BRM Reviews the 6/28/2023 Dynamite (snore)

[Big Red Machine]

TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. JON MOXLEY (w/Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler YUTA)- 7.5/10
Kingston came out with a chair in the middle of the match to watch Ishii’s back. Moxley and Ishii hit each other very hard and worked over each other’s heads. Moxley won cleanly.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- decent
Moxley snubbed Kingston on his way up the ramp. Kingston shouted at Moxley that Moxley didn’t need the BCC. Claudio and YUTA remained at ringside for no discernable reason other than that someone ion the back decided that if Kingston and Claudio got too close, they would have to fight, and if the BCC left with Moxley like they normally would, you couldn’t avoid that while still having Moxley snub Kingston the way he did. It would have been better to have Claudio ejected from ringside to avoid this awkwardness.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS ADAM COLE AS HE ARRIVES AT THE ARENA- uch
Coincidentally, MJF arrived at the exact same time, both late. Britt Baker isn’t with Adam Cole. Why not? They’re doing the “let’s be buddies” comedy crap. You know… the thing they just did with MJF and Sammy Guevara. And that they did right before that with the JAS and the Acclaimed.

RENEE PAQUETTE IS BACKSTAGE WITH THE BCC, AND EDDIE KINGSTON SHOWS UP- bad
Renee had no microphone here and was acting as Moxley’s wife rather than as a backstage interviewer… so why are we seeing this?
Anyway, they argued. Kingston pointed out that he “saved” Moxley at the PPV because “no on kicks your ass but me.” Oh really, Eddie? Then why didn’t you stop anyone else from attacking Moxley during that match other than just that one spot? Renee seemed to blame things on Kingston at the end, so I guess she’s a heel, too. There is an amazing irony to Kingston dismissing the reason for Claudio and Kingston’s hatred of each other as “some CHIKARA bullsh*t,” when CHIKARA would have done a much better job of telling this story than the bullsh*t we have gotten from AEW.

WILL OSPREAY VS. OMEGA VIDEO PACKAGE- terrible!
Kenny said that he lost “because Will Ospreay was the better man.” NO! YOU GOT SCREWED BECAUSE DON CALLIS INTERFERED IN THE MATCH AND GAVE OSPREAY A WEAPON! THAT’S NOT OSPREAY BEING THE BETTER MAN!

They told us that Britt Baker is sick, so she can’t wrestle her Owen Hart Tournament match tonight, so it has been rescheduled. That answers my question from earlier about why Britt and Cole weren’t travelling together.

KEITH LEE, EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO, & ORANGE CASSIDY vs. THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY (Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard, & Angelo Parker)- 5/10
They had some interviews to explain how this match came around, but they didn’t turn the sound in the arena off, so I couldn’t hear most of either interview.
Parker pulled out a weapon. The referee made no effort to get it away from him, and no effort to get it away from Orange Cassidy when OC got it, either. After that and more dumb comedy, they had a match. It was okay. Lee and Vikingo tried something complicated and botched it, then went right back to it anyway, which made it clear that what we had just seen was a botch rather than a spot where the two heels moved out of the way and the babyface accidentally dove onto his friend. Lee eventually pinned Menard to win the match for his team.

ADAM PAGE & THE YOUNG BUCK’S PROMO IS INTERRUPTED BY THE DARK ORDER- bad
The Hung Bucks have a trios open challenge. The Dark Order interrupt them and accept it. They’re upset at Page for not hanging out with them or even calling them anymore. Page’s excuse for this was that he was busy helping the Bucks and Kenny because they needed help fighting the BCC. Okay… that’s a few days a week, and not even every hour of the day. You couldn’t call your friends who are also your coworkers? You have to be with the Bucks and Kenny at every moment? Really?

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS CHRIS JERICHO & SAMMY GUEVARA- good
This was the best attempt to date to explain the Painmaker. It wasn’t much of an attempt, but it essentially drew a comparison between it and Crow Sting, which really worked for me. Not as an explanation of the Painmaker, mind you, but as something that could allow you to draw an interesting through-line with Sting’s career, including using all of the stuff with saw of him without the paint in TNA to that would attribute his longevity to the mindset that Crow Sting gives him.

THE ELITE (Young Bucks & Adam Page) vs. DARK ORDER (Alex Reynolds, John Silver, & Evil Uno) (w/Negative 1)- 6.5/10
The storytelling on the Dark Order side was great, with them getting angry at Page and slapping him and trying to get him to fight. The storytelling on Page’s side of it was… crappy AEW/Elite/Bullet Club stuff. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If Adam Page is worried about hurting one of his friends within the confines of a wrestling match, pro wrestling is not the right career for him, because sometimes you wind up booked against your friends.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- snore
The BCC (other than Danielson) jump the Elite from behind. The Dark Order just left, doing nothing to help Page. That seemed quick. I’d have liked to see Page do something to actively antagonize them.
Don Callis and Konosuke Takeshita also came out. Eddie Kingston tried to help the Bucks and Page, but he got beaten down as well. Page got stabbed in the head with a screwdriver. The others tried to break Kingston’s arm with a chair. Moxley looked the other way while this was happening. He knows what’s happening. Breaking an arm is WAY past the point where you can get away with feeling “conflicted” and looking away.
Moxley then cut a promo saying that he wanted to end this once and for all… and instead of just continuing the beat-down and maiming everyone, Moxley and pals are going to give them three weeks to rest before we have a Blood & Guts match on free TV. Remember last year when about a third of these same guys were involved in a Blood & Guts match that was supposed to end a feud, but then didn’t? Or four weeks ago, when they had this big violent PPV match that was supposed to end this feud, but then didn’t? At this point, I just don’t care about this feud anymore.

MEN’S OWEN HART TOURNAMENT VIDEO PACKAGE & PROMOS- very good… other than Juice Robinson, but even he managed to be less annoying than usual.

ADAM COLE WAITS FOR MJF SO THEY CAN LEAVE- bad
For no logical reason, this was on camera. Roddy showed up. Cole admitted to him that he knows MJF is untrustworthy, and he is just playing along with him. Roddy asks Cole “what if he watches this back?” Cole had no intelligent answer for that.
MJF showed up and referred to Roddy as “generic white guy.” I laughed my ass off at that, but you really shouldn’t draw attention to the talent’s weaknesses. MJF’s behavior made Cole certain that MJF wasn’t watching this show back. I think Cole’s an idiot.

JUNGLE BOY EXPLAINS WHY HE TURNED ON HOOK- entertainingly bad
Jungle Boy comes out wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket over all black clothing, and the first thing he does is tell the production truck to cut his music because the fans have ruined that song for him, so they will never hear it again. Now he’s talking about how is “cashing fat checks” and “banging the hottest bitch in this entire place.” I have never seen someone feel more like they were “trying to play heel” more than this. It was painful.
Next, we got “I didn’t turn on *INSERT NAME OF WRESTLER HERE.* Everyone else turned on me,” and “*INSERT NAME OF TAG TEAM HERE* was special because of me!” I wish I had known this was coming so I could have prepared a Generic Heel Turn Bingo card.
He started to talk about how he would destroy Hook when he got his hands on them. At that point Hook came out, and Jungle Boy ran away. Hook chased him backstage, but Jungle Boy dove into a waiting car and drove away.

ALEXIA NICOLE vs. RUBY SOHO (w/the Outcasts)- squash
Ruby took a glove from the referee to mock Britt Baker.

RUBY SOHO PROMO- EXCELLENT heel promo!

Q.T. MARSHALL, HARLEY CAMERON, & JOHNNY TV PROMO- bad
Johnny TV was insufferable.

Lady Frost is getting a shot at the TBS Title because… OPEN CHALLENGE. If that name rings a bell for you, it’ because she was last seen in AEW losing cleanly to Taya Valkyrie. In fact, even if you include Dark, Lady Frost has yet to win a match in AEW.



TORNADO TAG TEAM MATCH: Darby Allin & Sting vs. Le Sex Gods (Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara)- 7/10
They emphasized here that Jericho was “the Painmaker tonight.” You can see my rant from last summer how about this supposed distinction fails because at no point have they attempted to explain whatever change Jericho undergoes or explain why, if the Painmaker never loses, why Jericho isn’t the Painmaker all the time.
Sting did a splash off of a ladder onto Sammy onto tables below… but Sting undershot a little and basically got none of the benefit of the table breaking his fall. When he got up again, he appeared to be bleeding from the mouth. That spot was Sting taking out Sammy. Jericho took Darby out in the ring, and Sting and Jericho had a fun little segment that Sting won via submission, marking the first time the Painmaker has lost... and it was to Sting, so whatever little that meant still feels wasted.


There was some decent action on this show, but the direction of the promotion was a dull and plot-hole-riddled as ever. Ruby Soho’s promo is worth going out of your way to see, but that’s about it.