“We’ve been carrying this company so that boys like you can have options!” – Santana & Ortiz
The Daily’s Place Dynamite era has certainly had its’ slow times, but a temporary switch to Friday nights has compounded the Patience Testing. The NBA post-season being more interesting than wrestling for people shouldn’t be surprising, but it being more interesting for me — the buffoon that writes these weekly — probably should be. I’m over here thinking about NBA free agency and the Phoenix Suns while AEW continues to be be fly frozen in amber type stuff.
The World
The only acts really popping off the screen right now are Miro and Darby Allin – everybody else feels lost within the Daily’s Place Dynamite era, something that was working for a while as a TV show until they made two more TV shows.
The Pinnacle vs. Inner Circle rivalry is separating into individual feuds and an attempt was finally made this week at heating up Sammy Guevara, Santana & Ortiz. These are welcome developments even if the saga to get there was occasionally horrendous.
The show kicked off with Jake Hager putting Wardlow to sleep though, and right after I had to realize that Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky‘s tag team name is “Men of the Year.” The hell?
Cody Rhodes and The Elite feel like they’re working on side projects not wrestling feuds, while Andrade el Idolo‘s sit-down with Jim Ross came off so flat it made me uncomfortable. Maybe that was the edibles.
Britt Baker‘s world feels non-existent, Smart Mark Sterling has somehow cooled off Jade Cargill, and Christian Cage got locked in a cage. Call me when crowds are back.
The Wrestling
Cage match, handicap match, debut match, squash match, and a 6-man main event… this was a show filled with TV wrestling matches if not a show that felt completely like TV wrestling.
MMA Rules Cage Fight: Jake Hager vs. Wardlow – On occasion Wardlow looked like a total goofball jumping around and doing pro wrestling moves within the Cage, not because it was MMA Rules but because he’s freaking Wardlow. Otherwise this was alright, 5 minutes or so of semi-authentic feeling Cage Fighting. I can’t in good faith support Hager choking out Wardlow, but the match was pretty much all Wardlow doing cool stuff so I think he’ll be fine.
Handicap Match: Darby Allin vs. Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page – This was pretty awesome, packed with great-looking (painful) offense and cut-offs opposite the top babyface on the roster. Darby played both face-in-peril and hot tag guy like a superstar and clearly has an agreement with Page where they can just mess each other up with all sorts of creative slams on a man’s spine.
Orange Cassidy vs. Cezar Bononi – So much unnecessary bullshit with “The Wingmen” that they hit some kind of bullshit inception and the match wrapped up really fun. The way big Cezar quickly got in place for Orange’s signature spots was genuinely impressive too.
Cody Rhodes & Brock Anderson w/ Arn Anderson vs. QT Marshall & Aaron Solow – This was probably as restrained as AEW gets in 2021 and it still had Cody Rhodes doing a Panama Sunrise. Anderson the Younger made his debut and nearly dropped Solow on a gutwrench suplex but otherwise delivered the hairy territory nostalgia vibes necessary, throwing his dukes up and taking heat and eventually scoring a jackknife cradle upset.
Eddie Kingston, Penta El Zero Miedo & Frankie Kazarian vs. Matt Jackson & The Good Brothers – This was kind of any other house show match but Eddie Kingston was having fun, folks. The Bullet Club has arrived in AEW but it’s like 2020 Bullet Club.
The Entertainment
Miro comes off like a scary bad man and even though he beat up both Varsity Blonds, it still felt like he ganged up on them. Penelope Ford squashing Julia Hart to set the attack up was one of the more inspired creative bits on a show that’s been pretty flat for a while.
Too many Wingmen, too many pre-tapes, and maybe too much scripting.
The Cage Match and Handicap Matches were fun.
My Favorite Things
- Brock Anderson puts his dukes up
- Wardlow catches Jake Hager’s kick and swats him down
- Ethan Page deadlifts Darby Allin off the mat and slams him down
Room for Improvement
- Give Britt Baker something to actually do
- Somebody talk to Kenny Omega
- Make The Factory Interesting Again
Top 10 Dynamite Stars
- Miro (-)
- Darby Allin (-)
- Eddie Kingston (4)
- Hangman Page (5)
- Britt Baker (3)
- Kenny Omega (-)
- Cody Rhodes (10)
- Orange Cassidy (-)
- Santana & Ortiz (NEW)
- Sammy Guevara (NEW)
5 to Keep an Eye on
- Brock Anderson
- Penelope Ford
- Kris Statlander
- Alan “5” Angels
- JD Drake
