BRM Reviews the 6/8/2022 Dynamite (some great wrestling, but the booking is a huge mess)

[Big Red Machine]

CASINO BATTLE ROYALE TO ADVANCE TO FACE JON MOXLEY LATER TONIGHT FOR A SPOT IN THE INTERIM AEW WORLD TITLE MATCH AT FORBIDDEN DOOR- 5.75/10
Apparently I was wrong in my review of Rampage last week. It’s not the winner of this match facing Moxley for the title at the PPV; it’s the winner of this match facing Moxley later tonight for a spot at the PPV against the winner of match in New Japan on Sunday, meaning that either we’re getting a world title match on a PPV with a painfully predictable outcome, or they’ll shock us all and put the belt on a New Japan guy… who won’t be able to be around for too long because the G1 starts a few weeks later.
And if you want some fun, look for the Twitter thread where Tony Khan tries to defend Moxley being moved up to the #1 spot (to justify him getting this bye here) from #4 last week when people point out that people who were ranked higher than Moxley won matches in a more dominant fashion or won bigger matches. Seriously. How does Adam Cole win this supposedly prestigious and important tournament, and wind up ranked ANYONE?).
And of course they’re doing one of these dumb Casino Battle Royales because when you’re trying to determine who is the best, you want a match that increases advantages due to random chance. “Sports-like presentation.” LOL.
In a very un-Darby moment, Darby Allin was facing down two people… and back down from them (and this was made even worse by the fact that Darby had a weapon at the time, and neither Nese nor Archer did).
Two minutes in, and all five guys have wound up on the floor by going under the bottom rope. If you’re trying to be an alternative to WWE, how about not doing things that people hate about WWE?
The ring filled up with people, many of whom did not deserve to be there. Adam Page not being in this match because he was already booked in another match is a little silly, but because AEW has so rarely (if ever, actually) changed matches once they have been booked without someone getting injured), I’ll accept it. Bu there is no reason that Max Castor or Gunn Club or Takeshita should have been booked in this match while Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, Chris Jericho, Wardlow, Miro, and Samoa Joe were not. I will give them credit for promising to explain why Wardlow wasn’t in the match, but how the hell do you realize that Wardlow not being in this match is an issue, but no realize that it’s an issue with any of the other big names I mentioned?
Mark Sterling interfered right in front of a referee (the referee even yelled at him for it) but he wasn’t ejected from ringside.
Shane Strickland dumped Keith Lee from behind. He would later form an alliance with Darby Allin, but then betray him as well… and then get eliminated moments by Andrade, which kind of took the focus away from it a bit.
Wheeler YUTA had a good showing in his return. Kyle O’Reilly got the win, and I don’t see there being a snowball’s chance in hell of him beating Jon Moxley. And when you consider that the match on the New Japan side is Tanahashi vs. Goto, well… Goto never gets any big wins, and they’ve already been building to Moxley vs Tanahashi, so why waste everyone’s time with this instead of just announcing that Tanahashi was the #1 contender so he’ll be in the title match, and Moxley is getting a shot because of the combination of being ranked highly, having been screwed out of the title by Omega and never getting a rematch free of cheating and interference and having to pull out of the #1 contendership tournament back in the fall to go to rehab (so he never actually lost in that tournament), and by the way, we know people are disappointed about not getting to see Punk vs. Tanahashi, so we’re giving you the Moxley vs. Tanahashi match that you’ve been wanting to see for a year?

JON MOXLEY PROMO- great… but again, this did nothing to make us think that Tanahashi vs Goto isn’t a foregone conclusion.

Punk’s surgery was successful. That’s good to hear.
And now for some bad news…

AEW WILL INTRODUCE THE ALL-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP- THIS COMPANY DOES NOT NEED ANY MORE TITLES! They already have two singles titles for each gender, plus men’s tag titles, and Ricky Stark’s unsanctioned FTW Title. And that’s not even counting the various ROH and AAA titles running around.
Also, the All-Atlantic Championship belt’s plate has six flags on it: the USA, Canada, UK (all fine), Mexico (debatable, but I’ll allow it in the general sense)… Japan, and China. This is the kind of mistake TNA would make.
And how are we going to crown our first champion? We’re going to have an eight-man tournament, of course. You know… just like the thing they built up to for months and just finished at the previous PPV. Actually, not “just” like it, because that tournament was single elimination, and had many qualifying matches. This one is just four singles matches resulting in a four-way for the title at the PPV, so it’s actually smaller. Because I am a fair man, I will note that (assuming Tomohiro Ishii is not one of the two entrants from New Japan) none of the men in this tournament were even in qualifiers for the Owe Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament, but it still comes across as ridiculous to do a smaller tournament for an actual prize right after you just finisher a much bigger tournament for no prize.
For those wondering, six entrants we currently know are Buddy Matthews, Pac, Malakai Black, Penta Oscuro, Ethan Page, and Miro. And yes, the guys in the feuding stables are facing each other in the first round.

AEW ALL-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT OPENING ROUND MATCH: Pac vs. Buddy Matthews- 8.25/10
Justin Roberts said this was a “qualifying match” for the tournament, which means it’s not part of the tournament itself… which means that it’s just the final round that is actually in the tournament… which means it’s not really a tournament because it’s only one match.
Pac won cleanly in an awesome match. I’m not really sure why Malakai Black’s group, who have no problem cheating and interfering, don’t try to do it in a match like this where something is actually on the line. Also, this is a feud with clear babyfaces and clear heels, and these groups have been feuding for MONTHS, and yet the fans didn’t chant “LET’S GO PAC!” at any point. They chanted ‘FIGHT FOREVER!” They don’t care who wins. In fact they don’t want either guy to win, they just want to keep seeing action.
Death Triangle came out to celebrate with Pac. The House of Black came out onto the stage... because… um… they are feuding with Death Triangle and that’s what you do when you’re feuding with someone.


By some metric, AEW is apparently the top wrestling promotion in the UK, and the announcers let you know that with a frequency that can only be described as WWE-like.


EDDIE KINGSTON PROMO- He’s angry and is demanding a match with Jake Hager on Rampage. Isn’t it Jericho he’s really angry at?

TRENT CALLS OUT FTR- fine
He reminds us that two weeks ago, he and Rocky Romero got an ROH World Tag Team Title shot that ended in a double DQ because of interference by United Empire. I certainly needed the reminder. Anyway, he wants a rematch booked, so he calls out FTR. Shouldn’t AEW be on top of this? I mean, how does Wardlow vs. total jobber J.D. Drake get booked before a rematch of a title match that ended when a third party ruined the match by attacking both wrestlers? In kayfabe, Tony Khan as the strangest priorities.
FTR agree with Trent, and are sure to note that they can’t have the match tonight, as much as they want to, because Trent’s tag team partner isn’t here. FTR say that Trent shouldn’t be angry with them. He should be angry with the guys who attacked him: “Will Ospreay’s bitch-boys.”
Out came Ospreay, and the fans all cheered this dastardly heel. Ospreay’s presence was a distraction to allow his guys to come out through the crowd and attack Trent and FTR. This cowardly assault was greeted by the crowd with excited chants of “HOLY SH*T!”
United Empire here was Ospreay, Aaron Henare, and Aussie Open. Excalibur referred to Aussie Open as “one of the greatest tag teams of the last five years.” Look, I like those guys a lot, but that’s one hell of an overstatement. Even if we’re nice and discount teams who have only been in WWE like the Usos and New Day because it would be counterproductive for AEW to give those teams any credit, I can still come up with at least team teams who I think have been a lot better than Aussie Open during that span, and that would include the Lucha Bros, who I assume Excalibur likes a lot more than I do.

TONY SCHIAVONE IS BACKSTAGE WHERE WILLIAM REGAL WANTS TO TALK TO UNDISPUTED ELITE- good promos… but HORRIBLY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE!
Regal apparently called these guys here so he could intimidate Kyle O’Reilly on Moxley’s behalf. Shouldn't Regal want to see the competition?
His message delivered, Regal walked off. Kyle O’Reilly, a heel who they have credited with breaking Sting’s ankle in an unprovoked assault, cut a defiant babyface promo saying that he didn’t care how tough or how sadistic his opponent is; he’s here to show everyone that he is the best and to win the world title.

ADAM PAGE vs. DAVID FINLAY- 6.75/10
Adam Cole was on commentary for this match because… um…
Adam Page beat a midcarder from another company in a match that gave us no hints as to where his head is at after losing the AEW World Title.

POST-MATCH SEMGENT- bad
Adam Page grabs a microphone. Ah. This is what we’ve been waiting for… and it was not what it needed to be. Page noted that he wasn’t in the battle royale tonight and thus it didn’t look like he was going to be getting a title shot anytime soon… but that was apparently fine with him, as he remembered that “there is more than one world championship in professional wrestling,” so he volunteered to job to Okada at Forbidden Door.
This upset Adam Cole because 1) Page didn’t even consider that Cole’s buddy Jay White might be the champion by then, and because Cole thinks that he deserves to be the one to job to Okada at the PPV.

EARLY TODAY, TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWED THUNDER ROSA- snore
She made an open challenge for her title. Marina Shafir happened to be walking by, so she answered first and will get a title shot. Thunder Rosa is a great promo, but it’s impossible to care about a match that gets set up like this when we haven’t seen the challenger win a single match on TV since the last time she lost a title match.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS WARLDOW- bad
Wardlow tells us all that he chose not the be in the battle royale earlier tonight because “CM Punk is our champion” and thus if he isn’t beating Punk for the title, he doesn’t want it yet. I guess he just wasn’t paying attention on Rampage (or at any point between the announcement of the battle royale and when he had to make a final decision about whether or not to participate in it) where everyone was clearly told that this is an interim championship, and that once Punk is healthy enough to wrestle, there will be a unification match.
The fans responded to this statement by cheering loudly. If they agree with this sentiment, that really doesn’t bode well for the buy-rate of the PPV where the interim champion will be crowned, does it?
Instead, Wardlow wants the TNT Title, which he says he has thought about every day since almost winning it three months ago. If you want me to think that Wardlow has had this title on his mind “every day” for three months, he’s got to talk about it. Given the specifics of the storyline with MJF, this is a rare case where I’m okay with him not having talking about it on TV ever, but I will say that I really hope he was Tweeting about wanting the TNT Title a lot in those three months.
Scorpio Sky came out to answer the challenge, but Dan Lambert and Ethan Page came out to convince him not to. They used Sky’s knee injury as an excuse to not have the match. Wardlow said he was fine waiting.

MARK STERLING PROMO- bad
Sterling tells Wardlow that he can either face him in a court of law… or he can get out of the lawsuit against him by facing twenty representatives of the union of security guards suing Wardlow in an elimination match next week. These security guards are dumb. Also dumb is whoever booked this, thinking people would have the patience to sit through Wardlow beating up twenty guys who are the only thing in pro wrestling lower than a jobber.

THE HARDY BOYZ INTERRUPT A YOUNG BUCKS PROMO- bad
They argue over who should get a title shot… and wouldn’t you know it, Jurassic Express just happened to be walking by, so they get involved as well. And it’s not even like this was the usual interview place. This was the Young Bucks’ “office,” which makes the coincidence much more ridiculous. Christian insists that no one has earned a title shot yet…and then offers for his guys to put the belts up against both teams on TV next week in a Ladder match.

AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Thunder Rosa(c) vs. Marina Shafir- 5.25/10
Apparently these two have identical win-loss records this year. If Shafir has that many wins, why is she never on TV?
This was meh. Thunder Rosa won clean with a roll-up.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- odd
Marina Shafir attacked Thunder Rosa after the match. Toni Storm came out to make the save… and then someone decided to get rid of all of the heat by having Thunder Rosa hit her finisher on Shafir, too. Toni picked up the title and looked at it for a bit before handing it to Thunder Rosa. If you wanted to set Toni Storm up for a title shot, why did you have her lose to Britt Baker in the semifinal of the Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS JADE CARGILL, STOKELY HATHAWAY, & THE BADDIES- fine
This was build for Red Velvet vs. Kris Statlander at Rampage, and an eventually match between Jade and Athena.

WINNER ADVANCES TO THE AEW INTERIM WORLD TITLE MATCH AT FORBIDDEN DOOR: Jon Moxley vs. Kyle O’Reilly- 8.75/10
William Regal was on commentary for this match. Moxley won a f*cking tremendous match. It sure was nice of Kyle’s friends to not try to interfere here.

No mention of MJF all night, as expected.


There was some awesome wrestling on this show, but the booking was just such a mess. I’m sure Punk’s injury played a part, yes, but they had a week to figure out how to do this in a way that was less of a mess, and they couldn’t come up with it. And then there are things that I’m sure were planned already (Wardlow vs. Sky) that they just made it worse in ways that were completely self-inflicted, and situations like the tag and women’s divisions that were also a mess.

[XIV]

More titles is horrendous.

Do we need to do the count again? Because Cole and Baker got belts for that shit tournament (which is annoying, because belts are defended regularly, trophies are what are defended annually, just have it as a yearly trophy and move on).
Ospreay also turned up wearing a belt. What are we at now, 13?14? More? Belts actively seen on AEW television in the last 30 days?

Absolute insanity.

If everyone is a champion, no one is a champion.

[XIV]

AEW booking can only be described as Schizophrenic. There are good times, there are excellent times but my god there’s a lot of shit to wade through alongside it. This has always been the case.

[Thelone]

Yeah, this belt craze is... something alright. The sad thing is that the two potential explanations I've seen floating around are both bad and concerning.

First one was that the idea might be to phase out the TNT title and replace it with the new one because of the branding, which wouldn't bode well for Rampage and the """specials""" at the very least and AEW's future on DiscoveryWarner at the worst.
Second is that there are some grumblings backstage and throwing belts around is Khan's response to that. That would certainly explain why Cole and Baker have a belt for winning a random tournament, interim titles when the champion is absent for five seconds (Punk is the first instance where it made sense to have one), and even more planned with the trios titles and maybe women's tag.

I'll say it again, but it's starting to smell really bad in Dub World.

[XIV]

Fuck it, I’m counting the belt appearances again…

AEW World Championship
AEW TNT Championship
AEW Tag Team Championship
AEW Women’s World Championship
AEW TBS Championship
ROH Pure Championship
ROH Tag Team Championship
ROH TV Championship
AAA Tag Team Championship
FTW Championship
OHF Men’s Tournament Belt
OHF Women’s Tournament Belt

What did Ospreay have? the British Heavyweight Championship of somewhere I think.

Add in this “All-Atlantic, totally not the Intercontinental” Championship into the mix, an Interim Champion and then some trios belts and we’re just getting into gaga land.

Nearly 15 titles in one promotion. Drowning in belts.

[Big Red Machine]

If everyone is a champion, no one is a champion.

One of my favorite lines:

[Big Red Machine]

First one was that the idea might be to phase out the TNT title and replace it with the new one because of the branding, which wouldn't bode well for Rampage and the """specials""" at the very least and AEW's future on DiscoveryWarner at the worst.

In other words, that thing everyone said when Tony came out and said "I'm going to name this belt after our network!"

To make a mistake that 90% of people saw coming miles away is the sort of thing that should make Tony reconsider if he is the right person for this job.

[Thelone]

In other words, that thing everyone said when Tony came out and said "I'm going to name this belt after our network!"

Pretty much yeah. I'd say it's just another example of doing something with only short-term vision in mind ("it'll please the network" or whatever) and not thinking about what could happen a few years later, even if it felt unlikely at the time.

The odd thing with this new belt is how it came out of nowhere. Granted, I don't listen to any of the 900 podcasts Khan appears on every week, but I don't remember reading/hearing a single thing about another secondary/tertiary men's title while he's been hinting at 6-man titles almost since the beginning.

To make a mistake that 90% of people saw coming miles away is the sort of thing that should make Tony reconsider if he is the right person for this job.

If Khan is doing everything he's been rumored to, he's as much of a control freak as Vince, if not more.

[XIV]

If everyone is a champion, no one is a champion.

One of my favorite lines:

I never thought I’d have my point validated by The Incredibles, but here we are!

[Big Red Machine]

In other words, that thing everyone said when Tony came out and said "I'm going to name this belt after our network!"

Pretty much yeah. I'd say it's just another example of doing something with only short-term vision in mind ("it'll please the network" or whatever) and not thinking about what could happen a few years later, even if it felt unlikely at the time.

Obviously that was a part of it, but to me it always felt more like the idea was to draw a connection between them and the "tradition" of wrestling on the Turner networks (Schiavone in particular would bring up "XYZ on TNT for the first time in twenty years!" a lot).