“You stumbled your words a little when you got to me, didn’t you, Chris?” – Wardlow
Dynamite was low key packed — great promo here, 2-3 cool angles there — but it didn’t get me all giddy like it was weekly for a while. The core remains solid but everything’s too complicated or not complicated enough. C’mon guys. Focus.
The World
More people on the roster is great, more people on multiple shows doing multiple things not so much. I can feel the busy and it’s eating into the tight focus that was keeping Dynamite awesome through the Barbed Wire dud. It feels less like world-building and more, HEY! We’ve got a PPV in four weeks so we’re going to do this thing.
Britt Baker rules, but her jumping to #1 in the Women’s World Title rankings felt pretty thrown together for something that’s been a no-brainer Big Time Match for at least six months.
Penta El Zero Miedo is finally finding his THING with the brilliant Alex Abrahantes (“PENTA SAYS…”) and a feud with Orange Cassidy and crew just feels right, even if Death Triangle always feels just half-around.
The Pinnacle (specifically MJF and Wardlow) lit up the Blood & Guts match that’s 2 weeks away with an excellent promo, even though Chris Jericho tried to cool it down an hour later. Why did he sing a song? Why a Jack Gallagher parlay? Him calling out fellow professional wrestler MJF’s promos sounding scripted felt as desperate and sad as, “nuh uh – you are!”
Still can’t follow the approach with Sting and all the fellas either.
The Elite‘s whole deal came back to Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston and a truck crashing into a small tour bus, which was awesome if not still feeling the effects of that Barbed Wire dud.
They also did re-create the classic Dusty Rhodes/Big Bubba no-sold chairshot angle with Dustin Rhodes and Nick Comoroto. And kind of re-created the Randy Savage/Battle for Bam Bam vibe with Jade Cargill and AEW’s managers vying for her service. And Taz is still great and that Darby Allin/Jungle Boy main event for the TNT Title freaking ruled, so – we’re cool.
The Wrestling
The territory-ish character matches seem to be reserved for special occasions now, replaced with TV matches that sometimes hit but sometimes feel generic even if the wrestlers are doing athletically insane stuff.
The beginning, middle, and end of the show were blessed with pretty great versions of that match though: Hangman Page and Ricky Starks tore each other apart to open; Hikaru Shida and Tay Conti did the same plus awesome near falls in the middle. Conti throws better elbows than half the active New Japan roster.
Darby Allin vs. Jungle Boy felt a little like if Bischoff had the Cruiserweights main event Nitro with a regularity; they took a bit to find their rhythm but once they started firing off spots it was one incredible thing after another. The amount of drama they got out of Jungle Boy’s Snare Trap submission that FTR guy tapped to that one time was amazing.
Saw a Billy Gunn/QT Marshall match too. And Christian wrestled his second match back, this time against Powerhouse Hobbs and it didn’t emerge far from “solid” but I missed Christian countering moves with the Killswitch out of nowhere to win matches.
The Entertainment
That promo by MJF was fifty shades of the real deal, though Wardlow looking at the camera and succinctly getting his point across hit me a little more. MJF was entertaining, Wardlow was exciting.
Taz screaming at Adam Page. Eddie Kingston screaming at nobody in particular. Nick Comoroto brushing off a chairshot to the head. Jade Cargill‘s promo. Santana‘s shades. Penta Says.
Did Miro say “emo facepaint daddy”?? Sure, that too.
Room for Improvement
- Reel Y2J in
- Go back to having a hook (no pun intended) for nearly everything
- Also, just debut Hook already
My Favorite Things
- Hangman Page tries to lariat Ricky Starks’ head off
- Wardlow going at Chris Jericho
- Justin Roberts’ ring introduction for Trent?
