BRM Reviews the 12/28/2022 Dynamite

[Big Red Machine]

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. ETHAN PAGE (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 7.75/10
Stokely is wearing a hat after Dragon made fun of him for being bald last week. Over the course of the match, Schiavone took Danielson’s clever line from last week and beat it into the ground like he was a WWE announcer.
MJF’s music played, and he showed up in a box (a skybox, I mean. This isn’t Smackdown) with a female companion. He said “hey Bryan! I found the only hot chick in all of Colorado.” We barely saw this woman, but she had far too many cranium accessories (to steal a term from Mitch Hedberg) to qualify. Also, she had a neck tattoo, because no one learns from Cody’s mistakes.
Anyway, MJF managed to distract Dragon, allowing Ethan Page to get the jump on him. They went on and just had a great match, full of nice little stories, like both guys working the head, a general battle of strikes, a small speed vs. power story, and Stokely’s interference helping Page. The announcers completely missed the fact that Danielson got the win with the Regal Stretch. That being said, I did find giving Dragon the win via referee stoppage with the Regal Stretch right after he hit his two big knockout finishers (the Busaiku Knee and the head-stomps) to be an odd choice. Page tapping out would have highlighted the Regal Stretch a lot more.

SAMOE JOE VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO-awesome build for the main event

SAMOE JOE JUMPS WARDLOW WITH A PIPE WHILE RENEE PAQUETTE IS TRYING TO INTERVIEW HIM- fine

RENEE PAQUETTE ATTEMPTS TO INTERVIEW ADAM PAGE WHILE A DOCTOR CHECKS HIM- didn’t like it
Adam gets into fights every week even though he isn’t medically cleared DUE TO A CONCUSSION, and Tony Khan still hasn’t figured out that he should just order Page to stay at him until he is cleared.
Page is rude to Renee, then apologizes and says that he is getting very frustrated because he is still week-to-week and he hasn’t wrestled in over two months. THEN STOP STARTING FIGHTS, DUMBASS!
Renee tried to ask him for thoughts on the next match on tonight’s show, but Page shot up aggressively upon merely hearing Jon Moxley’s name. The Dark Order tries to convince Page that Renee said “Foxley.” If Tony Khan has brought Nickey Foxley over from Europe for a random intergender tag, then he is crazier than I thought.
And speaking of crazy, that’s now Page comes across at this point. He seems inordinately upset with Moxley and like he can’t cope wit the fact that he lost cleanly to the guy, or got knocked out by him, and if you can’t deal with either of those things, being a professional combat athlete is not the right career for you.
The doctor tells Page that Page has been “following the concussion protocols.” HE KEEPS GETTING INTO FIGHTS EVERY WEEK! HOW THE F*CK IS THAT “FOLLOWING THE CONCUSSION PROTOCOLS!?”
The doctor tells Page that he might be able to be back for the LA show in two weeks, but if he keeps fighting Moxley, he might get hurt worse and could possibly never come back.
This accomplished its goal of telling us when Page would return, but in a way with kayfabe plausibility, and it also had someone finally tell Page that he keeps having setbacks because he keeps getting into fights, but that second part should have happened a month ago, and Page did not come off sympathetic here at all.

TOP FLIGHT vs. BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli)- 7.25/10
One of the Martins attacked Claudio merely for trying to get into the ring during their entrance, then the other dove at Moxley. Is it really that hard for AEW to just have babyfaces act like babyfaces? Similarly, I DESPISED Claudio getting upset and pushing the referee. He’s the f*cking Ring of Honor World Champion.
This was another great match, but I’m not certain that losing to a team that rarely teams together is the best way to be pushing Top Flight. Having the babyface Acclaimed as the current champions does give them more time to get Top Flight ready for wherever this push ends, but even so, spending TV time on this as opposed to building up some heel team for the Acclaimed to face feels like a bad use of TV time.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS BEST FRIENDS, ORANGE CASSIDY, DANHAUSEN, KIP SABIAN, & PENELOPE FORD- snore
Sabian recited poetry, then declared that eliminating OC from the battle royale on Rampage means that he gets a shot at the All-Atlantic Title. Trent pointed out that, by that logic, he should get a title shot because he eliminated Sabian. OC said that Trent would get a title shot first. Kip was fine with his. OC declared that the match would happen on Rampage. Either the announcers just assumed that this was official, or Tony Khan immediately made it official… which makes one wonder why he makes these matches official so quickly, but takes weeks to make a top contender to a bigger title getting their title shot official.

HOOK vs. BAYLYM LYNX- squash

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Stokely Hathaway, Big Bill, and Lee Moriarty came out to threaten him. Jungle Boy came out and jumped onto Moriarty, and while they were brawling, the camera instead cut to showing us Hook and Bill just staring at each other. CUT BACK TO THE GUYS WHO ARE ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING!
Eventually Bill went to chokeslam Hook, but Jungle Boy made the save with a 2x4 he found somewhere along the way.

CHRIS JERICHO PROMO- very good
He vows to embarrass Ricky Starks, and also reminds us that he burned Action Andretti’s face off with a fireball.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS SHANE STRICKLAND & PALS- okay
This was framed with a video package in which Excalibur told us that it was “the ultimate betrayal” to walk out on your partner like Swerve did to Lee. Lee did the same thing to Swerve, and the announcers applauded him for his courage. Swerve walked out on Lee because he accidentally got hit by Lee, and was upset. It’s not a good thing to do, and certainly much worse than Lee walking out on Swerve because he disagreed with the immoral tactics that Swerve was going to use, but calling it “the ultimate betrayal” when nothing close to the sort was said about Lee makes the announcers seem insanely biased. Why focus on the walk-out at all instead of focusing on the ambush Swerve set up last week that resulted in Lee’s injury?
Renee is in on it, too, as she described Swerve’s actions as “disgusting,” but never says that when she interviews anyone else about the various bad things they have done.
Swerve cut a good little promo explaining his actions as merely removing someone who didn’t believe in his vision. Wheeler YUTA showed up. He says that he’s fine with smashing a cinderblock on someone’s chest in an ambush, but he can’t stand the fact that Swerve needed to use an unfair numbers advantage to do it. Okay…
1. That’s not a good babyface ethos.
2. If that’s true, why haven’t you confronted anyone else who has used a numbers game? It happens all the time on this show!
Anyway, he challenges Swerve to a match on Rampage. YUTA’s framing of this makes him feel like he’s butting his way into someone else’s business just to get himself some TV time.

THE YOUNG BUCKS AND DEATH TRIANGLE HAVE ALREADY BEGUN FIGHTING BACKSTAGE- And there is no security trying to break them up… but there is a camera and a referee there, so the referee just decides to ignore the standard requirement for match to start and rings the bell back here. I would almost have been fine with this, but the fact that the fact that they were all in that narrow hallway right before their match was supposed to start and there was just a referee and a camera and no security there, and the only time that they start fighting backstage right before the match in this seven-match series just happens to be the match where the gimmick is that you can fight all the way around the building feels WAY too forced.

BEST OF SEVEN SERIES FOR THE AEW WORLD TRIOS TITLES FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH #6: Death Triangle(c)(3) (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. The Elite(2) (w/Brandon Cutler & Michael Nakazawa)- 7.5/10
Don Callis was on commentary tonight.
They hit each other with stuff and did flips and kicks, but this time, they did a lot of it not in the ring, and also did it from high places. The Elite won, sending us to a seventh match. Try not to be too shocked.

THE ACCLAIMED’S NEW RAP VIDEO ON JEFF JARRETT & JAY LETHAL- fine

RUBY SOHO & WILLOW NIGHTENGALE vs. JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY (Tay Melo & Anna Jay)- 7/10
Excalibur told us that this was a grudge match that has been building since All Out, when Tay shattered Ruby’s nose in a match… completely forgetting that they had been feuding for MONTHS before that including the putting Ruby out of action by slamming her hand in a car door.
Schiavone excoriated the heels as “classless” because they flipped the fans off. He had no problem when Moxley did it earlier. Every week, Tony Khan has the option to remove this fat moron who constantly undermines the storylines with his double standards and only serves to make people associates your company with WCW, and every week he decides to leave him on commentary.
This was much better than I was expecting, as the only person I really trust to deliver consistently in this match is Ruby. Unfortunately, the Van-Daminator on the finish looked very bad.

LEXI NAIR ASKS THE GUNNS WHY THEY ARE LEAVING DURING THE SHOW- They say that they have a reservation. She says that they are coming off of a big win over FTR. They say they will address that next week. That makes this nothing but a stalling segment.

Addition to what I have mentioned already, this week’s Rampage will include Jamie Hayter talking, Jonn Moxley talking, and Jade Cargill defending the TBS Title against Kiera Hogan. Yes, Kiera Hogan, who was kicked out of Jade’s stable for no reason, then had one six-woman tag against her stable (which the heels won) and hasn’t been on TV since. She is now getting a title shot. God job telling that story there, Tony!

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS RICKY STARKS- AWESOME build to his match with Chris Jericho next week


After Samoa Joe came out, Excalibur asked Tony Schiavone if he had received any word about Wardlow’s status for this match. Tony said that “they wouldn’t let me near him,” but he understands that Wardlow will do everything possible to wrestle this match.
They wouldn’t let Tony near him? Shouldn’t management just be telling the announcers what Wardlow’s status is?

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. Wardlow- 6.75/10
They played Wardlow’s music, but he didn’t come out. Joe then cut a promo claiming that Wardlow was “suffering from a little bit of stage fright.” He then started ragging on Denver (where the show is).
Wardlow came out, pushing aside backstage people who tried to make him stop. Schiavone said that the medical staff has “advised him not to go to the ring.” Okay. And Wardlow has clearly made up his mind, so why are people trying to stop him? This whole thing was very heavy-handed and felt very staged, and they could have accomplished the same goal of making Wardlow look tough if they hadn’t done any of this contradictory, logic-defying crap and just had Wardlow limp out at the beginning.
Excalibur implored me to think about how long Wardlow had to wait to get an AEW contract, so I did. He didn’t have to wait that long at all. The only reason he didn’t have one from the beginning is the fact that he had signed one with MJF beforehand. As soon as he was free from that, he got one.
During a commercial, Wardlow was on the outside getting his knee looked at forever. How is that not a count-out?
Wardlow sold pretty well and they had a very good brawl. Joe getting the win by choking Wardlow out after Wardlow couldn’t get him up for the powerbomb due to his injured leg was a great finish to build to a rematch.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Joe attacked Wardlow. Tony Schiavone was dumb enough to think that Joe was about to show Wardlow respect when he moved towards.
Joe then went and grabbed a toolbox, then pulled out some scissors. At this point it has been one minute since Joe first attacked Wardlow, and no security has come out to try to stop him. We haven’t even seen an additional referee. Joe headbutted the one referee they have. We’ll see if he gets suspended for this like Nyla Rose and Athena did, or if it’s only women who get suspended. Joe then cut off some of Wardlow’s hair.
I’m not really sure why Joe would want to do this. He himself has said, many times, that he just wants championships. He doesn’t hate Wardlow, so why is he doing this sort of thing to him. It feels like he’s doing this because the booker wants to build to a hair vs. hair match.
Finally, someone came out to make the save. That someone was Darby Allin, but instead of attacking Joe head on, he had someone in production play his music and video to distract Joe so that he could attack him from behind, like a coward. And, of course, they could have achieved this same thing without playing Darby’s music and making someone in the company complicit in this sneak-attack. Darby then posed with Joe’s belt.

This was a decent episode of Dynamite. The wrestling was very good, but the… I’ll call them “logical annoyances”… that had been relatively absent for the past few weeks have returned. Excalibur said that next week will be “a new era of Dynamite,” so hopefully things chance for the better.