Performance Review – AEW Dynamite #17 (1/29/20)

Overall Evaluation and Achieved Goals

Eh. I’m officially at the point with you where I’m a little bored and disappointed, but also vaguely hopeful as I think you’ve settled into what you are going to be and now it’s all about tweaking that and making it more of a thing.

When I hired you, I had expectations – maybe too high, and that’s on me. What you give me every week is not necessarily what I wanted and I think all the wrestling you do is still really bland, but the roster is loaded and when you’re not trying too hard it’s fun to see another semi-mainstream wrestling product doing its thing.

Not watching AEW Dark seems to have helped too.

At some point you just have to respect the existence of AEW providing opportunity for Arn Anderson to get all flustered over stuff on TV again, too.

So good job, AEW. You have lowered expectations so much that I am almost enjoying you now. Welcome to the wrestling business.

Areas of Excellence Within Performance

Lots of individual bits here that remind you the talent that has been amassed. Jon Moxley did the lame “O-H! I-O!” chant but also did a fun ad lib after that made it not lame. Hangman Page is really finding himself with a glass of spirits in his hand. Darby is still Darby. Ortiz is still Ortiz.

Some kind of rhythm is coming together for using The Elite too, and by that they mean they’re just doing something with them – anything with them – even if only Page seems to be playing it well with a fine mix of arrogance and drunkness and aloofness. Those are good heel traits, yeah?

I thought The Young Bucks vs. The Butcher & The Blade was alright. Seriously.

Jim Ross just staring at the crowd in disappointment, not over-reacting to Britt Baker shitting on him messing up names, was some nice work by Good Ol’ JR. Yeah that’s right – PRAISE FOR JR.

The Inner Circle is still a fine group to build around but you’re really just going with Moxley vs. Chris Jericho, huh?

Suggested Areas of Improvement

There’s still no actual women’s division even if Britt Baker going heel and embracing being a total asshole is encouraging.

The wrestling is still so one-note. There’s over-production and then there’s under-production – I dunno. I’m not saying anybody needs to work harder or sell harder or anything… I just want the TV matches to feel like they are more than the fellas getting together to run through spots.

Cody vs. Kip Sabian might have been the most overbooked match in history, a 5-minute piece of business that included the spot where the heel valet gets hurt and babyface helps her up so heel can take over, a fake injury by Sabian, Arn Anderson arguing with the referee and getting kicked, AND Joey Janela interference. It got to a point where it was almost kind of beautiful, but in one of those ways I’ll appreciate in a decade and not now.

Didn’t seem like Moxley brought the FIRE in that angle at the end of the show. Seriously – MOXLEY VS. JERICHO???

Top Plays of the Week

3. SoCal Uncensored’s Kobe Tribute: Love when they show the love. Rest in peace.
2. Britt Baker Promo: A much-needed pivot, and she seems pretty good at it!
1. Arn Anderson Reacts to Things: Double A is doin’ it again!

AveXis Presents, The Most Distressing Test Results of the Week

3. Matt Jackson’s Promo Skills: This is like when Daniel Bryan would laugh through stuff on NXT but not adorable.
2. Cody vs. Kip Sabian: We’ve went over this.
1. Big Swole’s Strikes: I should not have seen that on the TV.

Performance Improvement Plan (Kind Of)

3. Please don’t over-do drunk Hangman Adam Page. A tone waiting to be destroyed.
2. I dig the cinematic vignettes, but… The cut to MJF visiting a butcher shop to pay The Bunny cash was great, though there is a fine line between interesting and blatantly fake. Right now it’s interesting and I dig it. All about the show that surrounds it though.
1. Cody booking himself to get lashed with a belt 10 times on national TV is odd. Right?

Official Star Rating

1.75 out of 5 Stars

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