BRM Reviews the 1/11/2023 Dynamite (excellent wrestling)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 1/11/2023 Dynamite (excellent wrestling)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 12th, '23, 00:35

JON MOXLEY vs. ADAM PAGE- 8.25/10
I didn’t notice the new guardrails until Schiavone pointed them out here. I really like them. They feel like a taller than average solid wall of guardrail which creates the feeling of the ringside area being a pit.
The story here was Moxley working the head and Page proving that he can take. I thought the kick-out at one on the Pilediver worked well, but I think it would have worked better, artistically, after a lariat. I really didn’t like Moxley delayed-selling a Dead-Eye so that he could put Page down with a stomp and turn it into a double-down. Don’t do that to a finisher.
Page got win here, as he needed to, both to prove himself and to derailed Moxley as a title contender long enough for Dragon’s storyline to wrap up. Revolution 2023 seems like a fine place for these two to have a rubber match.
I did not like the idea that Page concussed Moxley on the finish here. This feud has not made either man look good because of what they were arguing over, so unless the idea is to turn Moxley heel by making him a hypocrite and having him get angry at Page for knocking him out (which is a bad idea), I don’t see this taking either guy to a place where they will come off any better.

ADAM COLE RETURNS- TREMENDOUS!
He cut an amazing return promo. He needs to be a babyface now, and he certainly came across like one. In one promo, he made himself the guy who needs to beat MJF.

THE ACCLAIMED & BILLY GUNN PROMO- dumb
They claim to be getting stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

JUNGLE BOY & HOOK vs. THE FIRM (Lee Moriarty & Big Bill) (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 7/10
A good babyfaces vs. heels tag team match. The build to Hook suplexing Bill was great.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS SOME GUY WHO WON A GOLDEN GLOBE, AND ALSO, FOR SOME REASON, ORANGE CASSIDY AND DANHAUSEN- bad
I mean Renee also interviewed OC and Danhausen, not that the guy wo them in addition to the Golden Globe.
Anyway, the guy says he is a big AEW fan, so he will show off his Golden Globe on Rampage. First of all, what a dick, making the show about you instead of the wrestlers. Secondly, what, exactly, is the draw here? We know what Golden Globe awards look like.
Danhausen is an idiot who cannot read what is on the box, and is also apparently quite rude, because he didn’t list to pretty much the only thing this guy said.
The guy then turned to OC. I thought he was going to ask him for an All-Atlantic Title shot on Rampage, but instead he asked if everything was okay between Orange Cassidy and Best Friends. Best Friends conveniently happened to be standing nearby, so they walked into the shot and said that it was.

MJF PROMO- bad
He came out after Takeshita’s entrance but before Danielson’s. Their little graphic telling us that he was hoping to avoid defending the title against Bryan got the name of the PPV wrong. Oops.
I laughed my ass off at MJF calling Takeshita “Take-a-sh*t-a.” Then, going in the much less clever direction, he told Takeshita that he needed to “speak American.”
It got worse from there, with him doing cheap heat stuff, then transitioning into an insult comic routine with the celebrities they had in the front row… although he did plug my favorite Freddie Prinze Jr. work. (“I’m a racririce.” “A sacrifice? Dude… that’s not a good thing, Scoob!”).
Anyway, this was just MJF showing up and talking for the purpose of having him talk. It did nothing for the story, Danielson letting MJF rant for five minutes and then only coming out to interrupt his catchphrase was contrived, and backing down from Takeshita and flat-out running from Danielson the way he did made MJF look way too cowardly.

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA- 8/10
Another excellent wrestling match, although the crowd being so behind Takeshita when Danielson is the guy going for the world title isn’t a good thing. The crowd became sad when Danielson defeated their hero Konosuke “Jobber to the Stars” Takeshita.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERIVEWS JUICE ROBINSON- snore
Juice, last seen losing an ROH TV Title match that he did nothing to earn, now wants an AEW TNT Title shot that he has done nothing to earn. It must be such a rush for an aspiring young booker to watch Tony Khan’s genius in action.

TONI STORM & SARAYA vs. JAMIE HAYTER & BRITT BAKER (w/Rebel)- 6.75/10
The fans are completely behind the heels, and seem to particularly hate Saraya. Hikaru Shida came out, ostensibly to deal with Rebel. Instead she wound up waiting until there was a double-down and the referee was distracted, and she slip her Kendo stick into the ring between the wrestlers, but WAY closer to Britt, who got it and hit Storm in the back. The announcers tried to convince us that she didn’t mean for that to happen, but if she wanted to help the babyfaces, she could have just handed it to Toni. Hayter followed up the Kendo stick shot with Hayterade for the win.

EXCALIBUR’S PLUG OF RAMPAGE IS INTERRUPTED BY A VIDEO PACKAGE FOR EDDIE KINGSTON & ORTIZ VS. HOUSE OF BLACK- bad
Kingston and Ortiz are such great friends and longtime comrades in arms, and yet all it takes for them to stop trusting each other is some goofs making hints at things? Really?

Danielson’s match next week will be against Bandido. What better way to prove that you deserve a title shot than by beating wrestlers who rarely win on TV.

JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY PROMO- very bad
They were goofs. Jericho bragged about them “invading” the indy that the very promotion giving him this platform right now consigned to irrelevancy. Then he claimed to have sent Action Andretti “back to the minor leagues.” So one second he is putting an indy over, and the next second, indies are “minor leagues.”
Fortunately, they were soon interrupted by Ricky Starks & Action Andretti. They said mean things to the heels. This included needling Daniel Garcia for having Sammy Guevara as his “babysitter,” and then claiming that Sammy wasn’t a good role model because he “can’t even keep control over his own wife.” In 2023.
I didn’t even understand what this was supposed to mean. Fortunately, Andretti clarified, by saying that last week’s Tay’s hands “were right in between my legs.” Hey, dude, whatever your fetishes are, I’m happy for you, but I don’t think Sammy seems his wife hitting you in the nuts as some sort of betrayal of trust. But Sammy got upset anyway, because the plan was for this to be a zinger, and so Sammy reacted like it was.
Starks talked a lot of smack to Jake Hager, and the challenged him to a match next week… that they had already advertised earlier. Oops.

BEST OF SEVEN SERIES FOR THE AEW WORLD TRIOS TITLES LADDER MATCH #7: Death Triangle(c)(3) (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. The Elite(3) (w/Brandon Cutler & Michael Nakazawa)- 8.5/10
Don Callis was on commentary for this match.
They had a bunch of ladders and tables set up decoratively around the ring like WWE. Why are copying stupid sh*t?
They keep telling us that you only have to pull down one of the belts to win… so why did they hang all three belts up there? It seems like all that can do is create a situation where a member of each team could pull down a belt at the same time.
They did all of the flips and head-drops and hammer-using I’ve seen them do in the previous six matches, but this time they landed on ladders. I’m not saying this wasn’t exciting, but things are even more exciting when you have a reason to want to see one side win and one side lose, and in eight matches over two months, they haven’t given me a reason to care one way or the other (the Elite won, by the way).

This was an excellent show from AEW, but entirely on the strength of the wrestling. And that’s certainly to be expected, given how much they built the matches up for this show (I’m shocked it didn’t have a special name), but two of the three big promo segments were terrible (though the other one was tremendous), and none of the storyline stuff had me interested in tuning in next week, or caring one way or another about pretty much any of the wrestlers. We all know that I will tune in next week… but I’m a guy who writes wrestling reviews on the internet. There are people out there who need more than good matches, and even those of us who enjoy good matches can get them other places. If AEW wants to grow, they’re going to need to make people care.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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