BRM Reviews the 4/7/2021 Dynamite (bad, with a terrible ending)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 4/7/2021 Dynamite (bad, with a terrible ending)

Post by Big Red Machine » Apr 8th, '21, 23:56

COLD OPEN- The Inner Circle arrive in fancy cars. The announcers are also sure to drive home the point that Mike Tyson will be here. Does anyone really care about Mike Tyson anymore?

ADAM PAGE vs. MAX CASTER (w/Anthony Bowens)-
Page is apparently the top-ranked contender for the AEW World Heavyweight Title, and has been for two weeks. This feels completely out of nowhere. I don’t remember them mentioning it last week, either, and a new #1-ranked contender to the world title seems like the sort of thing that should be mentioned.
Also, apparently Max Caster is the #3 contender, a rank that Cagematch.net tells me he has achieved by beating a series of undercard jamokes on Dark and Dark:Elavation. Four straight wins where the biggest name you’ve beaten is f*cking 2021 COLT CABANA should not make you the #3 contender. AEW NEEDS to drop these rankings. They’re never actually used in storylines (you’d think top-ranked Adam Page would have said something about wanting a title shot last week), and all they do is create situations that strain credulity.
Completely unbidden, Ross told me that Max Caster is a lot older (31) than I think most of us thought he was.
Ross also told a story about Page having been in a funk after losing to Kenny Omega but then refocusing himself and now he’s “a match away from getting a title shot against Kenny Omega.” This would be really great if any of that had ever been portrayed on screen in any meaningful way, but it hasn’t been. If anything, Page’s minor funk was portrayed as more being about he Bucks yelling at him for being an idiot and allowing himself to be used by FTR, and Omega hasn’t been mentioned by Page or in connection with him at any point since Page lost to him at Full Gear 2020, five months ago (Excalibur did correct Ross on this, but that just begs the question how one of the announcers got the story so damn wrong). Nor, for that matter, has the idea of Page needing to “refocus” himself. He’s just been goofing off with his pals or feuding with Matt Hardy.
And if Page was already the #1-ranked contender last week, as Tony claimed, why was he “a match away” from a title shot? Shouldn’t he just be entitled to one? Isn’t that the point of being the top-ranked guy?

They did stuff. Page got cut off when he teased ramming Caster’s nuts into the ringpost and got distracted by something, allowing Caster to use his legs to pull Page’s face into the post. The next spot was Bowens grabbing Page and running him into the barricade. If you want me to be upset about the heels cheating, maybe don’t have the babyface show a clear intent to cheat moments before you do that, okay?
Page overcame about sixteen distractions from Bowens and also a shot with a foreign object to win, and all in just ten minutes, which made Caster’s high ranking (and, by extension, the whole rankings system) feel like a joke.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH THE DEATH TRIANGLE IS INTERRUPTED BY ORANGE CASSIDY, BEST FRIENDS, & KRIS STATLANDER- bad
Tony says that Pac & Rey Fenix will get their title shot at the Young Bucks next week. The Goof Patrol interrupted them so Orange Cassidy- the guy who doesn’t care- could show a clip of the Death Triangle beating them up over a year ago. Excalibur said that the clip was from Revolution, but the graphic on the TonyTron said it was from an episode of Dynamite. Oops.
The guy who doesn’t care about things is apparently still angry about this attack over a year later. Also, Lucha Bros. have been back in the US for most of the past year. Pac has been back for over six months. Why do OC and Best Friends suddenly give a sh*t about this NOW? Pac’s implication that they just want to start an issue with Death Triangle now in an attempt to get themselves a title shot when Death Triangle wins the titles seems pretty accurate, and that doesn’t reflect well on our babyfaces.
Trent pointed out that Best Friends have the most wins of any tag team in AEW. That surprised me, but I’m not sure how much attention we should actually pay to that, give the fact that the wins and losses are supposed to reset at the end of each year.

INNER CIRCLE PROMO- bad
This started off with Jericho apologizing for the Inner Circle’s actions (the sort of thing you should do when you’re turning babyface), but he totally blew it by 1) specifying that it was only over the last six months, and 2) blaming all of their “bad decisions” that “hurt a lot of people” on MJF, minimizing his and his group’s responsibility for their own actions.
He then said that the reason he brought MJF (who he kept calling “My Jerkoff Friend,” which is the kind of thing Killdozer would come up with) into the Inner Circle to “keep him under my thumb,” which is really not a likeable thing to do.
Jericho then started to insult members of the Pinnacle. He said that MJF was a mark and that he isn’t as good as he thinks he is and he isn’t as smart as Jericho…but from where I’m sitting, he outmaneuvered Jericho and kicked his ass and now has a powerful faction, so even if he’s not as good as he thinks he is, he’s still Jericho’s equal.
He criticized MJF for taking his scarf gimmick from five years ago… and then showed himself to be five years behind the times by joking that he couldn’t tell the members of FTR apart. He then tried to call Wardlow stupid but in the process of doing so, he flubbed his line and wound up saying that Wardlow has “a million-dollar brain and a thirteen-cent body” instead of the other way around.
He completely buried Shawn Spears as being just plain not very good, which… was WAY to close to home with actual criticisms fans and analysts have levied at Spears, to the point where this felt like the sort of thing he really shouldn’t have said on the air.
He then challenged the Pinnacle to a Blood & Guts match on May 5th. This seems kind of quick to run to a blow-off when the turn was only a month ago.

DASHA INTERVIEWS CHRISTIAN CAGE- meh
Christian was playing the “I love wrestling and competition” babyface. Taz came by and offered him a spot in Team Taz.

BEAR COUNTRY vs. JURASSIC EXPRESS (w/Marko Stunt)- 5/10
They kept referring to this as a “Godzilla vs. Kong match,” which came off as WWE-level desperate to mooch off of pop culture. When we finally got to the match it became clear that they had some sort of sponsorship deal, but the way they played it off beforehand made it feel like they were just trying to mooch off the name in a ridiculous way.
They did moves while mostly ignoring the tag rules. They made decent use of the various potential stories with size.

Q.T. MARSHALL PROMO- This was mostly really good, but the way he buried the indies was big mistake. Most of AEW’s roster came from the indies, and most of the talent they will push in the future will come from the indies as well. You don’t want to be portraying indy wrestlers as non-stars and “vanilla midgets.”
Anthony Ogogo also got to talk and was great.

JAKE ROBERTS & LANCE ARCHER INTERRUPT TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH STING- decent
I’m happy to see that this finally went somewhere and Sting finally did something, but it’s one of those segments that can best be summed up as “everyone agrees that the kayfabe booking in AEW is very poor.” Basically, Jake complained that the company keeps booking Sting interviews even though they interrupt the interview every week and nothing happens. Archer complained (in kayfabe terms) about AEW often having nothing for him to do once a feud ends. Sting told Archer that he could be a main eventer if he channels his energy right, and told Jake to teach Archer how to do so.
I also didn’t like Sting turning his back on Archer when he was pointing to the ring. It felt like a completely foolish thing to do, and that the only reason that Archer didn’t attack Sting was because the script did not call for him to do so.
Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky were shown sitting in the upper deck, looking disdainful.

TEAM TAZ VIDEO- fine
Taz criticized Starks for once again instigating things, and told them that they had to be “smart” to impress Christian. I’ve bought in to Todd Martin’s theory that all of the dissension in Team Taz is a swerve, because these videos are clearly pre-taped things that Team Taz is sending in, and it makes no sense for them to want the fact that they are having issues to be public knowledge.

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Darby Allin(c) (w/Sting) vs. J.D. Drake (w/Ryan Nemeth & Cezar Bononi)- 7.5/10
Excalibur told us that Darby is having this open challenge because “he wants to be like Mr. Brodie Lee and defend the championship against all comers.” Wasn’t that CODY doing that, not Brodie Lee? And if Brodie did do it, he didn’t do it more than once, as opposed to Cody, who did a whole bunch of times.
The wrestlers told the expected great story of the size mismatch. Drake also work over Darby’s midsection by crushing him with his weight in various ways. Nemeth and Bononi tried to get involved so Sting took Bononi out with his bat and chased Nemeth to the back, which meant he wasn’t in the ringside area for the…

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
The Matt Hardy Family Office attacked Darby, with Butcher being the first guy to run out and hit Darby from behind, so maybe he will be the one who winds up with a title shot out of this. The Bunny started yelling like nutjob. Sting and the Dark Order chased the heels off. Tay Conti tackled The Bunny on the stage as a preview of their later match.

VIDEO PACKAGE TO HYPE UP THE MAIN EVENT- good

CHRIS JERICHO IS JUMPED BY THE PINNACLE DURING AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEX MARVEZ- meh
Jericho was inexplicably alone, so you knew he was getting jumped. We found out that they had bolted the door to the Inner Circle’s dressing room shut. We were shown them breaking through the door, but then cut to the ring for Mike Tyson to make the save for Jericho and obliterate Spears. I get that heels are supposed to be scared, but they’re also supposed to be dishonor able, and I don’t by that they wouldn’t just all gang up on Tyson.
The Inner Circle made their way to the ring. Jericho offered Tyson and handshake and Tyson took it. The Tyson part of this does nothing for me. I would have much rather had the heels get heat on Jericho and have the Inner Circle eventually make their way out to make the save. If you care about Mike Tyson, you’ll probably like this quite a bit, but I don’t, so I didn’t care for it.

EARLIER TODAY, TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS DR. BRITT BAKER, DMD- bad
Britt wants a title shot, but Schiavone tells her that she’s only ranked fourth and thus will have to wait for the three people ahead of her to get their shots. Since when has that been the case in this company?
Britt goes on to say that title shots should be based on who sells merch and draws ratings in the demo rather than wins and losses… but she then says that she’ll just pick up some wins and earn a title shot the old-fashioned way.

TAY CONTI (w/the Dark Order & Hikaru Shida) vs. THE BUNNY (w/Matt Hardy Family Office)- 5.75/10
Hikaru Shida came out with the Dark Order, which went completely uncommented on. The Bunny grabbed her Kendo stick at one point and hit Conti with it but Shida then yanked it away from Bunny, buying Conti time to recover, leading to the finish, which was Conti going over with her finisher.

Announced for next week we’ve got Mat Hardy vs. Darby Allin for the TNT Title in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The angle happened twenty minutes ago and we’ve already booked a gimmick match?
A bunch of other stuff was advertised for next week, including the “long-awaited in-ring debut of Anthony Ogogo. They really should have spent more time building this guy up first if they are going to call his debut “long-awaited.”
Also announced for next week is Dax Hardwood vs. Chris Jericho with all members of the Inner Circle and the Pinnacle other than Cash Wheeler and Sammy Guevara barred from ringside, and Mike Tyson as a Special Ringside Enforcer. This stipulation is RIDICULOUS! The purpose of barring people from ringside is to prevent interference. The purpose of having an enforcer is to prevent interference. What Tony Khan is saying here is essentially “I don’t want anyone to interfere in this match… except for you and you… but I’m also going to put someone at ringside to make it harder for you to interfere. If you don’t want interference, why not just bar EVERYONE from ringside?

Schiavone claimed that this was “one of the biggest matches ever on of Dynamite, which is ridiculous. Look… I LOVE FTR, but there is no way in hell that one member of FTR involved in a singles match can be described as one of the biggest matches in the history of Dynamite.

JADE CARGILL VS. RED VELVET VIDEO PACKAGE- meh
Red Velvet really felt like she was grasping at Straws to justify claiming that Jade is in any way worried about her, and that’s not a good position for a babyface to be in.

JON MOXLEY & THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. KENNY OMEGA & THE GOOD BROTHERS- 6.75/10
Excalibur referred to this as “one of the biggest trios matches we’ve ever had on Dynamite,” to which Ross responded, “and to some fans- of a different generation- it’s a ‘six-man tag.’” Does Jim Ross have such a low opinion of the viewing audience that he doesn’t think they understand the term “trios.” Yes, it’s not in the language spoken by the majority of AEW’s viewers, but as far as foreign words go, it’s pretty f*cking common. (And that’s the more generous interpretation of Ross’ comment. You could also read it as him saying “this is just another six-man tag” and that the talent involved really aren’t the big deal Excalibur is making them out to be and seeing Moxley and the Bucks team up for the first time ever isn’t something that people will get excited about”).
The match started off looking like it would be a great six-man tag, but instead it turned into stupid bullsh*t because… well… because Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks are f*cking idiots who don’t understand the concept of logical progression in a story.
At one point Matt was set up to superkick Kenny, but all of a sudden he became conflicted and didn’t want to kick his friend in the head. DUDE! You’ve already hit him with a DDT! Why is a superkick worse?
Omega repays this kindness and hesitancy with a slap in the face and they start fighting again. Omega set up for a V-Trigger but Moxley intercepts it with a lariat and Matt hits Kenny with a piledriver but Kenny kicks out. The Bucks hit More Bang for Your Buck but the pin was broken up. The Bucks set up for a BTE-Trigger… but once again they are suddenly struck by the inability to hurt their friend. So in the minds of Matt & Nick Jackson, collectively known as the Dumb F*cks, it’s okay to drive your former friend’s head into the mat at high speed within the confines of a professional sporting event, or to leap from a great height and crush his sternum, but actually striking your friend in the head is too far? F*CK OFF.
Moxley eventually realizes that they’re not going to go through with it, so he tags himself in and starts hitting Kenny with Paradigm Shifts. When he goes for a third, the Bucks superkick him, because apparently it’s only okay for them to drive their former friend’s head into the mat, but if someone else does it, it’s not okay and he’s going to too far.
This whole thing was made even worse by the way that the announcers were framing the match, which was “we never expected to see Omega and the Bucks on opposite sides of a ‘personal issues’ match. Yeah, we saw them face off at Revolution last year, but that was a title match.” If we enter that into the equation, then what is the Bucks’ position? That it’s okay to hurt your friend if professional pride is on the line, but not if it isn’t? Or is there just a certain threshold of money that needs to be passed before they’re willing to hurt their friend?
Kingston saw this and tried to run in, but got hit with a Magic Killer. Gallows & Anderson also hit Moxley with a Magic Killer, then dragged Omega into the cover for the win, while the Bucks stood there with their “I’m SOOOO CONFLICTED!” faces on. Anderson and Gallows then picked Moxley up and held him up and the Bucks eventually gave him a double superkick. Then the heels all hugged and were one big, happy group of friends again, because the desire to be Kenny Omega’s friend- or at least the desire to have to avoid making a hard choice- apparently overrides whatever morals the Young Bucks might have. Remember about six weeks ago when the Bucks were cutting this big promo about how much their father meant to them because he taught them how to be good people? So much for that.
This whole “we don’t want to hurt our friend” thing is SOOOOOOO f*cking stupid. Two weeks ago we established that Kazarian and Christian were friends… but that didn’t mean they were going to hold back against each other in their match. In fact, Kaz specifically sought out a match with Christian. Then, last week, they had a match where they were both professionals and are still friends. Earlier tonight, Christian talked about how much he loved the fact that Kaz pushed him to his limit. On Raw, a good chunk of the end of 2020 and January 2021 was all about how top babyface Drew McIntyre had no problem fighting his friends Keith Lee and Sheamus, and they had no problem fighting him, because they’re f*cking professionals and are driven by the competition. In ROH, the Briscoes have always decided to fight each other when they feel they both need to sharpen their game, and you have the Foundation, who love competition and are happy to wrestle each other. And I’m sure there are hundreds of other examples that I’m missing. So why can’t the Young Bucks have a professional fight- you know… their f*cking JOB- against Kenny Omega without becoming all conflicted?
Can the “I don’t want to fight my friend” thing work? Yes… given the right circumstances. Those circumstances require two things. The first is some sort of extreme circumstances to make the one side not want to harm the other. Good examples of this would be a mind-shattering betrayal with absolutely no warning from a best friend, causing a deep depression to the point of denial, (El Generico, after Kevin Steen turned on him at Final Battle 2009), or someone who is already emotionally scarred from a childhood trauma and thought for years that he had no family left suddenly finding out that his younger brother is actually alive (Undertaker, when Kane was introduced).
The second thing that is required to make the “I don’t want to fight my friend” scenario work is CONSISTENCY. You’ll remember that in both of those scenarios, the babyface constantly refused to lay a hand on the heel, no matter what the heel did to him, until the heel pushed him over the line, at which point it was on with no holds barred, and the babyface did not hold back at all. You can even see this dynamic in play in a less extreme example of the general “I don’t want to fight my friend” scenario, like Owen vs. Bret in the lead-up to WrestleMania X. Owen wanted to wrestle Bret but Bret refused to give him a match until Owen did something that pushed him over the line, but once Bret had been pushed over that line and granted Owen the match, he didn’t hold back.
With the Young Bucks, there is no consistency or logic at all. They’re fine fighting Kenny until it’s time for them to dramatically stop being fine with it. Kenny repays this by doing something that angers them and they get pushed over the line and start being fine fighting him again… until for no explicable reason, they’re suddenly back on the other side of the line and once again they are not okay fighting him.


Thus ends another bad episode of Dynamite. One other thing that I need to comment on was Cody's absence. It felt odd to not hear from the babyface after a big angle. At least tell us that he's too broken up to talk to the cameras, or that he's in the hospital or something.


STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Ross claimed that the main event would have “six very diverse personalities.”
Yeah, because Matt and Nick or Gallows and Anderson are so different from each other. Why would Ross even say this?
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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Thelone
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Re: BRM Reviews the 4/7/2021 Dynamite (bad, with a terrible ending)

Post by Thelone » Apr 11th, '21, 16:54

Big Red Machine wrote: Apr 8th, '21, 23:56ADAM PAGE vs. MAX CASTER (w/Anthony Bowens)-
Yeah, they need to ditch the rankings, or at least revamp them completely. Shit happening on Dark and Elevation shouldn't count, especially when it's barely touched upon anyway when they call up someone to job out. Yeah, it's the right idea in theory to build up someone with a few wins on Youtube and maybe do a short storyline out of it on Dynamite, but they're literally throwing people with those "great" records all of a sudden in matches, only to unceremoniously job them out and send them back to Elevation/Dark as quickly as they came. Apparently, the ranking are also the reason why there's barely any non-finishes, but also countless post-match beatdowns, because they're still living in this fantasy land where they're presenting a sports based product and not the same trash with a vaguely different smell.

I mean, just look at something like the Addiction being on some hot streak (on the B and C shows) and planning to break up if/when they lose a match. I think they've mentioned it once on Dynamite and done fuck all since then. Hell, no one seems to care that Sky broke up from them. Anyway, I don't know if it's supposed to be Daniels' swan song or whatever, but they sure are treating this like it's just another guy/team they'll bring in to job to the real "stars".

Going back to Page, I'm starting to feel like it's going to end up like Elgin and O'Reilly in ROH. Everyone knows (feels?) that he's going to be the one to defeat Omega in the future, but they're doing so little to keep him relevant since he broke up/lost to Omega that I'm not sure it's going to work.
TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH THE DEATH TRIANGLE IS INTERRUPTED BY ORANGE CASSIDY, BEST FRIENDS, & KRIS STATLANDER- bad
But it's """long-term storytelling""" or something. Because people care about the Biesse Friends, Fandango #2 and the Alien I suppose.
He criticized MJF for taking his scarf gimmick from five years ago… and then showed himself to be five years behind the times by joking that he couldn’t tell the members of FTR apart. He then tried to call Wardlow stupid but in the process of doing so, he flubbed his line and wound up saying that Wardlow has “a million-dollar brain and a thirteen-cent body” instead of the other way around.
So does that mean that Jericho has HALF THE BRAIN THAT WARDLOW DOES?
He completely buried Shawn Spears as being just plain not very good, which… was WAY to close to home with actual criticisms fans and analysts have levied at Spears, to the point where this felt like the sort of thing he really shouldn’t have said on the air.
I mean, what can you really say about Spears that isn't legitimate criticism? He's just that average.
He then challenged the Pinnacle to a Blood & Guts match on May 5th. This seems kind of quick to run to a blow-off when the turn was only a month ago.
Yeah, I've got nothing. They're rushing (at least) six months of storyline in six weeks so they can finally have the Totally-Not-Wargames match they wanted to do last year before THE PLAGUE.
Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky were shown sitting in the upper deck, looking disdainful.
Can't wait for them to be jobbed out to the Bucks and forgotten about in a few weeks.
AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Darby Allin(c) (w/Sting) vs. J.D. Drake (w/Ryan Nemeth & Cezar Bononi)- 7.5/10
Excalibur told us that Darby is having this open challenge because “he wants to be like Mr. Brodie Lee and defend the championship against all comers.” Wasn’t that CODY doing that, not Brodie Lee? And if Brodie did do it, he didn’t do it more than once, as opposed to Cody, who did a whole bunch of times.
Color me shocked that Excalibur is awful at his job.
EARLIER TODAY, TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS DR. BRITT BAKER, DMD- bad
Britt wants a title shot, but Schiavone tells her that she’s only ranked fourth and thus will have to wait for the three people ahead of her to get their shots. Since when has that been the case in this company?
Britt goes on to say that title shots should be based on who sells merch and draws ratings in the demo rather than wins and losses… but she then says that she’ll just pick up some wins and earn a title shot the old-fashioned way.
Because the plot demands it™.
TAY CONTI (w/the Dark Order & Hikaru Shida) vs. THE BUNNY (w/Matt Hardy Family Office)- 5.75/10
Hikaru Shida came out with the Dark Order, which went completely uncommented on. The Bunny grabbed her Kendo stick at one point and hit Conti with it but Shida then yanked it away from Bunny, buying Conti time to recover, leading to the finish, which was Conti going over with her finisher.
Let's not forget the 8-year old kid WHO'S STILL AROUND. Maybe Khan is trying to win Most disgusting promotional tactic from Uncle Dave next year, I don't know.
Announced for next week we’ve got Mat Hardy vs. Darby Allin for the TNT Title in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The angle happened twenty minutes ago and we’ve already booked a gimmick match?
A bunch of other stuff was advertised for next week, including the “long-awaited in-ring debut of Anthony Ogogo. They really should have spent more time building this guy up first if they are going to call his debut “long-awaited.”
Also announced for next week is Dax Hardwood vs. Chris Jericho with all members of the Inner Circle and the Pinnacle other than Cash Wheeler and Sammy Guevara barred from ringside, and Mike Tyson as a Special Ringside Enforcer. This stipulation is RIDICULOUS! The purpose of barring people from ringside is to prevent interference. The purpose of having an enforcer is to prevent interference. What Tony Khan is saying here is essentially “I don’t want anyone to interfere in this match… except for you and you… but I’m also going to put someone at ringside to make it harder for you to interfere. If you don’t want interference, why not just bar EVERYONE from ringside?

Schiavone claimed that this was “one of the biggest matches ever on of Dynamite, which is ridiculous. Look… I LOVE FTR, but there is no way in hell that one member of FTR involved in a singles match can be described as one of the biggest matches in the history of Dynamite.
This whole block right there : overhyping shit to such a ridiculous degree that you can't take any of it seriously, gimmick matches for no reason whatsoever (one of them nonsensical), and just rushing everything. I'll be honest, I half-expect someone to leak out that Russo is a secret advisor to Tony Khan or something in the near future.
JON MOXLEY & THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. KENNY OMEGA & THE GOOD BROTHERS- 6.75/10
I was actually expecting the Bucks to turn on Moxley (I mean, blind people saw it coming), but not to join Omega and the Meh Brothers because they're so "kewl" and over this shit. Instead, we'll have the worst actors and storytellers in pro wrestling trying to tell... whatever the story is here that won't draw any new pair of eyeballs because people who saw this in New Japan years ago ARE ALREADY WATCHING (and it's old news to them anyway, so they might not care that much)!!!

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XIV
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Re: BRM Reviews the 4/7/2021 Dynamite (bad, with a terrible ending)

Post by XIV » Apr 12th, '21, 12:12

WWE spent $2 Million on Mike Tyson at the pinnacle of his career and helped make Stone Cold the most over wrestler in the world because of how they presented him.

AEW has spent similar sums on a Mike Tyson who has fallen asleep at ringside in his first appearance and lost to NXT in ratings on his second appearance. Booker of the year ladies and gentlemen.
Have A Nice Day!

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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 4/7/2021 Dynamite (bad, with a terrible ending)

Post by Big Red Machine » Apr 14th, '21, 12:04

Thelone wrote: Apr 11th, '21, 16:54
Big Red Machine wrote: Apr 8th, '21, 23:56ADAM PAGE vs. MAX CASTER (w/Anthony Bowens)-

I mean, just look at something like the Addiction being on some hot streak (on the B and C shows) and planning to break up if/when they lose a match. I think they've mentioned it once on Dynamite and done fuck all since then. Hell, no one seems to care that Sky broke up from them. Anyway, I don't know if it's supposed to be Daniels' swan song or whatever, but they sure are treating this like it's just another guy/team they'll bring in to job to the real "stars".
A tremendous example of AEW's booking and ideas working against themselves, and the sort of thing I think wouldn't happen if they didn't insist on having so many cooks in the kitchen.
Thelone wrote: Apr 11th, '21, 16:54 Going back to Page, I'm starting to feel like it's going to end up like Elgin and O'Reilly in ROH. Everyone knows (feels?) that he's going to be the one to defeat Omega in the future, but they're doing so little to keep him relevant since he broke up/lost to Omega that I'm not sure it's going to work.
I don't think that's a fair categorization of Elgin's chase of Cole, but I agree with your general point.
Thelone wrote: Apr 11th, '21, 16:54
Big Red Machine wrote:He criticized MJF for taking his scarf gimmick from five years ago… and then showed himself to be five years behind the times by joking that he couldn’t tell the members of FTR apart. He then tried to call Wardlow stupid but in the process of doing so, he flubbed his line and wound up saying that Wardlow has “a million-dollar brain and a thirteen-cent body” instead of the other way around.
So does that mean that Jericho has HALF THE BRAIN THAT WARDLOW DOES?
LOL
Thelone wrote: Apr 11th, '21, 16:54
Big Red Machine wrote:AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Darby Allin(c) (w/Sting) vs. J.D. Drake (w/Ryan Nemeth & Cezar Bononi)- 7.5/10
Excalibur told us that Darby is having this open challenge because “he wants to be like Mr. Brodie Lee and defend the championship against all comers.” Wasn’t that CODY doing that, not Brodie Lee? And if Brodie did do it, he didn’t do it more than once, as opposed to Cody, who did a whole bunch of times.
Color me shocked that Excalibur is awful at his job.
I'm not sure if this was Excalibur misspeaking, or if it's part of the "Brodie Lee was such a great guy" messaging that completely flies in the face of kayfabe.
Thelone wrote: Apr 11th, '21, 16:54
Big Red Machine wrote:TAY CONTI (w/the Dark Order & Hikaru Shida) vs. THE BUNNY (w/Matt Hardy Family Office)- 5.75/10
Hikaru Shida came out with the Dark Order, which went completely uncommented on. The Bunny grabbed her Kendo stick at one point and hit Conti with it but Shida then yanked it away from Bunny, buying Conti time to recover, leading to the finish, which was Conti going over with her finisher.
Let's not forget the 8-year old kid WHO'S STILL AROUND. Maybe Khan is trying to win Most disgusting promotional tactic from Uncle Dave next year, I don't know.
That would require the WON voters to understand what a promotional tactic is, which the past few years of awards have shown that they clearly don't.


Thelone wrote: Apr 11th, '21, 16:54 I was actually expecting the Bucks to turn on Moxley (I mean, blind people saw it coming), but not to join Omega and the Meh Brothers because they're so "kewl" and over this shit. Instead, we'll have the worst actors and storytellers in pro wrestling trying to tell... whatever the story is here that won't draw any new pair of eyeballs because people who saw this in New Japan years ago ARE ALREADY WATCHING (and it's old news to them anyway, so they might not care that much)!!!
I've been thinking a lot about the "we saw this already" issue, and I've come to the following conclusions:

1. No one involved has learned from the storytelling mistakes they made the first time they did this (and in hindsight, that should have been clear already based on the way the stuff with Adam Page, FTR, and The Elite played out). This unwillingness to learn from their mistakes (or seemingly even hear criticism) is going to be an issue.

2. While under most circumstances, one could say that one shouldn't count things that happen in a non-partner promotion as part of another promotion's kayfabe canon, it's much harder to make that argument with AEW, where they have relied on pre-AEW BTE stuff for story points. But even if one accepted that argument, NJPW becoming a partner promotion does open up this issue.

3. There is, actually, one explanation that makes all of the Bucks' actions in ROH, New Japan, and AEW make sense together, and that is that they are just (kayfabe) completely emotionally f*cked-up people. But I don't think that has ever been their intention, so they're just terrible with characters.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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