BRM Reviews the 2/24/2021 Dynamite (good)

[Big Red Machine]

RYAN NEMETH vs. JON MOXLEY- squash
We go a short little pre-recorded promo from Nemeth that got over his character a little bit.

JON MOXLEY PROMO- GREAT!
Also, the exploding ring barbed-wire deathmatch now has landmines added to it. So both the ring and the ringside area are going to explode?

OMEGA VS. MOXLEY VIDEO PACKAGE- meh

INTERVIEW FROM AFTER LAST WEEK’S SHOW WITH LANCE ARCHER & REY FENIX- bad
Marvez is a dumbass and thinks these two should form a tag team. Archer shoots that idea down and cuts a promo on Fenix. Fenix did likewise. Archer shoved him and they started fighting. The brawl made both guys look immature (especially Archer), and Marvez’s question was the kind of question that feels like he was instructed to ask by the booker to plant seeds for these two becoming a team rather than something it was natural to ask. And if the plan is to turn these two into a team, I have to ask WHY?

FOOTAGE OF THE YOUNG BUCKS AND THEIR PARENTS SHOWING UP AT THE BUILDING- a meh attempt at pathos. This felt like something it would have made more sense to do last week. I found it odd that despite being at the show last week, the Bucks’ parents were only getting the grand tour and seeing their sons’ faces on the back of a truck for the first time now.

THE VARSITY BLONDS vs. TEAM TAZ (Brian Cage & Ricky Starks)- 5.25/10
Taz was on commentary for this match. The graphic listed not only Taz being at ringside but Taz’s son as well, even though the son was not at ringside, and Taz told us that the son was in the parking lot, keeping the car running. That’s the sort of f*ck-up that shouldn’t happen.
Holy sh*t that spot Starks did where he got tripped up and slid out of the ring looked AMAZING. This was a good, solid win for Team Taz while giving the Varsity Blonds enough to look credible.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
Darby Allin and Sting went through a lot of effort to put together a video of Sting in a car dragging Darby through the desert in a body bag to show before Sting made his big return… dragging Taz’s son in a body-bag. Then Darby Allin ziplined down into the ring and hit the heels with his skateboard. The baybfaces beat the heels up and it was all some very nice revenge, but I do have to pick one nit, and that is that if the idea of Hook being in the car to “keep it running” (as Taz said”) then Team Taz were clearly planning to make a quick escape after this match to avoid Sting’s retribution. The problem is that they didn’t really do that. And if they weren’t planning on making a quick escape, then why did they leave Hook in the car?

TONNY SCHIAVONE’S SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH THE KIP SABIAN, PENELOPE FORD, & MIRO- very bad
Why is Miro trying to get Chuck Taylor to com back and be his butler? Surely he knows that there is no chance Chuck would say this. This should have been the three heels vowing to get their revenge and challenging the babyfaces at Revolution. This should have been a money promo instead of goofball crap and the babyfaces challenging the heels via childish note.

JAKE HAGER vs. BRANDON CUTLER- squash
Oh. Cutler has a dragon mask and face-paint now. Good for him, I guess.
Hager squashed Cutler, minus a few dives.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Santana & Ortiz came out and all beat up Cutler. To show you how much attention he pays, Jim Ross asked “what’s the meaning of this?” in a voice that sounded genuinely unsure.
The Bucks came out to make the save, then cut a promo challenging Jericho and MJF to come and fight them right now. Instead, Jericho and MJF appeared on the TonyTron, revealing that they have beaten up Mr. Buck. They ran his bloody face into both Bucks’ images on the truck, then left the arena when the Bucks came to make the save.
This didn’t work for me for a few reasons. From the smallest to the largest:
1. Mr. Buck was dressed in a ridiculous outfit, that made him a little less relatable.
2. We had Jericho shove Mr. Buck last week, so this feels like it’s going back to the same well. This whole thing with the Bucks’ parents feels like they did a little angle last week and thought it worked so well that they would just start over and do the proper version of the angle this week as if last week had never happened (in terms of the use of the characters. Obviously they still referred to the incident).
3. This right here is the big one: MJF and Jericho were just too over the top. The thing about Mr. Buck’s clothing plays into this a bit as well, but Jericho and MJF were SOOOOOO over the top that they came off like cartoon villains in what was supposed to be a heavy-heat angle.

MR. BUCK IS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL- fine
Tony Schiavone suggested that beating up Mr. Buck was Jericho and MJF “taking their first shot across the bow,” so Tony clearly doesn’t know what both a “shot across the bow” is and what the word “first” means.

CODY & RED VELVET VS. JADE CARGILL & SHAQ VIDEO PACKAGE- snore

ADAM PAGE vs. ISAIAH KASSIDY (w/Matt Hardy & TH2)- 6.75/10
Matt interfered to get the heat. Silver & Reynolds came out and got Matt ejected from ringside.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Matt says he will beat up every member of the Dark Order who Page apparently “loves so much.” Matt then came out beating up Five and threw him off the stage, through a table.
1. Isn’t this basically the same angle they just did with the Bucks?
2. Page seems to like to hang out with Reynolds and Silver because they’re goofs. We have seen no indication that he cares about Five at all.
3. It’s really hard for me to care about Mr. Five getting beaten up when he has absolutely no character and AEW has done absolutely nothing to make me care about him.

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS KENNY OMEGA & DON CALLIS- clownish buffoonery
They’re in a workshop with some metalworkers building a “Moxley Extermination Chamber.” When did a “chamber” become involved in this? There is barbed wire around the ropes and landmines on the outside and also the ring will blow up. Where is there even room for a cage?
So yeah. Omega came off like an overdramatic goof and Callis is a d-movie villain. THIS is what you’re doing with your top heel going into your most extreme match ever.

AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE ELIMINATOR US BRACKET SEMIFINAL MATCH: Nyla Rose vs. Dr. Britt Baker, DMD (w/Rebel)- 6.5/10
Hikaru Shida and Serena Deeb these two are not. The nearfalls and finisher teases here were good, but there were also some spots that looked pretty bad. Rebel’s spots in particular looked so slow that you couldn’t but think “what I’m watching is fake.”

JURASSIC EXPRESS VS. FTR & TULLY BLANCHARD VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMOS- GREAT!
They buried ECW a bit by ignoring Tully’s matches with Shane Douglas in 1995, but other that, this was fine. I’m not saying those matches were particularly important or anything, but I don’t think there is much of a difference in saying he hasn’t been in a national ring in twenty-five years as opposed to thirty, and if you’re trying to be the more inside company, then paying some minor amount of lip service to a series of matches that a lot of fans know about is probably a better track to take than ignoring them (yes, I do understand the argument that ECW wasn’t “national” at that point, but with the way AEW has talked up certain people’s accomplishments (particularly the Joshis or anyone involved in the NWA, I don’t think calling ECW “national” in 1995 is too far a stretch).

FACE OF THE REVOLUTION QUALIFIER DEATHMATCH: Rey Fenix vs. Lance Archer (w/Jake Roberts)- 8/10
If these guys have both been winning, why did they have to qualify but Scorpio Sky didn’t?
These two had the expected awesome power vs. speed match. Archer and Jake are back to being heels now that they’re done feuding with other heels. Despite this, Archer showed Fenix respect after his win (though, to be fair, I thought he was threatening Fenix, and Fenix took is as an offer for a fist bump).


This was a good show from AEW. A lot of solid stuff and very little that was offensive. That’s not to say that there wasn’t a bunch of stuff I didn’t like, but the stuff I didn’t like this week was more ineffectual than infuriating. They also did a good job of treating this like a go-home show for next week’s big Dynamite while also working to hype things up for the PPV.