BRM Reviews the 8/17/2022 Dynamite (DANIELSON VS. GARCIA!)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 8/17/2022 Dynamite (DANIELSON VS. GARCIA!)

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 18th, '22, 23:07

CM PUNK PROMO- I know I’m going to be in the minority once again here, but I really disliked this.
He offered Adam Page a rematch for the AEW World Title “right here, right now.”
Excalibur asks if Punk is cleared. Ross, who asked the same question at the end of last week’s show, told us that they haven’t gotten it confirmed one way or the other. Really, AEW? Really? It’s been a whole week since this big star returned an J.R. asked that question, and you still haven’t even let your freakin’ announcers know if Punk is medically cleared or not?
Ross wondered if Page was here tonight. Why wouldn’t he be?
Oh. Or maybe he’s not, because he didn’t come out. Punk called him a coward.
So when dealing with Moxley, Punk is a babyface (Moxley was an ungrateful dick to him last week, responding to Punk saving him from a beating by flipping Punk off), but when dealing Page he’s a heel because he’s calling Page out when he knows Page isn’t there? Or is Punk also a babyface here and grassroots hero Adam Page is the heel because he’s a hypocrite for not taking a week off when he had previously criticized Punk for doing so? Is it really that hard to just have babyfaces and heels instead of having people who are supposed to be babyfaces act completely unlikable for no good reason?

Punk says that Moxley is “the third best guy in his group” (which is arguable in this case, though in terms of overall ability, I would put him above Claudio and behind Dragon due to being much better than Claudio on the mic), and claims that that’s a “reoccurring theme in his career.” This last part got an “ooooh” from the crowd like it was some sort of big shot that he was worse than Rollins and Reigns, but considering what Reigns has become, that’s no slight. Either way, though, it came across as something that wasn’t really true and was just something Punk was saying to needle Moxley… which makes Punk come across unlikable, too.
His next shot at Moxley was to point out that Moxley keeps talking about “breaking bones,” but when was the last time Mox did that to someone. This point resonated with me, but in a bad way. It felt like Punk was pointing out a flaw in Moxley that we’re not supposed to see. It makes Moxley feel like someone who talks a game that he doesn’t deliver on.
Punk says that Eddie Kingston is “the third-best Eddie I’ve ever been in the ring with.” I’m assuming his top two are Guerrero and Colon, but I could be missing someone obvious. I don’t think he and Eddie Edwards have ever crossed paths. He also said that Eddie Kingston is “the second-best Kingston I’ve ever shared a lockerroom with.” I don’t doubt the Kofi Kingston is a more fun person to be around than Eddie Kingston, and, depending on your stylistic likes, I won’t fault you for liking Kofi better than Eddie, but at this point it feels like Punk is just trolling Moxley (and if you didn’t think so by that point, then saying that Moxley isn’t even best John/Jon he will have beaten in Chicago for a title should have convinced you that he was). That’s not a great look for babyface…
And yet Punk feels like the babyface here because not only was Mox a dick to him last week for no reason, but when it comes to him being the rightful champion and Moxley being the interim champion, he’s speaking the truth, and for Moxley not to acknowledge this feels petulant to me. It’d be different if Moxley had been the champion for six months, but we’re not even at two. He has defended the title… what? Three times? Maybe four?
Moxley came out. Punk spent the time it took Mox to come through the crowd making “snow” angels in the ring. Excalibur says that there is a “long and complicated” history between Punk and Moxley. If there is any, I don’t know anything about it. They were in WWE together for a few years but that’s pretty much it. Mox debuted in June 2004, and Punk was signed to WWE by June 2005, and I have never heard of a match between them during that year.
Moxley cut a promo of his own. It started off well, turning some of Punk’s famous lines around, but then he started saying things that- like the things Punk was saying- didn’t ring true to me. I don’t believe for a second that CM Punk only came back for money (the character, I mean. I don’t know anything about Phil Brooks’ financial situation, but even if he did only come back for the money, that shouldn’t matter as long as he is always giving 100 % to earn that money). I don’t believe for a moment that he doesn’t have any more fighting spirit.
A brawl started, but security came out to break them up. Based on what we’ve seen over the years in AEW, it was ridiculous that they weren’t just plowing through these eight guys like a blade through Moxley’s forehead. Surely if Wardlow can beat up twenty security guards on his own, then Moxley and Punk can eight take out a measly four. Hell, you’d think Mr. Ultraviolent “I break bones and drink blood” Jon Moxley would be able to take them all out by himself.
This segment felt to me like a kayfabe work. It felt they agreed to say things intended to get under each other’s skin, then they would have a short brawl, and then security would come out, kind of like the “brawls” you’re see at a UFC press conference every five years or so.
This was not helped by the way the announcers were framing things. They kept telling us that security was there to “protect” this huge match that has been signed for the PPV, making the explanation for why we couldn’t see a brawl like we usually do into 1) a way to hype the match by telling us how big it is, and 2) make the people stopping them from fighting (management, who sent the security guards out there) into babyfaces, even though they were doing this unpopular thing.
I also hated that explanation because it is AEW once again not considering the kayfabe implications of management’s actions. The reason that management should send security to stop people from fighting outside the confines of a match is because it is unregulated, unapproved fighting, and thus dangerous to both the combatants and to anyone else who might be nearby (camera crew, the ring announcer, time keeper, fans, some other bystander if it happens backstage, etc.). Yes, this is a combat sport and people will get hurt, but the goal is to minimize it. That’s why referee stoppages exist, and those are for when people are supposed to be trying to hurt each other.
You don’t stop a fight to preserve a future PPV match because that is essentially telling us that people’s health is less important than money. This might sound like a stretch, but if that’s the case then why have so many other brawls not had people sent to break them up? Sure, some of those haven’t been PPV matches, but others were. All that says is that Tony Khan didn’t think the potential loss of money by not having those matches on the PPV if someone got injured was worth the effort.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS WILL HOBBS- mostly good
Tony asks Hobbs why he turned on Ricky Starks. Why didn’t Mark Henry ask that the other week? It’s the obvious question.
Hobbs says that he attacked Starks because Starks said he was “okay with losing.” I liked that reason. It shows a weakness that someone who is hungry like Will Hobbs would not want to see in his tag team partner. With some foresight, though, they could have set the idea up a little better by using the controversy surrounding the pinfall when Starks got pinned in the tag title match despite not being the legal man by having Hobbs being pissed about it but having Starks then cut a promo saying he wanted to focus more on defending his FTW Title, but that’s a minor thing.
He also said that Starks’ success was due to him being around to help Starks keep the belt. That part I really didn’t like. That has absolutely not been the case for a long time, and thus saying it makes Hobbs feel delusional and cartoonish. It took things that little bit too far, and thus made the character less interesting to me.
Hobbs is also upset with the Factory and hints that he will do something to them. Why would he be upset with them? Did he really think their pathetic asses were going to take Ricky Starks out last week?

TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS MATCH WITH RICKY STEAMBOAT AS THE GUEST TIMEKEEPER: Bryan Danieson vs. Daniel Garcia- 9/10
They introduced a special guest timekeeper for a match where they didn’t announce a time limit. Steamboat sure is lucky that TNT’s corporate partners forced a random tie-in on AEW. He got a payday out of it.
Chris Jericho was on guest commentary, but even his yelling couldn’t ruin this match for me. This was about thirty wonderful minutes of grapplef*ck and hard strikes to the head. Garcia won the first fall but Dragon won the final two.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- mostly good
Yup. Once again, the rare occasion when William Regal isn’t on commentary for Blackpool Combat Club match (with no explanation), there just so happens to be a post-match angle that wouldn’t have worked if Regal were on commentary. In this case, Regal would have been able to warn Dragon that Jericho was coming to attack him, and Garcia telling Jericho to stop attacking Dragon after the match wouldn’t have worked quite as well if Regal was sprinting down to the ring to even up the numbers while it was happening because people’s attention would have been on Regal. The idea here was good, but AEW created this problem for themselves by sticking Regal on commentary for every BCC match, and Tony is just way too lazy to come up with a logical way around it.
Jericho got angry at Garcia and walked out on him. The fans were great here, playing their role perfectly, first chanting for Garcia, then, when he looked conflicted, chanting “YOU’RE A WRESTLER!” That was a CHIKARA-level “helping with the show” crowd.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS PRIVATE PARTY & SWERVE IN OUR GLORY- very good
Private Party have found exactly the right tone for heels who are about to turn babyface because they are tired of everyone- but especially their heel boss- disrespecting them. At the moment, they are taking it out on Swerve in Our Glory, but it’s all about them proving themselves, and you can see how it will eventually boil over when Andrade pushes them too far.

TONY NESE COMES OUT FOR HIS MATCH, BUT IS ATTACKED IN THE AISLE BY JON MOXLEY-
When they ran down the card earlier tonight, they advertised four matches. Nese wasn’t involved in any of them… and Nese’s match winds up not happening because of a spontaneous event management had no control over. Is it really that hard to avoid things like this match make the show feel scripted? No one is going to be annoyed if you advertise Tony Nese vs. jobber and that match doesn’t happen because Jon Moxley does something.
Anyway, Moxley is “sick of waiting,” and he demands that CM Punk come out and they have their unification match right now. Excalibur shouts “why wait ‘til All Out? Do the match here in Charleston!” This is the same guy who an hour ago was telling me how it important it was that this match be saved for the PPV.
Punk came out, but security and backstage officials were right behind him, and we had another pull-apart between these same two guys. Claudi and Wheeler YUTA came out to try to hold Moxley back.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS CHRIS JERICHO & 2.0- okay
Jericho says he’ll give Garcia a pass because maybe his head was still fuzzy from him match, but he needs to know whose side Garcia is on, so he wants to talk to him in the ring next week. Why can’t they just talk backstage? This is the sort of thing that I’m fine with if someone just comes out and calls someone else out, or if one person asks someone they aren’t aligned with to come face to face with them next week (because the ring is neutral ground in case anyone is worried about being lured into an ambush), but when one guy in the same faction as another guy says “I want to talk to you in the ring next week,” it doesn’t work for me because it doesn’t feel like something a promotion should be in advance volunteering to give TV time to at the expense of wrestling matches.

RICKY STEAMBOAT SHOWS UP TO YELL AT JERICHO-
Steamboat says that Garcia doesn’t need Chris Jericho. He also said that Jericho was the same guy with “the same get-up” and “the same hair” as when they feuded back in 2009. Wasn’t that the period of time where Jericho’s gimmick was that he very specifically wasn’t being the same old Chris Jericho?
Steamboat said that Danielson would make a better mentor for Garcia than Jericho. Jericho told Steamboat to stay out of his business. Then Jericho and Matt Menard left, but Angelo Parker stayed around to yell at Steamboat like a clown and put his hands on him, just so Steamboat could punch him. This just made the active wrestler look bad, and it gained nothing other than a small pop.

THE VARSITY BLONDS vs. GUNN CLUB (w/Billy Gunn)- squash
Have the Varsity Blonds ever even cut a promo about their member turning on them? Do they even care that her mind was poisoned by evil magic?
Gunn Club won in a matter of seconds.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- well executed, but questionable booking
Billy told them he was proud of them, and they all hugged. This came off like a babyface moment to me, so of course I was expecting the turn. Then, when Stokely Hathaway came out, I was expecting that this would be more of a seed-planting segment for a turn farther down the road, so I was actually quite surprised when the Gunns attacked their father.
With the way this played out, I think the quick turn was the wrong move. If Stokely’s recruiting is going to be the major impetus for the turn, I think the better story is in Stokely’s machinations (and the sons’ greed for the money Stokely promises them or their ambition with the career help he offers them) running the bond between father and sons, and for that to work, the bond needs to be repaired first, and you can’t do that in one segment. This needed a good eight or ten weeks, first with them getting wins like this and Billy telling them he’s proud of them and encouraging them, then them facing a set-back and Billy reacting with kindness and encouragement instead of yelling at them. Something to really show us that Billy has changed before you yank the rug out, because Billy has been a jerk to his kids for quite a while, and so you need to repair that bond before there can be any real heat to breaking it.
If you wanted to the turn this week, I would have had Billy give the same speech, but just had his kids attack him on their own for the way he has treated them and then thinking he can make it up to them with one nice speech. I would have them had them seek Stokely out to join him, thinking that he will be a better manager and his stable better back-up for them than Billy has been.
Anyway, then The Acclaimed came out and made the save for Billy, which really doesn’t work for me because Billy has been a jerk, including to them. Why do we want to see Billy Gunn join the Acclaimed? This feels like it will just lead to bad comedy, and Billy celebrating and being all happy with his new sons just minutes after his real sons who he has mentored for years attacked him killed any heat the turn got.
JAY LETHAL, SONJAY DUTT & SATNAM SINGH VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- bad
They’re cartoons. They’ll be facing FTR and Wardlow in a six-man tag.

PAC PROMO- meh
He’s talked vaguely about some feud with Will Ospreay that I have no knowledge of. He and Ospreay are apparently wrestling next week, because I guess getting snowflakes from Dave Meltzer in a match with a New Japan regular is more important than setting up stuff for the big PPV in less than three weeks.
He also said that Death Triangle will be a force to be reckoned with in the Trios Championship tournament. Sure.

JUNGLE BOY PROMO-
Without actually using the word, the announcers said that Luchasaurus had been suspended for headbutting Pat Buck. What they actually said (multiple times) was that he “went too far” by attacking Buck, which is problematic because- as I predicted last week, nothing was done to Anna Jay for assaults on backstage crewmembers, so apparently AEW management’s view of the world is that it’s okay to beat up the nameless peons who work for us, but if you beat up someone high on the totem pole, then you get in trouble (unless that person is Dean Malenko, in which case, go for it).
Anyway, Jungle Boy tells us that management got upset at him because of a t-shirt he wore a few weeks ago. Two sentences later, he reminded us that HE TRIED TO RUN CHRISTIAN OVER WITH A CAR. He was not punished for this, but apparently whatever was on his t-shirt was bad enough that management felt the need to talk to him.
He said that he would continue trying to murder Christian unless Christian agreed to face him at the PPV. He said that if Christian doesn’t agree to face him, it would prove that his shirt was right, and Christian was too much of a “pu-“ and then Christian’s music cut him off. I’ll give AEW a pass on this one and say that the Christian was standing at Gorilla in case he wanted to come out, but it was actually a sound technician deciding to play the music so as not to have the offensive word said on their TV.
Christian came out and said that he would not accept the match. You’d think that Jungle Boy would then follow through on his promise and try to attack Chrisitan again, but instead he just stood in the ring and listened to Christian cut a promo. Even when Christian got into the ring, Jungle Boy stood there and listened to Christian’s obviously bullsh*t apology and pitch that they reunite.
Christian was also a dumbass for thinking that his apology would work and letting his guard down. Jungle Boy surprised him with a double-leg, and they started brawling. No security came out to stop them, even though one of them has already attempted to murder the other once this month.
Jungle Boy won the brawl but stomping Christian’s head into the steps. Thankfully, security eventually showed up before Jungle Boy could try it a second time, not satisfied after the first one failed to end Christian’s life.

FTR & WARDLOW PROMO- meh
I HATED Cash Wheeler calling them “seven-star FTR.” Caring about star ratings is completely against their gimmick. He also referred to the three of them as “the Pinnacle.” I didn’t like that reminder much, either.
Wardlow said that everyone will get powerbombed, no matter how big. Dax Harwood challenged Jay Lethal to a singles match because I guess Tony Khan realized that he has pretty much depleted Lethal’s credibility at this point.

KILYNN KING vs. TONI STORM- 4/10
A no-name jobber got a bunch of offense on our #1 contender.

TRUSTBUSTERS VS. BEST FRIENDS VIDEO PACKAGE- bad
“No one gives a damn about Orange Cassidy or his dorky-ass Best Friends.” That right there is Sonny Kiss speaking the truth.
Best Friends were dorks who couldn’t even say the same f*cking words after a count-down, never mind speak them in unison.

HOOK VS. ZACK CLAYTON VIDEO PACKAGE- this was short and didn’t tell us anything to make us care about either character.

THEY ANNNOUCNED THAT THEY’RE DOING THE UNIFICATION MATCH NEXT WEEK INSTEAD OF AT ALL OUT- Yes, really.
They need to have some sort of absolutely killer angle for this because I don’t see Tony booking a f*ck finish, and in this particular situation, I think even a totally clean time-limit draw would feel like one. As for what that angle could possibly be, I’m really not sure what could be big enough other than possibly turning one guy fully heel, and I don’t think Tony is going to do that, either.

AEW TRIOS TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: La Faccion Ingobernable (Rush, Dragon Lee, & Andrade el Idolo) w/Jose the Assistant) vs. The Elite (Kenny Omega & the Young Bucks (w/Brandon Cutler & Michael Nakazawa)- 8/10
Yes, as everyone predicted, the Bucks’ partner was Kenny Omega, although based on the long list the announcer recited upon his entrance, I think they were hoping to fool people into thinking it was going to be 2003 Steve Corino.
Don Callis came out with Omega and then went to do commentary.
Props to Tony Khan for booking Kenny’s return in a small market like Charleston. Giving all of the big shows and big moments just to the big markets is something a booker needs to be cognizant of, because it can make the smaller markets feel less-than, and thus hurt attendance there.
Jim Ross, the babyface announcer, referred to Omega’s surgeries as “alleged.” Don Callis rightfully jumped on him for this. Why would he even say that?
Dragon Lee went over and shook Kenny Omega’s hand. He then offered Matt Jackson a handshake, but turned his back on him. Why did this happen? All this did was confuse me as to who are supposed to be the babyfaces and who are supposed to be the heels.
They did spots. Kenny sold his knee, which was one of the many body parts he got surgery on. At one point the referee clearly saw Jose holding Kenny in place, but didn’t call for the DQ. That spot Dragon Lee doing a F*CKING CRAZY torpedo of a dive onto Kenny.
The team you expected to win won, and the guy not under contract got pinned by Kenny Omega.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Andrade attacked Dragon Lee, which was a fine way to either write him out, or to turn him to his much more natural babyface position (he was the person who got the most attention in the match aside from Kenny, so it’s probably the latter). The only problem with this was that there just wasn’t enough time left in the show to focus on it.


This was a great episode of Dynamite, but almost entirely on the strength of the wrestling. This Moxley vs. Punk feud has already started to feel like Page vs. Punk, where someone is a jerk to the other for no reason and now they’re both inordinately angry at each other in relation to what has actually transpired between them.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
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XIV
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Joined: Aug 19th, '13, 11:38

Re: BRM Reviews the 8/17/2022 Dynamite (DANIELSON VS. GARCIA!)

Post by XIV » Aug 19th, '22, 03:16

Big Red Machine wrote: Aug 18th, '22, 23:07 FTR & WARDLOW PROMO- meh
I HATED Cash Wheeler calling them “seven-star FTR.” Caring about star ratings is completely against their gimmick. He also referred to the three of them as “the Pinnacle.” I didn’t like that reminder much, either.
Wardlow said that everyone will get powerbombed, no matter how big. Dax Harwood challenged Jay Lethal to a singles match because I guess Tony Khan realized that he has pretty much depleted Lethal’s credibility at this point.
But... they're called 7 star FTR because they've won 7 major Tag Team Championships...

NXT, Raw, Smackdown, AAA, ROH, AEW & IWGP
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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/17/2022 Dynamite (DANIELSON VS. GARCIA!)

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 19th, '22, 06:47

XIV wrote: Aug 19th, '22, 03:16
Big Red Machine wrote: Aug 18th, '22, 23:07 FTR & WARDLOW PROMO- meh
I HATED Cash Wheeler calling them “seven-star FTR.” Caring about star ratings is completely against their gimmick. He also referred to the three of them as “the Pinnacle.” I didn’t like that reminder much, either.
Wardlow said that everyone will get powerbombed, no matter how big. Dax Harwood challenged Jay Lethal to a singles match because I guess Tony Khan realized that he has pretty much depleted Lethal’s credibility at this point.
But... they're called 7 star FTR because they've won 7 major Tag Team Championships...

NXT, Raw, Smackdown, AAA, ROH, AEW & IWGP
Oh. My bad, then.
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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