BRM Reviews (most of) Saturday Dynamite (bad)

[Big Red Machine]

So first things first. This episode of Dynamite was preempted for an NBA playoff game. Imagine my surprise when I tuned in to watch what was recorded at the correct time, to find out it was preempted on my TNT again. Even crazier, there was an image of Jericho (between a commercial for an investment app and Xyzol) that would only appear when I was fast-forwarding through the commercials. Did this happen to anyone else?


PRIVATE PARTY vs. FTR (w/Tully Blanchard)- 6.5/10
This match got no entrances, and the bell rang pretty much right after the hype package for tonight’s show ended, and we pretty much immediately cut a to a recap of FTR’s attack on Ricky Morton as a split screen during the match). At the time I had assumed that this was because AEW had their time cut due to the NBA game, but as I would find out the hard way, that’s not what happened. They still got the full two hours.
Tully being with FTR really feels like something that deserves a big announcement or a big reveal, and also doesn’t seem to make too much sense after he yelled at them last week for saying they were the best team in the world when they weren’t the champions.
Also, did Ross say that FTR “become #1 contenders the moment they signed their contract?” I don’t remember hearing that in the contract signing segment. That seems like something important that should have been mentioned (though maybe I’m wrong and it was).
The match was solid, though I wish they would have let FTR win without Tully needing to help. I also think this match would have benefitted from a segment or two framing it. FTR have disdain for the Young Bucks, the Hardy Boyz were the Young Bucks of the previous generation and Matt Hardy is mentoring Private Party. They’ve done so little with Private Party and Matt on screen together that it’s easy to forget.
Then again, maybe they can’t spend the time to play that out because if last week’s actions were so heinous the Bucks should be looking for revenge on FTR right away… although if the Bucks are booked against the Dark Order tonight and not FTR, maybe they really don’t care that much, so that shoots that excuse in the foot.

Also, am I the only one who sees the following scenario:
FTR are that perfect team Tully was seeking, Spears feels abandoned and tries to reunite with Cody to face FTR. It’s a fine thing to have going on in the background while FTR win the belts and then feud with the Bucks, gives you Arn vs. Tully, and putting Cody in the tag division gives him something important to do when his presence in the men’s singles division can’t really go anywhere (I had his title loss tonight spoiled for me).

JON MOXLEY PROMO- meh
There were some good parts of this, but the said MJF’s campaign stuff has been “fun TV,” which might be the biggest lie anyone has ever told on a wrestling show. I also thought this dragged on too long, but my main problem with it was Moxley saying that he “wants” MJF to be someone leading the company after he has retired. He shouldn’t want that. MJF is a cheater and an asshole. Moxley should be wanting the Darby Allins and Private Partys and Kris Statlanders of the world to be the guys leading the company into the future.

MJF PROMO- f*cking atrocious
First we got a bunch of goofball sh*t from MJF. Then we got his lawyer trying to get the Paradigm Shift banned. He tried to goad Moxley into signing such a contract, then threated to sue him if he didn’t (presumably for attacking and supposedly injuring the neck of MJF outside of the confines of a wrestling match, thought it would have been nice if they had actually explained that part, because the “outside of the confines of a wrestling match” part is what changes this from being extremely stupid to passable).
But fine. It does make an amount of sense. That doesn’t make it a good idea, though, and the reason for that is because the “the babyface champion can’t use his finisher” stipulation is not one you do with heel main eventers who you want people to see as actual title threats. The reason for that is the idea behind the stip is to even things out so that people think the inferior heel has a chance of beating the more skilled babyface. Yes, you could say that with a main event heel, you are giving the heel the advantage rather than evening things out, but there are two problems with that situation:
1. If the heel wins, we’ll all know it’s not really legitimate due to the biased stipulation, so you’ve got an unworthy champion, which is something that you can do once in a blue moon, but that’s about it. What you’ve done is accomplish the same thing as a cheating finish, except that the heel can claim it was totally clean. That might sound good on paper, except that…
2. When the heel cheats to screw the babyface out his/her title, we have sympathy for the babyface because the babyface played by the rules and the opponent didn’t. In this case, the heel is actually technically right, and the babyface agreed to the biased stipulation, so he/she is just a f*cking idiot and we have no sympathy for him/her.

LUCHA BROS. & THE BUTCHER & THE BLADE vs. THE NATURAL NIGHTMARES & A BOY & HIS DINOSAUR (w/Marko Stunt)- 6/10
No Allie at ringside, huh? Yes, she’s probably preparing for her match, but they really should out and say that because otherwise it seems like they’re purposely keeping her away from ringside in this match just to avoid reminding people that she used to be with The Butcher & The Blade and we not explanation whatsoever for why she was suddenly a babyface and no longer The Bunny.
No entrances for this one, either. They really do seem to be trying to save time. That would really suck if they’re getting screwed out of half an hour of air-time.
Apparently the two heel teams had some trouble working together in a recent main event on Dark. I would normally be upset at not being shown a clip, but I’ll let it pass because of the time-crunch they seem to be under tonight. This is not as big a deal as Tully Blanchard decided to manage FTR. The finish was Pentagon Jr. having Jungle Boy set up for a Package Piledriver but he got upset because The Blade got up on the top rope and so he put Jungle boy down to yell at him for some reason. This led to a shoving match, which resulted in The Blade (who had tagged himself in during the argument) getting rolled up by Jungle Boy. I don’t understand why Pentagon Jr. put Jungle Boy down to go yell at The Blade. Just hit your move, dude. They could have done this same exact finish but a lot better if The Blade had tagged himself in while Pentagon Jr. was setting up for the Package Piledriver.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
The heels were yelling at each other and shoving each other until Eddie Kingston came out to play peacemaker. He then tried to rally them together into a faction. This feels very random, and I think this company has too many factions already. Also, having them all come in for a hug at the end felt weird, and was also something that risked idiot fans starting a “HUG IT OUT!” chant that would have made this group seem less menacing.

DR. BRITT BAKER, DMD TRIES TO RECRUIT PENELOPE FORD- dumb
Britt says that Big Swole signed a contract for a match against her, but it doesn’t say what kind of match, so she wants it to be a handicap match with Penelope and Rebel on her side. Either Swole is an idiot for walking into this obvious trap by signing a contract where her enemy got to fill in the match type when said enemy clearly had something up her sleeve because she’s not healthy, or else the contract just said “a match,” in which case why does Britt get to choose the match type without Swole having the right to reject it? And that last one is assuming that the contract doesn’t specify that it will be a “singles match,” which it sems like all such contract would by default. “A match” is a pretty vague term to put into a contract, don’t you think?

GOOF PATROL AND HEEL GOOF PATROL SEGMENT- dull
This started out was Tony Schiavone interviewing Orange Cassidy. Tony asked OC a question, and OC didn’t respond. Who could have seen that coming? Oh, wait, everybody. Which just makes me wonder why the f*ck AEW the kayfabe wrestling company would book an interview with a guy who doesn’t talk. Hell, it’s Orange Cassidy. They’re lucky he even decided to come out to the ring. What was their plan if Jericho hadn’t come out (and don’t tell me the plan was for Best Friends to talk, because they weren’t the advertised interview; OC was!)?
Jericho came out and put OC over a bit, and then challenged him to a “Mimosa Mayhem match,” in which you can win by pinfall, submission, or throwing your opponent into a tank of mimosa hat will surround the ring. This is what goofs do.
OC accepted. Jericho then brought out the Inner Circle and ordered them to attack the Goof Patrol. OC sure is Lucky that Best Friends came out with him for no real reason, or else he’d be outnumbered even worse. The Inner Circle beat the goof patrol down, and then they poured Jericho’s Champaign all over Orange Cassidy. Oh no. How dare they. This is definitely an escalation from the beginning of this feud, when they beat him bloody.

THE ELITE (Kenny Omega & the Young Bucks) vs. THE DARK ORDER (Three, Four, & Five)- 6.75/10
Why was this match booked this week? Shouldn’t the Young Bucks be looking for revenge on FTR for last, week’s heinous assault? Why are they booked against these Dark Order goofs? I’m not saying you can’t book the match; I’m saying that if you’re going to do so, create some scenario where it makes sense, like these three jumped Page during the week and beat him up, so Kenny is asking the Bucks to team with him to get revenge. Give me some reason why the obvious match isn’t being booked!
The story here is that Kenny “snapped,” first getting yelled at for running in and throwing closed-fist punches after a save and then trying to injure members of the Dark Order after the match, with the Bucks stopping him from using a chair on them.
This whole story of Kenny snapping is really not working for me, and I think the problem is that he’s just doing too many things for it to feel coherent. When he’s just with Page, he’s the usual jovial Kenny Omega. When FTR are involved, he was being a dick for no reason. With Jungle Express and Dark Order, his anger is in response to understandable provocations. Most things are pointing in the same direction, but puzzle pieces don’t quite fit together (to mix some metaphors).

ALEX MARVEZ ANNOUNCES A #1 CONTENDERSHIP GAUNTLET MATCH, THEN INTERVIEWS FTR & TULLY BLANCHARD- bad
Hey, look! They made the rankings relevant for once!
FTR have decided to join Tully to learn from him so he can help them be the best. The implication I got from this segment was that this alliance did not exist until after last week’s segment, which makes that segment make even less sense.
All three guys cut promos about being the best until Adam Page showed up to yell at them for faking a knee injury. Why is Page the only one upset about this? There were three other people on that team.
They were talking over each other so I couldn’t here if Page actually mentioned Ricky Morton, but Cash told Page that what happened last week with the RnRs, “that’s our business,” and Page was perfectly accepting of this. So much for that being some sort of heinous assault, then, if a stupid explanation like that is going to mollify an angry babyface.
Dax’s explanation for faking the knee injury was that he “had to see if he could trust” Omega and the Bucks after everything they’ve said about them over the years, and notes that the only person other than Cash to come to the back and check on him was Page. It was the middle of a match! And if that was the case, why didn’t they do that in the first match where they were teaming with the Bucks? If Page swallows any of this, then he’s a f*cking moron!
Dax then told Page that by beating the Young Bucks to win the tag titles, Page “stepped out of their shadow” and wants him that if the Bucks win the gauntlet match and then beat Page & Omega for that titles at All Out, “all of that will be undone.” This is the sort of thing that could have made for a good angle if there had ever been any suggestions that Page felt overshadowed by the Bucks in particular. And don’t tell me that that’s why Page left the Elite, because if that was the case then him teaming with the Elite’s top guy wouldn’t make any sense because he’s still in the shadow of the member of the Elite who casts the biggest shadow. And none of the tension has been about that. It’s been about the fact that Page a drunken asshole.

DARBY ALLIN vs. WILL HOBBS- 2/10
So Darby went from wrestling the world champion to having trouble being a jobber.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Taz tells Darby that there is a new member of Team Taz. It’s Ricky Starks painting himself up like Darby Allin and making fun of him. This served as a distraction for Brian Cage to sneak into the ring and lay Darby out from behind with the FTW Title. Starks then got down in Darby’s face and cut a very good promo, but it’s one that would have been a lot more effective if we had ever seen Starks win some matches. Starks beat Ricky up some more, including hitting him with a skateboard and second-rope coffin drop.

MATT HARDY JUMPS SAMMY GUEVARA DURING A COMMERCIAL- good
I liked that they started this during a commercial break. Not everything happens conveniently on a TV schedule. Matt also came off as a lot more serious and a lot more dangerous than usual, which was necessary here. Matt threw Sammy off the stage and got a chair, but the referees stopped him from using it.

THUNDER ROSA PROMO- good, but…
She is being identified and used as the NWA Women’s World Champion. Her words and delivery were very good, but her framing kind of makes AEW look like sh*t. The fans have been wanting her to come in, but AEW didn’t?
Also, if ROH has nothing to gain from working with the NWA, AEW has even less to gain from it. Keep that useless, dead promotion away.


My DVR cut out in the middle of the women’s tag tournament finals. I did get to stick around to see that it wasn’t very exciting. I also got to see Brandi tease a Pedigree just so it could be countered. It’s sh*t like this that AEW does that makes me just not have much sympathy for them when WWE goes after them. Does it actively hurt WWE? No. But it’s the equivalent of that annoying sibling holding his/her finger in your face and going “I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you.” A lot of the time, that kid is going to wind up getting smacked, and do you really have any sympathy for that kid?

Apparently Ivelisse and Diamante won, which was a relief because I was terrified that the Nightmare Sisters were going to win, and that we were all supposed to be happy about his and just ignore the fact that Allie cheated to ensure that they got to team together in a tournament where being regular partners gives you a distinct advantage.

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Cody Rhodes(c) (w/Arn Anderson) vs. Brodie Lee- no rating, mostly a bad segment
AEW was nice enough to upload most of this match onto their YouTube page, so I at least got to see that. It was Cody getting squashed and doing a stretcher-job.
While Cody was being attended to, Brodie Lee was interviewed by Tony Schiavone and told us that being the champion now means that he has “the power.” LOLTNAEW. And if you think I’m going too far making that comparison, Brodie also told Tony that “executives like you held me down; didn’t give me the chance” (and he would later shout the same thing at former WWE producer Arn Anderson). HE’S COMPLAINING ABOUT HIS WWE BOOKING AS IF IT WERE SOMETHING THAT KAYFABE HAPPENED IN AEW!
They eventually decide to push Cody off the stretcher and beat Arn up. That’s the second week in a row that we’ve beaten up an old man for heat, and the second time in three months that we’ve beaten up Arn for heat specifically. Also, remember how last week an old man got beat up for heat and pretty much no one cared about it this week?
Why is no one coming out to help Cody? Yes, Brandi was in the previous match, but where are Dustin, Q.T., the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Adam Page (he might not be part of the Elite, but he is still feuding with the Dark Order, right?), or pretty much any babyface who we’re supposed to think is a decent human being? Why are the wrestlers in the crowd just watching this instead of running to help?
Also, if the Dark Order want to really hurt Arn and Cody, why are they standing around and waiting for them to get up. Just give the dude a piledriver on the ramp or something. It makes this all feel staged, like the heels are taking the actions they are so that Cody can look like the big dramatic hero, trying valiantly, and so that they don’t actually do enough to cripple him before the other babyfaces eventually come out.
Oh. Okay. Here are more Dark Order guys dragging Dustin and Q.T. out. What about the Bucks, Kenny, and Page?
Here comes Brandi out to protect Cody with her body. She just taken out by Anna Jay. Colt Cabana, of course, is not here. One wonders what he will think when he sees all of this on TV. How much do you want to bet they don’t address that?
Brodie dump the pieces of the old TNT Title belt on Cody. That’s a cool visual, but there is so much here that just doesn’t work for me. And yes, it’s most of the stuff that bothers me about a lot of AEW’s attempts at angles in general, and heavy heat angles in particular (babyfaces don’t come out to help other babyfaces, even when they’re supposed to be friends, doing the same angle over and over again, people seemingly making choices for the sake of increased drama rather than logic or emotion).
With that being said, I do feel the need to give AEW a bit of praise here. This was a brave choice. They did a squash match in a main event and are doing an angle that will likely keep a top singles star off of a PPV, and they did it all because they had a character who they wanted to get over strong but had failed to do so (in large part because of their own poor booking) and they knew they needed to do something big and in a spot where it would get a lot of attention to try to fix it.
But that, then, brings me to my final problem, which is that it just doesn’t compute to me that Brodie Lee could squash Cody after having more trouble with basically every single non-jobber opponent he has faced. It took him thirteen minutes to beat Christopher Daniels, but all of a sudden he’s able to squash Cody like a bug. It just doesn’t compute. It’s like he got some sort of magical upgrade out of the blue.



This was another bad episode of Dynamite. The show has gotten WAY too silly, and they don’t really seem to think about the consequences of things. They’re doing a f*cking “the belt gives me power!” angle for crying out loud! How many times did TNA try that? Fifteen? And how many did it work? Ditto for WCW! I don’t want to say that the bookers aren’t putting much thought into the show because I’m sure that they are, and it shows in other ways, but they’re just not paying attention to the right things that make the stories work or make the booking not seem contrived or make things feel important.

[Thelone]

I'm surprised you didn't call this one "The day AEW became TNA 2.0".

Anyway, Tully changed allegiance out of nowhere and is now the Revival's manager. Yes, that is an upgrade for all parties involved (except Spears, but who cares about him really?), but this is once again a pairing with no build-up and no real explanation besides "that sounded cool, so we just did it".

More presidential shit from EC3 MJF. At this point, I would have prefered they kept him and Moxley away from each other.

So Kingston is a PAC surrogate and the Death Triangle becomes a Pentagon I suppose.

Baker did stuff, I kinda don't care at all about this feud with Swole.

Does Tony Khan (or whoever is booking this tripe) realize that Cassidy isn't being elevated with this Jericho feud? This isn't Jericho hoisting Cassidy up to mid/uppercard status, this is Jericho (and his group I might add) dropping down to mid/undercard status to feud with an idiot with no upside. It's pretty clear that Jericho checked out and doesn't give a fuck anymore.

More meaningless six-man tags, more "OMG, Omega is snapping for no clear reason", more grandiose """storytelling""", more reasons not to care about anything the Bucks and Omega are doing.

So this is actually a feud between Starks and Allin, but this also feels like a feud neither of those should lose as well.

This Hardy-Guevara feud might be the best booked thing on the show lately. That is a low bar to clear, but still.

I mean, she's not wrong. Again, AEW passed on Purrazzo and most likely a bunch of other women when the division desperately needed (and still needs) some talent at the top. Hell, the complete lack of top contenders is exactly why they're bringing Rosa for this match.

So that tournament sure was something that happened.

And then there's the Cody match and all the bullshit with the Dark Order...

Let's start with Cody's reign, which felt completely flat all the way through. No one got elevated working with Cody because no matter who was in front of him (a shitty indy clown in Warhorse, a nothing prelim in Kiss, young upstarts in Jungle Boy/Quen/Starks, grizzled veterans in Sky/Kingston/Hager), he worked the same 8-12 minute, decently wrestled match and nothing else. No one pushed him to the limit (doesn't this thing have a 20-minute time limit?) and there was little to no sense of hierarchy. This reign only helped Cody to be on TV all the time, and...

... 40yo, broken down Brodie Lee and his shitty faction. The only way this result would have been tolerable (not good, just tolerable) is if Lee debuted a month ago (either alone or as the leader of this farce), squashed a bunch of clowns in dominant fashion, then demolished Cody for the belt to show his inept slaves how it's done. But no, he debuted months ago, squashed a bunch of clowns in dominant fashion, went 10+ minutes to beat 50yo Chris Daniels, lost to Moxley, then did meaningless tag matches to "advance" this "storyline" with Cabana. Of course, it doesn't help that the Dark Order sucks ass and the only person with any kind of future in this group is Anna Jay. That leads me to my last point which is...

Where is this going now? They kinda did the same thing during the last Dynamite of 2019 with the DO goofs destroying the Elite and everyone shat on it for good reasons. Now they're doing it with Cody and everyone is praising it like it's the greatest angle ever. Why? Because mega star Brodie Lee is now the leader of this group? I keep reading about how it's just like Rocky 3 and Cody will come back stronger to beat Lee for this heinous attack on him, his coach(?), his wife and his 50-person entourage. In that case, Lee is just keeping the belt warm while Cody goes away to shoot a movie or series or whatever that is with his good pal Stephen Amell.

Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that you've just wasted a good rub for an older guy and his lame ass stable of idiots, and the guy who will beat Lee for the belt won't get that big of a rub because no one cares about the Dark Order and the Bucks just won't let this horror die.

[Big Red Machine]

Anyway, Tully changed allegiance out of nowhere and is now the Revival's manager. Yes, that is an upgrade for all parties involved (except Spears, but who cares about him really?), but this is once again a pairing with no build-up and no real explanation besides "that sounded cool, so we just did it".

There is something here in that it's possible that the Ricky Morton attack was all a plan and they've been in cahoots so I don't quite think it's fair to say there is nothing there, but if if this is the case then it should have been stated.

Baker did stuff, I kinda don't care at all about this feud with Swole.

These are my feelings as well, and that's sad because I actually did care about Swole at first.

Does Tony Khan (or whoever is booking this tripe) realize that Cassidy isn't being elevated with this Jericho feud? This isn't Jericho hoisting Cassidy up to mid/uppercard status, this is Jericho (and his group I might add) dropping down to mid/undercard status to feud with an idiot with no upside. It's pretty clear that Jericho checked out and doesn't give a fuck anymore.

More meaningless six-man tags, more "OMG, Omega is snapping for no clear reason", more grandiose """storytelling""", more reasons not to care about anything the Bucks and Omega are doing.

THIS.

So this is actually a feud between Starks and Allin, but this also feels like a feud neither of those should lose as well.

I mostly agree with this, and it's a point I haven't heard anyone else raise yet. I think MAYBE Darby can take the loss, but he'd have to win his next tow or three feuds and really feel like he's making upward strides afterwards to not feel like a perennial loser.

This Hardy-Guevara feud might be the best booked thing on the show lately. That is a low bar to clear, but still.

Agreed

So that tournament sure was something that happened.

I'll give them a week to present some fallout before starting to judge.

And then there's the Cody match and all the bullshit with the Dark Order...

Let's start with Cody's reign, which felt completely flat all the way through. No one got elevated working with Cody because no matter who was in front of him (a shitty indy clown in Warhorse, a nothing prelim in Kiss, young upstarts in Jungle Boy/Quen/Starks, grizzled veterans in Sky/Kingston/Hager), he worked the same 8-12 minute, decently wrestled match and nothing else. No one pushed him to the limit (doesn't this thing have a 20-minute time limit?) and there was little to no sense of hierarchy. This reign only helped Cody to be on TV all the time, and...

I agree with your idea, but not quite the specifics. I think it's hard to argue that this didn't elevate anyone, as it got Starks and Kingston jobs... but I do think it's a totally fair criticism to say that it didn't actually help anyone already on the roster, which is not good.
I totally agree about the lack of hierarchy and the reign feeling flat... and once again, I can't help but notice that the main beneficiary of something like this was Cody. And who has the hot angle ready for when he gets back? Cody.

The only way this result would have been tolerable (not good, just tolerable) is if Lee debuted a month ago (either alone or as the leader of this farce), squashed a bunch of clowns in dominant fashion, then demolished Cody for the belt to show his inept slaves how it's done. But no, he debuted months ago, squashed a bunch of clowns in dominant fashion, went 10+ minutes to beat 50yo Chris Daniels, lost to Moxley, then did meaningless tag matches to "advance" this "storyline" with Cabana.

THIS! This right here. It's exceedingly hard to believably rebuild a monster. Having him squash Cody sends the message that he's a monster again, yes, but as we've seen so many times in WWE with Kane (and Erick Rowan, and even Brodie Lee himself), that's not enough because it feels artificial. It feels like the booker telling you "I'm pushing this guy now." What you need is some sort of change that lets fans understand why they should be seeing this guy as so much more of a threat now.
With over a year's worth of evidence now, I think the problem with AEW's booking can be summed up with the following metaphor: They're engineers trying to be architects. They understand the mechanics of how all of the individual pieces work. They know what to do to create emotion and they know you have to spread things out over time and drop hints and move things along, but they don't know how to put it all together in a way that looks good or that is functional at anything much above the technical definition of "it's a building and the parts all work." Sure, you've built a building, but it's not really helpful if you've put the light switches two feet off the ground, all of the bathrooms for your eight-story building are on the same floor, the windows don't maximize natural light very well, some of the elevators only got from floor four to floor five, the main entrance is on the other side of the building from the parking lot, etc.

Where is this going now? They kinda did the same thing during the last Dynamite of 2019 with the DO goofs destroying the Elite and everyone shat on it for good reasons. Now they're doing it with Cody and everyone is praising it like it's the greatest angle ever. Why? Because mega star Brodie Lee is now the leader of this group? I keep reading about how it's just like Rocky 3 and Cody will come back stronger to beat Lee for this heinous attack on him, his coach(?), his wife and his 50-person entourage. In that case, Lee is just keeping the belt warm while Cody goes away to shoot a movie or series or whatever that is with his good pal Stephen Amell.

Also this.

Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that you've just wasted a good rub for an older guy and his lame ass stable of idiots, and the guy who will beat Lee for the belt won't get that big of a rub because no one cares about the Dark Order and the Bucks just won't let this horror die.

This too.