Performance Review – AEW Dynamite (4/8/20)

Overall Evaluation and Achieved Goals

Another fine, loose show this week from the boys and girls at AEW – nothing is really going on, but they’re filling it up with a lot of stuff that makes wrestling fun: squashes, blood, a tournament, well-edited videos, rankings, and the commentary stylings of Tony Schiavone and Chris Jericho.

Areas of Excellence Within Performance

The big highlight here was the ascension of Britt Baker, who has been delivering outside of the ring if not inside of it – here she did the latter, kicking Hikaru Shida‘s ass and just being an absolute bitch before her nose got busted open and the match became all intense and dramatic with Jericho losing his mind on commentary. A great time, and the bloody nose promo later on was A+.

I didn’t actually “enjoy” or “like” much of The Best Friends vs. Kenny Omega & Michael Nakazawa (the New Best Friends), but just the fact that they were doing AJPW-esque diving near falls after smelly jockstrap comedy spots is something I have to put somewhere. Sometimes in wrestling, the curious is excellence.

Squashes seem like the only reliable thing in a COVID wrestling world. Lance Archer and Brodie Lee both had fun tossing around a poor fellow this week. Archer knocking people on their ass then continuing with his regular entrance is very good, as is his entrance being preceded by Jake Roberts promos.

My goodness, AEW is finally promoting their Top 5 wrestler rankings in video format. It’s good! Narrated by a very low key Excalibur, they succinctly put over everybody ranked. Hope this stays afterwards – it’s so simple, but re-enforces stuff like YES, you SHOULD pay attention to this Trent Baretta guy now.

Who’s the guy they hired to voice the Jon Moxley/Jake Hager video package? Wasn’t as fun the sweet whispers from Excalibur, but now I feel like this Moxley/Hager match is a big deal. How did any of this happen?

Suggested Areas of Improvement

What was with that spot where Kenny Omega powerbombed Trent into Chuck Taylor on the turnbuckle and Chuck just shrugged it off and kept climbing so Michael Nakazawa could give him an Angle Slam off the top rope?

Brodie Lee still isn’t clicking. The man is exalted, why is he insistent on re-living his past?

The Matt Hardy promo wasn’t anything that really needs improvement, but it also seemed kind of bad.

One nice thing about fans returning to wrestling shows, if that ever happens, is that Cody might seem really good again. I like him and the match with Shawn Spears was very Technically Sound, but Cody the Wrestler really needs a crowd marking out for him to not feel like an impressive demo tape.

Top Plays of the Week

3. “You guys think you’re better best friends than us?”: Funny equals money when it’s actually funny.
2. Cody Wins with a Figure-Four Pinfall: Just do it once a decade and you’re set.
1. Britt Baker Talks Shit on the Apron: Baker taking a break on the apron to keep talking smack was a phenomenal moment in a match packed with them.

Official Star Rating

3 out of 5 Stars

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