BRM Reviews the 12/23/2020 Dynamite (Holiday Bash)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 12/23/2020 Dynamite (Holiday Bash)

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 24th, '20, 18:18

TOP FLIGHT vs. THE INNER CIRCLE (Chris Jericho & MJF) (w/Jake Hager)- 6.75/10
Tony Schiavone wondered if anyone had ever turned an attempted Liontamer into a pin before. This is your weekly reminder that Tony paid no attention to pro wrestling for over fifteen years and has made no effort to catch up.
Top Flight put up a good fight but they lost due to interference from Hager. This is a spot where Top Flight would have benefitted just as much from losing cleanly here, but at least this time the interference led to something in the…

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Hager grabs a mic and says that everyone in the Inner circle has won recently because they’ve all been doing their jobs well (that right there was, I assume, a sly reference to his own interference in the previous match)… except for Wardlow, who should be here rather than attending to “family business.” Hager reveals that he has talked to Tony Khan and gotten himself vs. Wardlow booked for next week. So much for the Inner Circle being on the same page. I’m sure glad we did that segment two weeks ago.

THE ACCLAIMED’S MUSIC VIDEO PROMO ON THE YOUNG BUCKS- fine

Jim Ross says that Pac vs. The Butcher “should be a classic.” Really J.R.? Of all of the matches on the show, you’re predicting that Pac vs. The Butcher will be a classic?

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS STING- bad
The last time he spoke, he said he wasn’t here because of Cody, but now he’s saying that he came to AEW because Cody was involved. Which one is it?
Right when he starts to address Darby Allin, Taz (and his pals) comes out and interrupts him. Taz and Ricky Starks says they’re going to go beat Sting up, but the lights go off, and when they come back on, Darby Allin, who had just in up in the top deck, has magically teleported to the ring. Because that’s what wrestling needs. More unexplained magical powers that only seem to be available when the booker wants to do something “cool.”
Taz decides that they don’t want to fight right now because the babyfaces have weapons, but says that Brian Cage will take Darby’s TNT Title on January 6th. Cage insists that he doesn’t want to wait, but Taz calms him down and they leave. Once again, more water is tread, and nothing moves forward.

WEIRD BACKSTAGE SEGMENT WITH MJF AND LAX- weird and bad
MJF takes a cameraman with him to record him talking to Santana about a loss in the family that Santana recently suffered, and telling Santana that he just lost his grandfather due to cancer. This was completely out of nowhere and I had no idea what they were talking about.

JURASSIC EXPRESS vs. THE DARK ORDER (FIVE, TEN, & COLT CABANA)- 6.75/10
Excalibur told us that Cabana is trying to a veteran mentor to Five and Ten. Sure. Whatever. That doesn’t explain why he’s still hanging around with this evil cult if he’s supposed to be a babyface. And if he’s a heel and is part of the group, why doesn’t he have a number yet?
Ross asked Excalibur if the numbers had any meaning, to which Excalibur replied that it’s the number in which they joined the group. If that’s the case, then 1) why is Anna Jay 99? And 2) why did they offer Dustin number seven if there is already a Ten?
The babyfaces won clean.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH JURASSIC EXPRESS IS INTERRUPTED BY TULLY BLANCHARD AND FTR ON THE TONYTRON- Which jerk in the production truck made the call to cut to these guys in the middle of the interview?
They’re having a match on January 6th. They weren’t clear if it was a title match. Tully said mean things and warned Marko not to interfere. Then we went to a commercial, not letting Jurassic Express respond or finish their interview.

ALEX MARVEZ BOTHERS DON CALLIS & KENNY OMEGA AT THEIR HOTEL- fine
Kenny was decent. Callis was boring.

PAC (w/Penta el 0M0 vs. THE BUTCHER (w/The Blade & The Bunny)- 6/10
Eddie Kingston was on commentary for this match. The match itself was fine, but the booking was ridiculous. Butcher had things well in hand, but Kingston decided to distract him by yelling instructions to him for no reason. Kingston approached the ring, but ran back to commentary when Archer came out. Despite disliking Kingston and also not caring about Pac, Archer stopped his pursuit of Kingston once it was clear that Kingston wasn’t going to interfere in the match. That made no sense. Pac won with the Black Arrow. This feud continues to be boring.

JADE CARGILL PROMO- snore
She wants a worthy opponent. Whatever.

THE VIDE) GAME GEEKS ANNOUNCE THEIR WEDDING DATE (AND ALSO THAT THEY HAVE BEATEN TRENT UP SO BADLY HE HAS TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL)- snore
The news of the assault on Trent was treated as an afterthought. The wedding will be happening on the AEW Beach Break special episode of Dynamite on February 3rd. Believe it or not, I don’t have a problem with the wedding happening on AEW television, because of the “we’re sharing it with the fans” reason that Kip Sabian laid out. I guess, in this day and age, it makes less sense because they could just do it on social media, but I guess the concept of doing the wedding on a wrestling show feels grandfathered in.

DUSTIN RHODES vs. EVIL UNO- 4.25/10
They explained the “Seven” thing in the worst way possible, which is that Dustin was once given a fake wrestling character named “Seven” to be but went against the script and decided not to. They didn’t use those exact words, (though they did say “character”) but there is no other way to read it.
Dustin won clean.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- snore
Unfortunately, this dumb feud will continue, with more jobbers involved. Evil Uno kept trying to recruit Dustin but Dustin rejected him. Grayson attacked Dustin. Lee Johnson tried to get involved but was taken out. Q.T. Marshall was also taken out, but Johnson got back up the three babyfaces beat the two heels.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS SHAWN SPEARS- meh
He quits because he’s not happy with how he’s being booked. Worked shoots, brother!

DASHA GONZALEZ INTERVIEWS HIKARU SHIDA- meh
Abadon attacked Shida and they were quickly pulled apart.

HIKARU SHIDA vs. ALEX GRACIA- 2/10
Shida won clean, and also beat Abadon up in the middle of the match for good measure.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Shida went over to attack the downed Abadon with a Singapore cane, but Abadon hit the horror movie “the monster isn’t dead” and won the fight, then did her best Shayna Baszler impression and bit Shida.

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) vs. The Acclaimed- 7.25/10
The Bucks won clean.



This was an okay episode of Dynamite. Like most episodes of Dynamite, the wrestling was good, but the logic was faulty at best, and over the past two months or so, some of the storylines have turned into total snooze-fests as well. Next week’s lineup looks quite good, though, so at least that’s something to look forward to.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

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Thelone
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Joined: Jul 9th, '19, 16:22

Re: BRM Reviews the 12/23/2020 Dynamite (Holiday Bash)

Post by Thelone » Dec 25th, '20, 11:02

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS STING- bad
The last time he spoke, he said he wasn’t here because of Cody, but now he’s saying that he came to AEW because Cody was involved. Which one is it?
Cody is just doing the whole "when X isn't here, everyone should ask what he's up to" that people complained about with Hogan/Cena/Reigns/etc.
Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 24th, '20, 18:18TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH JURASSIC EXPRESS IS INTERRUPTED BY TULLY BLANCHARD AND FTR ON THE TONYTRON- Which jerk in the production truck made the call to cut to these guys in the middle of the interview?
They’re having a match on January 6th. They weren’t clear if it was a title match. Tully said mean things and warned Marko not to interfere. Then we went to a commercial, not letting Jurassic Express respond or finish their interview.
Don't know if it's Christmas hangover/tiredness or you just forgot that FTR aren't the champions anymore. Either way, that's not a good thing when the whole division feels like a big blob of the same stuff over and over and nothing registers because of that.

Anyway...
  • Put the belt on Baker already, Shida facing "monster of the month" until the next PPV isn't compelling in the slightest and Shida-Baker isn't this big money match you have to save for PPV
  • Overall, they desperately need to build credible challengers and not just the guy/girl who's gonna be the next champion. Pretty much every champion has been this way with a bunch of lame duck challengers no one bought until the very obvious title change
  • It's fine to abort storylines which are going nowhere and/or sucks. The Dark Order is just a huge mess at this point (their leader vanished after he lost to Cody, they're trying to recruit people to do what exactly?, the Cabana """storyline"""), and Cargill is awful and mostly pointless now that Brandi is pregnant (and Shaq doesn't need a second because he's FUCKING SHAQ)
  • You don't need to stretch storylines until no one cares anymore

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Big Red Machine
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Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

Re: BRM Reviews the 12/23/2020 Dynamite (Holiday Bash)

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 25th, '20, 11:51

Thelone wrote: Dec 25th, '20, 11:02
Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 24th, '20, 18:18TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH JURASSIC EXPRESS IS INTERRUPTED BY TULLY BLANCHARD AND FTR ON THE TONYTRON- Which jerk in the production truck made the call to cut to these guys in the middle of the interview?
They’re having a match on January 6th. They weren’t clear if it was a title match. Tully said mean things and warned Marko not to interfere. Then we went to a commercial, not letting Jurassic Express respond or finish their interview.
Don't know if it's Christmas hangover/tiredness or you just forgot that FTR aren't the champions anymore. Either way, that's not a good thing when the whole division feels like a big blob of the same stuff over and over and nothing registers because of that.

Anyway...
  • Put the belt on Baker already, Shida facing "monster of the month" until the next PPV isn't compelling in the slightest and Shida-Baker isn't this big money match you have to save for PPV
  • Overall, they desperately need to build credible challengers and not just the guy/girl who's gonna be the next champion. Pretty much every champion has been this way with a bunch of lame duck challengers no one bought until the very obvious title change
  • It's fine to abort storylines which are going nowhere and/or sucks. The Dark Order is just a huge mess at this point (their leader vanished after he lost to Cody, they're trying to recruit people to do what exactly?, the Cabana """storyline"""), and Cargill is awful and mostly pointless now that Brandi is pregnant (and Shaq doesn't need a second because he's FUCKING SHAQ)
  • You don't need to stretch storylines until no one cares anymore
Yeah, I completely forgot about the title change. I guess it's a complement to how FTR carry themselves.

I agree with everything you said.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

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