BRM Reviews the 3/8/2023 Dynamite

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 3/8/2023 Dynamite

Post by Big Red Machine » Mar 10th, '23, 16:33

AEW ALL-ATLANTIC TITLE MATCH: Orange Cassidy(c) vs. Jay Lethal- 7.75/10
Tony Khan justified this match on Twitter with the following logic:


The last two should be minor points when justifying a championship match. The first two (especially the second one) are much better, except for the following fatal flaw: that second match that Tony is so proud of that tied the series up at one WAS A TITLE MATCH IN WHICH ORANGE CASSIDY PINNED JAY LETHAL CLEANLY TO RETAIN THE TITLE IN A TITLE MATCH THAT WAS SET UP BY THE FIRST MATCH! Tony is giving Lethal a title shot off a clean pin which he has already given Lethal title shot off of, which Lethal lost cleanly (a fact which Excalibur also conveniently omitted when telling us that this was the “rubber match” between these two and showing us a replay of the finish).
And that’s not even touching the fact that Tony is making a big deal out of a clean pin here and making it the basis for giving someone a title shot even when that person has already lost cleanly to said champion since then, but has completely ignored it when champions retain their titles via cheating and not given the cheated party a rematch (Moxley, Toni Storm, I’m sure Danielson will be added to those ranks now as well).


Lethal came out with his pals, but an army of referees herded his pals to the back.
1. Got to love those plot-specific preemptive bannings from ringside. I bet everyone Britt Baker defended her title against is pretty annoyed.
2. Remember on Sunday when the JAS were banned from ringside for Jericho vs. Starks, but then Sammy Guevara came out any way and there were no consequences for Jericho at all (like, say, disqualifying him)? Why should we as viewers or any of the wrestlers involved think there will be consequences if Jarrett, Sonjay, or Satnam come out to ringside later?
3. How about you have some of those referees stop Lethal from bringing that weapon down to ringside? You know… the one that is also stolen property?

That stupidity all aside, these two had a GREAT match, with Lethal working over OC’s knee while OC worked over Lethal’s arm. OC did none of his stupid sh*t here. OC won and retained his title, getting that big clean win over… a guy who he defended his title against and got a clean win against less than two months ago.
The announcers kept talking about how OC is “the hottest wrestler in AEW,” and touted his impressive record. Shouldn’t he be in line for a world title shot soon?

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
Lethal grabbed the stolen Golden Globe to hit OC with, but the referee stopped him and they argued up the ramp. Unfortunately, the camera kept cutting away from them to show us OC just standing in the ring, not only giving away that OC was going to get attacked from behind, but giving away that the production truck knew about it. Would it really have been that hard to wait until Jeff Jarret had jumped the guardrail and was sliding into the ring before cutting to that camera?
Making this even sillier is the fact that when I say Jeff “attacked OC from behind,” what Jeff did was he got into the ring with a guitar… then put the weapon down to attack OC without it. After hitting OC with a Stroke, he then hit him in the injured knee with his guitar. Maybe this is a nitpick, but if I’m attacking someone from behind because I’m trying to injure them, I’m going for the easiest knockout blow right away, which in this case was clearly “guitar to the back of an unsuspecting head.” Then you can stomp on OC’s knee to your heart’s content.
And of course, we have the fact that OC’s pals usually come out to ringside with him, but inexplicably weren’t at ringside tonight (they came onto the stage with him, then went to the back). This was done, of course, because if they were at ringside, Jeff wouldn’t have been able to sneak up on OC so easily, or he would have had to take out all of them, which is not what you want an old heel to do to multiple babyfaces.
In addition to not liking the execution, I REALLY don’t want to see Orange Cassidy vs. Jeff Jarrett. I hate both of these groups, and they’ve been feuding for months already. I have no desire to see them within fifty feet of each other.

SOMEONE BROKE INTO WARDLOW’S CAR AND STOLE BOTH HIS GEAR AND HIS AEW TNT TITLE BELT- Do you see what happens when you don’t punish people for theft, Tony? You just encourage more of it.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS WILL HOBBS- fine
He says that no one would dare steal from him. He says that now that his gear and belt have been stolen, being a champion is all Wardlow has left, and he will take that away from him tonight.

RICKY STARKS PROMO- didn’t like it
He says he has been asked what is next for him now that he has beaten Jericho and the JAS. He says that the question is “what’s next?” but rather “where am I going next?” Always good to tease that a babyface might leave the company for unexplained reasons… which, in kayfabe, seem to only be able to be one of the following:
1. I want to go to the place that will pay me the most.
2. I want to go to a place with lesser competition because I’m not good enough for here.
3. I want to go somewhere with better competition because that place is much better than this one.

Starks was interrupted by Bullet Club’s song and video playing, and was then jumped from behind by Juice Robinson. Excalibur, apparently not wanting to have any more credibility, described a simple attack from behind by a mid-carder-at-best who no one cares about as “INCREDIBLE!.” For those keeping score at home, that’s two segments so far tonight, and two attacks from behind by someone coming out of the crowd. It’s also two feuds involving heels who I have absolutely no desire to see.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS WARDLOW- GREAT!
He claimed he had borrowed clothes from “some buddies.” We were supposed to think it was FTR, but I don’t think they wear shirts that big. I think he probably borrowed it from the merch stand.
Anyway, he said that because he is dressed for it, why not have his title defense tonight be Falls Count Anywhere. He then cut a great babyface promo about being champion and about what he would do to Will Hobbs tonight. This is the first time that babyface Wardlow has ever come across to me as likable. And he has ditched that painful “Wardlow’s World” catchphrase.
Excalibur seemed to take Wardlow’s challenge as law. I assume management has to approve it, first.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS RUBY SOHO- didn’t like it
Ruby explains her heel turn as being that the fans were happy when she lost to AEW home-grown star Britt Baker in a title match and were sad when she beat AEW home-grown “star” Kris Statlander in the Owen Hart Tournament. She says she decided to turn when the fans all cheered Jamie Hayter when Hayter pinned her at the PPV. She also says that the other women in the locker room didn’t have her back, which is mostly false. That’ the kind of thing that hurts a storyline to me because it makes the heel painfully delusional, to where it feels like they are playing a character.
She says that Saraya is upset that the fans all begged her to come to AEW but then turned on her, and that Toni Storm is upset because the company didn’t have enough respect for her to make her a non-interim champion duringher reign (they did so once it ended). She then talked about how all of the home-grown stars were “entitled” because of Tony Khan and the fans. Ruby did as good of a job as she could as making this not feel like the now-cliched “we are the veterans and you youngsters are entitled” feud, but that’s what it is. It’s also ridiculous to me that at that no point in the two months since this feud started to either Toni or Saraya say these things. It almost feels like Ruby is making things up for them after the fact.

RUBY SOHO vs. SKYE BLUE- 3/10
They did stuff. Ruby shouldn’t need to pull hair to beat this f*cking jobber.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
Toni Storm & Saraya came back and they went to spray-paint Skye Blue. Willow Nightingale came out to try to talk some sense into Ruby. That part was good, because Willow actually has had Ruby’s back. The other heels jumped Willow from behind, and both babyfaces got spray-painted. Where were Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter and Madison Rayne and whoever else to stop this?
Also, Willow is getting a title shot tomorrow night in ROH, and no mention was made of this. I know that people said that they didn’t want to see ROH stuff in AEW anymore, but you are already- by your own creation- in an inextricably shared universe. If you don’t want to mention ROH, don’t use someone on Dynamite who is currently doing something in ROH that is worthy of plugging.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS ADAM PAGE- AWESOME!
He was a great babyface here… with just a hint of being potentially terrifying. He said that what he did to Mox should serve as a warning to others, but as far as he is concerned, he and Mox are now done.

MJF PROMO FROM AFTER REVOLUTION 2023- awesome!

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS FTR- very good
They’re coming for the Gunns. The part of this that didn’t work for me was the whole thing about Jay Briscoe being one of their best friends, and now they need to win the titles for the Briscoes (as well as themselves and for the fans) and to avenge the Gunns ruining one of their last moments with Jay. I don’t care if it’s the shoot truth or not; it doesn’t feel kayfabe true.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS JADE CARGILL- meh
She is offering her next charity title shot to a Canadian because they’ll be in Canada next week.

A.R.FOX & TOP FLIGHT vs. THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY (Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara &, Daniel Garcia) (w/Jake Hager, Angelo Parker, & Matt Menard)- 6/10
The heels cheated to win. The announcers pushed that Jericho was in deep trouble and might have lost after one more flurry.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
The JAS cut a promo in which they were all loud and obnoxious, and not in an “I want to see them get beat,” way. They were just annoying and made me want to change the channel. They think this one win should earn them a shot at the trios titles, so they call out the House of Black. The lights go out, but instead of the House of Black appearing, the Elite’s music starts. Did the people in the production truck decide to swerve everyone just to create drama?
The Elite don’t like that the JAS is honing on something they want. Don Callis interrupted them, but he did so to tell Jericho that the Elite’s match at Revolution means that they should be the #1 contenders, not the JAS. You mean the match that the Elite lost cleanly? How does that make sense? If you’re invoking a rematch clause, just say that. Callis started to build to a Jericho vs. Omega singles match. The House of Black popped up on the Tron to start cutting a promo accepting everyone’s title shots next week, but they stopped in the middle to magically teleport to the ramp so that Black could finish his sentence from there instead. Then they left via more magic. The announcers thought they heard a fight happening, but were clearly wrong. Does no one smarten them up?
This stupid magic impresses no one, and Black pointing out that next week’s show is in both Omega and Jericho’s home city of Winnipeg makes this all feel orchestrated as a way to give these guys a title shot with a hot crowd behind them rather than something that has actually been earned by anyone. If you wanted to do this, you should have been building the JAS trio up for a few weeks, and for the Elite, just have them invoke a rematch clause.

TONY KHAN MAKES ANOTHER SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT- terrible
Tony Khan clearly doesn’t understand what an open challenge means, because he said that he has granted Orange Cassidy’s request to defend the All-Atlantic Title in an “open challenge” “against Jeff Jarrett.”
He said that because this is the only title to ever change hands outside of the US (which happened MONTHS AGO), they are now changing its name to the “AEW International Championship.” Well… at least they got rid of the stupid name, but now it sounds like it’s a world title. Maybe they actually are building to an OC AEW World Title shot at unification match to end this stupid mistake once and for all?
Tony was boring and long-winded, and spinning this thing with a championship into a plug for Warner-Discovery’s new movie made the title look cheap, and destroyed the credibility of any future claims of having a big announcement.

BRYAN DANIELSON PROMO FROM AFTER REVOLUTION 2023 AND VIDEO PACKAGE- He says that he gave up because his body broke down and he couldn’t feel various limbs and he didn’t want MJF to be right about him not being able to play with his kids. There was a lot of emotion here, but I really hate these pure pathos promos about people’s kids. It feels exploitative. Anyway, Dragon will be going away for a while.
Excalibur said that Dragon wasn’t able to beat MJF “due to a variety of circumstances.” MJF F*CKING CHEATED! WHY CAN YOU NOT JUST SAY THAT?! If you want people to think that he won cleanly, then JUST PUT HIM OVER CLEANLY!

DARK ORDER (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) vs. BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli) (w/Wheeler YUTA)- 6/10
The BCC won a match that went WAY too long.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- grr
The BCC attacked the Dark Order. Only Evil Uno came out to try to save. Whatever happened to Colt Cabana and Five and their other pals. Also, Adam Page? How about SECURITY?!
Ah. Here comes Page, at least. He punched Claudio but tried not punch Moxley. Claudio attacked him, and then Mox joined in… and only then did referees come out to try to break it up. I guess Uno and Beaver Boys’ lives are worth less to Tony Khan than Adam Page’s. What a bad person Tony Khan is.
I am tired of Page vs. Moxley, and even if those two don’t wrestle, this feud is still an extension of that.

RENEE PAQUETTE’S INTERVIEW WITH BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED IS INTERRUPTED BY 2.0- bad
2.0 were annoying. The Acclaimed laughed them off, but even that was annoying.

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH FOR THE AEW TNT TITLE: Wardlow(c) vs. Will Hobbs- 7/10
Wardlow and Hobbs have started fighting backstage, so AEW just sent a referee there and started the match there. They brawled to ringside and hit each other with stuff. Hobbs won after interference from Q.T. Marshall, following up on a comment from six months ago when Marshall offered to help Hobbs against Ricky Starks. They did this in Hobbs’ home market… so, of course, the fans just cheered their guy winning the title.
As for Q.T…. WHY? Why is Q.T. Marshall on TV?


This a decent episode of Dynamite. There were some excellent promos, and the main event and opener were both great. There was some bad stuff, too, but overall, my impression was positive. That being said, I have to wave a big red flag about so many feuds from the PPV feeling like they’re continuing.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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