BRM Reviews the 4/29/2020 Dynamite (worrying)

[Big Red Machine]

DARBY ALLIN VIDEO PACKAGE VS. CODY VIDEO PACKAGE- GREAT!



AEW TNT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Darby Allin vs. Cody Rhodes (w/Brandi Rhodes)- 4/10
They’ve done a really great job of finding natural ways to bring Cody and Darby back together occasionally, making it feel more important than a random matchup would, even if that random matchup included a pair of names with more combined star-power. Do they have a story in mind for this? Maybe. But even if they don’t, they’re still consciously taking those little steps and laying groundwork that can be used to make a potential future story with these two feel even bigger than it otherwise would.

Darby worked over Cody’s knee early on, but then Cody just went on offense for a while and totally ignored it. They’d go back to it every once in a while, but instead of focusing their story on that they, decided to… well…
Cody had control before Brandi’s bump and got control right after it. Of Brandi isn’t there to get run into then Darby runs into the barricade and Cody is still in control of the match. NOTHING would have changed. The only purpose this spot served was to kill time and allow Brandi to get a spot in, and it comes with the negative of making Brandi- who is supposed to be a wrestler, mind you- look weak for having to get helped to the back after a tackle into barricade, and came back ten minutes later, still hurting badly.
Later, Cody took off his weight belt like he was going to whip Darby, but Aubrey Edwards talked him out of it, so I guess the weight belt isn’t legal this week. What I want to know is why Cody did this in the first place. This is the sort of thing he’s done against MJF and Shawn Spears and Dustin; all huge, heated feuds. This is a semifinal in a tournament against a man he has some history with, yes, but none of that history has been anything but respectful.
Darby worked the knee over some more and Cody finally started to really sell it. She brought Cody some water, which he drank in the idle of the match. This is one of those things that isn’t technically illegal, but comes off as heelish to me, simply because it’s not done (and the few times it has been, it has usually been portrayed as being heelish). I am willing to accept it with the right framing (Cody was putting himself at risk by taking his eye off of his opponent in order to regain nourishment… though you probably need it to happen regularly in matches and the announcers to not be bothered my it), but this commentary wasn’t it.
Darby wound up grabbing the water bottle and hitting Cody with it, which should have been a DQ because it’s a foreign object. That said, it probably hurt Cody less than a regular forearm would have, so I have to ask why Darby hit Cody with a foreign object and risked a DQ instead of just forearming him. The answer, of course, was so that we could have the visual of the water flying, which is the sort of reasoning that drives me nuts. Does it look cool? Kind of. But it makes your match make less sense, so you shouldn’t do it!
The other reason that it happened, of course, was the same reason that many of the things in this match I that I didn’t like happened, and that was false drama. All of the sh*t with Brandi getting bumped, then her coming back (while Cody is in the figure-four of course), the belt. It’s all sh*t that should on paper create an emotional response, but fails to do so because it is so obviously being done in an attempt to do so rather than feeling in any way natural. In short, this match was a reminder of everything I HATE about Cody as an in-ring performer.
The other thing I hated here was the utterly terrible finish. Darby hits his finisher, but Cody still has the wherewithal to roll him over into a pin, and Darby doesn’t have enough to kick out of it? What kind of f*cking sh*tty finisher hurts you more than it hurts your opponent even if you hit it?! You could have done the same thing but a million times better by having Cody roll out of the way and then having Cody scramble on top of him for the quick pin.
And that’s just operating in a vacuum. If we take into account the history between these two men, the big point in their previous meeting was that, to quote Darby from the video package, “Cody didn’t beat me; Arnbeat me.” I noted at the time that I found it ridiculous that Cody wouldn’t have thought to get his knee s up on his own, but that’s the silly story they’re telling so we have to go with it. They fought once without Arn there and they went to a draw. The second time they fought, Arn was there, and Cody won. Now, in there third match, we have the same situation was the finish of the second match but this time without Arn there to tell Cody to put his knees up so Cody gets hit with the move that Arn’s advice allowed him to avoid… and that directly leads to Cody winning anyway. WHAT THE F*CK?! I don’t have a problem with Cody winning, but if Cody is going to win here, the story should have been that Arn helped Cody develop a game plan that allowed Cody to win even without Arn giving him real-time advice, or that Arn has given Cody general pointers and helped him improve to the point where he doesn’t need Arn’s advice at all. The story they have us here is that Arn didn’t actually matter because even if he hadn’t been there to give Cody advice in the second match and he got hit with the Coffin Drop, Cody still would have won.

SCORPIO SKY VIDEO PACKAGE- not good
This felt like total jumble of stuff. Compare this to last week’s Scorpio Sky video package, which told a story and had a point to make.

MJF PROMO- very bad
The idea here seems to be that he’s using is ridiculously exaggerated minor injuries to avoid having to (in his own words) “get on a germ-infested plane” and fly to Dynamite to wrestle. Is he a douche? Yeah. But it’s kind of hard to be mad at him for not wanting to get on a plane and fly when doing so would put him in danger of contracting a deadly virus.
And even if that’s not the idea, this was still bad, because it didn’t move anything along. It was just the same thing as last week but with a different injury. Sure, it’s nice to get an explanation for why someone isn’t on the show (even though it’s not really necessary in this situation), but if that’s your goal then why are we only getting these promos from MJF? Why haven’t we heard from Adam Page or Pac or the Lucha Bros. or Nyla Rose (and actual champion!) or Joey Janela or Riho or Private Party or whoever?

WARDLOW vs. MUSA- squash
That knee to the face was SICK.

THE BUBBLY BUNCH- even dumber than the previous two weeks
I’m sorry, but this is all pointless and idiotic, and I don’t see how anyone over the age of six could possibly be entertained by any of this.

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian (w/Penelope Ford) vs. Best Friends (w/Orange Cassidy)- 7/10
Tony mentioned that the lack of rules means that “you can have as many saves as you want.” So does this mean that AEW has a limited number of saves? If so, why hasn’t this ever been mentioned before?
Anyway, these guys (plus OC and Penelope on the outside) had a great weapons match. They pushed Best Friends as potential challengers for the tag titles after their recent string of wins.

BRITT BAKER VIDEO- hated it
I knew that makeup artist looked familiar! (But dear Lord, please don’t tell me AEW has decided to add the former Rebel from TNA to their women’s division).
But that wasn’t the problem the problems with this were as follows:
1. Who is sending these videos in. If it’s Britt, then she’s an idiot for leaving half of that stuff in there. If it’s not Britt, then she needs to be upset about this airing next week.
2. This idea seems like it has lost its way. The “role model” thing is a good idea, but now they’ve branched out into generic bullying by making fun of fat people and people with bad teeth.
3. Now I’m even more confused about Britt and Tony. Are they actually supposed to be friends? Because it doesn’t seem like it based on these segments, but everyone is insistent that they are and this is just playful teasing.

SHAWN SPEARS vs. BARON BLACK- no rating, meh squash
The jobber came close to getting too much offense in for me to be able to still call this a squash.

TECHNIQUE WITH TAZ- loved it
This one focused on Lance Archer’s Blackout. Even the stuff that was mostly bullsh*t (like praising Archer for looking down at exactly the spot where he wants to slam Cabana down onto) sounded sports-like enough that it felt credible.

MARKO STUNT VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- GREAT!

MARKO STUNT vs. BRODIE LEE- 3/10
This was great underdog babyface stuff for Marko while it lasted, but I don’t think it lasted long enough to make Marko as tough as he needed to based on the preceding promo.

JON MOXLEY MAKES HIS BIG ANNOUNCEMENT- He’s going to drive across the country and show up on Dynamite next week. This thing went on WAY too long for just that announcement, and yelling at people to call their grandmothers at the end was WAY too goofy for a dude who was just talking about shoving thumbtacks into people’s eyeballs.

They announced Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Kenny Omega & Matt Hardy in a street fight next week. They really need to cool it down with these weapons matches.

AEW TNT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Lance Archer vs. Dustin Rhodes (w/Brandi Rhodes)- 5.75/10
Brandi apparently felt the need to change outfits between this match and the earlier match.
Dustin, ostensibly the babyface, kicked Archer in the nuts right in front of the referee. This was not a DQ. Archer then countered a move two seconds later, so why even do the nut shot if it’s not going to matter and it’s just going to make the match stupider and hurt the babyface/heel dynamic. And it’s not even like they have the excuse that idiot fans in the building will pop for that spot because there aren’t any fans in the building. And then they had the audacity to expert me to get angry when Lance Archer ripped a turnbuckle pad off.
Even without that stupidity, I found this match to be very slow, which was made worse by the fact that the outcome was obvious (we all know no one is beating Archer before he faces Cody).
Dustin bled a bunch. They build up t a big spot at the end where Archer had rammed Dustin’s face into the turnbuckle and he was bleeding a lot and the referee was checking on him and Brandi was checking on him, and Q.T. Marshall came out with the white towel and was going to throw it in when Cody came out and stopped Q.T. from doing so. Then Archer just pulled Dustin into the center of the ring, slammed his head down with the claw applied and pinned him.
Well… that wasn’t so bad. I don’t know if the idea is going to be that Cody should have thrown in the towel and didn’t even though Dustin wanted him to, or if the idea was supposed to be that Dustin didn’t want Cody to throw in the towel but Cody thought he should (the latter makes more sense for a pair of babyfaces, but if it was supposed to be the latter and not the former, why did Cody take the towel away from Q.T. when Q.T. was about to throw it in?), but either way, the story requires not throwing in the towel to lead to Dustin taking a serious beating that goes on a lot longer than it should (either due to Dustin’s own pride, or to Cody’s selfishness). Here were got pretty much nothing. They needed a good two or three minutes of Archer sadistically beating Dustin and hitting him with big moves and Dustin trying to get up but falling down, only for Archer to pull him up and keep hitting moves.


This wasn’t a very good episode of AEW. There was just too much stuff in here that falls into the category of stuff that worries me that they are slowing turning into the promotion I was worried that they would be when they first formed. Too much comedy (especially from main eventers), hot-shotting gimmick matches, dumb skits, and Cody’s ego run amok, pushing his empty drama bullsh*t on everyone.

[XIV]

Dustin looked a million dollars compared to Lance Archer, now it was obvious that he bumping his ass off and trying to make Lance Archer look as good as he possibly could and Archer certainly needs these kinds of matches where a real veteran is leading him through the thing and telling the story, but the problem is that Dustin came out looking the bigger star, and I'm not sure that was the point of this match.

I too have the issue with Cody's delivery on promos. Particularly in these empty arenas, every promo looks more and more like some kind of audition monologue. Not have the crowd has exposed Cody's promos a little bit.

Scorpio Sky package part 1 from the previous week was great. It humanised him in a positive way, but as mentioned, this one didn't do quite as much to progress him. My problem with SCU is that I enjoy each of the wrestlers together, but trying to be talented and shoehorn catchphrases in etc really doesn't play to the forte of Christopher Daniels and doesn't particularly do Sky any favours and I think he could be pushed further as a singles guy and perhaps the TNT Title Tournament would have been a good way to showcase that for example...

As with everything on AEW at the moment, what's serious is done well enough and what's goofy is well.. goofy.

[Big Red Machine]

Dustin looked a million dollars compared to Lance Archer, now it was obvious that he bumping his ass off and trying to make Lance Archer look as good as he possibly could and Archer certainly needs these kinds of matches where a real veteran is leading him through the thing and telling the story, but the problem is that Dustin came out looking the bigger star, and I'm not sure that was the point of this match.

I think you're being highly unfair for Archer. This isn't someone hav9ing to work around a guy like Giant Gonzales. Archer is pretty darn good, and he's been wrestling for twenty years.

[XIV]

Dustin looked a million dollars compared to Lance Archer, now it was obvious that he bumping his ass off and trying to make Lance Archer look as good as he possibly could and Archer certainly needs these kinds of matches where a real veteran is leading him through the thing and telling the story, but the problem is that Dustin came out looking the bigger star, and I'm not sure that was the point of this match.

I think you're being highly unfair for Archer. This isn't someone hav9ing to work around a guy like Giant Gonzales. Archer is pretty darn good, and he's been wrestling for twenty years.

I don't feel I was being necessarily critical of Archer, but certainly complimentary of Dustin.
Archer isn't established in AEW. So for the sake of what everyone is telling me to do... I'm ignoring all other promotion incantations of wrestlers or their work in previous companies and only taking them at the face value within the promotion I am watching and that is my perspective on Archer thus far and in this match.

[Big Red Machine]

Dustin looked a million dollars compared to Lance Archer, now it was obvious that he bumping his ass off and trying to make Lance Archer look as good as he possibly could and Archer certainly needs these kinds of matches where a real veteran is leading him through the thing and telling the story, but the problem is that Dustin came out looking the bigger star, and I'm not sure that was the point of this match.

I think you're being highly unfair for Archer. This isn't someone hav9ing to work around a guy like Giant Gonzales. Archer is pretty darn good, and he's been wrestling for twenty years.

I don't feel I was being necessarily critical of Archer, but certainly complimentary of Dustin.
Archer isn't established in AEW. So for the sake of what everyone is telling me to do... I'm ignoring all other promotion incantations of wrestlers or their work in previous companies and only taking them at the face value within the promotion I am watching and that is my perspective on Archer thus far and in this match.

That works for kayfabe, but I don't see how you can ignore someone's body of work as a worker and just assign all credit to the other person by saying they were carried and needed to be "led through" the match.

[XIV]

I think you're being highly unfair for Archer. This isn't someone hav9ing to work around a guy like Giant Gonzales. Archer is pretty darn good, and he's been wrestling for twenty years.

I don't feel I was being necessarily critical of Archer, but certainly complimentary of Dustin.
Archer isn't established in AEW. So for the sake of what everyone is telling me to do... I'm ignoring all other promotion incantations of wrestlers or their work in previous companies and only taking them at the face value within the promotion I am watching and that is my perspective on Archer thus far and in this match.

That works for kayfabe, but I don't see how you can ignore someone's body of work as a worker and just assign all credit to the other person by saying they were carried and needed to be "led through" the match.

Because that’s how it came across to me.

It’s not just Kayfabe, it’s saleability. I based my like of specific wrestling a person on their history of stupid matches and people say “only take into account the current work in current promotion” so I do that... then when I say “he needs work” I get “you’ve gotta to watch what he’s done in other promotions”

I either do or I don’t. There shouldn’t be inbetween.

In my opinion on this, Dustin came out looking much better than Archer based on how they worked that match.

[Big Red Machine]

I don't feel I was being necessarily critical of Archer, but certainly complimentary of Dustin.
Archer isn't established in AEW. So for the sake of what everyone is telling me to do... I'm ignoring all other promotion incantations of wrestlers or their work in previous companies and only taking them at the face value within the promotion I am watching and that is my perspective on Archer thus far and in this match.

That works for kayfabe, but I don't see how you can ignore someone's body of work as a worker and just assign all credit to the other person by saying they were carried and needed to be "led through" the match.

Because that’s how it came across to me.

It’s not just Kayfabe, it’s saleability. I based my like of specific wrestling a person on their history of stupid matches and people say “only take into account the current work in current promotion” so I do that... then when I say “he needs work” I get “you’ve gotta to watch what he’s done in other promotions”

I either do or I don’t. There shouldn’t be inbetween.

In my opinion on this, Dustin came out looking much better than Archer based on how they worked that match.

It's not an issue of in between. I'm saying that there is a difference between character (and one's ability to take him/her seriously based on what you've seen in the past) and ability. It seemed to me like you were giving Dustin 100% of the credit for this match and saying that Archer needs a "real veteran" to "lead him" through a match like this takes away any credit from a man who has been working for twenty years and has had great matches with a wide variety of opponents.

[XIV]

That works for kayfabe, but I don't see how you can ignore someone's body of work as a worker and just assign all credit to the other person by saying they were carried and needed to be "led through" the match.

Because that’s how it came across to me.

It’s not just Kayfabe, it’s saleability. I based my like of specific wrestling a person on their history of stupid matches and people say “only take into account the current work in current promotion” so I do that... then when I say “he needs work” I get “you’ve gotta to watch what he’s done in other promotions”

I either do or I don’t. There shouldn’t be inbetween.

In my opinion on this, Dustin came out looking much better than Archer based on how they worked that match.

It's not an issue of in between. I'm saying that there is a difference between character (and one's ability to take him/her seriously based on what you've seen in the past) and ability. It seemed to me like you were giving Dustin 100% of the credit for this match and saying that Archer needs a "real veteran" to "lead him" through a match like this takes away any credit from a man who has been working for twenty years and has had great matches with a wide variety of opponents.

Im not giving him 100% of the credit and I have known of Archer like most for years... but for me, I noticed a few little things which to me made Dustin look the star of the two when I don’t think that was the intention of the match.

[Big Red Machine]

Because that’s how it came across to me.

It’s not just Kayfabe, it’s saleability. I based my like of specific wrestling a person on their history of stupid matches and people say “only take into account the current work in current promotion” so I do that... then when I say “he needs work” I get “you’ve gotta to watch what he’s done in other promotions”

I either do or I don’t. There shouldn’t be inbetween.

In my opinion on this, Dustin came out looking much better than Archer based on how they worked that match.

It's not an issue of in between. I'm saying that there is a difference between character (and one's ability to take him/her seriously based on what you've seen in the past) and ability. It seemed to me like you were giving Dustin 100% of the credit for this match and saying that Archer needs a "real veteran" to "lead him" through a match like this takes away any credit from a man who has been working for twenty years and has had great matches with a wide variety of opponents.

Im not giving him 100% of the credit and I have known of Archer like most for years... but for me, I noticed a few little things which to me made Dustin look the star of the two when I don’t think that was the intention of the match.

Ah. Okay. It seemed to me like you were giving him all of the credit for the match.

Others have also said that they felt that Dustin came out of this looking like a star and got over more than Archer in it. Personally, I didn't really see much of a status quo change for either guy. What did you see that made Dustin shine for much for you?