for the title shot a few weeks ago, WHY THE F*CK DIDN’T YOU SAY SO!
He says that he has found the one person he trusts to both outwrestle Zack and take his place in Blood & Guts. He said he wouldn’t tell us who it was because he didn’t want Zack to know either… but he did it in a really heelish way by first saying that he wasn’t telling us who it was just to be a dick, and framing Zack not knowing as just a bonus. I assume it’s going to be Claudio Castagnoli.
When Dragon was done talking, Zack Sabre Jr. came out… and we just cut away to a Jon Moxley promo, making Zack coming out feel like something he was told to do by the promoter rather than something he had any reason to do on his own, and any time you make the wrestlers feel like tools of the promoter, you’re damaging them.

JON MOXLEY PROMO- decent
He said a bunch of stuff about the Tanahashi match and about Blood & Guts. None of it was bad (although, again, I mut ask why it took MONTHS of gang-beatings before he came to the aid of his supposed “best friend” Eddie Kingston), but none of it was particularly interesting, either. It was a promo to tick a necessary box on the go-home show, and that’s fine.

ORANGE CASSIDY & ROPPONGI VICE vs. UNITED EMPIRE (Will Ospreay & Aussie Open)- 6.5/10
It was a normal six-man tag for 2022. Orange Cassidy doing his stupid bullsh*t right after getting the hot tag completely took me out of the match, and they had to work hard to rebuild any interest.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- sloppy
Jeff Cobb & the Great O-Khan came out to back up their United Empire pals. They decided to threaten the Goof Patrol… but instead of just getting into the ring on the side they were standing on, they went to a completely different side of the ring first. As luck would have it, that put them in a position where 1) they wouldn’t be in a position to intercept FTR when FTR came out to back up the babyfaces, and 2) so that the hard-cam was perfectly place to get a nice profile shot of the two factions squaring off. Is it really that hard to do this sort of thing in a way that doesn’t make it feel horribly choreographed?

JAY LETHAL, SONJAY DUTT, & SANTAM SINGH PROMO- good
Sonjay is a total clown. He was excited, so he bought new pencils. Really.
Lethal was good, although, I am forced to ask why they haven’t come up with an interim title for the ROH TV Title if Joe has been out for longer than Cody was out when they made the AEW Interim TNT Title.

Tony Schiavone said that he didn’t see Christian’s turn coming. The jokes right themselves.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS CHRISTIAN CAGE- a very mixed bag
I REALLY liked this at first, but the longer it went on, the less I liked it. I loved the simplicity of this being over something so petty and small as Jungle Boy eliminating Christian from a battle royale for a title shot over a year ago. But the more Christian went on, first going after the fans for not showing him respect and going after the younger wrestler for being naïve, the more generic it felt.
I also hated the “advice to young wrestlers” part, telling them that to make money they need to have a memorable match. No! This is kayfabe. He should be telling them that if they want to make money, they should win at all costs!
Then we got into the thing about Jungle Boy’s family, and it just started to feel excessive. It felt like he was trying to draw heat, not like he actually believed the things he was saying. Also, this is the third time in less than a year that they done the “your dad is dead” angle.
Luchasaurus eventually came out and began to throttle Christian in the corner, but Christian got him to stop by telling him “remember what happened to Marko?” (I certainly don’t) and then he started with this whole “you’re like a son to me” and “we need to talk, but not in front of these people,” and Luchasaurus bought it. What a f*cking idiot.

YOUNG BUCKS & KYLE O’REILLY PROMO- very bad
The Bucks were too goofy, and Kyle seemed to be trying to out-do them (and, unfortunately, he succeeded). These three are apparently teaming up with El Phantasmo and Hikuelo at Forbidden Door to take on a team led by Sting. That sound horrendous. I don’t care who is on Sting’s team. Once you start sticking random members of Bullet Club or (CHAOS, or Suzuki-Gun, or any other stable) into a match just to have more of an NJPW presence, you’ve turned the match into filler.



I had assumed that the announcer had ring screwed up in the previous matches, but tonight this was also called “a qualifying match in the All-Atlantic Championship Tournament.” That doesn’t make sense, though, because if you win this match, you’re right in the final, so either this match is part of the tournament, or else it’s a one-match thing, in which case, by definition, it’s not a tournament.

AEW ALL-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT OPENING ROUND MATCH: Malakai Black vs. Penta Oscuro (w/Alex Abrahantes)- 7/10
Spots happened. Malakai Black won cleanly. This feud has been going on for well over six months and nothing has actually moved forward.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- frustrating, despite an awesome promo
Pac came out to check on Penta and stare down Malakai. Not Penta’s brother, Fenix, because he’s not in the match at the PPV. Then, out of nowhere, a Miro promo began to play, also to hype that match. Miro’s promo was awesome, but once again we get a post-match segment to promote a PPV match that feels clumsy and forced rather than feeling organic.
(I would have had both Fenix and Pac come out to check on Penta, with Pac then going to stare down Malakai after, and just played the Miro promo at some later point in the show).

I know it’s 2022 and I’m supposed to just compartmentalize, but when I see something like that little Anthony Bowens Pride Month commercial, I can’t but think how much harder this makes it for me to hate him when he cheats to win a match or comes out and acts like a jerk.

WARDLOW PROMO- bad
He started off by saying “I always get what I want, and if I don’t, I take it.” WHAT A F*CKING HEEL!

ADAM PAGE vs. SILAS YOUNG- 6.75/10
Adam Cole was on commentary for this match.
Excalibur said that Silas was one of Adam Page’s “most bitter rivals” when they were in ROH, which I guess is true, but that’s really more of an indictment on how little Delirious did with Page than it is a statement about how bitter their rivalry was (I’d put Kazarian and I guess Punishment Martinez above Silas).
Page cleanly won a match that was for too competitive for a match between Adam Page and Silas Young in 2022.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Storytime with Adam Cole is interrupted by Jay White, who says that he can’t defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Title against Cole because Cole lost to Page twice. White then went to the ring and once again told Page that he wouldn’t be getting the title shot at Forbidden Door, either.
Page smacked the mic out of White’s hand so White to a swing at him, starting a brawl. Page got overwhelmed by the numbers. Cole grabbed the title belt, and they did a great job on the execution of teasing that Cole might have been about to hit White instead of Page (White turned around at the perfect time and Cole had a wonderful little stutter of movement as he did so). Cole said he was going to hit Page and told White to hold him up. At this point Okada came out to make the save.
Despite being outnumbered and the heels having a weapon, Okada beat them both up. Jim Ross, apparently still thinking it’s the early 70’s, claimed that Sunday’s PPV would be “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these exciting international stars in action.”
I’m assuming this means that Okada is the PPV challenger, which will need one hell of an explanation for why AEW and NJPW didn’t just announce this right away.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS THE BADDIES- meh
Apparently Kiera Hogan is injured, so they’re looking for a new Baddie.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS KRIS STATLANDER & ATHENA- bad
They came off like goofs.

TONI STORM vs. MARINA SHAFIR (w/Nyla Rose)- 5.75/10
Nyla Rose and Marina Shafir formed a tag team on Dark this week. The ring announcer completely ignored the fact that Nyla came to ringside with Marina. Toni overcame the numbers advantage to get the win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- snore
The heels attack Toni, Thunder Rosa comes out to make the save. In the process of fighting the heels off, Toni Storm grabbed Thunder Rosa’s title belt to use as a weapon. The two of them had a stare-down because of this. Tony Khan sure is lucky that the heels decided to attack Toni Storm after this match, because if they didn’t, there wouldn’t have been anything on this show to hype up the big AEW Women’s World Title match at Sunday’s PPV.

DARBY ALLIN & STING PROMO- on average, decent
Darby was okay, Sting was great. They team with Shingo Takagi and Hiromu Takahashi at the PPV. At least I’m assuming that’s who it will be. They didn’t give any last names who explain who these people were. Once again, I don’t care how good those guys are (and they are great): randomly shoving them into this match makes the match feel like filler.
Later in the show, there was a graphic calling this team the “Dudes With Attitude,” because someone thought we needed a pointless WCW reference.

REY FENIX VS. ANDRADE VIDEO PACKAGE- fine
They’re wrestling on Rampage.

They’re doing a four-way for the IWGP Title at the PPV. Whatever.

JON MOXLEY & HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. LANCE ARCHER & CHRIS JERICHO (w/Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti)- 7.25/10
William Regal was on commentary for this match. Out of nowhere he started saying it would be a terrible if a New Japan guy won the AEW World Title. Why? And if this possibly was so bad, why did Tony Khan give Tanahashi the title shot in the first place?
Regal’s stupidity on this issue was contagious, although I guess that should have been expected, because if I’m using the metaphor of stupidity as a disease, Tony Schiavone is the equivalent of an anti-vaxxer.
Schiavone referred to the New Japan guys as an “invasion.” Dude… your boss and their boss worked out an agreement to do a joint show. That’s about as far away from an invasion as you can get! Not to be outdone, Regal said that all of them could be working for New Japan (with the subtext being if Moxley loses). I don’t even know what to say to that.
Schiavone was talking about how “we never thought we’d see Hiroshi Tanahashi and Chris Jericho in a ring together,” not more than ten minutes since Excalibur had mentioned that they wrestled at the Tokyo Dome a few years ago.
They had a perfectly fine main event tag team match. Tanahashi pinned Archer cleanly.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- snore
Moxley and Tanahashi exchanged some words. Meanwhile on the outside, Eddie Kingston- the babyface- attacked Chris Jericho from behind like a coward. Sammy Guevara got involved, and Wheeler YUTA came out to help Kingston. Minoru Suzuki made his way down to ringside as well. Shota Umino came out for the babyfaces. I was actually getting quite worried that they would have LAX and the rest of Jericho’s crew stay in the back because they weren’t in the PPV match, but thankfully they didn’t.
Terrible friend Moxley just stood there in the ring staring at Tanahashi while his best friends are involved in a big fight ten feet away.
Jim Ross insisted that this was a PPV that I’m not going to want to miss, but with no ZSJ vs. Danielson and so much of what made me hate ROH’s involvement with New Japan on the card, this is going to be the first AEW PPV that I’m skipping.


This was a bad show from AEW. The wrestling was forgettable, the promos were more meh or bad than they were good, and the show felt like the same forced go-home segment over and over and over again. Throw in how insufferable Schiavone and Regal got by the end, and the several times that they went to a commercial before Excalibur could finish his sentence, making the show feel amateurish, and you’ve got quite the bad show in what was a really big spot as a PPV go-home show.

[XIV]

Does Okada always look that bored? He came across as the Japanese Orange Cassidy. He came out and the crowd went mild. Did nothing to sell me on him.

The whole Jay White, Page, Cole thing has made little to no sense. The whole PPV build up has been bungled.

Oh, and more titles being featured on AEW television just waters it down further.

The Christian promo was alright. The Dead Dad thing was purely a heat grab, but like everytime the whole “Dead relative” thing gets used, it gets an initial “ooooh” and then it just sours very quickly.

If Christian brings back Luchasaurus, without a mask, as a serious wrestler, that would be the only use of his time.

All in all, NJPW’s involvement in AEW has been bungled, a bit boring and definitely not something that should be an annual event.